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62 Times Companies Wanted To Rebrand But It Was An Actual Disaster
A huge part of how successful a product, a service, or even a person is depends on branding. There’s an art to figuring out what people will love, and once you capture that lightning in a bottle, it’s best to hold on to it.
Some of the most recognizable brands in the world have reached their peak because of excellent branding. Take Twitter, for example: the blue bird logo and calling messages “tweets” helped it stand out from others. So, when Elon Musk rebranded it as X, the 88% drop in value and the loss of cultural recognition made sense.
Yet the infamous rebranding of Twitter is not the only unsuccessful attempt at a makeover that had people shaming companies far and wide. Bored Panda collected the most memorable rebrand fails, including logo redesigns, name changes, and other endeavors at revamping their identities that left customers confused and demanding the old branding back.
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#1
Twitter to X.
aveganrepairs:
Twitter had a brand name so recognizable, it became a literal verb that was widely used in the cultural lexicon. Sure, Facebook had posts and statuses, instagram had stories, but the word “tweet” is synonymous with and unique to Twitter. Companies spend millions on marketing to try and get something to catch on and stick like that, it’s like striking gold. Baby Huey Elon threw it in the trash like it was yesterday’s news for literally the most generic, garbage branding imaginable. It’s stranger than fiction.
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#2
NZ spent 26 million on designing a new flag and then it lost to the old one in a vote.
#3
In 2010 the Gap paid an ad agency a bajillion dollars to rebrand. They came up with the name typed in Arial. The Gap announced the rebrand. They were roundly mocked for spending a gorillion dollars on something that it takes two seconds for anyone to create.
They decided to just continue using the old logo. The rebrand lasted six days.
#4
Mine is Dunkin Donuts becoming Dunkin. Everyone has always called them Dunkin Donuts or DnD. Such a waste of money and effort.
Riley Quinn 4 days ago
As a Boston resident (where the fanatics live), I'm not brazen or foolish enough to say this out loud, but under an alias I'll boldly admit I don't patronize Dunkin Donuts because the donuts and coffee are mediocre at best. Haven't entered a store since they stopped making the donuts on site.
#6
Royal Mail (UK) has been around for over 500 years and couldn't have a clearer name/brand. In the 00s they spent millions rebranding to Consignia.
They neglected to tell anyone about it and apparently consignia is Portuguese slang for the lady of the night. The British public was outraged and after a year they changed the name again.
The new name? Royal Mail.
#7
Comcast -> XFinity
I was involved in some of the meetings for that as a outside contractor. It was the dumbest move ever. 90% of the people involved knew it was dumb, but a handful or morons at the top really though Comcast's bad reputation would just magically disappear with the rebrand.
#8
It’s been years since Angie’s List was rebranded to Angi and they’re still running ads that clarify who they are based on the old name. Great work, everyone.
Riley Quinn 4 days ago
I'm not going to keep repeating myself regarding this nonsense. If you have to explain your new brand, take a hint. It ain't working.
#9
What about Xerox renaming themselves Conduent? Anyone heard of a Conduent machine ? Didn’t think so.
#10
Weight Watchers to WW
They tried to be cooler and hip and move away from “weight”. Turns out the only real value they have over the 10 million other diet strategies was their branding.
Riley Quinn 4 days ago
Sure, remove the word that's intended to get people's attention who are looking for a weight-loss program. It's insulting to think overweight people attempting to improve their lives would be insulted by the original name.
#11
Not really a rebrand, but when Oldsmobile went to the "This is not your father's Oldsmobile" campaign, they basically alienated the only group of people who actually were buying Oldsmobiles at the time.
And now, nobody is buying Oldsmobiles.
#12
Destroying the Kinko’s brand when FedEx took it over. “FedEx Office” is so generic you don’t even know what it is. Kinko’s is such a strong brand that everyone knows it means quick printing. My job involves a lot of graphic design and document preparation and nearly everyone who mentions outsourcing printing refers to “taking it to Kinko’s.” It would be like Kimberly-Clark rebranding Kleenex as Kimberly-Clark Disposable Paper Things of Indeterminate Use.
#13
KIA changed their logo on their cars and Google showed an uptick in the searches for “K N cars” because people liked the look of them but didn’t realise it was a KIA….
Riley Quinn 4 days ago
I've owned a couple of KIAs back when I was driving, and I stand by their product. Inexpensive, yet reliable. Got the lifetime warranty and never paid a penny for maintenance.
