You can create the best thing in the world and people will whinge. An underrated part of any great creative strategy is pure guts and conviction. It’s way too easy to get stuck in the mushy middle, caught between the noise of critics and the false comfort of the familiar.

Today’s story is about Harry’s recent rebrand, the backlash from their loyal following and why brands should stick to their guns. I’m calling it…

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What happens when you rebrand right - and people still hate it?

Harry’s just pulled the trigger on a full-scale rebrand. New logo. Unified blue packaging. A witty new campaign called “Man, That Feels Good.” And on paper, it’s exactly what a growing brand should do.

From a strategic lens, it’s a textbook move: reinforce distinctiveness, boost shelf standout, and unify a now multi-category grooming portfolio that’s gone far beyond razors.

But then came the comment section.

Their fans did not hold back.

The backlash isn’t deafening - but it’s loud enough to make brand strategists sweat. Especially when the work is, by most accounts, solid.

So what happens when you rebrand the right way - and people still don’t like it? Let’s unpack what’s really going on here.

From disruptor to household name.

To understand this shift, you need to understand Harry’s trajectory. Born in 2013, it was a clean-cut DTC answer to the bloated razor aisle. Sleek design, fair prices, a subscription model, and vertical integration with a German blade factory gave it serious startup game.

But this isn’t 2013 anymore.

Harry’s now plays in retail. It sells body wash, deodorant, face scrubs. It acquired the brand like Lumē. And in 2024, it quietly filed for IPO (TBC where that goes).

The rebrand is part of a natural evolution - an effort to transition from “razor startup” to “complete men’s care brand” in the eyes of mainstream shoppers. That means consistency. That means shelf impact. That means looking like you belong next to the big boys.

Which is exactly what this rebrand was designed to do.

The new look n feel.

Harry’s new identity, led by agency Mythology with help from COLLINS, drops the mix-and-match colour palette in favour of a single deep blue across all products. The new logo is a more refined serif wordmark, giving the brand a grown-up, modern feel.

Gone are the days of orange shave gel and green body wash. Now, every SKU - shampoo, face lotion, deodorant - shares the same visual language.

It’s a bold choice. One colour. One look. Unified across the aisle and online cart.

And it makes total sense. When a brand wants to own mental real estate, owning a consistent colour is one of the best plays in the book. Think Cadbury purple. Tiffany blue. Coca-Cola red. You don’t get there by spreading your palette across six SKUs.

This wasn’t just a design choice. It’s about building memory structures for the long haul.

So… why the crying?

The rollout got solid press and applause from the design community. But scroll the comments on Reddit, Instagram, or TikTok, and the story’s different.

Consumers aren’t angry. They’re just… disappointed. A little confused. A little nostalgic. And in some cases, skeptical of the motive.

This is the moment every marketer dreads: when a change designed to make you more recognisable temporarily makes you less so.

But here’s the catch: this response isn’t actually a sign the rebrand failed. It’s a sign that people noticed. That they cared. And that they had memory structures tied to your old look.

And now you’re in the crucial in-between phase: re-training that memory.

What do the Gods say?

I don’t pray at the altar of Ehrenberg Bass. But if I did, here’s what I’d say…

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, widely considered gospel in brand-building circles, teaches us that distinctive brand assets logos, colours, fonts, symbols - must be built and reinforced over time to enhance mental availability.

Change them too radically, and you risk erasing years of brand memory. There are endless case studies from the grave of bad decisions.

Harry’s didn’t go that far. They kept the name, slightly modified the logo, and rolled out a bold new visual identity. It’s a calculated risk - but not a reckless one.

And they followed another Ehrenberg-Bass principle to the letter: be distinctive, not necessarily differentiated. Their products aren’t functionally miles apart from competitors - but their new look, when reinforced consistently, can be.

This is the long game. And that means accepting a little short-term friction.

Commit or quit.

The temptation when you get backlash is to tweak. Adjust. Backpedal. “Maybe we bring back the old colour for this SKU…”

Don’t.

If the strategy is sound - and in Harry’s case, it is - then the biggest risk is losing nerve before it works. Distinctiveness takes time to build, and when you’re in the middle of a transition, everything feels louder than it is.

The truth is, most people aren’t on Reddit dissecting your font choice. They just want to find the product they like. And if the new blue bottle consistently delivers, they’ll stop caring what it used to look like.

So what should they do?

The Harry’s rebrand is a rare thing: a bold, strategically coherent identity refresh that plays by the rules of brand-building science - and still reminds us that brands live in people’s heads, not in powerpoint presentations.

So if you’re a strategist or designer facing the same crossroads, don’t be spooked by early noise. Take comfort in this: backlash means they noticed. Confusion means they cared.

Now the work begins.

Build the memory. Stay the course.

And in a few months, they’ll be calling that blue bottle their favourite one.

What do you think?

I read and reply to every thought!