Rebranding the Future
As New Orleans prepares for a safe, gradual and intentional re-opening of the city, I wanted to reflect on how we are going to safely, gradually and intentionally re-open our lives and businesses to this new world we are entering. For the past two months, we’ve had to shift and adjust almost every aspect of our lives. From the way we work to the way we shop—the life we’re coming back to is not the same. And we aren’t the same going back into it.
I like to think of COVID-19 as a forced reset. I imagine somewhere in the universe, someone said “Try turning it off and turning it back on,” and society as we knew it started to change. The period that we’ve been experiencing has been an incubation period and time of growth, reflection and transformation. We’ve been given the opportunity during this time of solitude to go deeper and discover who we really want to be moving forward. In our pre-COVID life, we may have been running on empty or stuck in a loop of “the way we’ve always done things.”
Our roles are shifting and that’s ok. We just have to learn what our new roles are and how we can best fill them. Many people and businesses may feel stuck. Maybe they have been doing things a certain way for as long as they can remember.
As a PR professional and creative director, I see my role at Gambel Communications as helping people define and position themselves in this new age. We have the opportunity now to intentionally shift our brands and the way people are engaging with them. We have an opportunity now to redefine our purpose and hone in on the “why” behind our businesses. If you’ve taken this time to get clear on your purpose, this may look like a rebranding or re-design, or maybe it’s just doubling down on your mission and serving people with new and improved content they need right now.
We also have an opportunity to redevelop the way we are connecting with our audiences. Now is the time to launch that new online platform you’ve been thinking about for years or the delivery service you’ve always thought would be useful.
Whatever you do, make sure you are entering this new world with fresh eyes. Don’t simply go back to the way things were before. Improve on your ideas. Lean into new strategies and create a narrative around your business that shows your audience that you are here now and for the future.
