Why It’s So Hard to Refresh Your Brand (Even When You Know You Should)
This is part 1 of our “Halftime Brand Adjustments” series. Our July Blog will break down the cost of waiting to refresh your brand as well as three practical steps you can take to move your brand forward right now.
Speaking from experience as a business owner, it can be hard to make the decision to refresh or revamp your brand. We have mistakenly been led to believe that a company hyping up big, loud rebranding is the only thing that counts, because that is what generates the most attention and engagement. In reality, marginal, meaningful brand evolution, in the form of a thoughtful, purposeful refresh of key elements can be a massive improvement and create the feeling of a new brand, without requiring all the time, effort, and cost of a more extensive rebrand.
I’ve been in this boat for the past few months. A few of the reasons why it has been difficult for me to refresh the Enthuse Creative brand are 1) a reticence to introduce something new that fans and followers may not be as “enthusiastic” about, and 2) hesitancy to take time away from client work to focus on brand work for the company.
So why is it so hard for business owners to rebrand, even when they know it would benefit their business? My own experience and those of many business owners I’ve talked to has shed some light on common reasons. Here are five of the most common reasons why business owners struggle to refresh their own brands, even when they know they should.
You’re Too Close To It
Many business owners fail to realize one basic truth about the brands they build. Your brand is built by you, but it does not exist for you. Your brand is a tool, created to serve the best interest of your business by serving the best interest of your customers, specifically by being something they can identify, connect with, distinguish from competitors and place value in.
Business owners often cannot objectively see their own brand. For service providers and consultants, especially, clients are easier to diagnose than themselves. Familiarity doesn’t breed contempt, but it does create blindness, and because founders live inside the business daily, they can normalize and justify confusion as long as it makes sense to them. A brand is meant to be shared, and if it can’t be communicated easily or effectively, then it needs work. It’s best to let someone outside facilitate that process with the owner’s support and input. At Enthuse Creative, we lean into a co-creative model that ensures business owners have meaningful input that is reflected in the end result.
You’re Afraid to Lose Brand Awareness and Equity
Brand equity is the commercial value and consumer trust a brand name adds to a product over a generic alternative. Many established business owners fear losing this trust and value they have worked hard to earn for over the years. They’ve built a name and reputation that is well-recognized and well-regarded, and they rightly understand that to be valuable. They think changing the brand means starting over, but it doesn’t have to. A strong brand refresh doesn’t abandon your foundation. It reveals what was always there more clearly. The best brand refreshes lean into and leverage elements of the brand’s identity and build on them. Think about a company like Starbucks Coffee, which uses a combination of its name and visual brand in different settings that make sense. They’ve excelled at creating a brand system and brand experience over time that they own and you recognize, so slight changes to the way the brand shows up don’t take away from that. Refreshes don’t alienate or confuse their customers, it simply keeps the brand fresh–like a pot of coffee!
You’re Feeling Stuck and Don’t Know Where to Begin
Most business owners think about branding in terms of their logo displayed on something like a printed or a website. They are thinking about the end rather than the beginning. It’s important to start your brand with a plan. Many business owners know that something needs to change with how their brand’s identity or message is positioned and presented, but they settle for the status quo because they don’t know where to start the process. The brand works, but it doesn’t work well. The current brand may be recognized, but it is not resonant. The mental weight of the project becomes larger than the project itself. Instead of capturing an opportunity to grow and elevate, they remain stagnant and stuck, missing opportunities to capture attention and attract customers and falling further behind competitors.
You’re Focused on Perfection Over Progress
If you can remember that your brand is a work in progress and something you should expect to evolve over time, then you don’t need to spend large amounts of time and energy trying to make it perfect. In fact, if you’re fortunate enough to be in business for many years, your brand will almost certainly change again. Brands exist to evolve because they are a function of a society and marketplace that is always changing. Our general rule of thumb is that a business should anticipate refreshing some aspect of its brand every 5-10 years.
Progress is far more valuable than perfection when it comes to building and growing a brand. No one has more influence than you over how your brand shows up in the world and what messages it shares. A challenge is that many business owners treat a brand refresh as a permanent decision rather than the next step in an ongoing journey. We like to say, “it’s an evolution, not a revolution.”
Think about a services firm that updates its logo, website, and messaging to better reflect the advisory services it now offers. The new brand doesn’t have to capture every future direction the business might take over the next decade. It simply needs to communicate who the company is today and where it’s headed next. Waiting for the “perfect” brand can keep a business stuck, while thoughtful improvements create momentum and make room for future growth.
You Treat Branding as an Expense, Not an Investment
Many business owners are reluctant to invest in their brand because they view branding as a cost rather than an asset. Expenses are things we pay for and move on from. Investments, on the other hand, are expected to create value over time. If your brand has never been intentionally developed or measured as a business asset, it can be difficult to see how a refreshed brand will generate a return. The difference is key, and it plays out in your brand-related attitudes and actions.
This requires a more mature view of what branding is and what branding does. A strong brand helps customers recognize you, trust you, remember you, and choose you over competitors. It influences everything from referrals and pricing power to recruiting and customer loyalty. While a new logo, website, or visual identity may be the most visible part of a rebrand, those elements are only tools. The real value lies in creating greater clarity and consistency around who you are and why customers should choose you. Trust and credibility are where that investment yields its return.
The difficulty is rarely about logos, colors, or websites. Rebranding is challenging because it forces business owners to confront things many would rather avoid: change, inconsistency, and uncertainty. It requires acknowledging that the business has evolved, that the current brand may no longer reflect reality, and that there are no guarantees about how customers will respond. For many owners, that feels uncomfortable.
Yet avoiding those conversations often carries a greater cost. When your brand no longer matches the quality, expertise, or direction of your business, it can quietly limit growth. A thoughtful investment in your brand is often less about becoming something new and more about accurately reflecting what your business has already become. Next month, we’ll explore further the cost of waiting to refresh your brand, and the steps business owners can take to make immediate positive steps forward.
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Enthuse Creative is a brand strategy and creative studio that helps growing businesses consider the right time to refresh their brands, and then actually do it. Contact us today to learn more about how we can support you.
