Like all industries right now, the fashion magazine business is having hard times. Most women have their faves, but with household discretionary budgets dwindling, magazines have to be especially aggressive in marketing themselves. W Magazine, long known as a fashion industry giant, is rebranding their publication to remain relevant in the ever-changing fashion world.

This rebranding strategy comes with a new brand, a new tagline, and a new logo design. The new tagline is ‘Fashion’s After Party’. This is not so much a change of brand as it is a clarification of the current image. W is one of the edgier, more fashion-forward magazines in the industry, eschewing most of the celebrity gossip and love life advice for several hundred glossy pages of pure fashion. W also covers fashion events more heavily than other fashion magazines. These factors make the tagline appropriate and truthful.

The new fashion logo design is identical to the old, but italicized for a pointier, edgier look. The slant of the letters creates a feeling of movement, but also a lot of pointy edges. The result is an edgier feeling that is definitely appropriate for the magazine’s brand. The magazine has also adopted a new marketing campaign designed to portray themselves as the after party of the fashion industry, with black and white photos and handwritten notes below. These photos can be seen on billboards and taxi roofs around New York City.

This slight change in brand comes just a year after the magazine changed leadership. He expressed that he spends a lot of time at various fashion-related parties, which tend to be stuffy and formal, but that the real fun happens at the after parties. He intends for W magazine to capture this fun, informality while maintaining its fashion forward image. The new brand is also being promoted by the magazine sending free champagne (Dom Perignon, of course) to celebrities, designers, and other notables in the fashion world. We still have not received our bottle…

If rebranding is a scary step for your business, a brand modification such as this one may be the answer. Nothing about W has changed except the logo design, and even that change is minor. The company is simply clarifying what sets them apart in the world of fashion. This will not alienate current readers (although it may make them more excited about their favorite magazine once again) but there is a good chance that it will attract a large number of interested readers. The magazine does not have to make any drastic changes to live up to their new image; the logo design and tagline describe who they really are.

This can be a good strategy for businesses in other industries. Rebranding may actually lose customers (although professional designers take care to minimize this by creating a brand that the existing customer base can embrace) but a slight modification in a brand can invite new friends while keeping the old.

Is your community feeling the pressure of the recession? If so, you aren’t alone. Many towns in the United States are struggling with finances as income and tourism dollars dry up while the need for social programs increases. In many of the cases, what a struggling town needs to do is very similar to what any other business would do to increase revenues: rebranding.

Branding a place, especially a small and lesser known place, may sound silly, but this principle is working for many American towns. First, it increases community pride, which inspires residents to get more involved in making their community a better place. Second, it can inspire companies and people to move to the town, bringing new industries and ideas with them. Last, it increases tourism dollars, which is good for area businesses and general tax intakes.

When compared with the benefits, the small amount of trouble and expense needed to create a new local logo design and brand seem puny. In a globalized society, your area needs to compete with every other city in the world for its share of income and talent. A professional logo design and brand are essential to being competitive.

Columbus, Indiana is one good example of a recently rebranded community. This town is on the small side, but Small Town America has a lot to offer. However, their old brand simply wasn’t up to the challenge. A black and white circle filled with C’s did nothing to represent this area or communicate what makes it different from every other small Midwestern town.

The new brand is much more memorable and a better overall fit for the town. Blue and green colors suggest nature but also are relevant to any place logo because they are the colors usually seen on a globe. The lower case lettering is friendly and suggests informality. The angled C is similar to that of the former logo design, but it is enclosed in a square to give a more recognizable and professional image. A tagline is part of the new brand, telling viewers that Columbus, Indiana is unexpected and unforgettable.

Which logo design makes you want more to move to the town? Which makes you want to visit? Which would make you proud to call this area home? In our case, we found the new logo design much more inviting. It makes us wonder what is unexpected and unforgettable about the area. In short, it has piqued our interest. We predict that it will have this effect on many people. Further, the new logo design is the basis of an entire brand, a feature that the old image was lacking. This can be a springboard for developing other aspects of the town and marketing them effectively to both residents and outsiders.

