Brand Makeovers: 3 Lessons in Reinvention

Brands are like beauty queens: Even the most illustrious need makeovers from time to time.

Big names overhaul their brands to boost sales by getting back in touch with their original identity, or forging a new and improved one. Not so long ago, Target competed directly with other discount big-box stores. Today, it has a distinct image, affluent customers and powerful market share. Apple was once pigeonholed as appealing to only artists and designers--now the consumers of iTunes, iPods and iBooks crisscross age, income and professional demographics. Following a fatal E. coli outbreak, fast-food chain Jack in the Box's sales slipped faster than a greasy hamburger wrapper down a garbage chute. Since the brand's makeover more than a decade ago, revenue has soared.

Brand makeovers needn't be only in response to dire circumstances. In fact, successful companies of all sizes should revamp their image periodically, says Allen Adamson, managing director of the New York office of Landor Associates and author of BrandDigital: Simple Ways Top Brands Succeed in the Digital World.

"You need a brand makeover when the marketplace tells you so directly: Sales are slowing and market share is shrinking," Adamson says. "But it's often too late to change things when they are really off. You have to catch it just at the tipping point when things are going great, but the increases are diminishing and momentum is giving out."

Entrepreneurs can learn from the big guys who successfully overcame such challenges.

Apple: Broaden Appeal
Apple may get credit for bringing the personal computer to the masses, but for many years, its high prices and hodgepodge of software and operating systems meant the brand was accessible to few outside the design world. A hip clientele, to be sure, but a limited one. Easy-to-use and affordable PCs, meanwhile, were accessible to the masses.

Just a few years ago Target competed directly with other discount big-box stores Wal-Mart and Kmart. All were low-cost--and low-style.

Six months after food poisoning killed four Jack in the Box diners and sickened hundreds, sales were down 40 percent. Two years later, a makeover saved the company, whose revenue has tripled since 1995.

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