6/24/24, 1:31 PM
How to avert a branding identity crisis - Fast Company
ADVERTISEMEN T
Ad
Bestselling baby picks
Shop Now
Crate&kids
0 4 -1 5 -2 02 2
CO. D E S I G N
How to avert a branding identity crisis
If your organization rebrands, but doesn’t actually transform, it’s in the throes of an
identity crisis, writes Deroy Peraza, cofounder of the branding agency Hyperakt.
[Illustration: Daniel Salo/Fast Company]
This document is authorized for use by Soumaya Chemingui, from 2024-06-25 to 2024-09-30 in the course:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90741281/how-to-avert-a-branding-identity-crisis
UGBA 162: Brand Management and Strategy - Hopelain (Summer Session D 2024), University of California, Berkeley
Any unauthorized use or reproduction of this document is strictly prohibited.
1/20
6/24/24, 1:31 PM
How to avert a branding identity crisis - Fast Company
BY D E ROY P E R A Z A
4 MINUTE READ
Rebranding–which can include updating your positioning,
messaging, visual identity, website and more–is a big investment of
time and capital. To the outside world, it signals an intention to mark
a new moment in your organization’s history and to be perceived
differently. When done effectively, an updated brand can undoubtedly
create powerful new opportunities for impact that more than justify
your investment. But a rebrand, in and of itself, is not transformative:
It will not change your organization. Rebranding is actually a record
of a transformation that has happened or is already underway. In
other words, rebranding doesn’t cause transformation;
transformation inspires rebranding. And this transformation comes
from within.
In our experience, most rebranding projects are rooted in one thing:
Your current brand simply isn’t a reflection of who you are as an
organization anymore, and that’s a big problem. Some clients can
articulate this. Others feel it, but can’t quite name it. Clients often
come to us and say, “We want to look more modern,” “we need
modern tools,” “we want to be relevant,” “we’ve secured funding to do
it,” or “we need to engage our audience in the digital space.” Yep,
totally. These are well-intentioned asks, but are often an effort to treat
the symptoms and not the root cause.
In fact, the greater the distance between who you are and how you’re
perceived, the greater the dissonance. The identity crisis might be so
great that each member of your team has a wildly different
description of what your organization does and, most important, why.
They might have trouble articulating these things at all. Your
communications team might feel like their efforts are the equivalent
This document is authorized for use by Soumaya Chemingui, from 2024-06-25 to 2024-09-30 in the course:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90741281/how-to-avert-a-branding-identity-crisis
UGBA 162: Brand Management and Strategy - Hopelain (Summer Session D 2024), University of California, Berkeley
Any unauthorized use or reproduction of this document is strictly prohibited.
2/20
6/24/24, 1:31 PM
How to avert a branding identity crisis - Fast Company
of wearing old gym clothes to a nice theater. They’re kinda
comfortable, but you know they’re probably not going to come off as
ironic or cool. Instead, they’re going to make you stick out for all the
wrong reasons. If only you’d planned for enough time to go home and
change first. Is your current brand creating friction that works
against your potential impact?
Why does this happen?
Organizations, the people that make them up, the world they exist in–
all these things are constantly evolving. Imagine how silly you would
sound if the voice of five-year-old you was the same as the voice you
have at 25 or 40. That would be weird, right? You are still you; in your
core, you’re the same person, you have many of the same values,
beliefs, and personality traits, but you’ve also grown and changed.
Your brand is your organization’s voice. You know your organization
isn’t exactly the same at 5, 10, 25, and 50 years. Its core purpose might
remain fundamentally unchanged, but the world it exists in is
different, and that might require your organization to behave
differently than it did in the past. Your brand needs to keep up with
all that change to actually do its job. If it’s the wrong pitch, you’re
going to get a lot of head scratching and raised eyebrows at best–or
dead silence at worst.
There are moments of dramatic change and periods of subtle, gradual
change. Think about how much has changed inside and outside your
organization over the last five years alone. You might have a new
leader. There are likely new people on your leadership team. More
likely than not, half the staff has turned over. Many of them are from
another generation, with different values, workplace behaviors,
This document is authorized for use by Soumaya Chemingui, from 2024-06-25 to 2024-09-30 in the course:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90741281/how-to-avert-a-branding-identity-crisis
UGBA 162: Brand Management and Strategy - Hopelain (Summer Session D 2024), University of California, Berkeley
Any unauthorized use or reproduction of this document is strictly prohibited.
3/20
6/24/24, 1:31 PM
How to avert a branding identity crisis - Fast Company
expectations of leadership, and politics. There are new words and
phrases blowing up in the public discourse. The party in political
power has changed. The country and the world have added a few
triumphs of humanity, and a few more painful wounds that have
scarred our society. Despite all of this change, you are still the same
organization, but your brand needs to reflect your evolution.
This doesn’t mean you throw it all away every few years and start
over. Do it once, and do it right. Then nurture it, watch it grow, prune
it, update it. The “it” of course is “your brand.” But if you’ve never done
it right, you’ll probably find yourself in the habit of throwing out your
clothes and constantly reinventing yourself every couple of years.
Which means you are either squandering your reputational equity or
there never was any to begin with.
This is all inevitable. It is the nature of the passing of time at the
speed of life. Transformation is already happening within your
organization. It’s always happening. Sometimes faster, sometimes
slower. Sometimes it’s a seismic shift, sometimes it’s glacial. Your
transformation is not a rejection or deletion of the legacy you’ve
already created–it is an evolution, a correction of past missteps, a
necessary adaptation to remain in touch with the moment. The
reward is a brand that resonates both inside and outside of your
organization, and it is rocket fuel for impact.
Deroy Peraza is a Cuban-American designer, husband, father, and Barça
fan. He is a partner and creative director at Hyperakt, a design studio
dedicated to branding nonprofits from the inside out.
Recognize your technological breakthrough by applying to this year’s
Next Big Things in Tech Awards before the final deadline, July 12.
This document is authorized for use by Soumaya Chemingui, from 2024-06-25 to 2024-09-30 in the course:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90741281/how-to-avert-a-branding-identity-crisis
UGBA 162: Brand Management and Strategy - Hopelain (Summer Session D 2024), University of California, Berkeley
Any unauthorized use or reproduction of this document is strictly prohibited.
4/20