Leadership

You can defend the tagline and the positioning in a brand review. You can't defend a color pair a designer chose from her daughter's birthday party. Dunkin' protected the color anyway, and the trademark filing shows how far they went.

Your team approved the logo and the room exhaled. Then somebody asks about the trade show banner, the invoice template, and the truck. The next seven months contain 215 assets, and a logo system is what decides whether they hold together.

The rebrand shipped months ago, and the old logo just turned up on a vendor's invoice. Where retired files keep coming from, why reminders miss the real constraint, and the two fixes that stop old versions resurfacing.

You're proud of the company and tired of the brand, and you're afraid a rebrand costs you the customers who already know you. A method for deciding what you can't touch, what Cracker Barrel's year proves, and how to tell complaints from confusion.

Four firms on the shortlist, all describing themselves the same way. The four questions to send in writing, the ownership terms to check before you talk price, and a vetting sequence that runs in ten working days.

You're about to pick who runs the rebrand, and every portfolio looks good. Four questions separate the vendor who protects your standing with leadership from the one who spends it. What to ask before anything gets signed.

Your marketing partner offered to handle the rebrand too, and the price was good. What each discipline covers, why the blur costs you twice, and the four-item list that keeps the lanes separate without a reorg.