Any rebrand of an organisation shouldn’t be run independently by its marketing department, according to MYOB’s executive general manager of group marketing.
Speaking on the latest episode of B&T’s collaborative vodcast/podcast with The Brand Institute of Australia, Beneath the Brand, Natalie Feehan, said brands embarking on an identity change should view it as a business initiative rather than just a marketing effort.
“Any brand reposition, refresh, or rebrand needs to be a business priority, not a marketing priority, and for that reason it shouldn’t be run independently just by marketing alone,” she said.
“It should be run and involve people from right across the organisation – not just your leaders.”
Feehan also noted the importance of business leaders being clear and upfront to the rest of the organisation about their objectives when it comes to brand strategy,
“[It’s about] making sure everyone is clear about ‘what is the problem we are trying to solve here?’ and making sure everybody is aligned and brought it to the same proposal of then what is to happen,” she said.
“I think all of us have a tendency to think, ‘what I’m hoping that we’ll get out of this might just be slightly nuanced and slightly different’, and that’s where the problem lies, because then you get to the end of it and it does this, but you wanted it to do [that].”
The Brand Institute of Australia’s group CEO, Karl Treacher, said great leadership, an aligned culture and very clear communication were the three key pillars to a successful rebrand.
“The first thing organisations need to assess when they’re facing into a rebrand is, ‘do I have those three pillars ready to go [and] is there anything I need to do to make sure they’re performing optimally before I embark on anything else?’,” he said.
You can check out the rest of what Feehan and Treacher had to say in the vodcast above, or if podcasting’s more your thing, an extended version is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, TuneIn, and Stitcher.
Stay tuned for the next episode of Beneath the Band, featuring Bupa’s Jane Power.
