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Rebrands are tempting. They’re shiny, sexy, and often a distraction. This blog breaks down how ecommerce brands treat rebrands like growth hacks—when they’re really band-aids. Learn what to fix first before you spend another dollar on packaging.
8 Minute Read
Here's the thing about rebrands in 2025: they're the classic mullet—business in the front, party in the back. The problem? Too many brands are still throwing the wrong party. They've got gorgeous logos, sleek packaging, and Instagram-worthy visuals up front. But behind the scenes (the supply chain, fulfillment, customer service)—it's chaos. It's not the kind of party anyone wants to attend twice.
The CPG industry has hit peak "mullet moment." With only 5% of package redesigns increasing purchase likelihood and 82% showing no improvement or negative impact, brands are polishing the front while the back is falling apart. Consumer loyalty is eroding (61% feel less loyal than a year ago) and 70–80% of retail purchases are influenced by digital touchpoints. You can keep styling the front while your operational party is a disaster or you can flip the script and make the back-end worth celebrating.
Here's what we'll explore: Why beautiful fronts and messy backs are killing CPG brands, how digital platforms reward operational excellence over design, and how the most successful companies are flipping the mullet—making operations the star of the show.
Your Business Front Looks Great but the Backends a Disaster
Think of most rebrands as a friend who looks incredible in photos but lives in complete chaos. McKinsey research found companies investing in portfolio reshaping through M&A generate 2.5 percentage points more shareholder return than those chasing organic growth via visual changes. BCG data shows regaining lost market share requires $1.85 in future spend for every $1 saved from cutting brand investments—equivalent to renovating your front porch while your foundation crumbles.
The failures follow predictable patterns. Tropicana's 2009 rebrand cost $35 million and caused a 20% sales drop in two months. They repeated the mistake in 2024, shrinking bottle sizes, sparking "shrinkflation" backlash, and losing up to 19% in sales by October. Sierra Mist became Starry in 2023 but kept its 0.1% market share against Sprite's 6.9%. Field + Farmer rebranded from Here Foods, then shut down five years later in October 2024.
Different brands, same mistake: trying to fix operational problems with a fresh coat of visual paint. As Roger Martin warns, constant visual overhauls interrupt consumer habit and erode trust. If your operations can't deliver on your promise, customers will notice—and they'll leave for brands throwing better operational parties.
Digital Shelves Reward Infrastructure, Not Aesthetics
Back in 2014, “64% of purchases influenced by digital” sounded groundbreaking. Fast forward: 80% of US shoppers are now swayed by digital touchpoints, and by 2027, 70% of US retail sales will be digitally influenced. That's a $3.8 trillion up for grabs. The mobile story is even louder: nearly 7 in 10 online orders during the 2024 holiday season came from a phone.
Here’s the reality check for operators: shoppers don’t care about your rebrand or the clever tagline your agency pitched. They care about the receipts. Star ratings, review counts, and price comparisons are the new storefronts. 85% of consumers say rating is their top decision driver. Products with reviews don’t just look credible—they convert: +194% with a handful of reviews, +686% with 100+.
That’s not design at work. That’s operational credibility compounding into sales. In today’s CPG playbook, trust isn’t painted on the packaging. It’s built into the infrastructure.
Amazon – The Ultimate Mullet Judge
On Amazon, the Buy Box is the only stage that matters—75–82% of sales happen there, and on mobile it’s closer to 90%. Winning it doesn’t come from your packaging refresh. It comes from keeping defect rates under 1%, cancellations under 2.5%, and on-time delivery above 97%. Visibility is awarded to operators who can keep the system humming.
Prime eligibility is the clearest proof: products with the badge convert 3–4x higher thanks to fulfillment reliability. A+ Content can add another 30%, but only when the operational backbone is solid. Subscription retention, the holy grail of LTV, has less to do with design choices and everything to do with inventory accuracy and in-stock rates.
The numbers don’t lie. In food and beverage, the highest lifetime value on Amazon—$356—belongs to brands with consistent operational execution. Meanwhile, Amazon lost share across 9 of the top 10 CPG categories between 2023–2024 because operators couldn’t meet those expectations.
Neato POV: On Amazon, design may get the compliment, but operations get the conversion.
The Death of Emotional Loyalty
Brand loyalty has shifted from identity to transaction. Globally, 79% of consumers are trading down, and 85% who switch after a price hike end up discovering new favorites. Gen Z splurges more often (63% vs. 38% overall), but convenience and availability outweigh prestige. Even Zillennials—once thought to be brand loyalists—now rank price above loyalty at 41%.
In this environment, transparency has become the new premium. 76% of shoppers say transparent product information is critical, up from 69% in 2018. Complete ingredient lists now sit alongside quality and value as the top three purchase drivers. The takeaway for operators: customers are no longer swayed by logos or legacy. They’re evaluating the reliability and credibility of the systems behind the brand.
Emotional loyalty may be fading, but trust built through transparency compounds into something stronger: operational loyalty.
The Brands Throwing the Right Party
The brands scaling fastest aren’t just showing up with good design. They’re hosting the kind of operational party that keeps customers coming back.
Take Liquid Death. The cans may look punk rock, but the real growth came from building a bulletproof DTC logistics system, securing Amazon wholesale early, and expanding into 133,000+ retail locations at a 731% growth rate. The aesthetic sparked attention. The operations sustained it.
Or AG1. Before its sleek rebrand, the company went from $15 million to $600 million by obsessing over infrastructure: sub-second website load times, subscription UX upgrades, international localization, and conversion rate optimization that lifted performance by nearly 3%. The design glow-up was the encore, not the opening act.
And Native Deodorant. They hit a $100 million acquisition in just 2.5 years by engaging customers directly, iterating 24 formula versions in 18 months, and delivering fulfillment that matched Amazon’s speed and reliability. The result: repeat purchase rates doubled from 25% to 50%.
Neato POV: The lesson isn’t “look like them.” It’s that branding gets you noticed, but operational excellence keeps you scaling. The best brands win because their systems are as memorable as their story.
Before You Upgrade Your Fonts, Upgrade Your Fundamentals
Margins tell the truth. DTC needs 65–70% gross margins to break even, compared to 40–45% in brick-and-mortar. Amazon runs leaner but rewards operational efficiency at scale. CAC is climbing everywhere—$50–$130 in DTC, $18.90–$71.60 on Amazon, with cost-per-click up 14% year over year.
That’s why industry heavyweights are saying the quiet part out loud: brand polish won’t save you. At Cannes Lions 2023, Scott Galloway declared the “era of brand” over, pointing to operational strategy as the real growth lever. Barbara Kahn at Wharton calls customer experience the new brand equity. And the data proves it: 85% of new CPG products fail within two years, but those with strong operational performance are 15x more likely to succeed—regardless of their logo.
Most “branding problems” are really operational ones in disguise. It’s not your fonts holding you back—it’s what happens before, during, and after the sale. Here’s where to start if you want a rebrand to stick:
1. Channel Strategy
Your channel mix is your business model, not your moodboard. Are you still DTC-heavy while Amazon bleeds margin? Do your ads funnel shoppers to Shopify while Amazon listings underwhelm? Are you giving Meta $20K a month to chase customers you could retain for free?
Fix it: Rethink channel sequencing. Amazon and DTC should amplify each other—not compete.
2. Amazon Presence
If your PDPs are outdated or generic, no amount of rebranding will save them. Is your copy conversion-optimized? Are A+ and video assets carrying their weight? Is your Buy Box ownership consistent?
Fix it: Treat Amazon like your homepage. Audit every listing and upgrade anything underperforming.
