The Lumina PR Playbook | PR and Rebranding
When a company rebranding becomes necessary, it presents an excellent opportunity to ‘reintroduce’ yourself to your community and constituents – your customers and prospects, media, analysts, investors, etc.
An effective communications strategy narrowly focused on the purpose and meaning of the rebrand, is key to making sure your audience engages with your new brand and understands the thought process that went into developing the new corporate identity. To be effective means integrating your public and media relations strategy into the process so that you can improve the outcomes from the rebrand by helping to make it more than just a “new logo”.
As with any major news item, it’s all about the packaging and merchandising of the news, in this case, the rebrand, that drives results.
Start with the Vision
A successful rebrand starts with a vision that inspires employees, customers, investors, and others to see the company with a fresh perspective. This vision should clearly communicate the goals and objectives for the brand, and can also leverage a backstory as to the genesis of the rebrand. It’s clear that these are all important elements of a communications strategy, which your PR firm can play an instrumental role in developing. It’s very easy to overlook important details within a communications plan if you’re without the guidance of an experienced resource.
Getting Organized
Once the messaging for the mission and vision of the new brand has been established, it’s time to determine the audiences and timing for the big ‘reveal’. As discussed, your community goes beyond your customers; it includes your partners, vendors, investors, prospects, and influencers – the media especially – as well.
One key constituency that is often overlooked is the one in closest contact with your brand on a daily basis – your employees. It’s important to keep your employee community involved in the communications strategy, as they are your most efficient brand ambassadors. Your PR resource can help you devise multi-channel and multi-persona messaging that meets your objectives while relaying a highly relevant and engaging story.
3…2…1 – Execute
There is no shortage of channels to consider when developing your announcement and execution strategy for your rebrand. Traditional press releases, press briefings, announcement videos, tradeshow events, etc, all have their place in a rebrand communications plan. Again, it’s important to consider the channels you are utilizing and match the message, or messages, for those channels. The nuance isn’t always obvious, and this is another great example of why having experienced counsel in this regard is useful.
Ok, Now What?
You’ve launched your new brand to get success. Now what? Now it’s all about monitoring and measuring. Tools like social listening services can be helpful in determining how well your various messages were received, and your PR firm can handily produce a coverage report to help understand the distribution and reach of your announcement.
The post-announcement period is a great opportunity to ask the important questions that can influence and inform future communications projects, such as “where could we have improved?”
New influencers may have surfaced, channels may have proved to become stale, while others shined unexpectedly. These are aspects that should be identified for future projects.
It’s quite a lot to think about, right? The good news is you don’t have to go on this journey alone. We can help. Reach out to us today if you’re considering a rebrand (or other significant communications plan) and want to talk with a team that has been there before.