A small town brand may seem, well, small, but it is essential to keeping these small towns vibrant and alive. What is your community’s brand and logo design doing for you?

Rebranding success story can be a great way to generate new interest in an old product. Logo Designs or emblems can often date products, companies, or sports teams. When interest flags a revision of the entity’s image can generate new business or interest by adding excitement both internal to the entity and externally.

Color choice can be key when re-branding. Older images have color schemes which correlate to what the market felt for the shapes and colors that were chosen, now they serve only to date the logo itself. Because how the public sees use of colors in logo design changes choosing new colors can represent the ideas of a company in a new way.

Shapes as well as line design seldom change in the minds of the public, but when redesigning a logo or icon, it is important to make the entire piece work together to one end as seen in the top 10 logo makeovers. Keeping in mind the core ideals of the entity, the new logo should bring to mind the essence of the entity’s mission statement both internally and externally.

There are a great deal of success stories for rebranding logos. The Denver Broncos redesign their logo in 1997, they saw increased interest in merchandise for instance. The former Denver Broncos logo was dated feeling and proved that logo redesign need not be radical. Having no energy from the mostly orange uniform and helmet, after rebranding the actually play of the team may have changed, but the way the play was perceived changed. The logo design team felt more modern after its rebranding, giving it a relevant feel, which the fans seemed to receive very well on the whole.

Coke rebranded itself for a time in the 1980s from the long cursive letters to the simple Coke text for time. They also “updated” the flavor of Coke to something more akin to Pepsi, in an attempt to grab market share. This attempt failed, and Coke-a-Cola drinkers seemed pleased when the classic flavor came back.

In Coke’s case, it rebranded to try for an updated feel. If Coke had not rebranded the Coke “classic” to the newer Coke, then it may have done even more harm to the company’s reputation. This event has been almost entirely forgotten now, because Coke was able to return to their “classic” taste and win back its original market share.

Logos can also be a great way to influence public opinion. If there is an event that an entity would like to put into the past, both new management and a new logo create a sense of a “fresh start”. This has been used for decades to recover from poor public opinion.

In the end, re-branding with a new logo can create some great public relations. This can be used as a springboard into more public interest. This then transfers into more interest as well as likely revenue. However, when re-branding be sure to research your target demographic in depth to have the strongest effect possible and avoid the top 5 rebranding mistakes.

Is your business stuck in a recession rut? If so, you may be interested in this rebranding success story. Infinity Studios, a website dedicated to Asian animation and graphic novels, was languishing in its corner of the internet when a rebranding consultant stepped in and changed things up.

Jay Chung, owner of the Richmond, CA based website, knew that his site had immense potential. He had a particular type of website in mind. First, the site needed to be appealing to his target market of teenaged and young adult males. Chung wanted a site where people could visit repeatedly and feel like they belonged. This led to very specific design needs. First, the website needed to be attractive to this younger, more tech-savvy audience. Second, the site needed to be easy to change and easy to update, allowing the website owner to keep new information coming at a rate that would encourage repeat visitors.

With these specifications in mind, Chung met with several design studios to find the one that was right for him. He settled on one that, while not the cheapest, seemed to understand his industry. The staff was comprised of young males who had a real interest in the subject, so Chung knew that they could design a website with definite appeal.

The selected design studio began by getting to know the market. They went to conventions, fan websites, and other anime geared venues to get to know the unique needs of the genre. Fans of Japanese animation tend to be tech-savvy consumers who are on the web several times a day, so the designers knew that they need to put in the additional work and make every element count.

The decision was to create a Flash-based site with visual extras that would impress and entice the tech-savvy fan base. With little extras such as menus that dance when selected, the new site would be a visual feast, full of fun features, amusing features, and up-to-date information on anime. Other elements, such as book covers that enlarge when a cursor is passed over them, made the website easier to navigate for people who, for instance, are looking for a particular book.

