Corporate America - Are Consumers Really Fooled by Family Friendly Rebranding - Essay Example

Corporate America -Are consumers really fooled by "family friendly" rebranding? Rebranding is one of the major business strategies adopted by many of the big American corporate companies to survive the competition and to stay in the market. Americans are fed up with the traditional brands since they are using the same product over a period of time. For example, McDonalds is one of the favorite food brands for many of the Americans for many years. McDonald is providing the same taste over a lengthy period of time to its customers without much diversification in its product range. Fed up with eating same thing regularly, many of the McDonald customers started to rely on other food services to enjoy a different taste. “Recently McDonald decided it was time to stop the decline in global profits and the bleeding of customers to healthier options, and devoting billions of dollars in a global corporate re-branding intended to blunt McDonald’s association with unhealthy kids” (Re-branding: the McDonald’s strategy, p.4). Many people believe that such rebranding strategies by big corporates companies are actually fooling the consumers. In other words corporates are providing the same thing in new appearance to the customers. This paper analyses the rebranding strategies of corporate companies and the actual intention behind such strategies. At an operational level, McDonald’s stores were to be given new interiors, revamped staff uniforms and packaging, and new menu items. In their UK print and outdoor campaigns, a golden question mark now replaced the Golden Arches explained by the tagline “McDonald’s. But not as you know it”. Re-branding: the McDonald’s strategy(Re-branding: the McDonald’s strategy, p.4). It is evident from the above descriptions that MacDonald is actually trying to polish their image with the help of new brand building strategies. It is an accepted fact that currently, they are struggling hard to stay in the globalized market because of the intrusion of many other competitors who offer better food at cheaper rates to the customers. With the help of rebranding strategies MacDonald is trying to cater the same food under new labels and new packets. It should be noted that attractive interiors and new slogans may increase the visibility of the brand; but it may not enhance the taste of the food supplied by McDonalds. Ultimately, a consume is paying for the food rather than the enhanced interiors or food packets. In other words, McDonald is trying to cheat the public in the name of family friendly rebranding. Nicolas Sarkozy can never become Mike Webb even if he does lot of makeups. McDonald is trying to do the same thing. They wanted to become something of the higher order with the help of rebranding strategies. With rebranding efforts, change is not limited solely to unveiling a new name but also to potential changes to the corporate logo and slogan. There are five possible permutations of these elements in corporate rebranding: slogan only, logo only, logo plus slogan, name plus logo and name plus logo plus slogan In part, the degree to which the rebranding is evolutionary or revolutionary is related to the circumstances that prompted the decision to rebrand (Bradbury, p.15). It is evident from the above details that the customers are getting the same thing under new labels when big American corporate companies undertake rebranding strategies. Name, logo or slogan are not much important to the customers. What is important to the customers is the product or service from the organization. If the quality of the product or the service increases as part of the rebranding process, the customers will be benefitted. However, such things are happening very rarely. It should be noted that Apple company struggled a lot during the latter parts of twentieth century to stay in the market because of the stiff competition from arch rivals Microsoft. They did many things as part of their rebranding strategy. They have changed their multicolor logo into a single color logo. Moreover, they changed the company name from Apple Computers to Apple Inc. to spread the message that Apple is no more a computer company, but a company with lot of consumer electronic products. These strategies failed to attract the people initially. However, with the introduction of new revolutionary products such as iPads, iPhones, iPods, etc Apple started to capture the market. Currently they are the most valuable technological company in the world and moreover they are the second largest company in the world as far as market capitalization is concerned. All these achievements can be attributed to the innovative products introduced by Apple rather than the rebranding strategies implemented in Apple. Generally after a Merger or Acquisition, companies rebrand their newly acquired products, to keep them along with their existing product line. The process of rebranding aims to reposition the brand or the company, or to distinguish itself from the negative opinions about the previous brands or to climb the success ladder by moving the brand still upwards (Why Rebranding?). It should be noted that “Microsoft has recently engaged in a collaboration with Yahoo and America online to increase their margins, secure higher prices for remnant ads, and augment the reach available to agencies and advertisers” (Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL Confirm Display Ad Deal). Many other huge corporate companies are doing similar things at present to put dust in the eyes of the consumers and to cheat them. In a heavily globalized market environment, competition is getting stiffer and stiffer every day. Many of the huge American corporate companies are currently struggling to stay in the market. Lehman Brothers and bank of America are already collapsed because of recent recession problems and America’s prestigious automaker General Motors is on the verge of destruction. Rebranding is a business strategy which can be undertaken without incurring much expenses to the company. Corporates are seeking shortcuts to make profits; rebranding is one shortcut they successfully implemented in America. With the intrusion of cheaper Chinese products American market, many of the reputed American company products lost its demands in the market. Chinese products are matching in every respect with their American counterparts except in one category; pricing. For the price of one American product, two similar Chinese products can be purchased. In short, American companies are struggling hard to exist even in American markets. Under such circumstances, they have no other way, but to cheat the public in one way or other. Contradictory opinions exist regarding the process of rebranding. One is that rebranding is essential for business success; to evolve the brands so as to make sure that it keeps abreast of the competition, and meet the consumers ever changing preferences. The other side of the coin depicts an opinion that rebranding should be avoided at all costs. If brands like Kodak and Coca Cola can be market leaders why should rebranding ever be considered? Generally many companies consider rebranding as a 'Cosmetic Work out'. When companies fail to establish one brand, or companies whose brand had been through any kind of scandal, may go for a rebranding process. Here, the intention is to erase the previous brand image and establish a fresh one (Why Rebranding?) In an attempt to canvass the consumers, PepsiCo and Coca Cola changed their brand logos many times. Moreover, they changed the drink container designs, appearances and labeling many times as part of their rebranding strategies. Even more volume of drinks were also offered as part of the sales promotion strategies. However, it should be noted that the all-important beverage and its ingredients remain the same. Companies which enjoy monopoly in the market never tried to change their faces. For example, Microsoft enjoys huge monopoly in operating system market. Even though Linux tried to raise some challenges to Microsoft, so far their monopoly seems to be intact. They never undertake any comprehensive rebranding strategies. Their logo appears to be the same over the last few years of time. This is because of the fact that they have no competitor in the market and they can dictate the market. In other words, no organizations will try to go for rebranding operations unless they face stiff competition in the market. To conclude, rebranding is actually a scam. It is accepted as a business strategy by majority of the big American corporates in order to cheat the public. Rebranding helps corporates to sell their old or existing products in new containers or packets. Only the appearance or the packaging will be changed whereas the product remains unaffected because of rebranding. In some cases, companies raise the unit price of their product by packing the same product in a new packet. They may promise additional features to the product; however, all these promise features would be mere modification of the existing features. In short, rebranding is a business strategy to exploit the customers in with the help of some kind of face polishing. Only the surface will be polished and the inner parts remain the same. Works Cited Bradbury, Trish. “Committing Regicide: Rebranding the Football Kingz”. 2007. International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship OCTOBER 2007 “Re-branding: the McDonald’s Strategy”. Web. 14 November 2011. “Why Rebranding?”. Web. 14 November 2011. “Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL Confirm Display Ad Deal”. 2011. Read More