Change Is Inevitable. What Does that Mean for Your Brand?

It’s said the only constant is change, and if you’ve noticed the pace of change quickening – in your category as well as the world at large – you’re not alone. With so much going on, thinking about your brand may seem trivial. But a brand is a statement of values and mission – an implicit promise to customers – within a larger context. When that context changes, it makes sense to evaluate whether the brand – by which we mean the brand experience – ought to evolve as well.

Let’s begin by clarifying: Refreshing a brand and rebranding are different in degree and purpose.

A brand refresh can be thought of as a response to a shift in customer expectations, an evolution in the marketplace or even a change in the culture at large.

A rebrand is typically undertaken in response to what we can think of as a milestone event with direct impact specifically on that brand – e.g., a merger or acquisition, or a significant change in strategic direction. Rebrands are also undertaken by brands seeking image repair.

If a rebrand is a revolution, then a brand refresh is an evolution – tactical and practical.

There are many reasons a brand refresh may make sense and relatively few why it wouldn’t. Unlike, say, changing a brand name, beloved logo or something else core to a brand’s essence, a brand refresh is an evolution of the design and messaging or a relatively modest adjustment to improve the brand experience by upgrading processes or functionality.

Refreshing a brand isn’t a sign there’s a problem – quite the opposite: It means your brand is staying relevant.

There are many reasons for a brand refresh. Among the most common:

The times have changed. Maybe your brand was created decades ago and something about the brand experience feels outdated today. Your brand refresh can update tired elements and modernize your brand.

Your customers have changed. Your customer base and their expectations – how they wish to be treated, how they perceive themselves in relation to your brand – have changed over time. Your brand refresh can show customers you understand them and their needs today.

The marketplace has changed. Maybe a new competitor has entered the market and shaken up the old order. You need to examine and, where appropriate, rethink your brand experience – not to copy the new entrant but to reaffirm that your own offering continues to have value.

Your needs have changed. Your brand and brand components were built for a different purpose – perhaps for an earlier, pre-digital time. Your brand components need an upgrade to provide the flexibility and functionality necessary for your brand to remain competitive.

The world has changed. Sometimes the change is external and profound – the pandemic, for example. It has changed lives in fundamental ways. Your brand refresh can signal to customers, the marketplace and even your own employees that your brand is in touch with the world as it is now and, implicitly, that it remains relevant to their lives.

You haven’t changed lately. In the unlikely event that no change of any kind has had an impact on your brand and, as a result, your brand hasn’t changed in a long time – well, that itself might be a signal that a highly visible change might reassure your customers that your brand is not simply coasting on its past glory.

For enterprise-scale companies with multiple divisions, business lines and geographical locations, even the idea of a limited brand refresh can seem daunting: Achieving agreement among so many disparate entities – let alone actually implementing any change – may seem unachievable. And, out of the gate, it quite possibly is.

Which is why we are fans of the brand refresh beacon project. Think of a beacon project a pilot program – a small-scale implementation of the brand refresh concept to prove its viability and serve as a blueprint for others to follow. A beacon approach enables you to work with a small group of “friendlies” to achieve a quick win and demonstrate what success looks like and how to get there – and maybe create a little useful intracompany jealousy along the way.

You can increase the odds that your brand refresh beacon project will succeed. Here’s how:

Align your stakeholders. Arguably the most important – and most challenging – part of a brand refresh is achieving agreement among stakeholders. What is the thinking behind the refresh, what are the objectives, strategy, approach? What does success look like? It can be tricky to understand how each stakeholder faction perceives the opportunity (and, potentially, the threat) presented by the refresh and to harmonize a range of viewpoints.

Work from the weeds up. A common approach in branding is to come up with a grand idea and only later think about how to apply that to business units, products, initiatives and such. But the real test of a brand concept is how easily and naturally those localizations work. Addressing localizations early in the brand refresh process reduces the risk of the updated brand concept not being applicable to all needs – and may also unlock ideas that a top-down approach would not.

Address the total brand experience. We touched on this earlier but it’s worth repeating: Your brand is not your logo, your name or any individual element. Your brand is the sum of the customer’s (or investor’s or analyst’s or employee’s) experience with the brand – and your name and logo may be the least salient part of that experience. With a few notable exceptions, customers rarely tell stories about brand names or logos – they talk about what the brand did for them, and how that experience did or did not meet expectations.

Your brand is not a set of design specs set in stone. It’s a living thing, expected to respond to change through adaptation and evolution. Refreshing a brand isn’t a sign that there’s a problem – quite the opposite: It means your brand is staying relevant.