The 9 Signs of Brand Drift

Jack Willoughby
2 days ago
4 min read

I’ve been fighting brand drift for years. As Head of Brand & Marketing at Xpert, and from my time consulting SMEs, I’ve seen good brands slowly lose their edge — their reason for being — until they’re just another beige option in a crowded market.

Late last year, I posted a quick thread on X listing the nine signs of brand drift.

It hit harder than I expected. People were DMing me their own horror stories and mentioning brands that were exhibiting every symptom.

But a thread is just the diagnosis. This is the full autopsy.

Here, I’m expanding each sign with the intention of explaining how drift happens, why it’s insidious, and, most importantly, how to spot it before it kills what made your brand matter in the first place.

Brand drift isn’t always a headline, dramatic rebrand fail. It’s death by a thousand small compromises.

Let’s cut it open.

1/ Your origin story gathers dust

The story of why you started hasn’t been told in over a year. No one inside the company can retell it without checking the “About” page.

This is the first and deadliest sign. Everything else flows from here.

Think of brands that began as “rebels”, disrupting with a clear enemy. Now, they just sell “premium quality”. The fire’s gone because no one stokes it.

2/ Messaging starts sounding like everyone else

Your homepage, ads, and emails are full of “innovative solutions”, “industry-leading”, “customer-focused excellence”.

Generic corporate speak creeps in because it feels “safe”. No one gets sacked for sounding like the competition.

Scroll through B2B sites in any sector. Eighty per cent read identically.

3/ Visuals go “flexible” (translation: inconsistent)

The logo changes size, colour, or placement depending on who’s designing the asset this week. Brand guidelines exist but are treated as suggestions.

This happens when “scalability” becomes code for laziness.

I’ve seen companies where the Instagram grid looks nothing like their actual in-store experience. Customers feel the fragmentation, even if they can’t name it.

Fix: ruthless consistency. One thing I’ve tried to ingrain into my team is that every touchpoint — e.g. photoshoots — references the same mood board. No exceptions.

4/ You’re chasing trends instead of leading with your difference

TikTok dances, NFTs, or pivoting to being “sustainability-focused”. Did you do these because everyone else did?

Trends aren’t bad. Chasing them without asking, “Does this serve our reason for being?” is.

Think of your business from an investor’s mindset. Pure profit-driven. You’ll change your frame of mind. Evaluate every new channel with one question: does this serve our reason for being?

5/ The team can’t articulate the “why” in one sentence

Ask five people in your company, “What’s our brand’s reason for being?” and you get five different answers.

This is drift in its purest form. Alignment is gone.

I’ve run this test quarterly throughout my career. Early on, answers varied wildly. Now? Everyone lands on the same core. The same purpose statement.

6/ Customer feedback is ignored in favour of internal opinion

The sales team says customers love the rugged look. Marketing wants to “refresh” it to appeal to a broader (read: imaginary) audience.

Committee thinking wins. The brand drifts towards no one.

Real story: we once had internal pressure to adapt our imagery and make it “more industrial” in an attempt to expand the people we sell to, in hopes of a quick sales win. The risk was that we would have changed from focused, niched, and connected to just another spray-and-pray brand.

7/ Guidelines become a 100-page PDF no one reads

Sounds controversial — I know. But the reality is, guidelines should protect the brand. Instead, they often become a shield for mediocrity: “It’s in the guidelines” as an excuse for safe choices.

Good guidelines are short, opinionated, and include “never do this” examples.

I’ve rewritten numerous brand guidelines for clients and capped them at 20 pages max, with more red flags than rules.

8/ You’re trying to be everything to everyone

Segment expansion sounds smart on paper. But without guarding the core, you dilute what made you matter to your originals.

Brands that started niche and went mass, only to lose their loyalists and fail to win the mainstream.

Be happy and confident to say no to certain markets. Keep sharp for the ones you serve.

9/ No one inside the company is willing to die on a hill for the brand

The ultimate symptom: apathy.

When decisions come down to “whatever is easiest” rather than “what’s right for the brand”, drift has won.

Leadership that cares deeply and empowers others to fight for it.

The Recovery Path

Spotting drift is step one. Stopping it requires action:

Run a drift audit (I’ll share a simple checklist in a future post).
Retell your origin story — internally first.
Kill one sacred cow this quarter: a campaign, asset, or phrase that’s dragging you towards beige.
Make someone accountable for guarding the flame.

Brand drift isn’t inevitable. It’s a choice. Repeated daily.

If your brand is showing even three of these signs, it’s time for intervention.

I stop brands drifting from their reason for being. If yours is slipping, let’s talk.

— Jack. I stop brands drifting from their reason for being.