What Do You Do When You Need People to Reassess Who You Are?
The Essentials in Rebranding
Jeremy Dale, CMO, Likewize
The most important advice I can give any organization considering a rebrand is, for it to be successful, it must be done for a good reason. Rebranding to help the marketplace better understand your business is a good reason – rebranding to escape negative press is possibly the worst. In my career I have led two fundamental rebrands – the ITV Digital rebrand in the UK, featuring comedian Johnny Vegas and his sidekick Monkey, and, most recently, Brightstar’s transformative rebrand to Likewize. The following are the key learnings I have picked up along the way.
Realize when the time is right. You need a compelling reason to change, backed up by logic. In the case of Brightstar (now Likewize), we were so well-known globally as a mobile phone distributor that people struggled to understand how over recent years’ we fundamentally evolved to become a tech protection and support company. Despite our efforts, we struggled to disassociate from the historical understanding of what the Brightstar name meant – so we realized we had to take the huge (perhaps risky and scary) decision to change our name. Despite being fully aware that we may lose brand awareness, CEO Rod Millar and I knew this was necessary to give our company the platform it needed to push on to the next level.
Rebrand with substance. Consider the reason why the company exists, then establish your mission and values. For Likewize, it was not just about people reassessing who we are – we needed to inspire people behind the message that we are the tech safety net for all our client’s customers, ultimately elevating our importance in the tech ecosystem. The question I always ask myself is ‘how does the company make the world a better place’? If we can articulate that well, then we will be able to provide clarity and inspiration for both employees and customers.
Understand the power of a name. There is no more impactful way to demonstrate a fundamental shift in who you are than to change your name. When Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammed Ali, it was because he had new beliefs and the name change signified his desire to be viewed as a different person than he was before. The differences between who we were as Brightstar and who we are as Likewize is similarly so dramatic that the only reasonable way to demonstrate this to a public audience was to present a new name which showcased our new personality to the marketplace.
Take a chance. Often the biggest challenge in a rebrand is getting everyone on the same page. What I have found is too many competing opinions makes it very easy to create a camel with seven humps – for Likewize we were not going to allow that to happen. Rod and I made the bold decision to limit the development process to a small, driven team that was willing to take on the risk associated with a complete transformation. We kept the new name from the board until we had almost completed the rebranding. When we did bring them in, we had roughly 90 percent of the rebrand in place, including launch videos, and we presented it almost as a fait accompli.
It is important to say there was no guarantee this would work. We only did this because we knew that the new brand was so good, we were so excited about the new assets we had created. If we had come up with something average that did not get universal approval it could have been a nightmare. However, we believed we had found a great position that brought clarity and inspiration – and the board loved it (fortunately!)
Have convictions. As CMO and CEO you end up becoming the cheerleaders for the new brand, so you must be steadfast in your belief that what you are doing is right and back yourself all the way. Likewize aside, there will almost inevitably be challenges along the way. When I lead the ITV Digital rebrand, the shareholders were not initially sold on Johnny Vegas as the face of the campaign. However, having full confidence that he would be a huge success, I put my job on the line and told them they could fire me if it wasn’t brilliant. That showed them how confident I was in Johnny and the campaign, so they backed me.
Showcase your passion, always. I always say I have to sell things in all the way through the channel. First of all, you have to sell the idea to yourself, then to your team, then to the next group of people and then to the end consumers. It can all fall down at any step in this journey. You have to make sure you generate enough momentum up front that will flow through all these stages – you can only do this by making sure everyone sees how passionate you are about the project, at all times. I often suggest acting lessons for marketing executives to help them be able to stand up and sell the idea confidentially and enthusiastically on multiple occasions. I must have done the Likewize rebrand pitch one hundred times and each time I have to have the same energy and conviction. You have to convey your message on both a rational and emotional level – the head and heart - both have to work.
If you are confident in the reasons behind your rebrand and the new name and brand assets, the impact can be almost immediate. Within 24 hours of announcing Likewize’s rebrand, we had a major telco who we had been trying to get a meeting with for years, call us up and invite us to come in for a meeting. If you search Likewize on the internet now you will see there is no confusion as to who we are and what we do.
The bottom line is this, your branding should clearly convey who you are as a company, display your values, and clearly articulate how you make the world a better place. That is what brand management is all about.
About the Author: Jeremy is an author, speaker and change agent. His book ‘The Punk Rock of Business’, highly recommended by the likes of Marshall Goldsmith, focuses on the required changes to how we work that the technological revolution demands. As Chief Marketing Officer of Likewize, Jeremy has recently led the company’s transformative rebrand, redefining the company as a global tech protection and support leader.
Prior to Likewize, Jeremy launched OTRO a digital fan club of 17 of the world’s top footballers, and as CEO he took the company from concept to a $100m valuation. Jeremy also spent eight years as CVP at Microsoft leading the retail channel.
With over 20 years of experience in the consumer electronics industry, some of Jeremy’s career highlights include overseeing all marketing for the highly acclaimed iconic RAZR phone while he was Chief Marketing Officer for Motorola. He created the hugely popular Orange Wednesdays initiative during his tenure at Orange. At ITV Digital he led the rebranding of the company and created the much loved 'Al and Monkey' advertising campaign, while as Commercial and Marketing Director for Nintendo's UK business Jeremy launched the legendary Pokémon franchise and spearheaded the resurgence of the Game Boy brand.
Jeremy has gained wide recognition and won many awards including a BAFTA for the launch of Pokémon. He was named in the UK's Marketing Power 100 and was listed in Total Films 100 Most Influential People in the Movies.
