As long as I have been in the coaching industry, I’ve been seeing the word 'rebranding' thrown around countless times, and when I see it, I think to myself… Are they really rebranding? Or is this just a fancy way of saying “I can’t commit.”
Don’t get me wrong, I have changed the Holistic Fashionista website like a zillion times, but we’ve never rebranded. In fact, in order for a company to constitute the task of rebranding, they first need to be a brand... Right?
So if you haven’t gotten your business off the ground and are truly just in a start-up phase, it’s not really rebranding at all. And that’s okay.
It takes a lot of tweaking and fine-tuning to birth a business that represents your greatest talents, products, and skills, but building a brand— well that takes time. Rebranding is what Google just did. They finally changed that (in my opinion) hideous selection of mismatched fonts to a san serif font with their same primary color scheme.
Think about Free People. They change their website practically daily; they even change the font of their logo, because after all, they are ‘free’ to do whatever they want because they have built a successful brand.
So let’s talk about what a brand really is before we start throwing around, “I’m rebranding.” Because 90% of the businesses out there do NOT have a brand. Holistic Fashionista is still building it’s brand name- I don’t think we’ve even earned that title yet.
First things first: A brand has a following. It can take years to establish a brand, and more often than not, it doesn’t happen overnight, unless consumers become obsessed with your stuff! Small businesses make products, but it is consumers who make a brand.
If you’re in the coaching world, you already know that copycatting is inevitable (super annoying, nonetheless), but here’s the the cool part: while products/programs can be copied, if you’re a brand there’s a lot less to worry about: consumers become attached to “brands” (especially luxury brands) because they have feelings invested, which keep the loyal fans coming back for more! (Finally, a silver lining for having copycats). Phew!
If you’re looking to build a brand, the first step is to NOT to ‘rebrand’, but instead, commit to serving your Kismet Clients™ and your cause… and serve them well! Get your fans and followers consuming your awesome products and falling IN LOVE WITH THEM so they establish a brand name for YOU.
