8 Tips to Avoid Brand Fatigue

By Imagewërks -

Marketers frequently hear the word “relevant” when discussing their brand’s staying power. How do you stay relevant in an always-changing market?

How do you keep customers engaged and interested when they’re so easily distracted? How do you (*gasp*) avoid vanishing into obscurity? In order to avoid brand fatigue, we suggest these 8 tips:

1. Constantly engaging with your customers

Don’t think FOR your customers. Think WITH them. Ask questions in public forums across social media. Schedule face-to-face meetings. Listen. 

2. Posting videos

Try using a new medium and a different voice to carry your message. (You can still get the benefits of text SEO by embedding your video within a blog post and including a transcript.)

3. Creating an interactive quiz

Customized quizzes not only have value to customers, but—when they’re fun—are shared like crazy. Read more about lead generation and quizzes here.

4. Adding new products

Coca-Cola is king when it comes to launching new products around the world, from an alcoholic drink in Japan to three new products (an ice tea, a cold coffee, and a dairy-free smoothie) in the United Kingdom (just ahead of the UK’s sugar tax levy meant to combat childhood obesity in children) to new Diet Coke flavors in the US. 

Adding a new product is the perfect way to spark interest and generate new conversations and content.

5. Taking a chance on a new campaign

Take a risk and create a brand experience your customers believe in (and can stand behind). Make sure your brand means something.

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty hit the nail on the head with this. They changed a brand once associated with a white bar of soap and started a conversation about how we define female beauty and body image.

In order to talk the talk and walk the walk, Dove also created a fund partnering with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGS), empowering the next generation of female leaders.  

6. Redesigning your website

How easy is your site to use? How engaging is the content? How fast do the pages load? If the answer is “I don’t know,” or “not very,” it might be time to breathe new life into a website that’s gone stale. Remember to consider mobile optimization, too.

7. Targeting a new audience

When you over-target brand loyalists, you miss out on reaching new audiences. Build new audiences on behaviors, emotions, and moments, or the BEM model.

New Balance followed this model in South Korea, and since 2009, the brand has exploded. Celebrities helped paint a picture of the shoes being hip, exclusive, expensive, and high-quality—the younger market sees these “lifestyle shoes” as an iconic fashion statement.

8. Altering your core product if necessary

You have to test and learn as you go. You have to be willing to invest resources into researching how factors are all connected.

Strategy must focus on networks of information, talent, partners, and consumers. Case in point: Remember Blockbuster? They had the option to purchase Netflix in 2000 for $50 million and chose not to. In 2010, Blockbuster went bankrupt and today Netflix is a $28 billion dollar company.

This is proof that a niche idea can easily snowball. It is possible to keep an authentic brand voice while adapting to what your customers want—you just have to be willing to embrace change and try new approaches.

We take a fresh and frank look at your goals, challenges, customers and competitors. All to develop a brand strategy that informs everything else—from logo and look to message and media. Let’s brand together.