PND - Nonprofits By Design: The Big Switcheroo: Implementing Your New Brand
So, you have a new logo, letterhead, and related materials. Congratulations! You're ready to unveil your brand to the world. Or are you?
It's really a matter of logistics, and a big part of the decision rests on how you think the changes will be perceived by your board members, supporters, and constituents. If the brand has changed dramatically, a piecemeal approach to its unveiling could convey the message that the brand team is confused or unenthusiastic. If the changes are more subtle, a full-scale rollout might cause your stakeholders to wonder why you're so eager to throw the baby out with the bath water. The point is, you need a plan.
Organizing for Change
Back in the early 1960s, the Swedish government published a series of studies which demonstrated that driving on the right side of the road increased motorists' ability to identify potential hazards, thereby improving overall traffic safety. After extensive national debate on the issue, the Swedish government made the decision to switch the country's motorists from driving on the left to driving on the right. But it didn't implement the change until 1967, and when the day finally arrived it chose six a.m. — rush hour! — to make the switch. Why did it take so long for the Swedes to implement the change? And why did they decide to do it all at once — and during rush hour no less? Because they realized they needed to make a big impact on the public at large in order for the switch to be implemented safely and successfully.
Swedish authorities had spent a great deal of time examining everything that might be affected by such a change. One thing they quickly learned was that Swedish buses, whose doors opened on the left, would have to be replaced with buses whose doors opened on the right — no small matter. They also considered various strategies for introducing the change and finally decided that the surest way to get motorists' attention and, at the same time, safely reorient the greatest number of people to what, after all, was a drastic shift in their driving habits was to do it during rush hour. Years of preparation followed. And when the day of the switch finally arrived, most Swedes — with the exception of a few people who simply stopped driving — were able to navigate the change with barely a glance in the rear-view mirror.
Sweden's experience provides us with a metaphor for nonprofits that are at that stage of the re-branding process where they need to start thinking about how to unveil their new identity. In other words, when should you make the switch? After the printer delivers your new letterhead? Perhaps. But then what do you do with all the brochures that have yet to be replaced with newly branded materials? Include one with every letter that goes out on the new letterhead? Or will that look unprofessional? What about your Web site? Has it been revamped to reflect your new identity? And just imagine the potential for confusion if your new identity involves a renaming of the organization in addition to a fresh, new identity.
Recently, the New York City-based Alliance for Nonprofit Governance adopted a new brand identity of its own. The organization, which works to raise the standards of governance among nonprofit organizations in New York City, has a diverse membership that includes consultants, academics, lawyers, accountants, funders, and a wide range of nonprofit practitioners. It also is an organization that takes its role as a model of good governance very seriously. As part of its re-branding effort, the marketing and branding committee (on which I sit) decided to recommend changing its name to Governance Matters.
The organization, which is only a few years old, decided to make the change after it realized that it was forever doomed to be known as ANG — a meaningless initialism that some members pronounced as "A-N-G" and others shortened to "ang," as in "bang." In contrast, the phrase "governance matters," which had been used in the organization's programs from the very beginning, perfectly captured the motivation of all those who labored in the early days to get the organization off the ground.
Of course, the new name had to be approved by the full board, which strongly backed an inclusive process as a way of securing buy-in from all board members. To accomplish that, the presentation of the new identity was preceded by one-on-one discussions of the new name, giving board members a chance to air their concerns privately. That approach, in turn, made the presentation to the full board a virtual fait accompli, and any tension that might have been created by a sudden unveiling of the new name was replaced by almost universal enthusiasm for it instead.
What to Do When Complications Arise
Not all the ramifications of a new brand identity are directly related to design or marketing concerns, and it's important early in the process to try to identify possible snags to minimize the fuss and expense required to address them. For example, one ANG board member with a solid grasp of the organization's bylaws recognized that the organization's name change could only be ratified by a clear majority of its entire membership. That meant the board would have to wait for the organization's annual meeting to ratify the new name. But then ANG's pro bono attorneys pointed out that New York State does not require a majority of the membership to vote on corporate changes and recommended that the board amend the organization's bylaws, in accordance with state law, to allow for two-thirds of the membership present to vote on corporate changes. The board agreed and voted to change the bylaws.
In preparation for the annual meeting, ANG sent a notice to its members explaining the rationale for the name change and mentioned that it had secured the domain names governancematters.org and governancematters.net. The note also encouraged alliance members to submit their feedback. (As with the board, it's important to give the rank-and-file a chance to absorb and comment on important changes to an organization's identity.)
