Rolling Out Your New Brand Identity

The rollout of a new brand identity is an important milestone in any company’s history. A lot can go wrong, so some planning is a must. At a high level there are three stages: Preparation, Communication, and Implementation. Announcing your new brand identity can be centered on a particular date (an important company anniversary for example) or an industry event. It is an opportunity to make a splash, so do some thinking about this.

For technology consulting firms these stages might involve the following:

Preparation Stage

Communication Plan
A communication plan needs to be developed to address three broad audiences: employees, customers and the wider community. This will involve drafting announcements and preparing for meetings and the launch event.

Implementation Plan
Your implementation plan will be about developing the details and planning out the steps necessary to get everyone informed and excited about the new brand identity and your new vision and your immediate marketing and sales strategy.

Website Changes
Your website will need to be updated to reflect your new brand identity. What changes will you be making? When and how will these changes get accomplished?

Online Presence Changes
Your social media profiles will need to be updated to reflect the new brand identity.

Email Changes
Your email banners and the general look and feel of your email communications will need to be updated. Don’t forget to address employee email signatures and plan for how and when they will be updated.

New Building Signage
Any current building signage will need to be replaced. Plan for how and when this will happen.

New Business Cards
Everyone’s business cards will need to be replaced. How and when will this happen? Who will be in charge of ordering that print job?

New Collateral
All your existing collateral will need to be replaced. Plan on how this will be accomplished and rolled out.

Briefing Deck
Developing a briefing deck to clearly communicate the new brand to employees, customers and others will be helpful in providing consistent story and help get your brand identity established.

Talking Points & FAQs
Depending on how much of a change your new brand identity represents and how big your employee base and/or customer base is, it may be important for you to establish clear talking points for sales staff and management, and provide the official line on anticipated questions.

Prepare a Press Release
You should prepare a press release and plan for its distribution as part of the rollout. Get the word out!

Logo Wear & Giveaways
Finally, you should also plan and order logo wear and any give-a-ways you may need as part of your rollout.

Communication Stage

This is the first visible step in rollout process. It involves making sure that you communicate your new brand identity in the most effective way you can; this starts with your employees, who must be vested in the new brand identity as they will be the face of your company, promoting it into the future.

Employees
Communicating your new brand identity to your employees is important in two key ways: what you communicate and how you communicate can have a profound impact on how well your new brand identity is accepted. Typically, you will need to address this as follows:

• Management and key employees
• All hands meeting (using briefing deck)
• Email announcement
• Internal announcement meetings for any off-site staff (staff at customer sites for example) who have been unable to attend or participate in the all hands meeting.

Customers
Next, your customers need to be informed. Note that once you have made an internal announcement, word will start to spread. So the timing of your communications becomes very important if you want to be sure to control the message as far as possible. Depending on your situation you might reorder these tasks:

– Email communication
– Customer face-to-face meetings (using branded
explainer presentation)
– Formal letter / email informing customers of change

The Broader Community
Finally, the broader community needs to be informed. This will very soon morph into regular ongoing communications, but launch time is an opportunity to make a splash by providing or participating in:

• Press Releases
• Community Events
• Sponsorships

Implementation Stage

This is a culmination of the prior stages and the execution of your plans. It may include a physical launch event but is mostly about timing of communications and the launch of your updated website, online presence changes, and any signage reveals. The implementation stage is about making the most of your new brand announcement and then transitioning it into your normal operations.

• Launch Event
• Website
• Online Presence Updates
• Building Signage Installation (may be part of launch event)
• Renewed commitment to the company vision and marketing and sales plan for the immediate future

Obviously, all this needs to be tailored to your specific requirements. The key point however is to have a plan, prepare, and the get your new brand identity out there to do its work.