The idea of branding is to make identification of an idea and position simple and quick. Ranchers would brand their cattle’s backsides so everyone knew who they belonged to. Stop signs have been the same shape and color for, well, forever. The Yankees wear pinstripes, regardless of the latest fashions.
These brands work because they are consistent. They’ve been around long enough to give us a chance to give them meaning way beyond their literal makeup.
A stop sign is more than a red octagon. Just a quick glance at it automatically makes us hit the brakes, take a little caution. It stands for something.
Yankee pinstripes are a lot more than a uniform. It’s Ruth and Dimaggio and Mantle and Mattingly and Jeter.
When you rebrand (whatever that means), you throw away your investment in your brand. You buy just before the brand is going to start making its impression. You change the color of your stop sign. You wear something other than the pinstripes.
And the result is you now have something that means nothing.
Rebranding is almost never the answer. Brand amplification and clarification is normally what companies should be doing.
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