The web design company conducted research on what colors would be most effective for the savvy anime market, and these were made a core part of the brand. Everything from stationery to packaging was coordinated with the core brand for a more comprehensive overall picture. The former logo was redesigned to match the new website.

Special attention was paid to ease of use for the employees of Infinity Studios. Because the genre requires constant updating as well as processing a large amount of orders, the only way for the company to make it through their rebranding and subsequent expansion was to have every process be made as streamlined as possible.

A few years after the branding change, Infinity Studios couldn’t be happier with the change. The newly branded website and company has seen a steady increase both in traffic and in sales. This rebranding success story is just one example of what a graphic designer can do for you.

Is your company feeling dated and irrelevant? Is your customer base dwindling? Rebranding may be the answer to your problems, but only if it is done correctly. Avoiding these five common pitfalls will help your business stay ahead of the competition even when going through this trying branding process.

Clinging to the Past. One of the main points of rebranding is to make your business more relevant than ever and position you to be more attractive to your target customers. While company history can be an important part of branding, hanging on to aspects that aren’t working will also drag you and your company down. If your old brand hasn’t been working, it is merely dead weight.

Alienating Current Customers. If you have an established customer base, rebranding may be a more tenuous process. This is because you will need to work to retain customers and get them to buy into your new brand with the same fervor that they felt for your old image. At the very least, send out a notice to new customers letting them know that your company is undergoing a branding overhaul and present your new brand as having an even higher value.

Hiring Amateurs. Your brand is possibly the most important aspect of your business, so don’t hand this off to an on staff project manager or another employee who lacks solid experience in branding and marketing. The same way you wouldn’t buy substandard goods or hire rude staff, you must have exacting standards when it comes to hiring consultants. No business can afford to mess up this very important aspect, so hire someone who has experience in creating, fine tuning, and marketing a brand. Then, listen to them and follow their recommendations to the letter.

Focusing on the Wrong Aspects. Branding is not just about choosing fonts and looking over revised logo-although those are definitely important parts of every brand. What’s more important is creating a pleasant and cohesive customer experience that will appeal to your target market. Take the time to cruise your website, and have friends and family visit your physical locations and report back on their experiences. With branding, the little things add up.

Underestimating Your Company. There are several ways that a company can make this fatal error. First, you may underestimate your brand equity by assuming that your existing brand has no value. In fact, many business owners vastly underestimate the power of their current brand, thinking that they need a complete overhaul when in fact a little refining or touching up is the best decision. A good branding consultant should be able to tell you how much rebranding is in order. Another key underestimation is thinking that your company is too small to rebrand. No company is too small for rebranding, or the success that is sure to follow.

As you can see, a branding consultant with experience and knowledge can be a real advantage when it comes to rebranding your business. By avoiding these five rebranding mistakes, you can make sure your new brand is perfect you for you, perfect for your business, and perfect for your customer base.

If your company is suffering from a lag in sales and ambivalent customer support, there is a lot to learn from computer giant Apple. There was a time just a few years ago when Apple computers were poised to become a relic, an artifact of their pre-Windows success. Microsoft and companies that used their programs dominated the market for both hardware and software, making Apple’s insistence on doing things their own way seem outdated and even fatal. However, rebranding and creative marketing pulled Apple out of this slump.

Entering the nineties, Apple was the largest computer company in the world. However, competitors began to take over the market. The company’s brand was less than shiny and the products were viewed as narrow and unsophisticated in a market flooded with ever newer technology. Apple responded with one of the most dramatic brand overhauls in the history of the computer industry.

The colorful Apple logo design was replaced with a plainer, colorless one. Products were made to look clean and, often, monochromatic white, making Apple products recognizable enough to become a status symbol. This minimalist look was like modern art for the new generation, appealing to computer nerds and sophisticates. Apple, in essence, took on a fresh, hipster persona, one that many people liked enough to pay a little extra. Advertisements such as the famous “I’m a Mac” television commercial drove home the picture of Apple corporation as a young, cool friend.

