Brand Repositioning
If a company notices a decline in sales or major changes coming, it is time for them to make changes within their company. A company’s brand status is changed by repositioning.
This usually involves changes to the marketing mix such as price, promotion, and product. To satisfy and meet consumers’ wants and needs, brand repositioning is performed. It makes the brand relevant to customers.
Repositioning a brand is not a complete repositioning of your company’s image. It’s just a calculated adjustment. Your goal is to improve your brand’s reputation, association, personality, core message, and image while maintaining a consistent, identifiable identity.
Repositioning your brand is one of the best ways when growth is slowing, competition is high, and customers aren’t connecting as they once did.
Type of Brand Repositioning
There are two types: tactical and strategic brand repositioning, depending on how significant the change is in the brand’s meaning.
Strategic Brand Positioning
Repositioning a brand strategically involves changing its meaning. McDonald’s, for example, redesigned its menu and introduced premium coffee options to change its image of an unpopular, unhealthy fast-food chain. It also developed a marketing communication campaign that aimed to appeal to young couples and families.
Hyundai, a South Korean car manufacturer, had been positioned as a low-priced brand for many years. However, Hyundai changed its strategy to position itself as a premium and aspirational brand. Hyundai updated the design of its cars and offered a ten-year warranty. It also invested heavily in communications campaigns to change customers’ perceptions about the Hyundai brand.
Strategic repositioning is a strategy change that involves a set of tactical decisions in marketing for building a strong brand.
Tactical Brand Positioning
Tactical brand repositioning involves changing brand tactics, brand design, and brand communication–without changing the underlying brand strategy. Tactical brand repositioning is, therefore, less complex than strategic repositioning.
A tactical brand repositioning involves changing the brand elements (brand name, slogan, logo, character, and product design) to better align them with specific markets. The ultimate goal is to make brand identifiers more memorable and consistent with the brand’s value proposition.
Tactical repositioning may also involve modifications to brand elements. Brand referents directly relate to the brand’s meaning, so tactical repositioning of brand referents is more common than strategic. This means that tactical changes to brand referents can often involve replacing one referent with another of the same or very similar meaning.
Tactical repositioning may include changes to the brand’s design and communication to customers. It can also change the way the brand’s essence is expressed across various media channels.
In the last decade, most companies have adopted social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook as key venues for building their brands. They have also developed creative ways to communicate their brand essence through these media.
Tactical brand repositioning can have significant, but unanticipated strategic outcomes. PepsiCo underestimated the importance and necessity of its Tropicana package design, which featured an orange with straw inside.
PepsiCo returned to its original package design after a sharp drop in sales and backlash from consumers. PepsiCo’s minor modification to its product packaging was perceived by customers as an unwelcome repositioning, which was far away from the brand’s meaning.
Reasons to Reposition A Brand
Repositioning a brand is most commonly done to adapt to market changes. Few are a few important reasons for brand repositioning.
Target Customers are Changing
Repositioning a brand is a common way to keep it relevant to changing customer needs. General Mills, for example, has repositioned Betty Crocker to reflect changing values and lifestyles. This fictional character gives cooking advice to customers.
Change in Company’s Goals
Repositioning a company’s brand can also reflect a shift in its strategic focus. Campbell’s changed its slogan from Soup is Good food to Mmm! to better communicate the breadth and variety of its products. Mmm! It’s good!
Changes to the Collaborator Network
Repositioning a company’s brand can also be done to reflect changes in the brand partnership or collaborator. Following its acquisition by FedEx, Kinko’s was repositioned under FedEx Kinko’s. Time Warner Cable acquired Time Warner Cable, which was then repositioned under Spectrum.
Changes in Competition
Companies strive to provide superior customer value and a change in a competitor’s positioning often prompts a company to reposition its brand to maintain or enhance its competitive advantage.
Changes within the Context
Changes in the physical, economic, regulatory, and sociocultural contexts in which a company operates can also lead to brand repositioning. The phonetic similarity between Ayds diet candy and AIDS, an acquired immune deficiency disorder that was discovered in the 1980s, led to Ayds’s makers going out of business.