Rebranding in 2025: Wins, misses & marketing lessons

For much of 2025, the biggest conversations in India’s advertising and marketing circles centred on consolidation. Agency mergers, leadership reshuffles, and network realignments dominated industry chatter. With each merger came a familiar follow-up: a new logo, a refreshed identity, and a reworked visual language intended to signal a new chapter.

These agency-level transformations garnered significant scrutiny, discussion, and analysis, frequently for their symbolic implications rather than their aesthetics. In essence, these developments established the precedent for the year: 2025 emerged as a period in which design was anticipated to articulate transformation.

Across FMCG, personal care, D2C platforms, and media networks, Indian brands also revisited their identities and packaging. Some approached this process with caution, while others proceeded with greater conviction. 

All rebranding decisions carried direct marketing consequences. Identity refreshes became signals of strategic intent — used to reposition brands, sharpen category cues, or align with shifting consumer expectations around modernity, trust, and relevance. Design changes influence everything from shelf visibility and recall to digital performance and campaign coherence. However, the varied consumer responses underscored a critical marketing truth: rebranding works only when visual change is backed by a clear narrative and consistent experience across touchpoints. In 2025, brand redesigns were not merely creative exercises but high-stakes marketing interventions, capable of either reinforcing brand equity or diluting it if misaligned with consumer perception.

One of the most noticeable and successful rebrands of the year was the Zee TV Network refresh, which unified its portfolio under a single letter ‘Z’.

Radhika Dhuru, Creative Director at OPEN Strategy & Design, first encountered the identity in a live setting, ahead of the full rollout. “I first noticed it at a design festival they were sponsoring, and it immediately felt modern and confident,” she says. As the new identity was deployed across all channels, the strategic intent became apparent.

“Leading with a single, strong ‘Z’ across channels created seamlessness, stronger recognition, and long-term brand equity for the entire portfolio.” According to Dhuru, the strength of the refresh lay in its simplicity. “It was a simple, well-executed move with real recall value.”

A distinct yet clear win was achieved by the haircare brand Fix My Curls. Established in 2019, the brand rapidly cultivated robust product loyalty; however, its original packaging did not resonate with the aesthetic preferences of its young, digitally native target demographic. Informed by customer insights and market feedback, the brand executed a comprehensive design and packaging refresh to better harmonise with prevailing consumer expectations.

The redesign replaced the plain white tubes and bottles with a colour-coded system, making it easier for consumers to build personalised haircare routines. Vibrant colours became central to the system, helping the brand connect more clearly with younger users. 

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Gajesh Mitkari, Founder of Studio Modak, the rebrand succeeded because it was grounded in user insight rather than trends. “The brand simplified its identity and packaging system, introduced strong colour-coding across variants, and improved on-pack hierarchy,” he explains. This made products easier to understand “both on shelf and on mobile screens.” Crucially, “the design solved real consumer problems and scaled cleanly across SKUs, which is why it felt authentic rather than forced.”

Where they fell short

Not all rebrandings in 2025 resulted in notable failures. Many encountered difficulties through being overlooked, misinterpreted, or divested of substantive meaning. Across various sectors, modifications frequently proved too negligible to register, too unoriginal to be memorable, or inadequately communicated to secure acceptance.

One recurring issue was the reliance on minor visual tweaks positioned as rebrands. In several cases, brands refreshed logos or packaging without offering consumers a clear reason for the change. Radhika Dhuru points to examples such as Godrej Interio and Emami.

Godrej Interio updated its logo after 17 years in an effort to appear more contemporary. The redesign introduced a vibrant coral logo placed centrally, signalling a shift toward a modern visual language.

Emami, meanwhile, rolled out a new corporate identity to mark its 50th anniversary. However, the update retained most elements of the existing logo, with only marginal changes. These included adding the word ‘Group’, introducing a redesigned stylised ‘e’, and converting the elliptical symbol into a sphere.

With little visible difference between the old and new identities, the rebrand struggled to make an impact.

Dhuru says, “I wouldn’t call them outright failures, but there were missed opportunities. The brands underwent very minor 'tweaks' in the name of rebranding. The problem is that no one notices the change—there’s no strong story or memorable execution. Indian consumers need more than subtle shifts to even register a brand transformation.’ 

Another rebrand that fell short, according to Dhuru, was Duroflex. In late 2025, as part of a strategic shift from sleep innovation to holistic wellbeing, the brand refreshed its identity under the positioning ‘Designed to De-Stress’. The update introduced softer, more flexible design elements and a brighter red tone.

Not every misstep, however, stemmed from design alone. The Zomato-to-Eternal parent-brand rename demonstrated how a sound strategy can unravel during communication.

In early 2025, Zomato renamed its parent company Eternal Limited to reflect its expansion beyond food delivery into quick commerce (Blinkit), B2B supplies (Hyperpure), and events (District). The intent was to create a neutral holding-company identity while retaining ‘Zomato’ for the consumer-facing app.

The announcement, however, triggered widespread confusion. Online speculation quickly followed, with users questioning whether the app was shutting down, being renamed, or replaced altogether. The company later issued a clarification stating that only the holding company name had changed and that the Zomato app remained unaffected.

Mitkari says, “The Zomato → Eternal parent-brand rename is a good example of a strategically sound decision that struggled at a communication level. While the intent was to represent a multi-business ecosystem, the announcement caused consumer confusion and emotional backlash. Zomato underestimated the cultural and emotional equity attached to the brand name. The issue wasn’t visual design, but rollout strategy; the separation between corporate identity and consumer-facing brand wasn’t clearly explained upfront.” 

