When was the last time you took a moment to breathe?
Between endless to-do lists, daily fire drills, organizational shifts, and an ever-changing business landscape, leading a business toward success can often feel like you’re flying by the seat of your pants.
If you’ve ever been part of a scaling organization, you know the feeling. It’s like the infamous iceberg analogy – reworking a complex foundation while somehow managing to keep the surface afloat.
We recently worked with a client who was describing these exact growing pains in their own organization. Every time their employees would come to them overwhelmed, they would offer the same profound advice:
Slow down so you can speed up.
The art of slowing down can sometimes feel like a luxury. In reality, it’s a survival mechanism.
This mentality became the team’s rallying cry, a grounding practice to help conquer every day with intention in order to generate meaningful, long-term success. The ability to embrace this idea is a key indicator of why some organizations can take change in stride (at least most of the time), while others, not so much.
It also happens to be the same attitude that successful rebrands are built on.
Playing the Long Game
Rebrands are often misunderstood as a purely cosmetic exercise. The truth is, a good-looking logo is merely the tip of the iceberg. Expecting a pretty picture to solve your organization’s complex business challenges and drive legitimate growth is about as delusional as putting a bandaid on a gaping wound.
There’s a reason we call it brand therapy – the pursuit of long-term rebrand success is a marathon, not a sprint. Whether redefining your brand’s vision, reinvigorating your brand’s purpose, or shaking an unflattering reputation, rebranding projects are an external expression of a foundational shift in your organization’s MO, an attempt to change the narrative around your brand.
Take Time To Discover
World-changing brands are built with intention, and we pride ourselves on working with clients that are as committed to digging deeper as we are. Unpacking everything there is to know about who your brand is, why it matters, and who it matters to is no small feat, and should be handled with care. Not only is it important to dedicate adequate time to the effort itself, but also adequate time for your team to ponder, reflect, and digest to ultimately drive the most meaningful findings to the surface. Half-assed effort produces half-assed results.
Between gathering a deep understanding of your brand, using this information to establish and create your brand communications (voice, tone), defining and crafting a cohesive visual language (logos, color palettes, imagery, patterns, illustrations), and implementing this newfound knowledge across every single brand touchpoint, it’s no wonder Rome wasn’t built in a day.
While there are many, many design “aficionados” who will happily help you skip to the finish line, great brands are built on solid foundations. Jumping to the final page is more than a waste of time and resources, it risks disaster for the long-term success of your brand. A great brand sets the stage for who your brand is today, and who you will be for years, if not decades into the future. If you’re going to make the investment, you may as well maximize your return. As they say, the grass is greenest where you water it.
