• by Ivan Kayser , December 11, 2024

The appeal of big, splashy brand redesigns has waned. I'm thinking of Mastercard in 2019 having the confidence to remove all the words from its mark, knowing it would still be recognized. Or the overt strategy choices like Dunkin' dropping the “Donuts” -- or the even more complete reinvention of Airbnb and the introduction of its ambitious new mark it named Belò.

That's probably what makes Jaguar's recent rebrand such a lightning rod. Undeniably, it is not very good. It was also so necessary.

There are three factors anyone considering this kind of rebrand should keep in mind:

In tough times, you run today's business while you become tomorrow's. Neither public company NOR VC-backed company can take the business hit and digest the massive marketing cost of a radical change right now (remember, Dunkin' spent about $100 million on its 2019 rebrand). These days brands can instead change incrementally.

Fear the trend. The recent wave of rebrands that led to everyone looking the same has cooled everyone off the external agency-driven full rebrand. For example, there were many Linkedin posts about all the beloved fashion brand logos, like YSL and Burberry, that are now looking like airport signage (see image below). So now brands can hold onto what they have, even if the design agency says it doesn't scale down right for social. 

It's just harder to get things done. eBay's rebrand, announced recently, is the perfect example. It was done internally because it had to be. Only internal folks could have gotten it approved, and it was YEARS in the making. Stories are filtering out about the inception of the work. You can count the people who saw it all the way through on half a hand, BUT they made it happen -- and  looks like eBay, not airport signage.

The best rebrands these days are in fact more about removing outside noise and keeping only what matters (or keeping only what's iconic) to reinforce what you want to stay iconic. I see this come across in Netflix moving to the ribbon N mark, Hoka removing One One from its name, and the list goes on! They are measured and thoughtful, but no one would call them a complete reinvention.

For marketers and agency people, the lessons are pretty straightforward. Transformation is a collective effort, it moves at the speed of business or it fails, and the priority needs to be not to destroy value -- even if it affects the “awe” factor of the case study.