E32: What Marketing Experts DON'T Tell You About Rebranding | Jim Heininger
Rebranding isn’t just about changing your logo—it’s about repositioning your business for long-term success.
But how do you know if you actually need a rebrand or if a simple refresh will do the trick?
In this episode, we cover:
The three types of rebranding and when each one makes sense.
The step-by-step process to ensure a smooth transition.
How to avoid brand confusion and keep your customers engaged.
The timeline of a rebrand and when to fully transition.
If you’ve ever wondered if rebranding is the right move for your business, this episode will give you the clarity you need to make an informed decision.
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Sean Garner is a marketing consultant and Certified StoryBrand guide dedicated to helping small business owners grow and dominate their industries. He created the Marketing Domination podcast to teach people how to combine storytelling with strategic marketing to help businesses connect with customers and stand out online.
Jim Heininger is the man to discuss business rebranding! He founded The Rebranding Experts in 2017 and holds 30 years of business and brand strategy experience for P&G, McDonald’s, Anheuser-Busch, and others. Jim's team believes rebranding should be a strategic growth accelerator, creating a forward-facing organization ready to grasp new opportunities. Jim coaches CEOs through the rebranding process, aligning their executive team, and helping to execute complete name changes and new customer promises. He is also a regular speaker at national conferences and an active contributor to Forbes.
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EPISODE 32 TRANSCRIPTION
Introduction
Sean Garner [00:00]: Should you rebrand your company? Are you thinking about changing the visual identity? Maybe you're trying to position and reach a new market or you need to completely restructure the DNA of your company. Well, before you do that, you need to listen to the interview today from my guest, Jim Heinegger. Jim is the founder of the rebranding experts and he is going to share with us today the three different types of rebranding that there are and his step-by-step process of what you need to do to make sure that you actually rebrand properly. So position your company in the best way. Welcome to marketing domination.
Sean Garner [00:38]: Well, Jim, thank you so much, sir, for coming on here to marketing domination.
Jim Heininger [00:45]: Great to be with you, Sean.
Sean Garner [00:47]: So you are the rebranding expert. And I know that from our brief conversation that you told me that there is some misconception around what it is and what it entails. So can you give us an overview of what exactly rebranding is, the different forms that there are of it, and kind of when and how they should be used for businesses?
The Three Types of Rebranding
Jim Heininger [01:09]: Perfect. Rebranding as a term is kind of overused for any time a brand goes through some form of transformation. But there really are three different ways to approach rebranding. One is just to do a brand refresh. So it could be where you just need some new energy, some new life, some modernization to your brand, not changing what your brand stands for or the promise that it makes to customers. You're doing more of a visual update, a little bit of a visual makeover. So it might be a new logo, some new colors that you're using, updating your website a little bit, maybe some messaging.
We see brand refreshes all the time. Walmart did one at the end of last year where they made their logo and name a little bit bolder because they're increasingly moving to a digital platform and selling more products online. It just looks better on a visual platform like that. That's a brand refresh. A lot of people call that a rebranding. I don't think I would, though.
You can reposition your brand. We see these a lot too. There's a lot going on in the retail marketplace, retailers trying to fight off the move from brick and mortar to more online purchasing with customers. A brand repositioning is where you pivot to the new customer base that you're wanting to reach out to, perhaps as a growth segment. You're keeping your name the same. You're doing a brand refresh to make it more interesting and modern, but you're not changing the name of the organization. You're not changing the core promise that you have.
We saw that with Victoria's Secret. They moved away from the angels, the fashion shows, and the exclusive image to wanting to be more inclusive to all women, all body shapes and sizes. They changed their product line and made sure their marketing was not seen as exclusive but inclusive to women of all sizes and ages. Abercrombie & Fitch did something similar, repositioning their products without entirely rebranding.
So what is a rebrand? A rebrand is when you're changing the heart and soul of your organization, the DNA of who you are, and repositioning how you go to market because you need to expand to a new customer segment and need growth.
Jim Heininger [04:29]: The biggest one in the last six months was Jaguar. It created a lot of controversy in the marketing world. A very staid British company that relied on historical brand equities to keep its customers realized they couldn't keep doing what they were doing. Their sales were declining, their profits were sinking, and they had to address this.
They completely pivoted their whole brand to support an entirely new look and feel of their products. They introduced it with a very provocative, brightly colored video featuring androgynous characters, making it clear they were going to be dramatically different than in the past.
