Is ConvertKit’s rebrand to Kit a huge mistake

Rebranding in Public: Convertkit is rebranding to Kit — is it a huge mistake? Or a smart move?

(Designlabb) -- I have subscribed to Convertkit’s newsletter since the day I used it and honestly never really opened their emails. Today I was scrolling through my inbox and fell for a subject line: “The strategy for rebranding our $40M company.” “Oh gosh,” I thought.

You often hear builders talking about “building in public” or “build in public,” but have you heard of “rebranding in public”? I doubt many of you have.

So let’s talk about it in this article.

In case you don’t know, ConvertKit is an email marketing software tool designed for creators. Essentially, the tool is easy-to-use so that creators can spend less time on it and more time creating.

I used ConvertKit before I started my blog on Ghost CMS back in 2021. It was indeed very easy to set up and to get going. But, to me, it’s just a little too wonky (maybe I don’t fully understand how I can utilize it, but oh well). Know that everything I say here is solely from the perspective of someone who helped many businesses build their brands from the ground up and not from my experience using their product.

Designlabb is a web design agency with a twist. Design, copy, and low-code development engineered to turn traffic to buyers on autopilot.

We have helped startups and VCs create branded designs for their brand or product launches. If you’re interested, inquire now.

ConvertKit rebrands to Kit after 11 years

At first, I thought, this is amazing!

Rebranding is as exciting as launching a new brand or a product. When they hit the market, it will either be a massive win or a flop.

When we think of a winner launch, we often think of the Apple iPhone. Back in 2007, Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone, revolutionizing the mobile phone industry and setting a new standard for smartphones. I personally think that the reason why almost all Apple products are winners is because they focus on the ideal user experience (UX) of a product before getting down to the technicalities of building it and trying to make it user-friendly (which is what you see with most products these days.)

This is an example of first-principles thinking and the epitome of user-centric design.

An example of a ‘flop’ launch was Seva. You might be thinking to yourself, “What even is that brand?” In 2018, ConvertKit rebranded to Seva. The public sentiments weren’t that great and received tons of backlash.

But hear them out, Seva is a Sanskrit word that means “selfless service” and therefore relates to serving your audience through the email marketing tool and other tools they have. The word is predominantly used in religious contexts and for many people, it was offensive.

People were angry and hurt. Because using that religious word to represent a brand is quite disrespectful to people’s culture that is not theirs.

So they’ve decided to change Seva back to ConvertKit (in fact, they still own the .com domain, but it redirects to ConvertKit’s page.)

Here’s a snippet of what they said:

“We listened. We learned. We have a new appreciation for the word seva and we won’t be changing our name after all. We’re sorry for our mistake. Seva is not just a word that means “selfless service.” It’s not just a word that means “serving without the expectation of anything in return.” It is a holy and sacred practice that involves giving generously to others out of love, tied so deeply to spirituality that it cannot be separated from spirituality itself.”

This brings me back to a narrative I wrote on my Substack a few days ago:

❌ A brand is not a logo
❌ It’s not a product
❌ It’s not the sum of all the impressions it makes on an audience

✅ A brand is a promise of what to expect the next time someone engages with you
✅ It’s a person’s gut feeling about your product and service
It’s in their heads and in their hearts.
✅ It’s your reputation

If you think that branding or rebranding is logo-ing or re-logo-ing, you don’t understand it well enough.

Being named Sam is not a brand. Sam is your name, not a promise. If you’re a visionary, selfish hustler, that’s your brand.

Alternatively, you can’t say “We’re Nike” by pointing to your sneakers because, in a blind taste test, everything is the same.

It’s something else. It’s about doing the work we care about, work that people honor and share with others.

If Nike were to open a hotel, we would probably correctly guess what it would be like.

Seth Goldin rightly puts it:
“I don’t care about your logo, really. Few of us do. If you don’t believe me, look hard at the logos for Starbucks, Neutrogena and Hermes. It really doesn’t matter.”

Making a name sound good or a logo look good doesn’t really matter.
Ultimately, it’s about bringing life to it. And naturally, people will associate the name with the brand.

Seva is a religious word. And using it to represent a brand just doesn’t make sense. Although, in some sense, it does paint a picture that ConvertKit is practicing this as a culture and helping creators build their businesses.

In this context, it just doesn’t work.

Rebranding in public

Nathan, the company’s founder and CEO, has been wanting to change ConvertKit’s name to something else that represents the company better. They’ve built the brand a small to a huge customer base — this decision is as hard as it could get.

But one thing that augmented his decision. He said:

It’s clear: you’re a creator who means business. As we look ahead to the next decade, we have big goals to help make your business even more valuable.

And they ultimately landed on Kit.

Here’s a short snippet from the announcement from ConvertKit (soon to be Kit):

As Kit, our product philosophy is all about scalability and giving you the actionable insights you need to grow your business. And because each creator business is unique, the features in your Kit can be tailored just for you.

