RE-BRAND FAILS

ORIGINAL POST (Natalie Minard) Most rebrands fail long before a designer ever opens a file.

Not because of the visual direction, but because of everything that should happen before it.

Here are the three causes I see most often when a rebrand doesn’t land:

1. There’s no clarity around why the rebrand is happening.

Is it a recognition problem?

A relevance problem?

A positioning shift?

A business model change?

Most teams skip this step and rush straight into aesthetics, which is why the final product feels disconnected.

2. There’s no alignment inside the company.

A rebrand can’t succeed if leadership, marketing, design, and product aren’t working toward the same outcome.

Internal misalignment creates external inconsistency every time.

3. The team jumps into visuals before fixing the strategy.

Logos don’t fix positioning.

Colour palettes don’t solve messaging.

A new identity can’t carry the weight of a brand that isn’t strategically coherent underneath.

A great rebrand doesn’t start with new colours and typography.

It starts with honesty.

What’s no longer working?

What needs to evolve?

What does your audience need now that they didn’t need a year ago?

By the time visuals enter the conversation, the direction should already be obvious.

I’m genuinely curious, what do you think is the most overlooked part of a successful rebrand? FOLLOW UP POST Totally agree—most rebrands die long before the design phase.

I’ve seen the same patterns plus a few more that kill them just as fast:

1. Half-baked briefs & misaligned expectations. Clients think “logo + colours,” agencies/studios think strategy. Set that straight on day one or it’s doomed.

2. Rebranding 1-year-old start-ups when nothing was actually broken. Founder boredom isn’t a strategy. Also worth noting that an issue with the brand might not be related to the visual/design component of the brand, the creative is just a facet. 

3. Confusing a 'complete rebrand’ with a 'light refresh'. Scopes and budgets explode or implode.

4. No proper audience research. It ends up being an internal fantasy, not what customers actually want or recognise.

5. Zero transition plan. Beautiful new identity, zero plan for the old website, signage, uniforms, merch, SEO… instant chaos.

6. Treating brand guidelines like the Bible instead of living rules. Rigidity kills evolution and makes cross channel/media touchpoints look bland and samey.

7. Forgetting legal/trademark clearance until everyone’s emotionally attached—painful and expensive rewind.

9. Half baked brand/rebrand guidelines. It is not a 10 page PDF or PPT. It needs to be comprehensive, or doomed to create uncertainty in the future. This takes time...hence why a rebrand should not be attempted on a whim. 

10. Not doing the pre-production planning. Mapping out the journey, involving internal stakeholders, agreeing milestones, goals and outcomes.

Great rebrands start with brutal honesty and audience truth, not mood boards.

What’s the worst rebrand crime you’ve witnessed? 😅