What is Rebranding?
Rebranding is when a business decides to redefine its purpose, affecting both how it presents itself and interacts with its customers. Recall that your branding is how you want to be perceived by your customers. It’s not just your logo, your tagline, or your value proposition. In the same way, you shouldn’t misinterpret rebranding as merely a change of brand colors, a logo redesign, or a change of tagline.
According to Jonathan Bernstein, general manager of Omnicom’s brand consultancy division Interbrand, “A brand is a living entity. It is not an ad, not an advertising campaign, not a spokesperson, not a logo, not a name.”
A rebrand can make your brand fly or fall from grace. It’s not something you do just because you feel like doing so. You need to have the right reasons for rebranding or your business may be foredoomed to failure.
Why do Businesses Rebrand?
Under what circumstances should businesses initiate a rebrand? We rounded up several reasons why businesses rebrand.
- When Companies Merge to form a New One
A merger calls for rebranding. When two different companies merge, either of their branding can’t stand for the new company they’re forming. Their brandings are influenced by different beliefs, values, and goals. Hence, redefining such—through rebranding—will give the new business entity a clearer and more purposive branding.
- When Your Business is Not Attracting the Right Customers
Some businesses may wonder why despite having high traffic on their online and on-site locations, it doesn’t reflect and translate on their sales reports. One reason to explain this is that maybe you’re attracting the wrong customers. The value of your services or your products may not be clearly communicated in your branding, which is the reason why you’re not appealing to the right customers.
- When Your Current Branding is Limiting Your Business Possibilities
Our world is changing at full speed, mainly due to the advancements in technology. Digital has changed our way of living, from connecting each and every individual in real-time through social media to providing us utmost convenience through the various applications we use every day. That’s why your original branding—though it worked for the longest time for your business—may no longer be the best representation of your business today.
- When You Want to Expand Your Current Market Share
One way of growing your market share is to consider tapping other market segments. A perfect example of this case that is prevalent to many businesses is exerting so much effort engaging the millennials.
Studies say that millennials make up the largest chunk of the spending/buying population of today. So, it just makes a lot of sense why a lot of brands are targeting this market segment. Now, this is where rebranding comes in. Not all brands have an appealing branding for millennials. Hence, a rebrand is vital. But note that if this is your motivation for rebranding, make sure not to alienate your current loyal customers just to appeal to new ones.
See if your intentions are in any way similar to these motives. If they do, then your business might probably need to rebrand soon. A rebrand can lead to many things. But one of the most sought-after results of a rebrand is how it can significantly boost sales in a short span of time. Now that you have a clear understanding of the essence of a rebrand, it’s time we tackle the heart of the matter of this blog, which is how a rebrand can boost business revenue.
Ways a Rebrand Can Boost Sales
- A Rebrand Can Help You Stand Out from the Competition
We are changing 10x faster than expected. Consumerism isn’t the way it used to be. People no longer just buy stuff to satisfy their so-called needs. Just recently, the concept of decluttering and minimalism have become a worldwide hit. People are reducing their possessions to live a simpler life.
These are just some of the obvious manifestations that everything around us is changing rapidly. Now ask yourself, when was the last time you checked on your competitors? What are their current strategies? Do you think you’re still in top shape to compete with your competitors?
In this ever-changing landscape, you always have to be conscious of what’s happening around you. Be aware of your industry’s best practices and trends. Do a yearly audit to ensure relevance of your company to your customers. A perfect example of this case is Apple.
APPLE: FROM BANKRUPTCY TO MARKET LEADER
Apple was on the brink of bankruptcy. It was losing to its solid competition with leading IT companies IBM, HP, and Dell, until Steve Jobs decided to redefine Apple’s image. Instead of highlighting how good their products were—which was probably also what other tech brands had been doing—Steve focused more on their target market’s personality. A message that says, “Here’s technology inspired by your individuality.” They had a new line that was “Think Different” and they also changed their rainbow-colored apple logo to the sleek monochromatic apple we see today. This rebrand saved Apple from bankruptcy and made it the multi-trillion-dollar company that it is today, leaving all its top competition brands behind.
- A Rebrand Gives your Business a Chance to be Seen in a New Light
If your goals when you started no longer represent the ones you aim to achieve today, then it’s time for a rebrand. As discussed in the previous point, the market landscape is rapidly shifting. Hence, it calls for a new set of goals to keep driving your business forward.
DUNKIN’: DITCHIN’ THE “DONUTS”
Dunkin Donuts just recently dropped the “Donuts” in their name. And this doesn’t mean they are also dropping their well-loved donuts—they probably know how much chaos that would cause—they are just embarking on a new goal of becoming a premier beverage-led and on-the-go brand. But do note that their rebranding doesn’t end with their change in name. Based on a Forbes feature on their rebrand, Dunkin’ is investing $100 million to modernize their stores to meet the constantly improving preferences of their consumers. They are also planning on putting drive-thru lanes on all stores to accommodate on-the-go customers.
