Rebranding: Strategies to Internalise the New Brand

Rebranding is a technique where the firm intends to change its previously created brand image by altering its brand elements. A rebranding process is initiated so as to cover the gaps of the existing brand image/identity of a company. Even though the phenomenon is frequently noticed in the news and various other media, it has not been looked into with a research point of view. The success of a rebranding procedure depends on effective communication of the new brand promise, to both internal and external stakeholders. The externalisation procedure of a firm depends on the effectiveness of internalisation procedure. The firm should adopt necessary strategies to successfully embed the new idea within their employees. This study aims to identify the drivers of rebranding followed by deriving ten strategies for internalising the new brand image. An exploratory study of 106 companies who underwent a rebranding in the past five years was conducted. The firms here belong to diverse sectors ranging from technology to media-based industries. Our research has contributed to the existing rebranding literature through identifying sectorial spread of rebranded companies, the major drivers of rebranding and the strategies that can be used for internal rebranding. The firms by adopting these strategies can overcome the barriers in the employees living the new corporate brand.