• Old Friends

    Posted on December 28th, 2005 by and currently 1 commenting.

    I, like many of my fellow BOFers, just returned from spending Christmas with my family. For me, that means Denver – high altitude, low humidity and completely unpredictable weather (it was 69 degrees on Christmas Eve). A highlight of the visit was my last night in town when we had dinner with some friends of my parents and their daughter Erin – who had been my best friend from the age of 3-5. We haven’t seen each other since. That’s right, over 20 years of not seeing each other, and there we were, hanging out, catching up, completely blown away by how little the person in front of us resembled the fuzzy memory we had tucked away.

    Which got me thinking… it’s interesting how tightly we hold on to our original impressions of things. Logically, I knew that she had aged just as much as I had. Just like she knew that my brothers and I had aged… but still I was half expecting to see the same skinny five-year-old girl who cried with me when we saw ‘Annie.’ And just try telling her my little brother is 6’2″ and engaged! The fact is, we hold on to what we know, and accepting change can be a mind-boggling experience.

    The connection? Think about when companies make the decision to rebrand or reposition themselves. Whether it’s a new name, a new logo, a new mission… (remember my post lamenting Kodak’s change in focus?)… asking your customers to accept an identity change can sometimes be asking a lot, particularly if they haven’t been along for the ride.

    That’s why it’s so important to engage customers in the process of rebranding… and that’s what things like the insight process and transparency are all about. Show your customers how important they are by letting them come on the rebranding journey with you.

    Erin and I were lucky – we were fascinated by the changes that had taken place in each other. But brand loyalty is a much more fragile relationship.  It has to be continually cultivated. Otherwise, when you knock on your customer’s door in your new incarnation, no longer looking like that skinny five-year-old they know and love, they won’t recognize you… and they just might close the door.

  • http://thebrandbuilder.blogspot.com/ Olivier Blanchard

    Aha! Good point. Turn off your phone for about five minutes and check this out.