It has become evidently clear lately that people are getting more and more into identity, in the long run that is of course beneficiary for all.
On a international scale we had the American Airlines re-branding. Locally in Sweden we had the launch of Statoils new epithet for fuel "Miles" and the list goes on.
In the A.A case (that I elaborated on earlier) people initially missed out the big journey that A.A had done in making them relevant once again. And that had nothing to do with the logo the basic outline of the identity, it was just one the components however crucial for the whole experience. But the whole negative discussion took off from a logo perspective.
In the Statoil case, they introduced something that no one asked for, (with reservation for not knowing the details of the project), they went ahead and made something that people did not want nor needed. The intention was however clear, a modern energy company who want to change their environmental lingo towards a more positivt agenda, nothing new there. But based upon the endless bantering in social media, people clearly did not want to take part of this “positive step” from Statoil. They just wanted cheaper fuel.
Could the launch have gone smoother? Absolutely, by including and involving people in the process and be as transparent as possible in the preface of the project. By showing the benefits prior to launch can and will benefit change.
Main objective, set up THE PURPOSE for your redesign, your rebranding etc. If people feel excluded and neglected from the get go chances are that problems and negative response only will escalate, and from that point every step of involvement and engagement will be very hard and very costly.
To sum things up, never ever set out on a project without clear purpose, on forehand see that the users/consumers/people are onboard the bandwagon. Otherwise you might fall and fall hard.
Keys:
Purpose
Purpose
Purpose
Inclusiveness
Dialogue
Transparency