Rebrand with New Company Name and Logo

The following question and answers come from posts on SHSMD’s online discussion groups.*
Join the conversation at my.shsmd.org.

Q. My organization is going through a rebrand very soon. We are not only changing our logo and brand, we are changing our company name. I am looking for any guidance to encourage employee adoption and patient acceptance of the new brand. If you have checklists for media, ideas on how to get the community involved or any lessons learned, I would love to hear about them.

A: In my experience, two of the biggest challenges are when there is not commitment and focus to completely change the logo. This leads to the old logo and name remaining for years. To help track and manage expectations, I suggest creating a brand tracker to help monitor changes.

In order to encourage buy-in to the change of name/brand, it is important to align to core values and purpose to make a compelling and personal story. Some things to consider:

• Why the change? What does it represent? What does the future hold? What is your role and vision inside of this brand?
• The key is to get others to align their why to the broader why. Why are they in health care? What do they love about their work? What motivates them to help patients every day? 

Here's how we got participation on the practical brand transition itself:

1. We asked managers of each area to do a brand audit, collect everything that has the old logo and provide it to us.
2. We assigned one support person to help rebrand the pieces for each area. We had deadlines and priorities and followed up.
3. We established a timeline with IT for all of the electronic elements.
4. For general system/hospital items, like patient education handouts, we updated and reprinted and then scheduled a task force to help at each clinic during off hours.
5. We then added fun to the process and encouraged participation in the transition by creating competitions between departments.

A: The process for a name change can take many forms, depending on the culture and type of the organization. For example, is the organization generally collaborative in its decision-making on major matters, or does it take more of a top-down approach? Other things to consider include budget (if using an outside agency) and deadlines.

Additional considerations are below:  

Communication. It should be very clear why you are changing the name and the goals you are trying to accomplish in doing so. This should be communicated to all stakeholders.   

Buy-in versus too many cooks. This is where balance and finesse are required. 

Process. The name change process should be structured in the way that makes the most sense for the organization. Here are a few suggestions below:

• Name-change group. Create a group of five to nine people that will be the ultimate decision-makers, as a much larger group can easily become unworkable.

• Employees. I recommend an organization-wide presentation of the name chosen by the name-change group. The presentation should go into detail about the reasons for the change, the criteria the name is to meet, and the process undertaken to choose the name.

• Patients/Community. The brand launch campaign should be integrated in a way that ensures you are not only reaching patients (existing and potential) but also donors, referral sources, applicable government entities, community-based organizations and other key community members. 

Agency. Budget permitting, retain a branding agency to help develop names and guide you through the process. In addition to having the expertise to develop names that meet your goals, agencies provide the outside perspective that usually leads to a better result and often provides the "cover" needed to support acceptance. 

A rebrand, involving a name change or otherwise, is exciting and provides an opportunity to align values, refine positioning, clarify direction and inspire employee engagement. But it does involve walking a fine line between attaining your goals and getting buy-in. At the end of the day, however, it's not a democratic process.

A: A brand and marketing protection audit checklist is most useful. This includes needing a self-administered checklist and follow-up training on issues such as:

• New brand use and misuse.
• How to protect associated brand and marketing assets.
• Use and permissions agreements.
• HIPAA marketing "dos" and "don'ts."

A: Once you have the audit information I would highly recommended the brand is launched internally first and then externally after one to two months. Remember, great brands are built and managed inside-out. Have a brand ambassador program ready to go. Shifting the mind set of others is harder than you think. With the internal launch, include town halls, Q&A sessions, FAQs, and make sure your new narrative is understood.

A: The decision-making group should be kept tight because too many opinions in the room will breed the desire to please everyone — which is clearly impossible — and will slow you down.

A new name and graphic identity will always be subject to the informed or uninformed opinions of individuals who will say they are keeping an open mind, but will certainly bring bias and prejudice. If there is a better understanding of the "why" of the rebrand, there will be better potential for productive discussions to take place.

Employee buy-in is crucial and it absolutely is about storytelling. Be sure you know why this is being undertaken, what it will mean/what benefit will be gained by your communities, and how to convey that to the employees. Look for opportunities to have the "front line" professionals on your team contribute their stories, perspectives and how they fit into the new brand story. Hearing from the people who interact most with your patients and the community will have the greatest impact.

There should actually be two brand launch campaigns: one for the "internal" audiences (the insiders) and another for the public. The first group needs to be fully informed, this is crucial to your concerns about employee adoption.

If it's the right firm, an agency’s services will be worth every penny. Do your homework and decide very early if you want to work with a firm you already know, a new local firm or an agency from out of town. Of course you could keep it in-house if you think you have the bandwidth.

*The answers to the above question are excerpts from MySHSMD discussions. In some instances the responses have been edited for grammar and/or brevity purposes for Community Connections.

Please visit MySHSMD to read the detailed thread and connect with the responding members.

Image credit: istock.com/Olivier Le Moal