Is Rebranding a Good Idea?

The Dangers of Rebranding

Andy Zenner
5 min readJul 21, 2022

Building a brand can be difficult, and it cannot be done in a day; it takes time and effort. Brands can change over time, which means that they need to undergo rebranding, which can cause problems for the company or individual.

If you haven’t rebranded before, and you want to know more about this process, then you have come to the right place. Here you will learn what you need to do about rebranding and the dangers associated with it. Before you decide to rebrand, you need to read this article.

Photo by Julian Christ on Unsplash

What Is Rebranding?

Rebranding is about changing the way the public perceives a company. It helps to change the image that people have of the company, how they talk about the company, and it attracts new customers to whom the company wants to start providing services.

If a company wants to change its look and visual identity and what it’s communicating to the world, it will go through rebranding to make this transition.

Photo by MK +2 on Unsplash

Why A Company Would Want To Rebrand

Fast Growth

You might not have invested as much effort and money into your brand image when you first started, but now you can since your company has seen rapid growth. This is an excellent reason to rebrand as it can help you push that fast growth and become more successful.

Changing Target Audience

As companies grow, their target audience can grow with them, sometimes it can change, and the company needs to rebrand to ensure they aren’t losing existing customers. You do not want to stick to the old branding, as that will not be as effective anymore.

You Are Receiving Negative Publicity

Negative publicity can damage a brand identity beyond repair, and in these situations, rebranding is essential. It would help to make sure the new brand doesn’t remind people why they didn’t like the old one. Doing this can be challenging, especially if you don’t have any brand experience, so hire a branding agency if you need professional help.

The Dangers Of Rebranding Process And Why You Should Think Twice

When rebranding, there is always a risk that you might cause more problems than you already have. Before deciding to rebrand, you need to know the risks and if they are worth taking.

Losing Your Current Customers

If you decide to create a new brand identity, then you risk losing some of if not all of your current customers who were loyal to your former company values. This is a risk that every company that wants to expand needs to take, and you need to make sure that the reward is worth the risk.

You need to research and find out what your customers think about your old brand and rebranding to reduce the number of customers you could lose. If you want to be successful, you need to clearly understand what customers want from you and how you can give them that.

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Rebranding Strategy May Not Work

Rebranding is not a fast or easy process; it will take a long time and be expensive. Even if you plan out everything you need to do, your company’s rebranding could still not work, and then all of that time and money will have been wasted.

This failure in rebranding will damage the company’s reputation as well. This has happened before, and while some companies were able to fix the problems caused by rebranding, others were unable to and are no longer around.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

This is why it’s essential to think about the risks involved in rebranding before starting this process. This should not be a decision that is made lightly. It would help if you talked to a branding agency to make sure you are making the right choice to rebrand.

Expensive To Market Your New Brand

Rebranding your existing identity is expensive, but you need to make sure you have enough money left to market your new brand to your new and current customers. If you spend all of your money on rebranding alone, how will anyone know you have changed your existing brand and what makes you different.

This is a mistake that companies and individuals can make when they rebrand for the first time, and it causes the rebranding to be less successful.

You need to budget the whole rebranding process to have enough money to rebrand and market the rebranding. You will need to create new branding materials, and if you don’t know what they should look like, so your new target audience is happy with them, then hire a branding design studio to help you plan out the visual brand materials.

Messaging Is Not Consistent

The company’s branding needs to be consistent with what it does and the core values it holds. If this doesn’t happen, it will create confusion, and customers will not trust the company, which will associate a lousy reputation.

When rebranding, the first thing that needs to be done is understand the company. Once this is done, then the rebranding process should start. The people working on the rebrand need to understand the company; if they don’t, the rebrand will cause a separation between the company and the brand.

Photo by MK +2 on Unsplash

Conclusion

If you want to rebrand, you need to know the dangers of rebranding. It would help if you talked to professionals before deciding to rebrand; there might be another way to achieve what you want other than rebranding. You should make sure there is no other option before you decide to start rebranding, as there will be no turning back once you begin this process.

Thanks for reading!

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Andy Zenner
Andy Zenner

Written by Andy Zenner

Seasoned UX designer and amateur writer – andyzenner.com

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