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When something is going wrong in a relationship, someone will inevitably promise what everyone knows will never happen: change. Somehow that person who’s never quite understood how a laundry basket works will suddenly seem to adopt an entirely new perspective. But we all know it isn’t true. It just doesn’t happen, and we have the piles of dirty socks to prove it.
Why then do we expect something completely different from an organization? Since the first hint of the financial crisis, the focus of marketing communication professionals has been on lead generation. But after rousting out every hidden opportunity, it’s easy to get a bit melancholy and reflective. Maybe we’re not attractive enough; maybe a new color scheme, a modern font, or a hot social media presence will get us back out there and start some new relationships.
It’s very seductive. But sometimes it’s important to look into the mirror and say the truth: The old, fat, bald guy is not going to get any more attractive just because an image consultant sold him a toupee. You are who you are. The truth is, as in our personal relationships, organizations say a lot of sweet things, but real change, deep down, is hard. So when you are thinking about rebranding, ask yourself if you are ready for real, deep-down change.
What if I dressed better?
Web and print publishing technologies have made it relatively easy to copy any corporate identity. You can look like Apple, sound like IKEA or feel like Starbucks. Any modestly competent design and copywriting team can give you your very own knock-off in a week or two. But what you won’t find is the satisfaction you’ve been looking for. In the simple words of Marty Neumeier, author of The Brand Gap, one of the best modern books on branding, “a brand is not a logo, identity or product; a brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organization.”
The truth is that these organizations have accomplished more than a perfected look and feel. Charismatic and iconic brands are meticulously constructed from self-knowledge. Every department represented at the senior leadership table has a clear understanding of who the organization is and how their function helps deliver that experience. They make a promise of a positive experience to their clients, and they are true to their word at every point of interface. This is as true for the funky downtown café with a line for brunch as it is for 1-800-GOT-JUNK or Disney.
So if a brand is more than looking and sounding like the organizations people admire, how can you rebrand and find new business opportunities? The lucky break for communicators is that when organizations start to talk about rebranding, often they’re really talking about taking a simpler step. They aren’t in need of a rebranding as much as they are in need of a brand at all. Too many organizations labor in obscurity, easily interchangeable with another organization down the block. They lack the self-awareness to consciously align their people processes and tools to deliver a coherent message to the people they are trying to attract to their organization.
You have to love yourself first
As you’ve probably gathered by now, the first step to building your brand is to know who you are. Great brands burn from within. Ask your employees how they see your organization. Discover how they think your stakeholders see you. Get the people together who are responsible for every interaction you have with your clients and find out who they think you are. Odds are you’ll discover that no amount of marketing communication can counteract the confusion being produced by random interactions between your organization and its prospective clients.
Without having spoken with any of your myriad external stakeholders, or tipping your hat to your competitors, you’ll find out that many of your own employees don’t believe in what your organization does. But if you look at it from another angle, this makes sense. If your business model was so engaging and compelling, you wouldn’t have even started talking about rebranding. But you should hold off on making anything other than obvious changes.
As Neumeier pointed out in his definition of brand, brands are an individual’s gut feeling about your organization. You will still need to have the same conversations with both your best clients and the clients you couldn’t attract. You will need to discover how people see your organization and why they do business with you. Are you the best at what you do? Do you have one service or product that is hard to get from another source? Do you have a superstar employee who brings in the bulk of your business?
From this preliminary research, you’ll begin to understand your brand and the levers you control to affect it.
Just be yourself
The next step in your journey is to actually make some of the difficult decisions. Brands flourish when they are kept up like well-pruned trees. Now that you know who you are and what you do better than anyone else, it’s time to prune the activities that don’t align with your brand’s promise. The goal is to become uniquely and authentically you. Strip away unnecessary products or services, remove layers of communication between operations and the client, and make your organization as transparent and clear as you can.
As a result, your employee engagement scores will improve as your people get a clearer line of sight between their role and the organization’s goals. Your prospective clients will know exactly what you do for them and will find great value in their relationship with you. And your competitors will find it more difficult to follow you as your internal and external alignment makes you more nimble.
Once you’ve engaged in this process, you’ll see the new you is really the old you—you’ll see your organization clearly, maybe for the first time. Now you’ll be able to pick out a hot new logo and hit the social media sites. You’re ready, and great clients are out there waiting for you.
Chris Freek, ABC, is principal at BrandFreek Communications. Chris draws on 20 years of marketing communication education and experience to help entrepreneurial businesses reach new audiences with new professionalism. Join with Chris in his ongoing discussion about brands and marketing on the BrandFreek Facebook page or read his profile on LinkedIn. |
