Rebranding

One of the first lessons I teach businesses when I speak with them is that they need to create their brand. Consistency of a company's brand is paramount in Social Media (unless your strategy is to hit them with many images on all sides). Now I should mention that in most of these cases, the companies I speak with are established with years of service behind them. For newer companies still trying to find their brand, I recommend that they not become married to an idea of who they are. The reason for this is that most new companies don't even know who they are yet.

In my travels, I have heard hilarious stories on how companies have come about their name or logo's. Many times there is no real thought process. When companies brand, they need to ask themselves one big question - what is your long-term goal. Based on that answer, you need to brand accordingly. Take Sustain-A-Deals for example. The name was created out of my frustration with the daily deal industry. My biggest complaint is that in it's current state, the daily deal industry is not sustainable for either the companies running features or the businesses themselves. The naming of SAD spawned from that and conversations I had on the subject. Now is it a horrible name? Not necessarily. It draws on meaning and my intention for the industry. But is is brandable? That in itself is it's weakness in my opinion.

When you have a weakness in your brand and recognize it, you need to act swift on changing it - especially when you plan on becoming a public brand. With that being said, a new name has been recommended that I think fits perfectly. From now on, Sustain-A-Deals will now be known as The Real Deal. By doing this now, it gives the ability to properly brand and not creating confusion further down the road. I mean besides a couple of friends and family, no one knows who SAD was anyways. With a go-live date of early 2012, I think we can create a brand that people and businesses alike can get behind.

In a nutshell, by establishing a brand that will resonate with your market, even if it means rebranding, you will give your business a better chance at being recognized and remembered. At the end of the day, those are 2 values that will help bring your business success.