Factors like crisis, the environment, or changing perceptions can dramatically impact a brand.
Let’s take a look at what happened to some brands that faced changed perceptions.
Kentucky Fried Chicken was a highly successful franchise selling fried chicken. The company did not have a crisis like BP or AIG. Rather, the environment around healthy eating changed. Fried foods were considered less healthy than grilled foods.
Response: They re-branded to KFC. The acronym name derived directly from the then current name. They went further and rolled out a line of grilled chicken.
Prunes and prune juice are often associated with senior citizens or aiding bodily digestion. California prune growers wanted to broaden their market.
Response: The growers went back to how prunes are created. They are dried plums. Therefore, they began advertising them as dried plums. A whole new marketplace for snacks opened up.
Similar to Kentucky Fried Chicken’s healthy food challenge, red meat was vilified as being bad for you. Pork was hurt by the decrease in “meat” sales while chicken was growing since it was not red meat.
Response: Pork was advertised as “the other white meat.” Immediately, sales began to rise and continued to grow.
The Takeaway
Remember the old saying, if you have lemons make lemonade. You can change the paradigm around your brand with innovative thinking.
Those are my ideas. What do you think?
- What other examples of re-branding can you suggest?
- What other reasons should a company re-brand?
- Do you feel KFC, Dried Plums and Pork were successful in their re-branding?
Please share your thoughts in the Comments field below. Thanks!
Copyright © 2010 Rob Berman
