When You Should (and Shouldn’t) Rebrand

This article is drawn from our Designing Tomorrow podcast, Season 2 - Episode 01. Season 2 episodes are conversations between Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center, and Cosmic’s Creative Director, Eric Ressler. The conversation has been edited for brevity and readability.

Let’s Get Started

A question we get from social impact leaders all the time is, “When is the right time to rebrand my social impact organization?” 

We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and talking about this and have gathered our thoughts on the right times and the wrong times for an organization to do a rebrand.

What Do We Mean by ‘Rebrand’?

Let’s spend a minute talking about what a rebrand means. Are we talking about a visual rebrand that updates your visual identity? Or a fundamental shift or pivot in the promise or the vision or the mission statement? The answers to those questions might create different answers.

There's not just one flavor or scope or scale of a rebrand. Sometimes a rebrand is a little bit more on the cosmetic side of the spectrum and other times it's deeply strategic. An organization might do a rebrand and not touch the logo or the name. A lot of times when people think about a rebrand, they think they need a new logo. We do rebrands all the time where we don't touch the logo. These rebrands are much more focused on strategy and messaging. We're splitting hairs a little on terminology here, but knowing the type and depth of your rebrand is really important.

If you’re the leader of a social impact organization who’s starting to think about undergoing a rebrand, consider if it is truly a strategic rebrand or if it’s really cosmetic. It's a baseline question for any leader to ask themselves as they're considering something as fundamental to your organization as a rebrand.

Take Your Rebrand Seriously

Anytime you're going to do a rebrand as an organization, it's a big deal. It's a big swing that you're taking as an organization. It's not something that you should do casually. Let's just say if you're going to do a rebrand, especially if you're an organization that's been around for awhile, you're going to be investing a lot of time, energy, and money into the rebrand to do it well. 

But beyond investing resources, you want your rebrand to be wildly successful. The last thing you want is to have it backfire, end up not resonating with your community, or moving your social impact organization backward.

In the social impact space, just like any business, there's a desire to be modern and to be new and to look good. And especially in the era that we're in, when there's a ton of noise online, we all want to stand out and be a part of the zeitgeist. So there's this impulse to rebrand and look better. 

Let’s look at when the right and wrong times are to do a rebrand.

Good Times to Rebrand

We love doing rebrands. It's largely what we do with clients and we've seen them be wildly successful. We have a really good track record of rebranding organizations and seeing that investment really pay off in the short term and especially in the long term. 

But we’ve also worked with people where we advised them that it wasn’t time to do a rebrand. In our experience, here are some times when it makes sense to do a rebrand, or at least should consider it. 

1. If you're an organization that's at a growth or inflection point, it’s usually a good time to do a rebrand

At Cosmic, our rebrands are almost always largely, if not primarily, strategic. What we mean by that is looking at things like target audience, mission, vision, and values, and exploring niche, positioning, and differentiation. A lot of these things have overlap with what might traditionally be in the purview of strategic planning. And that's a good thing. We want strategic planning, rebranding, and brand strategy to all work together synergistically. 

The main reason a growth or an inflection point is a good time to do a rebrand is because the organization is going to be doing a lot of that work anyway — it’s almost certain.  And so, if you're constructing a massive pivot, if you're talking internally about a fundamental shift in your promise or vision or mission, then you should absolutely be considering a full-on rebrand. 

2. If you’re in a stagnation loop, it’s usually a good time to do a rebrand

Let's say you are working really hard as an organization, but you're hitting some kind of ceiling or you feel like you're kind of spinning out in place. We’ve seen a rebrand really help people break through this point.

It’s also a good time for some serious introspection. This is a good time to do a rebrand provided that your organization still has a reason to exist, that you're still solving a real problem, whether it's for your community or the country or the environment or whatever issue you’re addressing. 

You need to look deeply and determine if you really believe that your organization needs to exist, but it's just going to take a little bit of refocusing. Take a moment in leadership to really ask yourselves if you’re serving your mission in the best way possible. If so, then absolutely that's a good time to do a rebrand because it could spark your team to work differently. It could spark new board members to join. It could provide reasons to energize your community.

It’s worth asking why you are in this situation in the first place, where you've stalled out. That's exactly the kind of thing that you should be looking at as part of a rebrand. Again, not looking to rebrand as just being a cosmetic exercise, but more of a strategic exercise. 

We've definitely seen a rebrand help get people out of a doom loop in their organization. It's not necessarily going to be a silver bullet, but even just the process of going through a rebrand can often unearth some really key insights that might help outside of the rebrand itself. 

