HOW DID REBRAND BECOME SUCH A DIRTY WORD?

Summary from the TLDR Design newsletter

The word “rebrand” has become loaded and often avoided, with many companies instead framing changes as a “brand refresh” to reduce resistance. Designers note that non-creative stakeholders can be spooked by the idea of a rebrand, associating it with layoffs, restructuring, or failures. High-profile controversies like Jaguar and Cracker Barrel amplified this, as debates reduced rebrands to “new logo” battles in the mainstream. In reality, most branding work focuses on evolution rather than total reinvention, though full rebrands can still be transformative when tied to business strategy.