#14
The Sci Fi channel to "SyFy".
xkulp8:
"Sci-fi" is a generic term so can't be trademarked/copyrighted. So it was silly-looking but justifiable.
Upstaged75 4 days ago
Apparently they changed it to be more appealing to women. 🙄 Women who are into those kind of shows don't give a hoot what the channel is called!
#15
Facebook to Meta and trying to go all in on virtual poker games with work buddies, or whatever the Metaverse was.
liam newton-harding 3 days ago
And now losing money hand over fist, because they were late to the game of the AI ponzi scheme.
#16
I know this isn’t corporate but I love when I get to mention it.
In Arkansas there were two neighboring towns. One was called Helena. The other was called West Helena. One year they decided to merge into one city. What would be the name of this new city? This city made up of Helena and West Helena?
Obviously, they named it Helena-West Helena.
#17
"Nordic Choice Hotels" rebranded to "Strawberry".
They have to mention their old name all the time, because Strawberry could be absolutely anything.
#18
Super Sugar Crisp —> Super Golden Crisp
Sugar Smacks —> Honey Smacks
It’s almost as if they wanted to downplay the sugar content to moms who were buying cereal “as part of this nutritious breakfast.”.
#19
The University of Western Sydney just recently spent millions of dollars to rebrand to Western Sydney University.
#20
Sierra Mist becoming Starry. It happened because the NBA lost Sprite as it’s direct soda sponsor, and Sierra Mist stepped in its place. However, the NBA did not want to be involved with the name Sierra Mist because it’s widely known as the “little brother” or the inferior sprite brand. So the NBA made them change their brand name.
#21
Candlestick Park. An icon in the Bay Area and loved by all Giants and Niners fans. Gets bought and renamed 3Com Park.
I felt insulted by it.
#22
Two that I feel are equal due to the effects.
Books-A-Million to 'BAM'. I was in a parking lot with one and had no idea it was a bookstore, as I was a bit too far out to see more than 'BAM' from where I was parked.
Hot Topic focusing on being more fandom. Specifically getting rid of that gothic arch entryway so many had. I lost count of how many people lamented Hot Topic being closed -because- they were looking for that arch.
Phil Boswell 2 days ago
Right now "Bricks And Minifigs" are getting some publicity, mostly awful, so that's what spring to mind for me…
#23
Instead of displaying the Union Jack, British Airways covered its aircraft tails with dozens of designs inspired by cultures around the world. The idea celebrated global travel, but many people felt Britain’s national airline had erased one of its strongest symbols. Even then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher publicly criticized the change, and the airline eventually restored the traditional tail design.
#24
Tropicana; removing the famous red-white straw directly into the orange imagery for...an unbranded clear glass of orange juice in a generic-looking (white-labeled-looking) package.
#25
Overstock.com I think qualifies for weird rebrand. Bed Bath and Beyond went out of business and was bought out by Overstock and then Overstock just rebranded everything to Bed Bath and Beyond. If you go to overstock.com it’s just BBB.
#26
RadioShack. For decades, RadioShack was where people went for electronics parts, cables, and gadgets. Hoping to attract a younger crowd, the company even rebranded many stores as “The Shack” in 2009. The new nickname generated attention, but it couldn’t solve the bigger problem: shoppers had already found easier places to buy electronics.
Janissary35680 3 days ago
"The Shack" was the term used mostly by the hard-core electronics nerds who frequented it. Someone in corporate didn't realize that potential new customers in the rest of the population wouldn't get the in-joke.
#27
This whole Kellogg thing happening now. Having the snacks fall under the new ‘Kellanova’ brand is so dumb I had to see if Musk recently bought the company and came up with the idea.
You guys make cereal and snacks - it will never be some amazing innovative world changing tech company. You aren’t ‘disrupting’ anything other than your own production and marketing costs. So stop trying to act like it to grow your stock price.
#28
That time Netflix tried to break off its DVD rental service into a separate brand called Qwikster. It lasted maybe 3 weeks before they dropped the idea because customers hated it.
#29
Buy.com got bought up and was changed to rakuten. Then they had to have commercials explaining how to pronounce and spell rakuten.
#30
Marriott Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy…… you know the Hotel loyalty program that REWARDS you for frequent night stays.
#31
Sometimes the biggest question after a rebrand is surprisingly simple: what is it supposed to be? Uber replaced its familiar “U” with an abstract symbol that confused users and designers alike. The company spent months explaining the new identity before eventually abandoning it just a few years later in favor of a much cleaner logo.
