COVID days lead to a Covid Daze that has companies and their stakeholders wanting and waiting for the next phase of the future. As we wait it’s a good time to reflect, review and consider what we will look like in six months, a year or even ten years. Companies are considering pivots from their old business model to a new one with new products and new ways of doing business. Often people bring in advertising agencies and identity firms to help define and shape the way they present themselves in a post covid world. If you develop a new way of doing business but have the same look as yesteryear, you could present a confusing view of your company to the outside world.
We have developed a checklist for brands to consider before they embark on a brand refresh or complete identity overhaul.
Your brand has changed
Changes in your business model or strategies change often. Successful entrepreneurs will often tell you that they started out doing one thing and the business evolved into something completely different. The founders of EBAY started out as a site for collectors of PEZ candy dispensers. The site was built to impress his girlfriend who was an avid collector of the kitsch candy dispensers. Somehow this became a world wide auction site worth billions of dollars. More often brands just evolve. CVS was a regional chain of drug stores and eventually merged with Caremark, a pharmacy benefit management firm. They had to create messaging that would present their total offerings in a clear and concise manner. They became CVS Health.
Your brand is constraining
Some brands present their brand so literally when they start out that when they eventually expand and add services the name doesn’t fit anymore. Weight Watchers was just for people who wanted to lose weight. The company started with peer groups and used group influence to help people get to their ultimate weight goal. When the wellness trend started they began to promote exercise, positive lifestyle, and mental wellness. Weight Watchers was no longer relevant. They changed to WW with the tag line “Wellness that Works”
Your brand is confusing to the consumer
The most famous example of this is Google which has now been brought into our vocabulary as a verb. “I googled who won the 1995 World Series” The first version of Google was based on backlinks for sites so the founders called it BackRub. Many people found this to be confusing so they had to come up with a new name and Google won out.
You have changed your business so change your logo/name
Arthur Andersen was a “Big 8” accounting firm that started a new consulting business and wanted to leverage their prestige in the corporate advice world by calling it Andersen Consulting. Eventually Anderson Consulting replaced the accounting firm in terms of prestige in the marketplace, and Arthur Andersen was caught up in the Enron scandal. Suddenly the Andersen name became a liability. Andersen Consulting acted quickly and changed their name to Accenture by combining the words “accent” and “future”. They help clients make it to the future.
Your brand just doesn’t stand out
Many brands just don’t stand out in a crowd of brands. Our retail clients always have concerns based on location, local sign ordinances, and the ability for consumers to see and interact with them from afar. After decades Gap decided to change their brand out of the blue square and move it into bold san serif letters with a small blue square above the p. After changing many of its retail locations, consumers said they couldn’t see it in the mall or from the streets like they did before. They switched back quickly.
Your brand doesn’t translate
One of the most famous internal marketing case histories surrounds Chevrolet’s attempt to launch their Nova brand in hispanic markets. The car was affordable and immensely popular in the United States, and Chevrolet thought it would sell like hot cakes in Mexico. The brand arrived on the shores and the locals started to laugh immediately. The name Nova translates to “no go” in Spanish. They relaunched the car under a new name.
Your brand has a bad reputation
Atlanta based, Value Jet was one of the first no frills discount airlines to follow the success of Southwest. They capitalized on the high demand markets like New York, Washington, and Florida. Times were good and they had developed a hokey ad campaign with Captain Value confirming that it was all about price to Value Jet. Then they had a plane go down in the everglades due to lax cargo security measures. This was a PR nightmare because there was no way to get the plane out and the media stationed a helicopter with hourly updates about the crash for days. Litigation started and the Value Jet brand was toast. The company was sold and the new owners changed to name to AirTran and the airline was successful until it was acquired by Southwest in 2011.
Your Brand is So Yesteryear
There is nothing that shows it age like last year’s haircut or a font that was used ten years ago. If brands are to keep up with their consumers and continue to charge a premium, they need to stay current with their branding. Smart brands continue to make tweaks to their brand design every 5 or 10 years to stay relevant with the consumer. Although I hate to applaud them in Atlanta advertising circles, Pepsi has done an excellent job of changing their brand to reflect the trends of the times.