10 Reasons Your Change Needs a Brand Story
Early in my career, I cut my teeth on large-scale internal change management and communications initiatives at one of the world’s most recognized sportswear brands. While many of us know them as a sportswear retailer selling shoes and athletic wear, they’ve also long been recognized as a global leader in marketing excellence.
Walking the campus, you'll find life-sized quotes stating, “[Brand] is story.” This emphasis on storytelling, branding, and marketing worked its way into every corner of the business.
As an innovation company constantly trying to steer on the forefront of consumer demand, they were also no strangers to constant change. Yet, constant change could be hard on talent.
Remaining nimble to the marketplace, agile to shifting demand, and updated on new technologies could lead to a lot of people, process, and technology changes. Change, while necessary for innovation, can also create a sense of chaos, overwhelm, confusion, and fatigue.
Enter change and communications teams.
Our role was to limit business disruption and the emotional dip of people, process, and technology change by crafting strategies that educated, inspired, and excited employees about our evolving direction.
We didn’t just send out emails letting people know where their new desks were or how to use the new knowledge center for technology support calls. No, we branded those changes top-to-bottom.
Internal branding, much like consumer marketing, is intended to create visual and verbal recognition of a new idea in a way that promotes awareness, understanding, engagement, and adoption through storytelling. When we branded a change, we’d often build upon the existing brand guidelines and ethos for the company.
If it’s a sportswear company, we’d pick a metaphor rooted in sport that felt symbiotic to the purpose of the change. For example, a change in call center technologies may use a tennis metaphor as we discuss changes in play to the back-and-forth communications with customers.
We’d then develop brand colors relevant to the latest product lines; pull photography, icons, and graphics relevant to our metaphor; draw connections to company ethos or leadership principles; define audience personas based on employee profiles; and create stories, headlines, taglines, and key messages that played upon the metaphor while clearly conveying the change.
We’d use these brand guidelines and message architectures to develop stories in various formats such as executive presentations, one-pagers, posters, emails, swag, and events to drum up recognition, clarity, and excitement around the upcoming change.
At this point you might be thinking, that sounds like a lot of overhead and expense to just tell employees about a change.
That might be true, but the alternative is a failed attempt at change adoption that is even more costly. Failed change adoption could mean strategic stagnation, disgruntled employees, productivity dips, business disruption, and financial loss.
Brand storytelling for change initiatives:
Provides clear understanding and reduces anxiety: Minimizing misinformation and rumors, leading to less stress around the change.
Guides employees on a purposeful journey: Creating a sense of direction and meaning, rather than leaving them feeling uncertain about the change.
Differentiates key initiatives: Ensuring employees understand the unique aspects of each change, preventing confusion and fatigue.
Fosters connection and belonging: Helping employees feel part of something larger and positive, instead of feeling like the change is disruptive.
Reinforces company values and culture: Ensuring the change aligns with the organization's core beliefs and practices.
Creates a relatable human connection: Making the change more approachable and inspiring, rather than tense or confusing.
Rallies teams around a shared goal: Boosting energy and excitement, and preventing the change from feeling like just another mundane task.
Drives motivation and commitment: Encouraging enthusiasm and dedication to the change, rather than resistance or maintaining the status quo.
Generates memorable experiences: Making the change more impactful and long-lasting through engaging interactions.
Fosters long-term adoption and sustainability: Ensuring the change becomes embedded in the organization's culture and practices, rather than a temporary initiative.
As leaders, we’re no strangers to the pace of change. It's affecting every industry, and every business. While a clear vision and strategic plan are essential, to truly connect with your team and win their engagement, your change initiatives need more.
They need a compelling brand story. It's about shaping a journey, rallying around a common goal, humanizing the change, and motivating with story. Consider how brand storytelling can transform your next change initiative from just another project into a shared, meaningful experience for your employees.
Struggling to create a clear and cohesive brand story for your change? We can help! Check out our services.
