Brands and Rebranding: A Bigger Pizza Market Opportunity Pt 2

The company has stayed more or less the same since the pie chain first opened in the 1960s. Of course, they still sell pizza, but have slowly introduced other eats.

In the early 90s, they stopped guaranteeing ‘za will be at your door in 30-minutes or less. Too many car accidents. In 2012, Domino’s Pizza (as it was then known) decided to drop the “pizza” from its name.

Domino’s rolled out an ad campaign in force to announce this major change. In spectacular fashion, commercials aired of employees blowing up half their original signage. To show they were serious, the company even put out a hit on franchise owners reluctant to adopt this abbreviation.

This begs the question: why?

I like explosions as much as the next person (promotions too), but why change the branding of an already successful company? Why change what the public knows and loves, especially since, as Business Insider notes, rebranding is not only costly, but also risky?

But let’s take a step back and ask, what makes a brand a brand?

A brand has come to mean many things, but first and foremost, it’s a name. It’s a way in which consumers can identify who produced particular goods or services. Due to our free market economic system, unrestricted competition allows for many businesses to put similar products on the shelves. Through branding, consumers can differentiate one company from the other.

But branding has evolved to more than that. Companies began focusing on the packaging of their products to draw the eyes of consumers and advertising towards a message the product wants to convey. The rise of social media platforms have allowed businesses to reach an even wider audience and consumers to share their opinions. Concurrently, with the advancements in market research technology and strategies, companies are better able to develop and tailor their brand to transmit a perception that targets their demographic. This is when a brand is more than a name; it is a real brand.  

If branding is successful, it carries an intrinsic equity from the perceived quality or emotional attachment consumers have with the brand. Consumers associate feelings to brands. In turn, a strong brand upholds a promise to the consumer –a standard of what they should expect from their products.

This is why branding is important. It improves market recognition and builds consumer trust. Why then would a successful business that has been around for nearly half a century want to rebrand and tamper with that built up trust and/or emotional attachment? More on that next time. Read part 2 of "Brands and Rebranding: A Bigger Pizza the Market" here.