Rebranding: A Reason to Celebrate
According to The Economic Times, rebranding is defined as the process of changing the corporate image of an organization. It is a type of market strategy in which an already established brand is given a new name, symbol, or the logo design is changed. The purpose behind rebranding is to create a different identity for a brand from its competitors in the market.
Very recently, on 28th October, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg
announced a major rebranding for Facebook by changing its corporate name to
Meta as it moves to the metaverse. The rebrand would likely position the
Facebook app as one of the many products under a parent company overseeing
others like Instagram, WhatsApp, and many more.
"From now on, we're going to be metaverse first, not
Facebook first", said CEO, Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg describes the metaverse, as a virtual environment
that will allow people to be present with each other in digital spaces, which
he sees as the next generation of the internet.
Rebranding is good for the business, but it has its own
risks as there is always a possibility that the consumers might not like the
new brand identity.
So, when should a company consider rebranding?
In today’s dynamic environment, with changes occurring at
the speed of light and yesterday’s brand becoming irrelevant, it is important
for brands to stay meaningful. Hence rebranding helps in attracting new
customers as brands change and evolve.
Rebranding can be broadly classified as Proactive Branding
and Reactive Branding. Proactive rebranding occurs when a company identifies
that there is an opportunity to grow, innovate, tap into new businesses, and to
reconnect with its users. For instance, Airtel’s change of logo a few years ago
is an example of proactive rebranding.
Reactive rebranding is when the existing brand has been
discontinued or changed. This can be done in case of mergers &
acquisitions, legal issues, negative publicity, which requires a quick change
of identity and disassociate from the past. For example, renaming of Orange to
Hutch and subsequently as Vodafone is an example of the brand’s transition. In
2007, Vodafone acquired ‘Hutch’ which was previously called as ‘Orange’. Even
before being called as Orange, it was called as ‘Essar’ in Delhi and ‘Max
Touch’ in Mumbai. After the acquisition, Vodafone did major rebranding by
changing everything from sim cards to customer care center into red. Everything
became red overnight.
In 2011, When Hero and Honda separated ways, Hero Moto Corp
decided to go for a complete rebranding by changing its logo and slogan. It
launched an ad with a jingle, 'Hum Mein Hai Hero' sung by A.R. Rahman as an
indication of its new identity.
Always wondered and wanted to read this rebranding of different companies!
ReplyDeleteNice content, thank you for this!!