Whether you’re considering rebranding, or you’ve already rebranded, you need to keep stakeholders and consumers updated about the changes being made to the brand through every turn. The whole transition is likely to be a fruitful one if you have a solid PR strategy in place and a valid reason for changing up your product. 

media update’s Nakedi Phala reveals four ways your brand can use PR to preserve and gain brand support. 

When rebranding, you need to ask yourself if there's a need to rebrand. If so, why are you rebranding? Will your audience or consumers receive the rebranded product well?  Will the changes affect the product price?

Whether you’ve answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the above questions ­– only revamp your brand when there is a need. Remember, if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it — you might ruin it.
 
Here four PR tactics you can use to attract audiences to your rebranded product:

 1. Conduct research on your rebranded product

When you’ve reached the conclusion that your brand needs a revamp — whether it’s due to a reputation crisis, your logo or maybe your packaging is similar to another product, or even as a result of long term bad press — here are some ways you can conduct your research to uncover what people think of your brand:
  • Put together a few questions about your brand and gather some people from your PR team to conduct vox pops. Host your vox pops at locations appropriate to your target audience. For example, If your brand’s target audience is youth (aged 18 to 26) you can consider running your voxpop at universities and malls.
  • If you’re rebranding your product logo, post it on social media platforms and ask your followers to vote for whichever one they like best.
  •  If you are rebranding the packaging, create samples for consumers to try out. Monitor their feedback, and take it from there.
Conducting research before and during the rebranding phase helps you learn more about your brand, gives you a deeper understanding of what your audience or consumers want and gives you an opportunity to discover new markets. 

2. Promote your rebranded product at events 

The first event you should consider is a launch, which has the potential to build excitement around the rebranded product and attract sufficient attention and curiosity around it. 

Here are some ideas to consider when you are in the midst of planning a launch: 
  • Draft a press release. Include important information, such as the date of the launch, the venue, who to contact for more information and a hook statement about the rebranded product. Don’t forget to have your statement proofread before distributing it! 
  • Create an online landing page specifically for your rebranded product. To attract more visitors to the page, you can share the page link on your social media platforms so that users are able to visit the page whenever they need information about the launch and details about the product. 
  • Use a celebrity or influencer. Depending on your budget, you can approach a celebrity to promote and create hype around the event. If you are on a small budget, influencers are just as good — but finding one that creates content relevant to your brand and connects with your audience (and theirs too) can be tricky. 
Using events to promote your rebranded product is a good way to create awareness for your ’new’ product. 

For example, if your rebranded product is an energy sport beverage and your brand happens to sponsor a marathon, on the day of the marathon your beverage can be served to the participants. Remember, events are there to help your rebranded product gain recognition. 

3. Don’t just rebrand — repurpose your product’s objectives  

When you rebrand, you have to polish up your brand’s mission statement as well. Your consumers and stakeholders need to know the rebranded product’s new direction and its new purpose. This way, everyone interacting with the product knows and understands why it was revamped and what benefits are there to gain from the rebranding. 

 And, don’t forget about your brand’s values — what your rebranded product stands for. Values give your brand life — a feeling of affinity that has the ability to turn a once-off consumer into a loyal one. Values give a brand a personality, which helps consumers differentiate it from competitors. 

Audiences are likely to engage with a brand that has a clear vision statement that details its purpose and has goals that are relatable to their own. 

4. Consistency and longevity in your PR strategy 

Formulate a rebranded product PR strategy that is long-term. Rebranding isn’t just a one-off event because consumers might take longer than anticipated to engage with your revamped product. 

When you are planning on rebranding, you’ll need a consistent PR strategy to help consumers understand the changes.

The benefits of having a consistent PR strategy include: 
  • creating credibility, regardless of how long it takes for consumers to appreciate your new brand
  • retaining consumers and gaining new ones 
  • intensifying brand knowledge in consumers’ minds 
  • When your message is consistent and convincing it’s able to invoke the feeling of trust and loyalty from consumers
PR has the potential to help a rebranded product preserve and gain support. What other ways can PR help revamped products stay relevant? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below. 

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Now that you’ve gained some insight into the ways to optimise your rebranded product using PR tactics, find out how to manage your brand with this Reputation management 101.
*Image courtesy of Vecteezy