Last year a business owner came to me wanting a full rebrand. New logo, new colours, new website, new everything. They'd been running for six years and felt like the brand had gone stale. They were ready to spend big money and called this out in the first discovery call. Budget was no factor and appetite was high.

We asked them to walk us through what was frustrating them, step-by-step. They talked for about twenty minutes. And by the end of it, I'd concluded that the actual problem wasn't the brand at all.

The problem was the website copy. It hadn't been touched in four years and was describing a business that no longer existed. The services had evolved significantly. The customer they were targeting had changed. But the website was still speaking to who they were when they first launched.

Their logo was fine. Their colours were actually quite distinctive, and best practice in a difficult market. Their photography was mediocre, but not deal-breaking. None of it needed urgent replacement.

What they needed was a copywriter and a web refresh - two days of work, not two months. A fraction of the cost they'd been willing to throw at this.

We told them that. We didn't take the rebrand brief.

There's a version of a creative studio that says yes to everything and lets the client make expensive decisions without question. We're not that.

Before you invest in a rebrand, ask yourself honestly: is the problem the brand? Or is it something the brand is being blamed for?

Sometimes it's the positioning that needs updating. Sometimes it's the copy. Sometimes it's the photography. Sometimes it's a single page on the website that's losing people. Fixing the actual problem is almost always cheaper than replacing everything.

And occasionally, not often, but occasionally, the honest answer is that nothing needs fixing. Business is quiet for reasons that have nothing to do with how the brand looks.

We'd rather tell you that early than take your money for something you don't need.

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