The 5 Biggest Rebranding Challenges, Broken Down

Rebranding challenges result from using wrong reasons to start a rebrand or arbitrary (questionable at best) criteria. For example:

• Someone new comes into the company and decides to change the brand to match “the way things worked in my previous company” (without observing what’s working in the new company)
• Someone simply has a hunch “we need to change” or a family member who’s “an expert on branding”
• Someone sees other companies using some “new social media channel” everyone’s talking about and decides “we have to change to fit in”

You get the idea.

A few years ago, I wrote what’s become the top ranking article on rebranding (ranking #1 or #2) on Google worldwide organically (in other words, it’s not a paid advertisement).

Since then, I’ve isolated the top 5 most common, most frustrating, most painful, most debilitating challenges companies struggle with when rebranding.

As a specialist on rebrands, I decided to tackle the top 5 rebranding challenges and landmines that cripple companies and brands seeking to redefine their voice and relevancy in this week’s One Minute Wednesday.

Which of These Are You Struggling With Most?

1. Being pigeonholed into a certain category or perceived value? 
2. Dealing with market misconceptions about what you do or sell?
3. Stuck with old, outdated impressions that remain despite all your efforts?
4. Not knowing what you want and need to convey and, most importantly, to whom?
5. Doing same old things just because that’s the way we’ve always done them?

I cover it a bit more in this video:

Those are the five killers. Seriously.

Without knowing which (or how many) of those you’re tackling, your rebranding will be hard to execute, or worse, a dismal failure.

There’s an exact roadmap which I’ve perfected over 30 years.

It’s precise.

And it’s not “paint by number” for the simple reason, your brand isn’t like anyone else’s and it shouldn’t be, not if you know and truly understand the essence of branding (which is differentiation).

Let’s Slay This Dragon (Vital When Taming Rebranding Challenges)

Fact: If you don’t give the market the story to talk about, they’ll define your brand’s story for you.

You have to know that nobody—no customer, no “tribe,” no group of followers—will take on defining your brand’s story for you (yes, there are some rare exceptions where the stars aligned and something unusual happened but that’s not the norm and not something to rely on).

This one falls on you. Some companies sort this out internally. Others call me since I bring a level of experience, a track record, and a rare skill set as well as an impartiality to the scene which achieves things others simply cannot when they are too close to a brand, its history, and any internal “noise”.

Need more insights? Here they are.

11 Rebranding Case Studies

• How to Rebrand: 19 Questions to Ask Before You Start
• 27 Years at Nike: What I Learned about Branding
• Tackling a $123 Billion Industry: Landmark Performance Group — The Strangest Branding Mistake to Avoid 
• Dunn Brothers — Reintroducing a Coffee Legend
• American Dance Institute — How to Find Your Brand’s Untold Story
• Simply Snackin’ — The 4 Traits of an Exceptional Brand
• How to Attract the Right Customer in the Most Expensive Neighborhood
• Rebranding Milestone Systems — How an INC 5000 Company Did it Right
• Mega Co-op — How a New Logo Reintroduced a Co-op to its 66,000 Members
• True Taste — How to Instantly Nail the Emotional Sweet Spot of Your Customers