COVID-19 has obviously impacted the way we normally live including first-world problems like how often we decide to wear pants, how often we shower and shave, and what we do about increasingly out-of-control hairstyles!

It’s true. I have heard many business, family and guy friends talking about how their golden locks have become a bit shabby. Some are just letting it go. Some are asking significant others to wield a pair of scissors with the encouragement of, “It’s OK. Do the best you can!”  

As many of us can’t wait for the day to visit the hairstylist or barber we once perhaps took a bit for granted, it got me thinking a bit about brands in a bit of the same way. Has it been a while since your brand was professionally styled? Is your brand looking a bit shaggy and maybe in need of some refinement? If that’s the case, now is a very good time to be a bit introspective as it relates to your brand. This might be a great time to freshen up your look a bit and emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic looking stronger and more confident than ever before.   

1. Revisit Your Brand Essence Do you have one? Do you know what it is?  Now is a great time to work on this. What is one thing you want your customers to think about your brand? This should be a simple, concise and enduring statement of what immediately pops into people’s heads when they think of your brand. Great examples include “Cheap Chic” for, you got it, Target. “Creating Magic” for Disney. There is a process to discovering your true brand essence, but use this time now to give this some thought.  
   
2. Take a Look at Your Brand Identity & Logo Another important element of your brand identity to take a look at is your logo. Let’s assume we’re not talking mullet or the 70’s feathered, parted-down-the-middle look here, but perhaps it has been a while since you updated your logo. Even the large, long-standing brands evolve their logos on a fairly frequent basis – see Pepsi, John Deere, MasterCard and so on. If you aren’t happy with your current brand look, now is a good time to slow down and take a good objective look at your brand identity.  
   
3. Visit Your Website Home Page If you haven’t touched your website in a while (sort of like the same hairstyle I’ve had for years!), now would be a very good time to work with your team to update your website. This could include everything from mapping out an entirely new site to simply freshening up copy and images that have been static on your site for a long time. Remember, a website should be a living breathing place for customers to experience your brand.   
   
4. Keep Up With Your Social Content Utilize this time to look back over your social content and see if it has consistently reflected your brand essence and your brand personality. Has it become a bit disjointed? Does it sound like you? What’s worked and hasn’t worked? This is also a very good time to get ahead on your social/content assets. While we don’t know exactly where the pandemic is headed, you can still control your content and find creative ways to share information and be helpful to you customers.
   

Perhaps the haircut analogy is a bit silly, but I for one know that this is a fantastic time for introspection and planning for new opportunities and success on the other side of this virus. Brands can, and should be, doing the same thing. At Rhycom, we’re here and ready to help. Get in touch with us today.