Customers don’t like it when you mess with their Brand Names!

Lately there has been a lot of uproar from customers of certain companies much because they weren’t happy with what was going on with their beloved brand. The two most notable companies that learned the hard way from their customers are Netflix and Overstock.com. In the past few months these companies tried to roll out major changes to their brands.  Well it turns out that these changes weren’t taken so well by their customers and turned out to be a major backfire for their brand. Here’s a quick look at what these two companies did and how their customers told them otherwise.

As is the case with Netflix, beyond other radical moves it has recently made, It had set out to create another website called Qwikster. Qwikster was born in order to take over the DVD management portion of Netflix for its subscribers.  It was a second website that users had to log into to select which DVDs would be send to their house, so that Netflix.com would solely be for streaming movies over the internet.  It took just a few weeks before Netflix had to revert back to using just one website for both streaming and DVD rentals, after thousands upon thousands of angry customers took to the blogosphere and posted angry comments outraged by the change. (Not to mention all the lost subscribers from their little increase in subscription cost mishap)

As for Overstock.com, they decided that a rebrand was necessary and decided to go forth with it. Overstock.com decided that it want to take a new direction with the brand name and renamed it O.co. This took effect back in June and it was just reported that they would revert back to Overstock.com. The feedback from customers suggested that they moved to fast with the rebrand and that it had not built up enough traction to transfer a decades worth of brand equity over to another. Therefore Overstock.com has decided to revert back to the original name and slow down transition until enough brand equity is built up in O.co. Have no fear though; you will still be able to access Overstock.com by using O.co.

These are two prime examples as to what will happen if, 1.) you don’t reach out and  listen to what your customers want and 2.) you try to execute a rebrand strategy without first taking the necessary steps to make sure that it goes as smooth as possible. If you think a rebrand is necessary, first  reach out and ask the opinion of  your loyal customers. They are the ones who make or break your business. In todays day and age where things can go viral and reach the masses, its better to play it safe and take the right steps instead of just jumping in head first into a rebrand. For more information branding and re-branding for your own personal brand or business visit http://www.brandingpersonality.com/services/personal-branding-consultation/.