Rebranding

Initiatives taken
by Organizations
Brand Management
(Phase 2)
Section A Group 4
Prateek Abhyankar (16P005)
Aniket Sharma (16P018)
Mohit Gaur (16P031)
Sanyam Tripathi (16P049)
Siddharth Sharma (16P053)
Choice of Topic
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes an organization or
product from its rivals in the eyes of the customer. Brands are used in business, marketing,
and advertising.

Branding is a set of marketing and communication methods that help to distinguish a company or
products from competitors, aiming to create a lasting impression in the minds of customers. The
key components that form a brand's toolbox include a brands identity, brand communication
(such as by logos and trademarks), brand awareness, brand loyalty, and various branding (brand
management) strategies.

Through the brand the organization tries to convey its positioning statement to the relevant
Target Audience.

In todays competitive world there are thousands of brands competing in the same space for the
same consumer segment. Thus Brand is critical in this scenario as it is what differentiates one
player from the other. People recognize a brand, associate with it and thus choose it over the
others.

A simple example of this would be a simple category as soaps. There are multiple soap brands in
the market but a particular customer has an affinity for a specific brand such as Dove, Pears or
Lux. Thus even though there are multiple brands available he chooses a specific one. The reason
behind this choice is his relation to the brand. He associates with what the brand tries to
communicate and also has associated himself with the brands positioning statement.

Thus we see that for any organization, brand plays a crucial role in its existence. However some
organizations over their lifetime go for rebranding initiatives for their products. They go for a
total makeover of the brand sometimes by renaming themselves and creating a new identity
altogether and sometimes by changing the communication of their existing brand. They do so to
emphasize on new values and characteristics that they want to incorporate in their offering and
create a new value proposition for the customers.
Purpose of Study
Through this project we aim to look at some examples as to why do the organizations go for re-
branding initiatives, what is the thought process behind it and what is the intended change they
expect from the rebranding initiative.

We would try to understand what the existing communication was, what the changed
communication is and what the customer response was to the new brand. We would also try to
find out how did the organization fare in its rebranding initiative in terms of hits and misses with
the newer identity.

Study Objectives
Through the project we would be accomplishing the following objectives:
what the existing communication was,
what the changed communication is and
what the customer response was to the new brand
hits and misses with the newer identity

Justification and significance of Study

Whenever an organization undergoes a rebranding initiative, there is a lot at stake. The whole
identity of the organization undergoes a change, whatever it has stood for throughout its life is
changed. The customers may accept the new brand or may reject it if they feel a disconnect.
Thus the organizations need to be very careful in this regard. They need to be able judge the
audiences response for the old as well as new brand. Only after due diligence they should decide
to go for the new branding initiatives.

Thus for any organization it is critical to see if the rebranding initiative has succeeded or failed in
its objectives, hence this project would help us in understanding what thought goes behind
rebranding initiatives of the organization and whether they were successful.
Outline of Study
The project would follow a designed approach as follows:

Importance of brands

values communicated by present brand

flaws in current value positioning

new brand identity

new set of values and positioning statement

Hits and Misses with the new branding statement

Organisation being studied

Airtel and Apple

Apple : At Miss Details Design, we are Apple fanatics. We use Mac computers, we lust over
iPhones, and when the logo of iTunes changed, it was a topic of conversation in our
office. Since we werent all working together when Apple Computers Inc. rebranded to Apple
Inc. in 1997 and changed the logo around the same time, we figured now would be a good time
to look at the rebrand.
Removing the colors from the logo gave the company a clean, fresh look and also made the
company appear more modern and sophisticated. When the company removed Computer from
the name it removed the limit that the company only specialized in computers. It enabled Apple
to develop new and innovative products in other areas, such as the iPad, iPhone, and iPod.
Apple has come a long way since 1997, becoming a leader in not only the personal computer
market, but also creating a successful platform for mobile apps (with the App store) and music
(with iTunes), breaking into the mobile phone market (iPhone), capturing market share in tablet
computers (iPad), and making music portable (iPod).

Airtel : The rebranding of Airtel in November 2010, has worked in favor of Airtel. Airtel is a
unique case as despite being the top company in the Indian telecom circle (with widest consumer
base and presence across all the telecom circles of India). Airtel has an emotional connect with
its customers. Airtel has invested lots of money in constantly changing itself to suit the different
requirements of its customers and adapting itself to the changing environment.

Objective :
To understand how the consumers perceive the rebranding of the companies
The level of impact the rebranding has on the consumers
To give recommendations and suggestions

Hypothesis development :
H0 (null) : Brand rebranding does not have an impact on consumer behavior
Research and Methodology :
The study is based on primary as well as secondary data . Primary data has been collected
through questionnaire. The sample size is 60 . Male and Female consumers of different age
groups have been taken as respondents. We have considered a significane level of 5% i.e at 95%
confidence level for the analysis. Secondary data has been obtained from various published
sources , websites , books , articles and journals .