The 5 mistakes that will kill your rebrand project.
I’ve been in the creative design world for around 15 years now and I’ve worked with a lot of industries, organisation, and individuals. The projects I’ve worked from have massively varied in scale, budget, scope, and impact, but I’ve found one thing to be common amongst all design projects - rebranding can be tricky.
A rebrand can be more than a new logo and branding or company rename, it can be an opportunity to reposition your organisation for the future and address any perceptional issues that may be holding you back.
It’s often a daunting task to rebrand an established organisation, or to give ourselves a fresh look as we face the new challenges facing us today. I’ve had my share of struggles and setbacks when I help clients rebrand, some of them caused by my oversights, and some of them by my clients. So here’s a few things I’ve learnt over years, it’s my list of things to avoid. It’s 5 mistakes that will kill your rebrand project!
Read on and arm yourself with the knowledge to ensure a smooth design process, a great outcome, and a successful brand that makes an impact…
Mistake 1
Starting at the end - the logo design.
It’s easy to focus on how things should look, but it’s just as important to focus on what you are trying to say; how should it feel and, importantly, what problem are we actually trying to solve?
I begin all branding projects with an exercise I’ve developed called Find Your Brand Voice. This is where I challenge the people I help to step back from the look and feel of their logo and focus on what they are really trying to say, how they should position their organisation, and how they should be perceived by their audience.
It’s tempting to begin your engagement with a graphic designer with a heavy focus on the graphics - the clue is in the name, after all!
However, those of us who want to do a really good job and create something that is more than “just the aesthetics”, will try to dig a little deeper to understand as much about your organisation and your mission as possible. We begin with the strategy behind thee rebrand and try to understand the desired destination, and map the direction we’re going in.
“You begin building a house by designing architectural plans, not by selecting the wallpaper.”
And this strategic repositioning must be based on your long term goals, your organisational values, your unique brand story, and the ultimate outcome for you and the people you’re helping. Your brand identity is simply tool to help you do that more effectively.
So, starting the conversation with “I’d like this font and the colour red” for example, might not help get us to where we need to be!
Mistake 2
Poor communication with key stakeholders.
Let me describe a situation for you.
We have been through a couple of really useful brand workshops working out our organisational values, we’ve discussed what a “brand” really is and how we can use it to our advantage in the current climate, we’ve reviewed our position in the market and discussed why we’re struggling to make a bigger impact, we’ve even audited our existing branded collateral and analysed competitors’ branding to see what’s really working… and now we’re ready to review some initial logo designs that have been developed off the back of this great work.
It’s an exciting time and the team are buzzing to see what I’ve come up with….
But just before we start, a new person joins the Zoom call - “This is Kate, and she’ll be having final say on the design!”
“But she hasn’t been involved in the branding process so far!”, I think to myself, she hasn’t had the opportunity to participate in the thought process, to contribute to the brand story that we’re trying to tell, and she certainly won’t feel like she’s part of this. And without knowing it, a vital voice has not been included in this process.
At this point it’s impossible to brief her on the branding work and strategic thinking already done, so now we’re now in the realm of which design simply looks the best - which logo appeals to Kate’s personal taste the most will win.
Obviously design aesthetic is really important, and any piece of identity design should stand up on it’s own without needing a backstory to prop it up, however if a key member of the team has not been involved in this process then it will be much harder to get them onboard. And things can become even more difficult if key decision-makers are reluctant to change in general. As a team we need to get key decision makers on board that we’re investing in the future of our brand, not simply spending money on an expensive rebrand for no reason.
“If decision makers are not present during the branding process, they can’t make decisions on the brand design.”
I’m not saying that we need to include every single member of the team, as well as all the organisation’s members/trustees/supporters, however it’s really important that good communication is kept throughout these important staged of the creative process - because some pretty fundamental decisions can be made here, and these can impact the direction of the business going forward.
So it’s vital to have dialog, updates, and approval from key people throughout the process, and ideally a representative from key parts of the organisation and membership present during the most important meetings to ensure we’re all on the same page and the process goes as smoothly as possible.
Mistake 3
Ignoring the competitive landscape.
