Rebranding

Rebranding is a modern marketing strategy that a new name, design, symbol, concept is made for an established brand with the purpose of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of customers, competitors and stakeholders.
This is totally in order to make new image and position in customer mind. Rebranding is one of the most important strategies to maintain the brand and succeed in brand value and customer loyalty.
Rebranding could be both proactive and reactive. Proactive rebranding is when a company is about to take future opportunities and productive growth, while reactive rebranding is actually the reaction to the events of the market.

Why branding

There are different reasons for corporates to rebrand, we just mention the most common ones:

• Repositioning the firm
• Spin-off
• Acquisition
• Merging with other companies
• Changing the market
• Conflict with stakeholders
• Internationalization

And also we mention the steps of rebranding:

• Introspection of your organization which means answering the famous questions (why, what, who, how)
• Consider your overall business strategy
• Research and identify the market
• Develop and distinguish your brand position
• Rebuild your brand touch points
• Develop your brad identity
• Develop and reconsider your marketing strategy
• Implementation and feedback

Marketers consider rebranding as an effective strategy for an obsolete brand.

rebranding or repositioning

The term “rebranding” and “repositioning” are usually mixed up and used instead of each other, while they have different definitions.

When we use the term “repositioning” we simply mean the change in customer perception of a brand image and there is no changing in the brand. This is a more effective strategy when there is change in customer demands and products. But we should keep in mind that, it depends on customer loyalty and the brand itself.

There is an extreme example of 289% growth in stock of Long Island Iced Tea Corp. in December 2017, when they changed their strategy and focus on Bitcoin with changing their name into Long Blockchain Corp.

Nowadays, rebranding is inevitable in most of the businesses, journal of Academy and marketing Science has been stated two dimensions for rebranding decisions as “brand identity change” and “brand strategy change” which have obvious impact on brand value.

brand identity change

Brand identity change means changing in name and elements of visual identity, usually “brand identity” -visual brand elements: color, design, logo, name of the brand- is the reason of customer recognition of the brand.
Brand identity explains how the target audience perceived the brand, in other words, it is what a company wants from their target audience to realize and discover the brand and it is not just about brand image, but it is more about brand personality, emotional features, relations and culture in which customer perceives. Name, logo and slogan are fundamental ad vital elements of a brand, and if a decision is made to change any of them, they must have the power of recalling the old brand in customer mind.
Regarding the rapid change of customer behavior in today’s market, these kinds of strategies are widely used.

Brand identity has two aspects:

• Evolutionary : visual elements change, minor changes in product or brand position
• Revolutionary : brand name and visual changes, deep changes in brand position

You can contact Navand Advertising Agency for more information or advice on rebranding.

Brand strategy change

Brand strategy change means changing brand promises or position, value proposition or target audience.
The point is, we often use brand strategy change and brand identity change, both together but they have different impacts on share value of the company in the stock.

According to the below mentioned articles, in highly competitive industry rebranding has great risks. In fact keeping the main core of the brand identity intact in rebranding process helps to retain in highly competitive markets, in these kinds of markets it would be wiser that only the brand identity elements change so simply and being reconsidered. The example of Starbucks stock market falling in 2011, by changing their logo design indicates these kinds of decisions.