The motivation coming from one player displaces the entire category
The Red Balloon language school turns 55 years old in 2024 and as a gift has gained the results of the rebranding signed by the consultancy Marcas com Sal. Launched in the 2023 and 2024 enrollment cycle, the new brand leveraged record enrollment and maintained the retention rate above 80%.
The goal is to attract students beyond children and teenagers. A network icon, the party balloon, reminiscent of childhood, gave way to the red travel balloon, which refers to the expansion of horizons. The slogan is ‘English to fly high’. “The balloon crossing makes perfect sense for the business, which needed updating. It’s a brutal shift. From the party balloon to the children’s buffet, the student went to discover the world”, comments Letícia Pettená, chief growth officer at Marcas com Sal.
There are cases where rebranding only adjusts the brand to the level where the business already is. “There was a shift and the brand was left behind. This is something that is very recurrent”, points out Ana Moura, CEO of Marcas com Sal. Emblematic moments in the evolution of a company, mergers, changes in context and market reconfiguration can also indicate a review of positioning. Beer manufacturers, for example, are betting on the trend towards non-alcoholic drinks, suggesting the need to communicate a change in action.
And when entrants arrive with seductive proposals, they end up forcing the entire sector to review positions. “The motivation coming from one player displaces the entire category”, confirms Ana, leaving as an example the project carried out for the legal solutions office Mattos Filho, which adopted a contemporary language to neutralize the staid perception, typical of brands in the sector. “Other offices started to question themselves”, recalls Ana.
Read the full article in the June 17th edition of propmark
