It’s not just about altering logos or slogans; it’s about reshaping the very essence of a company’s identity to resonate with evolving market demands and stakeholder expectations. Just as in the realm of personal development, businesses too must adapt, grow, and sometimes, reinvent themselves to stay relevant and competitive.
Letting go of outdated perceptions and embracing innovation becomes imperative for businesses looking to thrive in today’s ever-changing market environment. This process demands a strategic mindset, a willingness to challenge conventional norms, and a commitment to continuous improvement.
In this interview, we delve into the intricacies of B2B rebranding – exploring how companies can leverage this transformative journey to redefine their market positioning, enhance brand equity, and drive sustainable growth. From crafting compelling narratives to implementing strategic initiatives, we uncover the key strategies that can pave the way for a successful B2B rebranding endeavor. Whether you’re a startup seeking to carve out a niche or an established corporation aiming to reinvent itself, the following insights aim to equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate the complex terrain of B2B rebranding with confidence and clarity.
Letting Go is the First Step
Viveka von Rosen, a celebrated LinkedIn expert, bestselling author, and transformational speaker, is dedicated to empowering successful executives and entrepreneurs with their brand and business pivots. With over 15 years of experience in LinkedIn marketing and sales, she is a recognized authority in the business world.
She recently did a big rebrand. Until recently she had been teaching and posting about branding yourself on LinkedIn. We discuss her rebrand and offer strategies you can use when facing a rebrand of your own.
With rebranding Viveka realized that a lot of what we must do comes from the inside first. There needs to be a mindset shift before we ever get to the rebranding of our website, LinkedIn profile, etc. For Viveka that was letting go of who she was before, which was THE LinkedIn expert. While she didn’t let go of that brand entirely, she made a big shift. There’s a mindset shift of letting go of the stuff you don’t want anymore, and that part is what we’ll look at in a few minutes.
For those of us who have achieved a certain status, achieved a certain rank, achieved a certain level of thought leadership within certain industries, the idea of letting go of that can be scary. If you step into anything in fear, its not going to be as effective so what she really came to know and experience herself is that she had to make that mindset shift before launching into her own rebrand which took a little longer than she was expecting it to. There was more baggage and more weight than she realized she had. But she’s so glad she went through that because it means she can help her people with that mindset shift that needs to happen before ever embarking on that rebrand.
How to Successfully Create a Mindset Shift
A mindset shift was in order. Viveka did lots of reading, lots of thinking, lots of meditating, and lots of long walks on the beach contemplating the change. There was a lot of going inside herself, to help work through the barrage of thoughts she did a lot of journaling. She listened to podcasts and read books. Viveka realized that the persona she had created, and a lot of people knew her as (THE LinkedIn expert) wasn’t who she was. That persona no longer served her. She asked herself “Why would I hang onto that which no longer serves me?”
Creating a community of support is key for rebranding. Fortunately, community has always been important to Viveka. She has a mastermind group made up of close girlfriends. Hashing out the ups and downs of rebranding helped because once she got advice from her mastermind, Viveka realized who she was becoming and what she was supposed to be doing to create that change. She realized she’s a lot more than just THE LinkedIn expert and explored the possibilities. It was helpful to have those ideas reflected back to her by close friends.
Viveka’s advice? Whichever methodologies work best for you to find your inside truth, that’s what you should use.
3 Strategies to Successfully Rebrand Yourself
Here are three essential strategies to help you navigate the process successfully:
- Define Your Desired Identity:
- Begin by envisioning the person you aspire to become. What values, qualities, and characteristics do you want to embody? What are your long-term goals and aspirations? Take the time to reflect on your strengths, passions, and unique attributes.
- Conduct a thorough self-assessment to gain clarity on your current strengths and weaknesses. Identify areas for improvement and growth, as well as any outdated beliefs or habits that may be holding you back.
- Develop a clear and compelling vision statement that encapsulates your desired identity. This statement should serve as a guiding beacon throughout your rebranding journey, providing clarity and direction as you navigate through challenges and opportunities.
- Craft Your Personal Brand:
- Your personal brand is the public perception of who you are and what you stand for. Take deliberate steps to shape and refine your brand image, ensuring consistency across all touchpoints.
- Invest in building your online presence through social media, professional networking platforms, and personal websites. Curate your digital footprint to reflect your desired identity and showcase your expertise, accomplishments, and values.
- Cultivate meaningful relationships with mentors, peers, and industry influencers who can support and amplify your personal brand. Leverage networking opportunities to expand your reach and visibility within your desired niche or industry.
- Take Action and Iterate:
- Rebranding is a dynamic and iterative process that requires continuous effort and adaptation. Take proactive steps to align your thoughts, words, and actions with your desired identity.
- Set achievable goals and milestones to measure your progress along the way. Break down larger objectives into smaller, actionable tasks, and track your performance regularly.
- Embrace failure as an opportunity for learning and growth. Recognize that setbacks and challenges are a natural part of the rebranding journey, and use them as fuel to propel you forward.
- Stay flexible and open-minded, remaining receptive to feedback and adjusting your approach as needed. Remember that rebranding is not a one-time event but an ongoing commitment to personal evolution and self-improvement.
Rebranding Examples
Shift in Product Focus:
A B2B company may undergo a rebranding by shifting its product focus to better align with market demands and emerging trends. For example, a software company that originally offered on-premise solutions may rebrand itself by transitioning to a cloud-based subscription model, catering to the increasing demand for flexible and scalable software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions.