#32
HBO Go -> HBO Max -> Max.
TonyzTone:
I get that they basically did away with the CineMax brand, and given their ownership by Warner Bros. and a whole bunch of other assets, they wanted to combine and show something new.
Basically anything owned by Warner Bros is on MAX, especially all of the HBO properties. Combining makes sense.
But why not just stick with HBOMax? That was such a solid name.
#33
Land Rover dropping “Land Rover” and kinda going with just JLR (Short for Jaguar/Land Rover) but also only referring to each of their vehicles by name only, ex: Discovery, Defender, Range Rover.
I still don’t know if I explained that correctly because it’s that confusing and galactically stupid.
DeoManus Argentem 2 days ago
I've never heard it called JLR (US) I do think Jaguar only making EVs now is a mistake, though.
#34
JCPenney. Customers constantly claimed they hated coupons and endless sales. JCPenney decided to believe them. The retailer replaced discounts with simple everyday pricing, expecting shoppers to appreciate the honesty. Instead, many stopped coming altogether because hunting for bargains had become part of the shopping experience.
#35
BlackBerry. Can a comeback arrive too late? BlackBerry certainly tried. The company launched new smartphones, adopted the BlackBerry name across the business, and introduced an entirely new operating system. Unfortunately, by then the smartphone market had already shifted, and customers had largely moved on to iPhone and Android devices.
#36
Kodak saw digital photography coming and even helped develop some of the earliest digital camera technology. However, the company failed to adapt quickly enough as traditional film sales declined. In the end, having the technology wasn’t enough without changing the business around it.
#37
Waitr was an extremely successful delivery service here. They had full time employees and you could get food delivered in 30-45 minutes. Then, they made everybody an independent contractor and started calling themselves ASAP. "As slow as possible" caught on and they lost what the majority market share within a month.
#38
Any time a corporation takes over the naming rights to a stadium or skyscraper that already exists. They don’t seem to realize that culturally the original name is permanently backed in and they’re spend 8 or 9 figures on branding that isn’t going to work
I’m in Chicago and there’s plenty of examples
The Sears Tower (once the tallest building in the world) was renamed as the Willis tower. No it wasn’t, unless you’re from out of town and just don’t know any better
The White Sox play at Comiskey Park, not US Cellular or.. I think it’s Guaranteed Rate these days? Nah it’s Comiskey, always will be
There’s an amphitheater out in the suburbs that gets its name changed every few years. I can’t remember what it is currently. I know it’s not the Tweeter Center anymore cause it isn’t 1999 anymore but everyone just calls it “the amphitheater in Tinley Park”
If rebranding a stadium or whatever EVER works, it must take decades — like I’ll give it to the United Center; no one calls it the Chicago stadium anymore.
Grace Sssssss 4 days ago
YES, THIS. I can't keep track of whatever the names are this year...I'm just going to call it by the name I know.
#39
Circuit City rebranding their PC technician division from IQ Crew (which predated Geek Squad, by the way) to...
Firedog.
I worked at a CC from 2005-2008 and we all thought it was a prank when we saw the announcement. "The intensity of fire with the loyalty of man's best friend." I kid you not, that was the marketing.
Bored Birgit 4 days ago
Firefox and Thunderbird first wanted to name their products Firebird and Thunderfox I read.
#40
USWest->Qwest->CenturyLink->Lumen
I don’t care what your name is can I have more than 10mbps DSL at my address?
ConsciousValence:
In Europe, and it's now Level3 -> Centurylink -> Lumen -> Colt. I'm sure they rename in the hope people forget the incompetence
Daniel Atkins 2 days ago
Instead of fixing customer's complaints cable companies and ISP companies change names and hope no one notices.
#41
Saturn had built a loyal customer base with friendly dealerships, fixed pricing, and a unique brand identity. But as General Motors made Saturn more similar to its other brands, it slowly lost the qualities that made it different and recognizable.
#42
TIL McDonalds lost the 'Big Mac' naming rights in england after trying to sue an irish company called Supermac (that predated McDonalds) , allowing Burger King to troll them by calling their burgers things such as 'like a big mac, but actually big'
#43
Oh! OH!
When Yum Brands tried to make Pizza Hut into THE HUT, when they were scared of wings and whatnot.
#44
When Snoop Dogg (temporarily) changed his name to Snoop Lion make a reggae album.
