Is Rebranding a Mistake – Think before you leap!

For those of you who have not come through my earlier post on 'Rebranding cost of famous brands', here is a preview of what this post is about. A few weeks ago, I did a post that featured the costs of rebranding famous brands like PEPSI, BP and Accenture. I received an overwhelming response, both positive and negative, from my valued readers. While many were of the opinion that the rebranding costs were exorbitant. Many graphic designers and people from graphic design field rebuked by asserting that rebranding costs are justifiable based on the amount of work and processes entailed. This debate compelled me into writing a sequel post on rebranding and its aftermath.

When is Rebranding a mistake? When you rebrand just for the sake of it, thinking you feel like rebranding just isn't sufficient to overhaul the images of your brand. When your customers are devoted to your previous brand identity and are more faithful to it, rebranding may lose brand loyal customers. When rebranding does not reap proportional benefits and costs more than it pays. When you rebrand because your competitor did so, you are making a mistake of rebranding without purpose. When you rebrand without adequate research, repositioning the image without studying consumer demographics and psychographics is dangerous. When you think that rebranding only means a logo redesign, or altering the stationery and corporate colors. Rebranding entails a whole bundle of intangible items that are needed to be considered as well.

Which is the right time for Rebranding? When your brand equity is deteriorating or stagnant, that indicates you need a thorough rebranding to overhaul the identity of your brand. When your customers don't seem to favor your brand identity anymore, it's time that you reposition your brand in the minds of your consumers. When your brand gets caught up in a controversy, a repositioning is required to improve the tarnished reputation. When the rebranding has the muscle to offset the cost it incurs, meaning it has the potential to pay off in the long run. When you realize that your current brand positioning isn't valid for the target market anymore, or your target market changes.

How well have famous rebranding performed? In my previous post, I received quite a bit of complaints from some of the visitors saying that I did not properly analyze the cost of rebranding. Thus I would like to make an effort this time around to examine one of the most famous rebranding, that of Pepsi. In the end, you can be the judge if the rebranding is acceptable or not.

Pepsi Rebranding – A comprehensive Analysis: The Pepsi rebranding was handled by Arnell Group. Its three years strategy involves $1.2 billion, a complete packaging, merchandising and marketing overhaul of its soft drinks. Let me remind my readers that the total brand value of Pepsi is estimate around $ 16 billion as compared to Coca-Cola's $68 billion. The rebranding amount involves all kinds of promotional and ATL and BTL marketing activities. Now let us analyze the impact of the rebranding. It has been one year since the overhaul took place. There are no figures of 'out of the blue' sales jump or consumer liking about the rebranding reported. On the contrary, Pepsi has received far more censure than any other brands for its directionless rebranding. The real question is…the sales that Pepsi is generating now, are they more than what they would have earned without the rebranding?

Your turn to speak up! It's not only Pepsi which has undergone major rebranding…many other top brands like BP, Accenture and AOL have taken the risk of rebranding. Above you have read the positive and negative aspects of rebranding but now it's your turn to join the debate and pour your thoughts on the critical term "rebranding" via