Wednesday, November 16, 2011

SHOULD YOU CHANGE YOUR COMPANY’S NAME? NOT IF YOU CAN HELP IT!

By:  Laura Walcher
Principal PR Counsel, JWalcher Communications
www.jwalcher.com

   In the last half-century, the bank currently known as Union Bank, has changed its name approximately a half-dozen times.  From 1st National Bank of San Diego, to Southern California 1st National Bank, California 1st Bank, Union Bank, Union Bank of California – and just recently, back to Union Bank. 
    I’d like a nickel for every hour I’ve spent discussing the pros and cons of name changes with clients – and a dime for each that didn’t heed my advice! Because, while there is tremendous excitement and creativity around a potential new name, I more often find the rationales for doing so avoidable - if not basically weak.  Often, too, companies lack a corresponding commitment or know-how to effectively drive a new name home in the marketplace.

   A Bloomberg News report noted an Anspach Grossman Enterprise survey that said the number of name changes among U.S. corporations recently broke long-time records. Of those changing their names, 52 percent changed because of mergers or acquisitions;  about 44 percent wanted to better define themselves.

These may indeed be viable reasons to change. Others may
include:

   l.  A change of ownership (yet many still choose not to change names for this reason.  Consider the l00-year old law firm of Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps ... where only one “name” partner is  involved.)
   2.  Declining business.  Often, a fresh name and graphic look can jump-start a company - but not in and of itself.  It must be accompanied by announced philosophical, directional, product (etc.) changes as well.
   3.  Changing marketplace.  When fried foods came to be regarded as unhealthful, Kentucky Fried Chicken changed to “KFC.”  This enabled them to re-define themselves but still retain their fried product.  (An extreme example of a product suffering from this, as well as the next point, you may remember, was the diet candy called “Ayds.”  Uh-uh.) 
   4.  Tarnished name and reputation.  A product recall, a crime, an accident.  Sometimes the only way out is to erase history is by re-inventing yourself altogether. However, the Tylenol tampering case of l989 demonstrated that effective crises management can actually strengthen the brand name. Tylenol has remained a strong brand. 
   5.  The name does not describe your company’s business.  When Boston Chicken added other meats to their menu, they chose an easier path with a version of their existing name, to Boston Market.

   While these may be compelling reasons to change, avoid it - if possible - for these reasons:

   l.  You give up marketing equity.
        Most companies spend years driving recognition of their name, hoping to develop their brand or niche, and become strongly “top of mind” with their buyers and clients.  If you have succeeded in this, changing your name will throw away all that you’ve achieved and force you to begin the process all over again.
   2.  You often create confusion - not clarity - in the marketplace.  I recall some old saying about how difficult it is to become memorable.  The task:  get people to remember you; then, get them to remember why they remember you;  get them to care why, etc.   Even if you’ve achieved parts one and two of this; you can lose it fast when you insist they remember something new altogether.
   3.  Re-marketing your company name is expensive.  Unless you are prepared to underwrite the re-design and printing of collaterals (logo, cards, letterhead, brochures, etc.), plus, implement outreach such as direct mail (name change announcements), advertising, and media and web publicity (to explain the rationale, which may be of interest), the change may take a very long time to solidify.  


IF YOU DECIDE TO CHANGE

Your choice of a new name is another - and exhaustive - subject altogether.  But, evaluate for yourself the decisions that led to the following changes - and I guarantee that the decisions cost countless hours and dollars!:  the merger of Coopers & Lybrand with Price Waterhouse became “PricewaterhouseCoopers,” really (check out lack of spacing and sudden caps!)  In San Diego, the Centre City Development Corp. proposed changing The Embarcadero to ... the Waterfront, (yawn). (This subject miraculously - and sensibly - evaporated.)  Some changes may have substantive rationale, but to the consumer are gratuitous and unintelligible - Datsun to Nissan,  Lidak Pharmaceuticals to Avanir Pharmaceuticals, and the most unexplained of all:  The National Conference of Christians & Jews (NCCJ), to The National Conference, to The National Conference of Community & Justice  (still called NCCJ!) Lately, Radio Shack, which by now pops easily into our consciousness, is reportedly considering changing its name to “The Shack.” Years of marketing will tumble down the tube, and the only rationale to imagine is that it’s a “shorter” name, or that they imagine the word “radio” to be passé.  

ResearchWorks (a San Diego -based company), whose president Dr. Moshe Engelberg developed an Identity Touchstone System to help organizations capitalize on the marketing equity in their names, says, “Ideally, a name should distinctively position an organization, product or service based on
what makes it most unique to its target audience. “ 
Engelberg often advises clients that “if you can¹t fix it, feature it!” as Smucker¹s has so successfully done with its tag line, “With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good!”  Most important, he says, don¹t risk guessing or acting on what you think internally. Undertake research to understand the perceived value of your name.
  
