Rebrand: A Revamp to Your Brand Name
Posted on January 25, 2016, at 6:20 p.m.
by Sally Immel.
How a company is perceived by its publics is all due to its branding strategy; a brand portrays a company’s overall identity. Sometimes there is a want, or need, for a company to rebrand. Ultimately, depending on the individual needs of the brand, a company should take into consideration one thing when deciding to rebrand — rebranding is time consuming.
Rebranding is an opportunity for businesses to re-evaluate who they are — to really focus on how they want to be perceived to their customers and clients.
Business Insider stated, “A successful [rebranding] campaign requires more than a revamped logo. It demands a vision that inspires customers, investors and others to see the company in a new light.”
There are many reasons for a company to decide to rebrand. According to Brittany Downey, assistant account executive at Summit Group, rebranding is usually based on need, rather than a personal choice.
“Sometimes metrics are low and the look isn’t on trend. Other times, a brand is just stale and creating a new look gives it a new sense of relevance,” Downey said. “The hard part about rebranding is that you need some time to really evaluate the effects of the change.”
Peritus Public Relations in Birmingham, Alabama, is currently undergoing a rebranding stage. Originally headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, the Birmingham branch became its own separate limited liability company (LLC) in December 2014. With the separation from the Louisville branch, Peritus PR in Birmingham decided to undergo a rebrand to form its own company identity.
Louise Crow Oliver, president of Peritus PR in Birmingham, said, “Certain elements of the former Peritus brand didn’t seem to reflect our local personality and service strengths. We wanted to think through a brand that was more aligned with our office culture and commitment to our clients.”
Oliver explained the decision-making process of keeping the original company name: “We didn’t want to change the name just for the sake of changing the name. We loved what Peritus stood for. The translation of Peritus in Latin means skilled, experienced, expert.”
Victoria Sherwood, digital strategist for Peritus PR, said that there are a lot of little moving parts that go into a rebrand. They decided to keep the original name, but they rebranded all of their messaging, vision, Peritus promise, etc.
Sherwood explained the reasoning behind the company’s color and logo change. “Our former colors were red and black and our messaging tone was aggressive and competitive. Our new messaging reflects a more transparent, passionate and partnership-based approach; and our colors are softer blues and grey, for clear expectations, transparency and trust,” she said.
After analysis of the company culture, Sherwood said, “The rebranding process was very personal to us. We are a smaller company, so we were all part of the decision-making process. Our brand really reflects Peritus Birmingham.”
On a much larger scale, CVS Pharmacy recently went through a rebrand when it decided to stop selling tobacco products. CVS noticed a problem in its identity of being a pharmacy that sold vitamins, medication and promoted all things in relation to health, but also sold cigarettes.
“We’ve changed our company name to CVS Health to reflect our purpose of helping people on their path to better health,” officials stated at the beginning of September 2015.
The new rebrand includes programs to help manage chronic disease, programs to connect patients with pharmacists to help them stay on their prescribed medications and digital capabilities to supplement those programs.
The timing of the removal of tobacco from CVS’ shelves, along with its rebrand, could not have been a better marketing strategy — drawing media attention to the rebrand.
Oliver advises companies considering a rebrand to really think through your brand, work closely with the marketing department and talk to people with branding expertise to ensure your company is rebranding for the right reasons. If you take the time to analyze the small things in a rebrand, you are much more likely to stay relevant long term.
With any company, small or large, you are your brand. Companies should constantly be thinking about how they are being perceived by their audiences, taking into consideration what can be maintained, improved or changed. The bottom line is your brand should represent the strongest reflection of you.
