Brand revitalization is a game changer in the building materials industry. Breathing new life into a stagnant brand repositions your products and services in a way that can capture new customers — and recapture those who may have left your brand for the competition.
While the outcomes of this work are significant, brand revitalization is an investment of time, resources, and money. That’s why a little homework at the beginning of the process is crucial for success.
Engaging in brand revitalization work with no forethought won’t move the needle in any significant way. In fact, jumping in too hastily will likely leave your brand in the same place, or even in a lagging position.
The goal of brand revitalization is to make your marketing campaigns as impactful as possible. So conducting prework prior to your brand revitalization work — and considering it thoughtfully — will beget the maximum value from your efforts.
3 assignments to complete prior to starting your brand revitalization project
You (and others within your organization) have knowledge and expertise that lead to relevant perspectives about your business and its direction. Gathering these viewpoints is the first step in creating the framework for an impactful brand revitalization effort. The three assignments listed below can help you get started.
- Establish the right team structure and key stakeholders. Brand revitalization work is collaborative. Pulling together a team with diverse job responsibilities and unique points of view about your business will lead you to the best results. Engage team members from marketing, sales, customer service, and product development during the homework phase and throughout the process. Also identify leaders within your organization who have a vested interest in this work and its outcomes. They will be your key stakeholders throughout the process.
- Understand what’s driving the need to change. A variety of factors can drive the need for brand revitalization. It’s important to understand exactly how you arrived at the conclusion that your building materials brand needs revitalization. This requires reviewing your current efforts in order to surface what’s going well in your business and what’s not. And these may be tough conversations. But remember, the goal of brand revitalization is to move your brand forward. While it may be difficult in the beginning, this work will position you for the most impactful results in the long run.
- Know what you want your brand revitalization work to deliver. The most impactful brand revitalization work is tied to a specific business objective. So spend some time thinking about your goals. Where do you want your brand revitalization work to take the business? Possibilities include an increased awareness of your brand for a new target audience, sales growth, or an elevated position in the market. You don’t need to answer how you’ll get there, but you do need clear direction for where you want to go.
Documenting homework outputs to inform and align
Once you’ve gathered input on these assignments, you’ll want to compile and document what you’ve learned. Formalizing the outputs in a single source keeps your team informed and aligned on all aspects of the project — including the work to be done, their roles and responsibilities, and how you’ll measure success.
Organizational alignment on the overall need for brand revitalization and your business objectives helps your team work more efficiently. With knowledge of the overall project, they can make decisions related to the work more quickly. And, if you engage with an outside agency for marketing campaign execution, documenting your work helps introduce that group to your brand and your specific initiative. That means you’ll be in-market sooner with the most relevant messages for your audience.
The format of the document depends on how your team operates. Some find that a project charter is the best way to keep their team on track. The conciseness of this approach provides a snapshot for team members that is easy to review and understand.
Traditional project charters typically include the following:
- A problem statement (the description of what’s driving the need for this work)
- A goal statement (the desired outcome of your work)
- Scope (any boundaries/areas that your work will or will not encompass)
- Timeline/team/milestones (how long the project will take, who is involved, and when checkpoints will occur)
Or, you might decide that a creative brief or simple slide deck is best for organizing and sharing your homework results. Ultimately, you want documentation that is easily referenced by both internal and external partners and informs next steps.
Appoint the right owner for brand revitalization work
While you want input from a diverse group for the prework — and throughout the project— it’s important to assign a primary owner as brand revitalization work moves into execution. This keeps your project focused, on-time, and on-budget.
In our experience, having an internal marketing expert at the helm makes your project the most successful. That’s because a marketing expert understands both the nuances of marketing tactics and your business goals.
A member of your marketing team will ensure that the tactics implemented in your campaigns reflect marketing best practices. They’ll also watch that messaging elevates your brand and moves you closer to your desired business outcomes.
Since marketing teams are already typically working across organizational lines, someone from this team is in the best position to keep stakeholders informed. In addition, because they also understand (and likely have experience) working with agencies, they can serve as a liaison to your marketing agency partner — compiling and consolidating feedback, relaying business needs, and serving in an overall project management capacity.
Remember that prework is not developing solutions
As you complete your brand revitalization homework, keep in mind that you’re not solving issues here. It can be easy (and even more enjoyable) to shift into a brainstorming mindset and talk about how this could look in execution. But in the prework phase, you should only identify the need for doing the work, not the work itself. That comes later.
For now, keep your focus on the vision of your organization. Is there anything nebulous that would benefit from more clarity? How can brand revitalization work evolve your brand? You should lend a critical eye to your strengths and weaknesses. What should be leveraged? And what should be eliminated?
Armed with this information, you’ll be equipped to inform the overall process and make decisions that give more meaning to your marketing campaigns and drive better results for your business.