Rebranding is a popular marketing strategy as per which companies reinvent themselves by showing or presenting a different face i.e. a change in name, logo, design, term or a combination in an overall package. It is a thoughtful and planned approach and companies across the world invest heavily in this with the intention of deepening their roots in the market. The audience i.e. investors, bankers, customers, competitors will get the message thatthe company is trying to give, and the new image and face gives that much-needed upliftment in the market.
There are various companies that have reinvented themselves in the past by rebranding and have got that push Vis a Vis, its competitors. For example Fanta Orange, Airtel, Tropicana, Frooti, etc.
There are immense reasons for rebranding as one of the most effective and preferred marketing strategies and few of those are illustrated below:-
- Reposition the company – The idea is to differentiate itself from the old image and shed it off for a better, improved and stronger image in the market. A changed image gives strong signals to competitors and message to customers that it is flexible with regards to dislikes, negative publicity, etc. The branch gets pushed ahead in the market, and company can build up on the improved image. The message that company is trying to give through rebranding should have lot of substance and content so that both old as well as new customers gather interest and gain insight into company’s new ways of retaining foothold in market.
- Shedding off a negative image – Companies like Nestle, which is presently battling a negative image of selling a product like Maggi with lead content. This issue has gone worse to the extent that Nestle decided to withdraw entire present stacks of Maggi from stands. Until the time this issue does not settle down, Nestle would be working on their strategy to rebuild its image. We will surely get to know in future as to which Method Company uses to clean its tarnished image.
- Adverse situations - There are emergency situations like bankruptcy or corporate restructuring where a company continues to function in a certain way despite having gone or declared as “bankrupt”. At times, companies do away with their existing products to concentrate more on fewer products. In such a situation, the company again has to undergo a rebranding strategy, and that too at a mass scale level for deeper penetration of those products of company.
- Rebranding of product – Through this rebranding a company can develop, bring out new products from its existing product, and they do not eliminate the existing brand image. It usually happens in situations of merger or acquisition where old branch image stays and instead new products and its varieties enter. Also when a company sells its product manufactured under a new brand, new name then it means that the company has undergone rebranding.
- Rebranding in advance – At times companies follow rebranding strategy to invest in an opportunity or to protect itself from a possible threat. There could be many situations when this sort of proactive rebranding methodology has been adopted. For e.g.When a company can envision its growth in near future then it might rebrand its existing product and services into a one-stop shop universal place. If a company is spread across many geographies then also rebranding strategy helps to unite and bind through the gamut of its products and services. Another situation could be when a company simply wants to reach a larger audience or change from a particular set of the audience say children to a larger set of the audience say, family. For e.g.,when McDonalds promoted MickeyD’s in their advertisement then they were trying to enlarge their base from ‘kids’ to ‘family’. Lastly when companies realize that they need to think through the base reason for continuing with a particular brand, then they may rebrand.
- Reactive Rebranding - Companies react to a situation and consider rebranding as a change. It can happen in the case of merger and acquisitions, certain legal hassles, negative publicity, etc. Post-merger and acquisition, it is essential for companies to announce to its customers, competitors, etc of this huge move and this can be done effectively only with rebranding strategy. At times, companies get stuck into legal hassles in case they do not conduct research and obtain trademark rights for their brand before launching the same in the market. If such an unforeseen situation occurs, then company has to undergo the entire process of rebranding to make its presence felt in the market. Rebranding works effectively in case company has got entangled into negative publicity or in case of a bad reputation and used a fresh brand or name to come out of it.
- Brand going international – Internationalization is one of many reason for a company to prefer rebranding. The reason could be simply because the brand has got assimilated to a local place or particular country.
- Change in the market situation – Reinvention is the key to success in changing environment like today. In case companies do not reinvent and change themselves as per the change in market or customer taste or needs, then they will slowly and gradually fade away.
- Change in the senior management – A new director or CEO can suggest changes in the company’s logo or name or brand image by giving sufficient logic and reason for doing so. Through their vast experience, they can predict what’s coming ahead and hence suggest changes.
- Image modernization – To keep pace with the fast-growing market, corporate rebranding may be done. A brand new image acts as a stimulant within as well out of an organization and hence can result in a good strategy.
Conclusion – In previous days when branding was restricted only to a meek logo. Presently it has variety namely visual attributes, color variety, the style of photography, etc. It is essential for today’s companies to be flexible and not restrict themselves to old ways to dealing with customers, competitors in the market. They should change as they envisage the trend around. Rebranding hence brings in a lot of benefit to the company due to aforementioned reasons.
