Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : Complete company rebranding

[Philipf]

Help! We have decided that a complete rebrand is needed as we are pulling away from the name we currently have(in my sig) we have all the names, logos etc that we need to do this, but need a little help on how to implement it into the marketplace.

We dont just want to switch name and leave it at that, that makes me feel like we have something to hide, which we dont.

We have never had a customer complain about us publically(that we know of) and have always had good word of mouth, as we have a good footing locally, and semi-locally(Towns up to 40mile away have word of mouth).

But, it is some we need to do, we dont like the name as it was part of a former a company which we dissolved not long after switching into hosting. We have been around for 3.5 years now, 2.8 years under this name.

Any ideas, tips or help would be appreciated

Thanks, Philip

[T3H-Joe]

Your best way is to be honest with your customers. Explain the situation and why you want to change in advanced. If customers are not given prior notice you run the risk of them visiting your site and running to the assumption of 'new ownership' or some thing along thoose lines.

If you have operate a forum, why not ask your customers point of view/run a poll to see if they agree with a name change.

[psihost]

I think the issue of re-branding need to be addressed from several angles.

Obviously you need to be transparent to your existing customers so that they can see the company is carrying on with the same ownership and staff, under a new name – but I don't believe you have to make excuses or justify to them in any way as to what your motivation for changing the company brand name is.

You could perhaps hint at the fact that you are grouping several business interests under one new brand name and leave it at that.

If you go the grouping way, you could perhaps use “New Company (Incorporating Old Company)” or “Old Company is a part of the New Company Group” or “Old Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of New Company” or something similar in your advertising to maintain your old recognised brand name for a period while people get used to it.

A press release/local paper advertisement and maybe flyer-printed advertising to reinforce the new name and, more importantly, the association with the old name and personnel are also effective message carriers in your local demographic target market. This type of inexpensive advertising can, not only reinforce what your website is saying, but can serve to reach a new client segment that you may not reach by the web or by word of mouth alone.

Good luck with your re-brand – let us know what worked for you

[Philipf]

I was actually thinking of local radio advertisments to tell people of the change and offers that will be running when it is complete. This local radio covers all of liverpool, wirral, chester and almost as far as manchester, so it has a pretty large capture area.

Wanted it to be cheesy sounding like these furniture stores

[Philipf]

So, anyone else got any help? Has anyone else done this? What kind of timeframe was it before it was complete? Was there any confusion with your clients?

[Jamie Harrop]

I haven't done this myself, Philip, so I can't really give you any answers to your last questions, but I thought I would chip in as best I can.

My best advice, Philip, is to not make it sound like it's a bad move.

Rather than, "Hello John, BTi-Hosting has decided that we wanted a new name, we are now known as Bla Ltd", use something such as, "Hi John, after months of careful planning, our brand new corporate identity has been released. Along with this comes some fantastic new offers, such as X, Y and Z. Our new identity comprises of a fantastic new name, new logo, and new approach to becoming Lancashires Web hosting innovator!"

If you do it the way I describe in my second example, or something to the same effect, customers are going to be pleased to see a new identity. It will signify a fantastic new era to come, and they won't be one bit skeptical or worried.