When And Why You Should Change Your Personal Brand
Change is good right? As one of my friends always tells me "I have the ability to change
, so I do" which explains the wide swings in his clothing. I never know if I am about to have lunch with my trendy friend or my gothic friend. But really it should not matter because the internal substance is the same, right? Or is it?
In January of 2009 Tropicana launched its new design for its Orange Juice cartons designed by the Arnell Group. It was a design that was suppose to make the juice company more current, in the words of CEO Peter Arnell "more modern." However, the change that dispensed with the nationally recognized orange with a straw sticking out of it was received with major disapproval by the masses. Thousands of people responded to the change via text, email, social media, phone calls and good old fashioned letters to the company. And the response was all negative, less than two weeks after the launch of the new design Tropicana announced it would be going back to its old packaging, to the tune of a 35 million dollar loss!
Companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars to create a brand that people can recognize, a brand that sets them apart from the crowd; something that is easily recognizable and stands for something. However, sometimes things need to change. As many stories as there are of people having major roadblocks in trying to change their brand there are just as many who encountered huge success, increased market share and higher revenue by designing a more appealing brand.
For example look at the colossal technology company "Apple." Their first design in 1976 was a detailed picture of a man reading a book under a tree with an apple starting to fall on his head, making a clear parallel to the story of Sir Issac Newton and the events which brought him to ponder the concept of gravity and to eventually detail his definition of gravity. The problem was that the logo was too complex and frankly was not very recognizable. When Steve Jobs hired Rob Janoff to simplify the logo it was perhaps one of the greatest moves of the small start-up. The resulting logo of an apple with a bite out of it is recognized around the world, although it has had minor changes over time.
So how can one company make a change that costs millions and yet another makes a change that arguably helped create the billion dollar company that we all recognize today? The answers are a little more complex than you would think and if you could figure out a guaranteed way to make sure a logo/brand worked you would be a billionaire. Nevertheless, as hard as it is define the keys for ultimate success we can identify several things that are guaranteed to make you fail. Although there may be times when you have to change your logo to keep up with the current trends, to generate new interest, or even to capture new a market share you need to make sure that you are following a few basic rules to ensure you are not setting your self up for disaster.
1) Keep it simple- Every-time a company has created a logo that is too complex it inevitably leads to failure. People need something simple that they can recognize and easily distinguish from the crowd-Think Nike swoosh.
2) Make sure you are putting yourself in the right bucket- as an experiment over a long weekend I grew a handle bar mustache. Partly to see the reaction I would get from my employees and friends but also because I can so why not? The results where phenomenal. Not only did people react differently to me, but I had a hard time taking myself seriously as a businessman whenever I saw my reflection and thought I should be in a wild West rodeo somewhere. The human brain likes order, thus people will automatically place you in a category by what they think your brand means. If you put on a cowboy hat people are going to think you are a cowboy.
3) Test your brand- You need to make sure that before you go out and spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars on stationary, website design, business cards and wrapping your car in your new brand that people like the design. At the end of the day you are trying to create a brand that will garner market share, create longevity, keep you distinguished from your competitors, and be easily recognizable. With the built in test groups of social media it is easy to get great, free feedback on your brand. This will also help make sure that people are putting you in the right bucket. You may design a brand you think stands for the best carpet wholesaler in the country but people may think your selling cigars.
4) When change is needed, take it slow- People as a whole are hesitant to accept change and will adamantly rebel against a change they feel violates the trust you have built with them. Tropicana was a perfect example, not only did the new design get massive push back, but product sat on the shelves almost twice as long as normal. People just did not buy it. Yet as Apple changed its logo over time it has continued to gain more and more clients, mostly because the changes were subtle and kept the basic brand in tact. The logo went from an apple with multiple colors inside, to an apple with a black interior, to the white apple we all recognize today. Apple has managed to keep current and not alienate any of its hard earned clientele. One aspect of the new Tropicana design that was appealing to customers was the squeezable cap shaped like an orange-great idea, simple and effective, too bad it was overridden by a box design that looked generic and common.
Change can be, and often is, necessary. However, when it comes to your brand you need to make sure that you are sending the right message and that the message is being received. But perhaps the most important advice comes from my great-grand-father, "If it ain't broke don't fix it!"
by: Bradley Hess
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