Who is responsible for rebranding?

Rebranding is a strategic shift that changes how your business is viewed. Yet, when the conversation starts, the question of ownership can feel unclear. Who drives the process? And who ensures it all comes together?

Some assume it’s a marketing initiative. Others see it as a leadership decision. In reality, rebranding is a shared effort. Without the right people involved, the process can stall, lose direction, or fail to resonate.

A successful rebrand requires alignment. Leadership sets the vision. Marketing shapes the strategy. Designers create the visual identity. Internal teams ensure consistency. And often, an expert branding agency helps navigate the process.

Key players in the rebranding process

Rebranding isn’t something that happens in a vacuum. It’s a company-wide effort that requires input, collaboration, and buy-in from multiple teams. If you’ve ever seen a rebrand that felt disjointed, chances are it lacked alignment.

Leadership

Rebranding starts at the top. If leadership isn’t fully invested, it’s just a cosmetic update with no real direction. But, if you want to redefine what your brand stands for, you need a leadership team that can help you make clear, confident decisions about where the company is headed and why the brand needs to evolve.

Leadership’s role isn’t just about approving a new look. It’s about ensuring the rebrand is rooted in strategy and, more importantly, in culture. Companies that treat rebranding as a target-based initiative, focused only on external positioning, risk becoming rigid and reactive.

Instead, successful rebrands are built on a culture-driven vision, where leadership fosters adaptability, innovation, and alignment. Without this foundation, teams struggle to connect the dots, and execution feels scattered.

Companies with engaged leadership during transformation efforts are 2.5x more likely to succeed. This is not because leaders handle every detail, but because they create the alignment needed to successfully do a business rebrand that lasts.

Marketing teams

A rebrand is more about how your company is understood. Marketing plays a crucial role in making sure the new brand doesn’t just exist but actually connects with customers, employees, and stakeholders.

That starts with positioning. The effort can fall flat if your audience doesn’t understand why you’ve rebranded. Marketing teams conduct research, analyze customer insights, and create messaging that makes the transition feel natural.

Marketing is also responsible for making sure the rebrand is consistent across every channel. From website copy to social media and email campaigns to sales materials, every piece of communication needs to reflect the new brand. Consistent branding can increase revenue by 23%, reinforcing the need for marketing to maintain alignment across platforms.

Design teams

A rebrand is more than just a logo update. It’s a complete identity shift that affects how your business is perceived. Design teams are responsible for making sure that the shift feels intentional, aligned, and instantly recognizable.

The work starts with defining a new visual language. Colors, typography, imagery, and layout all influence how your brand is received. If the design doesn’t align with the brand’s new positioning, it creates confusion instead of clarity.

If you’re working with an external branding agency, your design team plays a critical role in ensuring that the new identity reflects your company’s vision and values. They serve as the bridge between internal stakeholders and external creatives, providing insights and refining concepts. A branding partner brings expertise, but it’s your internal team that ensures the final outcome truly represents who you are.

Beyond execution, design teams also ensure that internal teams understand how to use the new identity correctly. That means creating brand guidelines that provide clear direction on logo usage, typography, color application, and more. When done well, these guidelines ensure that the rebrand stays consistent long after the initial rollout.

HR teams

If employees don’t understand or embrace the new brand, it won’t stick. HR teams play a key role in making sure the transition is smooth, that employees feel connected to the new identity, and that the brand becomes part of the company culture.

Internal communication is a major part of this process. Employees need to know what’s changing and why. Without clear messaging, a rebrand can create confusion, making employees feel disconnected from the company’s direction. HR helps ensure that teams are informed and engaged, preventing the rebrand from feeling like a surface-level shift.

Training and brand adoption also fall under HR’s role. Employees are the face of your brand. Whether they’re interacting with customers, partners, or internal teams, they represent the company every day. If they don’t understand the new brand’s voice, values, or messaging, the rebrand won’t translate into meaningful change.

Why does rebranding take a team effort?

Rebranding is a full-scale transformation. The results can feel disconnected if one team moves forward without the others.

A successful rebrand happens when every key player is aligned. Leadership sets the vision, marketing shapes the narrative, design builds the identity, and HR ensures employees adopt the shift. When teams work in silos, the rebrand loses impact, customers get mixed messages, and employees feel out of sync. The rollout feels disjointed.

Take Yahoo’s rebrand, for example. After years of struggling to stay relevant, the company launched a new logo and identity in an attempt to modernize. But, the process was rushed with little internal collaboration or external validation. The new brand didn’t reflect any meaningful business shift, and customers didn’t understand the change. Instead of signaling a fresh start, the rebrand felt hollow.

On the other hand, McDonald’s global brand refresh in the mid-2000s showed what happens when teams work together. McDonald’s teams collaborated on a complete rebrand as customer preferences shifted toward healthier options and better dining experiences. They introduced a modernized visual identity, revamped their restaurant designs, and aligned messaging to focus on quality and experience. They made a major brand turnaround that resonated with both new and existing customers.

