Matthew McConaughey last year he gave the performance of a lifetime in the movie called Dallas Buyers Club. The film received wide critical acclaim and has earned McConaughey a well deserved Oscar. Quite possibly you never even heard of it, because it went into the movie theaters just as fast it came out. Not to mention Jared Leto portrays a transgender woman in the film, and won best supporting actor Oscar for rebranding his image as well, this seems to be the trend for Hollywood nowadays to get the Oscar.

But the point that stands out is that McConaughey’s transformation can be explained by rebranding his image, and able to get to the depth of the character, image, branding himself. He hit a plateau of romantic comedies, and that he couldn’t play the lead in romantic genre for that much longer and he needed to rebrand himself as a serious actor.

There are many reasons for companies and services to rebrand: when there is a change in the customer base; when the brand proposition is no longer relevant; or when a competitor disrupts the market. Indeed, rebranding can take place in different shapes and forms. Here are some examples of rebranding your company in order to differentiate itself, so your consumers envision your brand in a new positive light.

Target has rebranded it’s look in order to differentiate itself. It was seen as just another discount retailer, indistinguishable from Wal-Mart and K-Mart. Target became known as “Tahr-zjay”, with a faux-French accent – a more upscale mass merchandiser that appealed to a ritzier clientele, put a more classy spin on their marketing, and like that they had a new clientele.

Old Spice rebranded itself by changing their customer experience on social media. The brand’s ad campaign generated tens of millions of online views and became a viral sensation from video production and television commercials. A clever ad and smart use of social media produced a fresh, youthful identity brought Old Spice back.

Apple rebranded itself from a desktop computing manufacturer to a leader of technological innovation by introducing remarkable and elegantly designed products such as the iMac, iPhone, iPods, and iPods. It created a well articulated experience of the brand thanks to Jonathan Ive.

Relevancy is a brand’s currency, but it constantly needs to be reinvented of it’s image, otherwise a popular brand can be rejected by its customers overnight, and without much warning. How a business is branded and perceived by the general public is no longer solely up to the business owner, it takes creative individuals to see the future in the brand. What people say about you is just as important as any classy professional branding campaign or catchy tagline.

Rebranding is an extremely important marketing tool today, whether to seize an opportunity for a new market or to differentiate yourself from the wolf pack of competitors or maybe just to pave your own way into the future.