Viewpoint
Balancing Heritage with a Fresh Perspective!
Branding expert, founder and CEO of Bombay DC, Ankur Rander
shares his insights on rebranding legacy brands, balancing heritage,
consumer perception, and modern relevance.
Rebranding a legacy brand is more than just a design exercise—it’s a responsibility. These brands carry history, emotions, and deep-rooted associations that cannot be overlooked. As someone who has worked extensively in branding and design, I’ve seen firsthand the challenges and rewards of rebranding legacy brands while ensuring they evolve without losing their essence.
Every legacy brand comes with a history, an emotional connection with its audience, and a set of visual and tonal elements that define its identity. The key to a successful rebrand lies in discovering what makes the brand sacred to its audience.
Through discovery sessions, consumer research, and stakeholder discussions, my team and I identify these ‘sacred assets’—whether it’s a colour palette, a logo element, or even the tone of communication. Retaining these while modernising the overall look and feel ensures that the brand remains recognisable while being future-ready. However, the approach always depends on the specific objectives of the rebranding project.
Legacy brands often hold deep emotional significance for their audience, which is absolutely true. Many consumers have been connected to these brands for longer than some of the newer generations of business owners. Therefore, it is essential to approach rebranding delicately to avoid creating any dissonance or disassociation between the brand and its loyal customers.
Rebranding is a gradual process. For instance, in our work with Sunrise Bakery—a brand that has been around for 70 years—we aimed to ensure that it did not appear to be a completely new establishment. We focused on making gradual changes while keeping the core identity intact, such as its colour palette, to ensure it doesn’t feel unfamiliar to its older consumers. Over the next two years, we plan to gradually introduce consumers to the new identity and colour system for different product lines. After they become comfortable with the updated visual identity, we will then roll out upgraded packaging.
Our approach z straightforward: we conduct various tests and consumer studies to identify elements people remember or can recall. We refer to these recognised elements as “sacred assets.” Sometimes, business owners may believe that a particular aspect is crucial to their brand identity and wish to keep it. However, our studies often reveal that consumers do not recall these elements. Therefore, only those aspects that consumers can remember are considered sacred assets, and we incorporate them into our work.
For instance, if a certain colour stands out in consumers’ minds, we will keep that colour. If a particular shape is memorable, we will retain that shape. Similarly, if there is a specific graphic that resonates with consumers, we will preserve that as well. At the same time, we ensure that these elements are evolving to make them more contemporary and relevant for today’s audience.
It depends again on the strategic objective of the rebrand; but yes, there are at least two or three kinds of people we talk to consumers, business associates, partners and network and the internal stakeholders. Our goal is to identify their association with the brand and get an authentic story because every company has a unique story and, if you can uncover that, one will be able to crack that visual identity and rebranding that fits the business. Imposing another company’s brand identity most likely will not work because every business has its own authentic story. The process to discover that story is what the research is all about. We then write the idea in one line that leads to the creative and design direction. In addition to this, we also conduct secondary research, reviewing materials, interviews, features, and more.
Storytelling is crucial in communication. People connect with stories more deeply than with any other format. When considering a brand, each touchpoint—no matter how big or small—conveys a message. It’s essential to understand the story the brand wants to communicate and the emotions they want consumers to feel.
Once we have clarity on the brand’s core idea, including what the brand stands for and its purpose, we can evaluate every touchpoint. This evaluation focuses on how to communicate that story, evoke the desired emotions, and create a unique and authentic narrative. The story of a brand is incredibly valuable, and people are often eager to learn more about it.
In today’s digital age, every legacy brand must adapt to remain relevant and connected with tech-savvy audiences. By “relevant,” I mean that brands need to take various actions to succeed. For instance, many retail brands are still absent from the online space. With the rise of quick delivery services, this absence puts them at significant risk. To build brand equity with consumers, brands need to be visible and accessible online. If you’re not online, you may effectively be forgotten by consumers.
Being top of mind has become increasingly important. Even though people may not always be in the market to buy, your brand should be the first one they think of when they are ready to make a purchase. From a visual identity standpoint, many brands struggle to leverage digital as a medium. Digital platforms provide numerous opportunities, including motion design, which can infuse life into branding in ways that static visuals cannot. Motion designs can evoke deeper emotions and create a more memorable experience, and I would love to see more brands embrace this potential.
Their brief was simple- to be relevant today. They have been the market leaders in water purifiers. Their technology had evolved and changed, but the consumers still thought they were the same old Aquaguard with those three filters, which we have seen from our younger days. From our market and consumer research, we found out that there are newer brands in the market that seem more relevant today and more techy, and this triggered the brand to signal what its product is today. And that is essentially why and when we did the revamp for Aquaguard. In our consumer research, we found out that people thought that the Aquaguard logo was a water drop. Aquaguard always used to put these stickers on their product. And that is what people remember the most.
The other thing people remembered is that it is a text-based logo. So, we did not want to introduce a mnemonic or what we call a symbol. We kept it as a word mark and created a custom word type carrying a hidden water drop, which you can notice inside the letters it is called the counter holes. So, inside the alphabet, there is a water drop. The typeface is a modern San serif, which aligns with all the new brands today because customers have a mental model looking at other brands. And, in the last decade or so, the majority of brands that consumers interface and see often are technology brands. Most technology brands have a San serif modern look.
The number one first thing to consider when rebranding is to align with the primary business objective. Even if it is a visual change, there is a reason why you are changing, and the primary task of the people working on the rebrand is to ensure that we fulfil that job and that task, the very purpose of that rebranding exercise. Secondly, if there are some sacred assets, we must continue those and evolve the brand so one always knows that was the old brand and now this is the new brand. Those rebrands are good because you take the equity that you have built previously with you and take it forward.
Looking ahead, the principles of rebranding remain rooted in consumer perception and storytelling. However, the rise of digital-first branding, motion graphics, and interactive design will play a crucial role in shaping brand identities that resonate with modern audiences. As legacy brands step into the future, their ability to adapt while staying true to their core will determine their continued success.
Rebranding is not just about change—it’s about evolution. And for legacy brands, this evolution needs to be a careful balance of honoring the past while embracing the future.
