A company is not just a name but a trusted service that you provide your consumers.When branding this company, you want your consumers to feel like they can relate to you and the service that you provide. Consumers want to trust in your company and be able to successfully identify with you depending on their needs.
Companies tend to merge together, split off, form all new brands (ie. Bresnan Communications and Optimum) that can merit a rebranding of a company.
This can be tricky, with loyal customers already trusted in a particular name and service — when things are switched up, there is a risk in losing customers if the process is not performed successfully. Rebranding is better suited for a startup or small business that experiences a profound shift in identity.
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| When Bresnan rebranded to Optimum, they kept their Bresnan name intact with “Bresnan Communications is now Optimum” along with keeping the domain name and creating a unique domain for Optimum but keeping the layout the same, not to confuse or frustrate the consumer. |
How Do I Change My Vanity URLs on Social Sites?
When your company comes up with a new name, it’s important to direct your consumers to this new name, with appropriate domain names and social sites.
Facebook: Facebook isn’t accommodating in regards to changing your Facebook page URL once you have more than 100 fans. We encourage to create a new Facebook page and redirect your existing fans to the new page.Twitter: Twitter allows for their users to change their handles, as long as the desired username is not already taken. If your ideal handle is already taken and is inactive, you can request of Twitter with explanation of your case to see about nabbing that handle. Another route would be to keep the previous company handle and just create another – that way the dialog generated is not lost from previous Tweets. Replies to your Followers, redirecting them to your new brand name shows good customer service and care in your transition.YouTube: You can not change your user name for YouTube but you can create a vanity URL that redirects to your old page, this keeps the dialog generated between the company and the consumers intake and basically “masking” the new brand on the old YouTube page.
How Do I Announce the New Brand?
So you’ve changed names and you want to get the word out and explain the rebrand to your consumers.
A Personal Note: A heartfelt message to your consumers/users/subscribers explains the rebranding, why it came about, what this means for the company and what it means to the consumers. It’s important to treat this with care, responsiveness to complaints and feedback that may come your way.Press Outreach: A name change of the brand is not press worthy, so when putting a release together, be sure to indicate new features or bells and whistles that will be of value to your customers.SEO: We don’t want to completely detach from the old name, press from the old name is what we want to keep intact. Reaching out to the press of this name change can usually cover these particular concerns. A great use of “commenting strategy,” whereby the team commented on old press posts (see below – VillageVines changing names to Savored) with information about name changes.
For more information check out the original article: http://mashable.com/2011/11/09/how-to-manage-a-rebrand/