5 stages in the life of a brand
Where does your brand stand?
Throughout our experience, we’ve interacted with brands at many different points of their existence. For each of these stages, we outline some typical actions that can be made to empower a brand. Find out what you should focus on, based on your brand development stage.
- Exploration
The early stage in the life of your brand consists of the pre-launch and the brand development phases. At this point, the founders have possibly tested multiple ideas, have decided on a path to follow, and are ready to start a clean branding process, to define and launch the brand.
2. Commitment
The brand is in its first years of existence, focused on inspiring its deep sense of purpose and dedication. At this stage, it has a clear roadmap to follow and works hard to achieve its goals and communicate its values. Implementation and consistency throughout the brand touchpoints are key.
3. Connection
The brand gains recognition and customer loyalty. Now is the time to think about creating more engagement with your audience. How can we reach them? How can we surprise them? How can we listen to their needs? It’s also a good time to consider the launch of new products and services, diversifying the brand’s portfolio.
4. Flexibility
The brand is on a peaking wave, some call this the plateau. To stay on top and continue growth, beware of your environment changes. At the top, competition is more fierce. Customer preferences change. Also, there is a considerable amount of time from when you launched the brand. How do you align now with the vision you started with? It would be a good idea to embrace change and make new alignments.
5. Choice
Make a choice, don’t abandon your brand. We too often find brands past their glory days, striving to cope with new contexts. There are key decisions to be made in the life of a brand. You can stay consistent with your core strategy and values and upgrade your brand identity (even Apple, the big giant and holy grail of branding has already changed its identity 5 times). Or make a more consistent change and decide to pivot, and transform your brand with a rebrand. With the proper support, you’ll find the solution for your case.
Hope this inspires you to take action for your brand.
