Last year 3,000 U.S. business took the plunge to rebrand themselves and emerge as something new. So we beg the questions, "what does it mean to rebrand yourself?" and "are rebranding efforts ever successful?"

The urge to reinvent is more often than not driven by the need for growth and sometimes a brand and its attributes do get in the way. We took a look at two types of situations where a brand is preventing growth and companies that have gotten rebranding right:

Situation #1: The market no longer wants or cares about your product or service.
When it comes to retail makeovers, few have been as dramatic, or as successful as Banana Republic. Headquarters of the adventure/safari look of the 1980's, the retailer altered its merchandise and its store to become the modern casual lifestyle retailer of the 1990s. Founded in 1978, Banana Republic was created to supply high-quality, natural fiber apparel in the era of disco polyester. In 1983, the chain was acquired by Gap, Inc., which aggressively expanded Banana Republic. But then, in the early 1990s, the bottom fell out when the safari look crashed. Without a new niche, the company was destined for bankruptcy.

Through consumer research, Banana Republic found a huge gap in the retail market—the "dress-casual" zone. The company began developing a modern versatile wardrobe, resting somewhere between the formality of Brooks Brothers and the weekend wear of Gap. The look of the stores also began to change. Gone were the adventure-oriented fixtures, the dark floors and the busy safari feel. The stores revamped themselves with a brighter, sparser look with cleaner fixtures and light woods. Simplicity to match the spirit of casual Friday.

Nearly ten years later, the rebranding of Banana Republic is complete. The chain has been expanding year after year, new product lines have been introduced and most importantly, a new category was defined. A unique and differentiated brand was born from the ashes of near defeat.

Situation #2: Public perception will not allow your entry into new markets.
When you think of Ernst & Young, what comes to mind? A big, boring, arrogant blue-suited consultancy that looks down the nose of any company that's under $200 million in revenues. Yet back in the late 1990s, the firm saw the Internet as an important new business opportunity targeting the small business owner. So they created an online service, where for $500 a month, small business owners could ask unlimited questions of an online Web site and get guaranteed consulting delivered over the Internet within 24 hours. The problem of course was how to change the mindset of this new target and create the perception that big, blue-suited E&Y actually cared about the small business owner.

Rather than try to brand its "online consultant service" the company created Ernie, E&Y's online persona. Training modules and writing guidelines were developed so that consultants were delivering answers to consumers in the voice of Ernie. Every touch point with the consumer, from advertising, to their Intranet, from collateral to customer service, was infused with this new persona. He affected their business processes and impacted their corporate culture. With Ernie, the company delivered the intelligence and experience that is Ernst and Young in an understandable and accessible format—without the perceived wire-rimmed, blue-suited arrogance.

How has Ernie fared? The service captured six million dollars in the first month of operation. Today, there's a waiting list to get in.

Resolving to embark on a corporate rebranding program should be met with a hard examination of your current brand and a good deal of marketing research. You need to ask yourself if your brand is in the way of growth or if it's another marketing issue. Rebranding is not a superficial visual makeover, and rarely will efforts to produce a short-term spike in earnings justify branding investments. It is an expensive, time-consuming and arduous process. When done correctly and for the right reasons, however, your company can survive this ever-changing marketplace.

It seems that adults who enjoy sitcoms appear to be more modern and liberal than those who don't watch them. Very open to new experiences, sitcom viewers are likely to place high value on creativity, nonintellectual pursuits, and foreign cars. Some would say that they "live in the moment." Non-sitcom viewers tend to be politically conservative with traditional values. They are "plugged-into" global and national news and derive much satisfaction from their jobs.

Here are a few of the characteristics of the average sitcom viewer:

For more informative profiles of consumers, visit http://www.copernicusmarketing.com/discover/docs/psycho.htm

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Notwithstanding the fact that the soda just plain tastes terrible (not just our opinion, but beverage marketing analysts as well), today Surge barely holds on to a minuscule .3 percent share of the $58 billion soda market. While it certainly isn't thirst quenching, Surge does offer a demonstration of three of the most common causes of new product failure:

1. The wrong group is targeted. Coke might have asked, "Is the demand in the target group and ability to pay high enough to sustain a brand either in the short or long-term?" Perhaps targeting younger kids before they got hooked on Mountain Dew theoretically made sense, but we would suspect these kids typically aren't buying more than one can of soda at a time. Hint: their parents buy the soda. And just how likely is a parent to buy large quantities of a high-caffeine and high-sugar soda for their youngest children?
   
   
2. A weak positioning strategy is used. Surge's advertising message, "a fully-loaded citrus beverage" did nothing to differentiate itself against its chief competitor, Mountain Dew. We think they tried to say Surge is sweeter and had more caffeine, but how compelling a value proposition is this to their target group? Did they even understand it? A positioning statement must differentiate itself from the competition. It must embody the benefits and attributes that appeal to the target, giving them a reason to buy.
   
   
3. A poor product or service. In the long run, this probably killed whatever chance Surge may have had. In some newer markets, an average product or service might win market share initially, but are unlikely to survive in the long run.

Unfortunately for Coke, they haven't had a successful new product introduction or ad campaign in more than 10 years. Coke spent millions of dollars to develop, launch and try to grow Surge. The damage done to the company by Surge's flop, comes not only in the form of the millions the company spent on developing and launching the product, but also in the relationship with bottlers and distributors, as well as untold harm to the Coca-Cola image. With this latest flop, let's hope Coke starts to pay attention to the reasons its new products keep failing.

For more insightful marketing discoveries, visit http://www.copernicusmarketing.com/discover/index.htm

Have a hot discovery for our next release? Contact us at info@copernicusmarketing.com

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Finally! An author who writes about growing customer loyalty on the Internet as a function of brand building rather than a separate objective entirely. Branding.com applies the fundamentals of marketing to the Internet, providing a basic primer for T-commerce and E-commerce companies on using the Internet for branding efforts. The author's case studies of well-known firms offer valuable lessons and anecdotes for B-to-C and B-to-B marketers as well.


Driving Customer Equity: How Customer Lifetime Value is Reshaping Corporate Strategy
by Roland T. Rust, Valarie A. Zeithaml, Katherine N. Lemon (Free Press, June 2000)

Companies are mired in outdated measurement systems and strategies that maintain a product-centered approach to marketing and business. The customer equity model presented in the book provides companies with a tool to maximize their most important asset—the total lifetime value of its customer base. This book is truly a breakthrough in providing new metrics that map into the goals of a total customer-focused company.

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The votes are in and the tallying begins for the inductees in the Counterintuitive Marketing Hall of Fame, a place where CEOs, CMOs, and aspiring marketers of all ages can go to see in all their glory the marketing blockbusters and disasters of the past. Hall of Famers have achieved great marketing success adhering to marketing fundamentals like a clearly defined target, while Hall of Shamers have encountered product flops and declining performance.

Members of the Copernicus Board of Advisors, a group comprised of many of the world's leading marketing experts, will make the final selections of 2001's inductees into the Hall of Fame and Shame this month. We will announce the final inductees on April 2 on www.counterintuitivemarketing.com.

Log on to http://www.counterintuitivemarketing.com to see some of our nominees for the Hall of Fame and Shame.

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