After a crisis, changing the brand is often the first idea on the table. It is rarely the best one.
Over 20 years in communications, clients have asked me the same question many times: should we change the brand? It usually comes right after something big has gone wrong, when the pressure to act is at its peak and a fresh name and logo look like the fastest way to turn the page.
I understand the appeal. A rebrand changes the name on the door and the colours on the website. Everything behind them stays exactly where it was. If the fundamentals of the company are unchanged, the problem will be waiting for you on the other side of the launch.
The problem usually sits below the surface
When a brand is damaged, it is tempting to treat the brand as the cause. In my experience, it is usually the symptom.
Reputation is built from thousands of everyday interactions: the first time a customer signs up, the moment they try to buy, the call they make when something goes wrong, the price they are asked to pay. When those moments disappoint, people talk, reviews pile up and trust erodes. The brand carries the blame because it is the name people remember.
Change that name and the interactions stay the same. Customers meet the same friction under a new logo, and they connect the dots faster than you might expect.
The problems a rebrand will not solve
Think about the issues that most often sit behind a damaged reputation. A clunky onboarding process, where new customers give up halfway through or start the relationship already frustrated. A sales website that lets people down, with broken links, a checkout that fails or product information nobody can find. A customer service team that is hard to get hold of, leaving people on hold for an hour or waiting days for a reply to their emails. Or a price point that is out of step with what the market is prepared to pay.
Each of these chips away at trust, one interaction at a time, and none of them disappears with a new name and logo. Customers who felt let down before will feel the same way about the new brand within weeks, and this time they may also feel misled. A premium new look on an offer that already feels overpriced only invites more scrutiny.
Why a rebrand can make things worse
A rebrand is a public statement.
It tells customers, journalists and employees that something has changed. If they then meet the same problems, the gap between promise and experience becomes the story, and a service issue turns into a credibility issue.
It is also expensive. Building a brand takes years, significant budget and effort from many people. Starting again resets the recognition and trust you have spent a long time earning, often at the exact moment you need them most.
Remember the people inside
A brand lives in two places: with customers outside the organisation and with employees inside it. After a crisis, teams are often tired, anxious and unsure what the company stands for. A new name decided at the top can feel like a cover-up, especially to the people who know the operational problems best because they deal with them every day.
When employees see real fixes, they become the most credible advocates of the recovery. When all they see is a new logo, they become its sharpest critics.
When a new brand does make sense
I am not against rebranding. There are moments when it is the right call: when the name has become inseparable from the crisis, when the company has genuinely transformed its offer or ownership, or when the old brand no longer reflects who the organisation is becoming.
In each of those cases, the rebrand comes after the work, as the visible sign of changes that are already real. The order matters. Fix the onboarding, the website, the service and the pricing first. Then tell the story, under the existing brand or a new one, with proof behind every claim.
Start with a harder question
So before you ask whether to change your brand, ask yourself what has actually changed in the way you work. If the honest answer is “nothing yet”, start there.
A brand is a promise. A new name only helps once you are ready to keep it.