Most Likely to Re-Brand
According to ReBrand, the awards body and quasi-professional society*, companies in the financial services field are most likely to seek a re-brand these days. This comes following three years of research. The second most likely industry to give it the ‘Re’ is the food sector, presumably that includes restaurants as well as fast-moving consumer goods.
The reason for this is simple — financial institutions are finally waking up to the 21st century. The Internet and the global economy has changed the game so incredibly fast; images and personas are more visible than ever. It used to be that banks and big firms needed to build a huge stone building with columns in order to be seen and respected, but these days a well-built and digestible brand is much more important. And valuable! Plus there has been a shift in financial services from the service sector to the goods sector. Banks would rather be thought of in the same category as the malls or supermarkets, rather than law firms, or, I dunno, City Hall. It’s all part of the commodotisation of America that has turn my dear country into, what George Carlin calls, “one giant fucking shopping mall”. But back to the point…
This story came to me via Dexigner, a mostly-European news site. Check out the ReBrand site for the full PDF explaining it all. Actually, there are loads of different PDFs for anyone interested in the business end of branding. For those more into the design end of the big B, make sure you thumb through the ReBrand awards, which recently debuted this year’s winners. Hurry up and submit your case study if you think you have something notable.
This is perhaps the award I would like to win most, and the contest I would eventually be most honoured to jury. Alas, someday.
One more thing — is re-brand spelled with a hyphen? ReBrand doesn’t use a hyphen, but I don’t yet think rebranding is a common enough word in it’s fully conjoined state. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and re-brand. For now. This is why I wish BrandingBranding never died, shame really about that site.
Note * – I mean to say that ReBrand isn’t exactly a professional society, they are, of course, very professional.