Expansion of Service Offerings:
B2B companies can rebrand themselves by expanding their service offerings to provide a more comprehensive solution to their clients. For instance, a consulting firm specializing in strategy and management consulting may rebrand itself by adding new service lines such as technology implementation or digital transformation, enabling it to offer end-to-end solutions to its clients.
Target Audience Realignment:
Rebranding efforts can involve realigning the target audience to better cater to evolving market segments or industry verticals. For example, a B2B marketing agency may rebrand itself by shifting its focus from serving a broad range of industries to specializing in serving a specific niche market, such as healthcare or technology, allowing it to better understand and address the unique needs of its target audience.
Enhanced Brand Messaging:
B2B rebranding strategies often involve refining brand messaging to better communicate the company’s value proposition and differentiation. This may include updating brand messaging to emphasize key strengths, such as innovation, reliability, or customer-centricity, and crafting compelling narratives that resonate with target customers and stakeholders.
Creating a New Freedom with Your New Identity
Viveka says the freedom she felt when she finally decided “Okay, it’s time to make the shift” was amazing. It was time to rebrand and present something different to the world than what she had been portraying. That freedom was so energizing. One of the first things she did was change her LinkedIn URL which had been “LinkedIn Expert”. It made her findable on Google as “LinkedIn Expert” for many years. Claiming her was a very powerful moment. That allowed her to take that deep breath to take that energy and to start crafting her new brand.
So, what does this mean for you? What is step one? You successfully make the mindset shift; you take care of the social media URLs. Then, once you’re settled in mentally, what’s the next step as far as the rebrand goes to launch a new brand?
It depends where you want your brand first to be seen online. For Viveka it was a logical step to let go of the name/URL “LinkedIn expert” on LinkedIn. Most of her business came in through LinkedIn, most of her engagement came through LinkedIn, her branding was very strong on LinkedIn. For Viveka it made sense to make that shift on LinkedIn and announce her new brand to the world. A bonus was that she could change her LinkedIn URL more quickly than creating an entirely new website. It took around two months to take her website from Zero to hero. In the meantime, Viveka’s web designer created a new LinkedIn background image for her. The Viveka crafted her new headline. She used Chat GPT to “bounce ideas off of” and craft the bulk of her new LinkedIn profile and that made everything move along much faster.
It’s all about small steppingstones, she gets more clarity with each step. The great thing about LinkedIn is that while she waited for her website, her LinkedIn profile page quickly became a brand withing itself.
Chat GPT helped her formulate the words that she needed. But before she could ever get to that she had to have a mindset shift to feed Chat GPT the right questions to get the right answers. If she had fed it garbage that’s what she would have gotten back.
Viveka is now an “expert in helping female executives in their 50s (plus) PIVOT into Entrepreneurship.” It’s a much more fulfilling role that her previous professional lifetime.
A Closing Thought
Viveka says you must be true to yourself. If something doesn’t feel right about a certain aspect of your rebrand don’t do it and continue having conversations with your support team. If you are moving into a rebrand because you “should be doing it” then don’t, if you’re moving into a job because you “should” be doing it, then don’t. Do what you feel great about and forget about the “should” in life. That will help you avoid the “Garbage in, garbage out” effect and make your rebranding process much more successful.
About Viveka Von Rosen
Viveka von Rosen, a celebrated LinkedIn expert, bestselling author, and transformational speaker, is dedicated to empowering successful executives and entrepreneurs with their brand and business pivots.
With over 15 years of experience in LinkedIn marketing and sales, she is a recognized authority in the business world. As an accomplished author and international speaker, Viveka captivates audiences with her keynote addresses on transition and transformation, catalyzing people to find their voices and create their own transformative and transformational ventures.
Outside her professional pursuits, she embraces adventure, whether soaring the skies on hang gliders, exploring the ocean’s depths through scuba diving, or hiking amidst the picturesque Colorado foothills and Costa Rican landscapes. Viveka’s core mission is to empower her clients to bring their legacy dreams to life.
Connect with Viveka
About Mark J. Carter
Mark has always been curious about how successful people got where they are in life. He has been interviewing successful people for 24 years, posting interviews online for 11 of those years. Each interview is a “how to” interview which means as a viewer/reader/listener you get actionable advice about how to grow personally and professionally.
Mark’s other projects include events and marketing initiatives. He has collaborated with TED’s founder Richard Saul Wurman to create a world-class conference and helped with branding for the world’s largest chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPI). He has launched book tours and events for New York Times best-selling business authors, helping them share their big ideas with the world. Mark still enjoys interviewing people and posts many of the interviews on his YouTube station (https://www.youtube.com/@markjcarter), his Idea Climbing podcast and Idea Climbing internet radio show.
Mark’s interviews culminated in his recent book, “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” (Click here to learn more about the book: www.IdeaClimbingBook.com)
Learn more about Mark at www.MarkJCarter.com
Connect with Mark
https://www.facebook.com/mjcarter
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjcarter/
Summary
The rebranding journey, whether in business or professional spheres, requires a strategic mindset and a willingness to embrace change. Viveka von Rosen shares valuable insights, emphasizing the significance of a mindset shift and the importance of defining one’s desired identity. By crafting a compelling brand, setting achievable goals, and remaining true to oneself, individuals can successfully navigate the rebranding process and emerge stronger and more aligned with their aspirations.
