New Year New You? Everything You Need to Know Before Rebranding
‘New Year, New You’ has to be one of the oldest cliches in the book. But despite the fact that in the northern hemisphere, January sees us mired in darkness and a lack of motivation to do anything, never mind reinvent ourselves, the arrival of a New Year almost always brings with it the nagging feeling that we should be turning over a new leaf.
Personal goals might include losing that half stone we keep talking about or embarking on new hobbies – and for businesses, the turn of the year often prompts thoughts of rebranding. It’s tempting to think that a new look will inject fresh energy into your business and set you on a different trajectory – and that CAN be true, but it isn’t always.
The truth is that people can be quite resistant to change – just recently, we’ve seen a huge backlash against Jaguar’s rebrand. So when you take on a project like this, it’s a bit like buying a gym membership in January – you have to be prepared to see it through even when the going gets tough, and you have to be doing it for the right reasons.
In this blog, we’re taking a look at why businesses rebrand – when is (and isn’t) the right time, what benefits it can bring and how to manage the process, including any negative impacts or feedback.
How often should businesses rebrand?
There’s no hard and fast rule for how often a business should rebrand, but a quick straw poll online suggests that the most common time frame is every 5-10 years, often with smaller visual tweaks happening in between.
It’s important to strike a balance between keeping your brand or logo feeling fresh and up-to-date while also maintaining consistency and brand recognition.
Rebranding too frequently is a common mistake – often arising because a previous rebrand was rushed or poorly executed, or because of too many conflicting opinions within a business.
It’s interesting to note that some of the world’s most famous brands have never rebranded – companies like Stella Artois, Coca-Cola, Levi Strauss and Louis Vuitton have adopted a strategy of never changing their logo, some of them for literal centuries.
Other famous brands like Nike, Apple and Instagram have created the illusion of never rebranding, because the process has been so subtle – a brand evolution, as opposed to a revolution. This approach is much less risky, but as Jaguar recently found out, it’s not immune from criticism either.
When is the right time to rebrand?
The time to rebrand your business is not when 7-10 years have elapsed, or when you’re feeling bored of your current branding, or when your competitor just rebranded and you have FOMO.
Rebranding represents a significant investment of time and money, and has the potential to at least temporarily slow your growth, or limit your brand awareness. Therefore, it’s a decision to be carefully considered, and a process to be carefully planned and executed. Here are some situations where a rebrand is advisable:
1. Your business is expanding, merging or being acquired
If your company is poised for significant growth or change, it’s a good time to consider whether the current branding is fit for purpose. A brand that worked well for a small, kitchen table business may not be appropriate when that business wants to expand into wholesaling, or achieves listings with a national retailer. Likewise if your business is merging or being acquired, you may find yourself competing on a much bigger stage, so it’s important that your branding reflects this new scale and maturity.
2. Your brand is out of date
Whilst the key to successful branding is to aim for a look that is timeless, it’s also important for your brand to look current – and like all fashions, branding trends do change over time. If your fonts or colors are making your brand feel so last decade – or if elements of your brand seem like they could be confusing or misleading to your customer, it’s probably time for a new look.
3. Your branding isn’t flexible
If your brand has been in existence for two decades or more, it predates the digital revolution – but even if it’s younger than that, chances are the world and technology have moved on considerably since it was developed. It’s common for businesses to find that their branding isn’t meeting their needs in terms of how it adapts to different platforms and applications. One example we often come up against is where a strapline has been tied into a logo, and is now limiting how the logo can be applied on social media platforms and other instances where a thumbnail is required.
4. You feel your brand doesn’t align with your values
All businesses evolve over time – not just in terms of their size, or their offering, but also in terms of their values and personality. A company that starts out very small, quirky and fun can become more conservative as it grows. Sometimes a business in a very corporate sector will differentiate itself by leaning into values of fun or individuality. The look and feel of your brand will influence customer perceptions from the outset, and also the other aspects of your brand identity, such as brand voice.
The point is, whatever values define you as a business should be reflected in your branding, and if they’re not, it’s time for a change.
5. You’re struggling to gain a competitive advantage
Before we make this point, it’s important to say that no amount of fancy branding and design work will make up for shortcomings in your business. Today’s consumer is extremely shrewd and while they may initially be lured in by a brand that looks the part, an ‘all fur coat and no knickers’ approach won’t win you their long-term loyalty. But if you’ve already put in the hard yards to build a brand that can compete on every level – a great product or service, strong knowledge and customer support – then great branding can be the icing on the cake, lending your brand authority and prestige that can give you a competitive edge.
