Nothing makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck like a new organizational leader immediately declaring that there should be a rebrand.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are many times in which rebranding is necessary for the business. It will be painful. And expensive. And distracting. It will likely cause problems with other projects in flight as everyone awaits new guidelines, assets, etc to incorporate. And it feels like it’s never complete as old logos, fonts, colors, and tag lines crop up in every deep dark crevice, “helpful” FAQ list, and PDF that’s ever existed. And even when the business has spent years building brand recognition and equity that they’ll have to rebuild, there are many excellent reasons this may be the right path.
But in my career, I have seen several instances in which the decision to rebrand was more about the individual making the decision than the health and future of the business.
In situations in which there are so many deep organizational and business problems that it’s hard to even figure out where to start, a rebrand can feel like a good idea. It’s action. It’s exciting. It’s visual and obvious. And it feels like you’re doing something, even if it’s not addressing the real issues.... Plus, it buys at least a year before anyone can ask about results and realize that the effort didn’t actually fix anything.
In my opinion, these are a few of the questions that need to be answered prior to making a rebranding decision:
Do we deeply know what our current & target customers need / want / accept from us?
Is our product / service actually good / useful / different for our target customers?
Does it work well for those who have chosen to trust us in the past?
How do current customers really feel about our company / our product / our brand?
Have we earned trust? Broken trust?
What perceptions do we want to change and for whom? Why would they believe us?
What perceptions do we want to retain and for whom?
Has anything that used to be relevant to our customers become irrelevant? Vice versa?
Do we truly provide the service / experience that is in line with our brand promise?
What’s the real motivation for taking this path? Is there a possibility that this quest could be ego-driven and / or masking other issues?
The harsh truth is that if you choose to rebrand as a mask to other issues, you’re still going to be dragging your muddy shoes onto your freshly cleaned carpet after all of your work. And unless you start a rebranding project with the customer at the center and do it for the right reasons, it’s going to be a long couple of years.
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