The Rebranding Process in Service Organizations: Influence Patterns of Core Service Characteristics

Rebranding has emerged as a complex organizational phenomenon, particularly in service contexts where value is created through interactive and process-based relationships. Despite extensive research in branding, the role of core service characteristics in shaping the rebranding process remains insufficiently examined. This study therefore investigates how intangibility, inseparability of production and consumption, heterogeneity, and perishability influence the rebranding process in service organizations, with particular attention to variations in the patterns and intensity of their influence across different service contexts. A mixed-methods research design was employed, combining semi-structured interviews with twelve purposively selected senior branding professionals and quantitative analysis of expert assessments using nonparametric statistical techniques appropriate for exploratory research. The findings indicate that core service characteristics are relevant to the rebranding process and contribute to its qualitative distinctiveness in comparison with the rebranding of physical goods. However, their influence is not uniform: intangibility and heterogeneity emerge as consistently strong and stable factors, whereas inseparability and perishability exhibit more variable and context-dependent patterns. Furthermore, the type of service industry is identified as an analytical condition systematically associated with these differentiated forms of influence. The study contributes by conceptualizing rebranding in service organizations as a context-sensitive and process-oriented phenomenon. It shows that core service characteristics do not influence rebranding uniformly but through differentiated patterns that vary across service-industry contexts. These findings extend the theoretical understanding of rebranding and support a more nuanced approach to strategic decision-making in service-based brand management.