So, why do ego-driven rebrands fail?
- It looks new, but feels wrong.
- The most expensive kind of rebrand.
- Brands are built for users, not founders.
- Identity crisis or internal politics.
- Changing your logo won’t fix your positioning.
- The customer already decided what your brand means.
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It looks new, but feels wrong.
Rebrands fail when they’re led by people who want to make a mark, not make a difference. You’ve seen it before: a bold new logo, a slick new website, a total visual reset. But it feels hollow. The voice has changed. The personality is missing. It’s not an update, it’s a reinvention no one asked for.
Most customers don’t care what your internal strategy PowerPoint says. They care that the thing they liked, trusted, or relied on is still recognisable. Strip that away, and all you’ve done is confuse the people you’re trying to keep.
“Rebrands driven by ego rarely succeed. Customers don’t want a new story, they want a familiar one that still works.”
The most expensive kind of rebrand.
Ego-led rebrands are expensive, and not just in agency fees.
- You lose goodwill.
- You lose recognition.
- You might even lose sales.
And for what? A cleaner font? A new brand story you wrote in a workshop?
When a rebrand is driven by a CEO’s desire to ‘shake things up’ or a marketing team chasing awards, the work usually skims over what actually matters. Does the brand still solve the same problem? Is it easier to buy from you now? Has it helped customers understand why you’re different?
Most ego-driven rebrands cannot answer yes to any of those questions.
“Design should solve problems, not satisfy personal preference. Rebranding out of boredom is a costly mistake.”
Brands are built for users, not founders.
A founder might be tired of their logo. They’ve seen it every day for ten years. But their customers haven’t. Their customers don’t live in the brand; they just pass through. And if the identity still works for them, that’s what counts.
Rebranding because you’re bored, or because your competitor just did one, is not a strategy. A rebrand should respond to actual need: market confusion, a shift in audience, a change in offer. It should not start with “I think it’s time for a change.”
Good design solves real problems. It doesn’t exist to flatter egos.
“Branding for the boardroom doesn’t build trust with your buyers. Ego is the enemy of effective design.”
Identity crisis or internal politics.
Some rebrands are not about the market at all. They’re about settling scores. A new CMO wants to ‘leave their mark’. A founder wants to wipe away what came before. A boardroom wants to prove they’ve modernised. The result is branding used as politics, not progress.
That kind of thinking leads to identity crises. The new brand says one thing, the product does another. The tone is upbeat, but the service is clunky. The photos are diverse, but the leadership team isn’t.
It’s not a new brand. It’s a paint job. And people see right through it.
“Customers define your brand through experience. If you change everything, they might not follow.”
Changing your logo won’t fix your positioning.
This is one of the most common traps. Business is slow. Reviews are mixed. Competitors are gaining ground. And someone suggests the problem is your logo.
It’s not.
A logo might be part of the system that communicates your value, but it isn’t the source of it. Rebranding to escape business problems is a distraction. It’s like repainting your car when the engine doesn’t start.
If your positioning is unclear or your offer doesn’t land, fix that first. Once you know what you want to be known for, then you can decide if the brand expresses it well.
“Your logo is not the problem. Changing your brand won’t fix poor positioning or internal issues.”
The customer already decided what your brand means.
This is the truth most ego-led rebrands ignore: your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what others say when you’re not in the room. It lives in memory and experience. You can’t redesign that with a new colour palette.
So when you change everything, voice, visuals, even the name, without bringing your audience along for the ride, you break the link. You lose the equity you’ve spent years building. And rebuilding it takes far longer than most rebrand timelines allow for.
Respect what your audience thinks your brand is. Work with that, not against it.
