By definition, rebranding is the process of strategic change of a company’s brand identity. For a brand that is already on the market, it consists in choosing a new name, logo, or communication strategy, with the intention of reshaping its identity and positioning it differently in the reference market.
Sooner or later, all companies need to renovate and “refresh” their corporate image, or address new markets and targets, or strengthen their relationship with their original target. In this case, this is proactive rebranding, and the objective is to retain consistency between the evolution of the business and the original brand identity.
This may be the case, for example, of a company that has chosen to produce a different type of product with respect to its original core business, and needs to adapt its identity to this change.
There is also another case, where the redefinition of the corporate image takes place in response to specific events such as, for example, acquisition by a bigger company, the merger with another company, or even trademark issues. Sometimes, the contributing events may originate externally: the evolution of competitors who force the company to reorganise their brand image quickly to retain its previous competitive edge, or even corporate scandals which have damaged the brand reputation and therefore demand a quick change of course to improve the perception of the brand among consumers.
In all these cases the process involved is reactive rebranding.
The changes linked to the rebranding process can be distinguished into two types: those that involve the gradual change of styling factors, such as logo and copy of the pay off, and that we can define “evolutionary”, and the “revolutionary” factors which on the other hand entail more radical changes, such as a name change.
In general, we can nevertheless state that the true symbol of the corporate image and its changes is without doubt the logo.
