Brand Makeovers: Alex Strang Of Canvas8 On The 5 Things You Should Do To Upgrade and Re-Energize Your Brand and Image
Consider why you are rebranding.
This is crucial, what is it that has changed that means you think that a brand refresh is important? Have customers moved away from your brands, maybe over to a competitor? What is it about that competitor that they are attracted to? Doing competitor analysis is essential, look at what other companies are doing and whether they are doing it better than you are. It can be difficult to look at something like this objectively, but you need to step outside of your own relationship with your brand and try and see if from a new perspective.
As a part of our series about “Brand Makeovers” we had the pleasure to interview Alex Strang.
Alex Strang is a Senior Insight Editor at Canvas8 who used to be in a punk band that was signed, shaped, and spat out. He enjoys using his experience of being the product to help brands understand how to sell theirs. After studying philosophy and critical theory, he found his feet in the market research world and has been over-analysing consumer behavior ever since, including his own. He can usually be found playing board games, watching Seinfeld, or trying too hard to make his daughter laugh.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
For sure, I’ve had a bit of a weird journey actually! I didn’t go to University straight out of school because I was in a punk band that got picked up and signed, which meant I got to record and play music for a good few years — delaying adult life quite nicely. When that imploded, I went to University as a mature student to study Continental Philosophy and Critical Theory — a degree that is arguably just as difficult to sell as a positive as 5 years in a punk rock band! I found my way into the world of cultural analysis by trying to prove to my wife how difficult it was to find a job — I typed ‘semiotics’ into a job search engine in an attempt to show how useless my degree was turning out to be, and inadvertently discovered a whole industry that relied on people like me and my skill set.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Is there a takeaway or lesson that others can learn from that?
For me, this was all about imposter syndrome, and understanding what that was and how to deal with it. Having had a relatively late start to the world of work — thanks to the band — I always felt that I was playing catch-up with my colleagues, my industry, and my roles. Accepting that my lived experience had given me exposure to what it felt like to have been the product being marketed, showed me that traditional experience isn’t always the most important thing. To believe in yourself, how you think, and what you’ve been through is the most powerful thing that you can do in terms of welcoming success — understanding that your idea of success isn’t the same as anyone else’s, and leaning into your own narrative and story. I used to hide the fact that I had been in a band from employers, but realizing that it was something that gave me a unique perspective meant that I embraced it, and used it in my every day.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Insight never sleeps at Canvas8. We are constantly working on our Membership platform to give our clients access to actionable, contemporary, and exciting insight from all around the world. 2024 is shaping up to be a big year for our platform, with some really exciting new product launches and countless platform elevations just over the horizon.
What advice would you give to other marketers to thrive and avoid burnout?
I think a lot of people start out in this industry loving it, and not really being able to believe that they are allowed to do this for a living. But burnout is a serious issue, and can massively affect not only people’s ability to do the job but whether they can enjoy it and maintain that enthusiasm that we all start with. It’s about being honest and open not only with your employer and your team, but with yourself — if you feel that you’re starting to wobble or that things are getting on top of you, it’s about owning that and going from there. Your gut is usually right, and if it feels off that’s the first sign that you’ve got to make some changes.
Ok, let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?
For me, advertising and product marketing is about raising awareness and getting eyes on something and ultimately selling it, but accepting that might be fleeting — especially in today’s world, things are so transient and temporary and there are so many things vying for people’s attention. In contrast, brand marketing is about trying to cement your brand in people’s consciousness — to ensure that you are the first that they think of when they are in your sector or market. It’s about creating long and lasting bonds between your brand and your audience, and attempting to make those indelible.
Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?
To have a strong brand is about long-term success — if something goes viral, or an ad campaign sees success, these are relatively short-term wins: the next day something else will go viral, or there will be a new campaign. To build a brand is to build something for the long-term, to create a mainstay in people’s minds, routines, and behaviors. The most successful brands are the ones that become synonymous with something — people don’t say ‘search it on the Internet’, they say ‘Google it’. General marketing and advertising efforts are about spikes in engagement and awareness, brand building is about slowly and steadily creating a brand that becomes irreplaceable, and indelibly marked in people’s minds.
Let’s now talk about rebranding. What are a few reasons why a company would consider rebranding?
Rebranding is usually a sign that something is wrong — maybe market share is falling, or a market is being flooded with new challenger brands that are changing how that industry works, or what it means. If your brand is suddenly losing out to competitors then a rebrand could help address some of those issues. Equally, it could just be a sign of the times — maybe you’ve used your logo, or your tagline, for the last 10 years and it just isn’t resonating with people like it once did, the world has moved on. Brands need to be plugged into the cultural zeitgeist, and that can be hard to do if your brand is stuck in the past — it can be like trying to turn a ship.
