How to Brand, Unbrand and Rebrand to Remain Relevant

When looking at inspiring personalities including Arianna Huffington, Richard Branson, Janine Allis, Michelle Obama, and Sheryl Sandberg, they built their personal brands successfully. In fact, failure is not the end of the road, but it is a bend for betterment and prosperity when you take feedback and learn lessons.

Failure teaches many lessons in life provided you want to learn and improve yourself. When your brand hits an all-time low, don’t get panic. Instead, be cool and composed. Explore the tools to unbrand and rebrand to remain relevant. Find out the reasons for the failure, learn lessons, and move forward with energy and enthusiasm. Remember, neither success is permanent, nor failure is permanent. So is the case of branding.

What is branding?

Branding is about how you want to be recalled and respected when you are not available. It is to be known for its principles, philosophies, values, ethics, and etiquette. It helps others understand your personality, attitude, and behavior. It helps others value your expertise and experience, and the contribution that you have made. 

As an individual, people respect you for your character, content, commitment, and charisma. As a brand, people respect you for your knowledge, skills, abilities, expertise, and experience. 

Seth Godin remarked, “A brand is a set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”

Reasons to rebrand

Branding helps you and your organization stand out from others. Taking feedback regularly and following up promptly helps you strengthen your brand. If you feel that there is no positive response, you must unbrand and rebrand to remain relevant and successful in this digital world. 

There are several reasons to build your brand. Here are some of them. When you want to add value to others, you need authenticity to be taken seriously. It is possible when you have a strong brand. When you want employment, you must have your online brand to grab employment offers easily. 

When you want to excel as a thought leader, you must have credibility on social media. When you want to strike rich, you must brand yourself. When you want to earn income passively, building your brand helps greatly. 

When you want to avail speaking opportunities or sell your books, your branding helps. Above all, branding helps when you want to make a difference in the world and provide meaning to your life.

Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan’s rebranding

According to Martin Lindstrom, there are three steps to creating a powerful personal brand ― Attention, Bridging, and Re-Invention. If you are consistent and persistent, you can build your brand quickly. But what happens when you lose your consistency due to failure in your ventures or endeavors. 

You will have to unbrand and rebrand which is more challenging. But some people reinvented their brands after failures and evolved into inspiring brands. When you look at India’s Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, he failed in politics and business but he rebranded with his new incarnation as a television host. 

He unbranded as an ‘angry young man’ and branded as a ‘humble old man’. He is undoubtedly an inspiring brand. Hence, we can take leaves from such inspiring personalities in the way they re-built their brands by adapting to the changing times and technologies.

Build your brand brick by brick

If you want to ensure the longevity of your brand, you must not deviate from your core values, principles, and philosophies. Your content must be king and queen. It must be relevant and consistent. Some people kick up controversies to hit the limelight and build their brands. 

Such endeavors give temporary fame but end up in permanent infamy. Controversies adversely affect the brand image in the long run. Hence, explore innovative tools and techniques to build your brand brick by brick with a long-term vision rather than build your brand quickly with short-term temptations.

Brand, unbrand and rebrand

Avoid kicking up controversies to elevate your brand because it boomerangs. Controversies are like steroids that ruin your brand in the long run. Your brand must not be like a flash in the pan. Instead, your brand must reflect your content, character, and commitment. You must live by it by standing on your principles and philosophies irrespective of pulls and pressures.

Life is an endeavor. It is full of peaks and valleys. You must learn to balance them to contribute your best to grow personally, professionally, and socially. When faced with a crisis, bounce back with resilience and tenacity to rebuild your brand. As a business turnaround, you can turn around your brand when done right. 

To conclude, bounce back from your failures to unbrand and rebrand to remain relevant and successful in the digital world.