You might have the terms “rebrand” and “brand evolution” thrown around on the internet or talking with people who work in marketing or business strategy. Maybe you’ve nodded along, agreed with them, and then gone away thinking, ‘Just what were they talking about? Aren’t they the same thing?’. Luckily, you’ve opened up and started reading a post that’s going to explain the key differences!
What Is a Rebrand?
A rebrand is a shift in how a business or brand looks, behaves, and is presented to the customer. This can involve a wide range of different approaches, such as a a logo change, a name change, a key product redesign, a messaging shift, or a brand new product release.
This can be used to mark a new era for the business and a message to their current audience (and future audiences) that this is a significant change. This can work to refresh a brand or a product, as if it was being released for the very first time, and the big reveal of these changes can create great publicity and organic engagement with the brand. Think about the social media storm that followed the death of the Planters Peanut mascot, Mr. Peanut, and his replacement with ‘Baby Nut’. It is still a great example of rebranding and bringing more and more people to engage with an older company looking to stay relevant.
What Is a Brand Evolution?
This is a response to customer feedback, design trends, and the wider marketplace surrounding products or businesses. This helps a business to stay current in the minds of an audience without constantly going through a full rebranding every few years. Think about how McDonald’s has changed gradually over the years. It used to be entirely about the children’s market – could you say that about a modern McDonald’s? They’ve chosen to resemble a downtown coffee cafe marketed toward more adult customers over the years.
Good branding is built on objectives from a brand strategy agency. What are a brand strategy agency‘s roles? This is a firm that specialises in creating and rebranding, managing support for clients with advertising and other forms of promotion. Their objectives can mean throwing out the old for something new, or for building in gradual changes over time.
They should always be a direct response to a commercial objective, however. Don’t redesign for the sake of redesigning!