This is a similar point, but if you're going through some kind of large strategic shift, not from a stagnation standpoint, but an intentional strategic shift because the landscape has changed, or the space has changed, or the world has changed, or your organization has changed, this is a really important time to think about doing a rebrand.

Consider the Nonprofit Lifecycle

Our discussions about rebranding while pivoting brought up an idea from Susan Kenny Stevens’ book, Nonprofit Lifecycles: Stage-Based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity, called the nonprofit lifecycle. In brief, there's a philosophy around how nonprofits start and grow, and eventually most of them have to either close or reinvent themselves in some way. So some of the points we’ve talked about are different points along this nonprofit life cycle. There is an argument that if you're going through some strategic shift, you may be at the point of some sort of reinvention or rebirth and that’s absolutely a good time to think about doing a strategic rebrand.

Remember to Include Your Stakeholders

If you are making a really large strategic shift, you owe it to your community of supporters, board, and internal team to communicate about that strategic shift. And so, if you're going to go through making any kind of big change, big pivot, there's a burden to do that intentionally from a branding and a communication standpoint. That's another good argument for doing, or at least considering, a rebrand during that time. 

3. If your current brand, website, or content strategy doesn’t reflect who you are today and where you want to go, it’s probably time to do a rebrand

A lot of organizations and their leaders come to us saying that their current brand expression, communication, and strategy is kind of dusty. It's tired. It's out of date. It's dissonant with who they actually are, or even more importantly, who they want to be in a year or three years. This usually indicates that it’s a good time to do a rebrand.

But be sure that the cart’s not leading the horse here. Are you considering a rebrand to freshen up content or does content get freshened up as part of a rebrand?

What people most often say to us is that they’re having a hard time telling their story, or the story they're telling is no longer reflective of what they’re actually doing today. 

What we tell leaders is that anytime that your brand or your communications or your website feels behind where you are, that's a huge problem. In our opinion, your brand, communications, and messaging should be looking forward a year or two, not just telling the story of where you are today. And you definitely shouldn’t be telling yesterday's story. 

It really depends on the context and the nuance of where you are as an organization, but generally speaking, your brand and marketing should be forward looking. So if you feel like it is looking behind, or capturing who you are today but not in an inspiring way, that's a big problem that could be addressed through the rebrand process.

A Real-world Example

Designing Tomorrow, Season 2 co-host Jonathan Hicken had this reflection on how this is playing out the organization he leads, the Seymour Marine Discovery Center, with Eric weighing in with his thoughts.

Jonathan: Look at the organization I run right now. We are attempting to execute a pivot and bring some new kinds of storytelling and new kinds of purpose to this science center, to this aquarium. And I think one of the places that we've actually failed to excel is in telling our story broadly and telling the story of how we're starting to change. I think we could be doing a better job at this and I could be leading more effectively.

Eric: I think the question there is always, when do you start to put those little bits of communication out? And there's not a right answer to that. Building in public is a phrase you hear a lot. The idea is that instead of waiting for everything to be perfectly polished and packaged up and doing a big unveil, leaders are being more transparent around communicating what’s going on at their organization right now. What kind of things they're thinking about. What questions they're asking. They admit that they don't have all the answers yet, but they are open about the process with their community. They’re having more of a conversation with their supporters instead of a one-way, megaphone style approach to communications and marketing. That's something that every leader is going to have to grapple with.

Every leader is going to have to determine where they fall on that spectrum of transparency, what to share, and what's in progress versus waiting until decisions are made and everything's totally polished before sharing with their community and stakeholders. 

4. If you’re having trouble effectively getting your story across to your community of supporters of your community, you should seriously consider a rebrand

We touched on this briefly before, but it's worth going into more detail. If you are struggling to get your community of supporters to understand your organization, to understand your mission, to understand — most importantly — your vision while making a solid case for support for your organization, that's a clear indication that it’s a good time to do a rebrand. 

And we want to qualify that by saying we don't think a rebrand in and of itself necessarily will solve that problem. But again, we think the process of going through a rebrand effectively and strategically might help unearth where some of those disconnects might happen.

Be cautious. The idea that your community of supporters doesn't understand your theory of change, or the challenge you address, can be a trap for executive directors and marketing leaders. Sometimes there's an impulse in the social impact space to think to yourself, ‘Why don't they get it? Why are we important? We're doing good work. If only they understood, then they would support us.’ 

That’s natural because we in the social impact space are so passionate about the work we do. There's just like this moment where we're just, come on people. But it’s because we’re doing it every day. We have the lived experience. We understand the impact intuitively, and sometimes it can feel like, ‘How does everyone not see this the way that we do?’

