What is rebranding?

Rebranding is a process of changing and adjusting the company’s image and its overall strategy to current market conditions, business profile and the overall vision of what it should be.

Frequently, rebranding is a part of a much more comprehensive process of the transformation of a given company. There can be many reasons for such a transformation. Sometimes, that’s because of the M&A process (mergers and acquisitions). That’s what happened, e.g., when Exxon and Mobil merged. Another important reason for rebranding is the significant change in the offer or the business profile. Here, the Facebook-Meta rebranding is a good example.

Definition of rebranding

Simply put, rebranding is the process of changing a given company’s image, strategy and identity (so it’s not only about refreshing the image or designing a new logo!). During this process, almost every element of a brand is being changed, and that includes i.a.:

• The whole brand identity (including the logotype, name, brand colours, typography etc.)
• Brand positioning, brand principles and guidelines
• Brand strategy
• Websites and social media profiles
• All the offline elements, e.g., printed materials, buildings/showrooms/stores, uniforms and vehicles

Purpose of rebranding

Typically, the main goal of rebranding is to adjust the brand to the current situation, both internal and external. After rebranding, your company can achieve its goals, evoke desired connotations, attract the right target audience (which can change after the process) and build a new image and reputation. In some cases, rebranding might be about starting with a clean slate and writing the brand again from scratch.

Rebranding vs. brand refresh

If you’re not after such drastic changes, you should consider a less revolutionary version of rebranding, known as a brand refresh. In this process, you don’t change the brand altogether. You just introduce some tweaks and minor changes. Here, Starbucks is a good example. When they started offering more than just coffee, in 2011, they removed the “Starbucks Coffee” name from their logo. But the company stayed the same.

See also our articles on rebranding process, rebranding announcement, rebranding examples.