My first rebranding experience was a total disaster. Complete, unmitigated, wildfire-level disaster.
The company made a knee-jerk decision to overhaul the brand identity of one of their most profitable ranges. The new design hit shelves and sales dropped immediately, over 30% down.
The losses continued as the company scrambled to relaunch again. A few months (and millions of dollars) later, a new design—reminiscent of the original—hit the shelves and stabilized sales.
As an early-career brand manager, witnessing the raw carnage from behind the scenes was an eye-opening, unforgettable experience that profoundly shaped my view on the power of branding. (By the way, web design and branding are basically the same thing.)
Since then, I’ve worked on rebrands that generated millions of dollars in growth (and avoided many potential disasters). Today, as a marketing consultant, I balance a healthy obsession of studying consumer psychology with carrying around the hard-won lessons of the past to help founders, owners and marketers leverage the impact of branding.
So, how does branding work?
In short: branding is all in our heads. If we take a step back and think about the nature of brands in the lives of consumers, we’ll realize that for the most part, consumers don’t really care about the brands they use.
Even people who buy Nike, Apple and Coca Cola still wear Adidas, use Windows and drink Pepsi. And the same applies to laundry detergent, home insurance or table salt brands.
The reality is, brands grow big and strong by having weak ties with many instead of strong ties with a few. So, things like color, typography, symbols and styles all become very important shortcuts for consumers to remember your brand, even if they can’t recall the name. And when marketers constantly change things, they run the risk of breaking ties and consumers simply not recognizing the brand anymore.
Rebranding is most impactful when marketers are consumer-oriented
Sometimes, a change in identity is necessary. Maybe you see an opportunity to completely reposition and target a new market. Maybe the competitive landscape has changed and your offering is no longer compelling. Or maybe you're trying to tap into the latest web design trends.
Whatever the reason, your rebrand should start with the people buying from your category—not the people inside your company. This is where the rubber hits the road.
Understanding the life and needs of the consumer is your only job
Rebrands are successful when they hit at the heart of consumer needs. When the old way of communicating and presenting to the world wasn’t landing, the brand takes a new approach and repositions itself, its offer and its communication to become more consumer-focused. This is the only way to win at rebranding.
If you want to master the art of consumer-orientation, learn from the best. By studying the moves of those who have walked this path before us, we can understand a lot and avoid costly mistakes.
Successful rebranding examples
Check out some of my favorite rebranding examples, plus what you can learn from them as a designer and marketer.
01. Oatly
This Oatly rebrand wasn’t successful because of the colors or typefaces they used, but because it completely encapsulated a voice for the brand—and a bold one at that.
The prior design was just another ‘me-too’ product mimicking what people expect from dairy alternatives. But the new design spoke directly to the consumer, with wacky copywriting across all faces of the product that made the brand feel more like an interesting friend than a grocery item.
The lesson: Be a human, not a logo
02. Poppi
Poppi went from farmers-market chic to mainstream mega brand overnight with this rebranding venture. But the real lesson here is in understanding the shopper. People were revolted by the idea of drinking a “vinegar” beverage, so they repositioned the product as a “healthy soda,” all without changing the liquid itself.
The idea here is that "taste appeal" is a key decision driver for beverages; by understanding what drives decisions, marketers can optimize for success.
Aside from the design elements being more on-trend and appealing to a younger demographic, the brand had another breakthrough idea here: a change in format. Shifting from a "special occasion" premium glass bottle to a single-use, daily-consumption can made the product more approachable.
The lesson: Understand what drives decisions
03. Ecover
If I throw you six tennis balls, you'll miss them all. But if I throw you just one, you'll catch it. This principle comes to life in the design of Ecover’s laundry detergent, moving from 17 different messages to just seven. This is a core principle of good communication: say less and the audience will hear more.
The redesign was also launched alongside a larger advertising campaign, so the supersized and prominently positioned logo made the brand much easier to find in store or online.
Remember, most people skim read in search of the important information, so optimize for an inattentive and distracted audience.
The lesson: Say less, and make every word count
04. Halo Top
Halo Top rebranded and drove one of the most rapid growth stories in the world of consumer packaged goods, ever!
At one point, they simply couldn’t build enough factories to keep up with the demand.
This level of real-world virality came down to one key concept: removing barriers and making the core proposition incredibly easy to understand.
Your product is not a textbook. Instead of trying to “educate” consumers on the idea of light ice cream and displaying all of the nutritional information on the front panel, they shifted the message to a simple idea that everyone can understand: 240 calories per pint. Not only did this encourage people to buy the product, but it also gave them permission to finish the whole pint and eat it more often.
All marketers can benefit from this idea. Your communication should be so clear and simple that anyone who speaks the native language can look at it and instantly get it.
The lesson: Keep it simple
05. Freedom Foods
The Freedom Foods cereal rebrand is a classic example of how to nail hierarchy. You are the Director of Attention. It’s your job to make sure the audience navigates the information in the way you want them to. In this case, the audience sees a beautiful shot of delicious food, the brand name, the product name and then the supporting information.
Instead of trying to give all the information equal weight, they created a “bull's eye” zone with a visually appealing product photo to capture attention that then guides the audience to slowly process the other important elements of information.
Using size, color and an appropriate amount of constraint, you can effectively control how the audience perceives information. Do it to your benefit.
The lesson: You're in charge
Valuable brands, valuable businesses
With these lessons in mind, marketers can leverage the power of great branding to build valuable businesses for the long haul, whether the brand exists on store shelves or exclusively online.
From these rebranding examples, we can see two common themes: simplicity and originality. Each redesign found a way to capture the essence of the brand and communicate it in a way that’s easily understood and different from the rest of the world. In markets with endless competition and relentless noise, marketers can stand out with the right mix of brevity and creativity.
After all, building a great brand is essential for a valuable business. And a great brand doesn’t live on your website: it lives in the mind of the consumer.
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