How to Rebrand Without Losing Loyalty

Statistics indicate that three-quarters of the S&P companies rebranded in the first seven years of operations. The statistics further suggest that good performance often follows a rebranding, as rebranded companies usually outperform the S&P 500 index by over 500%. However, it's also essential to remember that rebranding efforts can also go wrong.

For instance, a 2008 rebrand of the Pepsi logo didn't work out as planned. In the rebranded logo, Pepsi rotated the circular icon in its logo and added a cheeky smile. The logo redesign went wrong and ultimately cost the company over $1 million. Unfortunately, many of their audience didn't see the smiley face in the logo. Instead of regaining their market share, Pepsi's market share dropped. This is an example of why rebranding needs to be taken seriously.  

What is Rebranding?

Rebranding involves overhauling, updating, or refreshing a company's current image to position it more effectively in the market. It can be a good way to future-proof your brand in a highly competitive environment. This can be achieved through various steps, such as updating the name, logo, packaging, tagline, or marketing materials of the brand, to enable it to better align with the business's goals and its target audience. 

Rebranding can be categorized into two:

• A full rebrand. This involves a comprehensive overhaul of the brand identity, encompassing its name, mission statement, logo, and brand strategy.
• Partial rebrand. This is typically a minor update or refresh designed to refine or modernize the current brand identity without altering the brand’s core values.

A complete rebrand can be a good choice for overhauling your brand image to avoid a negative image and to appeal to different customer segments. On the other hand, a partial rebrand is often undertaken to reflect a specific change in the business, ensuring that the existing brand identity remains intact.

When a rebranding project is successfully done, it can positively impact customers and other business stakeholders, therefore increasing brand loyalty and awareness. Ultimately, this can enable you to turn one-time customers into loyal customers, leading to increased business growth.

Why a Business Rebranding is Necessary

A business may choose to rebrand for several reasons:

• Stronger brand identity. With the growth of companies, so does the market perception of their brand. For instance, a business may initially project itself as a scrappy start-up. But after its growth, this image may no longer be tenable to use, raising the need for a rebrand. 
• Change in the customer demographics. At times, the original customer demographic may change. To enable the brand to continue appealing to the new demographic, consider rebranding.
• Market shifts. If market conditions change, businesses may need to rebrand to remain relevant. Similarly, suppose a new competitor is disrupting the market. In that case, a rebrand can provide a company with a fresh start, enabling it to redefine its values and messaging, or even rethink its core identity. 
• Brand image is already outdated. Companies can appear to have an undesirable or old-fashioned brand image. This raises the need for a rebrand to enable them to reinvent their brand. This can help them attract new customers and build relationships with their existing customers. 
• New market entry. If your business is expanding its product offering or entering new markets, it may need to rebrand to meet the demand and taste of its new audience. 
• Mergers and acquisitions. When two businesses merge, a rebrand becomes necessary to reflect the shared goals, values, and aesthetics. This also happens when a small company is acquired by a larger one. 

Tips To Rebrand While Maintaining Customer Loyalty

Here are tips to rebrand without losing your core customers.

Understand the Involved Risks

Rebranding also comes with several risks, such as:

• Brand recognition is getting harder. At times, you may undergo a serious rebranding effort that can make it difficult for your customers to recognize your brand. That may make them switch to the competitor’s products or services, which can result in a loss of market share and brand equity. 
• Customer alienation. When you do a drastic rebranding, your customers might end up feeling like you betrayed the relationship they had with your brand. This is especially true when you combine rebranding with market repositioning.
• Loss of website traffic. When you make changes to key brand elements, such as the company name, domain name, or product name, these changes can impact your website traffic. You can easily undo the years you have spent optimizing your site for the search engines. You get less online visibility, lower web traffic, and fewer leads.
• Inconsistent implementation. For a rebrand to be successful, it should be consistently implemented. If there are inconsistencies across the different customers’ touchpoints, this can leave customers confused and dilute the brand's impact. A common reason for this is that the brand's scope is underestimated or there are no clear guidelines.

Engage Your Customer

One of the key things you should do is to get your audience engaged from the first day of the brand. This ensures that they understand why you are making the change. However, before doing that, ensure you have a clear goal for the project. Conduct a survey and use other social listening tools to understand the areas of your brand that your target audience isn't happy with.

This feedback is essential in providing you with a clear picture of your target audience's opinion concerning your brand. You can then include their insights into the branding strategy. This also ensures that you prioritize the preferences and values of your audience in your reinvention. You can then make it easier for your brand reinvention to be accepted by your customers.

