Transferring Brand Equity Through Rebranding: A Case Study of the Brand Fun One

Abstract

In the branding literature, we usually distinguish between corporate and product branding. A major corporate focus by researchers the later years has led to neglecting product branding, especially within rebranding. Firms have started to threat the world as a single market to create economies of scale, efficiencies and synergies between firms and countries, reduce time to market and to create an international image by switching to a more global strategy. Meanwhile, marketers overlook the important aspect of brand equity. Hence, we discovered a need for research concerning the subject of rebranding at product level.
In order to be able to contribute with knowledge in this field, our thesis suggests a model based on literature review that explains how brand equity can be transferred through rebranding most effectively. Our research should therefore be considered as a supplement to the rebranding field in general, as well as a contribution to the identified need of knowledge regarding transferring brand equity through product rebranding.
Through a real-life case study, we make use of our proposed model by investigating the brand equity of Fun One, which recently has been acquired by one of the leading FMCG companies in Scandinavia, Orkla. Our findings implied that Fun One had high awareness, especially in the squash category. However, the study also revealed that the brand lacked a clear identity due to average design and misperceptions among the consumers regarding the brand’s unique selling points. In addition to a weak product personality and close to a non-existing attitude towards the brand, it fails to generate loyalty and engagement among the consumers. Thus, in accordance with our model, we suggest which aspects of the brand that needs to be retained and which to change in order to transfer its current brand equity most effectively.
Our proposed rebranding goes through four stages, including repositioning, renaming, redesigning and relaunching. The new brand position changes its focus from being a sport thirst quencher to a summer thirst quencher, and includes qualified suggestions such as changing the name from Fun One to Fun Light, redesigning both logo and bottle, as well as describing how a campaign relaunch could look like.