Building Brand Love Through Brand Relaunch

Ben Franklin is the first to supposedly coin the phrase with adversity comes opportunity. And certainly today, we’re facing a lot of adversity. The associated opportunity is rethinking your company purpose, story and positioning. To tell and deliver a better brand story and to build more brand love. And a brand relaunch is one way to rekindle this love.

Fundamental is that brand love begins from the inside out. Which means employee engagement is vital to spread that love further. But employees need to feel the love first, before they can share it with customers and prospects alike.

We’re currently in the midst of a brand relaunch with one of our health and wellness clients. We’ve recast their brand story, voice, positioning, elevator pitch, messaging and tagline. Updated all of their design elements (including logo and website), conceived a new overarching creative approach and are refining their approach to marketing. So we’ll have rearchitected the entire brand experience. But now it’s time to unveil the new brand. Starting from the inside out.

Brand Relaunch Tips To Build Brand Love

While every organization is somewhat unique in its processes and learning practices, when it comes to a brand relaunch, there are some general tips that apply to all organizations across all industries. Here are six brand relaunch tips that will help you to first build brand engagement and brand love from the inside out.

1. You never get a 2^nd chance to make a powerful first impression

While the phrase might be overused, it’s important. You want employees to feel like there is no other organization they could see themselves being a part of. Because they’re believers and see themselves in your story, positioning, elevator pitch, tagline, messaging, the look and feel of your brand. Everything over the course of the formal brand relaunch should reinforce this. Everything should be purposeful and “on-brand.” This often means developing a core theme for the event, so everything is intentional and leaves nothing to chance.

2. Retrace your steps along the journey

Reviewing the process that got you to today will help to build credibility, belief and trust. Likely you can step through Discovery learnings in regard to category, competitors, consumers, brand and business. And the fact that you also looked outside your category to great role models that everyone will know as well as thinking about larger trends in society adds to building confidence (not only in the outcome, but in your team). Everyone should understand and appreciate all of the steps along your journey.

3. Future growth and marketing

Your first order of business is articulating a stronger brand story. One that can organize and inspire internal teams, and be a beacon for external audiences to head toward. You can now tell your one story in many different ways and in a lot of different places. But key is that it’s the same story. This is very important today given our fragmented and complex communications landscape. You can then share reveals (and timing) – of how your new story will unfold across creative execution and marketing channels.

4. Updating all audiences

Beyond those attending brand relaunch events, there are likely other external audiences who should also be informed about your new brand. These include partners, media, vendors, politicians, etc. Consider the best way to reach these different audiences, when each should be approached and which might require a more personalized approach.

5. Post-Event timing & components

Following the event, what can attendees expect and when? What tools and resources will they have available to them to ensure one consistent and powerful brand voice and presence? For those who couldn’t attend the event, how will you make them feel connected to the rollout, to deepen their understanding and communicate consistently? Consider preparing FAQ’s, to ensure all internal stakeholders can answer questions others (including patients and communities) will surely ask.

6. Internal website

Augment your website with information about your new brand, e.g. guidelines, materials, advertising, etc. This can be valuable for both existing and new (current and future) employees and can be used as part of your future onboarding process.