The Process of a Rebrand: Part 1
Rebrands can be tricky. Picking a name, logos, colors, photography, assets… the list goes on. There are a lot of opinions to be managed, input to process, and every conversation contains strong emotional energy because of what the brand ultimately represents.
In my role as Chief Marketing and Chief Creative Officer at Engage Technologies, we faced a difficult marketing challenge as our product evolved. Our primary product was the digital delivery of patient education videos via text message. It was a simple solution that empowered practices to automate patient learning in a consistent way with little to no effort on practice staff.
In 2023 we acquired another healthcare technology that extended our capabilities into the operational side of a medical practice. Features that allowed a practice to see the performance of their operations, support from a community of consultant coaches, and a learning management system that empowered practice owners to train their staff. That changed our fundamental value proposition from patient engagement to practice performance. In fact we had even coined the term “Practice Performance System” as a way to describe our new market positioning.
All of a sudden the name “Engage” didn’t fit anymore. Furthermore the company we acquired was named APX Platform, and was exclusively positioned for the aesthetics industry, so that name didn’t work either. Therefore we entered into a marketing nightmare of maintaining multiple brands, creating confusion with our customers and maintaining an invisible dividing line internally with our employees. Common phrases like, “on the Engagement side” and “on the APX side” permeated our meetings and dialogue.
We needed something to unify us, and that meant a new name. And a new name means everything had to change.
In this series of posts I’ll take you through the process of how a rebrand works, utilizing the work we did to rebrand Engage as a case study. I’ll identify key points to consider at each stage, questions to ask and answer, and strategies to roll it out successfully.
Part 1: Count the Cost and Get Buy In
The first thing to consider is the rationale for rebranding, and how to socialize it with key stakeholders inside the company. Ideally you want representation and feedback from all organizational units. Everyone will be impacted so measuring the impact of the work ahead is key for buy-in. Every document, email signature, website page, powerpoint presentation, collateral, software accounts, and much more will be affected. Remember that you will be increasing the workload company-wide so understanding the true cost in both money and time is essential. Once you’ve counted the cost, you are ready to start the process. Here is a quick list of typical organizational units in a business and some examples of things that will be affected by the change.
This is not an exhaustive list, but it should give you a sense of the how rebranding affects more than just the marketing department.
Sales
Business Cards / Collateral
Trade Show Booths
Apparel / Branded Attire
Notification to Prospects
Product Demos
CRM Updates
Marketing
Logos, Colors, Fonts, Brand Guidelines
Website / Landing Pages / Email Campaigns
Automated Lead Nurture Workflows
Ad Campaign Assets
Pitch Decks / Proposals
Social Media Accounts
Communication to Contacts
Public Announcement
Operations
Project / Program Management Software
Internal Communication Software (e.g. Slack, Teams)
Office Decor / Signage
Vendor Communication
Email Signatures
IT / Internal Systems (e.g. File Sharing, Folder Structures)
Finance
Financial Management Software
Invoice / Contract Templates
Legal Documents (e.g. Articles of Incorporation)
Business Registration (LLC, C-Corp update)
Tax & Compliance (Tax filing as either a DBA or name change)
Human Resources
Employee Handbook
Benefits Management Software
Health Insurance Plans
Employee Culture
Hiring and Retention
Product Development
Product Design Updates
Product Development Roadmap Considerations (e.g. If core strategy has changed, the roadmap will change)
Software Engineering
UI / UX
URL / Domain Updates
Agile Project Management Software
Systems Consolidation (e.g. Migration of code from AWS to Azure)
Information Technology
SaaS Consolidations (e.g. Migration of acquired staff to core systems)
Hardware Distribution
Software Licenses
Network Updates
Customer Support
Customer Communication
Knowledge Base
AI Agents
Automated Support Workflows
Executive Leadership
Strategic Vision Planning
Corporate Board Buy In
Investor Communications
Partnership / Sponsorship Communications
Again, this list is in no way exhaustive, but it should give you a good place to start. The next step is to interview a few key stakeholders from each business unit to create a detailed list of the areas in their department that will be affected. If your organization is small, you might be able to schedule a half-day workshop where you provide everyone sticky notes and run a brainstorming session. If your company is larger, you can break this down by team.
With the data you’ve collected you now need to sell the idea to your key stakeholders to get buy in. Have a clear list of advantages for the rebrand and disadvantages for maintaining the current state. Keep it simple and speak to each point individually with data to back you up. Here was my list:
Our current names and brand identities do not holistically our combined technology, feature set, and product offerings.
Two brands creates confusion among potential customers, and increases time for explanation.
Neither brand accurately represents our new unique value proposition in the market.
Practice Performance System is a category, not a brand.
Maintaining one brand will improve operational efficiency by effectively cutting our work in half.
Gives us the opportunity to make a big splash in the market, especially if we can time it with a major product release.
Saves us money. Hosting, domain fees, outside contractors, software,etc.
Aligns our team by giving them one thing to focus on designing, building, selling, and supporting.
Be ready to debate and defend your points, but keep an open mind to feedback you receive. Often you’ll learn things you haven’t considered that you should account for. Additionally the discussion part of this process gives people an opportunity to lean in to the idea and more often than not, they will sell themselves on moving forward. Once you have buy in from your stakeholders, you are ready to move to the next step.
