Understanding B2B Rebranding: A Comprehensive Definition

The word ‘change’ can create exhilarating excitement in some people, while in others it can trigger the feeling of utmost horror and anxiety as it introduces uncertainty and the fear of loss. People's attitudes towards change are multifaceted and complex. It's rarely a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Change is good because it freshens things up. Change is sometimes absolutely necessary to either move to the next level to seize opportunities or, on the other extreme, to avoid certain disasters. But if not properly planned, balanced and executed, change can also cause significant harm and destroy value. Context and the degree of change matter as always.

Rebranding is change. B2B rebranding is a significant strategic directional overhaul and shift to reposition a brand for future growth and success. It is usually undertaken when smaller, more ‘cosmetic’ brand refresh changes are insufficient to address severe challenges or seize new opportunities. It typically involves changing a brand’s strategy, including positioning, core values, personality and messaging, as well as a significant shift in brand logo and visual identity. It can go as far as even changing a B2B brand’s name. In contrast, a brand refresh is more like updating, modernising and energising an existing brand identity, not fundamentally changing it. This can involve tweaking the positioning and brand messaging, refining the tone of voice, logo or visual identity. The core brand, however, remains the same.

At Design Bridge and Partners, we like to compare it to a building project: Rebranding is reinventing - gutting and fundamentally rebuilding, while a brand refresh is enhancing - repainting and updating the furniture.

Why B2B Branding Matters: Key Benefits and ROI

But why should you bother with B2B branding in the first place? Is branding not something that is mainly the domain of B2C brands? A brand is in essence the summation of psychological benefits resulting from a particular set of associations in the minds of your audiences, customers, employees or other stakeholders. In Jeff Bezos’ words, ‘your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.’ These benefits differentiate you from competitors and create a promise of future performance. Delivering on this promise creates reputation, and this reputation is the source of value. This turns a brand from an expense into an investment - in other words an asset and a source of value. This is widely accepted in B2C but very often the argument put forward is that B2B marketing is noticeably different in terms of media, message and style as B2B marketing has some obvious constraints:

• Target audiences are much more limited in numbers. This means B2B companies can reach people in fewer public ways.
• Consumer decisions can be intuitive and impulsive, B2B decisions are more complex and typically involve a great number of people who are professionally trained to make these decisions. This means B2B communications must be more considered in their message and tone of voice.
• B2C brands are free to talk about any aspect of their customers’ personal lives. B2B companies must carefully balance the personal interest of the buyers/influencers and decision-makers with the interests of their company.

However, there are also opportunities in B2B marketing that simply do not exist in B2C:

• Reaching B2B audiences is often so much easier as they can be more precisely targeted, and in most cases feel professionally obliged to consider alternative propositions.
• There are much greater opportunities to personalise messages as the target audience are fewer in numbers.
• Despite the rise of social media, B2C brands rely heavily on one-way, long-distance communications, B2B brands are usually supported by personal contact which is much more effective in building long term relationships and loyalty
• Compared to most consumer purchases, the value of B2B purchases is far higher and typically carries a greater risk, with long term implications. Just compare buying a chocolate bar for £1.50 with buying a new IT network for £1.5 million. If you don’t like the chocolate bar, not much harm is done. That’s why B2B buyers are inclined to pay a premium for ‘peace of mind’ and reassurance.

And this is where the brand ‘trust factor’ comes to play. Brand conveys trust. It is an insurance policy; it lends credibility to any product or service promise. Trust is worth billions. The old adage rings still true today. ‘No one gets fired for hiring IBM... if they are behind this product or service, I believe in it.’ Purely rational decision-making is a myth. B2B buyers, influences and decision-makers are also people and are influenced by both functional and emotional factors.

The conclusion, contrary to popular belief, in the B2B and corporate world, strong brands are a ‘have to have’, not just a ‘nice to have’. Strong B2B brands have impact on critical financial levers such as:

• Ensuring demand and growing share, thus leading to a better capital growth rate
• Securing higher prices and better supplier terms which drives a greater EBITDA margin
• Establishing stronger relationships with policymakers, and protecting against the severity of the downside of reputational issues which reduces opportunity costs
• Achieving higher employee productivity and retention, leading to more efficient working capital investment
• Enhancing talent attraction which lowers recruitment costs
• Creating greater differentiation which supports competitive insulation
• Reducing cost of entry into new categories, leading to lower capital expenditure
• Reducing business risk and better analysts’ trust in strategy which in turn leads to better ratings and lower cost of capital

As B2B brands impact both the demand side of a business (revenues and margins) and the supply side (employees, suppliers, regulators and investors), they have the potential to constitute a significant proportion of an organisation’s intangibles on its balance sheet.

