Rebranding— which may embody updating your positioning, messaging, visible identification, web site and extra— is a giant funding of time and capital. To the surface world, it indicators an intention to mark a brand new second in your group’s historical past and to be perceived in another way. When accomplished successfully, an up to date model can undoubtedly create highly effective new alternatives for affect that greater than justify your funding. However a rebrand, in and of itself, is just not transformative— it is not going to change your group. Rebranding is definitely a file of a change that has occurred or is already beneath means. In different phrases, rebranding doesn’t trigger transformation— transformation evokes rebranding. And for nonprofits and civil establishments, this transformation comes from inside.
In our expertise, most rebranding tasks are rooted in a single factor: your present model merely isn’t a mirrored image of who you might be as a company any extra, and that’s a giant drawback. Some shoppers can articulate this. Others really feel it, however can’t fairly identify it. Purchasers usually come to us and say, “we wish to look extra fashionable,” “we’d like fashionable instruments,” “we wish to be related,” “we’ve secured funding to do it,” or “we have to have interaction our viewers within the digital area.” Yep, completely. These asks are well-intentioned, however are sometimes an effort to deal with the signs and never the basis trigger.
The truth is, the larger the space between who you might be and the way you’re perceived, the larger the dissonance. The identification disaster may be so nice that every member of your group has a wildly totally different description of what your group does and, most significantly, why. They could have hassle articulating these items in any respect. Your communications group would possibly really feel like their efforts are the equal of carrying outdated health club garments to a pleasant theater. They’re kinda comfy, however you understand they’re most likely not going to come back off as ironic cool. As a substitute, they’re going to make you stick out for all of the unsuitable causes. If solely you’d deliberate for sufficient time to go house and alter first. Is your present model creating friction that works in opposition to your potential affect?
Why does this occur?
Organizations, the those who make them up, the world they exist in— all these items are continually evolving. Think about how foolish you’d sound if the voice of 5-year-old you was the identical because the voice you will have at 25 or 40. That might be bizarre, proper? You’re nonetheless you – in your core you’re the identical particular person, you will have lots of the identical values, beliefs, and persona traits, however you’ve additionally grown and altered.
Your model is your group’s voice. your group isn’t precisely the identical at 5, 10, 25, and 50 years. Its core function would possibly stay essentially unchanged, however the world it exists in is totally different, and that may require your group to behave in another way than it did previously. Your model must sustain with all that change to truly do its job. If it’s the unsuitable pitch, you’re going to get quite a lot of head scratching and raised eyebrows at finest, or lifeless silence at worst.
There are moments of dramatic change and intervals of refined, gradual change. Take into consideration how a lot has modified inside and out of doors your group over the past 5 years alone. You may need a brand new chief. There are seemingly new folks in your management group. Extra seemingly than not, half the workers has turned over. Lots of them are from one other era, with totally different values, office behaviors, expectations of management, and politics. There are new phrases and phrases blowing up within the public discourse. The celebration in political energy has modified, impacting whether or not your work is extra targeted on reaching for large wins or just defending and defending victories secured previously. The nation and the world have added a couple of triumphs of humanity, and some extra painful wounds which have scarred our society. Regardless of all of this modification, you might be nonetheless the identical group, however your model must replicate your evolution.
This doesn’t imply you throw all of it away each few years and begin over. Do it as soon as, and do it proper. Then nurture it, watch it develop, prune it, replace it. The “it” in fact is “your model.” However in case you’ve by no means accomplished it proper, you’ll most likely end up within the behavior of throwing out your garments and continually reinventing your self each couple of years. Which implies you might be both squandering your reputational fairness or there by no means was any to start with.
That is all inevitable. It’s the nature of the passing of time on the pace of life. Transformation is already occurring inside your group. It’s all the time occurring. Typically quicker, generally slower. Typically it’s a seismic shift, generally it’s glacial. Your transformation is just not a rejection or deletion of the legacy you’ve already created— it’s an evolution, a correction of previous missteps, a mandatory adaptation to stay in contact with the second. The reward is a model that resonates each inside and out of doors of your group, and it’s rocket gasoline for affect.
Is your nonprofit’s model able to evolve alongside along with your group? Let’s speak about how we are able to information you thru the method.