When rebrands go wrong
Gap
In 2010 US-based clothing brand Gap sprung a rebrand on their customers, switching out their much-loved navy blue square for a text-based logo using the Helvetica font and a smaller version of the square. Customers hated it on sight, describing it as cheap, tacky and ordinary, saying it looked like the logo of an insurance company. A Twitter account called @GapLogo was created to protest the change, and a website called Crap Logo Yourself was created to let people make their own “Gap-style logo”. Gap changed the logo back within a week and haven’t strayed since.
In 2023, the world’s richest man bought popular social media platform Twitter, and seemingly went on a crusade to engineer its demise – and very successfully. Twitter’s original identity was long considered an incredible lesson in branding, with the name, logo, and color all contributing to the brand’s personality and value proposition. The bird icon was friendly and welcoming, while the name made us all think of short conversations and communication, the platform’s core components. Musk changed the name to X – a name so bland as to be entirely meaningless, with a boring logo to match. Users have been leaving in droves ever since.
Royal Mail
Way back in January 2001, Royal Mail decided to rebrand in a bid to keep up with other big mail companies like UPS and FedEx, ditching the Royal insignia they’d held since the 1600s in favour of a made-up name – Consignia. As a nation collectively asked ‘Consigni-what?’, the BBC called the £1.5m project a “howling waste of money”.
Little over a year (and some hefty losses) later, Royal Mail saw sense and reverted back to the original name and branding – spending another £1m in the process.
4 golden rules rules for rebranding
What can you learn from these failures? There are some golden rules from rebranding that they all failed to follow. Here are 4 things to remember before you reinvent your brand.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
Before embarking on any rebranding project, it’s important to truly scrutinise your motives for doing so. Is your current branding really falling short, or are you simply feeling bored, or succumbing to peer pressure to change it? If your branding is still aesthetically relevant, aligned with your values, fit for purpose and well-known, the cost of rebranding could far outweigh any benefits you gain from doing so, and may even set your business back in the long run.
Keep people informed
If you do decide to move forward with a rebrand, make sure you bring people along with you. This means consulting with all relevant stakeholders during the planning process, making use of feedback loops and focus groups during development, and achieving buy-in at every stage of the rollout. It’s highly advisable to test your branding on smaller groups before rolling it out en masse – and when you do finally push the button on the launch, make sure you explain why you’ve taken this step. Simply dropping a new look with no advance warning and no rationale leaves a ‘narrative vacuum’ that can quickly get filled up with negative opinions and unwanted feedback.
Hold onto goodwill
People generally don’t like change, and if your brand has already built up years of trust and goodwill, there’s a risk that dramatically changing your appearance could leave your loyal followers feeling blindsided and unsure. Some of the most successful rebrands in history are those where core elements of a brand – for example, the Starbucks mermaid – have been retained, but updated and refreshed over time. This maintains brand recognition and preserves the customer’s connection to and understanding of the brand, while ensuring it doesn’t get stuck in the past. For our own 2024 rebrand, we ALMOST changed our name – then thought better of it. Consider which parts of your branding really need to change or disappear, and which could be preserved and updated to help you resonate with a new generation of customers.
Have the courage of your convictions
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: you can’t please all of the people, all of the time. When you rebrand, there will be people who make negative noises about it. There will be some who downright hate it. You might lose some customers. But
if you’ve done all the due diligence mentioned above – you’re rebranding for the right reasons, you’ve involved people in the process, you’ve tested the creative, you haven’t thrown the baby out with the bathwater – then at some point you have to stop caring what people think, and believe in your own vision.
Jaguar’s recent rebrand is a case in point. Where many current Jaguar enthusiasts were outraged by an ad they saw as a ‘woke’ and nonsensical departure from the brand’s legacy, Jaguar pointed out that they’ve never wanted to appeal to the masses, and they haven’t got to where they are today by playing it safe.
After a fraught few days as the internet railed against the new branding and overall direction of the campaign, Jaguar held their nerve – pointing out that their new brand slogan is actually derived from a quote by their founder, and waiting for the other shoe to drop. And drop it did – with top marketing brains at the likes of Ogilvy and Forbes branding it ‘genius’. The lesson? Believe in your brand, build it, and they will come.
Need help with a rebrand?
With 25 years of branding experience under our belt, Creative Media is ideally placed to help you evaluate your existing brand and develop a new one, if that’s right for your business in 2025. Get in touch to start the conversation.