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Making
the New Brand Decision BrandEquity's
Steve Smith suggests the
following tips when selecting
a new name and/or logo:
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Before
you rebrand, be clear
on your organization's
mission - and be willing
to listen to an outside
branding professional.
-
Appoint
a key decision maker (usually
the CEO). If the final
decision maker is not
present for discussions,
the process is interrupted.
-
If your organization needs
to get the approval of
multiple decision makers
before you can finalize
your new brand (such as
a voting board), start
the process with a small
team, then take just one
single recommendation
to the larger group.
-
The strongest rebranding
efforts associate a name
change with some other
organization news, such
as an anniversary or launch
of a new Web site. Create
an event to tie in with
your new-brand announcement.
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Rebranding
With Grace
Lutheran Social Services of Mid-America
sheds its long, confusing name and
opts for a sleek, more focused brand.
By Christine Weiser
Lutheran
Social Services of Mid-America had
a problem: Its name confused people.
The Ohio-based organization works
with people of all faiths, not just
Lutherans, offering services from
credit counseling to senior-living
facilities. The "mid-America" was
unclear, too. What to do?
"Many people didn't know about our
organization," says Pam Blumensheid,
director of marketing for Lutheran
Social Services of Mid-America. "We
were providing good work, but people
didn't know about it. We needed to
build identity."
To help it create a new brand, the
organization hired BrandEquity of
Newton, MA.
"The old company name was too long
and became an acronym that didn't
capture the essence of the organization,"
BrandEquity Creative Director Steve
Smith says. "We recommended a shorter,
more memorable name, combined with
a unique symbol. It had to be a picture
that appealed to a broad range of
services
." The rebranding effort faced a major
challenge: finding one visual that
captured the breadth of services,
which included senior housing and
healthcare, housing and services for
persons with mental retardation, adoption
services, credit and debt counseling,
job and life skills training, and
emergency assistance.
BrandEquity
presented about 20 name options and
asked the decision makers to discuss
the ones that resonated.
"It's human nature to find things
you don't like," Smith says. "We encourage
people to build a case for what is
working. Sometimes, good names don't
pop off the table. You need to live
with them and see how they resonate
in the long run. Winner names may
not have as much pizzazz, but they
are more timeless."
After living with the names for almost
a month, the organization arrived
at the brand: Graceworks Lutheran
Services. The organization hoped the
new name would have broader appeal
and project that Graceworks serves
people of all religious affiliations.
"The name 'Graceworks' reflects the
organization's core theological beliefs,"
Smith says. "God gives grace to humanity,
and the organization's works put it
into action."
The new symbol for Graceworks Lutheran
Services shows four hands coming together
in the image of a cross. Smith explained
that the vertical hand coming down
represents God's hand reaching down
to humanity, and the vertical hand
going up is a human hand reaching
up to God. The horizontal hands illustrate
that Graceworks reaches out to all
people. The four hands cross in a
pattern that creates a weaving or
a fabric to illustrate the diverse
programs that reach the entire community.
"The new name communicates the breadth
of our mission to serve the needs
of all people through a wide range
of services," says Willis Serr, Graceworks'
president and CEO. "It is the result
of a strategic effort to more clearly
identify who we are and what we do
and to create a common identity among
all our programs and services."
Promoting the new brand
Graceworks spent five months introducing
the new name to its nearly 900 employees,
1,000 volunteers, as well as its donors
and the various congregations with
which it works.
"We believed it was their role to
deliver on our brand commitment,"
Blumensheid says. "If your internal
people aren't committed, you won't
have a strong brand experience."
Graceworks also did extensive brand
training for its employees and volunteers.
This entailed a 45-minute training
session that explained what the new
brand was, why it changed, what would
change (the name), what would remain
the same (the mission), and what their
role was. The name change also inspired
new publicity campaigns.
"The new brand helped us to introduce
a theme for our ad campaign, which
will run throughout the year," Blumensheid
says. "We have also integrated the
new name and common messages throughout
our publications. We are still revising
brochures and are overhauling the
Web site - making each page more uniform
with common messaging."
The rebranding also proved to be an
easy segue into new fundraising efforts.
"The new brand was a nice opportunity
to go out and meet the donors," says
Shannon Schaeffer, director of resource
development for Graceworks. "Some
of the donors were apprehensive about
the new name. They like to hear that
our mission is not changing."
After meeting with key donors, Graceworks
launched a successful internal campaign,
where the organization solicited from
employees and yielded an impressive
46 percent response.
"I believe the branding efforts brought
so many people into the loop and opened
a lot of doors," Schaeffer continues.
"It was very helpful in re-establishing
relationships and gave us the opportunity
to tell our story of faithful caring."
Christine Weiser is a Philadelphia-based
freelance writer and publisher of
"Philadelphia Stories," a nonprofit
literary-arts publication.
www.philadelphiastories.org.
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