rebrand

verb

re·​brand (ˌ)rē-ˈbrand 

rebranded; rebranding; rebrands

transitive verb

: to change or update the brand or branding of (a product, service, etc.)

After the original app Picaboo failed to gain traction in 2011, they rebranded the app as Snapchat and added the captioning feature.

—Madeline Purdue

Rebranding a company with a troubled history, or renaming a product with unfortunate associations, is often a necessary act of self-protection.

—Jeffrey Goldberg

broadly : to publicly refer to or describe (someone or something) in a new or different way

After France declined to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, George W. Bush supporters … tried to rebrand French fries as "freedom fries."

—Eve Peyser

… recommended last month that it was time to "rebrand" Britain as "one of the world's pioneers rather than one of its museums."

—Warren Hoge

rebranding noun

plural rebrandings

The emergence of the Tea Party, Boehner says, forced upon Republicans, in one cycle, a rebranding that otherwise might have taken the Party a generation to achieve.

—Peter J. Boyer

Examples of rebrand in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Congressional Democrats who once praised Hogan for his bipartisanship have tried to rebrand him as a fake never-Trumper and an enabler of conservative firebrands such as Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). —Ramsey Touchberry, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 24 Oct. 2024

By obtaining those records from other states, The Times was able to detail how some unscrupulous California resellers buy puppies in bulk from mass breeders in the Midwest and rebrand them as locally bred. —Melody Gutierrez, Los Angeles Times, 23 Sep. 2024

The emergency motion will allow the owner/operator of 16 regional sports networks rebrand its in-market TV hubs before the 2024-25 NBA season officially tips off on Tuesday. —Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 18 Oct. 2024

Forbes senior contributor Edward Segal writes this is yet another big hit for a company that has been trying to rebrand itself as people’s relationship with weight, health and weight loss drugs are in significant flux. —Megan Poinski, Forbes, 30 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1895, in the meaning defined above