Is The Hertz Rebrand Hurting For Real Change?

The rebranding of rental car icon Hertz, begun last year, is now in full swing. The nearly-100-year-old brand is updating its 2000-plus rental locations, its logo and employee uniforms, as well as expanding its fleet to offer sports cars, including the Corvette ZHZ.

The whole effort is meant to help consumers establish an emotional connection with the brand. More of the campaign is set to roll out in early 2010 and will include a brandcameo in the film "Up in the Air."

The effort comes as Hertz's recent revenues are down by almost a quarter -- and while this is probably for the same reasons everyone's revenues are down, nowhere in the rebrand or its slogan, "Journey On," is there mention of, you know, providing better service. (One visit to ComplaintsBoard.com shows Hertz isn't exactly hitting it out of the park.)

Graj + Gustavsen's Simon Graj is skeptical about the Hertz rebrand. He told Forbes, "When I hear about a new logos and new uniforms, I'm reminded of the 1990s when marketers were talking about consumers like they were little kids that are attracted to pretty pictures. To be relevant today you have to provide great service and make a big difference."

That's funny, because a year ago, Hertz conducted some online surveys for the rebrand, under the guise of "your rental experiences at Hertz," and this same thought very much occurred to a few people:

"Just got a note through my mail a few minutes ago for a very extensive survey for Hertz... Had a chance to point out a few problems with the Hertz brand etc (i.e. rubbish treatment of regular renters and old decrepit cars), but, the interesting thing was that it seems the real point of the survey was to trial out a new corporate logo/branding for hertz... I wonder if they're going to actually fix any of the underlying problems with Hertz service or just go for an expensive rebranding whilst they lay off thousands of staff."

Who would ever think such a thing!