Brand Legacy

 

Peter Hill, the founder of Peter Hill Design, passed away last January after battling bladder cancer. Peter’s friends recently gathered to play in the first annual, memorial charity golf tournament in his name. This event exceeded all expectations for participation and funds raised. The generosity and outpouring of support continues to amaze me. Peter left a lasting impression on so many people.

I am proud to carry on his legacy as the new company owner to the business he created over 13 years ago. As we planned my purchase of the company last fall between his chemo treatments and settling into our new office space, keeping his name as the company name was always a topic of discussion.


If we changed our name, how would the brand continue and our clients find us? If we kept it, how would we explain who Peter Hill was to new clients? My biggest fear was losing clients to too much change and the impression that the company no longer existed. Keeping the name was one way for us to show them our service would stay consistent. Many companies face these challenges, but especially when the founder’s namesake is in the company name. Does the founder in fact become the brand?

Many law firms continue with partner names in their titles long after the partner leaves. If Oprah died tomorrow would HARPO cease to exist? I doubt it. The brand equity that she has created is off the charts successful. As much as Oprah brings to her company, she has a whole team around her that really helped create her brand. Ralph Lauren is on the verge of retirement at the age of 73 and his megabrand will likely continue as-is without his leadership. His son, David, is posed to take over according to a recent Fast Company magazine article. Although David has a different vision, he will take his father’s company and continue to build on the established brand equity. It helps that David has the same last name but even if he didn't, I am sure “Ralph Lauren” will still be in existence years from now.

It’s been 9 months for now us without Peter, and so far the name has stuck. Our brand has stayed consistent and our clients have stayed with us. Peter’s name truly became the company brand. Prospects haven’t inquired to why there is no longer a ‘Peter Hill’ at Peter Hill Design. Our company culture, without our original leader, isn't too terribly different from when I started here over 10 years ago. Our small, close-knit team has stayed working together and our vendor and client relationships have stayed consistent.

What’s behind the name is what makes it valuable – the customer relationships, products and people. We might change our name down the road, but for now, "Peter Hill Design" still has brand equity and a nice ring to it!

Mergers and Acquisitions

As the world watched the royal wedding in awe, it got me thinking about mergers. How are William & Kate going to merge their personal brands? In this case, Kate might just be joining the royal family and losing her whole sense of personal brand to this larger force. Considering the royal family has the ultimate brand standards, Kate will definitely have a strict path to follow. But does the same happen in more “common” marriages or mergers?

It happens with company mergers all the time. AT&T Wireless became Cingular Wireless and then turned back to being AT&T. The Cingular name is now gone completely but they kept some of their brand equity through their use of the orange color. Sometimes large corporations swallow up small companies and the small company loses it’s name and brand entirely.

Are women who keep their name after marriage holding out to keep their brand? Catherine Middleton is now Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge or can also be called His Royal Highness Princess William of Wales, or Her Royal Highness Catherine of Wales. Is the simple ‘Kate Middleton’ gone for good? Some women try incorporating their maiden name into their married name and have two names like Hilary Rodham Clinton.

Some companies do a transitional period for people to get used to the new name and brand after a merger or acquisition. One of our clients started off as Doboy, then they were bought by SIG, a Switzerland company and became SIG Doboy, then Bosch bought them and they became Bosch Doboy and now they are known as just Bosch Packaging Technology, Inc. They went through many years of keeping the Doboy brand alive until finally dropping it.

Another client has just updated their 90 year-old brand from Howard R. Green Company to HR Green. It took them many years to take this big step and lose the iconic handwritten “g” in their logo, as well as their founder’s full name. But the easy part of the change was that their customers and internal staff were already using HR Green when speaking because the original name was long and cumbersome to say and write. Their URL and email addresses had also been hrgreen.com for many years so the transition had unconsciously begun before they even knew they were doing it.

Name and brand changes can be confusing to the public and the customer’s perception of a company. Is Comcast now Xfinity or is Xfinity Comcast’s way of naming their products and services? As a Comcast customer, I don’t think it’s very clear. When considering a merger or brand and name change, proper planning is necessary to limit this confusion and get everyone on the same page – internally and externally. From presenting the new names and logos together on everything from marketing materials to invoices to having the right message come across when someone answers the phone – this all must be considered.

I am sure William and Kate have thought long and hard about what it means to formally merge and become the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge; what it means to their personal identities as well as their new fame as a royal couple. Let’s just hope that the public takes hold of their new titles and their supporters continue their enthusiasm for the union.

Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Blogger, BlogSpot, Yelp…

Everyone’s into social media now and as designers, we’ve held back a bit. Not that we don’t use social media to connect with friends, but as a business tool there’s something a bit limiting about a square picture in a strictly designed templated page layout that puts us off.  But it’s changing daily and becoming so popular that some companies are even using Facebook over their main web site to connect with their customers.

Do our social media choices define our style? A friend of mine does financial communications and is all about LinkedIn – it’s more formal, less chatty and all about business connections. A produce market client swears by their Facebook page where they put up daily deals and what’s fresh. Another is a ‘Yelper’; she loves the short reviews. Twitter of course sings for brevity, not much for looks. Everyone should now get on board and learn how to embrace these mediums because it’s become the way of the world.

If properly planned out, it is possible to use social media and have a defined brand and style. Most company logos need to be adjusted to fit the pre-determined pixel sizes instead of just slapping it up there and getting partly cut-off. The tone and voice of the posts or tweets need to be defined and consistent. The best way to do this is to set up a style guide or make sure one person is responsible for postings. The communications need to be regular and frequent. Nothing looks worse than seeing that the latest post is from 3 months ago. The photos need to reflect the company’s brand and always stay professional (no happy hour photos!)

With so much communication happening through these new online channels, is there a place for print? Print has just become the vehicle to drive customers online. Something printed still stands out more amongst the clutter and glut of email and social media posts. A nicely designed printed invitation in a sparkly envelope is still the best medium for parties or weddings. But now the RSVP can now be an online reply instead of mail-back card.

A magazine ad can promote a company’s social media sites for special insider offers.  Direct mail campaigns can use variable data to personalize customer’s names and drive them to unique landing pages. And who doesn’t like to get something personally addressed to them in the mail? Imagine if holiday cards become links to Facebook family photos or family blogs sites instead of the yearly letters? It’s starting to happen but something just gets a bit lost in translation, it’s less personal and more public.

Doesn’t there still needs to be a balance? It can’t go all online, can it? As designers and marketers, we can embrace what should go online – timely communications and customer engagement campaigns. Let’s create digital brands that best fit these mediums but still produce some lovely printed pieces that drive social media traffic for our customers.