Minimalism also dominated brand thinking in 2025, with many companies leaning into global design trends. However, the push towards ‘whitewashed’ aesthetics and visual neutrality did not always translate well in the Indian context.

Tamanna Gupta, Founder, Umanshi Marketing and Branding, reveals a prevalent trend across many of the less successful redesigns of 2025. “The misses shared one avoidable trait: they tried to globalise by neutralising identity.” In practice, this meant removing familiar cues, colour, proportions, and patterns in favour of modern minimalism. 

“The result was products that looked interchangeable on the shelf and lost habitual purchase signals,” says Gupta. 

Functionality often suffered in the process. Gupta notes that several redesigns prioritised aesthetics over usability. “Smaller typography, less contrast, and lighter finishes created real usability problems in stores and kitchens,” she says, making products harder to read, recognise, and use.

One such instance emerged earlier in the year when Hindalco unveiled a new brand identity. The company moved away from its long-standing red identity in favour of a more minimal, technology-led design. The update removed the Aditya Birla Group emblem from the centre and introduced a blue Hindalco wordmark, paired with the tagline ‘Engineering a better future’.

The lesson from these missteps, Gupta says, is clear: “Redesigns that are ‘design-for-design’s-sake’ create friction.” And in a retail environment where recognition drives choice, “if you remove the cue people use to find you, you’ve made discovery harder, and that always costs sales.”

What could’ve been avoided? 

Many of the design failures of 2025 were not dramatic missteps. They were quiet ones. Brands changed just enough to say they had refreshed, but not enough for consumers to notice, understand, or care.

One of the most common problems was relying on minor visual tweaks to signal transformation. According to Dhuru, in fast-growing categories like fine jewellery, personal care and wellness, where new brands launch almost every day, subtlety often went unnoticed. She says, “Minor changes may retain familiarity, but they rarely move the needle for business.” She adds that with the volume of brands entering the market, “standing out is no longer optional.”

Several redesigns also lost recognisability in the push to look modern. 

Gajesh Mitkari says, “Common mistakes include removing iconic brand cues too quickly and prioritising aesthetic novelty over recognisability.” 

This became especially visible in real-world contexts. “Many brands launch redesigns without testing them in real environments like retail shelves and mobile thumbnails,” he says, where decisions are often made in seconds.

Tamanna Gupta points out that brands often chased the ‘premium’ trend and lost reliability. She says, “Removing recognition cues to look premium was a repeated error in 2025”. Her suggested guardrail is straightforward: “Maintain at least one visual anchor, colour or mark, that tests at 80% recall in quick shelf tests.”

Language and copy were often flattened in the process of globalising brands. “Replacing distinctive copy with bland global English weakened brand personality", Gupta says. The fix, she says, is to “Keep vernacular copy tests and a regional copy hierarchy, local lines where it matters, neutral lines for pan-India contexts.”

Finally, several redesigns failed at the execution level. “A design that looks good on screen but fails in print or on PET is a failed redesign,” Gupta mentions. She also adds that digital use cases were overlooked. “Forgetting social stickers, UGC templates and AR formats weakens how a brand shows up today,” she says, arguing that identity changes must now launch with ready-to-use digital assets.

What will 2026 look like? 

By the end of 2025, a pattern had become hard to ignore. The brands that stood out weren’t necessarily the loudest or the newest-looking. They were the ones that felt easier to use, easier to recognise, and more comfortable in people’s lives. That shift is now shaping how designers are thinking about 2026.

Rather than chasing visual disruption, design is moving towards function, flexibility and participation. Tamanna Gupta sees this as a clear change in priorities. “Expect design to move from ‘visual novelty’ to participation utility,” she says. Identity systems that allow people to engage, remix and co-create are becoming more relevant, especially for younger audiences. “Design for remix and fandom will perform best with Gen Z and young audiences. Fans want to add, not be spectators.”

This move towards usefulness is also visible in packaging. Decorative finishes and shiny luxury cues are being replaced by materials and formats that signal honesty. “Tactile and honest packaging will matter more, matte or soft-touch finishes, clear functional windows and packaging that hints at reuse,” Gupta explains. In this shift, she adds, “Utility will be the new premium.” Brands are also building more adaptive identity systems, “One core with many expressions”. This will allow logos and marks to stretch across campaigns, regions and creator-led collaborations without losing recognition.

Gajesh Mitkari frames the coming year as a return to clarity rooted in the Indian context. “2026 will see a rise in rooted or desi minimalism,” he says. “Clean systems infused with cultural character.” According to him, tactile packaging, vintage-inspired Indian typography and sustainability communicated through material choices will become more common. “Brands will move away from loud, decorative redesigns toward confident, considered systems that age well,” Mitkari adds.

For Radhika Dhuru, 2026 will also be shaped by fatigue, both visual and technological. “Most people are done with blandness,” she says. She predicts a shift towards more expressive brands and packaging with clear narratives. At the same time, as AI becomes a default tool in design, she sees a counter-response. 

“‘Not made with AI’ is becoming a subtle but powerful signal,” Dhuru notes. 

Design that feels “hand-made, hand-drawn, tactile and rooted in the physical world” is likely to gain greater emotional value. 

By the end of 2025, it was clear that not every rebrand needed reinvention. The successful rebranding and the subsequent marketing strategy prioritised clarity, established recognition, and demonstrated practical, real-world application, thereby establishing the trajectory for a more pragmatic and utilitarian approach to design in 2026.