REBRANDING: WHY WE LOVE TO HATE IT (EVEN WHEN IT MAKES SENSE)
After the recent Cracker Barrel fiasco of 2025, I started to reflect on why rebranding is such a touchy topic for companies and consumers alike.
As a designer, the word “rebrand” is music to my ears. It gives creatives a chance to look at what parts of a brand’s colors, imagery, hierarchy, points of emphasis, and messaging may or may not be working. Updating these assets to heighten the level of success a brand achieves makes it all the more exciting.
BUT…
I also empathize with the other side of the argument: that rebranding has the potential to ruin customer retention.
I was walking through the grocery store the other day and couldn’t, for the life of me, find the brand of milk I’m used to buying. My first thought was they must have moved it to another area. After I walked back and forth through the entire dairy section a few times and slight frustration started building, my husband pointed out that the milk I was looking for was sitting in the same exact place it had always been. The difference: they updated their packaging.
Suddenly, the wave of milk at the top of the carton had transformed into a vertical rectangle with the title alignment shifted oh so slightly, and my brain decided to act like the milk didn’t exist at all (dramatic, I know). These small differences are something designers typically recognize before the average consumer because of the necessary attention to detail in our everyday work, but not this time.
OUR NATURAL RESISTANCE TO REBRANDING STEMS FROM BEING FORCED TO EXPERIENCE A CHANGE WE DIDN’T CHOOSE TO MAKE.
The updates on the milk carton actually made sense. Essential information made its debut front and center, distracting information took a back seat, and a more vibrant color block made it all easier to find. My brain just wasn’t prepared to look for it.
Some people might become attached to a design because it reminds them of snacks they used to eat when they were a kid or of the restaurant they spent every Sunday going to with their grandparents. Some may have allergies and immediately look for a blatant callout on the front of a cracker box that states “nut-free” 👋🏻. A majority of shoppers are simply comfortable with being able to grab the same thing they’ve reached for a hundred times before without having to question it.
I believe making improvements and updates to your brand as time goes on is effective and sometimes necessary depending on your niche. However, if these changes are so massive that your consistently engaged customers can’t recognize you anymore, it could be detrimental. Intentional adjustments like making flavor cues larger on packaging or removing extraneous assets that don’t serve a purpose in a logo lockup can make all the difference in whether or not a rebrand is successful. Working with a marketing team who understands consumer habits doesn’t hurt either. 😉