Rebrand or refresh? How to tell which one you need

Ask for a rebrand and most agencies will happily sell you one. But the word gets used for very different jobs, from a tidied-up logo to a business that’s changing what it does. Getting the label wrong is how a quick fix becomes a six-month project, or a six-month problem gets a quick fix that changes nothing.

What a refresh changes

A refresh keeps what you stand for and updates how it looks.

Your audiences are the same. Your promise is the same. The business still recognises itself in its brand. It just looks dated, or it was never built to work across everything you now produce.

A refresh usually covers:

• refining the logo rather than replacing it
• updating colours, type and photography
• building the templates, decks and assets your team actually uses
• pulling it all into a system so it stays consistent

That last point is the one that matters. A logo is how you’re recognised. A design system is how you’re trusted, because it’s what makes everything look considered and say the same thing every time.

What a rebrand changes

A rebrand changes who you’re for, what you stand for or what you sell, and the look has to follow.

It starts with positioning and messaging, not design. Who are your audiences now? What do they buy from you? Why do they choose you? Only once that’s agreed does anyone draw anything. That’s why we won’t design before the strategy is done.

A rebrand doesn’t mean throwing everything away, though. Bis Henderson came to us for a website. In the workshop it became clear the identity couldn’t carry three divisions, so the rebrand came first. But the mark was refined rather than replaced, keeping thirty years of recognition, with a sub-brand for each division built underneath it. The audit decides what’s worth keeping.

Signs you need a refresh

The business is right. The way it looks isn’t.

• You still agree on who you’re for and why they choose you.
• The brand looks older than the business feels.
• Nobody can find the right logo file, and three versions of the same document look unrelated.
• The brand works on the website but falls apart on a proposal, a stand or a social post.
• Your team has started making things up because the brand doesn’t cover what they need.

Signs you need a rebrand

The business has changed and the brand is still describing the old one.

• You’ve merged, acquired or split, and the brands need to come together or clearly separate.
• You’ve added services, sectors or a whole new type of buyer, and the brand only covers the original one.
• You’ve moved upmarket and still look like a smaller, cheaper business.
• You’re losing shortlists to firms that look more credible, not ones that do better work.
• Ask three people what you do and you get three answers.

When you need neither

Sometimes the problem isn’t how you look. It’s what you’re saying.

iLockerz makes smart locker systems. Their website led with “Intelligent locker systems”, which described the product but gave nobody a reason to buy it. What changed wasn’t the logo. It was the message: staff who used to queue for twenty minutes at shift change now collect their kit in nine seconds. “When every minute counts, iLockerz delivers.” Same company, new conversation.

And if your leadership team can’t agree what the business is for, a new logo won’t fix it. That disagreement can run for years, and any design you put in front of it turns into a matter of taste. Agree the message first. Then decide whether the look needs to change at all.

What each one involves

The bigger the change in the business, the more of the thinking has to happen before any design.

A refresh is mostly identity and rollout: refining the mark, setting the system, and updating everything it appears on. If you only need a new identity, brand identity starts from £5,555.

A rebrand adds the thinking first: an audit, a strategy workshop to agree positioning, messaging, then identity and rollout. We quote rebrands rather than list a price, because the audit decides how much needs to change. More on what’s included on our rebranding services page.

One thing we don’t do is a logo on its own. If the logo is changing, there has to be a reason, and it has to be part of a bigger picture.

How to find out which you need

Audit first. It’s the cheapest way to avoid paying for the wrong one.

Work through the free 9 step rebrand audit. Step one alone, asking your leadership team to write down who you serve, what you do and why you, will tell you whether it’s a message problem or a look problem.

If you’d rather have an outside view and a straight answer, our rebrand audit reviews your brand, messaging and website and tells you whether it’s a rebrand, a refresh or neither.