A strong brand is one of the most important assets any company can have. More than just its logo, it’s the total of a customer and prospective customers’ experiences with the company. A good brand communicates what a company does, establishes trust, and differentiates it from its competition. It’s simultaneously a mark of quality, a statement of intent, and a commitment to certain values.
But even the most successful companies with the most recognisable global brands know that in business nothing stands still. As the market, technology and the expectations of customers moves on, it becomes necessary to revisit and fine-tune their brands. Apple, Coca-Cola, and Google have all undergone rebrands to maintain or restore their market leadership.
A successful rebrand should keep the core promise of the business while reinventing how the consumer sees it and recommitting to its corporate mission. Done well, it can help redefine a brand’s promise and set it up for the next phase of its growth.
A good example of a successful, fast-growing local business that is about to undertake a rebrand is e-commerce giant Daraz. Daraz was formed in Pakistan in 2012 and has grown to become the 18th largest e-commerce platform worldwide in terms of monthly users. It has seen business on its platform grow at 100 percent year on year and is on track to achieve sales of close to USD 1 billion on its platform during its financial year. Daraz last evolved its brand in 2018. During that time the company – and the entire e-commerce landscape – has changed drastically.
As internet penetration has expanded, technology has improved and online shopping has built a track record of trust, e-commerce has grown from simple online shopping to being a hub for services, goods and experiences central to people’s lives.
To support this increased demand and expansion of scope, the Daraz ecosystem has transformed to now include a marketplace with over 50 million products, a digitalized logistics network that delivers up to three days faster than other suppliers, and financial payments and financial services that make payments more secure, seamless, and more accessible.
By keeping innovation at the forefront of its growth strategy, Daraz has also introduced several tech-driven initiatives over the last 12 months in line with its focus of being more than just a marketplace and to create enriching experiences for both its customers and sellers. Last year, for instance, the e-commerce leader introduced its live streaming feature, Daraz Live, allowing it to merge the offline and online shopping experiences for its users. Through this feature, its customers can now engage directly with sellers in a more interactive manner and have access to real-time content.
The pace of change will continue as digitisation in South Asia gathers momentum.
The goal of Daraz’s rebrand this year will be to continue reflecting its core values – make it personal, deliver on its promises, continuously innovate and conduct business with a generosity of spirit. It will also represent Daraz’s move towards a more unified brand structure that creates greater connectivity with both its buyers and sellers and will position the business for the next stage of growth by showcasing how it’s shifting gears as a business and unlocking new opportunities.
With the rebrand, Daraz will move towards creating a more exploratory and personalized experience, where the focus is not only on selling products but also ensuring that it will continually improve the quality of services and products at each step of its customer journey, as well as develop new avenues of engagement for its users. Ultimately, this keeps to the company’s ambition of making e-commerce a key part of people’s everyday lives.