DESIGNA MAGAZINE DESIGNA ISSUE III 2019 2 | Page 49

WHY DO COMPANIES
REBRAND ...
DISCUSSING THE CHALLENGES
OF SHEDDING IDENTITY
Anyway you slice it, rebranding is extremely important. Not only
can it be expensive to execute a complete rebrand, but it can also
be risky. Sometimes employees and consumers won’t accept a
rebranding, and that’s when disaster strikes.
Why do companies rebrand?
Rebranding occurs when a
business or organization
decides to change a
signi�cant element of the
brand. Such a change could
be glaringly obvious like a
new brand name or logo, or
it might be more subtle
such as a slight shift in
messaging to better
communicate a more
relevant brand promise.
�ere are actually a multitude of reasons why a business might
initiate a corporate rebranding or the rebranding of a product or
service, but no matter what the reasons are, those reasons can
always be categorized as either proactive or reactive. Let’s take a
closer look.
Proactive Rebranding
Sometimes a company sees a reason to rebrand to seize an
opportunity or thwart potential threats in the future. For
example, proactive rebranding might happen in the following
situations:
Predicted Growth:
When a company is preparing for expected growth, particularly
international growth, it might rebrand products and services into
a consolidated brand. �is is often done for consistency and to
save money over time. �is type of rebranding is also done when
a company simply needs to create a greater sense of brand unity
across its business.
New Line of Business or Market:
When a company enters into a new line of business or market
that is not cohesive to the existing brand identity, a rebranding
might be in order. Remember when Apple was known as Apple
Computer? As the company evolved into new lines of business
beyond computers, the original brand name was too restrictive.
May
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June 2019 | D E S I G N A