We get it. In the throes of passionately doing what you love, it’s easy to throw up a website, scribble a logo, and bang out a mission statement for your business. After all, it’s the work that you want to do that matters. Not your brand. Right?

Wrong answer.

Your brand is your organization’s number one spokesman, shiny shoes and all. And you know what happens to shiny shoes?

They get scuffed up. You grow out of them. You decide to go barefoot in the rain.
Before you know it, it’s time to get a new pair. And just like slipping into a new pair of shoes, it might be time to move into a new brand. Ocean Pacific can’t be cool forever.

When Elements Are Looking Dated

Are you embarrassed to put the logo on your collateral, or ashamed to use your Papyrus typeface on another letterhead? If things are looking like a pre-war can of beans, and not in a cool hipster “Kilroy was here” type of way, then it’s time to get back into the brand trenches.

When You Can’t Articulate Who You Are and What You Do and it Pisses Everyone Off

Does the current brand and its guidelines temper your team’s ability to speak authentically and creatively? Is it more constraining than an iron maiden? If the team cannot stay focused, or agree, and their ingenuity is being stifled, that is killer to morale and innovation. Your brand’s gotta go.

When Your Website Is Stuck In 1996

Think CNN-levels of confusing content, sidebars upon sidebars, reels of testimonials from your mom, and nowhere explaining what exactly you do. If you find yourself reluctant to share your website with anyone, just know that there’s a cure to this website shame. Time to bring your brand into the 21st century.

When You’re Screaming the Wrong Message

Do you have to qualify everything you say on your website? Has your message evolved and your focus shifted? Does your brain think one thing and your mouth say another? Congratulations, time to step it up in the brand game.

When Nothing Matches Anymore

Is your website copy super aspirational, but the marketing materials visually all over the place? Does the MailChimp template font match the blog font? Are headlines written in the same tone? Are left and right brains attached at all? Time for a little brand rewiring.

When Things Get Hella Negative

Did you recently cause a massive oil spill that affected billions of people, ruined businesses, and destroyed people’s financial futures? Are you Bernie Madoff? For the sake of yourself and your business, it might be time for your brand to check into the witness protection program. It’s time to clean up your act and step out into the world with a new look.

So it’s officially time for a rebrand.