Hill+Knowlton Strategies

A re-brand is a bit like Marmite - you either love it or hate it… but without the love it part. In difficult financial times, it’s even harder to get it right – and harder still for a charity. There needs to be a lot of communication both internally and externally to make sure you take people with you on the ‘journey’ (sorry about that) – and, just as any other communication strategy, it needs to be integrated and consistent across all channels, whether traditional or digital. So it’s been interesting to see how the re-branding of the Parkinson’s Disease Society into Parkinson’s UK has gone down.

Not too well if the responses on the charity’s website forum are anything to go by. And that seems to have caused a whole new set of problems. The charity suggested an open meeting online so they could share their strategy on the re-brand. Nice idea … although it turns out though you have to pre-register and there are rumours on the forum that it will be pre-moderated. 

The shiny world of social media is causing a few problems for charities but really it’s just another channel. Apply the same level of understanding and preparation and it won’t catch you out. Embrace it if it’s right for your audience – otherwise,  save it for another day. 

And Marmite – love it.

Oddly enough, most of my best lessons about working in communication haven’t come from people who are communication professionals.

Case in point – my grandmother’s advice: “If somebody doesn’t understand what you’re telling them, don’t tell them louder. Tell them different.”

Had Grandma been more entrepreneurial she’d have printed that on t-shirts and sold them at marketing conferences.

Freakonomics brought quirky social economics into the mainstream and made, if not household names, then at least front-window-at-Waterstones names out of Stephen D. Levett and Stephen J. Dubner.

Tim Harcourt, Chief Economist at Austrade, continued the theme of accessible economic thinking with his creation of The Airport Economist.

This idea of easy economics also finds its way into the mainstream media, and this is the bit I like most because really clever people like Stephanie Flanders (UK) and Ross Gittins (Australia) go to the trouble of explaining major economic decisions that affect my daily life, in simple language that I use…in my daily life.

It’s almost like they’ve realised they hold a special kind of knowledge the rest of us don’t necessarily have, and they’re trying to share it with us. The thing is…that makes me more interested in what they’ve got to say, so I make more of an effort to keep up with what they’re saying, whether or not I’m immediately interested in the content.

To me, that’s exemplary communication, and it’s what every corporate spokesperson should be striving to achieve evey time they step up for a media interview or public speaking opportunity. It’s also what my Grandma does. I hope she doesn’t open an agency.

(PS – for all of our UK readers – make sure you call your mothers and grandmothers on Sunday)