Rebrands Can’t Evolve in a Vacuum

I remember what happened as if it were yesterday. I was perhaps seven or eight years old. We were on a family vacation. As part of her breakfast, my mother ordered wheat toast. When it came, it was black as a lump of coal. So she waved the waitress back to our table and said in words carefully chosen, “Does the cook always work in the dark, or is today special?”

In that one question, she asked so much. Obviously, she was saying that the toast was burnt and inedible. But she said it in a way that also communicated a basic principle of customer service: “How could anyone who saw this go ahead and serve it to me? What were you thinking?”

Cooks don’t work in the dark. And neither do brands. They are on public display 24/7/365. Your brand is a calling card, a resume, a visual communications tool, a statement of values, a look at your corporate culture and a window to the future. It’s what you take from within and put out there for everyone to see.

Because so much of your brand flows from within, that’s also your greatest source of strength in a rebrand. To succeed a rebrand must involve your leaders and your employees – a broad cross section of the entire organization that slices through every layer, from the longest-serving to the newest hires – because bricks and mortar can have a history but they can’t have values. Principles, ethics, ideals, these are human concepts, and to include them in a brand means involving people – lots of people – in the rebranding process.

A rebrand needs to create buy-in for optimum effectiveness. Show everyone “what’s in it for me.” Hosting a series of co-creation workshops can be a phenomenal tool. Get the people who represent the various groups and areas of your organization together talking alongside the internal and external marketing teams that execute the brand day to day. Create a dialogue and collaboration. Talk and listen. A lot. Then talk and listen some more. And do it with open eyes and an open mind.

Throughout the process, keep the lights burning brightly. Because, like every decent cook knows, you should never serve something you made in the dark.