They introduced new car models at an art show in Miami, which were pink and bright blue. They were EV, dramatically different, futuristic-looking models. They kept the name Jaguar but changed the logo to be more modern. That's an example of a rebrand where you can't do business as you did in the past, and you need your brand to propel you into the future to capture the new customers necessary for success.
Sean Garner [05:38]: Okay, understood. Thank you for that breakdown. That definitely makes it a lot more clear on what it is because I often hear people say, "We need to rebrand" or "We're going to rebrand." Like you said, that whole rebrand—there are probably very few who should do that. But knowing that there are three different types of rebranding—brand refresh, repositioning, and full rebrand—who should be eligible for each? Who should be considering them, and what are some different factors that would make them even consider this at all?
When Should a Business Rebrand?
Jim Heininger [06:15]: Yeah, we put it into two different buckets. You either need to do this, or you have the desire to seize upon new opportunities. Oftentimes, there's a merger, or you acquire a company and have to sort through the branding situation. Or your brand is just not working for you anymore—it's an anchor to your future business success. You can't grow into a new product or service because customers perceive you solely as doing one particular thing. That's when you need to rebrand.
What we see in a lot of companies is the desire to seize new opportunities. They have a strategic growth plan that takes off in a different direction, demanding that they change how they go to market. They want to seize that opportunity.
So it falls into those two different buckets.
Now, for small business owners, one of the most important lessons from rebranding is to try to get your brand right from the start. Many entrepreneurs opening a new business focus more on standing up the business and operations than branding. They take shortcuts on branding.
You want to use that point in time to learn from what big brands do and model that in your brand from the very beginning. That way, you don't find yourself needing to rebrand down the road because you've outgrown your original positioning.
If you acquire a new company or suddenly realize, "I need to change something because this isn't interesting people anymore," then you might consider a rebrand. Even if you're new in business and smaller in scale, it's still a viable option.
Branding for Small Business Owners
Sean Garner [08:22]: Okay, that's great. Let's talk into that a little bit more. So let's say I am a new startup. I've ventured out and started my own small business. What should I be considering that entails my brand?
So two parts to this. One, what actually makes up your brand, especially as a small local service business? What do I need to have for my brand? And then, how do I know if it's right? How long should I be testing this? What would that process look like to know that, okay, yes, I did it, or no, it is time? That didn't work. We're wrong. We need to refresh, reposition, or rebrand.
Jim Heininger [08:59]: Yeah, that's interesting. We get calls from a lot of professional service firms like law firms and dentist practices that say, "I named my company after myself. It’s Jim Heininger Law Offices." And now, I've built a team, I have a lot of resources, and it's not just about me anymore. I've got associates I want to bring into the business, and I have an exit strategy for the future.
If my business is too linked to me personally, that could present a challenge—perhaps even devalue the business—because someone will have to spend time changing the name and the brand for the future.
There's always that difficult decision: do I name it after myself because people know me, I have integrity, and I have credibility in the community? Or do I choose an aspirational brand from the start that’s focused on the customer and the value we bring so that it has more longevity and growth potential?
That’s one of the key encouragements we give to people starting out—brand in a way that will give you growth opportunities in the future.
How do you test it? You always have to take the pulse of your brand and make sure it’s relevant to customers. One way to identify pain points is through new customers or potential clients. If what you're presenting to them doesn’t fully tell the story of what you offer—your services, products, or value—then something isn’t matching up. That means you may have defined your brand too narrowly, making it less relevant to what you're trying to get people to invest in moving forward.
Always keep in mind that people invest in the future, not the past. That should tell you right away if your brand is relevant today and tomorrow.
What Actually Makes Up a Brand?
Sean Garner [11:21]: Okay. Give us a more detailed overview of what actually encompasses and makes a true brand. Because I would assume most people, when you say "your brand," they're thinking about logos, colors, and fonts. Is that what it is, or is it a lot more than that? How would you define a brand?
Jim Heininger [11:40]: Yeah, it's so much more than that. It's the collective experience that someone has with your company. So it's not only those visual things, but it's also the customer service, how people are treated, and how problems are resolved. What is that overall customer experience? When people interact with your brand, what are they taking away from it?
Sean Garner [11:48]: Mm.
Jim Heininger [12:07]: What are the gut feelings and emotions they have when they experience your brand? The logo is the easy piece. It's really about how you conduct business on an ongoing basis and how people experience you. That’s your brand. That’s what gives them confidence in coming back to you in the future—not just the colors you use on your website.
