If your business is evolving, your brand should be evolving faster. If you haven’t touched your brand in the last five to 10 years, it’s time. Stop what you are doing and look around. Do you have a brand that sticks or stinks?
If you are not sure, ask and answer these questions:
- Is your existing brand still relevant?
- Is it believable?
- Can you stand behind it?
- Is it unique?
- And most importantly, can you defend it?
In the IT channel, every company and every product is “industry leading.” Thousands of channel partners describe themselves as “trusted advisors” and others as “IT service professionals.” Building a brand that resonates and differentiates takes some time and some digging, but it will likely end up being one of the best business decisions you make.
Remember this: Your brand is a promise. One of my colleagues Jennifer Anaya, VP of marketing at Ingram Micro, said it best at CompTIA’s 2015 ChannelCon event: “Your brand is something you live every day. It needs to be defendable. And, it needs to articulate the experience a customer would have when they engage with your company.” It’s what defines and differentiates you, and it’s what places you in a blue ocean of opportunity.
How do you rebrand your IT Service Business? Identify your purpose.
For IT service providers looking to define their brand’s purpose, it’s helpful to ask these questions: What makes you different than your peers? Why do your customers do business with you? What value do you provide and how is it better than what others bring to the table? Why are you in business? What is all this for anyway?
I know it may sound superficial, but these questions need to be answered by you, your team, your partners and your customers. If you want to be formal about it, it’s called a brand audit.Typically these are done by a third party where all the answers are anonymous, then aggregated and presented back to you with a suggested brand promise. It takes some time (weeks, not months), but again—well worth it because the answers you will find are unlikely to be what you expected. And that’s awesome!
This unexpected, validated insight is what you need to get started on a great brand refresh. Sure, you will need to bring in the talent to brainstorm, design, and execute the brand, but discovering the “why” is critically important to finding and articulating your purpose.
To learn more,watch the webinar replay now.
Photo Credit: kennejima on Flickr. Used under CC 2.0 license.
