Reasons Why Companies Reposition Their Brands

With an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Gregory Butz of Glenview, IL is the former vice president of Wire Stone, IL. A resident of Saratoga Lane in Glenview, Illinois, Gregory Butz is an innovator and creative brand builder and has helped develop effective brand repositioning strategies.

A step that is done by companies to keep up with their customer's preferences and needs, brand repositioning refers to a process where a company makes changes to a brand's status in the marketplace. To implement brand repositioning, it is crucial for a company to choose a strategy that will be determined by the main purpose or focus. For instance, the main focus could be other businesses (building a new identity), customers (enhancing customer engagement), or the general public (participating in social responsibility). While the aforementioned are the primary focus of brand repositioning, a company can reposition a brand to address more specific concerns such as:

1. A Diminishing Brand: When a brand is starting to become irrelevant or lacking essence, it could be helpful to change the brand into something more engaging. This also helps maintain operation when a business section is dying instead of closing down.

2. Product Evolution - It could be necessary for a company to change its brand when the company adds an entirely new product that does not fit in with the existing product line or when a new feature is added to existing products.

3. Changing Target Market - This is the case when the target audience is changing. For example, new cultural trends can change customers' lifestyles. Another example is when target customers have grown up and no longer use the product. Repositioning could be necessary to address these challenges.