Before You Change Your Logo, Fix This First
Before You Change Your Logo, Fix This First
Before You Change Your Logo, Fix This First
17 Nov 2025
17 Nov 2025
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A lot of organisations I speak to (mostly startups, SMEs, NPOs and government teams) think their “brand problem” is a logo, a website, or a campaign.
Most of the time, the real issue is simpler (and deeper):
They’re trying to grow without a clear picture of where they are, who they’re for, and what they stand for.
Let me show you what I mean with three short stories.
Story 1: The NPO that thought a logo was a brand
An NPO came to me asking for a “rebrand”.
In their minds, that meant:
new logo
new colours
updated layouts
Every conversation went straight back to visuals.
But under the surface, there was no real brand identity:
no clear, shared vision or mission
values that weren’t actually used
no defined positioning (who they were for, and why they were different)
no messaging house
no agreed tone and voice
When I introduced the messaging house, it kept tripping them up. Their question was:
“Why are we talking about messages when we just want a nicer logo?”
Here’s why:
A messaging house is a simple structure that keeps your story consistent:
Roof – your core message (the one big idea people should remember)
Pillars – the key supporting messages that hold it up
Foundation – proof: real examples, data, and stories that make it believable
Logos attract attention.
Messaging is what builds trust.
Without that structure in place, a new logo would just be fresh paint on an unclear story.
Story 2: The manufacturer that relied on word of mouth
A manufacturing company I worked with relied almost entirely on word of mouth.
The CEO believed:
“If we do good work, the rest will take care of itself.”
There was:
no practical brand strategy
a vague, unrealistic vision and mission
“values” that never showed up in behaviour
no clear idea of their best-fit customer
Operations told a different story:
jobs ran late
orders got mixed up
clients were confused and unhappy
internal milestones were missed
With no clear brand identity, the team had no compass:
they said yes to the wrong kind of work
they didn’t know what “good” looked like
priorities changed from week to week
Eventually, the confusion showed up in the numbers: cash flow.
Negative cash flow → retrenchments → the company closed.
This wasn’t just a marketing problem. It was a brand alignment problem.
Story 3: The startup that wanted to “ship first, brand later”
I also worked with a developer-heavy startup team.
Their view was:
“Let’s build the app, prove the use case, and worry about logos and colours later.”
Fair enough, you don’t need a perfect logo to test an MVP.
But the “we’ll do brand later” mindset went further:
no agreement on who the primary user really was
no clear value proposition
no shared idea of how they wanted to be perceived
no basic brand personality to guide UX and copy
The result:
the app tried to serve too many users at once
features were added for the team, not the user
the look and feel felt generic and forgettable
You can ship an ugly version 1.
You can’t design a useful, trustworthy product if you don’t know who it’s for and what you stand for.
Skipping brand doesn’t actually save time.
It just pushes the confusion into your UX, roadmap, and sales story.
enjoying this Free resource?
Get all of my actionable checklists, templates, and case studies.
The common pattern behind all three
Different sectors. Different sizes. Same underlying issue:
Treating brand as decoration instead of direction.
When that happens, you see the same symptoms:
Confused team
Confused audiences
Confused products and services
And eventually… confused cash flow
Globally, this isn’t rare:
Many SMEs and NPOs operate without a real marketing or brand plan.
Only a minority of organisations actually enforce their brand guidelines.
Only a small share of products in any market are seen as truly different by customers.
So if any of this feels uncomfortably familiar, you’re not alone.
The good news: there is a clear place to start.
Where to start: Know your situation, then your brand
Before you touch your logo, start here:
1. Understand your situation
Do a simple situational analysis:
Audience –> Who are you really speaking to? Who are your best-fit people?
SWOT –> What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?
Competitors –> Who else is in your space? How do they position themselves?
DPESTLE –> What does your wider context look like (economic, political, tech, etc.)?
