How to Keep Your Brand Relevant in an Evolving Economy

Technology is moving at such a fast pace that the business world is evolving much more rapidly than it used to.  At times such as we are in, the big question is accessing your company’s present status; “is your company relevant today and will it be tomorrow?” Unfortunately, this is one of the biggest challenges of business owners today – figuring out how to remain relevant and stay innovative. It is particularly more challenging for owners of large companies. Time after time, companies get so large that they can’t see their own toes. When leaders refuse to keep up and adapt with the rapid changes that seem to be occurring on a daily basis, they end up being taken over by events. Admittedly, trying to keep up can be difficult, especially if you have a business that has been around for decades. However, rather than just throwing in the towel and leaving the market to younger companies and the ever teeming competitors, fight back. Several tools are at your disposal to help you do just that. Be consistent: It’s easy for service providers or business experts to get lost in their journey and overlook their customers altogether. This shouldn’t be so. Brand consistency is key to staying afloat. Between your social media presence, website, blog, and any other external press, do your best to maintain the same voice. This helps assure your customers and future clients that you are a company that they can trust and rely on. Deviate from the status quo once in a while: Growth in business is driven by change but time and time again, we are resistant to it. In order to remain relevant, business owners must be conscious of their blind spots and realize that it’s no longer enough to simply improve current products or make adjustments to their go-to-market approach. Keep an open mind and consider all options with a fresh perspective. Doing things out of the ordinary is sure to keep the attention of your customers stayed on you. Encourage innovation: The lack of innovation in several companies is one key opposition to their staying relevant. Leaders and business owners can often get stuck in the daily grind and build up of profit and losses that they lose sight of innovation. Innovation can occur across all business functions and holds endless opportunities for brands to create a reason for existing customers and potentially new ones to re-discover it or take notice for the first time. Companies must find the precise balance between improving existing products and services, while concurrently investing for the long term in paradigm-shifting processes that will transform the business, build a market, and serve the customers of the future. Leverage the many available technologies: For large companies particularly, one of the biggest benefits of technology is the ability to do more with less, often to considerable effect. Embracing new technologies and leveraging existing and fast growing ones as social media and networking, e-commerce, online sales, webinars, and so on can keep your company agile. It’s all about creating buzz for your business so people keep talking about it. This can also include things like blogging about your business, announcing sales or specials through your social media pages, and uploading flattering photos of your business. Also, identify an aspect of your business that could be more efficient and then wrap technology around it to transform it and bring about fast growth. Know what your consumers want: Consumers are erratic. When you start to think for them, you are in trouble. Therefore, you must employ all your communication channels- research groups, social media and retail outlets- to ask questions. Building a community of interested and loyal customers is more than just dishing out products but also learning from the mistakes or changing preferences that some people have and adapting your business accordingly. It’s critical that you keep consumers interested in what you have to offer, as well as encourage them to air their opinions. Your customers will feel more attached when they see improvement based on their feedback. Like a lot of things do with time, brands get stale and irrelevant unless they reinvent themselves to be up to date with consumers’ ever changing tastes. It’s by no means an easy task but by staying informed and updated, thinking beyond the regular and always keeping the past, present and future in perspective, it can be achieved.  

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This article was first published on 2nd August 2013

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