Rebranding
The term rebranding describes the radical renaming and redesigning of a brand.
What to be aware of before doing a rebranding
In 90% of cases, the costs and time needed for an effective rebranding project are underestimated. They are usually driven by the hope that they will make everything better.
Very few stop to think: What could we get out of the old, existing brand with the same effort?
Reasons for such considerations are, for example: Revenue earned with the brand is declining, or a national market believes that the difficult-to-pronounce brand name or its foreign character are responsible for weak sales.
However, those are only symptoms that indicate an underlying cause. If the brand seems to be too old, it has been neglected for too long, and the company has stuck with the same positioning for too long. Decreasing revenue is often due to a low innovation rate – or the price was considered more important than the value of the brand.
The brand name must be handled with extreme care
Brand Trust is very sensitive when it comes to rebranding intentions, because the brand name is not just a name but an energy storage device. With a well-managed brand, the name accumulates performance energy over the course of decades. This energy creates the attraction that turns brands into superior business systems.
That means: Changing the brand name cuts your access to this field of energy – and you have to start from zero.
But there certainly are reasons in favor of a rebranding:
• The brand name no longer matches the performance.
• A repositioning would take more effort than a rebranding.
• The future is more important than the origins (as when a new business model is introduced).
• A business needs to develop a new corporate culture.
• A scandal has done irreparable damage to the name.
• The brand rights cannot be adequately protected.
• There is permanent potential of being mistaken for a competitor.
• New unintended, strategically significant associations have developed
This article may also interest you:
Pros and Cons: Does Your Brand Really Need a New Name?