To be honest, I had never given much weight to the idea of branding, much less the process of reinventing one.
After all, I’d started my business as a one-man shop. My “brand” was a business card with my name on it.
Then, I hired a few more consultants and we added a name and logo from an online design site. As we continued to grow into a full-scale agency, we landed bigger accounts and found ourselves sitting at the table with some global players. That’s when I started to feel like our image might be in need of an overhaul. It felt like we were getting invited to a five-star banquet but were dressed for munching burritos at Chipotle.
A lot of people think of branding as a superficial exercise — and an expensive one at that. To some extent, that’s true. Even the coolest logo in the world won’t compensate for a lack of expertise or provide real value for your customers. But as you grow, your brand — or lack thereof — speaks volumes about your capabilities as a team and what your clients can expect. If you’re not intentional about it, you’re not in control of the message.
Having recently led my team through the process of a rebrand, I’ve discovered that branding is about so much more than giving your company a new visual identity — it has the potential to transform every aspect of your organization. Here are five unexpected lessons I learned along the way:
A logo is a gateway to your company’s soul.
A funny thing happens when you start looking for a visual representation of your company: you begin to take a hard look at who you are and exactly what you’re trying to represent.
Like a lot of businesses, we started out thinking we’d just get a new logo. But getting that right meant reexamining every aspect of our business: mission, vision and core values. Without defining those key elements, coming up with a visual identity that fit was nearly impossible. For example, because we work in e-commerce, I initially thought our logo should give a nod to retail, so we had an image that hinted at a shopping cart. But through the process of refining our logo, we ended up realizing we’re really about bringing people together — our clients and their customers, and our industry and our team. In the end, we wound up with a logo that communicates the idea of connection instead.
I definitely wasn’t anticipating a rebrand to lead us on a deep, introspective dive into the very heart of our corporate identity, but I’m so glad it did because we have a much better understanding of who we are now. If I had to do it over again, I’d start the process here.
Don’t rush it.
In all, our branding process took almost five years. Yup, half a decade.
I know that sounds excessive, but it was time well spent. When you consider the number of resources — financial, emotional and psychological — that go into a new brand (especially considering how many companies get it wrong), you want to make sure to take the time to develop an identity that can last and grow. Not only does that mean spending days or even months brainstorming ideas, but it also means taking moments of pause to allow those ideas to settle, iterate and develop.
At the outset of our branding process, I spent most nights thinking up potential names for our company. It was months before one finally stuck. Then it took time to flesh out that identity through color schemes, icons and even our tone in written communication. What I learned is that branding is not a project that should be undertaken on a whim or one that you can knock off in a week or two. The journey is just as important as the destination.
Take your team along for the ride.
A brand’s success or failure is commonly judged by customers’ responses, but the more important reaction arguably belongs to your employees. After all, they’re the ones who will embody this new identity each and every day.
Getting employee input is crucial and needs to be approached strategically. Declaring a new identity from the top risks inciting internal revolt, but designing by committee is a recipe for frustration.
The middle ground? Solicit input from your team at critical steps along the way. We did this by running important milestones by individual teams and collecting feedback. I could tell whether we were headed in the right direction by their reactions. Were people smiling, excited and a little inspired when we shared our progress? Or was it met with shrugs and silence?
In the end, a rebrand is like a new wardrobe for your entire team. Make sure they’re proud to wear it.
Measure success in emotion, not KPIs.
Branding isn’t like other investments in your company. The return on investment doesn’t necessarily come in dollars and cents. But, done well, a rebrand should show up in the way people respond to your company.
A good way to test this: Do you have to tell people that your company is excellent at what it does, or do they come in with that expectation? Above all, a good brand communicates your capability, professionalism and expertise before you even enter the room.
Understand that there’s still work to do.
At the end of the day, a successful rebrand won’t do the hard work for you. It won’t make sales, close deals or recruit sought-after hires. It’s easy to slip down the rabbit hole and think the perfect logo or mission statement will make or break you, but trust me, it won’t. Squander too much attention on building the perfect brand, and you might not have a business left to promote.
With the right approach, a rebrand can open doors for you. It sends a powerful signal of how far you’ve come — and how far you can go.
