Published on:
July 3, 2023
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The Worst Company Rebrands:
Weightwatchers
Remember the days where Weightwatchers advertisements were on your TV, radio, in shops and online? The company were hugely successful in helping their customers lose weight, but with the latest body positivity trends, weightwatchers wanted to change their branding to reflect making healthier life choices as opposed to ‘keeping the pounds off’. Sadly, the brand overhaul was a major flop – in the second half of 2018, they reported a loss of 600,000 members. The boring new logo was not the downfall of the brand, rather, it was the brand rename. The brand was infamous for their name since they launched in 1963 and become globally recognised for their name in the weight loss industry, changing their name to Wellness and Wellbeing did not have the desired effect. Needless to say, the company have since reverted to their original name.
MasterCard
As one of the biggest financial companies in the world, the Mastercard logo is globally recognised, that was until 2006, when they changed their infamous logo. What was once a straightforward and recognisable logo, became confusing and needlessly complicated. The design cost them a jaw dropping $1.5 million! Whilst most companies strive for a simpler and more minimalistic logo, Mastercard opted for a complicated and cluttered logo with poor gradients and shadows. Mastercard later decided to only use the logo for corporate worldwide communications and kept their existing logo for their main brand image. It was an expensive mistake, as the entire rebrand cost a whopping $10 million.
McDonalds
You may be familiar with the old style Mcdonalds, a place for kids birthday parties, the (somewhat creepy) Ronald McDonald clown, classic Happy Meal toys, and the infamous red and yellow colours EVERYWHERE! The audience back then were children and families looking for a quick bite and a bit of fun. That was until the McCafe, when McDonalds changed their target audience to the businessperson. They improved their coffee, salad was introduced to the menu, and their restaurants were re-designed to look more professional and sleek- the harsh yellow and red was replaced for grey, with hints of their original yellow throughout the restaurant. Their original audience never left, their audience just got older and had their own kids! McDonalds has been massively successful in appealing to both audiences. Their main goal was to create a place that provided better value, better customer service, and “be more like Starbucks”.
Starbucks
Starbucks was one of the first companies to make their logo simpler, which was widely unpopular at the time. The company was renowned for coffee, but they wanted to introduce new ideas and attract a wider demographic by catering to non-coffee lovers. The solution was to rebrand, not by completely abandoning their entire identity, but by slightly tweaking it to show “Hey, We’ve Made Some Changes!”. The company removed “Starbucks Coffee” from their logo and changed their Siren to green to represent their commitment to the environment. Starbucks became more than just a coffee shop, and people slowly began to accept the changes. The introduction of their loyalty scheme and writing customer names on cups was hugely successful too, it made Starbucks feel more personable, and people loved snapping photos of their names on their cups (a great marketing initiative). As one of the biggest brands in the world, with a clear identifiable logo, the Starbucks rebrand was simple but hugely effective, with their loyal customers willing to pay up to £5 for a cup of coffee, simply to show off the brand.
Knowing when to completely rebrand or just refresh your brand is difficult, and both options require careful planning and execution to ensure you don’t make costly mistakes. At Minto, we specialise in helping businesses build brands, we’ve successfully launched new brands from scratch, but we’ve also helped well-established businesses who needed a helping hand to update their logo and approach to marketing. Our team will help you create, or refresh, your company logo, design a line of merchandise, print business essentials like business cards, and market your business online – the full package to successfully compete in todays market. To speak to our team, email us at sales@mintobranding.com or call 01224 631544.