Rebrands: Look good, feel good...

... just don't do it for the wrong reasons.

Hey there.

If you grew up in the ‘90s, you most certainly remember Sprite’s iconic “Image is Nothing. Thirst is Everything” campaign.

Well, in startup land, Grant Hill had it (mostly) backwards. Image (brand) is definitely something.

The hard truth: Your brilliant tech means nothing if your homepage looks like it was designed on GeoCities (sticking with our 90s theme here… if you were born after 1995, think Squarespace). Your incredible innovation won’t get the attention it deserves if your brand appears disjointed across web, comms and social.

A prospect will often judge your entire company within seconds of landing on your website. Investors form opinions about your maturity from the consistency of your decks, comms and sales collateral. Customers associate your visual presence with your operational quality. Whether or not that’s fair doesn’t really matter - this is just how it works. It's marketing 101. Actually, it’s marketing 100. And yet, we keep seeing it neglected. Some companies think building a brand properly out of the gate is too expensive (it doesn’t have to be). Others say they’ll deal with it later (which is the wrong approach in 2025). Either way, too many teams still overlook how they show up in the world.

So let's talk about rebrands. More specifically, when they're worth the investment, when they're not, and why "just being bored" doesn't count as a strategic reason.

We all know someone (maybe you) who launched a product, built a scrappy company, got traction, raised money, and then hit that awkward in-between stage. The stage where your website still displays some generic stock photography and your $50 Fiverr logo doesn't scale. You've got customers now, some real momentum, maybe even a few employees who weren't part of the founding group. And then you start to wonder:

Do we need a rebrand?

The answer is: maybe. But not for the reason you think.

Let's get to it.

Rebrands aren't inherently bad

It is still quite common for early-stage companies to treat branding like a nice-to-have. Something you do when you "have time," or once marketing "matures."

But here's the truth: how you look matters. We live in a world where most digital experiences are beautifully designed, functional, and fast. That sets the bar. Good design creates trust. Good messaging creates clarity. Combined, they create belief.

This isn’t (just) a brand marketer talking about the importance of brand marketing. This is the truth. Reverse-engineer any company that scales, raises money (if that’s the path), and succeeds. 97 times out of 100, brand played a very important role (there are some notable exceptions).

There are a lot of slick websites and pitch decks for brands that don’t deserve them, but generally it is now table stakes to have a brand identity that makes you look bigger and more successful than you already are.

But when it comes to changing what you have, there is some more consideration at play.

As Emily Kramer put it in her excellent MKT1 breakdown on rebrands:

"The risk of a redesign is you can take a step back in the equity you've built... so the reason for the redesign has to be significant enough to make up for some loss of equity."

Arielle Jackson, former Google marketer and First Round Capital advisor, reinforces this:

"Your brand is the emotional shorthand people use to make decisions about you. Changing that shorthand is disruptive, so ensure the change signals something meaningful about your business evolution."

Design is perception. And perception is part of the sale. Your site, your product UI, your onboarding email, every touchpoint is a chance to tell your story and build conviction. Ignore that, and you're leaving trust on the table (and likely revenue / investment dollars, too).

But you have to do it for the right reasons

A few valid triggers for a rebrand:

Your audience has changed. Maybe you started in SMB land and now you're going upmarket. Or you're expanding geographically, shipping new products, or expanding industries. The story needs to follow the customer.

The product has changed. What you do today isn't what you started out doing. If your homepage still leads with the old pitch, it's time to catch up.

(These first two are closely linked.)

Your design system doesn't scale. The current logo doesn't work on social. You've got no templates. Everyone's making things up as they go. That's not just annoying, it's expensive and inconsistent. This is quite common as early-stage brand elements are often created iteratively, without a comprehensive and cohesive brand design strategy in place.

Lindsay Pedersen, brand strategist and author of "Forging an Ironclad Brand," puts it succinctly:

"A rebrand should never be cosmetic. It should reflect a meaningful shift in your business strategy or target customer. Otherwise, you're throwing away equity you've worked hard to build."