You need buy-in from the top down. If leadership isn’t fully invested, teams won’t prioritize the change. Employees who don’t understand the shift won’t reflect it in their work. If your external partners don’t have a clear direction, your messaging and design won’t land.

At Motto, we know that rebranding is more than just a new identity. Our Flagship® process ensures that all teams work together to create a brand that’s visually compelling and strategically aligned. We don’t believe in surface-level rebrands. We believe in building brands from the inside out, ensuring every decision, from positioning to messaging to rollout, works in harmony.

How do teams work together to make a rebrand successful?

A successful rebranding strategy is about how changes come together. So how do you make sure your teams are working together instead of in silos? It comes down to process, communication, and shared accountability.

Start with a clear purpose

Leadership needs to set a clear direction before any design work begins or messaging is rewritten. Why is the rebrand happening? What business goals is it meant to support? A strong rebrand starts with a unifying strategy that every team understands and aligns with. Without this, marketing might push one message while design creates something entirely different. Leadership needs to ensure that every decision—big or small—traces back to the company’s larger vision.

Break down silos between teams

Rebranding isn’t a relay race where one team finishes its part and hands it off to the next. It’s a collaborative build where marketing, design, and internal teams need to work in sync.

Marketing needs real-time input from design to ensure messaging and visuals reinforce each other. HR needs to be involved early to prepare employees for the change—not brought in at the last minute to communicate updates. Leadership should remain active throughout the process, ensuring alignment and keeping momentum going.

The best way to break down silos is cross-functional working groups. Companies that assign dedicated rebrand task forces—including members from marketing, design, HR, and leadership—see better alignment and faster decision-making.

Create a feedback loop

Nothing slows a rebrand down like endless approvals and disconnected feedback. The best rebrands have a structured process for gathering input and making decisions efficiently.

Instead of leadership waiting until the final stages to weigh in, they should provide ongoing strategic input to keep teams on track. Instead of teams working independently, they should hold regular alignment meetings to review progress and flag potential issues before they become roadblocks.

Align on the rollout strategy

A rebrand isn’t finished when the new logo is approved—it’s finished when every team is prepared to launch it effectively. That means:

• Marketing ensures consistency across all platforms.
• HR trains employees on the new brand voice and values so customer interactions reflect the shift.
• Leadership communicates the change internally and externally, reinforcing why it matters.

Companies that execute smooth rebrand rollouts focus on how to transition customers, employees, and stakeholders smoothly. The more teams collaborate on the rollout, the more unified and confident the brand launch feels.

How do customers shape a rebrand?

When we talk about rebranding, we often focus on internal teams. But let’s not overlook our customers. They are the ones who will decide if our new brand is a success. Customers interact with our product or service, and their opinions are key to our brand’s success.

No matter how bold or strategic your new direction is, if it doesn’t resonate with the people you serve, it won’t stick. Real customer insights, behaviors, and expectations shape the most successful rebrands.

Take IHOP, for example. For decades, it was known as the go-to spot for pancakes, but leadership saw an opportunity to expand its relevance beyond breakfast. Instead of launching a traditional rebrand, the company introduced IHOb (International House of Burgers) as a temporary shift, sparking immediate debate among customers.

Was IHOP really changing its name? Were pancakes being replaced? The conversation took off, and within weeks, the brand had generated massive engagement across social media and news outlets. More importantly, burger sales quadrupled.

What made this move successful wasn’t just the marketing buzz—it was how IHOP involved its customers in the transition. The brand didn’t force a change; it invited conversation, tested the waters, and ultimately reassured its audience that the essence of IHOP remained intact. It was a playful, strategic move that reinforced its legacy while expanding its menu in a way that felt authentic.

The bottom line

Rebranding is a shift that requires alignment, clarity, and commitment from every team involved. When done right, a rebrand strengthens your business and refocuses your message. The brands that succeed aren’t the ones that rush the process or treat rebranding as a cosmetic update. They’re the ones that approach it with intention.

At Motto, we believe that a rebrand should be more than just a facelift. It should be a transformation rooted in strategy, purpose, and vision. We make sure that every decision—from positioning to messaging to design—works together to create a brand that feels cohesive, credible, and built to last.

FAQ

Who is responsible for leading a rebrand?

Leadership drives the vision, marketing shapes the messaging, design creates the identity, and HR ensures internal adoption. Many companies also partner with a branding agency like Motto for strategy and execution.

How do you make sure employees adopt the rebrand?

Use clear internal communication, brand training, and updated materials that will help your employees embrace the change.

How do you measure rebranding success?

Track brand awareness, customer perception, employee adoption, website traffic, and revenue growth to measure impact over time.

Can a rebrand fix a struggling business?

A rebrand can reposition a company but won’t fix deeper business issues. When done strategically, it helps rebuild relevance and customer trust.