With the New Year approaching it is the obvious time for many to make a new start and you may feel that it is the perfect time to give your business a fresh new look, this may be an update of your business stationery or a complete re-brand. When it comes to rebranding your business you have to adhere to your brand values and commercial objectives, no matter how big or small your business may be, as your business still needs to be recognisable to your existing customers.
Rebranding isn’t as easy as it sounds, it’s not just about creating brand new shiny business card ready to portray your business in a whole new light, there is a lot of hard work, planning and research involved. A rebrand can go seriously wrong and inflict huge costs to your company, a great example of a rebrand gone wrong is the huge blunder make by breakfast cereal giants Kellogg’s Coco Pops. A few years ago Kellogg’s decided to rebrand the family favourite cereal Coco Pops to fit in line with their global branding, they decided to rename their chocolate cereal to Choco Krispies after they decided to add real chocolate to the cereal recipe.
The new name causes complete uproar with the general public and Kellogg’s received over 1 million complaints, the classic jingle just simply didn’t work with the chocolate cereals new name and it definitely didn’t have the same familiarity as before. As a result of this huge public uproar Kellog’s created a voting campaign which cost a whopping £1.5 million and the result was unanimous, Choco Krispies was out and Coco Pops were back in.
Another example of a rebrand that well and truly flopped was when Pizza Hut changed 30 of it’s branches to Pasta Hut with the aim to appeal to a more up market audience and promote a healthier image. When it comes to rebranding flops this really takes some beating, the £18 million idea was such a big flop all 30 branches changed back to Pizza Hut after only a few months and Pasta and Hut were never seen together again.
Do not worry there are global rebranding successes, naturally people are initially apprehensive but this is soon forgotten about. We have all seen Marathons change to Snickers and Opal fruits change to Starburst and initially these made us feel a little uncomfortable but now we never even question their new names. When rebranding your business needs to be aware of cultural differences and adapt accordingly, stay loyal to your brand values but don’t get stuck in the past as the world of business is constantly evolving you must keep up and stay current.
Arguably these rebrand fails may not have been fails at all, it depends which way you look at it, from a marketing point of view these brands did see an increase in media coverage and it acted as a possibly unintentional PR stunt. We’ve all heard the saying “there’s no such thing as bad PR” whilst the rebranding proved unpopular it got customers talking and expressing their loyalty to the orginal brand. Admittedly this a risky manoeuvre and a provocative rebrand isn’t recommended for smaller companies who may find it difficult to bounce back from such mistakes.
Once you’ve decided on the direction of your company’s rebranding or refresh our high quality business stationery will bring your ideas to life, whether it’s business cards, high quality brochures, posters, large print, leaflets and flyers or tickets our expert knowledge and service ensures your company stands out amongst your competition.
