Brand Consistency: How to Decide Whether Your Brand Should Embrace or Reject Change

Photo: Bloomberg Television/YouTube

You’ve probably heard the famous phrase that, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, ad nauseam. That’s because essentially, humans often have a proclivity to change things from time to time just for the sake of changing them; whether they are working or not. 

That’s not to say that some of the changes we make even when things appear to be working perfectly cannot be successful. However, in most cases, they wind up hurting our cause more so than helping.

Recently, US restaurant chain Cracker Barrel, received backlash after announcing they would be making changes to the brand as part of their “All the more” campaign. And although the rebrand included new menu items and revitalized restaurant remodels, what really caused an uproar amongst customers were the changes to the brands logo. 

Notwithstanding the apparent success the chain has experienced since it was founded in 1969, the brand’s CEO Julie Fels Masino, believed changes to the previous logo (which involved removing the classic man in overalls sitting in a chair next to a soda cracker barrel) were necessary to give Cracker Barrel an “enhanced brand look.”

According to reports, the outrage following the announcement of the logo change directly led to the 55-year-old company stock plummeting by $94 million. A share value drop of 7.2%. 

Whether Cracker Barrel’s previous branding was “broken” or not, one thing that cannot be disputed is that in the short term, fixing it has been more costly than it has been advantageous.

So how could you know when the time is right to embrace a major change to your brand or resist it? Here’s how to decide.

Differentiate wants from needs

Similar to clothes shopping to update your wardrobe, whenever considering making a significant change to your brand, it is important that you’re able to recognize the difference between a want—and a need. 

Sure, a new pair of shoes for work would be nice, but do you really need them? Could your brand use a slogan update? Absolutely! Even McDonald’s changed theirs after “Over 99 billion served.” But is a change needed? That is the billion-dollar question.

Notwithstanding the inherent yearning to make a change, making a change simply for the sake of making a change—as opposed to making a change because your brand truly needs to—as Cracker Barrel could attest—could be very catastrophic towards your brand's bottom line. 

Either understand your audience—or ask them

Before the popularity of online surveys, I could vividly recall being approached by intercept interviewers as a youth while shopping at my local malls. Intercept interviewers, also known as field interviewers, are people employed by market research firms to collect consumer feedback on a variety of brands, products, and services. 

I always enjoyed being approached and interviewed by intercept interviewers at the mall because they usually paid those of us selected for an interview (albeit a small amount of money) for answering their questions. 

If you’re unsure of whether your brand’s target customers would welcome a particular change that you’re considering making to your brand, simply take the initiative by asking them like an intercept interviewer would. 

Unsure of whether or not a logo or slogan change would be celebrated or berated by your target customers? Simply incentivize them with a prize to share their opinion by conducting online surveys via:

• Your website.

• Customer email.

• Social media.

Regardless of how well you think you understand your target audience, if things are already going great with your brand and you’re uncertain of how customers would react to a significant change, go straight to the source by directly asking them how they’d feel about that specific change.

And make it worth their while to do so. 

Final thoughts

Brand consistency is extremely important if you want to build a strong brand. Nonetheless, in order to build a brand that'll be successful for decades, certain aspects of rebranding are inevitable as time goes on. 

By taking the abovementioned steps, you’ll have a clear understanding of whether your brand should either embrace a change or resist it. If you’re already fully committed to undergoing a rebrand, here are the 4 phases of a successful rebrand you need to know.

If you’d like further help with your startup’s rebrand, don’t hesitate to reach out to us today to schedule a complimentary client consultation and we’ll devise a custom brand strategy to help your startup not only survive, but also thrive in the market!