Are there downsides of rebranding? Are there companies that you would advise against doing a “Brand Makeover”? Why?
With a rebrand there is always a chance of alienating an existing customer base. Maybe to you, your brand feels like it has fallen out of favour because it seems old fashioned, but maybe to a large part of your customer base that is the reason that they love it, and why they stay loyal. So, it becomes a balancing act in terms of attractive refreshed positioning to bring in new customers, ensuring that the core elements of your brand aren’t lost. But that’s hard to do, how do you make something new and exciting without making your existing customers feel like too much has changed? That’s the art of it.
Can you share 5 strategies that a company can do to upgrade and re-energize their brand and image”?
Consider why you are rebranding.
This is crucial, what is it that has changed that means you think that a brand refresh is important? Have customers moved away from your brands, maybe over to a competitor? What is it about that competitor that they are attracted to? Doing competitor analysis is essential, look at what other companies are doing and whether they are doing it better than you are. It can be difficult to look at something like this objectively, but you need to step outside of your own relationship with your brand and try and see if from a new perspective.
Think about whose attention you are looking to capture.
It’s important to consider who your target audience is — is it a new demographic, or is it an old customer base that has gone elsewhere? Cultural context is important here, what is happening in wider culture that you can tap into and thread through your brand identity and image? Relevance is super important when it comes to a brand image and identity, and if a brand or product has aged and been left behind then a rebrand can bring it back into the zeitgeist — but that requires an understanding not only of the people you are aiming at, but the world in which those people are living.
Rebranding isn’t an expense, it’s an investment
Thinking long term is integral when you are rebranding — these processes can get costly, and if you get bogged down in the numbers it can be discouraging. But this is about the future, it’s about looking to where you want to be and thinking about how you are going to get there. Every resource that you put into the process of rebranding is about investing in the future of your brand, and attempting to ensure that the future is bright — in a world of quick wins, and low costs this can be intimidating but the payoff is worth it.
Don’t think that it’ll be quick and easy.
Rebranding is a massive job, it isn’t as easy as changing a logo or a tagline. It’s a process that goes throughout the whole of a business, from the bottom to the top. Once you’ve got a clear alignment on the why, the how, and the where, it is about understanding that this will take time — it isn’t something that can be thought out, implemented, and be successful overnight. It’s about long term commitment and horizon planning, it’s long term.
Don’t alienate your existing customer base
If the first four points don’t sound scary enough, this is when it gets tough. You have to do all of the above in a way that positions your brand in a new and exciting way, but you can’t alienate the loyal customer base that you already have. So, it becomes a paradox of trying to ensure your relevance, that you stand out against your contemporaries, while still attempting to hold on to the core attributes that have created your brand in the first place.
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job doing a “Brand Makeover”. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
In the UK, Pets at Home is a brand whose work I’ve really admired this year. In fact, they positioned the rebrand as a refresh rather than a wholesale change — which speaks to the idea of how important it is not to alienate your existing customers. The company was able to create better connections with the multiple arms of its business, all under the umbrella of a campaign and brand image that celebrates the personal connection between people and their pets. They found that there was confusion from their customers about all the different services Pets at Home offered, so that was the why, and the how became about syncing up all those different arms under a unified brand image and message.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I come from a background of punk music and punk shows, and while that might seem like an alienating environment it was actually the opposite. It was a scene that promoted togetherness, acceptance, and a feeling of community — it felt like you had found bands and people that understood you and what you were going through. And that’s something that I’ve tried to carry into real life, to always consider other people’s lived experiences and be aware that you never really know what is going on in someone else’s life. I think the world would be a better place if people concentrated on that more, a higher level of empathy and understanding.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Good frames won’t save bad paintings” — Refused, New Noise
This lyric has stayed with me since I was a teenager, and I think it’s even more relevant now than it was then. Your idea has to be good, it has to be great — no matter how much you dress up a bad or an average idea, people are still going to see that at its core, it sucks. In contemporary society, awareness and cynicism are at an all-time high — people can easily identify authenticity, bad intentions, or just poor quality work no matter how much you dress it up. The bottom line is that if your painting is good enough, it shouldn’t even need a frame.
Thank you so much for these excellent insights! We wish you continued success in your work.
Brand Makeovers: Alex Strang Of Canvas8 On The 5 Things You Should Do To Upgrade and Re-Energize… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.