(By Jeffrey Hedquist) Rebranding can be a powerful strategy to maximize your client’s media investment, especially if they have a negative reputation. However, even if their perception in the marketplace is positive, your job may be to enhance it further.
Is public perception worse than the reality?
For example, does the audience believe that a kitchen remodel will return 60% of its cost at sale time, but your client knows it will return 93%? Then make that value prominent in your commercial. For more drama, tell the audience that it’s X% more valuable than a landscaping improvement, roof rebuild, etc.
The content of what you say is important but the presentation can be more powerful than reality. We are in the perception-altering business. You could say we “rebrand” our clients for the audience.
How often have you felt that your vehicle drives better after being washed? Your client works to help their customers feel better. Creating the expectation of those feelings in their commercials will attract more customers.
Is the price you pay for a diet/exercise plan membership a penalty for letting yourself go for too long, or is it a path to a new healthier you? Craft your message for the latter.
How you repackage the facts makes connecting with the advertiser more or less palatable. Don’t rely on logic. The emotional idea will make the sale.
Work with your client to figure out how to maximize the perceived value of what they offer customers.
A service advertiser – plumber, electrician, HVAC company, tree trimmer, remodeler, or cleaning service – can improve their appeal not simply by improving the quality of their work, but by giving their customers more control over the transaction (and hence their lives).
One way is by constantly communicating when they’ll arrive, offering discounts or no charge for being late or missing appointments.
This is why telling a niche story that rebrands the business as specializing in one thing sends a message to the audience that the advertiser must be very good at that one thing. This will help them stand out in a sea of similar advertisers who dilute their marketing by talking about the many other products and services they offer.
It’s why a gas station can improve its revenue by constantly cleaning its restrooms and advertising that fact by repackaging itself as the station with immaculate facilities. This can be more powerful than advertising their convenience and fuel prices.
This is why “cause marketing” – where a portion of the price for a product or service goes to a charity – can be very effective. The perception of an advertiser doing “the right thing” with your money can overcome objections about higher prices.
Does your client need rebranding? Examples:
- Simple/fast food rebranded as gourmet
- Expensive course rebranded as affordable
- Complicated procedures rebranded as understandable, doable
- Exclusive experiences rebranded as accessible
Prepare the audience members. Immerse them in the experience before they visit, call, click, or research the advertiser.
Rebranding your client can reinvigorate sales.
Jeffrey Hedquist, “Advertising’s Storyteller,” has won over 700 awards and brought in millions of dollars for clients. His articles, ebooks, seminars, and coaching have helped stations nationwide prosper. Got a question about radio marketing? Email [email protected]. Read Jeffrey’s Radio Ink archives here.
