Thanks Art of Marketing!

1. Relevance: Companies and brands need to stay relevant to their target audience, and let’s face it, audiences change. When your target evolves and starts to sniff out competitors, it may be because they feel their first preference (you) is no longer relevant. Rebrands in this case often are accompanied by new product offerings.

2. Mergers & Acquisitions: When 2 companies are combined, there are likely 2 unique audiences left to communicate to. Sometimes it is a matter of re-packaging the company / brand in a way that will appeal to both. In other cases however, one of the brands may remain dominant, and simply go through a refresh.

3. Innovation: Technology surely evolves faster than any brand, and if your company / brand is dependent upon technology and you are consistently innovating, then a rebrand should follow your natural path of innovation. It is an outward expression of your companies evolution and will keep audiences coming back to see ‘what’s new’.

4. Reposition: Taking a brand to a new position is difficult (value to premium for example), and requires a company to think about the new audience they are hoping to acquire. They likely have a different DNA than the old audience, and it’s often best to re-launch a brand to target this new demographic. Often, brands will not necessarily rebrand a current label, but rather create a new freestanding brand to float into the market.

5. Rejuvenation: The greatest brands in the world consistently update and refresh their look to stay contemporary and fresh. We find that 10 years is often the max threshold for consideration of a rebrand. In cases where a company has a 25 year old ‘look’, they will probably find themselves looking over their shoulder often at the up and coming brands who are demonstrating innovation and business evolution. If you have the mind set of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ (pardon my backwoods grammar), I would encourage you to consider a ‘brand refresh’. This maintains and celebrates the history and heritage of your brand, but shows your audience (current and future) that you are adaptive to change.

6. Outgrowth: Small companies can become big companies if they’re good at what they do, but small companies often start with meager logo’s & visuals. This is mainly for budget reasons (or perhaps their artistically oriented nephew was commissioned for the original design in exchange for a box of shiny new pencil crayons). There comes a point when a company will become more sophisticated then the look they are carrying, and that is usually the best time to rebrand.

Reasons NOT to rebrand

1. Too young: If you’ve unrolled a company or brand to the marketplace in the past 3 years, it’s probably not the best time to rebrand. It takes time to evolve a brand into something genuine and unique, and it’s wise to avoid the costly process of rebranding to try and ‘sell’ more. Often, a different approach to marketing or new campaign can help.

2. Change for the sake of change: It’s not a great idea to rebrand if the only reason you have is because you ‘want’ to. If there is no new innovation, attitude, behavior or product position, then consumers will be left with a flat experience. Imagine if a restaurant sells crummy food, and start to lose market share. They decide to rebrand to bring people back, yet still sell the same crummy food. This is a sure recipe for failure (no pun intended) as they’ll almost certainly lose that customer for life.

Every once in awhile you come across some information that you just need to share with everyone you can. Recently, I read the book “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath, and thought it was a fantastic insight into the practical idea of making ideas more memorable and give them more traction. What I particulary enjoyed about this read is that the ideas can be applied anywhere, business (marketing, branding, business development, product development and so on) as well as everyday life. It helps us become become better communicators, and thus get more buy in to our ideas. An absolute must read if you are ever in a position to communicate and articulate an idea to customers, partners, stakeholders, friends etc. You can order it online from Chapters or find it your local book store.

Starbucks, for example, has mastered the art of the “felt sense”. When asked, most Starbucks customers likely will share a similar experience with you: positive remarks about consistent product, consistent atmosphere, and a general positioning in their mind of Starbucks as a premium coffee destination.

So how does Starbucks do it, and how can you?