5 P’s –> Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People. How do these currently show up?
If you’d like help with this, you can use my free template here:
👉 Free Situational Analysis Template
2. Build or refresh your brand identity
Once you know your situation, you can shape your brand identity around it:
Vision and mission that feel real
Values that you can actually use to make decisions
Clear positioning in your mix: who you’re for, where you sit, and why you’re different
A simple messaging house
Tone and voice that reflect your personality
You don’t need a 60-page brand book to get value. Even a few clear pages make a big difference.
You can start here:
👉 Free Brand Identity Template
Then (and only then) it makes sense to refresh visuals, websites, campaigns, and products.
If you’d like my help
If you recognise your organisation in any of these stories, I’d love to hear from you.
👉 Hit “reply” and tell me your biggest brand problem right now.
It might be:
• “Our team can’t explain what we do.”
• “Our logo looks fine but we still feel invisible.”
• “We’re building a product, but not sure who it’s really for.”
Reply with a sentence or two.
I read every response, and if I can help you find a way forward, whether that’s through consulting or pointing you to the right resources, I will.
Talk soon,
Romanos
A lot of organisations I speak to (mostly startups, SMEs, NPOs and government teams) think their “brand problem” is a logo, a website, or a campaign.
Most of the time, the real issue is simpler (and deeper):
They’re trying to grow without a clear picture of where they are, who they’re for, and what they stand for.
Let me show you what I mean with three short stories.
Story 1: The NPO that thought a logo was a brand
An NPO came to me asking for a “rebrand”.
In their minds, that meant:
new logo
new colours
updated layouts
Every conversation went straight back to visuals.
But under the surface, there was no real brand identity:
no clear, shared vision or mission
values that weren’t actually used
no defined positioning (who they were for, and why they were different)
no messaging house
no agreed tone and voice
When I introduced the messaging house, it kept tripping them up. Their question was:
“Why are we talking about messages when we just want a nicer logo?”
Here’s why:
A messaging house is a simple structure that keeps your story consistent:
Roof – your core message (the one big idea people should remember)
Pillars – the key supporting messages that hold it up
Foundation – proof: real examples, data, and stories that make it believable
Logos attract attention.
Messaging is what builds trust.
Without that structure in place, a new logo would just be fresh paint on an unclear story.
Story 2: The manufacturer that relied on word of mouth
A manufacturing company I worked with relied almost entirely on word of mouth.
The CEO believed:
“If we do good work, the rest will take care of itself.”
There was:
no practical brand strategy
a vague, unrealistic vision and mission
“values” that never showed up in behaviour
no clear idea of their best-fit customer
Operations told a different story:
jobs ran late
orders got mixed up
clients were confused and unhappy
internal milestones were missed
With no clear brand identity, the team had no compass:
they said yes to the wrong kind of work
they didn’t know what “good” looked like
priorities changed from week to week
Eventually, the confusion showed up in the numbers: cash flow.
Negative cash flow → retrenchments → the company closed.
This wasn’t just a marketing problem. It was a brand alignment problem.
Story 3: The startup that wanted to “ship first, brand later”
I also worked with a developer-heavy startup team.
Their view was:
“Let’s build the app, prove the use case, and worry about logos and colours later.”
Fair enough, you don’t need a perfect logo to test an MVP.
But the “we’ll do brand later” mindset went further:
no agreement on who the primary user really was
no clear value proposition
no shared idea of how they wanted to be perceived
no basic brand personality to guide UX and copy
The result:
the app tried to serve too many users at once
features were added for the team, not the user
the look and feel felt generic and forgettable
You can ship an ugly version 1.
You can’t design a useful, trustworthy product if you don’t know who it’s for and what you stand for.
Skipping brand doesn’t actually save time.
It just pushes the confusion into your UX, roadmap, and sales story.
enjoying this Free resource?
Get all of my actionable checklists, templates, and case studies.
The common pattern behind all three
Different sectors. Different sizes. Same underlying issue:
Treating brand as decoration instead of direction.
When that happens, you see the same symptoms:
Confused team
Confused audiences
Confused products and services
And eventually… confused cash flow
Globally, this isn’t rare:
Many SMEs and NPOs operate without a real marketing or brand plan.
Only a minority of organisations actually enforce their brand guidelines.
Only a small share of products in any market are seen as truly different by customers.
