Renaming your company without losing your brand’s soul

Names carry meaning. For customers, sure, it’s how they recognise you. But for your team? It’s their identity, history, and culture. It’s proof they built something that matters. Get the rename wrong, and you don’t just lose recognition – you lose your people.

Why companies rename — and why it backfires

Rebrands usually happen for good reasons: mergers, new markets, or shifting strategy. But too often, the rename becomes an exercise in wiping the slate clean and unintentionally wiping the culture clean with it. Stop us if you’ve heard these ones before…

• The new name doesn’t feel like us!
• My job doesn’t feel the same as before
• I don’t know what to tell customers

• Our customers don’t trust us any more

Suddenly, the people who helped to build the business feel like outsiders, and customers start to wonder if you’re still the same company they believed in.

Anyway, here’s how to rename without losing the magic.

Bring people in early

Don’t surprise your team! Get champions from across the business involved – the staff at the front desk are just as important as your senior management team in this process. If they help shape it, they’ll own it.

Protect the story

A new name doesn’t have to mean a new identity. Carry forward what matters – the values, the ambition, and the attitude. Then make sure the new name connects emotionally and practically.

Check the culture fit

If the new name doesn’t feel right inside the walls, it won’t work outside. Ask the question: does it feel like us? Does it make your people proud to put it on their LinkedIn?

Prepare your customers

Tell them the why as well as the how. A rename done in isolation looks like a mistake or out of place, but a rename done with narrative looks like evolution.

The bottom line

Renaming isn’t just a creative challenge. It’s an emotional one. Done badly, it kills culture. Done well, it becomes a rallying cry — a line in the sand that says: this is who we are now, and here’s where we’re going.

Change the name. Keep the soul. Take the people with you.

Get us involved and we’ll make sure you won’t leave anyone behind. As well as being experts in naming, we’re experienced in internal comms and helping businesses like yours navigate change and harness it. Give us an email or use the contact form to get in touch.