Rebranding of CFDs Brokers: “It Was Costly, but We Have More than Made Up for It"

Invast Global, Zenfinex, Admiral Markets, and VantageFX were only a few forex and contracts for differences (CFDs) brokers that are now operating with a new name. While some have taken a completely new identity, like 26 Degrees and Taurex, others stayed close to their legacy identity with names like Admirals and Vantage. With the new year ahead of us - time for renewal and transformation - we delved into the aftermath of such transformations to uncover the secrets, regrets, and advice emanating from these changes.

The decision to rebrand is tough. It can undo the brand value companies have built over the years, especially for retail customer-centric companies like brokers. So, companies take calculated risks and plan for months, if not years, before rebranding.

"Leading our company rebrand from Invast Global to 26 Degrees Global Markets must be done in a strategic way. You need to assess the brand critically," Melissa Downes, the Global Head of Marketing at 26 Degrees, explained to Finance Magnates.

"Does the brand stand out? What does it stand for? What feeling do I get when I look at the brand? Is it trust and prestige, or is it functional and economical? Do I want a partner, or do I want a service? Marketing communicates so many things quickly to the viewer, and as we know, first impressions count. So, you start from the basics' given branding is a huge part of Marketing."

A Long Haul Strategy

The purpose of the brokers to rebrand is crucial. The companies that decide to rebrand often access the purpose for a significant period before finalizing. In the case of 26 Degrees, which only offers prime brokerage services, it took two and a half years to determine "the way the industry was heading, particularly in regard to the contraction experienced in the prime brokerage market."

Taurex (previously Zenfinex), a relatively younger retail broker, took nine months to consider its rebranding strategies. According to Nick Cooke, the CEO of Taurex, the company's goal was "to deliver a fresh, sleek, and disruptive brand identity." However, it kept the Zenfinex brand to offer B2B services.

Cooke added: "Our aim is to achieve a delicate balance between maintaining the strong position of Zenfinex in the B2B arena and introducing Taurex as a dynamic, new entity for our retail clients. The Taurex logo highlights a bull representing the Latin word, Taurus, resembling strength and resilience."

While the brand name Taurex adhered to the conventional dynamics of trading, 26 Degrees tried a different approach. The name represents the 26th-degree latitude that runs parallel across the broadest breadth of Australia, dividing it from North to South.

Meanwhile, two of the old retail FX/CFDs brokerage brands, Vantage and Admirals, rebranded but aligned with their legacy names.

"As a licensed CFD broker, we operate in a highly saturated yet fragmented industry. We recognized that it was crucial to allow our brand to stand out and find our unique positioning in this crowded market," Geraldine Goh, the Chief Marketing Officer at Vantage Markets, told Finance Magnates.

"Combined with our findings from a comprehensive competitor audit and extensive customer research, we worked to establish Vantage, a refreshed brand that was consistent across our brand architecture."

Speaking about the new brand, Admirals' Chief Revenue Officer, Daniel Skowronski, told Finance Magnates:" The struggle [with rebranding] is how you balance. With Admirals, in place of Admiral Markets, we would not lose everything. Our biggest challenge with that is how we maintain and keep all that organic traffic that took us 20 years to build."

The rebranding last year for Admirals came as the broker wanted to position its brand beyond its legacy offerings around forex and CFDs trading. By dropping the 'Markets', the broker has future-proofed itself to offer any financial services under the existing brand.

Another relatively new CFDs platform that rebranded last year is BUX X, which now operates as Stryk. However, for BUX, the goal was to differentiate its CFDs business from its other zero-fee trading app.

A Brand Needs Customer Trust

Top retail brokers have hundreds of thousands of customers if not millions. Companies cannot just change the brands abruptly and surprise their existing customers. Thus, communication with existing customers becomes crucial in rebranding.

"Effective communication has been crucial in our approach," said Cooke. "Starting a month before the transition, we launched an extensive email campaign to keep our clients fully informed. These comprehensive emails explained the upcoming changes in detail and set clear expectations."

"We made sure to guide our clients through the expected modifications in their trading experience, ensuring they were not just aware of the rebranding but also prepared for the specific enhancements that would improve their trading journey."

But, as Goh highlighted, most companies want it to "make the biggest impact" when publicly unveiling new brands. She further said that the brokers received "a mix of opinions and responses" from their customers regarding the rebranding.

"Fortunately, the majority of the reactions we encountered were positive," Goh added.

Rebranding Is Costly

Companies often use a significant portion of their marketing budget for advertising. Decisions like rebranding push the marketing budget significantly higher as the companies need to encompass brand development and marketing campaigns.

While both Vantage and Taurex pointed out the "significant [monetary] investment" in rebranding, for 26 Degrees, "investment of time" was the critical cost element.

"Some of the key costs included the external agencies we worked with, outsourced website development, new merchandise, public relations, and of course, our launch party," Downes said, adding that "some campaigns were temporarily put on hold due to resourcing constraints."

"My budget has remained the same. I am incredibly focused on ensuring we get a good return for investment on our marketing spend, so while we had a budget set aside for the rebrand, I brought it in at half the cost that we had allocated, so my budget did not actually increase."

Goh added: "With every rebranding exercise, we would actively look at maximizing amplification, to shout about who we are and how we are doing things differently. And, of course, cost-effectiveness is key. While the cost of our rebranding was a significant sum, we have more than made up for it with the returns we have obtained from it, including in the form of brand goodwill."

Opportunity Cost Is Significant

Although it does not come to the companies' books, "opportunity cost" is another significant factor companies consider when rebranding. Opportunity costs can be in several forms, for Taurex, it was "the 9-month opportunity cost of not investing into the Zenfinex brand while [it] primed the Taurex brand for launch," while for Admirals, it was the loss of organic traffic directed to the old brand.

Cooke pointed out that his company "budgeted the exact figures and costs in our internal financial strategy" and "the biggest cost has been" the opportunity cost.

In the second article we will discuss the daunting task of rebuilding SEO. And what is a successful rebranding ?