Before you rebrand, you need to know exactly where you stand. Not what you think the brand looks like — what it actually looks like in the wild, across every channel, every vendor, every touchpoint. This checklist is the same framework TISSA uses in the Express Diagnostic. Score yourself honestly.
Clarity — Can your team articulate the brand without guessing? (1) Can three different team members describe your brand positioning in one sentence, consistently? (2) Is your target audience documented and agreed upon by leadership? (3) Does your messaging hierarchy exist in writing, or only in the founder’s head? (4) Can a new hire find the brand’s purpose, mission, and values in under five minutes? (5) Are your competitive differentiators stated, documented, and referenced in briefs? (6) Does every department use the same language to describe what you do? (7) Is there a single document that answers 'what is our brand?' for anyone who asks?
Coherence — Does everything line up as one logic chain? (8) Does your website say the same thing your sales deck says? (9) Does your social media voice match your proposal tone? (10) Are your visual assets derived from the same design system, or do they drift by channel? (11) Do your internal documents reflect the same brand as your external materials? (12) When a vendor creates something, does it look like it came from your company? (13) Is there a documented connection between your strategy and your visual identity? (14) Could a stranger tell your website, LinkedIn, and pitch deck belong to the same company?
Consistency — Are the same things done the same way every time? (15) Is your logo used in the correct version across all touchpoints? (16) Are your brand colors applied in the documented ratio, or do teams freestyle? (17) Does every external-facing asset use the approved typography? (18) Are there templates for recurring deliverables (decks, proposals, social posts)? (19) Do all vendors receive a brand guide before starting work? (20) Is there a process for reviewing assets before they ship? (21) When was the last time someone audited live assets against the guidelines? (22) Are there old logos, colors, or templates still in circulation?
Control — Can the brand scale without drifting? (23) Is there a documented approval workflow for brand assets? (24) Do you have a decision log for brand-related changes? (25) Is there a single person or team accountable for brand compliance? (26) How are exceptions handled — are they logged with expiry dates, or do they become permanent? (27) Do you have a cadence for reviewing brand health (monthly, quarterly)? (28) Is vendor compliance monitored, or do partners self-police? (29) Can leadership see a dashboard of brand health metrics? (30) If your Brand Director left tomorrow, would the system keep running?
Scoring: Give yourself 1 point for each question you can answer 'yes' to with evidence — not aspiration, evidence. A document exists. A process is followed. A review happened.
25–30: Your brand has operational governance. You’re ready for a Quality Mark assessment. 18–24: Foundations exist but enforcement is inconsistent. A Brand Master Book would close the gaps. 10–17: Significant drift risk. You need an Express Diagnostic before making any rebrand decisions. Below 10: Stop. Don’t rebrand yet. You need to build the system before you build the brand.
The most common mistake is rebranding without auditing. Companies spend six figures on a new identity only to discover, six months later, that the same drift problems have returned — because they changed the surface without changing the system. A rebrand without governance is a paint job on a house with no foundation.
The Express Diagnostic takes two to three weeks and gives leadership a Decision Memo, 4C Baseline Scorecard, Asset Inventory, and Risk Map. It answers the question every board should ask before approving a rebrand budget: 'Do we have a governance problem or a design problem?' The answer determines whether you need a Brand Master Book, a new identity, or both.