Weight Watchers is changing its brand to WW. Why? Because it is changing its purpose. It is redefining its reason for being and using a re-brand to change the company and consumer perception.

Weight Watchers is a brand where 90% of its customers are women. It’s also a brand that has a ton of competition. Jenny Craig, fitness centers, free apps and subscription websites caused its revenue to plummet. And until Oprah became a major investor as well as the face and voice of the company, its growth potential and value as an investment was suspect. The overriding question was where is Weight Watcher’s growth going to come from?

The answer that management developed was to become a wellness company rather than just a weight loss company. In the process it had to lose its sole purpose of weight loss and expand it to a broad purpose of wellness or one’s overall wellbeing.

We see this kind of rebrand all the time. Something in the market has changed making the old brand obsolete, enter the new brand. Some companies let loose of the tree and go way out on a limb, while others, like WW, go out on the limb while holding firmly to the trunk. Whether this rebrand will put WW back on a growth path by expanding, maybe diluting its target is something only time and execution will tell.

As you look at your brand, ask yourself if it reflects your organization’s purpose for being. Ask if your brand helps you make meaningful strategic decisions regarding the future of your organization. Or is it just something that just sits in the marketing department. If the answer is the latter, your brand may not be as effective as it could be.