Five strategic questions to help your 2022 B2B rebrand

Ways of working, implementation of technology, changing client needs – a patchwork of different elements are causing businesses across the globe to step back and take stock of where they are and how they can move forward.

A major part of this review is all about brand. Businesses are looking at if, where and how their current brand fits into the current landscape - and if it doesn’t, many are considering taking things a step further with a brand refresh.

At Earnest, we’ve heard a lot of reasons over the last 12 months about why our clients are at this point of change for their brand:

• Covid has changed our product – we need our brand to reflect our expanded solution

• Our messaging has always been product-first – we need to switch the focus to solutions

• Our brand isn’t cutting it in the new digital world – we need to upgrade our digital presence

• We’re expanding our acquisitions – we need to bring everything together under one brand

• New funding means big plans for growth – we need to shout about our exciting new future

• We’re being crowded out by new startups – we need to re-establish our brand presence

• Confused positioning means harder sales – we need to make our brand easier to sell for our sales team

Whatever the thought process behind your rebrand, the point is you aren’t alone. Across all kinds of sectors, all kinds of industries, there is a big change happening in the post-covid landscape.

B2B is reshaping itself in the wake of the lockdowns but one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of strategy.

Ask yourself the following questions ahead of a rebrand in the 2022 B2B landscape:

Will your new brand be set up for digital?

If there’s one big thing we’ve learned from the pandemic, it’s that digital is here to stay. A recent McKinsey report found that more than 70% of B2B decision makers prefer remote human interaction or digital self-service.

You’ll need to ask yourself how your rebrand strategy incorporates digital at every level. Does your brand tell your customers that you’re always online? Are you bringing out the humanity of your business to convince customers there’s a real person behind the screen?

Also consider the transition from offline to online: how do your brand pillars translate to digital experiences? How are you ensuring that those pillars are captured in your digital assets and platforms?

Have you set aside space in your brand for sustainability?

Across every sector, B2B businesses are embracing a greener outlook as evidenced by mega-investor BlackRock's move to make sustainability their new standard for investing.

The smartest of the new wave of green businesses are positioning sustainability up front and center for their brand - but let’s be clear: they and you need to be authentic. Your brand messaging about sustainability has to be backed up by actions; you have to deliver on the eco-friendly initiatives you shout about.

Similarly, you need to be absolutely clear on what you intend to do and how you intend to do it - audiences do not respond well to vague promises about ‘creating a greener future’. Be clear in your eco-objectives.

Has the way you sell your product changed in light of the pandemic?

Most businesses are in a fundamentally different place than they were before the pandemic. For many, the same goes for the way they sell their product.

Research from Accenture reveals that nearly half of SMBs have invested in increased infrastructure for online sales. If you’re one of those businesses, you need to make sure that your new brand reflects your new approach to selling your product. That means asking questions about how your customers interact with your sales team, what they can expect from their new customer journey and how exactly your sales approach has changed.

Is your brand refresh based on long-term or short-term thinking?

A brand refresh has to be built on a long-term vision – creating a brand that responds to the pandemic and does nothing else is not a brand that will go far. You’ll need to ask yourself whether the changes you’re putting in place for a new brand are the kind that can stand up in the decades to come.

Let's look at Facebook's recent rebranding into ‘metaverse’. A Forbes article states that this change comes from recent bad press surrounding the brand, suggesting an element of reactionary short-term thinking – in reality, the change could well be part of a long term strategy to restrict bad press to products rather than the overall Facebook holding company. Are there similar long-term opportunities you can take advantage of with some forward thinking in the here and now?

Do you know how your customers are actually experiencing your brand?

The way customers interact with brands and the way they choose products has shifted – customers are more solution driven, they’ve got higher expectations than ever before and they’re all about values and experiences.

You need to be asking whether your brand takes these changes into account. What do your customers think of your current brand in light of the pandemic? Is it matching their expectations? Brands are far more than just headlines and fancy websites – they’re full-bodied experiences, both offline and online.

Jack Stacey, content writer at Earnest.