In today’s increasingly multi-technology society, where needs and attitudes are constantly evolving, brands have no choice but to adapt to these changes to keep consumers happy. Rebranding is a popular approach in this context, defined as the transformation of the image of a company’s product or service. This process can indeed tackle a variety of...
In today’s increasingly multi-technology society, where needs and attitudes are constantly evolving, brands have no choice but to adapt to these changes to keep consumers happy. Rebranding is a popular approach in this context, defined as the transformation of the image of a company’s product or service. This process can indeed tackle a variety of brand issues such as reaching a new target audience, modernizing the brand, improving its e-reputation or surfing on new trends.
Influencer marketing can be a particularly effective lever for a rebranding strategy. In this article, we show you how and why to run influencer campaigns to make your brand’s repositioning a success.
Focus on micro and nano influencers to reach niche communities
If your brand’s key objective is to reach a younger or otherwise specific type of audience, collaborations with micro and nano-influencers are a safe bet, as these profiles are particularly appreciated by consumers.
As niche experts, these influencers with small communities (nano influencers: less than 5k followers; micro-influencers: more than 5k followers) are often specialized in a specific field of interest such as fashion, cooking or travel.
Their followers recognize themselves in these profiles, sharing the specific interests featured in the content, which they don’t find on other accounts. This is what we call a niche community. Moreover, by sharing a similar lifestyle with their followers, these content creators manage to establish a true link with their audience and are therefore seen as specifically authentic.
Thus, collaborating with micro or nano-influencers is a highly effective tactic to reach a defined target audience and to develop effective partnerships. Even though they have a smaller community, their followers are more engaged, resulting in particularly high engagement rates of campaigns.
For example, food giant Nestlé implemented a micro-influencer strategy to reach a young target audience, raise awareness and educate its community on its products and their use. Another key goal was to establish long-term contact with content creators, which is easier to do with micro-influencers than with macro-influencers with a larger community and more frequent requests.
Product launch promotion with influencers
The beauty brand Yves Rocher recently launched an environmentally friendly product line called “Green Heroes”. The line consists of solid shampoos made from 99% biodegradable and sulfate-free ingredients. These products aim to minimize the impact of users on the environment by reducing plastic and packaging waste.
To promote this new launch and to gain visibility, Yves Rocher collaborated with influencers by running a campaign on the Hivency platform.
Collaborate with influencers to communicate on its commitments
Some brands renew their positioning as part of their rebranding strategy, taking into account current issues such as the environment, body-positivism, or gender equality.
Influencers are your best allies when it comes to communicating a position on such topics: thanks to their trustworthiness, the opinions, and recommendations they communicate on their Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube channels, are indeed listened to by their audience. Acting as brand advocates, content creators inform their communities of the latest trends, but can also encourage subscribers to adopt a habit or behavior according to the advocated commitment.
As an example, the brand Wolf Lingerie, specializing in plus-size lingerie, organized an event with influencers to communicate its dedication to curvy women and its commitment to body positivity. Influencers paraded wearing the brand’s collection at Trocadero square, Paris.
Coralie Gremillet, Press Relations and Community Manager of Wolf Lingerie Group, gave us her insights on this unique event:
This fashion show was all about sharing, exchange and kindness. Among the micro-influencers present at the event, there were a few influencers with whom we had never collaborated before on the Hivency platform. Some of them were even discovering our products for the first time, but they were all highly engaged in the event. […] Now, a few weeks after the show, we feel that the influencers are even closer to us and they are more engaged with our brand on social media, which multiplies the interactions. They have undoubtedly all become ambassadors for our brand!”
Soliciting influencers as part of a brand rebranding strategy is indeed a smart way to get expert advice and insight. These content creators know their followers inside out and bring in new perspectives on interesting brand activities.
Influencer and consumer reviews: the solution to enhance your repositioning
A rebranding strategy can be an opportunity for brands to rethink their product and service offer. Influencer or consumer review campaigns are the best way to see if your offer is appealing and give the chance to implement improvements thanks to user feedback.
As part of a true virtual family, digitally-savvy consumers are more inclined to follow the recommendations of an influencer who gives his or her opinion on a product in an authentic and sincere way, making them feel well-guided in their purchase decision.
Let’s look at the example of the parenting sector, which is currently booming on social media: out of 720 parents surveyed, 45% say that they follow influencers’ recommendations. 94% of them say to be present on at least one social network.
Therefore, influencer campaigns present a real opportunity for brands targeting a defined audience to improve their offer and ultimately boost sales by taking actual feedback into account.
This is what the Laboratoires Gilbert group is doing. The brand in baby skincare, targeting young and future parents. It has established various partnerships with influencers to talk about its baby-friendly products and convince its target audience.
To go further in building loyalty with a niche target and improving an offer, the best advice for brands is to build an influencer pool and run regular collaborations. This influencer community can eventually become a pool of true ambassadors that brands can activate frequently and thus conduct long-term collaborations (over 1 or 2 years).
Influencers, a key lever for the marketing of tomorrow
To sum up, influencer marketing is a powerful tool for brands to implement an effective rebranding strategy. Supported by social networks, which have become an indispensable part of consumers’ daily life, influencer marketing allows you to keep ahead of new trends.
Content creators are true experts in trends that matter: by offering interest-specific content, such as sports, food, or home décor, they witness the phenomenon of viral trends on the web.
Thus, influencer marketing allows brands to boost their visibility, especially among a young audience, being fervent social media users. As an example, 33% of Instagram users are between 25 and 34 years old.
In addition to diversifying its audience, conducting influencer campaigns in frame of a rebranding strategy, allows brands to modernize their image by adding proximity to their online presence.
In view of its effectiveness, there is no doubt that influencer marketing will continue to be a key lever for rebranding.
Photo credits : Chermiti Mohamed via Unplash