No organisation exists in isolation, we’re all part of an ecosystem of competing and collaborative brands, products and services. When rebranding it’s important to gather as much data and knowledge as possible, not only working with your internal team to uncover your own goals, values, and brand purpose, but to look outside and see what others are up to.
In the purpose-over-profit world, working with ethical businesses, social enterprises, and charities, it sometimes feels wrong to use the word ‘competitors’. Because often, we’re all working towards the same positive outcome; improving people’s lives or working to protect the environment. However we must understand that we’re not just technically competing against other similar organisations, we’re competing for our supporters time and attention and trying to get them to use our service/product so we can continue to make a positive change. And there may be times in which we are totally competing with others; if you’re creating a more ethical version of an existing product or trying to disrupt an unsustainable industry, you’ll definitely be competing with the competition, and for that you’ll need to arm yourself with as as much strategy as possible.
So when undertaking any kind of rebrand process, we must put our strategic hats on, and consider the other players in the field. What are they doing that it effective? What are they doing that isn’t working? And what can we learn from them?
A useful process I take my clients through is a Perception Mapping exercise, where we literally map out our competitive landscape on a sheet of paper (or these days, a digital document), and pin point where key competitors sit in our universe. The position of these organisations are mapped to metrics that are important to your organisational values and the features that matter to your audience.
A perception map exploring Tesla and other car brands competitive landscape
Having been through this process you should have a better understanding of the field in which you’re playing, and be able to identify where your organisation currently sits - and ask yourselves if are in the right position to make the kind of impact in the world you want to.
Mistake 4
Rushing it through.
As a relatively seasoned designer, I know all too well about deadlines. ASAP is my most loathed acronym, and I have worked with my fair share of clients who always needs things doing yesterday!
However, when it comes to something as important as your brand identity - the face and voice of your brand - we mustn’t rush this.
I have heard the following phrase a few times in my career - “let’s just do a quick update for now, then do a proper job later!”. The only problem is, the proper job never comes, and we often end up lumped with the “quick update” for several years. And I’ve heard feedback directly from the team that they feel a bit embarrassed by what they end up with - in fact they hesitate when they come to showing their audience the website and other branded collateral, and it’s obviously holding them back because it doesn’t truly represent the quality of the work they do. Because they realise that first impressions count!
That quick update may have saved a bit of time earlier on, but we’re seriously paying for it now, months and years down the line.
Depending on the scale of the challenge, it can take anywhere from a couple of workshops to several months to understand, articulate, and solve the problem and create an effective brand that really works.
I only work with those who I feel I can truly help and add value to. I like to work with those who, whilst might not fully understand the processes behind every step, at least appreciate this process and thinking time involved, and are happy to take part in the journey as we travel from where they currently are to where they really need to be.
Mistake 5
Getting cold feet.
I understand that any rebrand project can be a bit scary, after all you’re going to be changing the face of your organisation! It’s natural to have concerns and ask yourself “will our audience like this?”, “does this new visual identity design really represent us?'“, and I often hear “is this too much of a change?”
Example of logo and brand identity evolutions.
Sometimes a visual redesign isn’t really necessary, and like I mentioned earlier on in this article, the real work should be in understanding our place in the competitive landscape and working to reposition ourselves to become more effective in response to a changing world and new challenges. But other times a substantial visual update really is required to bring a brand up-to-date and set them up for the next 5 to 10 years. And sometimes this change feels big, sometimes too big.
But I always say that if we have done our research and really understood the reasons for examining our brand identity and visual design, and agreed that our existing style really isn’t communicating the desired message, then be bold!
Sometimes doing baby steps and tweaking the existing logo, for example, is a wise choice. And the larger the organisation, the larger the cost of rebranding and updating all existing collateral will be due to the sheer number of materials and assets that the organisation owns. But I often find that effort of going through the whole branding process, and investing time and precious budgets, only to move the dial one or two notches is simply an indication of a lack of confidence in ourselves rather than a strategic manoeuvre.
So be brave and be bold, don’t make rash decisions, go through the process and involve all key stakeholders, then confidently launch your new and improved visual identity and brand design into the world.
And keep doing awesome work!
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