So if any of this feels uncomfortably familiar, you’re not alone.
The good news: there is a clear place to start.
Where to start: Know your situation, then your brand
Before you touch your logo, start here:
1. Understand your situation
Do a simple situational analysis:
Audience –> Who are you really speaking to? Who are your best-fit people?
SWOT –> What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?
Competitors –> Who else is in your space? How do they position themselves?
DPESTLE –> What does your wider context look like (economic, political, tech, etc.)?
5 P’s –> Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People. How do these currently show up?
If you’d like help with this, you can use my free template here:
👉 Free Situational Analysis Template
2. Build or refresh your brand identity
Once you know your situation, you can shape your brand identity around it:
Vision and mission that feel real
Values that you can actually use to make decisions
Clear positioning in your mix: who you’re for, where you sit, and why you’re different
A simple messaging house
Tone and voice that reflect your personality
You don’t need a 60-page brand book to get value. Even a few clear pages make a big difference.
You can start here:
👉 Free Brand Identity Template
Then (and only then) it makes sense to refresh visuals, websites, campaigns, and products.
If you’d like my help
If you recognise your organisation in any of these stories, I’d love to hear from you.
👉 Hit “reply” and tell me your biggest brand problem right now.
It might be:
• “Our team can’t explain what we do.”
• “Our logo looks fine but we still feel invisible.”
• “We’re building a product, but not sure who it’s really for.”
Reply with a sentence or two.
I read every response, and if I can help you find a way forward, whether that’s through consulting or pointing you to the right resources, I will.
Talk soon,
Romanos
A lot of organisations I speak to (mostly startups, SMEs, NPOs and government teams) think their “brand problem” is a logo, a website, or a campaign.
Most of the time, the real issue is simpler (and deeper):
They’re trying to grow without a clear picture of where they are, who they’re for, and what they stand for.
Let me show you what I mean with three short stories.
Story 1: The NPO that thought a logo was a brand
An NPO came to me asking for a “rebrand”.
In their minds, that meant:
new logo
new colours
updated layouts
Every conversation went straight back to visuals.
But under the surface, there was no real brand identity:
no clear, shared vision or mission
values that weren’t actually used
no defined positioning (who they were for, and why they were different)
no messaging house
no agreed tone and voice
When I introduced the messaging house, it kept tripping them up. Their question was:
“Why are we talking about messages when we just want a nicer logo?”
Here’s why:
A messaging house is a simple structure that keeps your story consistent:
Roof – your core message (the one big idea people should remember)
Pillars – the key supporting messages that hold it up
Foundation – proof: real examples, data, and stories that make it believable
Logos attract attention.
Messaging is what builds trust.
Without that structure in place, a new logo would just be fresh paint on an unclear story.
Story 2: The manufacturer that relied on word of mouth
A manufacturing company I worked with relied almost entirely on word of mouth.
The CEO believed:
“If we do good work, the rest will take care of itself.”
There was:
no practical brand strategy
a vague, unrealistic vision and mission
“values” that never showed up in behaviour
no clear idea of their best-fit customer
Operations told a different story:
jobs ran late
orders got mixed up
clients were confused and unhappy
internal milestones were missed
With no clear brand identity, the team had no compass:
they said yes to the wrong kind of work
they didn’t know what “good” looked like
priorities changed from week to week
Eventually, the confusion showed up in the numbers: cash flow.
Negative cash flow → retrenchments → the company closed.
This wasn’t just a marketing problem. It was a brand alignment problem.
Story 3: The startup that wanted to “ship first, brand later”
I also worked with a developer-heavy startup team.
Their view was:
“Let’s build the app, prove the use case, and worry about logos and colours later.”
Fair enough, you don’t need a perfect logo to test an MVP.
But the “we’ll do brand later” mindset went further:
no agreement on who the primary user really was
no clear value proposition
no shared idea of how they wanted to be perceived
no basic brand personality to guide UX and copy
The result:
the app tried to serve too many users at once
features were added for the team, not the user
the look and feel felt generic and forgettable
You can ship an ugly version 1.
