Corporate rebranding: learning from experience

Abstract The arena of corporate re-branding has seen considerable activity in recent years, with manyorganisations treating a change of name as a prerequisite to transforming their image. So the PostOffice is re-named Consignia, and the Spastics Society is reborn as Scope. Past constraints arerelieved by a new name. But, although much has been spent on this process, there is little in thepublic domain to enable us to benefit from the experiences of these companies. This qualitative study examines seven UK-based organisations which have re-branded in the pastfive years. The sectors are diverse, ranging from energy to charity. Depth interviews wereconducted with key decision makers in each organisation, with the aim of capturing theirexperiences of re-branding. The aim was to understand better the complex and infrequentprocess of re-naming, and to identify key issue areas which those undertaking a re-brandingprocess need to manage. Ultimately, this will contribute to the development of a best practicemodel so that other companies might benefit from their experience. We identify key issue areas for managers when re-branding their organisations, and offer anintegrating conceptual model of the re-branding process as an aspect of, or activity within,corporate renewal. ii