Clever. Prisum. Hochland’s Atelier. Transilvania Executive Education. Those are just some of the brands on the Romanian market that have concluded it was time to spruce up their image in the last few months.
By Romanita Oprea
This spate of changes following 2018’s big moves by Apa Nova, Brico Depot, Notino, First Bank and co. What is a rebranding? It is the process of changing the corporate image of an organization, a market strategy, of giving a new name, symbol, or change in design to an already-established brand. So when should a company start a rebranding process and why? According to Roxana Tampau, managing director at DDB Romania, it is vital to quantify the reasons for a rebranding process. A marketer should therefore ask him/herself a few questions before conducting any rebranding strategy.
“A rebranding decision can have a diversity of reasons: the product’s natural life cycle requirements, or if there is a change in customer behavior that requires a revisiting of the brand personality, or if there are innovations or improvements in the product or product line that require a change of character and possibly a change of targeted customers, or the brand personality has to keep up with the change in customer generations, or the brand company in itself is going through changes such as mergers and acquisitions or changes in the shareholder structure that would alter the product portfolio etc,” said Raluca Ene, managing director at Chapter 4 Romania.
Moreover, she added that these triggers for change should be periodically and proactively checked through market research and direct contact with customers, as well as staying updated with market trends and customer lifestyle and behavior changes, to make sure the brand always keeps its relevance and significance, and thus remains competitive.
In turn, Mihaela Radulescu, senior brand consultant at InnerOut, points out that rebrandings, like any branding, should be a strategic process that goes hand in hand with a business change. “The company changes management/ownership and a new strategic gear is added. After an M&A or as the result of a transition from an entrepreneurship to a corporate entity (an acquisition). The company needs the verbal and/or visual identity to be refreshed (too old, dusty, unattractive, unclear, etc). The company has suffered from a brand accident with lasting consequences (PR wise and beyond) or it has undergone significant changes to its DNA (changes to the products/services it offers or to the organizational culture, for instance).What matters most is that all parts are aligned and that the common purpose is clear. A rebranding is not only a matter of a changing a logo or a name, but a matter of consistency across all brand manifestations, internal and external,” outlined Radulescu.
In other words, a rebranding process is a crucial period in a company’s life, and also a considerable investment – one that should be made with a lot of attention and with the right people. “It requires years of research, evaluating the alternatives, creating and validating concepts, etc. We need to take into consideration the direct costs incurred by the change of the corporate identity, but also those required to communicate effectively and memorably the NEW identity and brand DNA to the target audiences,” said Roxana Dumitru, marketing manager at De’Longhi.
Therefore, the marketer points out, a rebranding should be a meaningful event, associated with a major development or a major change in the status or vision of the company. “Such situations are changes in ownership/shareholding structure, significant changes in the core business or a refreshment required to keep in tune with younger audiences, if that is the type of audience the brand addresses. Or, a major shift in the category we are playing in. Or a major repositioning of the brand, that involves re-segmenting, re-targeting and a new set of brand values/brand architecture, etc. That implies a huge project behind it and a clear and comprehensive validation process. Reasons behind rebranding processes need to be communicated and clarified to all a company’s relevant audiences – from employees and authorities, to business partners and consumers,” added Dumitru.
Meanwhile, Alina Tudose, an experienced brand consultant, believes that the time has come for a company to first think about going through a rebranding when decision makers feel that the brand no longer represents its clients or employees, when it has become a poster on the company’s wall and an obsolete brand for its clients. “When the brand is no longer able to generate emotion, a change is necessary,” commented Tudose.
Moreover, a second scenario is when the company expands beyond its core services/products area and is no longer credible to represent new ones. In that case, according to Tudose, there can be a rebranding or a brand extension, meaning a repositioning of the brand, with an extended addressability or a rethinking of the brand architecture with line extensions or sub-brands.
The right steps
According to InnerOut’s representative, any rebranding process should start with a solid organizational audit (not only a business diagnosis, but also a perceptual map of the most important stakeholder – the employee). “I personally recommend and perform one-to-one discussions, with a significant percentage of the organization, through in-depth interviews. Then the process goes to the brand platform set-up: a purpose is defined, alongside mission, values, behaviors derived from values, brand personality, tone of voice, and an external promise. The positioning is a strategic approach that reunites the best of both worlds: what the audience expects with what the company can deliver sustainably, in the long run,” said Radulescu.
Then, as she points out, comes a redesign of the visual identity (including a renaming, if the case). “After the entire internal rhetoric is strategically defined and well worded, then the engagement process with the employees closes the circle. People were asked at the beginning their opinion about the organizational culture. They inspired the strategic direction and now everybody gets aligned in the same boat. Brand engagement sessions are the natural closure of a transformative process that involves changes in so many stakeholders’ perceptions. Good cultures start by having their principles stated, agreed upon, and then collectively followed,” concluded Radulescu.
Dumitru added, “The duration of the process depends on many factors; it is very difficult to come up with an average. It depends a lot on the reason or purpose of the rebranding, as well as the number and type of decision makers involved. Sometimes, if it is the result of an acquisition, it can happen very quickly. Other times, when the brand to be replaced is very strong on the market, the process is deliberately slowed down or extended to allow people to get used to and internalize the transition. In any rebranding process, you want to keep your existing audience and consumers and expand on that. Ideally, you do not want to lose anyone along the way. The full process can take up to three to five years for a very serious and complete rebranding.”
“The whole process might take between three and six months, and during it the agency will work with the client to prepare a launch plan for the new brand. How and when will they unveil the new brand on the market? What type of activities will they be using? What strategy will they be applying to build excitement around the ‘new thing coming soon’? After launching the new brand image, both agency and client should focus on evaluating results so that they will adjust their communication in real-time,” said Tampau.
And, as Ene points out, “Once the renewed brand personality is complete, communication comes next, through relevant content development and deployment on the specific channels that reach the desired target. Communication is essential in the brand transition to the new face – the lack of a proper approach would create an undesired gap in the acquisition process that might cause harm to the business rather than help it grow.”
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