5 of the worst rebranding disasters
From Radio Shack changing its name to “The Shack” to Dr Pepper trying to rebrand diet drinks for men, here are some big brands’ biggest mistakes.
You’d think we would have learned our lesson from the New Coke fiasco, yet failed attempts at rebranding continue.
One of the boldest experiments in marketing, rebranding has never been scarier than it is today.
Years of reputations and relationships can now come to a crashing halt within seconds of a rebranding mistake via the often unforgiving world of social media.
I decided to take a look at a handful of the worst rebranding efforts of the past few years. This isn’t to make a mockery of them, just to see what marketers can learn from other brands’ biggest mistakes.
1. Overstock.com becomes O.co (2011)
In June 2011, Internet retailer Overstock.com completed its transition to the name O.co. Only three months later the company returned to Overstock.com—but not before spending millions of dollars on a six-year naming rights deal with the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
Oops.
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