8 Reasons To Do Rebranding

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17 February 2015 Mobile SEO

History has seen lots of big names rebrand themselves and communicate it to their customers successfully. Effective rebranding exercises can go a long way to helping a company soar the dizzy heights of success.

Many companies decide to refresh their brand’s image to create a better version of themselves. What is the real reason behind that? Every moment is good for rebranding as long as you know why you want to do it and for whom. To help you define your needs, we have gathered 8 moments in a company’s life that are perfect to consider rebranding. Find out our 8 reasons to do rebranding.

If your company is losing market share it’s worth reviewing the current strategy to see if it is still effective. Rebranding could be a helpful process, renewing the brand guidelines and marketing strategy. In our experience an in depth marketing research exercise is a wise move before making any big decision surrounding a change of direction for the company as it means that the rebrand will be based on facts and insights, which ultimately should help to drive sales.

Reebok’s revenue started seeing a downfall in 2006. Due to consistent losses, suffered over the last 8 years, Reebok decided to rebrand. Reebok released its new logo in February 2014 which they called not a ‘logo’ but a ‘symbol’. The symbol which resembles a delta is reflective of the change that fitness can bring into every individual’s life. The newfound purpose of the brand is to serve the pursuit of fitness.

Customers behaviour changes a lot. This has been especially true of the last 10 years when the evolution of technology has really upped the ante. The demographic that loved your product 20 years ago, will not necessarily be the same as it is today. Rebranding can be a really effective way to establish a new target audience.

The Beetle brand name debuted in 1938, and was immediately known as the people’s car - giving average people the ability to enjoy the freedom and enjoyment of owning their own car. The Beetle brand had great sales and success through the 1970s and into the 1980s when it slowly ebbed until 1985 when all countries except Mexico stopped manufacturing and buying Beetles. In 1991 Volkswagen designers in California were working on a modernised Beetle that would leverage the nostalgia of the brand but marry it with the features, design, and performance that consumers wanted in the 1990s. It was a great success – the excitement, buzz, and publicity surrounding the early days of the new Beetle pushed the brand right back to the cult status it enjoyed during its first 40+ years on the market.

Brands exist to stand out from the crowd, particularly in mass markets. A brand will inevitably run into problems when it fails to be unique and looks too similar to other brands. In this case, rebranding is a great way to show personality and value.

Whole Foods introduced their brand with a few important factors that made them different to all the other grocery outlets:

• They go beyond being a grocery store — they’re also content generators and thought leaders.
• They use their site to offer a whole new experience for customers on and offline.
• They understand why people shop at Whole Foods in the first place — because it’s a wholesome food source.

Company mergers, acquisitions, new ventures and restructuring are all obvious times for rebranding.

ExxonMobil merger was the third largest in the U.S. Exxon was quite a conservative brand while Mobil was known as one for innovation. Following the merger the company had to work on a new look and feel for the brand together with a tone of voice that fit the rebrand - new company culture.

Introducing big changes within an organisation, whether it be new innovative products, services or just a new way of doing things is a perfect time for re-evaluating the portrayal of the brand.

Paypal is the leader in online and mobile payments. In order for PayPal to keep up with the continuous changes in technology trends they introduced a number of new tools to make their services more user-friendly. This made rebranding a great move, to successfully mark them as innovators within their field.

Every company has its ups and downs. Rebranding won’t solve all the problems that may occur to a company in times of crisis but it can stimulate the process of introducing changes and improvements and grant a new lease of life.

In 1997, Apple was veering close to bankruptcy. Cue Steve Jobs. He combined elegance and reliability in a product range that included the iMac, the iPod and the iPad. Apple’s stock price rose from US $6 to US $350 in the 15 years that followed.

Companies entering international markets often herald the move with rebranding – a new logo, name and an adjustment of communications to account for language barriers or cultural differences.

Google is known for taking great care of its employees. They’ve done an outstanding job in India where they adjusted the company culture to support local culture and traditions - better than some Indian companies!

Technology is developing so fast - so much so that sometimes there is a need to create completely new products or services to keep up with the progress. These changes may have a significant impact on the way the organisation works and because of these changes, it may need a new image too.

Amazon is famous for trying out new products and services to see if they work or not. When they don’t, Amazon kill them dead wiping them from Internet history. However, when they work, Amazon will invest a lot in rebranding it. One example of this is LoveFilm which was completely overhauled when Amazon decided to compete with Netflix when t also changed the name to Amazon Prime Instant Video.

Is your company at one of these crossroads? Whether it’s a little nip and tuck or a full facelift we are here to help.