OK. You have a product, service or company that became successful based on your accurate determination of product/price/place/persona (brand relationship). But now competition has made inroads, or leapfrogged you. The market has changed. Your revenue curve is slipping, price-cutting is killing your margins, you don’t seem to be able to satisfy your customers, and they won’t reveal why. What do you do?

Reinvent yourself, rebrand your business, keep it fresh? One of the most expensive undertakings a marketer can entertain is a rebranding process. And it is commonly one of the most futile acts when it is to combat a negative trend in the business cycle. A valued former client in the computer manufacturing business went through this undertaking three times in the course of two years, and ended up being swallowed by another titan, after shelling out a tidy six-figure number to a NY-based rebranding consulting group.

When you define the marketing assets of your business or product, stop thinking solely in terms of key differentiators and usps, and start thinking about the values that are at the heart of your customers’ purchase decisions. Corporate definitions of your marketing assets such as:

Leadership
Profitability
Patentability
Productivity
Stock Value
Innovation
Technology
Functionality
Style/Culture Price,

all sound great in the board room. But they can kill your relationship with your customer if you don’t factor is customer values like:

Achievement
Convenience
Comfort
Esteem
Pleasure
Trust.

Yes, the acronym ACCEPT is intentional. It is a good mnemonic for rebuilding your brand in your customer’s image. To continue, review The Good Old Days or The Good New Days blog entry.