These are the grown-up reasons. These are the times where rethinking brand structure, messaging, and visual identity can unlock sales, make hiring easier, and help you look like you belong.

Now let's talk about the bad reasons.

Why most rebrands go sideways

"We're just tired of it." This is the most common one. You stare at your website every day. Of course you're tired of it. That doesn't mean your customers are (honestly, they probably don’t care enough to even have an opinion).

"The new CMO wants to make a mark."* Rebrands are seductive. They're visible. They feel important. But if they aren't tied to a real business shift, it's just expensive decoration.

*We promise we don’t do this.

"A competitor dropped a slick new look." Your competitor raising $20M and unveiling a new wordmark and a fancy ‘look at us now’ corporate blog post isn't a reason to throw out your brand equity. Differentiate. Don't chase.

Brand legend Marty Neumeier, author of "The Brand Gap," warns:

"When companies rebrand for internal reasons rather than customer-focused ones, they often find themselves with a beautiful solution to a problem nobody had."

From the MKT1 newsletter:

"The biggest 'don't' is doing a redesign for the wrong reasons... Not liking the website is not a good enough reason to redesign it."

Nailed it.

What to do instead

If you're feeling like your brand isn't working, don't default to a full rebrand. Ask better questions:

Has our story actually changed?
Are we losing deals because of how we're showing up?
Is our investment pitch landing with investors?
Are we saying the right things to the right people, or are we hiding behind clever phrases and slick design?

And then, start small. Update the homepage copy. A/B test your CTA strategy. Refine your messaging for clarity. A campaign or a modular refresh often gets you 80% of the way there.

As suggested in MKT1:

"What's the smallest change we can make that still moves us forward?"

This is our mindset at Three Horizons. Iterative, incremental improvements are how good brands become great (and stay there).

A quick rebrand decision checklist

Wondering if a rebrand is right for your company? Here are some places to start:

Conduct perception research: Interview 5-10 customers about how they perceive your brand. Does it match your intentions? Even if you only have one or two customers, this is a great place to start.
Identify conversion bottlenecks: Are prospects dropping off? Review analytics to see where users abandon your site or funnel. If you have a small enough funnel, you can often just ask people directly for this type of feedback.
Audit competitive positioning: Map your visual identity against competitors. Are you distinctive? Does your look match your market position?
Calculate brand equity: List all assets and channels where your brand appears. More places = higher switching costs.
Estimate true costs: Beyond design fees, calculate internal time, implementation costs, and potential customer confusion. These are usually not factored into any budget.
Consider alternatives: Would refreshing specific elements (colors, typography, key messages) solve your immediate problems?
Define success metrics: How will you measure if the rebrand worked? Set benchmarks for awareness, conversion rates, and customer feedback.

Making your rebrand matter

If you're convinced a rebrand is right for your stage, make it count:

Focus on business outcomes, not aesthetics. Prioritize the changes that directly impact conversion, not just the ones that look cool in your brand book.

Bring evidence, not opinions. Back your rebrand with data from customer conversations, not just internal preferences or external trends.

Evolve, don't revolution(ize). Consider a phased approach that builds on your existing equity while moving toward your new vision.

Communicate the why. When you launch, explain the strategic rationale to customers and team members. Make them part of the story. This type of comms is often looked at as fluffy, but as long as you can connect it to your outcomes and evidence (see above), it can often have a positive impact.

The brands that win aren't just the ones that look good. They're the ones that use design to signal something meaningful about who they are and where they're going.

Final thoughts

Rebrands are one of the most overused and misunderstood tools in early-stage marketing. That doesn’t mean they aren’t useful. Just don’t use them to solve problems that are actually about positioning, sales alignment, or weak messaging (or even worse… product).

Good design matters. So does how you show up. Every touchpoint is a chance to build trust and drive action. But it only works when the story underneath is solid.

Remember: in your customer’s mind, perception is reality. Invest wisely in shaping it.

‍

Yours in marketing, Jeff