The vote on the name change was taken at the annual meeting on February 1, following a PowerPoint presentation of the new identity system. (It passed unanimously.) It was then announced that the marketing committee would roll out the new Governance Matters brand,
"Swedish style," on May 1, after the Web site, letterhead, and collateral materials had
been redesigned to reflect the organization's new identity. As a final touch, everyone
present was given Governance Matters notepads wrapped in a belly-band that carried a gentle caution not to use the notepads until the May 1 launch. That was followed by the
celebratory cutting of a sheet cake (decorated with the new logo) and the donning of tee shirts (with the new logo) by all board members present.
Words and Pictures
ANG's branding committee also took a long hard look at the copy that was featured on the organization's Web site and in its key brochures. Prior to the formation of the committee, most of the copy had been written by various individuals or by committee. Such an approach is fairly typical in the nonprofit sector. But in creating a marketing and branding strategy for ANG, the committee decided that this too had to change, and so it hired a professional copywriter to develop a tone and approach for the organization's key communications pieces - including the body copy for its main brochure, an FAQ sheet, and the introductory copy on its Web site.
ANG used almost no visuals on its old Web site or in its brochure and other collateral materials. Again, this is typical of volunteer-driven organizations that don't have the resources to create photo-ops at every turn. So the branding committee started to identify opportunities where visuals (photographs, illustration, charts, etc.) would help clarify what the organization was all about and incorporated them into the organization's materials wherever possible.
The Gestation Period
Between the time the organization's leadership realized it wanted to push for the change and the approval of the new name by the membership— about eight months, with the renaming process itself taking about four months — the organization applied for and received five grants, funding that was applied to the redesign of the organization's Web site and collateral materials. The branding committee itself had been formed a year prior to that, so altogether the entire re-branding process took almost two years. That might sound like a long haul, especially given that the effort was staffed almost exclusively by volunteers, but what kept the team from getting stalled, sidetracked, or otherwise turned around was a clear, engaging process and the gumption to stick with it.
Your Big Switch
Do you have the equivalent of Swedish buses to change? Is there an aspect of your re-branded identity that will require extra time to get in order — or sell to your stakeholders? Do you have board members who are wedded to your old brand and way of doing things? What about other stakeholders and audiences? Do you know how they're likely to react to the new brand? If you haven't thought about it, now is the time to start.
Brand identities are living, breathing things, and as such they require lots of love and attention. Recently a client of mine presented the organization's new and stunningly handsome identity to several hundred of their constituents. Each person was asked to write down their initial impressions. Even though the new identity was well presented by the organization's president and generally well received, of the seventy people who chose to submit comments, roughly fifteen had something negative to say. It was a shock to see how differently those people viewed the identity. While most loved the color, some hated it; others responded to the abstract design as if it were a Rorschach test and read all manner of things into it — positive, negative, and just plain bizarre.
That's the way a lot of brand presentations go. Not everyone is going to understand the choices behind your new brand identity, and not everyone is going to agree with your final decisions. In fact, as happened in Sweden on that clear, crisp morning almost forty years ago, some people will simply stop driving. That's okay. If you've done your homework and laid the groundwork, most people will embrace the new brand and happily make the switch.
In my next article I'll talk more about how you nurture a brand and keep it fresh over time, how you know when it's time to make changes, and, perhaps most important, how not to mess up your brand. In the meantime, think about how the brands you're familiar with have evolved over the years. Compare ads in old issues of your favorite magazines with the way those same products or concerns are presented today. What has changed? What has remained the same? More often than not, you'll notice that while the look of the most durable brands may evolve and change over time, the organization's core message almost always remains the same.
Until then, keep your eyes on brands you like and your hands on the wheel!
PND Nonprofits By Design - DK Holland BioWriter, strategist, and art director DK Holland has been developing award-winning programs that include branding, licensing, promotion, and product development for companies such as Mattel and Citicorp for thirty years. She was, until 2001, a partner in the Pushpin Group, an internationally acclaimed design and illustration firm based in New York City. Currently the principal of DK Holland, llc, a communications consultancy that works exclusively with nonprofits, her clients include the Literacy Assistance Center, New Internationals, the Sustainability Education Center, World Reach, the Buckminster Fuller Institute, and Sisters of Charity New York. DK serves on the board of directors of the Alliance for Nonprofit Governance, which she is in the process of re-branding; is an editor ofCommunications Artsmagazine and the author/art director of a dozen books on graphic design; and teaches in the graduate school for nonprofit management at New School University. She lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
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