Are you considering a rebrand but not sure if the risk is worth the rewards? Performed correctly, updated branding can have a massive payoff. Rebranding is a powerful tool that can help you revitalize your brand, attract new customers, and stay ahead of the competition.
But in today’s fast-paced business world, rebranding is not just a cosmetic change but a strategic move that for better or worse, can significantly impacts your bottom line.
In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of rebranding and why it’s worth investing in a well-planned rebranding rollout plan, from boosting brand identity and customer loyalty to improving your market position and increasing sales. There are numerous advantages to your business.
So, let’s dive in and discover how rebranding can help you achieve your business goals.
What is Rebranding?
Before discussing the advantages and benefits of rebranding, let’s quickly discuss what rebranding is. It is a marketing strategy that involves changing a company’s brand identity, including its name, logo, slogan, messaging, visual elements, and overall brand strategy. The goal of rebranding is to create a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors, competitors, and others with a vested interest.
Based on their nature, rebranding strategies can be divided into four main types: complete rebranding, partial rebranding, brand extension rebrands, and brand refresh.
- During a full rebrand, a company changes almost everything, including the company’s logo, color palette, theme, and packaging design.
- A partial rebranding is just a change in the strategy to adjust the brand identity according to the market needs.
- The brand extension involves expanding its identity to include new products or services related to its existing offerings.
- A brand refresh is leveraging the same brand theme, bringing forward the most important assets while improving the visual design and messaging.
Suggested read – rebranding vs. repositioning
Benefits of Rebranding
A well-planned rebranding campaign can be a game changer for companies, boosting sales and revenue. Let’s discuss the rebranding benefits from a brand management perspective.
Staying Relevant In The Market
Consumer preferences and behaviors constantly evolve, and businesses must stay on top of these changes to remain relevant. Rebranding can help enterprises better understand their target audience and adapt their brand identity and messaging to meet their changing needs and preferences.
Businesses can increase brand awareness, attract new customers, and foster customer loyalty by creating a brand that resonates with their target audience. By creating a new brand that reflects the latest trends and shifts, businesses can increase their market share, attract new customers, and retain existing ones.
Reaching New Audiences
Businesses can use rebranding strategies to reach new demographics by creating a fresh brand identity, rebranding products, and messaging that connects with a broader audience. Through market research and analysis of customer data, businesses can discover new target audiences and adjust their brand accordingly.
By crafting a new brand that appeals to diverse demographics, companies can grow their market presence, draw in fresh customers, and cultivate customer loyalty.
Refreshing Company Image
With time, a company’s brand identity and messaging can become outdated and no longer resonate with its target audience. Under such conditions, refreshing the brand image helps companies to retain their value and position in the market.
Refreshing a company’s image helps modernize its visuals and messaging to align with current trends and consumer preferences. By investing in a well-planned rebranding campaign, businesses can revitalize their brand identity and messaging, increase brand recognition, and attract new customers.
Clarifying Brand Message
Clarifying your brand message is crucial for maintaining a strong brand positioning. An unclear and ambiguous brand message can dilute your brand’s impact and confuse your target audience. A company can revisit and refine its brand promise during a rebranding effort.
It involves clarifying what the brand stands for and what it offers to its customers. By streamlining the brand message to clearly communicate this promise, the company ensures that its audience understands the value it provides.
Differentiating from Competitors
In a crowded and competitive marketplace, it can be challenging for a company to distinguish itself from rivals. Rebranding allows a company to break away from the crowd by presenting a fresh and unique identity. This uniqueness grabs consumers’ attention, who might need help distinguishing between brands.
In some cases, rebranding may involve the creation of an entirely new brand, such as was the case with Aunt Jemima becoming the Pearl Milling Company. This new brand can be explicitly designed to fill a market gap, cater to an underserved segment of customers, or help a brand transition through a crisis. It allows the company to start fresh with a brand that perfectly aligns with its objectives and the needs of its target audience.
Read More: Insights From Successful Rebranding Transformations.
Increasing Company Revenues
Every company rebrands to increase sales and revenue.A company can achieve this by conducting extensive market research to identify gaps in their brand strategy and then making necessary changes such as partial or complete rebranding. As the company’s products and services become more appealing to their target audience, they can attract new customers, increasing revenue.
Overcoming Negative Publicity
A well-planned rebranding campaign can help businesses reestablish trust with their customers, differentiate themselves from their competitors, and create a new brand image that resonates with their target audience. For instance, in 2017, Uber faced a major PR crisis after allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination surfaced.
Uber worked with a rebranding expert to launch a rebranding campaign to overcome this negative publicity, including a new logo design, visual identity, and messaging. The new brand image focused on safety, reliability, and customer satisfaction, which helped the company reestablish trust with its customers and rebuild its reputation.
Aligning Organizational Changes
Organizational changes can be another disaster for companies sometimes. A company’s goals and values may change a bit during mergers and acquisitions. Similarly, its brand voice can change, too, which may result in declining sales and customers.
