Last reviewed: October 2026
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This free rebrand launch checklist is for marketing directors, brand managers and agencies rolling out a new name, logo or visual identity that has already been decided. One run is one rebrand launch. It starts with the launch plan, owners, objectives and budget, then an inventory of every place the old brand appears: the website, product and apps, email signatures and templates, documents and contracts, social profiles, listings and app stores, partners’ and resellers’ materials and, where you have them, signs, vehicles, packaging, printed stock and merchandise. Each item gets a change date before, on or after launch day. It covers trade mark clearance and filings, the registered company details on the new templates, a change of company name in the UK, the US or elsewhere, and a new domain. Staff are briefed before the public launch, the go-live approver signs off after a readiness check, and the checklist ends with retiring the old brand and a review a month after launch.
By the time a rebrand launches, the hard creative decisions are made. What goes wrong is the rollout: the old logo still on the invoice template, a partner’s site that never heard about it, an email signature nobody changed, a sign on the depot six months later. Most of those are places nobody listed. This checklist starts with the inventory and gives every item a date and an owner.
It picks up where the Brand Development Checklist ends. That checklist creates the brand: discovery, positioning, personality, visual identity and guidelines, with a short internal and external launch at the end. This one rolls the finished brand out across everything the organisation owns. The Website Migration Checklist moves the website itself when the domain changes, and the Brand Asset Management Checklist keeps the asset library in order once the new brand is live.
Asks: where does the old brand appear, when does each place change, and is everything ready before we go public?
When: once per rebrand, from about ten weeks before launch day to a month after.
Output: a touchpoint inventory with change dates, the legal and admin changes, an approved launch and the old brand retired.
Asks: what does the brand stand for, how is it positioned, and how does it look and sound?
When: once, in the Brand Development Checklist.
Output: positioning, a visual and verbal identity and the brand guidelines.
Asks: does every old URL redirect, and do search traffic and rankings hold up after the move?
When: once per move, in the Website Migration Checklist.
Output: a redirect map, a tested switch-over and twelve weeks of monitoring.
Nine phases take a decided brand from the launch plan to the review a month after launch day. The first task records what is changing, which adds tasks for a new name, a change of legal company name in the UK, the US or elsewhere, a new domain, physical items such as signs and vehicles, and a phased rollout. Preparation counts back from launch day and everything after counts forward. The go-live approver signs off the launch after the readiness check.
Answer the questions in the first task before anything else: what is changing, whether the legal company name and the website domain change, whether there are signs, vehicles, packaging or printed stock to replace, and whether the rollout is one launch day or phased. They add the matching tasks. Every due date after this task counts in working days from launch day: back from it for the preparation, and forward from it for launch day and everything after. Start the checklist about ten weeks before launch day.
A rebrand is only as complete as its inventory. List every place the old name or logo appears, who owns it and when it changes. Physical items and a phased rollout add their own tasks.
Check the new name and logo are clear to use before money goes into them, protect them, and put the registered company details right. A change of legal company name, a new domain and a new name each add their tasks.
Get every launch-day change built and waiting, so launch day is switching things on rather than making them. Physical items with long lead times are ordered first, and a new domain adds a task for email on it.
Staff hear about the new brand from you before customers do. Brief managers first, then everyone, and give customer-facing teams the words to use.
Check every launch-day change is ready before anyone switches anything on. The go-live approver approves the launch, and nothing after that step can be completed until they do.
Switch things on in the agreed order, then tell people. A new name adds a task to say what the old name was where people will look for it.
Work through everything that changes after launch day, and take the old brand out of circulation so nobody keeps using it. Physical items add tasks to install the new ones and dispose of the old.
About a month after launch, look for what was missed and check how customers and search engines have taken the change. Record what to do differently next time.
A rebrand can change the name customers see and leave the legal company name alone, or change both, and every new name or logo needs checking against other people’s trade marks. These are the main points from the UK and US sources the checklist follows. The table is a starting point, not legal advice: take advice on your own case.
| Topic | UK | US |
|---|---|---|
| Brand name and company name | A new brand does not replace the registered name. A company must show its registered name on its business letters, notices, order forms, invoices and other demands for payment, receipts, websites and all other business correspondence and documentation (2015 Regulations, reg 24). | Keep the legal name and the brand name straight on contracts and invoices, and take advice on your state’s rules for trading under another name. |
| Other details on letters and websites | Business letters, order forms and websites must also show the part of the UK the company is registered in, its registered number and its registered office address (reg 25). | Take advice on what your state requires. |
| Signs at your premises | The registered name must be displayed at the registered office, any inspection place and other places the company carries on business, with some exceptions such as a place used mainly as a home, in characters readable with the naked eye (regs 20 to 22). | Take advice on what your state requires. |
| How the company name changes | By special resolution, or by other means the company’s articles provide (Companies Act 2006, s.77). After a special resolution the company gives Companies House notice of the change as well as a copy of the resolution (s.78), online or on form NM01. | Under the law of the state where the company is incorporated. Take advice on the steps and the filing. |
| When the new company name takes effect | From the date Companies House issues the new certificate of incorporation (s.81(1)). Use the new name on documents from then. | As the state’s rules say. |
| Existing contracts and claims | The change does not affect the company’s rights or obligations or make legal proceedings by or against it defective, and proceedings that could have been continued or started against it under its former name can be continued or started against it under the new name (s.81(2) and (3)). | Take advice. |
| Checking the new mark is clear | Search the trade marks database for the same or similar marks before you apply, and get professional advice if you find one. The IPO contacts holders of identical or similar marks when you apply. | Search the USPTO database, state trade mark databases and the internet. The USPTO’s examining attorney checks only the federal database, and likelihood of confusion with a registered mark is one of the commonest reasons applications are refused. |
| What registration protects | A UK registration protects the brand in the UK and the Isle of Man, only in the classes and terms you choose, and you cannot add terms after you apply. It lasts 10 years and must be renewed. | Federal registration creates rights throughout the United States. Without it you may rely on common law rights from use in a particular area; a state registration covers that state only. Registration is kept by filing maintenance documents. |
| The ® symbol | Once the trade mark is registered. | With a federal registration, to show the mark is registered with the USPTO. |
Sources. UK: the Companies Act 2006, sections 77 to 81 (change of name); the Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/17), Part 6, regulations 20 to 25; Companies House guidance on changing a company name and form NM01 on GOV.UK; and the Intellectual Property Office’s guide to registering a trade mark on GOV.UK. US: the USPTO’s trademark basics, “Why register your trademark?” and “Why search for similar trademarks?”. Fees and timings change, so check them when you file.
