Corporate Rebranding: An Integrative Review of Major Enablers and Barriers to the Rebranding Process

Abstract

In the field of corporate rebranding, which is an emerging area of research, the literature consists largely of descriptive case studies that are scattered across diverse contexts. These studies take divergent theoretical perspectives that often inform only aspects of rebranding, leaving researchers and managers without a comprehensive understanding of the corporate rebranding process. In adopting a holistic theory of corporate rebranding to organize a review of the literature, this study aims to present an integrated review of the major enablers and barriers to corporate rebranding, with special attention to contextual factors. Through an examination of 76 cases in 61 articles, the paper contributes a new general model of corporate rebranding. Unlike previous models of corporate rebranding, the new model incorporates both single‐ and multi‐phase enablers and barriers. Critical to successful corporate rebranding are the identification and application of six major enablers, including strong rebranding leadership and coordination among multiple functions and stakeholder groups. The new model suggests directions for future research, and the paper discusses how managers can use the model to inform rebranding practice and improve corporate rebranding outcomes.

Challenges in delivering brand promise – focusing on municipal healthcare organisations

“…These concerns are even more relevant given the role that employees play in public organisations. Another challenge related to branding in the public sector appears to be people restricting the meaning of the brand because they lack an understanding of branding and a strategic management perspective on it (Miller et al 2014). …”

“…Furthermore, Vallaster and de Chernatony (2006) strongly emphasise leadership and the example a manager sets in legitimating the importance of service delivery to employees. Miller et al (2014) consider internal branding activities to relate to encouraging stakeholders to buy into the new brand as well as to ensuring the continuity of brand elements.…”

“…Moreover, because of broad organisational reforms in our case organisations, we also consult recent academic literature on rebranding (Miller, Merrilees & Yakimova 2014) to refer to rebranding of the Finnish healthcare sector.…”

To brand or to rebrand: Investigating the effects of rebranding on brand equity and consumer attitudes

“…Interestingly, a search with 'rebranding' as a title in EBSCO reveals less than 50 research articles and out of those studies, a majority are conceptual papers that have investigated the effect of rebranding at the corporate level (Daly and Moloney, 2004;Lambkin and Muzellec, 2008;Merrilees and Miller, 2008;Miller et al, 2013;Kashmiri and Mahajan, 2015). The present study intends to fill the gap in rebranding literature by investigating: (a) the relative change in customer based brand equity (CBBE) of a brand before and post an evolutionary rebranding announcement; (b) the relative change in CBBE with respect to the market position of the brand (leader/follower) in case of evolutionary rebranding; and (c) the relative effect of a specific type of change in brand element (logo and/or slogan) on the consumer attitudes and CBBE.…”

Integrated communications in promoting the military profession

“…Prvu dimenziju predstavlja poznavanje same organizacije i opisano je kao sposobnost potencijalnih kandidata da identifikuju organizaciju kao potencijalnog poslodavca (Cable, Turban, 2001). Poznavanje uključuje set pozitivnih, neutralnih ili negativnih stavova podnosioca zahteva i odražava percepciju pripadnika javnosti o organizaciji kao potencijalnom poslodavcu (Donadio, 2012; Miller et al, 2013). Kao druga dimenzija navode se imidž, zasnovan na tome kako direktno i indirektno okruženje utiču na percepciju organizacije i reputacija poslodavca, koja se gradi na iskustvenom događaju pripadnika javnosti (Beal, Strauss, 2008;Robertson, Khatibi, 2012).…”