Know-How Exchange : Branding

Dear jwilson,

One hundred years of service, eh? Logos and all that, eh?

Here's an alternative opinion. If it's that important to you, by all means celebrate your 100th birthday, with, perhaps, a week of events, or a whole month's worth of centenary-related events.

Then stop.

2009 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and natural history museums have practically wet themselves to celebrate this event. But what most of them have ignored or just plain old forgotten about is that it wasn't until he was 50 that his celebrated book "On the Origin of Species" was published.

As an event, the publication of "On the Origin of Species" is more significant, and it's more significant to more people than the day he was born.

But 200 is more compelling that 150, so a 200th birthday was celebrated when the only people who cared about it were scientists and museum people.

To the vast majority of museum visitors, Darwin's 200th birthday meant nothing, or at the least, very little.

My point here is that unless your organization impacts the lives of its stakeholders in a SIGNIFICANT way, EVERY DAY, and by significant, I mean totally life changing or live giving, announce your centenary, celebrate it a little bit.

And then stop.

Do you tell people that this year is the whatever anniversary of your birth? No. You celebrate on the day, or during that week. Then you forget about it and move on. Why? Because outside its specific time frame, IT IS NOT RELEVANT.

In business, few people outside the area of the company care that a company or organization has been making widgets or selling do-dads, or offering thingamajig for 100 years (or however long it is).

This fact alone, although significant to a small group (the company) is not, in and of itself, important enough, is not SIGNIFICANT ENOUGH to sway the minds of the bigger group (clients, visitors, prospects, and customers) to take action, or to feel good as a consequence of now being aware that the anniversary is being celebrated.

Why? Because there is nothing (or very little) in it for them. There reaction is therefore "So what?" And who can blame them.

A centenary celebration might be important to five people out of every 100.

But the other 95 people don't care, are not interested, and simply don't want to know; yet the minority vote rules and the big, flashy, largely irrelevant message is shouted from the rooftops, month after month.

Result: Five great impressions. Ninety-five not so great impressions. Multiply this by the number of total impressions and sudden;y, you have a large, expensive case of self congratulation with, potentially, little to show for it except a large logo with "one hundred years of service" plastered all over it.

So here's a question for you, and the BIG question you have to ask and answer before you go ahead with your celebrations.

Is this the right way to be broadcasting any message over a sustained period when the message in question potentially has little significance to the majority of the audience?

I know what I think the answer is. But you've got to answer this question for yourself, for its overall cost (which isn't just going to be financial, because there's a cost of switching people off to your larger message), and for the impact this message will have on your primary stakeholders in the long run.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Thanks for all the wonderful advice-my first time asking a question and the responses were very helpful.

I think we will go ahead and use the logo just for the centennial year. The agency that created it didn't alter our original logo, they just create another mark to go with it. The two together are a bit cumbersome to use for more than 1 year.

Gail is correct. You've spent 99 years developing a following, don't change their perception. Use the 100th year as an overall event celebration, then back to business

My opinion,

KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID :-))

I am already confused just by your question!!
Centennial and NON centennial events ???

I think that the people who attend your events will want to understand why they are there and what you want from them. keep the message clear and simple.

I don't think they will really understand the difference between a centennial and a non centennial event???

Why even make a distinction??

Just run fund raisers and pump the hell out of the fact that you have been successfully doing it for 100 years :)

I agree with Phil's idea. 100 years is a great landmark so KEEP your original logo and artistically / tastefully weave into it the fact that the organisation is over 100 years old.

make it a permanent part of you logo and use it everywhere all the time CONSISTENTLY.

The key to building brand recognition and equity is CONSISTENCY.

Good luck,

Matthew

PS: 1 single version of the logo will also be much easier to manage for your printers and suppliers :) Trying to manage different versions could be a major headache later :)