Use casePlan a rebrand
Map what customers value in your brand before anyone redesigns it, write that equity into the creative brief, and see how loyal customers and newcomers each react to the routes on the table.
A rebrand spends equity that is hard to buy back, so the first job is an inventory of what customers already attach to the name.
Customers and prospects describe what the brand stands for, the moments it brings to mind and what they would say about it to a friend, which gives the team an inventory of meanings to keep or retire.
Participants say how they spot the brand in a store, an app list or an inbox, whether by a color, a shape, a character or a sound, which marks the distinctive assets a new identity has to carry over.
The brief sets long-standing customers and people new to the brand as separate groups with their own screeners, so every route is read by both apart. Buyers of rival brands join the equity inventory, which can show traits buyers attach to the category but to no brand.
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GrowwThe candidate routes are judged against what the brand already owns, and the plan for introducing the winner is shaped by the customers most attached to the old one.
Loyal customers tend to be polite about a new identity for a brand they are attached to. Video insights keep the warmth or unease on their faces as each candidate route is discussed, which the team weighs against the kinder things they say.
The associations and assets customers named as worth keeping go into the creative brief as requirements, so the agency's first round starts from what must survive instead of rediscovering it.
Long-standing customers say how they would want to learn about the change and how quickly they would accept it, which helps decide between a staged transition and a single switch, and when to announce it.
Research for a rebrand usually runs in three stages. The first captures the current brand: its associations, strengths and weaknesses, and the distinctive assets customers use to recognize it, such as colors, shapes, characters and sounds. Losing a recognized asset can cost years of recognition, so knowing which cues carry the brand comes before design. The second stage tests candidate routes, whether names, logos, taglines or visual systems, with the audiences the brand needs to keep and to win, measuring recognition, appeal, fit with the intended positioning and unwanted meanings. The third checks the finished identity in use and plans the transition, often keeping familiar cues to protect recognition among existing customers. Logo testing sits at the core of the second stage, with each design shown briefly to measure recognition and first associations, then at length to judge fit, appeal and legibility at small sizes and in one color.
When two companies merge, customers of each fear losing what they chose. Reactions to each route, split by the heritage brand a customer came from, show whether the combined identity leans toward one side's customers.
Business customers find a supplier by name in purchasing systems, invoices and contracts. Recruiting the people who process those orders shows what a name change would disrupt on the customer's side, and how much notice they need.
A rebrand's first week is often led by one complaint, repeated wherever the change is discussed. Objections gathered across every route and audience show the communications team which complaint is likeliest to lead, so the announcement answers it before customers raise it.
A survey counts how many buyers call the brand traditional. The interview hears whether they mean trusted or old-fashioned, from the same people in one study, so the brief can quote the phrases buyers used.