While consumer-facing brands often get more public attention, many of the world's strongest brands operate primarily in the B2B space. Just think of Microsoft, Intel, Salesforce, IBM, and SAP who consistently appear high on many leading brand value indexes, demonstrating the power and value of B2B brands.

When to Rebrand Your B2B Business

A strong B2B brand is a ‘have to have’, but when does your B2B brand need rebranding? It’s a significant strategic overhaul and shift of your brand strategy - a revolution. That means rebranding should not be embarked on lightly. There must be very compelling reasons to opt for a rebrand. Here are seven that typically warrant thinking about a rebrand:

1. A radical change in business strategy or offerings: If a company undergoes a major strategic shift, such as adopting a new business model or expanding into completely new product categories, a rebrand can realign the brand strategy with the new business strategy.
2. A merger or major acquisition: When two companies merge, a rebrand is often essential to create a new brand that represents the combined entity. This helps internal integration (a new start leaving legacies and silos behind) and avoids market confusion by building a cohesive brand presence. See our NTT case study here.

3. Significant negative brand perceptions: If a brand has suffered severe reputational damage due to scandals, controversies, or consistently poor customer experiences, a rebrand can be a new start and rebuild trust (but only as long as the rebrand is not ‘lipstick on a gorilla’, and the fundamental issues for the reputational damage are addressed as well). See our Evri case study here.

4. An utterly outdated brand image: A brand can sometimes become outdated, no longer resonating with its target audiences. This can occur due to a rapidly changing market landscape such as competitors having embarked on significant brand refreshes or rebrands, new challenger brands entering the market or simply because the last brand refresh was just too many years ago. A rebrand can modernise the brand and make it again relevant to current market trends and consumer preferences.
5. A major shift in target audience or market: If the business decides to target a new demographic or enter a new market, a rebrand can position the brand more effectively and appeal to the new audience, especially if the existing brand holds significant negative perceptions amongst the new target audience.
6. Expansion internationally: Entering new geographic markets often requires adapting the brand to different cultural contexts and preferences. A rebrand might be necessary to ensure the brand appeals and resonates with the customers in these new markets.

7. Legal challenges: Legal issues such as trademark infringement or the loss of naming rights might necessitate in some cases a rebrand including a brand name change.

   The B2B Rebranding Checklist: A Step-by-Step Guide

   At Design Bridge and Partners, our rebranding process is highly collaborative. To ensure our clients can get the absolute best out of us.

   • Kick-off: Every rebranding journey starts by agreeing on a clear set of shared objectives with our client. We get everyone on the same page as to what we are aiming to achieve, to make sure there are no unwanted surprises along the way.
   • Research and analysis: Our teams immerse themselves in research to develop a strong and nuanced understanding of the client’s business, its strategy, the audiences’ needs and competitive landscape. Each project will employ a different set of research methods and level of depth. These may include qualitative and quantitative research methods, such as: depth interviews, focus groups, social listening, data analysis and semiotic analysis.
   • Definition: The insights gathered during research and analysis are then synthesised to inform the strategic rebranding solution - the degree of shift that is required from the current brand. This will first be presented as ‘stand for territories’. Broad conceptual ideas that have the potential to load the rebrand with relevant meaning to connect emotionally with its audiences. These ideas can be compared, contrasted and refined, in collaboration with the client, to reach the strongest result. Once agreed upon, the strategic idea will then be captured in a brand framework (the requirements of which will have been agreed upon during the kick-off phase).
   • Naming: If the rebranding strategy requires the creation of a new brand name, a thorough name generation methodology and process is needed to increase the odds of finding a suitable new name. This involves bringing together a multidisciplinary team of strategists, copywriters, linguists and creatives to generate a long list of names - typically 100+ names. Tools include interactive creative sessions (with and/or without the client team), word association exercises around key themes, individual name generation combined with an AI name generator. This leads to a preliminary short list (about 20 names) that meets brand and technical requirements of trademark availability – identical check, Google check – screening offensive materials, url – .com availability or other requirements as well as linguistic/phonetic checks by in-country linguists. Based on feedback from the preliminary shortlist, a final shortlist of about 10 names will progress to final checks, and an agreed final name recommendation is passed on to the legal teams to be submitted for registration.
   • Design: With the strategic ‘stand for’ idea and the brand name in place, the rebranding design process can begin. This strategic foundation will be translated into a set of creative ‘concepts’, which seek to visually express the associations defined within the rebranding strategy. Just as with strategic territories, these creative concepts will be compared, contrasted and refined, in collaboration with the client, to reach the strongest end result.
   • Implementation: A rebrand is only as good as its implementation. Guidelines, training materials and generative tools, will help to bring the rebrand strategy and identity to life, across all touchpoints, as effectively as possible.
   • And finally, measurement: To assess whether the rebranding is successful KPIs need to be defined and then measured following the rebranding roll-out. Best practice is to define the KPIs, and if possible, to also record a measurement with both internal and external audiences before the rebranding. KPIs should include brand tracking attributes such as brand funnel metrics from awareness to loyalty as well as business metrics.

