So, how do you know when it’s time for your company to rebrand - and what is key to a successful
rebranding in the first place?
Let’s look at some examples of rebranding that worked - inside the video!
Hey this is Chia from Brand24 and today, I want to talk about rebranding.
So, companies can decide to rebrand for a few different reasons: sometimes, it’s because
of a huge PR crisis; other times, it’s to target a new audience or to surprise a complacent
one…
whatever the reason, the goal is always the same: to help drive sales.
Now, if invention is the mother of necessity, then REinvention must be due to the evolution
of those needs.
Just look at all those remakes of old movies! I mean, they’re still telling the same exact stories,
but they have to find new ways to do it as years pass.
Anyway, let’s look at a few examples of successful company rebranding, and why they
worked:
So, this first one was really a huge success, and you’ve probably seen at least one of
their commercials.
Old Spice is a brand that has been around for a long, long time, since 1937.
It’s known for antiperspirant and deodorant.
So, this is one of those rebranding situations where there wasn’t any big PR crisis or
anything like that, but people had just seemed to forget what made Old Spice stand out in
the first place, and sales started to drop.
Customers - as well as people who DIDN’T want to buy their products anymore - had started
to talk about Old Spice in a way that revealed that they had started to think of the brand
as something that was for people of past generations - basically, they had become outdated.
And this was a signal that it was time for a rebrand… to spice up their image, if you
will.
And they came out with a super successful rebranding campaign called “The Man Your
Man Could Smell Like”.
And it was a huge success, especially on YouTube.
Just within 1 week, their campaign received over 40 million views, making Old Spice the #1
most-viewed branded channel on YouTube at the time.
They even followed up with an entire social media strategy, producing nearly 200 short
video clips based on the success of the original commercial.
So, the clips featured the actor from the commercial, Isaiah Mustafa, answering questions and engaging
with fans and celebrities on social media through a series of short videos, while in character.
So, this rebrand was such a success because Old Spice was able to identify the problem by
listening to their customers - which showed them that they had to do something to update
their brand..
If they had gone another route without listening to people, including their critics, they might
not be so well-known today.
And another example of rebranding done right is from McDonald’s.
In this case, it was motivated by negative PR.
So, after “Super Size Me” came out, a documentary following the director in his social experiment
about what happens to your body if you eat from Mcdonalds (and ONLY Mcdonald’s) for
an entire month, their brand reputation took a huge blow.
So, food from Mcdonald’s has never really been considered health food, but when viewers saw
the director’s weight balloon and all the negative side effects from the McDonald’s-based
diet, like a serious lack of energy, liver abnormalities and more…
McDonald’s brand reputation took a big hit and so did its profits.
In the UK, sales dropped by nearly 3 quarters.
So, hearing what a growing number of consumers now thought about them, McDonald’s rebranding
strategy focused on making their brand appear healthier and cleaner.
They started adding some healthy choices to their menu, like fruit, organic milk, organic
coffee for a time, and fresher salads and veggies.
And they’ve also improved the appearance of their dining locations, collaborated with
more clean cut celebrities, and redesigned their packaging materials.
McDonald’s rebranding strategies are still ongoing, but it’s mostly based on making
their brand appear healthier and cleaner - which is what most people had become concerned about.
And the 3rd example of rebranding done right comes from Dunkin’... formerly known as
Dunkin’ Donuts.
So, this rebrand also wasn’t motivated by a huge PR crisis, but a combination of sales
data and online comments about their products.
So, the decrease in doughnut sales came hand-in-hand with customers commenting on social media
that they had started buying less doughnuts from Dunkin’ Donuts because it seemed as if they
had decreased the frequency with which they were making doughnuts, and it was getting harder
to buy FRESH doughnuts from them unless you knew exactly what time they were making them.
So, taking all this customer feedback into consideration, Dunkin’ decreased the variety of doughnuts
sold at their stores, dropped the “Donuts” from their name, and they saw an instant increase
in sales, highly connected to non-doughnut related items, especially coffee.
So, the common factor between all these rebrands and why they worked is because they were all
based on real customer feedback, especially on the Internet.
By considering the things that people had been saying about their products... this includes:
what they liked, what they didn’t like, and what they wanted… these businesses were
able to reposition themselves in ways that not only better reflected their brand, but
that also spoke to what their customers actually wanted.
The key is to really listen to your audience and your customers, whether it’s online
through media monitoring, or if you get the chance to hear about it in-person, which is
just a little harder to come by...
Anyway, that’s it for this week - if you have any questions or some stories about rebranding
to share, you can drop ‘em in the comments below.
And if you found this video helpful, feel free to like, share and subscribe to our channel
on YouTube where I will be explaining how you can do even more in social media & digital
marketing each week!
Thanks so much for watching - I hope you learned something new and interesting, and I’ll see you next time.
Bye!