I’ve grown to detest rebranding. Seriously, I hate it. It sounds harsh, right? But, I’ve thought a lot about it, and it’s true. I hate the word rebranding and all it’s come to stand for.
Rebranding is used to describe everything from an operational punch list to swap out logos, social media icons and email signatures to an excuse to update a tired design the new marketing director doesn’t like, or to create some new vanilla tagline to replace the one churned out last quarter.
It sounds like a big thing, but it’s not. It’s not courageous, ambitious, or most importantly, smart.
I know a great many of us agree that brand is about more than logos and catch phrases. That’s a conversation we had yesteryear, and something all us creative types got on board with.
Yet, somehow folks, we keep tricking ourselves into believing our rebranding effort is about something more than a spreadsheet exercise of logo hide-and-seek.
When we make the kind of investment rebranding requires, shouldn’t it create a return? Shouldn’t we shape something of real value, rather than poke through pages of design and paragraphs of platitudes?
Part of the problem, I’m convinced, is that the conversation around brand is still squishy and inconsistent. And, while we have defined what brand is not, we have not defined what it is or how we get there.
The truth is: brand is the emotional effect of all the experiences people have with your organization.
What we really need to be thinking about is the cultural shift we’re trying to create both inside and outside our organizations and why that means anything to anyone, and finally, how those experiences then manifest themselves into moments and eventually movements. This is brand strategy.
It takes looking out into the future, and being who we are becoming.
And, if that sounds tricky, that’s because it is. It takes leadership, vision, diligence, planning, and a strong digestive system.
Yet, this is where ROI for brand strategy lives. Because unlike so-called rebrandingefforts, brand strategy organizes companies for years, carries them through difficult transitions and strategic shifts, and ultimately turns ownership over to its stakeholders by creating progressive cultural movements impaled with emotion both inside and outside the organization. The goal is to create something that lives with and without you.
So, this is where my rejection of rebranding begins and ends. Your new logo might look more modern, but you will be no more or less relevant. And, there is no return. Not even in good will. Because in cases where we’re solely focused on getting updated, we’re inviting criticism…on colors, shapes and type because it’s not tied to anything deeper than personal preference. And opinions have no place in brand.
I’m calling for an end to rebranding. It’s just half-assing brand, and what you absolutely, without-a-doubt need instead is a brand strategy. Because anything you’re simply doing over, the same way you did it the first time, means you’ll be right back to where you started in no time.
And, you’re better than that, aren’t you?
Danielle Milner is the Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of DO:BETTER, an independent design company specializing in the development of enduring brands and identity programs.
