Have you ever noticed how social media erupts with outrage whenever a big corporation unveils a new logo or brand identity? It’s almost a ritual at this point—every year or so, some beloved brand drops a redesign, and the internet collectively rolls its eyes.

The complaint is usually the same: “It’s so bland now.” “They’ve stripped out all the personality.” “Why does everything have to look the same?” And to be fair, at a glance, a lot of these rebrands do seem like a step toward the generic.

But there’s a reason for that.

When a company is small, its audience is niche. It can afford to be quirky, bold, or even a little weird because it’s speaking to a specific group of people who appreciate that distinctiveness. Over time, those customers form an emotional bond with the brand—it feels like theirs, like it represents them in some way.

But brands, like businesses, don’t stay the same. Growth means reaching more people, entering new markets, and appealing to a broader audience. And that’s where the shift happens. The eccentric, hyper-targeted branding that worked for a scrappy startup won’t necessarily work for a multinational corporation.

So, inevitably, they rebrand. The colors soften. The fonts get cleaner. The logo loses its playful quirks. And to the early fans, it feels like a betrayal—like something they loved has been sanitized for mass consumption.

That’s why you see such a stark difference between the branding of startups and that of enterprise SaaS. One is about standing out. The other is about scaling up.

It’s not that companies set out to make their brands boring. It’s just that, at a certain point, relatability has to give way to accessibility. And that’s a trade-off every growing brand eventually has to make.

Have you noticed how there’s so much hate or negativity about large corp rebrand designs on social media?

Hardly a year goes by without something triggering the masses, for what seems like a bland drumming down of a brand they love.

[Examples]

There’s a good reason for this though. Small companies have more niche markets, so it’s obvious for their brand to be more quirky, or edgy. People will grow to love it, as it represents them.

However, when the company grows, the market becomes wider. To continue that growth, they need a brand with a broader appeal.

This is why you see such a difference between startups and enterprise SaaS.