What is brand repositioning strategy?

What is brand repositioning.. Uuhm okay. Imagine this, you have been sitting in a chair at the front of the boardroom for half an hour hearing corporate jargons you don’t even know, and you have been dozing all through, then once you break for tea, you decide for the sake of all that is good, you are going to sit at the back so you can doze properly. Okay this should not even happen, but you get the point do you?

Brand repositioning explained

In the corporate setup, brand repositioning is when a brand, after carefully examining its trajectory decides to change its marketplace status, but keep its identity. Many times, there is confusion between the terms rebranding and repositioning, but the key difference is that rebranding involves the change in a company’s identity, while repositioning does not involve change in a company’s identity

Brand repositioning is often a strategy taken to salvage the brand from decrease in sales or deviation from a pre-planned route to success. This brings us to a second definition of repositioning, which refers to change of status in order to be in the situation where one can leverage most from the situation.

When should the brand be repositioned?

1. When sales are dropping to a level that alarms the company and most of the other interventions do not seem to work. When the issue of low sales arises, the company, as part of saving itself from failure can decide to introduce some new products, drop some products or even sell at new price ranges, all being strategies which constitute repositioning.
2. When targeting a new customer segment which is often a result of many factors such as generational evolution, socio-economic evolution as well as geographical evolution. Whenever a new market segment emerges, or a company realizes a segment that has been neglected, it behooves the company to reposition in order to deliver to that customer segment.
3. When trying to beat competition in a number of ways such as by altering the product line by either expanding or shrinking it. For example, a company can engage in up-market product line stretch, down-market product line stretch, two-way product line stretch in order to outsmart competition and retain a lion’s share of the market.
4. When there are major industry or legal changes which may require the company to conduct major changes in regards to what, who and where it sells products. For example, a company may decide to switch from producing gasoline powered vehicles to electric cars due to industry-wide emphasis towards a net zero strategy.

What are some examples of brand repositioning?

1. Safaricom: from a mobile telephony company to major internet provider

Since its formation in the year 2000, Safaricom was a major mobile telephone service provider with services ranging from calling to SMS, but overtime, the company has repositioned itself to become a major business partner for corporates and MSMEs with a wide array of services which include electronic mobile wallet and internet services among others, which have been introduced along the way.

2. Coca Cola: from a soft drink beverages to diet champion

When Coca Cola first started out, there was little to no emphasis on the need for dietary control when it came to beverages. However, over the years, there has been a significant increase in the number of people who are concerned with their health, and that is why Coca Cola has had to introduce a variety of new products to cater for this growing market segment.

The journey to brand success is not an overnight leap, it takes careful research, testing of strategies and continuous learning and improvement until a brand comes to  that perfect sweet spot where there is a balance between failure and success.
Ask our experts any questions, to start your repositioning journey with us.