Norwich Union Direct Home Insurance

How to give your image makeover mass appeal

Know what your business is

When RNID renamed action on hearing loss earlier this year, it was driven by the desire to expand its mission to "change the world for deaf and hard of hearing" to work with a larger population, as young people with a perfect hearing, which often go to concerts or noisy nightclubs, to encourage them to protect their ears.

Action on Hearing Loss director of public engagement Emma Harrison explains: “We worked with research consultancy NFP Synergy to benchmark our brand awareness and only 2% of people could name us. That insight came as a shock for a charity that’s been around for 100 years. We were all mortified.”

According to LV= marketing director of general insurance Guy Hedger, a rebrand isn’t just a change of cosmetic packaging. “It has to be a cultural change, a change in philosophy, approach, structure, how a brand defines itself and how you think about your business. You must rethink your core mission,” he says.

Both Hedger and Adam Smith, marketing director at Yodel which rebranded from Home Delivery Network last year suggest that when the reasons for rebranding are based on robust foundations for a long-term strategy, then it is crucial to be able to consolidate what your brand is in a simple and clear positioning statement.

“This gives the brand credibility and a substance behind it,” says Smith. “It allows your customers and internal colleagues to buy into the brand. If you don’t buy into the brand positioning statement, you’re really going nowhere."

Do not ignore your heritage

Once you've established what it means to be renamed the company in terms of direction, structure or approach, then it is important to work on key assets to be learned from the previous mark.

Hedger at LV = said: "Consumers hate rebrands. They see them as nonsense free, so you must take some legacy with you. Aviva kept the dominant yellow, Snickers and kept the same design element of the pack when it changed its name to Marathon in 1990, so you can watch and know it's the same product.

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