What is a rebranding?

01 | Rebranding explained

A rebranding is the alteration or completely new branding for a brand in order to breathe new life into its image. You reposition your luxury brand so that you attract the (new) ideal customer. It is therefore often a strategic adjustment to the vision, goals and values of the brand with subsequent adjustments to the brand identity design.

As a brand you can also opt for a brand refresh. This refreshes your brand without a very deep, strategic change. Think of adjusting the logo design by making small alterations to keep up with the times. Or a revamped tagline.

Rebranding vs branding
The difference between branding and rebranding mainly lies in repositioning — placing yourself in the market in a different way. In the first round of branding, you are often new to the market. Customers may not or hardly know your brand. This allows you to completely determine how you will position your luxury brand.

When you talk about a rebranding, it is often for an existing company or brand. So customers already have a certain idea of what they can expect from your brand. Once people already have feelings when it comes to a brand, it is often quite difficult to change this. This makes the rebranding process more complicated and challenging than creating an initial branding. It often goes deeper than adjusting the logo design or colors — it’s an emotional shift that needs to be made.

Luxury rebranding examples
Burberry is a well-known rebranding of a luxury brand. In 2023, a preview of the new direction Burberry is taking visually under the guidance of their new creative director. This comes after the rebranding from 2018, in which the brand opted for a more streamlined corporate identity design. It quickly became clear that people were not very enthusiastic about the new branding. There was an emotional turnaround that made people wonder what the brand stood for. In the years that followed, the brand gradually returned to their core, followed by the rebranding of 2023.

The 2023 rebrand, on the other hand, received a lot of praise online and people saw the rebrand as the return to a contemporary British brand. Something they were previously known as. What this mainly indicates is that the emotions towards the luxury brand changed and made the repositioning successful.

In the field of branding, many conversations arose about ‘blanding’ — a phenomenon in which mainly luxury brands presented logo designs in modern sans serif logotypes. This resulted in them losing their individuality. People had strong opinions about it. In other words, their emotions towards these brands changed.

02 | Reasons to rebrand

There are various reasons why you should invest in a rebranding for your brand:

• You want a professional look or you have outgrown the current branding;
• The branding doesn’t feel unique to your high-end brand and you lack the distinction of other brands;
• You are not attracting the ideal customer or want to focus on a new ideal customer;
• Your goals and vision have changed;
• The brand needs a new image following a turbulent period.

After getting to the bottom of why your brand needs a rebrand, you look at where the brand is now and where you want to grow towards to. The space between Vanuit de reden kijk je naar het merk om te zien waar het nu staat en waar jullie heen willen groeien. The space in between is the GAP in which the change takes place.

Challenges of a rebranding
Branding is a living process. You will see that at a certain point your luxury brand will have to move with the times. Opting for a rebranding is a good idea, but one that comes with challenges.

For example, the recognisability that has been built can be lost. Customers are used to a certain image of your brand. If this changes, they may be less likely to recognize your brand. Or leads to the loss of customers, because they no longer feel connected to the brand.

The advantage is that you will attract the right customers who better fit the brand. And with these customers you can build new relationships that help you achieve the new long-term vision.

In short, a rebranding is not a process that you spend an afternoon on. It requires preparation — especially towards the launch — and a partner that can guide you through this so that you get the desired result. A professional brand designer can be the partner to help you.

03 | Rebranding process

Now that you know what a rebrand is and when a rebrand is needed, it’s time for the process. The process can be different for each branding designer, but these are the steps we go through with clients:

GAP-analysis and brand strategy
We always use the GAP-analysis for a rebranding project. We look at where the luxury brand is now and where they want to be in the future. The GAP in between is where the new brand strategy with repositioning arises that is leading for the luxury branding design.

Luxury branding design
As a result of the new brand strategy, we will start working on the brand identity of the brand. All visual elements will be rebranded, but non-visual elements such as the tone of voice will also be overhauled. This creates a brand identity design that helps the brand achieve their long-term vision.

Brand experience and collateral
Often when brands have been around for some time, there are also other supporting (marketing) materials that need to be adjusted. Think of the website, business cards, bags, packaging, loyalty cards, etc. These all have to match the rebranding. We take care of the visual designs.

It is therefore a good time to evaluate the overall brand experience and brand touchpoints during the rebrand. In addition to the rebranding we can facilitate this, but it can also be evaluated by the brand itself.

We always recommend to consult a branding expert to guide your brand and team. The rebranding is a delicate process that needs to be done properly to take the brand to the next level.