You make your Logo. Then we'll make everything match.
The Art of Rebranding
by John Williams
Copyright 2007, John Williams
There are just about as many reasons to rebrand companies as there are ways
to do it. Some of those reasons are positive—two organizations have merged
or a company has significantly expanded its offering—while others are less
rosy—the current brand has been tainted in some way or has become outdated.
Regardless of the reason for rebranding, there are right and wrong ways to
go about it. The first step is determining the extent of the rebrand, and
that will typically be determined by the reason for wanting to change market
perception.
Partial Rebrand. In situations when a brand has been firmly
established yet is simply outdated or needs to be refreshed due to the
addition of new products or services, tweaking is required, rather than a
full-blown rebrand. In these cases, you don’t want to eliminate the brand
value that’s been developed over the years, but merely make subtle changes
to update it or make it representative of an expanded offering.
Aunt Jemima is a great example of tweaking a well-established brand to
update it. The image used for years on its products—an African-American
"blue collar" woman—was simply out of step with today's mores. Rather than
completely change the brand, Aunt Jemima updated the woman to reflect a more
professional image.
Total Rebrand. Corporate mergers will often result in complete
rebrands. When organizations have failed to establish a brand, or have been
through any kind of scandal, total rebranding may also be in order. In these
cases, the intent is to erase any previous brand identity and replace it
with completely new imagery and messaging.
Sprint is an excellent example of a total rebrand, necessitated when the
company merged with Nextel. The company eliminated the angular logo (and red
corporate color) that seemed indicative of inflexibility and replaced it
with a more fluid logo—placed on a cheerful gold background—that reflects
the company's friendliness and flexibility.
Rebranding Advice
Not all rebrands are successful. Do you remember New Coke, for instance?
While it's impossible to know for certain what the outcome of a rebrand will be, you certainly can put yourself in a position to be
successful by making solid decisions, beginning with building a brand planning team. Trusted employees should be included, and perhaps
even some valued customers, so you can receive external input.
Next up is reviewing the way the company operates, to ensure that internal processes and procedures are appropriate given the new
brand messaging, or determine that they need to be altered in some way. Following that exercise, an exciting rollout needs to be
orchestrated; employees must be passionate about the new brand, so they can generate passion in the marketplace. Every department
should be involved, since rebranding is not merely a marketing function, but a companywide endeavor.
Once the initial excitement dies down, it's important to sustain the new brand by instituting an ongoing program for measuring
employees' consistent and complete use of it. Maintaining brand integrity within a company puts you on a path to market buy-in,
which is the very reason for rebranding in the first place.
John Williams is president and founder of LogoYes.com, the world's
first and largest DIY logo website. In his 25 years in advertising, he has
created brand standards for Fortune 100 companies like Mitsubishi and won
numerous international awards for his design work.
