Corporate Rebranding and Corporate Brand Image: The Mediating Role of Marketing Communication

Abstract

Corporate rebranding has become prevalent all around the world despite the fact that it is a risky, costly and time consuming exercise. Companies make changes to their corporate brand elements in order to communicate a change in strategic direction and identity with the expectation that, it will create positive corporate brand image perceptions. However, the failure of a corporate rebranding exercise has been reported to have dire consequences on the corporate brand image and reputation. This research sought to determine the impact of corporate rebranding on customer perception of the corporate brand image in the mobile telecommunications sector in Ghana. It also sought to identify the brand element which had the greatest impact on customer perception of the corporate brand image of rebranded companies. This study also investigated the role communication plays in shaping customer perception of corporate brand image. To achieve the objectives of the study, a quantitative research approach was employed. A structural equation modelling using Amos 21 was used to test the hypotheses and a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to extract variables that best answer each construct in the study. The findings indicated that, corporate rebranding had a positive and significant relationship with customer perception of corporate brand image and the change in the corporate name had the greatest impact on customer perception of corporate brand image. Marketing communication partially mediated the relationship between corporate rebranding and corporate image. The limitation of the study was that, it considered the perceptions of customers, who are only one group of stakeholders, findings to other stakeholder groups should be done with this in mind. It is recommended that, companies take into account customer’s perception of corporate brand elements before and after a corporate rebranding exercise, to ensure that, the new corporate brand elements conveyed the kind of image the company seeks to project. Future research should consider the perceptions of other stakeholders, such as employees of rebranded companies to see if their perceptions differed from customers.