I’ll never forget when my favourite childhhood chocolate bar was rebranded. The cholocolatey, nutty, marshmallow filled bar of goodness (I really was a fan), ‘Marathon’, was renamed the ‘Snickers’.

“WHAT” I screamed when I heard this sad news. This bar of chocolate that I have grown to love, that has kept me going during many days of worm hunting and den building is changing!

Of course, the bar wasn’t changing at all. All that was changing was the wrapper. An item that in its own right was worthless. But, that didn’t matter to me. I was proud my favourite chocolate bar was called the ‘Marathon’. It implied endurance and that is what I needed when hunting those worms to place in my sisters beds!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been wondering how people have reacted to our re-brand. You see, we have been around for 42 years and with that heritage comes loyalty. Just as I was loyal to ‘Marathon’ bars, so are our clients and staff loyal to ‘Research and Marketing Ltd’.

We have been inundated (literally) with complimentary messages about the new brand and until last night I hadn’t heard a bad word. I was starting to think that everyone thought it was ‘great’. Naive I know but blissful none the less. That evaporated when I was approached and told that the new brand didn’t respect the heritage of the organisation. I was taken aback, not by the criticism but because maintaining and respecting the heritage is the very core of the rebrand.

When I was a kid, I didn’t care what the ‘Marathon’ logo looked like, I cared that it was called ‘Marathon’. In exactly the same way, we retained the ‘Research and Marketing’ in the brand as we knew how important this was to our loyal staff and customers. We were respecting the heritage of the firm mindful that it is the staff and customers that have built this brand

The brand is fresh, it implies energy and it is a long way from our previous image. But does that reject the heritage of this organisation. I would argue that it does the opposite whilst also being mindful that we need to tell people about why we have changed the image.

We took 18 months to consider this change. A full strategic overview was undertaken and a solution was chosen that would reflect where we need to be positioned in the market whilst respecting where we have come from. We need to attract new clients whilst delivering excellent quality to those that are loyal and have helped build this business. We need to effect a cultural change within the organisation that catapults us into a position of influence within the marketing industry.

This meant that whilst respecting our heritage was vital, we wanted to ensure that it didn’t mean we become complacent, lacking creativity and happy to sit back.

Did the criticism make me wobble over why we rebranded? No. Criticism forms the basis of a reality check and makes you re-think why you did something. I am delighted that I could justify the re-brand. At the same time it made me realise yet again that the launch of the re-brand is only step one of the re-brand process. Telling people why and how it makes a positive impact on them is next.

As a child, I was convinced my letter to Mars would ensure they scrapped the re-brand of Snickers but they didn’t. Is it my favourite bar now? No, I don’t suppose it is. Is that because of the change of name? No. Should they have changed the name completely? In my opinion, no. But with sales of $256m worldwide, I can see why they did.

John of www.rmg-clarity.co.uk