Sep 27, 2022 Joey Guido

From Apple Wellness to The Healthy Place: A Rebranding Story

Past Event: Five Ways Create a Better User Experience — So Website Visitors Stick Around!

Tim O’Brien presented at September’s Social Media Breakfast event, where he shared many tips on how to make a rebranding decision, which is something his business currently experienced.

HOW TO MAKE A REBRANDING DECISION

Tim is the owner of The Healthy Place (formerly Apple Wellness), which he founded with his wife Becki back in 2010. Their mission as a company is to “impact, empower, and educate every customer to learn, grow, and create a lifelong foundation of health and wellness. We strive to inspire our customers to make healthy changes that will impact every area of their lives and we believe that health is worth fighting for.”

Whether you are considering rebranding your own business or organization — or are just getting started — there’s lots you can learn from Tim’s experience.

You can watch the EVENT REPLAY of Tim’s presentation in its entirety on the SMB Facebook page.

The following is an overview of Tim’s presentation, including many key takeaways for you to consider.

Let’s get started with …

NAME REGRETS

  • The business opened as Apple Wellness in 2010. The name was chosen because Tim’s mom had a store named Apple Nutrition.
  • Becki never liked the name and said “Apple” was already taken by … Apple.
  • Tim quickly realized that Becki was right, and everyone thought they repaired iPhones
  • They were stuck with a name they didn’t love, and that was confusing

 

HOW TO MAKE A REBRANDING DECISION

To begin, weigh the pros and cons:

  • Will changing the branding or name of your company have a serious impact on your brand equity?
  • Will changing the branding or name of your company actually HELP your company and clarify what you have to offer?
  • What will you need to change? (store signage, new website, social media handles, brochures, flyers, uniforms, etc.)
  • Can you afford to rebrand?

Make a list of your biggest concerns:

For Tim and Becki, the biggest concerns included:

  • Losing brand equity and customer loyalty.
  • Customers thinking we sold to a new owner.
  • Losing SEO and website authority on Google.

 

HOW THEY DID IT

Don’t rush into the decision.

From the time they decided to change their name to the day they finally replaced store signs — it was THREE YEARS of intentional work.

One nugget we found really interesting is how Tim and Becki transformed the name from old to new.

  • They combined the new and old business names for six months with their old name first and new name second … Apple Wellness, The Healthy Place … and the customer reaction was very positive!
  • Then, they switched it up and combined the names with the new name FIRST and the old name SECOND … The Healthy Place, formerly known as Apple Wellness.
  • At this point they then put up their new signs for The Healthy Place.
  • In 2020, after a year of “The Healthy Place, formerly known as Apple Wellness” they slowly began to transition all of their marketing and print materials to just say “The Healthy Place.”

 

WHY THIS WAS IMPORTANT — “Taking it slow and combining the names to start really helped to ease the transition. We didn’t go straight from Apple Wellness to The Healthy Place. By the time we made the ‘official’ change, customers and the general public had been seeing and hearing ‘Apple Wellness, The Healthy Place’ together for months and months. It didn’t feel like a shock when we lost ‘Apple Wellness’ completely.”

 

RESEARCH

We agree with Tim’s sentiment that “you only want to do a big rename and rebrand ONCE. Make sure you’re not making another wrong decision. Ask friends, family, and your top customers their opinion. Just because it makes sense to you, does not mean it makes sense to everyone!

Do this first …
Check the availability of your new name. You might find a name you love is already taken, don’t waste time on it.

Some questions to answer include:

  • Is the website available?
  • Social media handles?
  • Is there a copyright or trademark in Wisconsin for that name already?

GO FOR IT!

The best time to make a rebranding decision?
RIGHT NOW. If you’ve done your research and you know a new name is necessary, don’t wait. Get the ball rolling and get started as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more equity you will have built into a name you’re not planning to keep.

SEE IT AS A GOOD THING

Once Tim got over his initial panic attack, he began to realize how exciting it was to finally have a name that clearly stated what our business was about.

To help see all this change, sweat and work as a good thing, consider how much better you’ll be able to capture your ideal customer if your branding is clear and your name speaks for itself.

That said, hire professionals to help with the parts you’re not good at, and make sure you’re really excited about the changes being made.

We hope you’ve found Tim’s insights as helpful as we did!

And remember, you can watch this event in its entirety on the SMB Facebook page.

Until next time, stay well!

 

Nonprofit Spotlight:

As stewards, Taliesin Preservation’s mission is to preserve the cultural, built, and natural environments that comprise the Taliesin property and to conduct public educational and cultural programming that provides a greater understanding of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture and ideas.

Taliesin Preservation is Wisconsin’s only public UNESCO World Heritage site. Taliesin is the home, studio, school, and 800-acre estate of Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). Located in the Driftless Region of southwestern Wisconsin near Spring Green, Taliesin is the name of Wright’s 37,000-square-foot home and estate that includes buildings from nearly every decade of Wright’s career from the 1890s to the 1950s. There is something for everyone at Taliesin – food, drink, world-class art, agriculture, and of course, architecture.

Visit taliesinpreservation.org to learn more or register for the October 5th Prairie Botany | Hike with Mike & Grace event (difficult). They also offer Saturday morning hikes at 9:45am for a 1-hour Driftless Tour that’s perfect for families.

Also find them on social media:

 

Thanks to SMBMad volunteer Joey Guido for writing this month’s event recap.