   Don't Make These B2B Rebranding Mistakes: A Checklist for Success

   There are some common mistakes that can threaten any rebranding project. Here a few of these typical pitfalls:

   • Not involving key stakeholders: A rebranding is only as effective as its implementation. The failure to involve key stakeholders and bringing them onto the journey usually means that resistance to the rebranding recommendations can form quickly. This can slow down the rebranding or even completely derail it. Setting the rebranding project up as a collaborative journey mitigates against this risk. Through this process, our teams learn about the nuance of the organisation and internal dynamics, equipping them to facilitate consensus and drive confident decision making.
   • Underestimating the challenge to find a new brand name: Naming is harder than any other discipline of branding. There are ca. 56 million active trademark filings globally. And over 330 million registered domain names. Chances are that the name you want is already taken. And then there are a lot of people around the table. The discussions are subjective, often based on ‘I like it’ or 'I don't like it’. This typically sweeps the most interesting names off the table. You end up with a boring lowest common denominator that everyone can live with, but no-one gets excited about or loves. Missing the opportunity to settle on a brand name that your rebranding deserves. A thorough name generation methodology and process as well as involving the legal teams as early as possible will increase your chances of finding a memorable, meaningful name that you can own, and also legally defend.
   • Putting aside insufficient rebranding budgets: Rebranding is a major branding task. It’s not a simple, routine brand design refresh. It’s an opportunity to create a brand that will support your business strategy for years to come. Trying to do it on a shoestring budget, and cutting corners can lead to rushed, ill-thought-out rebranding solutions. To be successful B2B rebranding requires realistic budgets.
   • Underestimating the rebranding implementation: Developing the rebranding strategy, your brand narrative and bringing it to life in a design system, tone of voice, and messaging is only the beginning and not the end of the rebranding project. The launch, activation and roll-out of the rebrand, first to internal and then to external audiences, is essential for its success. Otherwise, the rebranding just becomes an academic brand strategy exercise.

Four inspiring B2B rebranding case studies to transform your brand

We’ll go through four B2B rebranding examples to showcase how companies have successfully transformed their identities to drive growth, connect with their audiences, and stay relevant in competitive markets. These B2B rebranding examples highlight the importance of aligning brand strategy with business goals, addressing audience needs, and embracing innovation. Each example offers valuable insights into the power of a well-executed rebrand. Let’s explore how these businesses navigated the challenges and opportunities of rebranding to achieve lasting impact.

Our work with Evri in 2022 showcases how a legacy brand can be modernised by transforming it from a functional, logistical into a customer-centric, community-focused entity. Evri is the new name and vision created for the reimagining of the biggest UK parcel delivery service, Hermes. A multi-billion business that delivers more than 700m parcels for 80% of the UK’s top retailers to millions of customers all over the country. With a change in ownership and an ambitious transformation plan, the business needed rebranding to reflect a new customer-centric business strategy, powered by technology and embedded in the community. We created a new name, brand, and visual identity, guiding the transformation of the Hermes brand. Evri stands for the individuals in the brand, its audiences, and the products that Evri can bring to its customers. With the new identity we wanted to reflect the new customer-centric business strategy, to quite literally be the brand for everybody. The result of this rebranding: Business value more than doubled from the brand launch in March 2022 to the sale to Apollo Global in July 2024.

Thredd is another example of how rebranding can supercharge the business strategy. Global Processing Services was a payment processing business with outstanding people and technology, and no name to speak of. Despite being a lynchpin in the rapid development of consumer fintech, GPS themselves were unknown, having chosen to concentrate on their technology rather than their branding. With new investment and growth ambitions in tough markets for both growth and recruitment GPS had to become more visible. Design Bridge and Partners worked closely with GPS senior leaders, employees and clients to create a new powerful brand framework, a new name and visual identity for the business. We identified their unique proposition of being a technological innovator that also worked in seamless partnership with their clients: providing the very fabric of payments processing. Thredd (the name is derived from binary code patterns and the notion of weaving partnerships with clients to create tailor-made solutions) launched in 2023. Thredd expanded its customer base, increasing transaction growth across several regions. In Europe and APAC, Thredd’s organic growth from existing customers increased 20%, and new client sales tripled. This would not have been possible without brand strategy supporting business strategy through the rebranding.

