Branding Challenges - 23 Reasons Not to Test Rebranding Changes

The Brainzooming post about making assumptions when doing brand identity and logo design sparked this Twitter exchange over several days with Cheryl Swanson about branding challenges.

My suspicion is the new logo that prompted the brand identity and logo design article wasn’t tested with external audiences during its development. I don’t know that for sure; it’s simply my suspicion.

When Cheryl wondered aloud (I mean, as “aloud” as you can on Twitter) why an organization would risk a mistake with a logo by not investing in any testing, I hopped on that as another Brainzooming blog post right away!

Branding Challenges and Rebranding

Why WOULDN’T an organization spend to test a brand identity and logo design change before its implementation?

All I had to do was mentally interview people I’ve worked with and for during my career to compile a list of twenty-three reasons why an organization wouldn’t test rebranding changes it is planning.

23 Reasons Not to Test Brand Identity and Logo Design Changes

1. It's our brand, and we don’t need anybody to tell us what to do with it.
2. It's not that big of a change in the logo. Nobody will even notice.
3. We did a couple of focus groups last year - that's good enough.
4. That's why we pay you: to tell us what to do about the logo. If I needed to pay customers to tell me what to do, I might as well hire them to do your job.
5. We HAVE to announce the new name and logo in ten days. Can you research the logo in a week?
6. People buy from us based on relationships, not the logo.
7. We plan to change the logo in six months anyway, so we don't want to spend any more money than we have to on it.
8. Now, we're not sure if legal will approve the name we told you last month to start developing logo designs for.
9. There's a guy in graphics who could design a better logo than that.
10. Nobody pays attention to logos.
11. Nike spent something like $37 on their logo. Why the hell is it such a big deal for us?
12. Customers can’t tell you what they like anyway.
13. Talk to some salespeople and see what they think of the new logo.
14. We don't want competitors to find out what we’re doing because we let some customers see the new logo.
15. I can't even tell that you changed anything.
16. We don't need a logo. Just put our company name on things.
17. My niece designed the logo, so we're good.
18. It's all the same f'n stuff to customers. They don't care.
19. It's so obvious. I know what it is. What the hell are you going to test?
20. We spent all the money getting the logo designed. There's nothing left in the budget to test it.
21. Let me invite some of my best customers out for dinner, have a few drinks, and then we'll do a focus group with them to see what they think.
22. We're not going to spend any money to change the logo on our facilities and equipment, so what difference does it make?
23. Just do one of those SurveyMonkey things.

I didn’t say they were good reasons not to test rebranding changes!

But they are very real branding challenges when exploring rebranding an organization. It didn't take many mental interviews to compile this list. What excuses can you add to the list?  - Mike Brown

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