Consider: 
   -  the reasons you wish to change.  Can your problem with your current name be solved through re-marketing?  If so, you will have only image to change, and not both name and image. 
   -  is the name you’ve chosen available?  Your attorney’s search can answer this, or you can find help and resources through the Patent and Trademark Office website: http://www.uspto.gov.  .
   -  is the name memorable?  Test this rigorously with representatives of your various target markets.  Test both internally and externally.
   -  can the name be presented graphically, in an attractive, clear and interesting way?  Can it be reproduced in both color and black & white?  (It may be too expensive to print all your collaterals - such as order forms, etc. - in color.)
   -  how does the name work in a sentence?  As a possessive?
   -  how does the name stack up against its competitors?  Is it easily distinguished?  Does it convey your unique message?

The process of deciding not to change may also be exhausting, but in most cases, it ís reinforcing, inspires marketing creativity - and, at least from here, comes highly recommended! 

And, the very latest change of Union Bank of California to Union Bank?  The Bank now has branches in numerous other states.  I’ll buy that change.  ###

YOUR SPOKESPERSON: SAVIOR, OR NOT?

San Diego Daily Transcript
January 5, 2011
By Laura Walcher

In this era of WikiiLeaks, everyones-a journalist journalistic ethics and
search for the truth, often be damned.  And, unlike previous decades, our 24-7 news cycle has decreased our power to issue and control our companys or organizations message.

Today, your success in managing the message and imparting it in a powerful and consistent manner is far more challenging.  And the responsibility relies heavily upon your spokesperson.

Today, when your situation calls for engaging the media - or a reporter wants an interview on an issue, product, trend, or crisis, youd best be prepared with the best-trained and effective person in the company. 

Be careful:  this person is not necessarily your leader, president or CEO.  Identify a person who is completely knowledgeable about  - not only the subject at hand - but the entire company; he/she must be able to translate even complex information into simple, understandable, declarative language.  Moreover, in nearly every media situation, the spokesperson must accomplish delivering the message(s) in just a few sentences or seconds.  More and more, spokespersons are given less and less time to report or respond. 

Its worth the time and effort to have an internal discussion about how best and/or most interestingly or impactfully to describe a product or situation.  Write down the key points - your spokesperson must stick to those as much as possible.   In fact, prose up these points and arguments; your spokesperson can rehearse and deliver them verbatim and also be able to issue them in writing.  Consistency is the key.  

Your spokesperson must be nimble;  able to think on his/her feet, have
enough confidence (and information!) to appropriately manage the surprise question,  a change of subject, an attack (to which he/she must never be defensive.  Is I am not a crook! one of the most memorable
lines in American contemporary history?)    Under attack or surprise, you need your coolest cat.

Understanding the differences between dealing with a television reporter vs. a print reporter, for instance, is vital to your spokespersons success.  Needless to say, we can undertake an entire discussion about responses and control regarding whether the television interview is taped or live, whether the print/web reporter is writing or recording, etc. 

If at all possible, do not assign your public relations representative (if an outside agency) the role of company mouthpiece.   The publics knee-jerk take-away is that a non-company spokesperson is assigned in order to hide  key information. 

Bottom line?  The public wants creativity, credibility and your company needs absolute messaging consistency.   That way, WikiLeaks might not be able to getcha.   ###

Laura Walcher is Principal P. R. Consultant to J. Walcher Communications

AFTER THE FALL

Presidio Sentinel San Diego, December 2010
AFTER THE FALL
By Laura Walcher

   One minute I was in a exuberant stride up Fourth, fresh from the music of the 80s in Mixtec at the Horton Grand, and the next thing I knew, I hit the concrete with the buildings above me revolving in a madcap orbit. 

    The good news:  Im here to tell about it.  Was I in danger of not being here to tell about it?   By now you know, you never know.

   Eventually some kindly male voices above me called Paramedics and tried to elicit from me the degree of my consciousness, etc.    By etc. I mean, the concern and competence of the male voices, the urgency of the docs to cut through my fog, figure out my condition, the race to Sharps emergency, the family circling around  ...

   Heavy drama, right?   Fuggetabout it. 

   I was soon out-done by every friend, relative or colleague eager to hear about my story, only so they could tell me his or her own.   I therefore present myself to you as …”The Empress of Being One-Upped.

   Joans fall knocked her teeth through her cheek.  Bad, though it worked well for dieting.  Alexa after months - is still babying her shoulder and various other tender parts. Marilyn reports a broken shoulder, too.   I was rendered mute among crutches, stitches, drugs and splints. If the person his-or-herself was actually not the fallen, they all knew someone who just made my ten days of looking like an inflated pepperoni pizza yknow, a toe stub. (Ouch.)

   Don broke his bones n a complicated, twisty manner while doing the tango. (We dont have to go there.)  He still maybe needs surgery and at the least, extensive physical therapy, and while I was warned not to drive or even walk for a few days, hes managed to extend his situation to months.