It is, however, not always necessary to change the brand name in a rebranding project as our work with Precise Mortgages demonstrates. In the UK, the specialist mortgage lending process is time-consuming, overly complicated and unclear. Time-poor mortgage brokers need speed, simplicity, reliability and transparency. Precise Mortgages, part of the OSB Group, came to Design Bridge and Partners to rebrand them as the disruptive category leading brand. The aim was to move the business away from the traditionally overcomplicated lending process through a complete business refresh, redefining all customer and broker touchpoints, and how it operates on a day-to-day basis. We developed a new brand positioning and visual identity led by the idea ‘Boldly Vanilla’. A concept that celebrates Precise’s brutal simplicity and concise approach. Rather than renaming we changed the name from Precise Mortgages to Precise, echoing the brand’s desire to be concise. The new Precise brand was launched in 2024 to the acclaim of both Precise employees and mortgage brokers.

Another example is Statoil. For decades, Statoil had been seen as one of the most dynamic and innovative energy companies in the energy sector. But with changing societal expectations around the impact and consequences of the use of natural resources Statoil accelerated their transformation to be a more balanced energy company. A new, clear purpose ‘to shape the future of energy’ was developed. It became clear that the Statoil name didn’t reflect this new direction anymore. We renamed the company Equinor. ‘Equi’ to symbolise equilibrium and equality, and ‘nor’ as a link to Norway. With the new name came a new visual identity to both capture the company’s pioneering spirit and to differentiate it in the category. We kept Statoil’s North Star symbol to ensure the link to the past but modernised it to better capture the new ethos of Equinor: rotated it to the North to give purpose and direction and gave it a greater sense of harmony and balance. Equinor launched its realignment of business and brand strategy in March 2018 to great acclaim. Just recently Equinor was named the Nordic's most valuable brand, fuelled by the brand's strategic shift towards expanding its renewable energy portfolio.

What to Look for When Selecting a B2B Rebranding Agency Partner?

Selecting a branding agency partner for a B2B rebranding project is not just about aesthetics. It's about finding a strategic partner who can help you achieve your business goals. That means, before thinking about an agency partner, you need to be clear about your specific rebranding goals. What's the desired outcome?

Then look for agencies with a proven track record in B2B branding and your industry or with similar target audiences. Category expertise is a major plus. But also make sure that the agencies are not so narrowly focused on your category that they can’t bring in learnings from other industries. Choose the agency that you believe is the best fit for your business and that has the potential to deliver the strategic rebranding results you're looking for. Here are some useful factors to consider:

• How well do they grasp your industry, your competitors, and in particular your business? Are they asking the right questions?
• Do they offer innovative and data-driven branding strategies? Are they providing strategic thinking, or are they simply executing?
• Are their ideas innovative and creative? Rebranding is about a major shift in brand strategy. Are they pushing boundaries, or are they playing it too safe?
• Do you feel comfortable with their team? Remember it’s people who make things work. Is there a good cultural fit?
• How do they manage projects? Have they got sound processes? What's their communication style?

Rebranding Success: Key Takeaways for a Stronger Brand

B2B rebranding is a significant strategic overhaul and shift to reposition a brand for future growth and success. If there is a time to be bold, rebranding is the time. Great B2B brands stand for something motivating and stand out in a way that makes them memorable. Audiences are more likely to engage with your rebrand and advocate for you if you can provide a deeper, more compelling narrative about who you are and why and how what you do is value creating. By establishing a unique and cohesive design system, tone of voice and messaging, we can employ a series of distinct assets to help your B2B brand stand out and capture attention by being more memorable, easier to identify and emotionally engaging.

That’s why there has been a trend of B2B branding to become more sophisticated and emotionally engaging, adopting some of the characteristics of B2C branding:

• Brand narratives that look beyond business and to the future, indicating a wider benefit to customers (and all other stakeholders)
• Expressing brand stories in a more editorial way
• Bold messaging, disruptive tones, challenging the audiences to look to the future

Rebranding is complex but if approached correctly it can open up previously unimaginable opportunities and become a vital support for and an accelerator of your business strategy.

At Design Bridge and Partners, we design B2B brands with magnetism that motivate and move. B2B brands with the energy to pull people towards them with an irresistible force that compels and connects.

Get in touch at hello@designbridge.com to learn more.

Related articles:

• Brand Strategy 2025: The Ultimate Guide to Building a Powerful Brand
• What makes an iconic brand