Cost/Benefit of a Rebrand

[Waffles]

Thought this was a very informative piece from Vox about the cost and thought that goes into a corporate name change and rebrand.

 

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/25/18013642/dunkin-donuts-rebranding-cost

 

My current company rebranded five years ago and is still working old graphics and outdated signage out of its system, and I think this piece does a good job of capturing why that happens and how it often manifests itself.

[Gothamite]

It's a good point.

 

In sports, this takes on a slightly different dimension, since a rebrand gives an immediate (if possibly short-term) revenue boost.  Nobody's going to go out and buy Dunkin' mugs just because they have a new logo on them.

 

Then again, you have different approaches on how to handle all the various physical elements in a sports rebrand.

 

The Brewers have set themselves up for an easy rebrand should they want one.  Miller Park is conspicuously devoid of any identifying marks tying them to the current Brewers brand identity.  The stadium itself is in neutral colors, concrete gray and sage.

 

 

If anything, the stadium is mostly sage green, with all the seats and the area behind home plate (which was beige before that).

 

 

Not only are the seats a neutral green, but they don't even have a team logo on them.  Instead they feature an generic logo of the building itself.

 

 

The interior signage is similarly neutral in color and design.

 

 

Seriously, if the Brewers changed their logo they wouldn't have to change more than a couple signs in the place.  Easy enough.

 

On the other hand, you have Camden Yards, which still has the Orioles' old cap logos on the scoreboard wind vanes.

 

 

They ditched that logo over twenty years ago, but nobody seems to mind having it so prominently displayed.

[MJWalker45]

On 10/26/2018 at 10:28 AM, Gothamite said:

 

 

They ditched that logo over twenty years ago, but nobody seems to mind having it so prominently displayed.

The cost for ordering two new birds, getting them cast and painted, and then placed up there is probably a little steep. The shape of the current logo could be a factor as well. 

[Gothamite]

8 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

The cost for ordering two new birds, getting them cast and painted, and then placed up there is probably a little steep. The shape of the current logo could be a factor as well. 

 

Not even the current logo - they’ve had another new logo in between this one and the current.

 

And yes, cost was likely a factor.  The whole point of the article was how much it costs companies to replace their old logos, and I was pointing out that in this case the Orioles chose not to.

[logodawg]

3 hours ago, Gothamite said:

 

Not even the current logo - they’ve had another new logo in between this one and the current.

 

And yes, cost was likely a factor.  The whole point of the article was how much it costs companies to replace their old logos, and I was pointing out that in this case the Orioles chose not to.

Cost and probably the assumption that 99.5% of the population that aren't design freaks like us would never notice.   

[Gothamite]

Maybe. 

 

And maybe 99.5% of the population wouldn’t notice if Dunkin’ left its old logo on some of the sugar packets, hot cups, cold cups, brown paper bags, employee uniforms, digital credit card reader graphics, sacks of coffee beans, boxes of K-cups, and those posts with the retractable belts that designate how the line should form.

[Waffles]

Sports franchises also have the massive benefit of a season/offseason cycle to handle the logistics of implementing a branding change. They can execute changes to the signage and other physical elements when their venue isn't hosting events as regularly. Teams turn over their marketing campaigns every season anyway, so their collateral has a finite shelf-life whether there's a change or not. Same goes, to differing extents, for uniforms, tickets, and other pieces.

[panthers_2012]

Even if the team thinks about rebranding the year before it takes place. I know with the Lake Erie Crushers, I talked to the owner a couple of weeks after he bought the team in 2015 and he was looking to change the logo, but he waited a season to do it.

 

He had two options..1) Rebrand the team and keep the Crushers name or 2) Blow it up entirely and create a new identity.

 

He partnered up with my Sport Marketing class and we did surveys the last half of the season. A majority of the surveys said the 1st option, and that's what they did. He also told me later that he was leaning towards keeping the Crushers name, but he was waiting to see what the fans would say.

 

2017 rolled around and they rebranded, and I think more people know about the Crushers than ever before.