Co-Rebranding - The Strategic Implementation of Co-Creation into the Rebranding Process
Image: The Co-Rebranding Process illustrated using the double diamond approach.
Project type: Master thesis (Master of Arts)
Date: June, 2022
Author: Kirsten Bolender
Title of Thesis: Co-Rebranding – Die strategische Implementierung von Co-Creation in den Rebranding-Prozess. (Co-Rebranding – The Strategic Implementation of Co-Creation into the Rebranding Process)
University: Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Cologne
Mentoring Professor: Svetlana Matiouk
Certification Score: GPA: 4.0 (98/100)
Purpose – Companies are constantly facing rapid changes from the outside world, such as evolving global trends or the growing consumer power. As a result, they must regularly undertake rebranding initiatives to realign their brand identity with changing markets and perceptions or new needs of the external stakeholders. However, existing literature mostly approaches rebranding processes on an abstract level and hardly considers those external factors. The aim of this thesis is to break those traditional structures and propose a more open and participative alternative that strategically implements co-creation into the rebranding process of companies.
Design/Methodology/Approach – To achieve this objective, an exploratory and inductive approach was chosen for this empirical study. Firstly, qualitative, semistructured expert interviews were conducted with five experts from the creative field who are familiar with both, the rebranding and co-creation process. Based on the experience and assessments of the interviewed participants, valuable qualitative conclusions could be drawn on how co-creation can be strategically implemented into the rebranding process. The resulting co-rebranding model was presented to a second group of partly different experts for evaluation, feedback and hints for further improvement as well as recommendations for future research.
Findings – The first part of the research, a thorough secondary literature review, revealed that the two concepts of co-creation and rebranding can be successfully merged. However, the existing literature lacks a dynamic, practical, and more participatory approach to rebranding. This is the point of departure for this paper. Based on the literature analysis and the expert interview findings a model was developed which – for the first time – provides a practical handbook for companies and design experts to conduct a rebranding process in co-creation with external stakeholders. This is a practical, creative and flexible process for reorienting the brand identity of existing companies. This work thus contributes to brand as well as design research and practice and was aimed at creative professionals in management positions. The paper also contains information concerning limitations of the newly developed model for co-rebranding and provides recommendations for further research in this field.
Kirsten Bolender developed a practical Co-Rebranding handbook as a part of her Master thesis. The handbook is designed to provide companies and design experts with a guide on how to conduct a rebranding process in co-creation with external stakeholders. The Co-Rebranding process is a practical, agile, and creative process that can help existing companies reorient their brand identity. By strategically involving co-creation, the perceptions of all internal and external stakeholders can be taken into account equally. This participatory approach can help align a company’s internal self-image (brand identity) with its external image (brand image).
The Co-Rebranding Handbook
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