Take a Step Back

Think about the fact that you might need to change the way you’re telling your organization’s story. That's a big shift to make as a leader. It's also a fantastic time to stop and do a rebrand that matches the way that you're describing your organization. Ask yourself some deep questions: 

• Why and where is this story not resonating? 
• Is it because our communications are not effective? 
• Is it because people need to be more educated in this area? 
• Who would support our work if they knew more? 
• Is it because our internal team isn't aligned around how we should be telling this story? 
• Are different stories being told in different ways? 

There's a lot to explore and unpack in those questions. A lot of it is a mindset shift around understanding that you can't just assume people understand your work in the way that you do — and they never will. So your job as a marketer, as a communicator, as a leader is to do the best job possible figuring out how to creatively get that story across. Be open to experimenting, iterating, and listening to your community so you can hear how they want to receive the story — not necessarily how you want to tell it.

Times to Reconsider Rebranding

Now that we’ve explored some reasons and times when you should do a rebrand, let’s think through some scenarios or conditions where you're probably not yet ready for a rebrand. 

1. If you don't have a clear strategy or return on investment planned, it’s probably not a good time for a rebrand

We’ve noticed an inclination to rebrand because there's one very influential (maybe very loud) voice in the room who's all about it. When an organization does it reflexively, we’ve seen rebrands go wrong.

Often this is led by a board member, or someone on the executive team, or a donor who is really, really excited about doing a rebrand. Especially in the case of a donor, an Executive Director is going to have to decide if this is going to be the project that keeps this donor engaged. Maybe we should do it. That's a really hard line to toe. But the reflexive response to doing a rebrand, just because, often comes when there's one or a few really loud voices who are lobbying for it.

There have been a few cases at Cosmic where we’ve seen this happen. People come to us saying they want to do a rebrand. We're excited because we do rebrands all the time. We love doing them. But when we start to ask deeper questions and we get the sense that there's not really a lot of strategic thought going into this rebrand internally at the organization, it's a huge red flag. It makes our job a lot harder to ensure that we're meeting those goals and that we are thinking about the rebrand strategically. 

When that’s the case, we start asking some deeper probing questions around why now. 

• Why are you thinking about a rebrand at this time? 
• What are you hoping to get out of this process? 
• What business objectives are you hoping to see improvement on after this process?

To be honest, it’s difficult to measure the ROI of a rebrand. Because in our opinion, you can't fully measure it. There's benefits beyond what you can even possibly measure. Not to say that you shouldn't try to measure it, or that there aren't ways to do that. 

When approached effectively and strategically, a rebrand can be one of the most powerful things you could do as an organization. But the bigger point here is that you have to make sure that you are approaching it with intention. Be sure you’re not doing it reflexively to mask other deeper problems that you have, like not being clear about who you are or what your community needs or whatever your actual issue might be. That’s deeper. 

2. If you can't get holistic buy-in or strategic alignment across a meaningful portion of your organization, it’s probably not a good time for a rebrand

We've seen rebrands go really wrong when they are treated as a skunk works project, or when it's almost literally hidden from certain stakeholders within the organization and people try to push it through behind the scenes. That's a horrible way to do a rebrand. If you can’t get consensus, then it’s not a good time to do it.

Working around parts of your organization or feeling like you need to keep people in the dark is an indicator that the stakeholders that are key to advancing the strategic foundation behind the rebrand have not bought in. And if you're doing a strategic shift, you’ve got to have your most important stakeholders on board.

What’s the Right Buy-in Threshold?

With big swings like a rebrand, it's unlikely you're going to get a hundred percent buy-in from leadership or the entire team. There's going to be people asking why you aren’t investing this time and energy and money in other areas of the organization instead. There's an urgent need there too. How do you prioritize a rebrand as a leader?

Consider the 80/20 rule. With this strategy, you’ve got to have 80% of your people on board. And that's just a rule of thumb that can be applied here. To our thinking, you can't be an executive director and champion a rebrand, especially if there's any sort of strategic shift, or any sort of shift in the promise you're making to your community, constituents, or customers without having the buy-in of the vast majority of your stakeholders. 

You need to have your board, whether that's a venture capital board or a volunteer board, bought in. Theoretically, these people should be your advisors, the people who are helping you make good decisions for the business, for the impact that you're trying to have. So if your most trusted inner circle are not on board with this, that should be a signal to you as a leader that you’re not on the right track.

The same thing goes for your team and for the constituents themselves. You need to make sure that there is overlap in agreement on the shift you’re proposing. 

