Christine De Meyer-Heydenrych
Abstract
South Africans quickly express their opinions on social media platforms such as Twitter. These opinions are often debated with others on social media. However, these opinions can also create unwarranted brand engagement and brand sentiment. In October 2022, FNB undertook a rebranding exercise by changing their logo of 35 years and changing features on their mobile application. The Twitter sphere went into overdrive with customers’ opinions about the rebranding. This study aims to determine customer sentiment and opinion about the rebrand. Understanding customer opinion and sentiment is necessary as it can assist the business in determining whether any brand damage has occurred or how to adjust the marketing strategy after a rebrand. ATLAS.ti was used to collect qualitative data through Social Network Analysis by collecting tweets about FNB’s new logo. Over 1 318 unique edges were analysed using Sentiment Analysis and opinion mining. Findings show that sentiment was mostly negative about the rebrand. The findings of this study are important as they could guide FNB in managing the negative sentiment and driving their marketing strategy towards the positive aspects of the rebrand to change customer sentiment.