Rebranding a company to help it gain market share.

During a recent presentation when I was sharing a story about a manufacturing company that we helped to rebrand, there was an insightful question. Why didn’t we just start over? Why did we retain some of the existing look and feel from the company’s old corporate and product logos?

While it can be tempting to start with a clean palette, it’s important to consider whether there is equity in the existing logo or logos and to gain an understanding of the marketplace.  In this case, the company had a corporate logo as well as logos for its three key products, with each serving a different market and need. There was very strong equity in one of the product brands. It is to its industry like Kleenex is to the facial tissue industry. Because the company had such a strong, positive reputation in the market, we wanted to capitalize on it. Therefore, when we redesigned the company’s identity we mixed the old with the new to create a similar, but fresh, more streamlined look for the company’s entire family of logos. The new look ties together the company and its three product lines, so that raving fans of its key product will recognize its other product brands. It is also helping to better position the company against a much larger competitor. Take a peak at the before and after.