Be Prepared to Lose People Along the Way

Anytime you pioneer any sort of shift of this kind of magnitude, you're going to lose people. And that's okay. That's part of the deal. That's the 20 in the 80/20 rule. You might have some staff that leave. You might have some board members or donors who decide that this isn't for them anymore. And that's okay, because if you've made the right decisions and you've made the right shift, you're going to find other people who buy into this new niche.

That loss might even be good for your organization. If there's literally no pushback, maybe that's a red flag that you’re not going big enough with this swing and playing it too safe. If you're not pissing somebody off, around about 20% of your stakeholders, then you're probably not taking a big enough swing.

3. If you're a few months from embarking on a new strategic plan, it’s probably not a good time for a rebrand

There's a lot of overlap between strategic planning and a rebrand or brand strategy development. If you're doing strategic planning, you should be looking at things like target audience, mission, vision, values, and niche. These are all these things you need to look at to do a rebrand effectively. 

At Cosmic, we don't want to do a rebrand if we know the client’s planning to do a new strategic plan three months after the rebrand. That will create a whole new shift — after they just went through it all. On the flip side, we also don't want to do a rebrand after their strategic planning is done because then we don't have the ability to go along that path and even influence that path to some degree. So we think strategic planning and brand strategy work should be done with some amount of overlap. In a best-case scenario, they’re happening in coordination  and informing each other.

We like being involved in the strategic planning process because it's good for the outcome of both and it allows us to have creative input in the process. It also helps us make sure that we're not just falling into the trap of doing a cosmetic rebrand when we can bring some strategic input into the process as well as our creative input. 

There's a lot of nuance to this, as with most things around branding, but we don't want to be so deep in the strategic planning process that we're sitting in every single meeting. But, we do want to be briefed on progress and we want to have the ability to join some of those bigger picture decision making meetings when possible.

When combined, a strategic plan and a rebrand create results where the sum greater than its parts. So a strategic shift without the storytelling component isn’t going to go as far. And likewise, a storytelling rebrand without the strategic foundation isn’t going to get you as far. But together, it really accelerates both. That’s where the true power of the combined process is seen.

4. If you can't invest time and budget at the right level, it’s probably not a good time for a rebrand

If you're feeling like you want to take a big swing and do a rebrand, but you just don't have the budget for it and don't have the time for it, it's best to wait and go fundraise to do it well. Make sure that you're investing at the right level and determine that level. Obviously that depends so much on the context, but at the end of the day you'll know. You should do some research, figure out what the right budget is, and talk to different people who can help with the rebrand. If you feel like you'll have to cut corners on the rebrand, that time, energy, and money is better spent building your existing brand.

You should be asking yourself: 

• Do I have enough money to invest now? 
• Do I have enough time to invest now? 

5. If you don't have a plan or the ability to nurture the brand afterwards, it’s probably not a good time for a rebrand

It’s common to think about any big project like a rebrand from the mindset of “We're going to do the project and then we're done with the project.” But with a rebrand it’s a lot like a gardening project. The rebrand itself is putting in the planter boxes, putting the soil in, and planting the seeds. You're not done then, right? You've just started. Building in the ongoing capacity and energy for nurturing the brand is almost more important than the rebrand itself. If you don't plan for that or you can't plan for that, you should not be doing a rebrand.

Look at your entire team, whether that's a smaller team or a big team, and ask yourself if every function at this organization feeds into the new brand or the new strategy in some way. How can you get the people on your team to deeply understand how their day-to-day work is advancing the messaging, niche, and promises that you're making with this rebrand? That's a really important step for any leader to understand about a successful rebrand launch — make sure everybody understands how they fit in.

Think Beyond the Immediate Rebrand Period

For any executive director or leader who's thinking about a rebrand right now, you’ve got to consider a three-year timeline as well. Do I have the staffing? Do I have the business plan to continue investing in this? If not, it's going to feel really great for the first six months, and then it's just going to sit there. The website's going to get old. The content's going to get old. You need to be prepared to make a long-term commitment to this strategy. If not, it could end up doing harm.

Prioritize Progress Over Perfection

There are always going to be barriers to doing a rebrand. There's always going to be reasons why you shouldn't. There's never a perfect time where all the rest of your work can go on pause and you can focus all of your energy on a rebrand. That's not achievable. You have to use your best judgment. You want to make sure that you're ready.

When the time is right, a rebrand can be a powerful way to further your mission, garner more engagement and support, and re-energize your team. We've seen it massively transform organizations. We just want to make sure that when you do it, you're set up to be as successful as possible.