Other countries and other names. Other countries have their own company registries and trade mark offices, and sole traders and partnerships trading under a business name have their own disclosure rules. Check the rules that apply to you with an adviser.
Enter launch day and every task falls due a set number of working days before or after it. Tasks are assigned from the people named in the first task, overdue alerts go to the assignees, and rebrands in progress show on the Reports Grid with their answers. Tables keep the inventory, the change dates and the running order in one place.
A new name adds tasks to reserve it on social platforms and to say what the old name was. A change of legal company name adds the Companies House, state or registry filing and the records to update. A new domain adds the website move and email on the new domain. Signs, vehicles and packaging add tasks to order, install and dispose of them, and a phased rollout adds a plan for the waves.
The readiness checks record Ready or Not ready yet for the touchpoints, the legal items and the digital changes. The go-live approver then records the decision, and nothing after that approval step can be completed until it is recorded, so launch day waits for a decision on record.
CheckFlow does not design logos, file trade marks or change your website. Your team and advisers use their own tools for those. CheckFlow makes sure every touchpoint is listed, changed on its date and checked, and that the go-live decision is on record. Workflow software shows how hand-offs like these run across a team.
Create the brand first with the Brand Development Checklist. When the domain changes, move the site with the Website Migration Checklist; for a new site, use the Website Launch Checklist. Check new email templates with the Email Campaign QA Checklist, keep the new logos and templates in order with the Brand Asset Management Checklist, and a quarter after launch run the Social Media Audit Checklist to catch any account still on the old brand.
Describe the process in a sentence and the AI checklist generator drafts the phases and tasks for you.
A launch plan with owners, objectives and a budget; an inventory of every place the old brand appears, from the website, product, emails and documents to social profiles, listings, partners’ materials and physical items; a change date for each; trade mark clearance and filings; the registered company details, and a company name change and a new domain where they apply; the new assets prepared in advance; a staff briefing before the public launch; a readiness check and go-live approval; launch day and the announcements; retiring the old brand; and a review after launch.
This checklist starts about ten weeks before launch day, once the new brand is final. Long lead times set the pace: trade mark searches and filings, a company name change, new signs, vehicle livery and packaging, and app store reviews. If yours are longer, start earlier or phase the rollout so those items change after launch day.
More than most teams expect: the website, product and apps, favicons and share images, email signatures and the emails your systems send, invoice, quote, letterhead and contract templates, slide and document templates, social profiles and handles, business listings, directories and app stores, partners’ and resellers’ materials, and physical items such as signs, vehicles, uniforms, packaging, printed stock and merchandise. Phase 2 lists them all with an owner and a change date.
Yes. Staff should hear about it from you, not from a customer or the press. This checklist briefs managers first, then all staff, publishes internal FAQs and the new templates, and trains customer-facing teams on what to say, all before launch day, with what stays confidential until then made clear.
No. A company can trade under a brand that differs from its registered name. In the UK the registered name must still appear on business letters, invoices, order forms, websites and other documents, so put it on the new templates. If you do change the company name, a UK company does it by special resolution or by other means its articles provide, gives Companies House notice, and the new name takes effect from the date Companies House issues the new certificate of incorporation. A US company follows the rules of its state of incorporation; take advice on the steps.
Registration is not compulsory, but check that the name and logo are clear to use before you spend money on them. In the UK, search the trade marks database for the same or similar marks and take advice if you find one; a UK registration covers only the classes and terms you choose and lasts 10 years. In the US, the USPTO advises searching its database, state trade mark databases and the internet, because its own examination checks only federal marks. A trade mark attorney can advise on both.
Keep the old domain, so nobody else can buy it, and redirect every old URL permanently to the closest new page. Keep email to old addresses arriving too. Moving a website to a new domain is a project of its own: the Website Migration Checklist covers the URL map, redirects, switch-over day and the monitoring afterwards.
Order replacements early enough for their lead times, keep only enough old stock to last until the change date, then recycle or destroy what is left rather than handing it out, and record what went where. Move old logo files and templates out of the shared asset library into an archive so nobody uses them by mistake.
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