20 Famous Rebranding Stories
Just like everything else, in time, a brand
image gets tired and dusty, no longer able to raise to our customers’
expectations and even to our own. And when that happens, it’s time to
let go of the past and start believing in your future: it’s time to
think about rebranding.
We all agree a logo says so much about
your brand identity and reviving it is definitely a step forward, but
re-branding is more than rethinking your logo design: it has everything
from logo and package design to marketing campaigns and strategies for
re-exposing the new product into the market.
Unique, but without being over-designed, a logo has to speak for
itself, translating your brand identity into images, being simple and
memorable… timeless. It’s usually wise not to bend to every trend that
happens to blow by, because re-branding it’s not just a matter of style
and fashion, it has to stand the test of time. No one says it should be
easy, but if you feel the need to make a change and on top of it to
spend some stunning pile of money on it, at least you could make it in a
meaningful way.
Here are two companies who really spared nothing to revive their
images and classified among the most expensive re-brandings ever.
(Each bottle smiling at you in a different way – an experience that cost Pepsi over 1 million dollars )
(When the new leadership decided to
return to the initial globe identity, only with a way cooler vision,
creating an illusion of a circle, BBC One had to pay over 1.2 millions
pounds)
One of the most important things is the reasons you want to proceed
for this re-branding process, because sometimes you might find yourself
doing it for the wrong ones. So if your company has image problems,
hiding them behind a pretty logo won’t change the core of the issue,
but it might just buy you some time to make things right and to
“rethink possible”, just how AT&T made it. After all, there’s
something very refreshing about a successful comeback.
Although being one of the largest casual
dinning chains, we hear a damaged image might also be the problem for
Applebee’s, who’s re-branding was being accompanied by higher
expectations on service field.
And when discussing reasons why, successful marriages between two
brands is one of the classic examples where a re-branding becomes the
right thing to do, and the new logo is embedding all the hopes for a
happily ever after story. This is how it happened for FedEx &
Kinko’s.
On the other hand, this year, when the time
came for the separation from Edenred (formerly known as Accor
Services), Accor decided it was time to revive their brand image and
start fresh.
Taking the brand into a new era and giving to the innovation a
stylish and timeless shape, when large corporations change their name or
logo, they tend to mess up buyers heads, especially when it comes to
personal and official documents. So it might take some time to adapt and
to apply all the changes involved.
(MasterCard logo was changed in order to
integrate the company’s new directions, as a “globally integrated
structure and its strategic vision of advancing commerce worldwide”,
addressing a “three-tiered business model as franchiser, processor and
adviser”. But what’s different this time, is that they use this new
identity only in the matters of communications, as a Corporate
Signature. )
(We heard some rumors that this
particular re-branding didn’t have quite the effect of a rebirth. Some
say it’s a matter of questionable reliability, especially when the
company that handles your money has fashion concerns. Is that so?)
Most of the companies with significant history tend to put all their
endeavor into keeping their identity while adding a fresh touch to the
logo design, weather is about the typography design, color palette or
adding details.
(This year, Adobe finally unveiled their
Creative Suite 5 Toolbox and with it, surprised us with a new 20 years
anniversary logo. With a book-like design, Adobe brings to their
customers a dynamic and inspirational logo, celebrating the release of
their most expected CS 5)
(As the company no longer looked at
itself just as a shipping and delivery service, the wrapped package in
the logo had to go, being replaced by a sparkling new logo, still
keeping the main concept)
(When Apple decided to give their logo a
more modern and professional look, this shift brought also a change of
name, from “Apple Computers” to “Apple Inc”, as the name no longer
matched their company identity)
(Choosing a more conservative approach,
Compaq kept the corporate color and just added a futuristic touch to
their typography, rethinking this way the image for the most famous
brand of laptops produced by HP)
(Combining the essence of its first two
logos, the new Intel image makes a statement about the company’s
directions and promises to “leap ahead” in every aspect of technology,
in order to make its costumers’ life better)
(Using a vibrant color and adding a globe
detail, the brand made a statement about how it feels to be the world’s
leading document management technology and brought together people from
all over the world with an “x”… from Xerox)
(This is not the first re-branding for
KFC, but with this one, the company hopes to get closer to its original
Kentucky Fried Chicken founder, Colonel Saunders and his famous recipes,
and to communicate to its costumers the realness of the story.)
(When Discovery Channel decided to revive
its image, it was important to keep the globe as an integrated part of
the brand. So they did in a lovely way, by making it a part of the discovery process. Nicely done.)
For some companies, changing the lineup of their products and often,
the expansion to some other consumer markets makes a starting point for a
re-branding, because in order to succeed, most of the time you need to
change people’s perception about your brand identity.
(Searching to add a modern touch to this
intercontinental hotel group, Holiday Inn promises to be an “affordable
luxury for the people”, trying to change how the brand is being
perceived by the mind of business travelers, as it no longer considers
itself a family hotel.)
(Celebrating its 100 anniversary, Lancia
got themselves a new logo: “aggressive” and elegant, with a smooth shape
expressing the passion for luxury cars and giving to their past a
modern interpretation.)
(Starting a new direction in their
production line, Fiat decided to embrace the future by giving a new
interpretation to the original Fiat logo, going way back to 1931 and
proudly looking up to their historic identity.)
We saved for last the bronze award winning identity at the 57th Annual
Cannes Lion Festival
(2010), Aol. Separated from Time Warner, Aol decided it’s time to
reinvent itself and promises amazing online experiences, creating a new
image as “one consistent logo with countless ways to reveal” and making
an analogy to the ever changing content. We are eager to see if the dot
behind Aol means the end of an era or just the end.
So when it comes to reinventing yourself, there are a few rules
you should always take into count, and one of the most important is to
hire the right agency: one that can understand the process of branding
and the importance of design aesthetic.
And we would love to make all your dreams come true and help you
drive your business forward, revealing the core of the brand and
creating from there a fresh and sparkling new image, making the most of
your investment and of the ambitious growth plans we know you have.
Here are a few logo redesign examples from our own portfolio: