“Brands and customers alike, do evolve”― Bernard Kelvin Clive
In today’s post-pandemic world, brands need to stand out for the right reasons and with the right Sentiments. We are seeing an increasing number of brands who are using rebranding as a strategy to re-enter the marketplace they were already in and reignite relationships with lapsed consumers, as well as attract new ones.
According to an August 2020 article, McKinsey reports most have changed brands during the pandemic. The top three reasons are value, availability, and convenience. This means there is a major opportunity to attract new customers who may be shifting preferences after the lifestyle upheaval they’ve experienced over the past year.
We learned just how important agility and innovation are when overnight the kids could no longer learn at school and you and your spouse could not return to the office to work
For example, Nike focused on connecting digitally with its customers by offering free training videos on YouTube. It also made its Training Club app free, which helped the brand accumulate 25 million new members in the fourth quarter. These innovation efforts worked, and Nike saw an 83% spike in digital sales in 2020.
What is Rebranding?
Rebranding is a marketing strategy for developing a new and differentiated identity in the minds of all stakeholders. The guide to rebranding focuses on creating a new name, term, symbol, design, concept, or combination thereof.
Rebranding strategy aims to influence the customer’s perception of a product or service. This can be done by refreshing the brand, making it more modern and relevant.
Rebranding does not focus on changing the brand’s visuals alone but also on internal operations. For any brand, its image is created by how it is perceived in the market. Rebranding is the favoured strategy if the brand is not attractive or the target audience can’t relate to the brand.
Rebranding strategy is one of the most natural parts of a company’s evolution. Even established brands tend to go through a major rebranding every 7-10 years, with partial rebranding more frequently.
Many of the challenges brought about by the pandemic are the very reasons why rebranding strategy is such a good idea. And smart business leaders have always seen periods of uncertainty for what they are: opportunities to gain market share.
Types of Rebranding strategy
Brand refreshing or partial rebranding
These can be simple changes like updating the logo or changing the brand colors. This is less intensive than a complete rebranding process. It involves updating all existing logos and printing materials. In partial rebranding, you will also need a better understanding of how to rebrand a website.
Full rebranding
A complete rebrand involves tearing down the brand and building it back up from scratch. A complete rebrand is labor-intensive work. This may be a good idea only when the brand is not connecting with the target market.
Brand merger or acquisition
When two existing brands come together to form a new brand, the companies would need to develop a rebranding exercise to give it a new brand identity. It is better to do a complete rebranding to combine the two companies in these situations.
Necessity for Rebranding
Over time, brands can become outdated, and rebranding strategy is then considered the best option. examples include Apple (which has rebranded three times), Starbucks (rebranded four times), and Pepsi (which has been rebranded 11 times).
The brand is old-fashioned, boring or confusing
- To keep a brand looking fresh, it is important to keep up with the marketplace and contemporary styles with a rebranding.
- With changes in consumer behaviour and technological advances, rebranding will help customer retention.
Speaking to customers is the best way to find out what your branding says about your business. And if it gives the impression that your company is out-of-date, complex or dull and dreary, then it’s time for rebranding.
The company has changed direction
- When expanding into different markets, rebranding strategy helps fit into their culture and identity.
- If the target audience has changed, then changing the brand to include these changes will be helpful.
- When the vision, mission, values of the brand change, you need to rebrand. This can involve a complete rebranding to reflect the new philosophy.
- Most brands are linked to the leaders. It might be a good time to rebrand to reflect the new identity when a new CEO comes in.
- You will need to focus on how to start rebranding if companies come together(Mergers and or Acquisition). A complete rebranding strategy may be necessary to align correctly with the merged target audience
Rebuild their Reputation
Sometimes a brand may want to move away from controversy, bad public relations or is in the process of crisis management. Whatever the reason, rebranding strategy can provide the fresh start that a brand needs to rebuild its reputation.
Your Digital Experience Is Behind the Times
- The already digital-first world became even more digital during the Covid-19 pandemic in the wake of social distancing restrictions and lockdown bans. These days, as consumers, we are used to getting what we want when we want it, thanks to Uber, DoorDash, Amazon, Facebook and others. As consumers spend more time online, there is a decline in spontaneity and serendipity that goes into buying considerations.
- The pandemic has meant a shift away from in-person events like trade shows and conferences. For many brands, what were once live, in-person interactions have become online, digital experiences. Some brands were better prepared for the transition than others.
A rebrand strategy gives you the opportunity to create a digital experience that’s an extension of a visual identity built on data-driven positioning.
A reimagined digital experience should be more than just a new website for an old identity, after all. The best digital experiences are built from the ground up, inspired by purposeful positioning that is itself informed by insights from customer research. Only a rebrand strategy in a post pandemic era gives you the strategic direction you need for a robust digital experience to meet the needs of an increasingly remote audience.