A rebranding strategy can be helpful to ensure brand consistency under such conditions. It allows businesses to adapt to the brand change and convey the new brand to the target audience while maintaining sales and traffic.
Enhancing Employee Morale And Retention
The growth of companies hinges on the enthusiasm and motivation of their workforce. To foster and maintain this vitality, it’s essential to offer compelling incentives for current employees and entice top-tier talent.
A well-executed rebranding initiative enables businesses to spotlight their unique selling propositions, including their corporate culture, work environment, and employee benefits. It, in turn, not only magnetizes top talent but also bolsters employee retention rates.
Adapting to Legal Requirements
Legal requirements such as trademark laws, advertising regulations, or data privacy laws are some of the main reasons for rebranding. It can create a new brand identity that complies with legal requirements and avoids legal infringements.
This way, companies can avoid costly legal battles, protect their brand reputation, and maintain customer trust. With the help of a strategic brand refresh, a company may differentiate itself from its competitors and adapt to changing market conditions. It increases the market share and fosters customer loyalty.
Enhanced Digital Presence
Another benefit of rebranding strategies is helping companies adjust their brand for online platforms and search engine optimization. Companies can only survive in a competitive landscape like this with a solid online presence.
Modern tactics such as search engine optimization and digital marketing allow companies to stay ahead of the competition, convey their brand message better, and gain more customers.
Improved Customer Loyalty
One of the best ways to enhance customer loyalty is to plan a successful rebranding strategy based on the data and insights collected from the market. A well-planned rebranding campaign aligns the brand values, goal, and mission with the customer needs. Thus, it helps retain existing customers and gain a new audience.
To ensure a successful rebranding campaign, businesses should ask themselves the right rebranding questions and follow a rebranding checklist. It can help them identify their goals, target audience, brand values, and messaging and ensure a consistent and effective rebranding campaign.
Positioning As An Innovator
When a company undergoes a rebranding campaign, it can use the opportunity to position itself as adaptable, evolving, and leading in its field. It can communicate to its customers and stakeholders by updating its brand identity, such as its name, logo, and messaging, to show it embraces change and innovation.
It can help the company stand out from its competitors and attract new customers looking for a forward-thinking and cutting-edge company. It is important to note that rebranding is not the same as repositioning, as rebranding involves changing a company’s identity.
In contrast, repositioning involves changing a company’s position in the market.
Facilitating Product
One way to facilitate product introductions in a new market is through versatile branding. It involves creating a brand identity that can be adapted to different needs and customer segments while maintaining a consistent brand image. By doing so, a company can enter a new market with a brand that resonates with local customers and reflects the company’s values and mission. It is something a strategically planned rebranding project can easily handle.
Emphasizing Sustainability
With the help of rebranding, companies can enhance their brand values by incorporating sustainable efforts within their brand strategy and showing social responsibility. It can engage the target consumer emotionally and result in increased brand loyalty.
Consistency Across Platforms
Maintaining a strong brand identity requires consistent representation across all channels. Whether it’s an established brand or one with evolving elements, it’s crucial that a company’s brand elements, including its logo rebranding, messaging, and visual identity, remain uniform across all platforms—social media, websites, or physical products. This consistency should also encompass the tone, voice, and customer experience throughout all touchpoints.
Read More: The Ultimate Guide To Website Rebranding.
Real-life Success Stories
| Company | Rebranding Effort |
| Dunkin’ | To become simply “Dunkin'” and expand business from donuts to coffee offerings |
| IHOP | Temporary rebranding to “IHOb” to promote new burger offerings |
| WW | Rebranding from “Weight Watchers” to emphasize wellness and healthy living |
| Uber | To distance itself from its controversial past and emphasize safety and reliability |
| Slack | To modernize the brand and emphasize collaboration and communication |
| Mozilla | To bring a modern touch while highlighting the importance of privacy and security. |
| Meta | To expand its focus from social media to augmented reality and metaverse, |
| McDonald’s | Revamped the packaging for enhanced customer recognition. |
| Cadbury’s Dairy Milk | They have introduced fresh, distinctive flavors to remain contemporary and engage younger audiences. |
The key takeaways from all these famous rebranding examples include performing thorough market research, knowing your target audience, and learning about consumer preferences. A company’s current brand position is vital in developing a rebranding strategy.
Potential Risks And How To Mitigate Them
While rebranding can bring significant benefits, there are also potential risks of rebranding that companies should be aware of and mitigate. One is the customer backlash or resistance attached to the existing brand identity or messaging.
Another potential risk is the cost and time associated with a rebranding effort. To mitigate these risks, a company must conduct in-depth market research. Engaging stakeholders, such as employees, partners, and customers, in the rebranding effort, can also help to build support and reduce resistance.
Data-Driven Brand Development That Can Guarantee Sales Performance.
If you need a rebrand with performance predictability, we can help. SmashBrand is a rebranding agency that researches, designs, and tests all products to ensure peak shelf performance. Book a time to discuss your project with our team.
The Only Agency To Guarantee A Retail Performance Lift.
