Brand Repositioning

One of my favorite mandates is to work with brands on market positioning. Some of the most rewarding results have come from working on repositioning strategies with companies seeking to change their image and who want to reach a new audience,. The combination of using a variety of proven business tools, insightful research, and human instinct is invigorating. However, one of the challenges that everyone faces when repositioning and trying to implement a new or updated vision for a brand is getting all stakeholders on board. One of the most difficult can be the gatekeepers; those individuals who have been part of the brand for many years but prefer the status quo. Identifying these individuals early on is critical. Knowing their influence will help determine how to navigate them. In the popular business book Winning, Jack Welch famously underlines the challenge of those who resist change when a leader has a new vision. His advice is to address this immediately, which sometimes means making a change on the team, otherwise achieving the goal will be difficult. Successful brand repositioning truly requires getting all the right talent to create something special, but to achieve the goal, it will need all the team members to believe in it, and that is a change management project of its own.