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When a rebrand is a mistake

Lesson 3 of 20 in Brand strategy.

Why Companies Are 'Debranding' · Bloomberg News

Lesson

Some rebrands throw away the one thing people recognised.

Recognition built slowly over years and dropped in a single relaunch.

Workers lower an old heron sign and a crane lifts a gold gradient sign over a shop, while customers on the pavement look confused and one woman points at the heron. — A shop swaps its old heron sign for a smooth gold shape that other shops already use. The regulars look lost, because the heron was what they recognised.

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Question 1, locked
A brand replaces a symbol nobody else uses with a fashionable gradient mark like its rivals'. By the lesson's pattern, how would this change be judged?
- A sensible update, since current marks always age better
- A mistake, trading a unique asset for a current one
- Right, because gradients are simpler to reproduce
- Right, as long as customers like the new colours
Question 2, locked
Before a redesign, a team wants to know which part of its logo people actually recognise. Who does the lesson say they should ask?
- The board, who know the brand's history best
- The agency that drew the original logo
- Customers, rather than the board
- Staff working in the marketing team
Question 3, locked
A rebrand with beautifully made new work still fails. What does the lesson say usually sits behind a failure like this?
- What was thrown away was doing the recognising
- The new work was shown to too few people first
- The new colours did not suit the brand's audience
- The change was rolled out to too many formats at once

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