#45
Brown diamonds that had a million industrial uses to “chocolate” diamonds by Levian. Their marketing sounds like someone’s high af talking about “chocolate diamonds lusciously wrapped around raspberry rhodolite in 14k vanilla gold”. Gross.
#46
Some time ago Uncle Ben's was rebranded as Ben's. I don't get why though. It seems unneccecary.
#47
Pizza Hut tried to modernize its image with new logos, redesigned restaurants, digital ordering, and updated menus. However, these changes weren’t enough to compete with newer pizza chains and delivery-focused brands.
#48
Victoria’s Secret introduced VS Collective to replace its famous Angels and create a more inclusive brand image. While the change reflected modern values, some longtime customers felt the company had moved too far away from the identity that originally made it famous.
#49
TIL the nation of Iceland sued a company named Iceland to have all its trademarks invalidated. And won.
Kira Okah 3 days ago
It was the Iceland Foods (UK) trademark in the EU, approved in 2014. The company is named after its main offering being frozen food. The company marded over an Icelandic company trademarking "Inspired by Iceland" as the generic phrasing was used on some of their products and the trademark was trying to block its use on other products. The Icelandic government misinterpreted the company's objection (thought they were objecting to the use of the term "Iceland" when they were objecting to the trademarking of a generic phrase) and accused them of abㅤusing the name Iceland by trademarking its use as a brand name (which is allowed). Iceland (the company) no longer holds the EU trademark and tends to use a different name in the EU, it only affects EU trademark.
#50
TIL Sprite was originally a Fanta flavor. In 1959 Fanta released a lemon-lime flavor, and it was rebranded & became Sprite in 1961.
#51
ABC Family to Freeform. I never understood.
#52
I think SunTrust changing to Truist was a terrible decision. SunTrust is a better name and they have should told B&BT that Branch Banking & Trust is horrible and just needs to be dropped. No need to also ruin SunTrust.
nottheactualphoto 2 days ago
I opened an account at Perpetual Savings, which turned into Crestar, which turned into Suntrust, which turned into Truist, which turned into Not My Bank Anymore.
#53
After Facebook became more popular, MySpace tried to reinvent itself as a platform focused on music, artists, and entertainment. The new direction attracted some interest, but it wasn’t enough to bring back the large audience MySpace once had.
#54
TIL A Finnish food company was forced to rebrand its line of meatballs, as they did not contain enough meat. They are now known simply as 'balls'.
#55
TIL that the German grocery store Aldi is actually two stores: Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud. In the US, Aldi Sud has been rebranded as Aldi, and Aldi Nord is what we now know as Trader Joe's.
#56
When after a major oil spill BP changed their branding to Beyond Petroleum for an ad campaign showing how they were investing in renewables. Logo change too.
Bored Birgit 4 days ago (edited)
In Germany, BP bought ARAL, but they were smart and didn't rename and rebrand all the petrol stations, they stayed with well accepted ARAL.
#57
The University of Western Ontario to "Western".
Colleen Glim 3 days ago
It was known as Western when I was in uni more years ago than I want to count. This is not news
#58
Take 5, the OG Red packaging stands out so much more than just being another Reece’s candy bar.
#59
Yahoo scrapped the logo on top in favor of the one on the bottom.
#60
TIL that in 1924 Kleenex was invented and advertised as a cold cream remover. It was only rebranded in 1930 after a majority of customers reported using product mostly for blowing their nose, doubling the company's sales
#61
ClearChannel to Iheartradio.
#62
Google was originally called BackRub while it was still a university research project. In 1997, the name was changed to Google, giving the search engine a much more distinctive identity.
Wonky Donkey 2 days ago
Wasn't Google originally meant to be googol, but someone on staff misspelt it?
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StarCrossedFriday 3 days ago
Tip for the next company planning a 'genius' rebranding: take the projected cost, keep your logo/name, and just donate it to a good cause instead. I can pretty much guarantee that'll do much more for your brand.
he_aint_heavy 2 days ago
James Donald Bowman to James David Hamel to James David "JD" Hamel to JD Hamel to JD Vance.
StarCrossedFriday 3 days ago
Tip for the next company planning a 'genius' rebranding: take the projected cost, keep your logo/name, and just donate it to a good cause instead. I can pretty much guarantee that'll do much more for your brand.
he_aint_heavy 2 days ago
James Donald Bowman to James David Hamel to James David "JD" Hamel to JD Hamel to JD Vance.
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