Co-authored by Dick Bondy, this article first ran on iMediaConnection.com.
The lessons of the “rags to riches” Obama campaign continue to inspire marketers of all disciplines; even those involved in corporate rebranding and launch events. Having looked at the general lessons that I describe in In-bound from Obama: 10 Ideas for 2009, this article applies the Obama playbook to the launch of a new corporate brand and is based on interviews, conducted by Dick Bondy, with communications leaders at major corporations including Xerox, ArcelorMittal, Grant Thornton and Thomson Reuters among others.
Stand for Something
Obama combined a simple, rational message – Change, with an emotional and empowering call to action – Yes we can. Competing candidates quickly adopted the change mantra but Obama’s status as an outsider and the fact that he was there first, rendered his positioning unassailable. Allen Adamson, Managing Director of Landor Associates, NY, writes, “The most successful brands today are based on ideas that are not just different and relevant, but simple.” Johnson Controls, in their 2007 rebranding, adopted a simple tagline, “Ingenuity Welcome” – a signal to customers, prospects, current and future employees. And they followed this up with an annual “Ingenuity Day” devoted to new product brainstorming by all employees. Smith & Nephew, the British medical products conglomerate, restructured and identified their mission as “helping people regain their lives by repairing and healing the human body.” When AkzoNobel rebranded after the ’08 acquisition of ICI, they identified the simple and clear goal of becoming “one company in one year.”
Capture and Empower Your Fan Base
Obama broke new ground for a political candidate by his use of the web to build a database of supporters and to engage them in a conversation, ultimately using his disciples to spread his message. Deloitte Touche recently encouraged employees worldwide to create short videos on what Deloitte means to them. The Deloitte Film Festival, resulted in 370 videos, created by employees at all levels of the firm, engaging more than 1,200 participants. This initiative substantially strengthened the firm’s global community. Released to YouTube, the films introduce the firm to potential young employees in a uniquely relevant way.
Turn on the Videos
YouTube was a vital medium for Obama’s campaign, and continues after inauguration – the weekly Presidential address, traditionally on radio, is now a video released to YouTube and also available on the White House website. Not many corporations have used the internet to support a rebranding, but when the 2007 ArcelorMittal merger created the world’s largest steel company it was necessary to quickly create a dialogue with 330,000 employees in 60 countries, to allay concerns and maintain focus on the business, during the five months required to build and launch the new brand. The web played a key role, hosting ArcelorMittalTV.com – a series of 12 films featuring employees raising questions/concerns about the merger, the new company’s mission, and business strategies going forward. Management addressed questions in a blog accompanying each video episode. The video series is available on YouTube for the public as well, and has been downloaded at the rate of 15,000 per day.
Lighten Things Up
Obama’s campaign was notable for its sense of humor, in many cases, forcing his opponents on to the late night talk circuit, to their comparative disadvantage. Levity hasn’t played much of a role in recent rebrandings but two companies have staged launch events in a decentralized way that encourages employee creativity and cements their relationship to the new brand. Both Grant Thornton and Johnson Controls faced the need to foster greater collaboration between offices across the world and encourage consistent use of the new corporate identity. Rather than a single, corporate-staged brand launch, these firms had each office create their own event, with HQ providing only identity guidelines and materials. From office to office, there were cakes baked featuring the new logo; people arrived at work dressed in the corporate colors; offices were painted in the corporate palette; flag raisings and tent meetings were held. In both cases, the ceremonies were videoed and edited into a corporate film distributed back to all employees on the websites. No doubt the freedom of each office to incorporate levity, local customs and cultures, helped to build relevance for the corporate brand.
Touch Your Target
Inclusive events and personal conversations were also hallmarks of the Obama campaign. Corporate communicators ignore the power of one-on-one communication at their peril, when projecting a new brand and mission. Several of the companies in my study went to extraordinary lengths to connect to the broad employee base. There’s no better example than CEC Bank – the former Romanian state banking monopoly, rebranded in 2008 to compete with global banks for the first time. In order to introduce employees to the general concept of a brand, let alone CEC’s own brand, there were engagement sessions averaging 15 hours with all 6,700 of the bank’s employees, as well as their union’s officials. After the Thomson Reuters rebranding was broadcast around the world by satellite, CEO, Tom Glocer embarked on a 30-day world tour. The primary objective – speak with employees about the goal of “One Company in one Year”. Likewise, after Rockwell Collins introduced its new brand, Dave Yeoman, Director of Corporate Communications, held informal, brown bag lunches with employees in his travels to company facilities around the world.
Measure Green, Make Green
Clearly the Obama campaign benefited from the support of environmentalists. Every organization is being judged by its sustainability. Outside of companies whose business is the environment (BP, GE, etc.) this is an area that has been largely ignored in corporate rebranding events. A few bright spots: Smith & Nephew, in its rebranding, shipped flat corrugated boxes, printed with the new brand identity elements, to all offices, to be assembled and displayed on site – a cost and energy saving tactic. Of course, Grant Thornton and Johnson Controls’ locally staged events saved the energy that would have been required to send large groups of employees to central locations. The same with CSC, which used a “follow the sun” strategy to launch their brand, country by country, at noon in each time zone. But by in large, environmental concerns have not been at the forefront when launching new corporate brands. No doubt this will change.
Do Well by Doing Good
Obama raised unprecedented sums by convincing millions to “give a little money for the cause of change” making people feel they were part of a “movement.” With this as a backdrop, it has never been clearer that social responsibility will increasingly drive consumer loyalty. The launch of a new identity is an excellent opportunity to communicate the corporate mission and vision by incorporating strategic social responsibility. I haven’t seen this done yet. Perhaps Smith & Nephew, (“Helping people regain their lives by repairing and healing the human body.”) could initiate a program to donate artificial joints to people in need, and involve employees as well. Or Johnson Controls could donate thermostats to Habitat for Humanity. No matter what the corporate mission, there is an opportunity to use charity as a strategic reinforcement of the brand position. This should be baked into every brand launch.
Define your Value
Corporations, just like political candidates, increasingly need to define their value in simple, unambiguous terms. This is job number one for every corporate rebranding. Of the recent examples, Thomson Reuters illustrates this best. Their value proposition is the transformation of an increasing amount of raw information into “intelligent information” for professionals and businesses. As their advertising tagline describes it, “Information to Act”. The nexus of their brand launch was Times Square, arguably the most chaotic place on earth. The identity reveal, on six Jumbotron screens, created the new logo out of a random array of swirling shapes, metaphorically creating order out of chaos – transforming information to “intelligent information.
Spend it if You’ve Got It
The current economy, while producing fear in most marketers, provides ample opportunity to those with relevant, differentiated positions, willing to take advantage of retreating competition. When a company rebrands, it’s a mistake to downplay the launch event in an effort to conserve budget. The launch event is key to the success of a corporate rebranding. It serves as a platform for management to inspire and lead. It can signal the promise of a merger or acquisition. It can help capitalize on a strategic shift, and set the tone to guide relationships between a corporation, its employees and customers. But, no matter how skillfully crafted the strategy and design of the new identity, without a well thought-out and executed launch, the message sent can be quite the opposite of what is intended.
About the Authors…
Dick Bondy and Drew Neisser met “100” years ago when they both worked at Lord, Geller, Federico & Einstein. Since then, Dick has focused on B2B marketing and become a leading expert in corporate rebranding and their accompanying launch events. Drew has focused on more non-traditional marketing approaches, founding Renegade in 1996, the company he now owns and continues to helm. You can reach them at dickbondy@gmail.com and dneisser@rengade.com.