We haven’t fully-seen the results of Dunkin’s rebrand, but so far it has been well-perceived by its customers. Of course at first, the removal of Donuts in their name caused panic. But as soon as the reason was clarified, everybody generally responded to it well. This is proven by the continuous support the brand gets from its customers amidst the rebranding process.
GOHAN TIP!
When it comes to discerning how you should react to your customers’ feedback about your branding, here’s what Gohan Chief Design Officer, Yohji Kanki, has to say:
“Most businesses try hard to perfect their rebranding. But as soon as a negative comment surfaces, they immediately start to doubt and rethink if they made the right decision to reinvent their branding. We always tell our clients: If your customers talk about your rebrand, then it means people care. You know your brand. You know who you want to target. Listen only to the people that matter. And most importantly, you’ll never be able to satisfy everyone. Be confident as a team and stand for what you think is best for your brand.”
- A Rebrand Lets You Attract New Customers
We mentioned earlier this trend where businesses of all ages are shifting their focus on targeting millennials. Well, why not? A lot of studies have shown the fast-growing purchasing power of millennials. Not just that, they also have the strongest social influence when it comes to product recommendation. Simply put, they are the mouths in the “word of mouth” idea. And as the Inbound methodology suggests, the more happy customers you have, the more chances new customers will dive into your marketing and sales funnel. This is what exactly global brand Old Spice wanted to achieve when they did a rebrand.
OLD SPICE: THE BEST TIME (AND TOOL) TO SPICE IT UP!
Old Spice is hilariously known as your grandpa’s deodorant in the 2000s. This 70-year-old brand wanted to appeal to the younger market. But, how? They’re losing sales more than they could afford. Their rebranding ad “Smell Like a Man” with NFL player Isaiah Mustafa who told women to “Look at your man, now back at me”, generated millions of views online. Old Spice didn’t waste this opportunity and followed up with 186 hyper-targeted videos in which Mustafa answered different questions based on the search queries of bloggers and celebrities like Perez Hilton, Ellen DeGeneres, and Alyssa Milano. Since the rebrand, the Old Spice Body wash sales increased by 11% in 2010 alone.
This rebrand case study shows how a rebranding is not just a logo redesign or a change in name. Through the smart use of digital + a brilliant ad idea, Old Spice was able to reinvent their image, not with looks but through redefining how their customers experience their brand.
- A Rebrand Gives You the Opportunity to Recalibrate Your Company Vision
When you’re a corporation, it’s hard to keep track of the branding of all your businesses, considering varying factors like what nature of business each company has. A rebrand is the perfect chance to realign your mission and vision for the corporation to all your subsidiaries. Director of Harvest Media, Sarah Moreau said: “Rebranding gives you the opportunity to realign your mission, message, goals, and visual identity to who you are today. It also sends a clear signal to your audience about the health of your business and your commitment to your brand’s values.”
MEGAWORLD: RENEWED VISION AFTER 30 YEARS
The digital age brought forth an era of rebranding for many businesses. Because technology made our lifestyles fast-paced and ever-changing, brands keep up through simple, on-point, and most importantly, relevant branding. Hence the reason why a number of businesses have decided to undergo rebranding.
One of these businesses is Megaworld. Just this July, in celebration of their 30th anniversary, Megaworld rebranded its mall franchise with a change of logo, name, and a new company vision.
“Unveiling the new Megaworld Lifestyle Malls logo today is a natural and exciting progression. One of our main design considerations is to give the logo a much needed fluidity and flexibility, and to have a resulting appeal that transcends age, identity, and culture. We crafted the new logo in a way that it will become more relevant to multigenerational mall-goers and strengthen their affinity with the Megaworld brand.”
—Kevin Tan, Megaworld Chief Strategy Officer
Besides the change of name and logo, Megaworld takes pride in their renewed vision that is “to make happiness a lifestyle”. According to Tan, the new vision perfectly embodies the modern style and out-of-the-box concept on which Megaworld malls are built. Thus, bringing people more memorable and unique experiences.
Rebranding when done right, can deliver BIG results to your business.
Businesses have varying reasons why they rebrand. Regardless of what your motive is, the only way to make a rebranding successful is to make sure you’re doing it for the right purpose and with the right channels and platforms. If you’re decided to rebrand your business, start with identifying the problem/s the rebranding is trying to solve. Then, pin down S.M.A.R.T. goals for your rebranding campaign. Lastly, choose carefully the right marketing tools to execute your rebrand.
If you want to make sure your rebrand goes as smoothly and successfully as possible, it’s best to trust the experts. The Gohan Concepts team ensures you’re doing the rebrand for the right reasons and with the right executions. Book a FREE consultation with us today!
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