Choosing to completely redesign your logo is a big step. Customers have likely grown accustomed to your current look and, as it has been proven time and again, most people don’t like change. You risk losing customers, sparking some outrage and, even worse, losing a large portion of revenue from people who either hate the new look or just don’t recognize it anymore and can’t find your company.

Never fear, though! If you definitely need to rebrand, there are plenty of examples of companies that have done it right. And you’ll find that, sometimes, even if the rebrand is controversial, it ends up being a good move in the long run.

Here are three winning logo rebrands from which promotional products companies can learn.

1. Cadillac. In 2014, Cadillac made a major change to its logo—it removed the iconic wreath surrounding the geometric seal and ditched the scripted word beneath. The new logo became a stretched-out version of the car company’s coat of arms. Today, the script “Cadillac” is back. The company decided to make the change in order to reach a younger crowd and to look more modern. It worked. As of August 2017, Cadillac’s global sales increased by 23.1 percent.
2. Facebook. Let’s be real for a minute. Everyone knows that a large portion of Facebook users tend to thrive on vitriol and anger, using the anonymity of the internet to shout about whatever upsets them that day. We know it and Facebook knows it. That knowledge was reflected in the website’s 2015 logo redesign. It was basically just a font change, and a minimal one at that. They kept it plain and simple. In fact, 90 percent of the site users didn’t even notice the change. That sort of reaction may not be ideal for many companies, but with the user base that Facebook has, it was perfect.
3. IHOP. This one is perhaps the most controversial. We all remember the weird marketing tactic IHOP took when it decided to temporarily change its branding to say IHOB. Social media went wild with it, desperately trying to figure out what the B stood for before the change went into effect, because IHOP only teased everyone with what it might be. (Personally, I thought it was International House of Breakfast, because it’s a pancake place.) When it was finally revealed to be International House of Burgers, even other burger brands lost it, tearing IHOP apart online for the silly choice. But was it really all that silly? Sure, the name change was pretty awful. But IHOP knew what they were doing. First, it was temporary. Second, they built it up online to garner interest worldwide. Third, it brought the brand back into the modern world. Research shows that in June, IHOP was more popular online than any other time in the company’s history. Plus, the company saw a 30 percent boost in stocks when the campaign was running. Sure sounds like a successful rebrand to me.

Do you want to refresh your brand, either temporarily or permanently? Let the logo design masterminds at Idea Custom Solutions develop a set of custom options that will wow your clients.