Brand Debt (and How to Pay It Down)
Why every brand accumulates debt, and how to fix it before it costs you.
The Problem
You’ve grown (yay!). The market has shifted. The customer you’re serving today isn’t the one you started with. But your brand story is still telling the version-one narrative.. The one you built when you were scrappy, unproven, and chasing different opportunities.
That gap is called brand debt. And just like financial debt, it compounds the longer you ignore it.
What Brand Debt Looks Like
Your sales team is constantly “translating” your marketing to fit real conversations with buyers
New products or services don’t fit neatly into your existing positioning
Your visual identity feels dated compared to your competitors
Customer references and case studies are for a customer base you no longer serve
You’re winning deals in spite of your brand, not because of it
If you’re seeing more than one of these, your brand isn’t keeping up with the business it’s meant to represent.
Why It Happens
Pace of change: Your go-to-market evolved faster than your messaging.
Fear of losing equity: You hold onto old narratives out of loyalty to “what got us here.”
No one owns the refresh: Everyone knows the story’s outdated, but no one’s accountable for fixing it (or allocating budget/resources toward it).
Short-term focus: Energy goes into campaigns, not the core brand platform.
The Cost of Letting It Slide
Brand debt makes it harder for customers to understand you, trust you, and choose you. Internally, it slows decision-making and creates friction between teams. Externally, it erodes relevance, and relevance is expensive to rebuild once it’s gone.
A Lucidpress study found that maintaining consistent brand presentation across platforms can boost revenue by as much as 23%, meaning inconsistency has the potential to slash your earnings by the same margin.
How to Spot It Early
Observe your sales team. If they’re rewriting your story in every pitch, the core narrative is wrong.
Audit your assets. Compare your current website, pitch decks, and ads to your actual business priorities. Do they match?
Check competitive context. Has the category moved, but your messaging stayed static?
Talk to recent customers. Ask what they thought you did before buying. If it’s not what you actually do, there’s a gap.
How to Pay It Down
Revisit your positioning: Anchor it to where the business is now and where it’s headed, not where it’s been. (The market gaps may have shifted!)
Update the proof: Refresh testimonials, case studies, and data points to reflect current wins.
Refine the visuals: Small design shifts can signal change without alienating loyal customers.
Align internal language: Make sure every team is using the same words to describe the brand and its value.
What to Know This Week
Beauty brand Merit leans into slow marketing. Merit Beauty is bucking fast-fashion norms by releasing just a handful of products since 2021, focusing instead on emotional storytelling, diversified media, and long-term loyalty.
HSBC taps UBS marketing supremo. In a strategic push into wealth management, HSBC named John McDonald (formerly CMO at UBS) as its first Chief Marketing Officer to drive brand and client engagement across markets.
RushTok marketing frenzy hits Skims. Kim Kardashian’s brand Skims kicked off a full‑blown "RushTok" marketing blitz, turning TikTok-fueled hype cycles into a social-first launch strategy.
LinkedIn usage shifts toward mobile. A fresh data snapshot shows shifting LinkedIn engagement, with mobile use surging—marketers should adjust targeting and creative formats to fit platform behavior.
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