However, Apple’s appearance wasn’t the only aspect of the company that was rebranded. Apple began emphasizing the unique culture of their company. Apple supports worthy charities, encourages volunteerism in their employees, and generally creates an atmosphere of creativity for its workers. It may not be the first company to do these things, but it is one of very few that makes its corporate culture part of its overall branding. This only enhances the image of Apple as a cool, modern friend.

One key part of Apple’s branding lies in the impression that they are somehow ‘different’. Their carefully cultivated exposure of company culture along with their purposely distinctive appearance are both aimed at giving customers the impression that they are somehow getting more when they buy an Apple. Many people ascribe positive motives and attributes to Apple that they would never credit to another corporation. This allows Apple to flourish as one of the more expensive computers in a value-loving market.

Apple has not just a following, but a cult of dedicated buyers who would never dream of buying from a different logo software company. Once close to bankruptcy, this technology company now boasts several best selling products such as the IPhone and the IPod that have not just rallied fans, but changed the way Americans approach the interaction between technology and their lives. Few brands have as much prestige and pull as Apple, but just a decade ago this was not the case. Rebranding has made this company larger than the sum of its products and services, large enough to be a symbol of counterculture for everyone who buys into this iconic brand.

By the way, I wrote this post on my iMac!

The term “logo redesign” can be quite confusing to some business owners and graphic designers. After all redesign means to make a new sketch or alter the current theme so as to be better than the original. We crave for something innovative or very different from what we currently have. The dilemma is how different should the difference be.

The idea behind logo redesigns is to uplift one’s image or signify big changes in one’s business. It can be a new business process, improved customer service, better quality, or more innovative products. One of the most effective ways to convey all these changes in one coherent message is through a new symbol.

Just because you’re making some major business changes doesn’t mean you have to make some big revisions on your logo design too. You may not agree with me but simple modifications can also deliver big impact to your target audience.

A classic example of subtle yet effective redesign is the telecoms giant AT&T.

The new logo is simply a sleeker version of the old one. The globe which symbolizes the company’s worldwide communication was retained as well the blue horizontal stripes (or is it wire?) surrounding the globe. Instead of creating a unique logo, the people behind this redesign opted to use a different shade of blue to produce a more modern personality and change the typography from all caps to lowercase. For a company renowned for leading the world in wireless technology, the new logo is more fitting to its brand image.

Subtle changes are very useful particularly if you have an established brand reputation and solid customer base. As much as people preach for change, we paradoxically hate the idea of changing our habits. The same is true for logo designs. No wonder so many city logos are highly criticized by their communities despite their uniqueness and beauty.

If you plan to run a re-branding campaign, this post will help you understand the details involved aside from a compelling logo design. Hopefully, you can apply these tactics to come up with your own campaign.

Last October, casual dining restaurant Applebee’s has launched a re-branding campaign through its new logo design, tagline, uniforms, menu, and advertising campaign. Advertising agency McCann Erickson has helped Applebee’s reposition its image as a special place for people to come together.

Here’s a quick rundown of the process:

Research. McCann conducted a survey among 400 casual dining customers for better understanding. Overall results show people want to reconnect with their family, friends and coworkers in today’s fast-paced world.

Implementation. Using the insights gathered, Applebee’s has made the following changes:

1. New logo design to make it more modern and identifiable. You will also notice the use of a more emotional tagline from a simple “Neighborhood Grill & Bar” to “Together is Good”.
2. Casual Uniforms. Using black collared or button-down shirt and denim jeans or black pants helps create a casual and fun ambiance.
3. Better Menu. Aside from enhancing the photos in the menu, Applebee’s also added new categories and improved its current offerings to add more value to customers.
4. Funny Ad Campaign. Leveraging on its financial resources, Applebee’s has placed ads in different media from TV, newspapers, and Websites.

Although it is too early to tell if these efforts will pay off, what is important is you have an idea how re-branding really works.

Via Brand New