Reilly Newman | Over the years, a “rebrand” has been reduced to just a new logo. Some brands even refresh their packaging design and deem it a rebrand. This is false and lacks the depth that a true rebrand should entail. I’m here to rebrand the word “rebrand”.
Rebranding a Brand’s Rebrand
After a while, these words start to mean nothing. In business and marketing, sometimes words become too hot and trendy and everyone uses it as a blanket statement to look either cutting edge, intelligent, or just in “the know” — out of desperation to protect a title or job these buzzwords make their way through ancient brands to the hot new startup. (Spoiler: I hate it)
The best approach to understanding “rebrand” is to define the core focus of this decision and the objective. Rebrand is obviously focused on brand and if you’re familiar with our posts and podcast, you’ll know that our belief of brand is that it is perception. Sure some might say it’s a promise, or culture, or even a logo (sigh) — but the truth is that brand is much more psychological than anything else a business has as an asset.
The brand of your business is how your audience perceives you. It’s in their mind. It’s not company property or something you can hold, your business is at the mercy of your audience. It’s quite poetic really. No matter how large your staff is, what your revenue is, how big your building is, or even your title — you are subject to the perception of your audience.
We’ve seen great brands become tarnished by a foolish CEO, unlawful actions, poor customer experience, etc. — No matter how large a company gets, the small moments matter to protect, build, and maintain perception ( the brand).
Along this logic, we can safely say two things about brand:
1) All businesses have a brand since humans are constantly perceiving.
2) Brand investments are efforts to help maintain and manage this perception. It cannot be created, but it can be guided and influenced.
A business must accept notion #1 and a business must invest in notion #2. Brand being the perception of a business, we can see that a “rebrand” cannot be simply reduced to one physical aspect of the business like a label, package or logo. It’s much more nuanced and powerful.
Thermodynamics and Brand
The first law of thermodynamics says that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed in form. This to me is similar to the power of perception. Just as energy is a constant, perception is as well since we are always perceiving the world around us.
Neither energy or perception is something we conjure up. Rather, it’s simply there based upon the observation of it. This supports notion #1 because perception is a constant. So your business has a brand because it is perceived once it is observed. You may not like it, but it’s the natural law of things.
So what does this mean for your business? Well, brand is literally a natural law that you and your audience have no choice but to obey. You can’t create or destroy it and neither can they.
However, this perception – much like energy – can change forms. Just as we may love a celebrity at one moment, and then can’t stand them after they have done something awful. This change of state isn’t perception (brand) being destroyed, but rather a change of state. This is also how great companies and celebrities make comebacks. From Crocs to Nick Cage, our perception has fundamentally changed from “Eh…” to “Wow they’re everywhere now. Who would’ve thought?!!”
Keeping this in mind should encourage you with your brand and show your true power of it. Your investments in brand are not “one and done” — the perception you wish to maintain and guide is like that energy you wish to change to a different form. Converting from “this to that” is rebrand.
Rebranding a Brand (Perception)
If we wish to convert an existing perception into another – AKA rebrand – then we must consider what the current state is and what we wish to convert it to.
Similarly, to convert coal, gas, or wood into heat you need combustion. To convert electricity to this text on your screen you need tiny LEDS and a bunch of other stuff. When ice is introduced to warmer temperatures, it exchanges energy which changes its molecular entropy and the water becomes a liquid state. This conversion of energy is much like the conversion of your brand. Depending on the current state of your brand and where you want to take it will determine how you go about it. This will determine what you do in your “rebrand” to get to that next state.
To accomplish such a transformation as a brand, we must accept that visual elements like a logo or label will only influence a perception so much. It may draw the perception in a certain direction but to fully rebrand and transform the perception, we must go deeper.
The best approach to understanding and influencing a perception will be first establishing a strategy to do so. This strategy will be focused on the state you aspire to reach as a brand. Going from this current state of perception to that future state of perception. What does this mean for how you might slightly (or drastically) pivot and reposition the brand in the market?
Position is key to establishing perception because it sets the framing of your business. This framing gives clear direction to the foundation of the perception. As I wrote about in “The 3 P’s of Brand: Position, Package, and Price” on LinkedIn, these give clear signals as to how that perception is to be transformed. Again, it’s not that you can make someone think a certain way about your business, but you sure can help them connect certain dots.
The Rebrand of Rebrand
When you think about rebranding your business, I would encourage you to look deeper than a new campaign, logo, or packaging. Yes, these do play a roll in signaling to your audience how you’d like to be perceived, but there must be a repositioning as well.
This repositioning can be minor or it can be massive, depending on the current state of the brand. Either way, by doing so there are deliberate decisions being made based on a strategy.
This is the crux as some rebrands just happen because they are tired of their logo or want a new label. I promise you this will not move the needle like you are desiring. A designer may play along to have the chance to design you something new, but without a true strategy, this will simply be a lot of forced energy for very little conversion.
The focus of the rebrand isn’t to force a new perception but to guide the perception of the audience. This is best accomplished with all aspects of the brand being considered. Yes, the logo and packaging, but also the messaging, imagery, and even how the business interacts. Beyond just the visuals, the experience that your business creates is the core of the perception your audience assigns to you.
This experience takes into account the visuals, but also the small things like how you answer the phone and treat people. The visuals do “show” the most by definition, but the small invisible things are just as important.
Just as we don’t really see how a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, but what they do hidden from the eye is just as important as their beauty when they emerge. The transformation isn’t just the visual, it’s the process from this to that. Oddly enough, the biggest change is in our perception of the once caterpillar. It emerges and fully changes our perception of the same insect by repositioning, repackaging, and establishing its new “price” as an aerial insect.
Rebrand must mean more if you wish to truly transform. The rebrand has the potential to harness much more power and transform you from its current state to that future state.