You can’t design a useful, trustworthy product if you don’t know who it’s for and what you stand for.
Skipping brand doesn’t actually save time.
It just pushes the confusion into your UX, roadmap, and sales story.
enjoying this Free resource?
Get all of my actionable checklists, templates, and case studies.
The common pattern behind all three
Different sectors. Different sizes. Same underlying issue:
Treating brand as decoration instead of direction.
When that happens, you see the same symptoms:
Confused team
Confused audiences
Confused products and services
And eventually… confused cash flow
Globally, this isn’t rare:
Many SMEs and NPOs operate without a real marketing or brand plan.
Only a minority of organisations actually enforce their brand guidelines.
Only a small share of products in any market are seen as truly different by customers.
So if any of this feels uncomfortably familiar, you’re not alone.
The good news: there is a clear place to start.
Where to start: Know your situation, then your brand
Before you touch your logo, start here:
1. Understand your situation
Do a simple situational analysis:
Audience –> Who are you really speaking to? Who are your best-fit people?
SWOT –> What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?
Competitors –> Who else is in your space? How do they position themselves?
DPESTLE –> What does your wider context look like (economic, political, tech, etc.)?
5 P’s –> Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People. How do these currently show up?
If you’d like help with this, you can use my free template here:
👉 Free Situational Analysis Template
2. Build or refresh your brand identity
Once you know your situation, you can shape your brand identity around it:
Vision and mission that feel real
Values that you can actually use to make decisions
Clear positioning in your mix: who you’re for, where you sit, and why you’re different
A simple messaging house
Tone and voice that reflect your personality
You don’t need a 60-page brand book to get value. Even a few clear pages make a big difference.
You can start here:
👉 Free Brand Identity Template
Then (and only then) it makes sense to refresh visuals, websites, campaigns, and products.
If you’d like my help
If you recognise your organisation in any of these stories, I’d love to hear from you.
👉 Hit “reply” and tell me your biggest brand problem right now.
It might be:
• “Our team can’t explain what we do.”
• “Our logo looks fine but we still feel invisible.”
• “We’re building a product, but not sure who it’s really for.”
Reply with a sentence or two.
I read every response, and if I can help you find a way forward, whether that’s through consulting or pointing you to the right resources, I will.
Talk soon,
Romanos
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Share a link to a resource with a colleague or community group
Credit or link back to the post if you use a template in your own materials
Sponsor the blog: buymeacoffee.com/romanosboraine
Share a link to a resource with a colleague or community group
Credit or link back to the post if you use a template in your own materials
Explore Similar resources to this Read Newsletter
Explore Similar resources to this Read Newsletter
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Book a Free Consultation with Romanos Boraine
Book a Free Consultation
Book a Free Consultation with Romanos Boraine
Book a Free Consultation with Romanos Boraine
Let’s talk. Book a free 20-minute discovery call with me to map out your brand, systems, or content gaps. We will identify what we can fix, fast, to help your nonprofit or startup grow smarter.
Helping nonprofits, startups, and social enterprises in South Africa grow smarter through strategic positioning, creative direction, digital systems audits, and workflow optimisation.
Explore Services
© Romanos Boraine 2025.
All Rights Reserved
Book a Free Consultation with Romanos Boraine
Let’s talk. Book a free 20-minute discovery call with me to map out your brand, systems, or content gaps. We will identify what we can fix, fast, to help your nonprofit or startup grow smarter.
Helping nonprofits, startups, and social enterprises in South Africa grow smarter through strategic positioning, creative direction, digital systems audits, and workflow optimisation.
Explore Services
© Romanos Boraine 2025.
All Rights Reserved
Book a Free Consultation with Romanos Boraine
Let’s talk. Book a free 20-minute discovery call with me to map out your brand, systems, or content gaps. We will identify what we can fix, fast, to help your nonprofit or startup grow smarter.
Helping nonprofits, startups, and social enterprises in South Africa grow smarter through strategic positioning, creative direction, digital systems audits, and workflow optimisation.
Explore Services
© Romanos Boraine 2025.
All Rights Reserved