Starbucks starts everything with a documented promise, which could easily serve as an overall brand-promise: “To provide an uplifting experience that enriches people”s daily lives.” Interesting, primarily because it says nothing about their core (and truly overpriced) product: coffee! In fact, the entire culture of Starbucks is built around experience, first. They believe that if their partners (at Starbucks, employees are referred to as partners) are equipped with effective product knowledge first, then their minds are free to offer a sincere customer experience with every opportunity. This is the primary reason why Starbucks spends so little on advertising, and re-allocates the would-be advertising fund to human resource development, primarily in the areas of product knowledge and customer service training. 11,000 locations later, they have proven that they can build a world-class brand, without spending world-class dollars on product advertising. They believe that their best ad is the last customer that walked out of a Starbucks store, and they have proven it to be correct. The powers-that-be at Starbucks know full well that their people are often the first interaction customers will have with the brand and as such warrant the bulk of their promotional investment.

More than just focusing on their employees though, Starbucks also has aggressively pursued the positioning of their stores as being a “third destination” between work and home, and have thus oriented the in-store experience to match that of their take-out experience. Far from being limited to logos on coffee cups and store-fronts world-wide, the “felt sense” of the Starbucks brand extends to the overall physical space and experience of purchasing and enjoying Starbucks” product. Additionally, the true “advertising/marketing” budget Starbucks” allocates in its traditional markets is typically in the form of community partnership and engagement, like community program sponsorship, youth group support and as the hub of community interaction and engagement ” all experience-based; a better spend of money, and a far cry from the crass, in-your-face advertising other similar brands tend to favour.

Can the same principals be applied to other brands, even if they are not in the food service industry? Absolutely, and there are strategic experts *ahem* that can help with this process. We think of it as building a brand from the inside, out. It comes down to knowing when (and how) to invest your marketing, communication and HR dollars, and building the right strategy for your brand and business goals. If your company offers industrial tools, corporate accounting service, strategic consulting or even janitorial services, there is significant opportunity to apply similar philosophies, and build a genuine brand experience.

Start with a promise, make a wholesale commitment to executing it by training your employees, partners and associates, and define the guiding principals that determine (and differentiate) who you truly are. Do not enforce rules; rather, coach people on adopting the brand principles and remember that your people are often your greatest brand asset. Encourage an atmosphere of empowerment, and reward positive behavior. Most importantly, lead by example, and demonstrate sincere belief in what you are doing. Genuine brands start with stating beliefs, and sincere brands live by them.

The advertiser is Ford, and the product is the all-new 2007 Ford Edge, a new crossover vehicle added to Ford’s ever-expansive line of vehicles “built for life in Canada”. Two drivers pull up side by side in a seemingly mysterious location, and begin an exchange on the all-new features of the Ford Edge as compared to the BMW X5 crossover vehicle.

Wait, I’m sorry, did they say BMW?

OK, this is not a product versus product ad, like the Coke vs. Pepsi taste test where a company matches it’s product up to it’s closest competitor and tries to acquire additional market share within its own product category. If it was, there are countless other cross over vehicles in the same class as the Ford Edge that they could have resorted to in a “cross over vehicle taste test”.

Instead, they chose to challenge the intangible premium position that BMW holds in the consumer’s eye. BMW, the status-symbol-with-bonus-vehicle-offer which commands a 20% -50% pricing premium over similar products in the non-premium market (Ford, Chrysler, GMC) has now become the subject of position challenge by Ford. In other words, if you want the same performance and quality as a BMW X5, but don’t want to pay the extra 20 grand, then come over to Ford.

Perhaps they are saying that you are foolish if you spent that much extra dough on the premium choice with no added performance value? Perhaps they are trying to entice BMW owners to consider a move to the Ford lineup after their lease is up, or perhaps they are just trying to make current and future Ford owners feel special. At any rate, it is a gutsy move, and interesting trend in brand positioning.

A week later I saw a nearly identical concept, this time Hyundai’s Sante Fe versus the pricey Land Rover LR3. Shortly after that, Volkswagen put the Turbo Passat against the BMW 383i. More position challenges by mass producers versus premium producers.

While I don’t think McDonalds will be taking the Keg on anytime soon, and there is still no hard evidence that the Ford edge will get you as many dates as the BMW X5, keep an eye on the tube for more position challenges by mass market producers versus their premium industry counterparts. Even more interestingly, will BMW answer back?