By VP of Account Services Megan Schreckenbach and Content Coordinator Natalie Mills
Rebranding Can Rejuvenate (or Extinguish) Your Business
“A brand is not a logo. A brand is not an identity. A brand is not a product… a brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organization.” – Marty Neumeier.
Your brand is more important than you might think. Sure, logos and colors are essential, but the brand is the total identity of a business. Better yet, it embodies a business’s entire personality. From the start, branding formed the foundation of marketing strategy. Today, monitoring and nurturing your brand is more crucial than ever.
With social media and today’s competitive environment, people are continuously exposed to new brands, options and players. So, how do you stand out in a crowd? A tall task, no doubt. Investing in a robust brand can enhance recognition, attract new customers, maintain loyalty and improve employee morale. But, is it time to explore something new and fresh?
So, You’re Thinking About Rebranding Your Logo
Rebranding can be complicated and carry heavy risks for your business. Even well-established and highly recognizable brand logos are not immune to the struggles connected with rebranding.
In February 2016, ride-share leader Uber undertook its first major rebrand since the company gained global status. The “bits and atoms” logo was designed to celebrate the technology Uber revolutionized and the cities it serves. The simple design change should have presented an easy transition for Uber, but one minor detail rendered the redesign unsuccessful and unprofitable, the letter “U.” Similar to McDonald’s golden arches or FedEx’s purple and orange, the “U” made Uber unmistakable. In a survey by Medium, 44 percent of the 2,000 participants could not identify the company represented by the new logo, while 20 percent thought the logo belonged to Lyft or Chase Bank. In the same survey, 73 percent correctly identified the old logo as Uber. One might say it was an uber-tragic situation.
Industry leaders agreed that there were problems with Uber’s rebrand selection.
Crowdspring described the design change as emphasizing “the public’s perception of ... hostility, imposing itself on customers with an all-caps, hyper-masculine aesthetic.” Others such as Mark Wilson with Fast Company reflected on the use of UBER as “evoking the members-only corporate club from Uber’s roots as an on-demand black car service for Silicon Valley’s elite.”
By 2018, Uber had undergone rebranding once more. This time, the new logo design simply featured the company name in a custom font over a plain background. And so, it remains to this day.
What Can We Learn From Uber
Uber’s logo rebranding (and re-rebranding) show how easily a simple design change can influence your customers’ opinion of your company. While conceptualizing, designing and implementing the rebranding might have taken a considerable amount of time, it took just an instant for Uber’s target audience to reject it.
In still other cases, long-known industry brands saw renewed success after a brand refresh including DUNKIN’ (formally Dunkin’ Donuts), Lego (now an all-encompassing entertainment brand) and Taco Bell (which underwent a brand ‘”glow-up” in 2016).
Why Should You Rebrand
There are right and wrong reasons to rebrand. Before jumping the gun, make sure your reasons are well-founded and logical. Here are some valid motives to consider rebranding:
1. New location: If you’re expanding to international or culturally distinct markets, it’s best to ensure that your new audience can resonate with your mission, logo, messaging, etc.
2. New mission, vision or values: Every decision your business makes should follow your established mission, vision and values. It’s crucial to reconsider your brand if you detect shifts in your business philosophies.
3. Market repositioning: You created your brand to connect with a particular customer profile, so if you find yourself repositioning your business to target a new audience, then your brand must also adapt.
4. Mergers and acquisitions: Among the most common reasons for rebranding are mergers and acquisitions. In 2006, Disney and Pixar formed one of the most successful corporate mergers in history. Partnering with Disney propelled Pixar into the world’s most beloved and recognized children’s movie animators. In this situation, rebranding can offer a fresh start for both parties and present a unified front to your audience.
Maybe You’ve Decided Rebranding Isn’t for You
If you’ve decided to stand behind your brand, that’s great! As pivotal as rebranding may be, maintaining brand equity is equally important. Rebrands are not a magic fix and should not be taken lightly. In most cases, establishing a consistent brand identity proves more successful than starting over.
For example, Baker Hughes is experiencing legal troubles after debuting its new helix logo in 2019. Houston-based BMC Software sued Baker Hughes citing similarities between the companies’ logos. While both BMC and Baker Hughes have similar helix logos, the problem stems from the new partnership between Baker Hughes and Microsoft. Now that Baker Hughes is branching out to technology and AI software, BMC argues that the new logo will cause “confusion, mistake and deception, among consumers, the public and the trade.”
The lawsuit shows that a logo rebrand, despite good intentions, can have negative consequences. As expressed earlier, a refresh can be beneficial when your company is expanding its market to attract a new audience, but careful consideration is needed to ensure that the design direction you choose is beneficial for your brand’s future.
Brand equity is vital to a successful organization, and it takes time, money and expertise to build. According to a study by Interbrand, companies that focus on their brand strategy can see a return on investment of up to 300%.
Looking for guidance determining what is the right move for your brand? Our team can help. Whether you want to build brand equity, undergo a brand refresh or feel you need a complete rebrand, we’ve done it all and are ready to put our experience to work for you.