Quit Febreze-ing Your Brand

Something smells a little…off. You can’t quite place it, but the air around your brand feels different than it used to. You notice less pride in the room. Fewer sparks in the work. You hold your breath when you send your website to a prospect. Your team cringes when they pull up their presentation template. Your messaging has drifted to the point where it sounds like it’s trying to talk to everyone. You look to your competitors for inspiration. 

This didn’t happen overnight. And you know fixing it won’t, either. So, you reach for the quick wins. A special edition logo. Landing pages. New brand colors or taglines. It feels like you’re making progress, but really you’re masking deeper issues.

It’s what we call Febreze-ing your brand. It may freshen things up for a short while. But let’s be real: surface-level fixes can never solve a strategic problem.

Symptoms of a Neglected Brand

If a brand goes too long without real, intentional care, the cracks start to show. Eventually, they display some clear symptoms:

• A diluted story: Messaging that’s generic, pandering, watered down, or constantly shifting to align with what you think your audience is interested in. 

• A patchwork of visuals: Inconsistent visual language, secondary and tertiary logos, color tweaks, a seasonal campaign that becomes an identity and personality. 

• A lack of perspective: You start to look, feel, sound, act, and post like your competitors, instead of staking out a unique point of view.

• Website workarounds: You send people to landing pages rather than your homepage, which has been Frankenstein-ed over the years.

• Loss of internal pride: Swag orders get delayed, employees hesitate to share the brand externally because it no longer feels credible.

• Market confusion: Customers don’t know who you are, what you stand for, or why they should care.

If any of these sound familiar, you may be overdue for a rebuild.

Rebuilds Can Be Scary

Most brands don’t put off a wholesale rebrand out of laziness. They do it out of pride. Pride turns into hesitation, hesitation into fear. You assume your audience feels a deep loyalty, so you play it safe. You try to recapture your mojo without alienating your base.

Nowhere is this tension clearer than in the world of sport. We form a deep bond with our teams, based on place, memories, and stubborn (mostly-false) hope. But that same nostalgia can make change feel impossible.

Case in Point: Everton

One of England’s most storied clubs. And lately, one of its most lost. Relegation scares, financial disarray, points deductions, managerial upheaval, ownership chaos, you name it. Beneath it all lies a deeper issue: an identity that hasn’t kept pace with what the club is (or hopes to be). 

Rebranding a 150-year-old institution is no small task. Rather than confront that, they’ve sprayed the air. A new sub logo here, a new color palette there. Visual distractions that reward insider knowledge. Seasonal campaigns masquerading as personality. Rallying cries that fade after a bad run of form. Even a shiny new stadium on the Mersey feels like a serotonin hit for a club seeking its soul.

When a brand story drifts and culture erodes, aesthetics fill the silence. This is Febreze-ing at scale. 

What’s Old is New Again

Ironically, a brand that was once infamous for literally spraying the air has finally cleared it and started anew. A decade ago, Abercrombie was the poster child for what happens with confidence curdles into arrogance. It was tone-deaf, it was exclusionary, and it was more full of itself than the shirtless male models grazing out front. It left its audience behind. 

Here’s what they did differently: they tore it all down. They said goodbye to abs and arrogance and rewrote the brand story from the inside out. They redefined their audience (and realized the audience had redefined itself), reconnected with their heritage, retooled their product, rebuilt their supply chain, and found a new voice. 

This wasn’t a “rebrand” in the superficial sense. Not at all. It was an excavation. They restructured their leadership, brought in new creative direction, and made a clear commitment to representation in marketing and design. Even their stores were reimagined to feel like welcoming spaces. This took time, consistency, and a willingness to trust the process.

The payoff? Abercrombie is now a darling of the retail world when those are few and far between. How’s a 285% one-year gain in the S&P sound? This revival has not been driven by seasonal gimmicks or surface polish, but by coherence. They’ve reconnected with the Millennials who put them on the map and, perhaps more impressively, earned the affection of the famously fickle Gen Z.  

How to Rebuild with Intention

When a brand rebuilds with intention, it becomes a source of momentum again instead of maintenance. Getting there requires planning, will, and investment.

A true rebrand is a strategic process that examines every layer of who you are and how you show up. It may end in a logo refresh, a campaign, or brand assets like websites, but oftentimes what’s truly needed emerges through a process of listening, learning, and engaging. 

Start with a brand audit: understanding what’s working, what isn’t, and what your competitors are doing. Hearing from your audience is critical to understanding who they need you to be. As Marty Neumeier says, your brand is not what you say it is, it’s what they say it is. From there, you rebuild the foundation: the story, positioning, design system. Finally, ensure every channel and touchpoint points to that new north star.

The Nitty Gritty

No two projects are exactly the same. But after twenty years of doing this, we can at least give you an idea of what’s typically included in a rebrand. Here’s what to expect:

• Timeline: A typical rebrand takes anywhere from 4 to 9 months, depending on what’s involved. It’ll be shorter for a more focused refresh, longer if it involves renaming or a full digital overhaul. 

• Budget: For most growing organizations, the total investment in rebrand (from research and strategy through application of the brand to all assets — from packaging to websites and anything in between) falls somewhere between 1% and 5% of annual revenue. It’s a serious investment, but one that pays for itself in performance, clarity, and pride. 

• Deliverables: Expect deliverables that will be focused on both your internal brand (team-focused) and external brand (customer-focused). Think brand strategy and messaging framework decks; analyses of your current touchpoints; raw data from customer research; new visual identity with colors, typefaces, and logo files; newly-designed websites and collateral templates. 

The result goes so far beyond a new look. It’s alignment. Confidence and momentum. Finally you can stop debating what fonts to use on social media and start making decisions. You’ll stop reacting and start leading. And your people will feel proud to represent the brand in and out of the office.

Stop Masking. Start Building.

The first step to rebuilding your brand is admitting you’ve outgrown it. If your brand is experiencing any of the symptoms we’ve talked about, pause and listen. Ask your team what feels true.

It’s time for clarity. A rebrand is not about changing who you are but rediscovering why you started and making sure every piece of your identity serves that purpose.

Masking is easy. Building takes courage. But courage is where the momentum begins, and your next chapter depends on it. So start the conversation now. Make your case. Budget for it. Because every quarter you spend masking is a quarter you could be building something that lasts. When you’re ready, we’ll help you do it right.