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November 1, 2021 Content Chat Recap: What Marketers Need to Know About Company Rebrands

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Following years of media scrutiny and increased legislative attention, Facebook announced last week that it will now be called Meta. The company claims this will help it more closely align with what it does as it reaches into areas like virtual reality.

From a marketing lens there are two top-of-mind considerations stemming from Facebook’s rebrand to Meta:

  1. How is Facebook’s communications team doing?
  2. Why should a company rebrand, and what does it mean from a marketing standpoint?

In this #ContentChat, we explore what marketers need to know about company rebrands. Read the full recap below, where we explain the common reasons that companies rebrand, what marketing teams should do during a company rebrand, and more.

Q1: Why do companies rebrand? What are some common scenarios that lead to a rebrand?

Companies can undergo a range of rebrands, spanning from light changes to the brand’s visual identity to a full-blown overhaul of the company’s purpose and naming.

Company rebrands happen for a variety of reasons, including a change in team leadership, if the brand has become outdated, or following a merger or acquisition, or to distance the brand from negative press (just to name a few).

In the case of Facebook/Meta, the rebrand is intended to reflect larger company goals. However, ‘Meta’ is already a broadly used term and will likely create new challenges for the brand’s marketing team.

Q2: What are the top considerations for marketers as they prepare for a company rebrand?

Before proposing a rebrand: Stop and ask why. Does the potential ROI outweigh the cost of a rebrand? Is there a legitimate reason to rebrand (to protect the company’s long-term viability)?

A rebrand is a huge undertaking for both your company and your entire partner ecosystem.

Marketing teams must consider their customers before committing to a rebrand. Conduct interviews, send surveys, and hold focus groups to fully explore the potential impact a rebrand will have on your customer base, your ability to retain them, and your potential to acquire new customers.

Ensure you choose a new company name and language that resonates with your customers and does not overlap with other communities. Conduct a hashtag search of your new name, and say that name and its abbreviation out loud.

If your customers are not on board with your rebrand, they will likely continue to call you by your old name.

If a rebrand is the right move for your company, create an inventory of all your collateral, digital channels, content, etc. that will be affected by the rebrand.

Thoroughly assess what language will best resonate with your ideal customers and appropriately convey your brand identity.

Review all social platforms to make sure you can obtain your new brand name or handle.

Ensure all employees understand that the marketing team is in charge of updating or creating new social channels to reflect the new branding.

And remember that it’s often best to start your rebrand planning with just a small group of high-priority, cross-department stakeholders. If you have too many team members involved at every stage, it will be impossible to reach decisions.

Q3: When a company rebrands, what happens to its existing content? What should marketing teams do to preserve the value of the company’s previously created content?

As part of your content inventory, evaluate each piece of content and decide if it’s worth refreshing to reflect the new brand. If not, leave it as-is or retire the post. Prioritize content that is still driving significant traffic and hitting target goals.

Combine duplicate content for an enhanced piece when possible.

If your rebrand involves a significant update to your value prop and messaging, though, your existing content may be too costly to update.

We recommend you hire an expert to assist with updating or remapping your website domains and website content.

A unified CMS can make it easy to change a logo or parent company name across content, especially if you have a global content strategy.

Q4: How should the content marketing team be involved throughout a rebranding process?

Content marketing partners should join the rebranding conversations from the beginning to assist with research on ideal new brand names and language considerations.

The content marketing team can also ensure that you set a realistic timeline for the rebrand, factoring for any content needs throughout the process. They can also inform potential costs of the rebrand that were not previously considered, like the impact on your social media or events communities.

Later in your rebrand planning, the content marketing team can help craft a narrative for the rebrand.

Q5: What are some ways marketers can steer negative conversations to a positive dialogue if there are critics or trolls that are actively speaking against the rebrand?

Be prepared for negative responses to your rebranding, especially if you did not use customer insights to inform the rebrand.

Prepare a rebrand narrative that includes responses to potential criticism.

Thoroughly discuss the rebrand with your internal team, and be open to change throughout the process. Compromises will likely occur.

Remember, too, that team members are likely attached to their company and the work they’ve done. A rebrand can make it feel like that history is being erased. Be conscious of these strong emotions as you navigate your discussions.

And never change a blog post byline if the content references personal experiences and stories unique to the author.

Q6: If you worked at Facebook/Meta, what steps do you recommend they take next to support the rebranding?

Melanie thinks that humor could help Facebook/Meta, and we agree! What would you do next if you could drive Meta’s marketing strategy? Tweet us using #ContentChat or let us know in the comments.

About Alek Irvin

Alek Irvin is a content marketing professional with a rich history in social media management, executive thought leadership development, and media relations. As a consultant at Erika Heald Marketing Consulting, he creates human-focused content and thought leadership platforms that help brand leaders connect and engage with their communities. Alek has worked with a range of startups and Fortune 500 companies across the B2B technology and consumer spaces, including IBM, Dell Technologies, Hitch Works, Emtrain, Integrate, and Frameable. Connect with him on Twitter @AlekIrvin.

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