)
Google is Alphabet, Facebook is Meta, and Square is Block. Which Big Tech company will be next to rebrand - and more importantly, what does it take for the rebrand to succeed?
Rebrands are a classic component of brand growth, yet they are a huge undertaking and one of the areas that is often overlooked and can lead to failure is business content. The sheer amount of business content that needs to be updated and maintained can be overwhelming for even the best in the business. Documents for presentations, emails and resources such as images and logos all need to be updated internally and externally, to ensure a rebrand is successful.
Content is business currency and the risk is it can be devalued by a mismanaged rebrand.
Content is business currency and the risk is it can be devalued by a mismanaged rebrand. If outdated branded content is used, companies will not only see a poor return on an expensive investment but could also face a reputation-damaging nightmare.
Above: Facebook's parent company has recently rebranded to Meta.
The power of reinvention
A rebrand gives organisations the chance to re-invent themselves. This is the opportunity to realign with their new, progressive values or a new business model that their old brand no longer reflects. In Meta’s case, it allowed the company to focus on the future, instead of the past, whilst bringing together their apps and technology under one umbrella. Now after unveiling the new brand, the question remains will it be successful?
In Meta’s case, it allowed the company to focus on the future, instead of the past. Now after unveiling the new brand, the question remains will it be successful?
An example of a truly successful rebrand is Airbnb which, in 2014, recognised it had grown exponentially since it was founded in 2008. To capitalise on its growing community, Airbnb revealed a major rebrand to reflect the feeling of ‘belonging’, which is represented in their logo dubbed the ‘belo’.
Alongside a new logo, Airbnb successfully implemented a new font design and colour, as well as a new website and app experience. Today, Airbnb is one of the most recognisable brands in the industry and has become an attractive investment opportunity, having raised $3.5 billion in funding. Also, within two years of the rebrand, Airbnb’s revenue increased by 80%, highlighting the power of reinvention.
+ membership
Access the world's largest advertising database. With an intuitive toolset that helps you explore, present and collaborate more effectively.
Learn More
Above: In 2014 Airbnb underwent a company rebrand.
The technical challenge
The reward for a well-done rebrand is often immeasurable for a business. Yet, for many, the technicalities of rolling a new brand out company-wide can stop them in their tracks.
A large emphasis is often placed on the external rebrand, with efforts focused on advertising and websites. However, for a rebrand to be truly successful external and internal rollout and adoption must happen in sync. Whilst this may sound simple, a survey recently revealed that more than half (53%) of marketers planning a rebrand are worried about full adoption within their organisation, and those additional 47% are likely being too optimistic about the process.
For a rebrand to be truly successful external and internal rollout and adoption must happen in sync.
Rolling out new content internally is often quite difficult, especially if branding and marketing teams don’t have the right technology solutions in place to ensure a smooth transition. Many organisations expect employees to actively search for the new content instead of utilising technology solutions that directly serve it to them in the applications they’re already using to create content. And when that’s the case, organisations put themselves at risk of off-brand and non-compliant content being shared publicly.
Above: A lot of work goes into choosing the correct language, colours, font size/style and images to reflect an organisation to its external audience.
The cost of failure
A rebrand is a huge opportunity for a brand to change and reinvent itself. Effort goes into choosing the correct language, colours, font size/style and images to reflect an organisation to its external audience. It also means a complete overhaul of assets such as email signatures, document headers, presentation layouts and invoicing templates. For many, this activation can be lengthy as teams work to pick the correct words and format that represent their organisation at its best.
To the public, a rebrand can be seen as quite simple - a change of a logo and name isn’t life-altering. But to the organisation, if they get it wrong it can mean a loss in value and reputation.
To the public, a rebrand can be seen as quite simple - a change of a logo and name isn’t life-altering. But to the organisation, if they get it wrong it can mean a loss in value and reputation. If done right, new branding has the ability to reach a large audience, both old and new. But, without the right solutions to support a rebrand company-wide, it could mean that the creativity expressed - and the cost of producing it - could go to waste, potentially costing millions.
A positive solution
Content enablement solutions can help deliver a seamless transition for organisations that are rebranding. These solutions directly serve employees with the latest approved branding directly where they work, allowing them – and management – to be confident that collateral aligns with the correct brand guidelines. More importantly, it can also ensure that all legal guidelines are being met while mitigating the risk that a wrong name, disclosure or other detail is used in external documents, such as emails and contracts.
Automating the roll-out of a rebrand takes the guesswork out of content creation for employees and allows their main focus to be on what they want to do - creative idea generation.
