The Boomerang Brand: Five Ways to Avoid It and One Time to Embrace It

The boomerang brand is a brand that was once successful, then abandoned, and then returned to. Momentive announced a return to the SurveyMonkey brand in June 2023. To avoid a boomerang brand, calculate the cost of changes, make sure Product is in the room, research, run a soft launch, and create a 360-degree activation plan. Companies should strive to be market leaders and protect the status quo.

When rebranding, quantify the current brand equity, consider project and program costs, and get customer and employee feedback. Run models with ridiculous assumptions, localize the impact of a failure, and commit to replacing every instance of the old brand with the new one. Coca-Cola dropped New Coke after 79 days, demonstrating the potential impact.

Five ways to avoid the boomerang brand include: do the math to invest appropriately, make sure Product is in the room, do your research, run a soft launch, and create a 360-degree activation plan. Be honest with assumptions and research, and be committed to the long-term. When in doubt, stick with the status quo.