Let’s imagine you’ve had a certain look for quite some time and you want a change. Now let’s add the challenge of having been in business for a while already.
If you go radical with your change ? color your hair bright pink, shift from contacts to glasses and change your wardrobe completely ? most people won’t know who you are. In fact they may find you a bit scary and untrustworthy and avoid you altogether. If you make changes that enhance your inner beauty ? really bring out your personality and make you sparkle ? you will be even more recognizable than you were before. Everyone will say, “Oo! La La! Mon Cheri! What have you been up to, Darling?”
Now let’s say that coloring your hair bright pink, shifting from contacts to glasses, and changing your wardrobe completely DO enhance your inner beauty. Yet you know that to go that far in one fell swoop will leave you un-recognizable to anyone who knew you before. What you have on your hands are some “Transition Issues.”
You have decided to change your name ? maybe a little, maybe a lot. This is a big change no matter how small it may seem that demands some attention to transition. Add to that a change in logo (and possibly color scheme) and we’ve got an identity crisis on our hands.
Why is this a crisis? Everyone in your group or company likes the idea of changing this much. ??
Think of it this way. The members of your group or company are like the family of the person going through the change. They are internal if you will. The customers, vendors, partners, legislatures, insurance companies, professional associations, etc. with whom your organization needs to work are external. At home, we can wear our favorite pajamas amongst our family, feeling really good about it. However, we wouldn’t dream of going to Capitol Hill or presenting ourselves on a stage that way.
The trick is to wear something that:
- feels as genuine and full of who we are as our favorite pajamas,
- looks like a million bucks,
- is appropriately impressive to the folks we need to impress,
- AND is recognizable to everyone who knew us before.
Here are the ingredients to create a workable solution that can actually take you to the next level of maturity in branding. Much like creating a soup from scratch, you create a time table for the transition made of these ingredients. Decide how much of each ingredient to use and for what stretch on your time table.
- Pairing: This means using BOTH the new and the old, side-by-side to show the relationship on EVERYTHING: web site, stationary, business cards, email, brochures, newsletter, etc.
Shape: You can decide that the new logo needs to have some similar shape to the one you have now. - Colors: You can decide that the new brand needs to use the same color scheme in place now, even defining it more specifically.
- Announcements: You can advertise the transition heavily and use it as an opportunity to get your message out anew.
- Tag Line: You can keep the taglines currently in use with your old name and apply them to the new name.
- Branding Policy: If not already outlined, you can map out the old branding practices, based upon historical experience and then craft a new branding policy that consciously works to strengthen the organization.
We are never invisible. That is total fantasy. In reality we show up consciously or unconsciously. No matter how conscious and conscientious we are, one simple fact remains:
There are many people unknown to you who indeed know and talk about you.
Basecamp