LIDL: the Process of Rebranding

Branding is based on the notion that proper communication concerning an item can only occur under the optimum conditions of the right time and the right circumstances (Aisedu, 2015). Therefore, the market enacts as the basis for brand offerings by presenting itself as an open window that brings the idea and concept of the product to resonate within the mind of the consumer with the perfect caption line. As such, the marketer will have achieved the branding, through the packaging, positioning, and picturing of the product effectively into the consumers mind (Downs & Haynes, 1984).

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Brands are directly related to several elements of an organization. These features include the name, logo, and slogan of the organization (Ghegerina, 2014), and are anticipated as crucial elements of any business. Therefore, the modification of these items is considered as an important event. The term rebranding involves the processes of changing name, logo or repositioning (Hampf & Lindberg-Repo, 2011). It may seem that the process of rebranding is often fruitful, but it involves certain risks (Hampf & Lindberg-Repo, 2011). For this reason, it is important for companies to understand the opportunities presented by the process of rebranding and the barriers coming in the way of the success (Festcherin & Usunier, 2012). The rebranding process should be productive and yield positive results for the organization. Taking into account the mentioned factors, organizations need to enforce the original perception of the brand and ensure that the entire rebranding process responds to corporate identity.

LIDL is a German-based global discount supermarket chain, established in the 1930s as the Schwarz Unternehmens Treuhand KG (LIDL, 2012). Operating over 10,000 stores in Germany and across Europe, the company presents one of the largest sales entities in the European Union currently. LIDL has undergone a brand and name change in the past and has strived to alter the customers perspective of the corporation (Moth, 2015). The food retailer thus gives the best example of change at the organization level, especially with regards to brand change because of the move it made in the 1970s.

With the initial name meaning black market, there was a plethora of negative publicity about the company something that at the time needed to change (Furstenburg, 2004). The then owner of the firm bought the rights to the use of LIDL from the former tutor Ludwig LIDL for 1000 Marks (Furstenburg, 2004). Furthermore, there was a time when the information from the company came from internal sources and the management often gave interviews on the course of business at the enterprise. This became a concern for the company as there were many instances when the reputation of the company could come under jeopardy because of the release of sensitive information to the public (Navarro-Bailon, 2011).

As such, the company has also developed alternative methods of dealing with negative publicity in the course of operations, so that most of the information available on the company comes from the views of external analysts (Park, Park, & Dubinsky, 2011). The enterprise has given a proper case study of how an organization can make use of important methods of change in the marketing structures. Different areas of strategic importance including the management, expansion techniques, employment conditions for the company's marketing team and labor relations in the various countries that the firm participates in will be used to determine the diverse strategies that the company has used. This study equally uses other companies at the same level to compare and contrast the application of strategic marketing changes and enhancements in their different environments as compared to LIDLs case study.

1.2. Problem Statement

Repositioning is the name of the strategy used by the organizations to establish a new identity (Stormberg et.al, 2015). The processs objective is to obtain a new and different image of the organization in the consumers mind. The activities involved in the course of repositioning are the formation and refining of the product/service offerings in conjunction with identifying the most appropriate markets to reach the new potential customer segment. The process incorporates the change in the design of operations and the integration of new practices (Davis, 2012).

The implementation of such creative processes, when conducted successfully, may enhance and drive the brand to differentiate and attain a unique position in the market, always with the support of the marketing communication approaches that are disseminated via diverse channels. Therefore, the repositioning and rebranding processes are becoming, more and more, commonly used practices among firms that are evolving into a trend and a competitive businesses necessity that is increasing rapidly. This formality may be rationalized via the application of the diverse comparative paradigms provided herein. Because of this increase and the essentiality of the marketing processes required globally, a question arises concerning the impacts of the process on the brand itself.

This was the case with LIDL during its name change in the 1970s. There was a need to improve the customer imaging from the apprehension to be selling contraband goods (and thus so low prices), to a store that gives significant discounts to clients as a method of expanding and maintaining customer loyalty (Moth, 2015). Research has linked the brand name of a store to the personality that the public views the store with. Martineaus avant-garde work on the development of the store personality describes that there are five important parts of the store conceptualization process (Downs & Haynes, 1984). There is a conceptualization of the retail image (Berry, 1969); identifying the attributes of the retail image (Shiffman, Dash, & Dillon, 1977), by conjointly measuring and analyzing the store image (Williams & Dicscenca, 1976). Others include examining the relationship between buyer attitudes and the retail image (Swan & Trawick, 1981), but also by comparing the retail image held by the management to that held by the customers (Tillman, 1967). Downs & Haynes (1984) found that there was often a disconnect between the image held by the management of the store to that held by the populace.

The reasons behind repositioning and the strategies adopted by corporations are different from each other and are highly dependent on the targeted corporate objectives (Wang & Shaver, 2013). LIDL is an organization which seems to be recently undertaking the rebranding and repositioning process. Although this data is not disclosed by the corporation, one can observe that it is relentlessly driving the medias attention, which seems to be fascinated and have been publishing numerous articles regarding the firms current creative activities.

The rebranding and repositioning of LIDL will be studied in this report, and the implications of the process on the identity, brand image and brand equity will be discussed. The research will focus on the rebranding as a process of repositioning. The process of repositioning affects the way the consumers think about the brand. Therefore, the focus of the project will be to analyze the consequences arising from the process.

The researchers will attempt to determine the different ways in which the firm dealt with the disconnect between management perceptions of change and the publics perception of the change. LIDL gives an excellent analysis of the change as the change was international in nature while there were different audiences of change. The purpose of this research is to determine how companies can deal with strategic change in the marketing approaches and how different audiences can be persuaded to perceive the changes in a similar way as the management of the company perceives it. This is because Downs & Haynes (1984) noted that there are often the different perceptions of the strategic changes that a company makes when viewed from the managements perspective and the buyers perspective.

1.3 Purpose

The purpose of the research is to focus on the process of repositioning as a method of change to the organizational marketing strategies. There several consequences arising from the process of the repositioning (Sonnier & Anslie, 2011). The research will focus on the different implications arising from the rebranding process including differentiated perspectives of the change on the different recipients of the change. The impact on the corporate identity, brand equity and the image of the brand in the consumers mind will be explored. Furthermore, the risks that are going to be encountered in the process of change, as well as methods of overcoming those risks based on LIDLs example will be reviewed.

1.4 Research QuestionsIn the research, the analysts will be focusing on the questions of how repositio...