The way we see certain brands can be sweet one minute and sour the next. Why? Because if a brand was established 20 years ago, for example, it was created, named, and packaged to suit the needs and wants of the time — not to mention the mentality of the world back then. Then a name might have sounded like music to the ears but today it could very well sound like the ring of the doorbell when you have a migraine.
The latest example is the Midget Gems sweets under the Marks and Spencer brand. The sweets have been renamed to Mini Gems after a disability academic Dr. Eric Pritchard said the term midget is offensive to people with growth problems and called on a number of confectionary makers and supermarkets to change the name. The name is not only offensive, according to Pritchard, but it may also be seen as hate speech — something many brands do not want to be associated with.
There are hundreds of other examples of companies who had to change the names of their products, their logos, and their packaging to move with the times. Although the companies may want to hold on to certain branding because of nostalgia or because the brand is well known in the market and they do not want to mess with a now household name, it is a good idea for businesses to constantly keep an eye on how rules are being changed, how circumstances around the world are changing the way we think, and how their competitors are handling such matters.
So why wait for someone else to highlight how your brand should be changed to fit with the times when you could take control of your rebranding and also create the perfect marketing strategy behind it?
These are just a few ways you can consider rebranding to stand out as a modern-thinking market leader:
Renaming — like the example above, a name of a product can become offensive as the notion of what is politically correct changes. But there is much more to renaming than that. Perhaps your beer has a certain name that becomes associated with a virus that is causing a world pandemic, what do you do then? Corona didn’t change its name two years ago when there was an outbreak of the virus, but it has recently launched a non-alcoholic beer which seems to be all the trend these days. So instead of changing its name because of something that will hopefully last for a short period of time, the company continued to market its brand by doing a kind of sideways branding into the trending lane.
Redesigning your logo — the colours and images on logos usually have to do with consumers’ psychology and getting them to become emotionally attached to a brand. So, if you have an image of a black man serving coffee on your brand, this could be considered as being offensive today. If you believe the brand could suffer because of this then maybe a new logo could be considered or perhaps the company behind the logo could give the logo a kind of facelift, so it becomes more modern. Why not take it one step further and market your logo as one that may change while the values of the company behind it stay firm — just do it in a way that highlights the fact that the company’s values are wholesome.
Repackaging — packaging has to do with many things. It has to do with colour, design, market segmentation, accessibility, and many more factors. If the way your products are packaged become unappealing for any reason, it could cause your brand some harm. This is why it is a good idea to constantly go back to your packaging, to its look and its feel and make sure that it fits in well with the modern consumer.
Brand collaborations — in a world full of influencers and affiliate marketing, you have to be very careful to associate your brand with people who share the same vision, who fit into your marketing strategy, and who will help your brand appearance grow. If the people you collaborate with are involved in a scandal or there is some bad press around their name, this is where you have to call in the big guns — the marketing and communications team — to see how your brand can quickly get out of the line of fire. But no one can predict the future, right? Sure, but just a little tip so you could get a tiny glimpse inside the crystal ball – keep your brand ambassadors close and keep an eye on what they are doing and if any red flags do begin to flap around in the wind, have a talk with them and try to prevent getting your damage control hats on.
