Throughout history, change has resulted in both incredibly positive advancements as well as enormous drawbacks. For any company, rebranding fully encompasses this concept and gives them the opportunity to start fresh but at the same time bring in new audiences.
There have been numerous rebranding success stories from companies like Old Spice, Harley Davidson and even Apple who have seen explosions in popularity thanks to their step in a different direction. However, there have been just as many rebranding disasters as Ernst & Young found out the hard way.
But what approaches are modern companies taking to rebrand themselves?
It is an interesting development but large firms are looking to social media to drive popularity for the rebranding strategies. Only last week, dutch technology brand Philips looked to reveal their new ‘shield’ by driving traffic to their Uncover Philips website. On this site, the hidden shield was covered by thousands of pixels which could be claimed by anyone, and as each pixel was claimed, a little piece of the puzzle was unveiled. Who knew that this campaign would bring together 14,670 fans from all over the world?
Rebranding symbolises a new approach for a company, but this different direction needs to be well researched and there needs to be internal alignment, a clear change that is accepted by all the employees of the firm. The research part is a big one, and we only need to look back at Ernst & Young’s attempt to rebrand themselves into EY. Unfortunately this http://www.adinfusion.com/ led to a bit of branding mishap as the other top google search for the acronym actually shows results for the gay magazine ‘ EY!’. As Mark Ritson put very well in his article on the subject ‘Had Ernst & Young actually completed the above brand audit [a google image search] it would very quickly have discovered that what “pops up” when you search for EY is a series of terrifically appealing images of young, limber men in swimwear.’
So there you have it, sometimes a google search is all it really takes to define whether your rebrand is a superboost or a train crash. But the real advice is that a rebrand requires a clear defining change in identity and thus needs to be well defined and well researched before even being considered.
