September 10, 2014 2 min read

Rebranding is a slippery slope. Just ask Hershey and Airbnb. Talk about disastrous logo revamps. Both companies -- one old dog and one new – recently found out the hard way that there’s a lot more to a successful rebrand than merely tweaking your logo and hoping it will go over well.

Before you take the risk of rebranding your company, it’s important to seriously think about whether you should retool your brand in the first place. If your target audience is changing with the times (and chances are it is), it’s a smart move to change along with them. Not just to maintain their interest, but, more importantly, their business. Or, if your competition is biting off a painful chunk of your market share, a brand makeover could save your neck.

Related: CVS Rebrands Itself With Renewed Committment to Healthcare

Some rebrands are total fails, like Radio Shack’s recent rebranding attempt, as pointed out in GetVoIP’s helpful rebranding do's and don'ts infographic below. In a failed bid to stay relevant, the slumping consumer electronics chain switched its name to The Shack back in to 2009, but didn’t switch up its product offerings or brand philosophy along with it. The result: A rebrand that was widely dismissed as an identity crisis, a flop. Hard lesson: A rebranding that works requires much more than a basic name change.

To help you decide whether rebranding is a wise decision for your business -- and how to successfully pull a rebrand off -- check out the following informative infographic. It highlights eight key rules you shouldn’t break when braving a rebrand, complete with examples of four winning and losing real-life rebranding stories.

Related: 5 Tips on Rebranding from a Billion-Dollar Expert

Related: Need a New Design? 5 Reasons to Crowdsource It.