Image via HYPHEN

Whether it’s a national company or a local organization, rebranding is a delicate balance between honoring legacy and embracing change — a strategy that can either propel an organization forward or alienate its audience.

For some, like Meta, Dunkin’ and CVS Health, rebranding honed their focus, modernizing their appeal and bringing them into the modern era of brand recognition. For others, though — Gap, Cracker Barrel and the infamous “New Coke” — rebranding can be viewed as a cautionary tale of straying too far from the “norm” that resonates with customers.

A rebrand can make or break your organization, experts say.

Punctuating change

The goal of reinvention guided Jane Olvera Majors, founder and CEO of the Fresno-based marketing agency now known as Hyphen. Entering its 30th year in 2024, the company — formerly JP Marketing — underwent a full rebranding process reflecting both personal evolution and professional longevity in the community.

“Thirty years ago, in 1994, the agency was started by me and my husband at the time; that’s where the J and the P came from — Jane and Paul,” she said. Much has changed in those three decades, she said.

She said that early in the process, not everyone embraced the idea of a rebrand — a service that her company has provided to clients for decades.

“I talked to the leadership team first and they were open, but the leadership team, at the time, is still people that have worked with me for 20-plus years,” she said. “But when we opened the conversation up to the larger team… there was some resistance.”

Team members expressed concern about losing brand equity in the JP name — a common fear in rebranding.

Olvera Majors said that was a fair argument, but added that their experience in handling rebranding for clients put them in a unique position to successfully pull off a major brand-recognition overhaul.

“We’ve renamed and rebranded and launched brands many times over the last 30 years,” she said.

A long process

The process took nearly eight months to complete, incorporating brand-architecture exercises and internal reflection on the company’s identity before deciding on a new name that better represented the company’s collaborative brand identity.

“It’s not just ‘pick a name out of thin air,’” she said. “You get stuck, and so you have to go through that step of the process, too.”

Olvera Majors said that a rebrand for a midsize company typically costs around $50,000, covering essentials including research, customer outreach, URL and trademark searches and internal materials to generate buy-in.

“We always encourage some internal swag just because you get the team onboard,” she said.

Olvera Majors, however, cautioned that a rebrand is not always successful, specifically if its reasoning is not clear.

“I think your audience will reject it if you don’t have a good reason for doing it,” she said. “You can’t just say, ‘Look. We’re trying to get with the times. We changed our logo.’ You didn’t take anyone along on the journey with you.”

Branding the ball game

The Fresno Grizzlies, fast approaching their 30th season, refreshed their identity entering the 2019 season — their third logo iteration since the organization was founded in 1998.

“We’ve obviously had a variety of logos going back to the iconic purple and gray era,” said Grizzlies marketing manager Jonathan Bravo. “We’ve had some different variations off of that… up until 2019 we had that really iconic orange and black — essentially San Francisco Giants adjacent look.”

After parting ways with the Giants in 2014, and after several years with the Houston Astros — a team which shares the recognizable orange color in its logo — Bravo said that the organization “needed a refresh.” The look that once mirrored the team’s longtime Major League affiliate had begun to feel dated.

Without decades of visual nostalgia tying them down, Bravo said the team felt free to explore something bolder. Working with San Diego-based firm Brandiose — known in minor league circles as a powerhouse in rebranding — the Grizzlies modernized their image with a design that emphasized simplicity over text.

“Something that is very apparent on our current logo that’s a deviation from the logos beforehand is the lack of any lettering on the primary bear,” Bravo said. “When you think of Nike, when you think of Apple, you’re seeing these companies that are fully recognizable just from their mark — you don’t need verbiage on it.”

He said the update wasn’t just aesthetically pleasing — it was strategic.

A logo without words is more flexible and can be just as recognizable as text across merchandise, advertising and digital platforms.

“It’s a constant effort to make sure the proper logo and proper branding is out there,” Bravo said, noting that older marks still appear online.

Public understanding

UCP+, a local nonprofit formerly known simply as UCP of Central California, the rebrand came with a purpose — the goal of expanding public understanding of its mission.

Executive Director Roger Slingerman said the name change was driven by the organization’s goal to highlight the broad reach of its services that go beyond those with cerebral palsy.

“You don’t want to lose the legacy in the history of how things started and that’s one of the reasons the ‘plus’ came about,” he said. “The ‘plus’ represents the additional demographics that we provide services for.”

Slingerman said the process has been long and complicated, involving ongoing discussions with the parent organization to formally adopt the “plus.” The Fresno chapter’s change is set for approval in early November.

“It’s been more long, hard and arduous than it should have been,” he said. “We don’t compete against any other UCPs anywhere in this community… we’re just trying to let people know we’re not just for people with CP.”

He added that the rebrand will aim to educate the community about the far-reaching services offered at UCP+, broadening both understanding and engagement.

Whether it’s a local sports franchise, a creative firm that specializes in rebranding or a nonprofit, the motivation behind rebranding remains rooted in evolution and visibility. When done thoughtfully, it’s about growth, visibility and impact on the client and customer experience.

As Olvera Majors put it, “You can’t just do it because it’s the fashion of the season.”