When other people think you need to rebrand

Everyone has an opinion.

Sometimes, their opinion will be “Wow, you reeallllyyy need a rebrand. You need a new website. Something, you definitely need to do SOMETHING!”.

Check this out:

Link to the site

This is the shop that is repairing my little guy’s pram.

Scroll down to the footer – it says “Copyright 2007”. That’s FIFTEEN YEARS ago that this website was built.

I love this so much.

One thing I love is the pure retro-ness of it. I’m pretty buzzed to see an old website like this, especially since it belongs to a real business that still exists.

But what I love most is that there hasn’t been a good enough reason to change it.

This morning I had a chat with some colleagues about it, and the reaction was something like the quote above. How is that still around, why don’t they update, they should just move to WordPress, so on and so on.

Basically, a bunch of opinions and judgements, without understanding the position of the business behind the website.

I also spoke with the owner of the shop.

In 20 years, his store has never been quiet, even through covid. They repair all major brands of prams, and are the preferred repairer for dozens or hundreds (he wasn’t sure) of stores across Sydney. In busy periods his team swells with contractors, and in quieter times they scale back to their core team.

This is a super healthy and thriving business.

So why doesn’t he rebrand?

“No need mate” was his direct quote.

He doesn’t lean on his website for traffic – traffic literally walks through his door.

His logo and visuals play zero role in his business. Maybe if he wanted to franchise, or apply for funding, or attract a different crowd of talent, or scale in some other way then the visual brand would play a larger role.

But for his one location with his solid team and healthy lead flow that keeps him busy all year round, his business has everything it needs.

Unless he had some other growth goal, playing with the brand now would be “just because”. A big waste of money that would probably not change anything business-wise at all.

This is an extreme case for sure, but highlights just how unimportant a visual brand can be.

The cool part? He actually still does have a “brand”, and I’m not talking about the logo and website.

• He’s gruff but friendly.
• He answers the phone with “Hello?” instead of “Goodmorning Pramfix, Pete speaking”.
• He knows most people who call him, because the numbers stored in his phone and are usually the stores that refer customers to him (which is why he just said “Hello” when I called).
• He gives short, one-sentence answers about admin-type things like opening hours and parking.
• But when you ask him a question about how he can help you, he is super helpful, generous, very accommodating, and it’s clear he knows his stuff.

Everything you do and don’t do becomes a part of your brand. And I bet people love him for it.

I would LOVE to know about more businesses like this, especially if they’ve held onto an old website. Please forward them through if you know any!