Important!

What is rebranding and when should you consider it.

Rebranding is a term more than often thrown around by many in the business world, sadly so few know what exactly it is and more importantly when it is to be done.

So many think of rebranding as a change in logo, rebranding can be so much more than that, it can as well be a change in packaging, stationery, website, advertising themes, market strategy or even the company legal name. However it is usually a combination of a number of the above.

There are a number of reasons why a company may decide to rebrand and of course there are the good reasons and the bad ones.

I remember in 2005 there was a plane crash with Bellview airlines involved. They apologized and sent their condolences bit ever since then each time I see the Bellview logo, I cant help but remember and thus associate them with feelings of incompetence, negligence and all the bad emotions.

That would be a good reason to rebrand, when a company has attracted a bad image to their brand and want the public to know they have re invented themselves.

So some good reasons to rebrand include

1. A major change in company policy/management

2. A shift in target audience and staying relevant

3. To distinguish company from competition

4. To include new products / services.
E.g. Apple computers was rebranded to just Apple to include the sale of things other than computer (iPod, iPhone etc)

5. To shed negative image (as stated earlier)
AIG retirement when in financial crisis sought a bail out, which weakened the company image and trust being an insurance firm. They were advice to rebrand to shed the negative image. They now go by the name VALIC
(Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company)

Rebranding is a very drastic decision no matter how small a change one intends to make it should done seldom and be preceded by research and some soul searching.

And now... the wrong reasons.

1. You don’t like your logo or something about the brand.

Some may see this as a viable reason to rebrand but its outright wrong, brand are not solely about one or a few persons. It's about the majority. Some research should be done with questions like, "are my customers ready for a rebrand?", "would they share my taste for the new design?" rebranding should always be done with customers in mind. Who knows, that thing you dislike might be what keeps them coming.

2. You need a change...
Here the owner finds nothing wrong with his brand except for the fact that he feels it’s been the same for far too long.

This is a grave error, why bite the hand that feeds you? Why change a winning strategy? Brands are delicate and should be treated as such, unfortunately several rebranding project have been. Done on just this single factor, again one should remember brands are not just about a few persons.

3. Copycats
When one thing succeeds, it attracts a number of others ready to do similar things in hopes to succeed as well. Sadly this isn't different for branding as well. We see so many similar businesses that compete with each other having almost the same logo, WebPages etc.

For example in the photography industry many Nigerians have almost the same logo, which is basically their brand name and some form of camera attached. While it is good to do what has worked, it is usually a burden to the original instigator.
In such cases a good advice for the company is to retain their identity and focus on making their product stand out in terms of quality and find a way to directly and indirectly let the public know you are original and other brands are just wannabes.
Steve jobs in most of his important speaking with large audiences never missed the chance to let people know that Microsoft was just an imitation, stealing their ideas and favoring quantity over quality.

4. for fun...
This may seem ludicrous to some, it is a mistake many new starters and even some mature businesses make, sometimes even unknown to them. They have no particular reason to rebrand, I believe this stems from a lack of knowledge about branding in general. You may see some companies rebranding several times in a short while. This shows inconsistency, lack of decisiveness and outright un-seriousness to the public. While some brands may get away with this, many would be crushed by its effects. In the end there's only so much random change a person can take, people have been shown to prefer consistently and steadiness to high reward but extremely risky situations.