How do we reposition our brand around expanded capabilities?

Reposition your brand by establishing what customers recognise today, identifying the expanded capabilities you can substantiate, and expressing their value in language your audience understands. Retain the technical expertise and delivery strengths that make the business credible. Use customer research, stakeholder interviews and concrete examples to guide messaging before deciding how much the identity needs to change.

Diagnose the perception gap before changing the brand

Start by distinguishing limited awareness from a narrow understanding of the business. Customers may recognise a product without knowing the organisation behind it, or trust an established capability without recognising newer services. These are different problems and should not automatically lead to the same response.

For Strategy Object, stakeholder interviews and audience research revealed that its SOClass platform was widely respected while the company behind it remained largely invisible. The resulting strategy connected the platform with the organisation and made its contribution to collaboration and digital trade clearer. Teledyne e2v faced a different challenge: recognition centred on magnetrons, while the business wanted greater recognition for its wider expertise.

Internal assumptions also need scrutiny. Interviews with employees of a maritime engineering firm uncovered negative perceptions associated with previous employment at a competitor. Further interviews changed the diagnosis and pointed towards employee engagement. Treat the initial brief as a hypothesis, not a settled explanation.

Sources: Strategy Object: An identity built on international trade, Teledyne e2v: Brand recognition campaign, brand expression and visual identity, Research is how we ask questions, listen and learn

Expand the proposition without discarding established credibility

A broader proposition should explain what the business can now do while retaining the strengths that make the claim credible. Identify which established associations support the expanded offer and which confine the business to an outdated category. Heritage can provide a foundation for change rather than something to remove.

Teledyne e2v's repositioning used research that revealed strong industry support to develop a platform around being a trusted partner for innovation and delivery. Its brand expression, Making waves, moved away from technical language while remaining connected to radio frequency expertise. Content reinforced its engineering heritage, and the visual identity drew on electromagnetic waves and magnetron technical drawings.

Inception addressed a different evolution, from a research-led organisation to a provider of real-world AI solutions. Stakeholder interviews, workshops and competitive analysis helped translate its technical credibility into a commercial proposition. Its concept, authentic intelligence, connected original AI capabilities with the practical change those capabilities could enable.

Sources: Teledyne e2v: Brand recognition campaign, brand expression and visual identity, Inception: Unlocking invention through authenticity

Make expanded capabilities relevant to executive audiences

Executive-facing communication needs to explain the business relevance of technical capabilities, not simply reduce the amount of technical detail. Research should establish what the audience wants to achieve and what the business can credibly help them do. Technical material can remain available without becoming the only route into the proposition.

For Siemens, research informed a reframing of technical reports about its 3D software. Business benefits were brought into concise copy across a flexible, interactive web experience, structuring the content for business leaders as well as technical readers. The work addressed accessibility and relevance without removing the technology from the story.

IBM's storytelling work followed a related principle. Existing case studies and technical materials became concise stories connecting innovations with familiar objects and everyday experiences. These examples demonstrate ways to make expertise intelligible. They do not establish that technical positioning alone excludes a business from executive shortlists, or quantify a change in strategic-partner consideration.

Sources: How to Inspire Decision-Makers to Be Bold, This is IBM: Brand Awareness Campaign

Involve the people who must explain and deliver the proposition

Employees should contribute to repositioning research and understand why the change is happening. Their experience can clarify what the business genuinely offers, reveal conflicting perceptions and identify practical requirements for applying the brand. Involvement matters beyond launch communications: people need usable materials for the customer experiences they manage.

During the Price Forbes rebrand, part of a consolidation within Ardonagh Specialty, employees participated in research. Supporting materials explained the approach and their role in the brand's future. For First Names Group, the identity went further by drawing on every employee's first name, expressing the confidence and trust its people created.

IBM's storytelling platform illustrates another role for employees. It equipped IBMers with accessible narratives drawn from existing case studies and internal materials. Repositioning therefore involves more than a new external message. It also requires people across the business to understand, explain and apply that message consistently.

Sources: The inside story: why your people shouldn't be just passengers on your brand journey, This is IBM: Brand Awareness Campaign, Research is how we ask questions, listen and learn

Stats

Marketing Week's survey of 300 B2B respondents found that 58.4% said their business had increased its focus on brand building over the preceding year.

Marketing Week

Gartner's survey of 402 marketing leaders across North America, the United Kingdom and Europe found that marketing budgets averaged 7.7% of company revenue in 2025.

Gartner

FAQs

What research should guide our brand repositioning?

Use stakeholder interviews, audience research and competitive analysis to establish the gap between the business's current capabilities and how audiences understand them. Strategy Object's research distinguished respect for its SOClass platform from awareness of the company, while Inception's interviews, workshops and competitive analysis clarified its move from research into real-world AI solutions. Interrogate internal assumptions as well: follow-up interviews at a maritime engineering firm revealed that some negative perceptions originated in employees' previous experience at a competitor.

How do we preserve our credibility through brand repositioning?

Preserve credibility by connecting the expanded proposition to established expertise and concrete examples of what the business does. Teledyne e2v's Making waves platform expressed innovation and delivery while retaining its radio frequency grounding, engineering heritage and visual references to magnetron technology. Inception similarly used its technical credibility as the foundation for a clearer commercial proposition rather than treating its research background as something to discard.

How do we involve employees in our brand repositioning?

Involve employees in research, explain the reason for repositioning and provide materials they can use in their own roles. Price Forbes included employees during research and developed materials explaining the rebrand's direction and their contribution to its future. IBM equipped employees with concise, shareable stories drawn from case studies and internal materials, helping them communicate the company's real-world impact.

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