You may have heard the saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” After all, when it comes to branding, doing it right is a significant investment, both of time and resources. So how do you know when it’s time to change your brand into something new? Here are five common reasons that companies re-brand – and links to articles demonstrating real-life examples.
1. Mergers & Acquisitions
One of the most common reasons for a re-brand is when two or more companies decide to take the plunge and join together in organizational bliss. Whether one brand absorbs the other (ex: AT&T and Cingular) or a new brand is formed based on the attributes of all involved (ex: Region’s Bank) this organizational change gives the perfect reason to introduce a new brand.
2. Entering into a New Target Market
Often times, with expansion and growth comes the opportunity for new markets. These markets may be geographical (ex: ClearPointt) or expanded product or service offerings (ex: PowerMark and Donnelly Marketing).
3. Realign With Your Customer’s Perceptions
Jeff Bezos said “A brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Many times, an organization will re-brand so their image more accurately reflects their existing reputation. Some examples include name changes (such as Binny & Smith to Crayola or Federal Express to FedEx) but extend also to the look of your brand (ex: Dave’s Insanity Sauce)
4. Your Look Is Dated
Times are a changin’ – constantly. And for many firms, a brand simply needs to be refreshed to keep up with the changing culture and tastes of their target audience. Think of Coca-Cola and the numerous facelifts this brand icon has had.
5. United We Stand
Over time, when multiple product lines or service offerings are added a brand can become skewed and weak. As in the case of Saucony. As company President Richie Woodworth reported to Brandweek “What we really needed to do from a positioning and visual identity standpoint was … to tighten up what we were doing with the logo, and a build a strong, visual platform … [with] advertising that would tie [all of our products] together into one common thread.”
When organizations faced with these challenges focus on creating a brand that is aligned with their true needs, the results can be dramatic – often with increased awareness, customer loyalty and revenue.
Do you have a story of why and how you re-branded? Feel welcome to share it in the comments below.
Happy branding. 
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Tags: , Branding, design, Marketing
An important thing to remember is that businesses have an evolving need for brand identity. A company, for example, may have its roots in a basement. It may have moved to the garage two years later only to find itself in the office suites of a nearby commercial building a year after that. Yes growth, or the addition of new products, or perhaps even a merger or a name change will require the company to revisit the identity elements of its company brand—but the problem is that most small businesses don’t even know that their brand is nothing more/less than the “reputation” of their company–which means the most critical self-evaluation of brand identity (and hence the brand) has to come from its consumers. That’s where a good branding company comes to play. A good branding company will help business of all sizes explore just where the brand, the reputation, of the company is positioned in the mind of its consumers; and, help determine what, if any, enhancements to the identity, are needed.
Let’s be clear and honest here, what you are primarily speaking of is a logo or brand identity — not THE Brand. Points one an two are good reasons for changing a Brand. Points three, four, and five, however, are surface changes — the way a Brand LOOKS and not the way it IS. (Naming is a bit more serious than a “surface” change, but for now, I’m grouping it there because it’s not quite as serious as formally altering the Brand). To say that one should change the very soul of a company because its “look is dated” is ridiculous. Coca-Cola, FedEx, Crayola, and Saucony went through “facelifts,” but did not chang their Brand.
Brand is not brand identity. Please be clear with these distinctions!