When Should You Rebrand?

Hey there, Maurilio here.

Your brand is critical for long-term success, whether you are an organization or a personal brand.

And I’m not talking just about your logo.

Your brand is the essence of who you are, what you do and how you do it. It’s not only a logo or visuals, but it’s a promise, an attitude and your unique language and voice. Your brand is the total sum of what you offer and how you make your audience feel once they engage with your organization.

Creating a successful brand takes years. But when should you rebrand or refresh your brand? That’s one of the questions I often get from my clients.

A rebrand is not for everyone. Changing your brand without a good reason can confuse and potentially disrupt the equity you have built over time.

However, holding on to a brand expression that no longer serves you well can be just as debilitating. After all, if your story is not told well, then every initiative is hampered by the wrong perception.

Here are three instances where a brand refresh could help your organization.

You need a rebrand when your organization has grown beyond its original brand.

Organizations grow and evolve, and if your brand messaging and visuals stay the same, there can be a disconnect in the minds of your potential audience of who you are.

Take Metro Ministries from NYC as an example. Years ago, Metro came to us with a problem: they started as a ministry to at-risk children in New York City, but the brand had grown beyond NYC. By the time Metro started working with us, they were an international organization helping children in 13 different countries. While their faith-based commitment was still at the forefront of the organization, Metro had expanded their work into the areas of physical, emotional and humanitarian needs.

During the rebranding process, we renamed Metro Ministries to Metro World Child. From there, new language, logo and images were created to help tell the whole story of the organization and not an old, partial version.

Previous logo:

New logo and brand messaging:

You need a rebrand if you have an updated vision or culture.

New leadership often means an updated vision, a new approach or culture for the organization. If your organization has new leadership and its internal culture has changed, then you are a candidate for a brand refresh.

Word of Life is a 75-year-old organization with camps, retreats, schools and missional work. Their brand message and visuals had not changed in decades. The new leadership wanted to make sure that their brand portfolio (brand and sub-brands) came together cohesively and attracted their broad audience that spanned from students to grandparents.

In this case, the primary brand logo, messaging, and other sub-brand logos were developed to make sure they told the story of Word of Life to new generations.

You need a rebrand if you need to re-establish your organization’s reputation.

There are several reasons you might need to re-establish your organization: the leader steps down and begins a competing organization. A crisis creates doubt about your future. Your competitor is successful in positioning you in a dimmer light.

When you face a challenge in the court of public opinion, you should consider a brand refresh.

One of the most successful branding campaigns of all time is the Visa Card “We are everywhere you want to be” positioning. Visa not only promised us it could be used anywhere, but it also positions its main competitor, Mastercard, as “not being everywhere you want to be.”

Unfortunately, it’s easy for a disgruntled group, a former staff or a competitor to reset your brand narrative unscrupulously in the days of social media.

While a complete rebrand might not be necessary, you might want to create a new narrative and re-establish your brand promise to combat any misinformation that might tell a different story.

Awana came to us to help retell their story differently from what their competitors had positioned them: an old school children’s program.

The branding changes were subtle but profound. While the logo was only slightly modified, the brand articulation (messaging, images, treatments, color palette) was extensively changed. The brand refresh told a much more dynamic message than before.