From ‘This Doesn’t Feel Right’ to ‘This Is So Us’: A Startup Rebrand Story
And how you can learn from this if you're starting out!
So, we had a brand name, a go-to-market plan and a product in motion, but something about it just didn’t feel right. The team wasn’t vibing with it. No one said it, but we all felt it. Until a random colleague (oops, that was me!) blurted out something while on the phone with another colleague, that changed everything.
The initial name was selected through a proper research process. User surveys, dipstick testing..etc. Yet, the current name wasn’t on our shortlist at all. It wasn’t even meant for the brand. But when it was said aloud, something clicked. It landed. My colleague and I paused. It had... something in it. We brought it up with the rest of the team, & it just felt like a natural fit with the product. Hence, the brand, Jetpac, was born. We were weeks away from the launch & we had to run with our gut. Thank goodness we did, because Jetpac was a hit.
Fast forward months later, roles shifted, and I ended up taking full ownership of Jetpac’s brand, and an opportunity to gear it away from our main brand. I remember asking myself: What kind of brand would people actually remember in travel? Certainly not in its current shape because it was simply mimicking a telco brand. I also questioned the tone, colors, visual identity, messaging, and decided we needed an overhaul. We needed a brand new identity that would suit a global audience.
And this was the process I took with my team to make it happen:
Competitor analysis into their overall branding & what stood out
Aligned on brand direction being bold, different, snarky but still human
Brainstormed new visuals, including logo explorations that better suited connectivity x travel combined
Crafted revised value proposition statements for the brand across all touchpoints
Explored new taglines that resonated with the audience (we landed with 1 eSIM, 50+ countries, instant global connectivity)
Reimagined the brand with new colour palettes that were starkly different from competitors
Explored new font pairings that exuded the brand personality
Created a brand new website & app from the overhaul…
The list goes on from here, but what’s more important is the outcome of this exercise.
We saw:
A refreshed identity that went global quickly (and hopefully successfully)
Renewed confidence from the team working on Jetpac
Better audience engagement with overall positive brand sentiment
High percentages of repeat customers
Influx of partnership queries stating that they ‘love the brand’
Grew our socials following 10x in less than a year
And the key takeaways?
Firstly, not every brand has a complete robust start to end origin story. And redesigning a brand isn’t about simply getting the colors right. It’s more about nailing the feel (and vibe) with the customers. And that starts with brutal honesty, and a little disruptive thinking to how traditional methods are being done.
✅ You don’t need to get it right the first time, in fact, you should get it wrong a few times
✅ Let your brand evolve with the people building it, not simply through textbook based methods
✅ Bold brands aren’t built by pure consensus, they’re built with conviction & risk-taking
✅ Lean into what customers vibe with, and double down on why and how to enhance your brand further
We didn’t know that this brand was going to work. But we went with our gut feel this round with risks, and made it happen.
More stories to come on how we crafted our social presence, our campaign processes, and how to make it work without a million dollar budget because it’s a tough journey, and you deserve to know these beforehand, from someone who’s been through it!