Season of rebranding

Midnight Oil Coffeehouse: a Kibo Outpost unveiled a new logo a few weeks ago to replace the previous sign and to use on shirts and other merchandise. Other brand changes have been popping up all over town.
“We had such a collection of different names,” Midnight Oil manager Eric Mount said. “But we were looking to get a new sign, and we knew we had to get the logo and the brand right before we put any money into the new sign.”
Midnight Oil has been owned by Kibo Group International since 2010, but has struggled to incorporate them in their design.
“A previous manager wanted to really emphasize Kibo, and so started marketing everything Kibo Midnight Oil,” Mount said. “This just created a lot of confusion, so we decided with our new rebranding to be Midnight Oil Coffeehouse: a Kibo Outpost.”
Mount described this new branding as a gesture to Kibo as their owner, but wanted to clarify they are not doing the same work as those in Uganda. He said he sees Midnight Oil as a place to learn more about what Kibo is and hopes the Searcy coffee shop can live out the same spirit of what Kibo is doing in East Africa.
Harding also joined what seems to be a citywide rebranding effort with a cafeteria redesign by marketing the name Graze and adding titles to each food section to better explain what each has to offer.
“Aramark actually came to us back in the summer and said, ‘We’d really like to create some visual interest for our food stations,’” said Jana Rucker, vice president for University communication and enrollment. “Then I started thinking, as all marketers do, ‘What if we created a whole restaurant concept for the caf?’”
Rucker said the idea was to make it look like a coffeehouse, but the main focus was on making sure each section was aesthetically pleasing, as well as being clear what each station offered.
Over the summer, Harding rebranded the Bison logo to update its graphic style. Searcy.com designed a completely new logo and updated their website to match their new branding standards. Even Student Publication’s own digital team has rebranded to be titled Shockwave.
“Around town I think people are being more mindful of how they are presented, of course because of Small Business Revolution,” Rucker said.
The Small Business Revolution helped six Searcy businesses by bringing in marketing experts to help them rejuvenate their brands and energize the entire community in support of small businesses.
Assistant professor of communication Lori Sloan said that in today’s market it is extremely important that all messages sent out by a company are unified and consistent. It’s more difficult now than it ever has been because of the number of ways in which a company can communicate to its audiences.
“You want to stay updated, because when everyone can also see your competition updating, you start to look old,” Sloan said. “You used to be able to create a new logo every five to 10 years, but not anymore.”
Sloan said the most important thing for companies is to stay in communication with their company base. Owners want their brand accurately communicated, and customers want to know that companies are going to deliver what they promise.
“From an integrated marketing communication prospective, there’s always going to be a need for rebranding,” Sloan said.