We’re building the operating system for the creator economy. That starts with:

- An app store where anyone can develop and expand on Kit to bring in extra tools
- A central hub for your data with enhanced reporting to pull insights from
- And the biggest and best Creator Network to help you find new collaboration partners

This comes alongside improvements to the features you already know and love using to run your business.

And because we know that scale matters, we’re investing in performance to ensure our platform works as fast as you do.

We’re also investing in the next generation of creators by introducing the Newsletter Plan, which is free for up to 10,000 subscribers. Because now more than ever, we believe the future belongs to creators.

And we still believe in the initial values we set for our company — like working in public, defaulting to generosity, and teaching everything we know.

Why rebrand in public?

We don’t have a new logo, website, or look to unveil today because we want you to be part of defining our new brand.

Over the next few months, you can expect updates from us about the rebranding process, the challenges we’ve encountered, and what we’ve learned as we work on officially becoming Kit in September.

It’s our hope that you can apply these learnings when you’re defining and evolving the brand for your business. And we’ll ask for your input at key moments to help us create a brand that truly resonates with you as a creator.

Nathan stayed true to his mantra: Teach everything you know, create every day, and work in public. It’s interesting to see a brand rebrand itself in the public eye.

For me, when I work with my clients on their business’s rebrand, it’s usually done in private, followed by soft launches, then a major one.

4 reasons ConvertKit’s rebrand to Kit might be a bad decision

Like I mentioned above, this rebrand may either be a win or a flop. My initial thought is that this rebrand is going to be tough, and it’s because of these reasons:

1. Loss of brand equity

ConvertKit has built significant brand recognition and trust in the email marketing space for the last 11 years. Changing to “Kit” risks losing that established reputation and customer loyalty.

Additionally, Kit is just so much less recognizable and it’s expensive. ConvertKit acquired the domain for both kit.com and kit.co which are by themselves, probably worth thousands or millions.

Kit.com was previously a health testing company that offered comprehensive at-home health and lab testing solutions, allowing businesses and organizations to deliver a safe, convenient, and reliable alternative to doctor and laboratory visits to their customers.

Kit.co, on the other hand, was acquired. Not just the domain, but the entire business.

According to the company, “Geniuslink has operated Kit.co for nearly five fabulous years. In that time, we’ve improved the user experience and added tons more monetization potential for creators. Best of all, by powering all product links on Kit.co, Geniuslink has helped creators earn far more and we’ve even made Kit.co profitable.

We see great potential for Kit.co and are pleased to pass the torch to ConvertKit. At the heart of both companies is a commitment to empowering creators. With ConvertKit leading Kit.co, our small team can focus on our core products and Kit.co can get the dedicated attention it deserves.”

This means that Kit could mean anything. The brand strategy and direction that comes from the rebrand need to hit home before it becomes a failed launch for the company.

2. Generic name

Like I said, “Kit” is a very general term that could apply to many different products or services. Its lack of specificity might make it harder for the brand to stand out in the crowded Martech space.

With a generic name comes SEO challenges. It will be difficult for the company to rank well in search results, which may potentially cause them to lose organic traffic and new customer acquisitions.

Also, ConvertKit is such a descriptive name. You know exactly what they offer. “Convert” which means taking action. “Kit” supports it because it’s a set of tools for a specific purpose (turning subscribers/leads into buyers), which is what the company helps creators do.

“Kit”, by itself, loses this descriptive quality, potentially making it harder for new customers to immediately understand what the product does.

3. Disconnect from core offering

“ConvertKit” clearly communicates the product’s purpose. “Kit” doesn’t inherently convey anything about email marketing or the product’s functionality.

The focus (email marketing) is diluted.

Maybe I’m wrong on this since I’m not the founder. Who knows what Nathan has in the pipeline?

4. Potential misalignment with target audience

If the rebrand is an attempt to broaden appeal, it might alienate the core audience of creators and bloggers who have come to know and trust ConvertKit.

But after watching a video of him giving a speech on the rebrand, the sentiment and feedback were so far positive.

5. Customer re-education

Existing customers will need to be educated about the rebrand because the rebrand will definitely cause some resistance and confusion, and potentially lead to customer churn if not handled well.

Just like X did with Twitter. Many still call X, Twitter since Twitter had incredible brand recognition for years and years. And erasing it from existence it’s just unacceptable to many.

Conclusion

As far as I can tell, this is a really exciting rebrand. Seeing the challenges, the wins, and the journey of the rebrand helps brand marketers and designers strengthen their processes and even the thinking behind the narrative and logic of a brand.

ConvertKit’s story made me realize the significance of rebranding in public. It keeps the audience involved — as though they have a say in their branding decision. They’ll feel heard. And will continue sticking to their products.

Whether or not Convertkit’s rebrand to Kit is a huge mistake or a smart move really comes down to how they work it out and how the public perceives them.

If you wish to follow their journey, stay tuned as they post more videos on their YouTube channel or even their new Kit.com website.

Did I miss anything out? Leave us a comment below or shoot me an email at alvis@designlabb.cc.

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