Sean Garner [12:31]: Yeah. We've owned our agency for eight years now, and that is the best definition of a brand I've ever heard—"the collective experience someone has with your company." I love that. I'm definitely going to use that. That was great.
So, let’s say a business is going through a rebrand, repositioning, or a complete overhaul. What’s the process they should follow?
Jim Heininger [12:42]: Yeah, good.
Avoiding Brand Confusion During a Rebrand
Sean Garner [13:02]: What is the process or steps that you take or would advise businesses to follow so they don’t create brand confusion? How do you educate customers and potential customers along that process so there isn’t any brand confusion?
Jim Heininger [13:24]: Yeah, it’s a pretty complicated process. When we launched Rebranding Experts about eight years ago, we had been doing rebranding under another agency I own. We were learning a lot through the process and realized there’s a methodology to this. We needed to outline it so that it allows the organization to change, not just the brand.
Because it’s not just a superficial makeover, it’s an opportunity to evolve and pivot the organization in the way it needs to go for the future. That’s what most CEOs or business leaders are surprised about. You're not just changing the surface-level things; you're using this as an opportunity to accelerate growth. It’s about making sure your people are on board, that you treat your customers in a new way, and that you truly evolve as a company.
So we developed a methodology with four big steps. First, who are we today, and what do we want to be tomorrow? Then, what is the brand that defines that new tomorrow, giving us elasticity to grow and better represent who we are? Once you define that new brand, including your promise, unique selling proposition, values, and mission statement, then you need to align everything internally before launching it to the public.
This includes obvious things like the name, logo, website, and branding materials, but also the deeper operational aspects. We sit down with the sales team—how are we going to sell our company differently? We sit down with the customer experience team—how are we going to deliver a different customer experience so that people notice the change?
When you finally launch, it should be a cascading approach. Your customers should be informed first because they’re the most important. You need to communicate what the change means for them, not just what it means for the company. Some customers may only interact with you a few times a year, so you need to show them the value of this change. It’s not just about change for the sake of change. You want them to see that the core of what they loved about the company is still there, but now it’s better and more aligned with their needs.
Sean Garner [17:01]: That’s great. Now, I’m sure the timeline will vary depending on the level of rebranding a company is doing. But what does a typical timeline look like? What’s the pre-launch phase like when you know a rebrand is coming? What does the actual launch phase look like? And after launch, how long do you keep reminding people about the change before you eventually stop referring to the old brand altogether?
How Long Does a Rebrand Take?
Jim Heininger [17:32]: Yeah, it's interesting. It used to take us about 18 months to do a rebrand thoughtfully. Before going to market, we had everything in order, but people are more impatient these days. Now, most organizations want to rebrand in about nine months, from the initial idea to launch.
That accelerates everything, making it essential to have the right people at the table to ensure we’re making the best decisions and building what’s necessary before going to market. The brand creation phase takes about three to four months within that nine-month timeframe. Then, you spend around four months preparing everything behind the scenes—training employees on the new brand story, how to answer customer questions, and refining how you go to market.
When you launch, it’s not the finish line—it’s the starting line. It takes months to proactively communicate the change to customers, ensure they experience the brand in a new way, and get them to recognize the improvements. This process can take up to a year, during which you should ramp up marketing efforts to reinforce the change. Customers need to understand who you are now, why you made the shift, and experience it in a way that builds continued loyalty.
Transitioning From an Old Brand to a New One
Sean Garner [19:21]: So I'll make it personal for me. My wife and I own several businesses, one of them being a medical clinic. We recently had to rebrand due to trademark issues. The only thing that really changed was the name—it went from Restore You Wellness to WellSpot Functional Medicine.
So question, using us as an example, how long should we keep referring to the old name to remind people who knew us as that? The practice had been in the community for five or six years. How should a business like ours continue to communicate that it's still us, just with a new name? How long do you keep referring to the old name before fully committing to the new one so there's no confusion?
Jim Heininger [20:12]: Yeah, you're all in.
What it depends on is how frequently customers use your services. Traditionally, we tell clients to continue giving visual cues for about six to 12 months. That means using "new name, formerly [old name]" on your website, marketing materials, and social media to provide a consistent visual reminder.