Most times, the customer feedback may suggest that they are happy with the current look of your brand. That doesn't mean you stop the rebranding. The most important thing would be to add as much audience insight as possible. You also need to explain to them why you believe a change is still necessary, which can make them feel like they are part of the rebranding. 

Show Continuity

The main reason for the rebranding is to make a change. This also means that you need to reassure your customers that you will maintain the key elements that they loved about your brand, product, or service. Indicate that you will retain them and make them better, and explain the areas you want to change.

Remember that some questions will come your way. To increase the confidence level of your customers, it would help to have a set of responses. A good idea would be to have a FAQ page on your website. You can also change your email address and answer the main questions. Have a team ready on social media, prepared to answer questions either through the Inbox or on comments.

Have a Gradual Transition

You don't want a situation where you make the transition so abruptly that customers are unable to identify the key elements of your brand, such as the website. Doing so will only open the door to confusion, which can also lead to a loss of loyalty. This is why it is advisable to have a timeline for the rebrand strategy. 

If you are introducing several new design elements, such as logo, imagery, or color scheme, you should introduce these gradually during the customer’s buying journey. This can be particularly important for the large organizations that have some complex products or subscription models.

One of the benefits of this model is that it allows customers and employees time to become familiar with the product. It's advisable to have internal communication training and campaigns as part of the rebrand strategy. Before launching externally, release the necessary information to your employees. By doing that, you will avoid catching people off guard.

Have a Top-Notch Communication Plan

A key element of a good rebranding strategy is clear and consistent communication. The first phase of the communication should focus on the current customers. Therefore, spread the word across all the channels they are using, such as social media pages, websites, and email lists. Be clear and consistent in all your messages, as mixed messaging will only confuse your customers.

After you have determined that your customers have no problem with the branding, you can now focus on promoting the rebranding widely. This is especially true if you are targeting a new demographic. You need to determine the most appropriate channels for reaching them and then use those channels. This time, you can make your message bolder, as this new target audience is hearing about the latest brand rather than the changes that have occurred in the old one. 

Collect Post-Branding Feedback

After investing a significant amount of time, money, and effort in branding, you need to determine if it has been effective. You can do that through post-branding feedback. You can use the data on various metrics, including customer satisfaction and sentiment, brand loyalty, and brand equity. 

You can decide to collect the metrics monthly, bi-monthly,  or even quarterly. When you run the post-branding tracking, you can determine if there are any sticking points, blockers, or misunderstandings to respond to. This can help to make the whole branding process smoother.

The Impact of a Good Rebrand

If a rebrand is successful, it can have a lot of positive impact, such as:

Higher Brand Awareness

A rebranding effort will often result in a short-term increase in brand awareness. This may reflect in areas such as an increase in the number of branded searches or the number of visitors to your site. This is because businesses often send out a lot of messages about their brands, helping them remain in the customer’s minds and those of other people in the network. 

For instance, according to the managing director of Jaguar, Rawdon Glover, the brand had begun to become irrelevant in today’s competitive market. To overcome this challenge, the company undertook a comprehensive rebranding effort in 2024, resulting in increased attention to the brand and higher brand awareness. For three days in November 2024, they were at the top of social media trends. 

Stand Out from the Competition

If you have an updated, modernized, and cohesive brand identity, you can easily stand out in a crowded market and position yourself better against your competition. Rebranding can position you more effectively in a competitive market and enhance your resilience during tough economic times.

According to 88% of CMOs, brands need to invest in brand building to increase their resilience during tough economic times. However, it's essential to follow the steps outlined above, as a poorly received rebrand can ultimately damage your market position. It may actually increase the number of searches for the competitor’s brands.

Build Customer Trust and Increase Loyalty

When done well, a rebrand can help build stronger relationships with its customers. For instance, a completely new or refreshed brand can make a business appear more authentic, reliable, and better aligned with the customer’s needs. On the other hand, if a rebrand is poorly executed, it can destroy the customer’s relationship with the brand. Customers may start to feel that the brand no longer aligns with their values, resulting in reduced customer engagement with the brand.

Position Yourself as a Growth and Innovative Company

When a rebrand is done correctly, it can reflect your brand as forward-thinking and innovative. This can be a great way to showcase your brand's culture, positioning it to expand into new marketing channels, help launch new products, and drive revenue growth. For instance, Transwise rebranded to Wise, which was the recognition that people needed more solutions than just money transfer. After the rebrand, it added its product profiles to include multi-currency cards and accounts.

In Conclusion

A rebrand can be a double-edged sword. If you do it well, you can generate a buzz around your brand and gain the attention of prospective customers. On the other hand, when done wrongly, it can hurt your brand. If you want to do a rebrand without losing your customers' loyalty, the above steps will help you get started.