When shouldn’t you rebrand?
Rebranding Strategy is a significant corporate investment and not something to be entered into lightly. It’s also not something you should do in a hurry. It’s vital to do all the prep work behind the rebrand before sitting down with designers to work on the new brand logo and colors. This means really understanding what you’re trying to achieve through rebranding; what you want to change, the image you’re trying to create and how this feeds into your wider business plans and practices. For example, if you want to reposition your brand as environmentally friendly and sustainable, what concrete initiatives are you building this brand identity around?
Because competitors have recently rebranded You probably won’t be privy to the motivations behind your competitor’s rebrand – perhaps they have a new brand strategy or have received insight that their existing branding isn’t connecting with target consumers?
But whatever it is that’s motivated their rebrand, it won’t necessarily apply to your brand
You think it’s a good time to ‘freshen up’ It’s very important to know what consumers think about your branding before you tinker with it – not just because it might upset loyal customers, but because it could end up being a complete waste of time and money. And if rebranding is not going to have a positive impact on your bottom line, what’s the point? Unless there’s an actual reason behind your rebrand, it’s unlikely to be worthwhile.
Example
In 2009, Tropicana removed the iconic Florida orange for a more modern one, then reverted back after sales dropped by 20% in just one month.
Gap also made a change to its logo in 2010, attempting to reflect a more minimalist aesthetic. After immediate backlash, it very quickly switched back to its original logo design
How to approach a Rebrand strategy?
A May 2020 McKinsey article noted that “brands draw their power from three sources: science (insights generation and performance measurement), art (creativity), and craft (management and execution).”
- Revisit your current mission, vision, and values.
- Assess the “assumed” strength of your current brand—qualitative, quantitative, social media.
- Seek input from customers, employees, partners, vendors, etc., to make sure you’re on track with a new brand that paints your business in the right light. Also study the market, your competition, your changing environment.
- Think about what parts of your business need to stay stable and what needs to change.Even while changing a lot of elements during rebranding, ensure to preserve the basic core of the brand. Fresh new colors and graphics are good, but people should not feel that they no longer know you as a company.
- Be clear about the specific objective of your rebranding strategy: overcoming a crisis, new mission or vision for your business, market repositioning, merger/acquisition, new location, etc.
- Plan the redesign for stability and change/agility.List everything that is branded, from marketing materials to delivery vehicles to forms and invoices. Prioritize the rebranding of each item, create a timeline, and assign the person responsible for execution.
- Having a plan written down for when you want each part of your rebranding completed can help all those involved stay on track for the announcement
- Test with your customer base.
- Make sure you also notify your vendors of the change, as they are integral to your growth. Eventually, these vendors will help in strengthening the community and its connections
- Craft launch and communication with customer involvement.
- Once you’ve completed the processes above, it’s time to announce your rebranding.
Rebranding Is The Perfect Opportunity To Tie Into Marketing Opportunities.
Send an email to your customers letting them know that they’re going to see some new things. Clearly explain your goals and reasoning for the rebrand, and assure them that the great service they’ve already been receiving will continue.
It is best to start with customers and partners because they’ve probably gotten used to the way your business has conducted things thus far, and they will want advanced knowledge of the change and why it’s occurring.
The best way to announce a rebranding is with a sale, promotion or contest, something engaging that gets your customers involved and highlights all the ways your rebrand will be best for them. Tie the rebranding into a fun event like a charity run
Get the media involved. Draft up a press release and get it in front of key media outlets in your industry. Write a blog post discussing why you rebranded. Put out the word on social media.
Social media is an important marketing tool to announce your rebranding. Create new social media ads that highlight your rebranding efforts. Run social media giveaways as an incentive to spread the word about your relaunch. Schedule any rebranding events through social media to help advertise them to a larger audience.Also it is best to announce it in phases and not jump to dump it on people – slow and steady wins the race
And prep your sales and customer service for how to inform current customers of the changes.”
After Your Rebrand
One more step to take after your rebrand has gone live is to find out what impact it’s had. Take a brand tracker ‘dip’ to see how metrics like brand awareness, purchase intent and brand loyalty have changed. It’s great to be able to take these figures to the board and show the true value of your rebranding project – yes, sometimes changing the colors or logo really is important!
Conclusion
Self-awareness is key to a successful rebranding process. It is all about going to the core. What you stand for, your aims and vision, and eventually modifying your image to reflect these changes.
A rebranding guide involves much more than just changing the visuals. It has to add value, bring a new perspective, be of importance to the customers, use unique selling points, tell a story, and much more. If these are not included in the rebranding process, then the entire strategy can be short-lived.
Rebranding can be the key to changing the direction of the company’s growth. Having a clear vision and purpose is the key to how to rebrand. Rebranding is never an easy process, but sometimes change can do a lot of good.
