Despite expanding beyond takeaways into retail and pharmaceuticals, Just Eat Takeaway keeps its name. The immense brand recognition is more valuable than a name that literally describes all its services. They educate customers on new offerings gradually, leveraging existing brand trust.
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A rebrand should be viewed as building the fundamental foundation of a business. Without it, growth attempts are superficial and temporary. With a solid brand, the company has a stable base that can support significant scaling and prevent the business from hitting a growth ceiling.
Meta's rebrand from Facebook, much like Google's to Alphabet, was not just a name change. It was a strategic move to signal to both employees and the market that the company's ambitions extend beyond its original core product, creating the space and permission to build entirely new business lines.
Enduring 'stay-up' brands don't need to fundamentally reinvent their core product. Instead, they should focus on creating opportunities for consumers to 'reappraise' the brand in a current context. The goal is to make the familiar feel fresh and relevant again, connecting it to modern culture.
Spotify leveraged its brand love to successfully expand from music streaming into podcasts and audiobooks. This emotional equity provides the necessary consumer trust for diversification, turning brand into a strategic asset for growth beyond the core product.
Just as P&G wouldn't rename a popular soap, acquirers shouldn't change a successful B2B product's name. The brand holds immense equity built over years. Changing BlueKai to an Oracle brand name, for instance, instantly erases value that persists in the market's mind for over a decade.
When a brand name becomes a generic verb (e.g., "a Zoom meeting"), it creates immense awareness but can also trap the brand in its initial product category. This makes educating the market about a broader portfolio of offerings a significant challenge, turning the brand's greatest strength into a double-edged sword.
Just Eat Takeaway observes strong demand for new services like grocery in specific markets first. They develop solutions there, gaining insights and building features that are ready to deploy globally as consumer demand emerges elsewhere, turning regional trends into a strategic advantage.
A brand's strength can be measured by its "durability"—the permission customers grant it to enter new categories. For example, a "Nike hotel" is conceivable, but a "Hilton shoe" is not. This mental model tests whether your brand is defined by a narrow function or a broad customer relationship.
Many founders conflate their brand with their first product. A successful company requires a broader brand positioning that can accommodate future products. This prevents the business from getting stuck as a single-product entity and enables long-term growth and category expansion.
Adam White credits his company's success to its expansive name over his original, narrow idea, "Executive Report." A broader brand identity allowed for expansion into various verticals and sounded more appealing, which a niche, descriptive name would have constrained from the start.