   My own little trips became soooo boring?  I didnt even use Crisco on my various burns and abrasions.   Dons discovered Crisco for his; hes become a Crisco freak. He claims that Crisco is in a revival; a balm for an amazing list of skin situations. The Smucker Company ought to pay him.  I bet hes sold more cans than they have.  I personally hadnt thought about Crisco for any reason at all  - for half a century.

   But when I was rolling my eyes and resenting his worse injuries, I happened to be reading The Help, by Kathryn Stockett,  I went home and to my amazement, opened instantly on one of the characters raves, which I now excerpt for you:  if there's anything you ought a know about cooking, it's this ... and it ain't lard.  It's the most important invention since jarred mayonnaise.  Ain't PIG fat.  It's vegetable.  Who in the world doesn't know what CRISCO is? Ain't just for frying.  You ever get a sticky something stuck in your hair, like gum?  That's right. CRISCO. Spread this on a baby's bottom, you won't even know what diaper rash is.   .... ladies rub it under they eyes and on their husband's scaly feet.  Clean the goo from a price tag, take the squeak out a door hinge.  Lights get cut off, stick a wick in it and burn it like a candle. .... And after all that, it'll still fry your chicken."

   Who knew?  At 90, my mother attributed looking gorgeous to oatmeal masks.

   Well, a little dab of Crisco a day mightve made my own blown-up, contused face look pretty good sooner than the ten days I had to hide out. That was the solution I needed for my tiny little fall nothing at all like the really brutal, even tragic one youll tell me about. My, my.  Youll need a whole can.  ###

NOW SAY THIS…

Presidio Sentinel San Diego, January 2011
By Laura Walcher

    Clear communication is in very short supply these days.  We’re just too distracted, from texting to tweeting, trying to figure out why most of it matters, how to make sense of any of it, and why it should impact on our lives, anyway.

Even when one is not even Facebooking or Yelping, communication is no longer entirely clear, nor can it be quite trusted.   Take John Boehner, who now, notably, cries.  This form of communication usually conveys sentiment, regret, shame.   But the issues that lead to Mr. Boehner’s tears are a little  ...puzzling.   Crying about kids getting - or not getting - a “shot at the American dream,” makes him cry, but voting against numerous issues that prevent them from the shot doesn’t.  Highly unclear.

And now that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” is revoked, its implementation, should not “take too long a time, nor too short a time..” as offered by the experts, Oh.

That’s why I hang with Barney.  Communicating with a reasonably clear, concise Cairn Terrier is a pleasingly simple experience.  

What Barney knows, he KNOWS.   His vocabulary may be limited, but his comprehension is perfectly clear. In that interest, I offer his entire canine vocabulary that, with a few adjustments, might work equally well with humans:    

“NO!:  The singular “NO!” category is for situations that are not necessarily dangerous or life-threatening (yours or his).  He’s got one plan; you have another. Easily recognized situation. For him, peeing on somebody's newly washed car is a good example.    

“NO! NO!”:  For use when he ignores NO! (Ignoring is not mis-understanding.)

“NO! NO! NO!”: Emphasized.  This is normally associated with sidewalk garbage that Barney is determined to eat. The triple “NO” is often accompanied by a kind of war, but not one due to
mis-communication.

“STAY”:    This normally works best at street corners, and fortunately, is his best-understood word.  Who can’t use an admonition to pause and think before one runs headlong into a car  - or some other  “situation” of our own making?

“OKAY.”  You would think that “STAY” and “OKAY” sound kind've alike to a dog, but Barney seems to separate these nicely.
Anyway, OKAY means  … ready to proceed.  Sometimes he jumps the gun, but has the decency to look a little sheepish (wow, bad word.:) 

“ LET'S CROSS”:  Not to be confused with 'OKAY,” but useful when you change your mind– like suddenly deciding to cross a driveway or a lawn. Not useful unless it’s your decision. His decision requires “NO! NO! NO!”  In any case, we’re all allowed to change our minds. 

“UP, UP, UP”:  Unless he's decided not to, Barney understands that this means get UP on the curb, or UP the stairs. Human application: lite.

“GOOD BOY”:  Infrequent usage.

“BAD BOY”: Frequent usage, disdained.
“DOWN”:  Low expectations.  When “down” is required, he's usually occupying a chair upon which you wish to sit. It’s a little like “NO,” but friendlier.

“DO YOU WANT TO (GO) COME WITH ME?”  This is a pre-walk question, and his “answer,” is twirling with
glee.  It speaks for itself; a nice invitation for any communicator.

“HERE”: You either have something (food) for him, or you want him to go YOUR way instead of his way.  It works better for the first example than the second.  No polite human application.

“TREAT”:  no explanation necessary.

“COOKIE”:   Ditto.

The Winesellar & Brasserie’s Gary Parker discussed at unimagined length choosing screw caps over corks in the U-T.   As an expert, he could’ve merely told us to “do it,” and we’d do it.  Clear. Concise.

He needed some experience communicating with Barney. ###