Logo’d give-aways are fun and a great way to showcase your new brand. But, how you involve, educate and inspire employees to be active ambassadors of the brand is just as important as updating your logo and changing over marketing materials. If you’re going through a rebrand, it’s critical to ensure your people are properly prepared for the transformation.
Launching a new brand is an opportunity to ensure a baseline relationship with each employee. By putting employees at the forefront of the transformation, it demonstrates how important they are to the success of the brand (and business). Inspire employees through engagement and create momentum by sharing stories behind the brand transformation. Use existing proof points to celebrate all the great work that has led you to where you are. If you celebrate your people, they will celebrate the new brand.
Changing touchpoints is straight-forward. Changing people is not. Don’t underestimate an employee’s emotional connection to your existing brand. The path to success is to socialize change early. This doesn’t mean you need to share the new logo at the onset. But, by engaging your people early—and getting them accustomed to the idea of change—it will prepare them for something new and different. If engaged properly, they’ll believe in and support the new brand before it’s even unveiled.
When rebranding, the most common question companies face is, “Why didn’t I get my raise?” or, “What does this mean to me?” Ensure your people know the rationale behind not only the new brand, but the business reasons behind the change. Connecting the brand evolution to business imperatives will allow employees to understand the “why” behind a rebrand—which will ultimately empower them to explain it to others.
Your people need to be your biggest advocates. Make sure you know what they need to support change. Our brand activation plans always consider what we want from employees, which in turn drives what they need from us. This approach ensures employees will be your brand’s biggest champions. However, adding in a logo’d t-shirt never hurts.
