Published
15th May 2025
Read time
6 min read

Refreshing your brand isn’t about chasing trends or reinventing the wheel. It’s about staying relevant to your audience, sharpening your distinctiveness, and making it easier for people to remember and choose you.

At Leopard Co, we approach brand refreshes with marketing science at the heart of everything we do. Drawing on insights from leading thinkers like Byron Sharp, Les Binet, Peter Field, and Mark Ritson, we combine evidence-based marketing principles with our own structured ROAR methodology (Research, Opportunity, Activation, Results).

In this blog, we’ll share how to refresh your brand in a way that builds long-term impact — blending proven theory with practical, actionable steps.

Why refresh your brand?

Brands grow when they’re easy to notice, easy to remember, and available to buy. But over time, visual identities can become dated, messaging loses focus, and your brand risks blending into the background. A well-executed brand refresh helps to:

  • Reconnect with evolving customer expectations

  • Stand out more clearly in a cluttered marketplace

  • Align your brand identity with business growth goals Improve marketing effectiveness through better mental availability

If your brand feels tired, inconsistent, or isn’t delivering the cut-through you want, a refresh could be the catalyst for stronger commercial performance.

The power of distinctiveness

One of the most important lessons from Byron Sharp’s work is the role of distinctive brand assets. Logos, colours, shapes, fonts, taglines, even jingles — these are the memory shortcuts that help consumers recognise and choose your brand quickly.

Being distinctive means being easy to identify, not necessarily being ‘different’. Research shows that mental availability (how easily your brand comes to mind) is built through repeated exposure to consistent and recognisable brand assets.

When refreshing your brand, ask:

  • Which of our existing brand assets are truly distinctive?

  • Are we using them consistently across every channel?

  • Do they need evolving to remain relevant, without losing recognition?

The goal is to amplify what makes you recognisable while refining how you present yourself to stay fresh and relevant.

Don’t throw out your distinctive brand assets

One of the biggest mistakes brands make during a refresh is discarding their distinctive brand assets in pursuit of something “new”. This is often driven by internal fatigue — when marketers and designers become tired of seeing the same logo or colours.

But here’s the catch: consumers don’t think about your brand nearly as much as you do.

Brand assets work by creating memory structures over time. Every time a consumer sees your logo, hears your jingle, or recognises your brand colours, it reinforces mental availability. These repeated cues make it easier for your brand to be recalled and chosen in buying situations.

Throwing these assets away resets that memory building.

The smarter approach is to rediscover and reimagine your existing assets:

  • Audit your archives: Revisit old campaigns, packaging, and assets to find elements with latent recognition.

  • Evolve, don’t erase: Subtle refinements to logos, typography, or colour shades can modernise while maintaining recognisability.

  • Create new assets that build on heritage: New graphic devices, visual motifs, or sonic assets can extend your distinctive toolkit without abandoning what works.

This evolutionary approach respects the equity you’ve already built while ensuring your brand stays relevant.

Balancing long-term brand building and short-term activation

Les Binet and Peter Field’s research highlights the importance of balancing long-term brand building with short-term sales activation. A brand refresh typically sits in the long-term camp, but it can also unlock immediate performance gains by improving how your brand is perceived and remembered. Think of your brand refresh as an investment in future growth:

  • Stronger brand assets improve the effectiveness of your advertising

  • A clear, refreshed identity enhances campaign recall and engagement

  • Consistency across touch points boosts trust and consideration

Mark Ritson often reminds us that consistency beats novelty. A brand refresh isn’t about radical change, it’s about strategic evolution to ensure you stay relevant while protecting your brand equity.

Leopard Co’s ROAR approach to brand refresh

At Leopard Co, we guide clients through brand refresh projects using our ROAR methodology:

Research - We start with rigorous insight gathering. This includes audience research, competitor benchmarking, and a forensic audit of your existing brand assets. We also look at cultural trends and category cues to identify where your brand can stand out. 2.

Opportunity - Next, we define the strategic opportunity for your brand refresh. This involves identifying which assets to retain, evolve, or create anew to sharpen your distinctiveness while aligning with your business goals.

Activation - This is where strategy becomes reality. We develop creative concepts and apply your refreshed identity across key touchpoints, from digital and social media to signage, merchandise, and campaign assets.

Results - We believe in effectiveness. Post-refresh, we track key brand health metrics, campaign performance, and customer perceptions to ensure your investment delivers measurable impact.

Final thought: Refresh for relevance and recognition

A brand refresh is not a cosmetic exercise. Done well, it’s a strategic investment that sharpens your distinctiveness, strengthens your memory structures, and sets you up for long-term growth.

By applying marketing science principles from leading thinkers and following a structured, insight-led process, you can refresh your brand in a way that’s relevant, recognisable, and commercially effective.

At Leopard Co, we make your brand our mission. Ready to refresh yours? Get in touch.