We had a B2B company in the linen industry serving high-end resorts. They sold luxury towels and linens used by five-star resorts. Their challenge was that some clients only placed an order once a year. If they rebranded right after an order, it could be a full year before that client returned. They didn’t want customers to think they had gone out of business or were no longer available.
In that case, they kept the transitional language for about 18 months. They also made sure that if customers went to the old website, they were redirected to the new one with a message reinforcing the change.
So it really depends on how frequently your customers return. Look at that data and use it as a guide. You’ll know you’re in the clear when customers naturally start calling you by the new name.
Sean Garner [21:39]: Okay.
Jim Heininger [22:08]: And when your marketing efforts have fully transitioned, you'll get a gut feeling that it’s time to remove that transition language.
Rebranding a Service-Based Business
Sean Garner [22:17]: Okay, that's great. Now, I have two more questions. One would be a real-world scenario. A lot of the businesses I work with are service-based, like a plumbing company.
Let’s say they’ve been the best plumbers in their area for 20 years, but now they’ve acquired an HVAC company and are adding a whole new line of services. How would you coach someone through that repositioning process?
Jim Heininger [22:54]: Right.
So in that case, the plumbing name is too limiting. It doesn’t make sense to sell HVAC services when your brand is strictly tied to plumbing. This is where renaming the organization makes sense—shifting to something broader, like home care, to encompass all the different services offered to homeowners.
Sean Garner [23:24]: Gotcha, okay.
Jim Heininger [23:32]: You want to create a name that reflects the full range of services, like plumbing, HVAC, lawn and garden, or whatever else is in your portfolio.
That could mean renaming from something like “Sean’s Plumbing” to “Sean’s Home Care” while keeping the core equity of the original name. This way, you retain familiarity and trust with your audience while expanding how you’re perceived as a provider.
Sean Garner [24:06]: Yeah, understood.
Okay, that’s great. Now, Rebranding Experts is your company and brand. Tell us about your process.
If a business owner is launching a new company and wants to ensure their branding is done right, or if they’re going through a scenario like the ones you’ve mentioned—whether it’s a visual brand refresh, repositioning to attract a different audience, or completely changing their identity—what is the process that Rebranding Experts takes a company through? What’s your framework for getting these results?
The Right Way to Approach a Rebrand
Jim Heininger [24:50]: The first step we take is an assessment of what they think a rebranding is versus what their actual needs are, because those often don’t match.
I'll tell you a crazy story. I got a call from a small business owner whose partner had founded the company, and the company was named after that partner. The partner had been arrested for a crime.
Sean Garner [25:15]: Fuck.
Jim Heininger [25:17]: A pretty salacious crime, and he was probably going to serve time in prison. The owner said, "I’ve got to change the name of the business. How do I go about doing this?"
That falls into the "need" bucket. So I walked him through the key considerations for rebranding. There’s usually a major driver behind a rebrand. We sit down with the client, assess their situation, and help them understand their options.
Sean Garner [25:29]: Yeah.
Jim Heininger [25:44]: If they decide to move forward, we go through our four-step process.
First, where are we today? What are the brand's current equities? What do customers value that we need to keep?
Then, we go through the process, which usually involves naming. As you mentioned earlier, trademarking is one of the biggest challenges.
If you’re doing business in more than one state, you need a federal trademark, and that's getting harder and taking longer to secure. Once you have a viable name or are confident in the trademark process, you move to step three: internal alignment. This ensures everything is in place for a strong launch.
Finally, step four is taking the brand to market with power and differentiation.
Sean Garner [26:42]: Okay, that's great. Well, Jim, what’s the best way for people to follow up with you, connect, and also anything you want to plug or have them check out?
Where to Start If You’re Considering a Rebrand
Jim Heininger [26:54]: Yeah, so visit rebrandingexperts.com. My email is jim@rebrandingexperts.com. We have a lot of content on our website about rebranding.
I write regularly for Forbes.com, and there are over 20 articles on different rebranding scenarios that you can check out.
We also offer a free assessment. You can sign up on our website, and we’ll have a conversation with you to offer advice—whether you really need to rebrand, if a refresh is enough, what’s involved, and what you should expect to invest. We want to help people make the right decision from the start.
Follow us on social media too.
Sean Garner [27:40]: So rebrandingexperts.com. Jim, thank you so much for your time, sir. I appreciate you sharing your expertise with our audience.
Jim Heininger [27:47]: Great, thanks for having me on, Sean.
