Truth comes with ugly bits
See, we run a lot of branding workshops. And in those, we chat teams through a smorgasbord of strategic exercises designed to unearth the truth about where their brand is and where it should go.
The problem is, when you lift the rock to uncover that shiny gold truth, there’s always other more unsavoury things to face. Things you’d rather not touch. Because brand development is always prompted by a need for change…and change makes people nervous.
We’ve seen it first hand many times. Because we usually talk to people from all levels of the business, a brand overhaul can look like the first tentative rounds of some kind of internal blame game – and that’s not a game most want to play.
And nobody has to!
You can need a brand refresh and still have a great team. The way you look, talk, and come across can benefit from a lick of paint without anyone really having done anything wrong – times change, things keep moving, tastes transform.
People often use these kinds of workshops to air grievances or defend their department or even to promote personal views, and these operational or HR issues are almost never relevant to the wider brand
But…
There’s no telling where a golden nugget of insight can come from. And, when you’re dealing with internal teams – a fly on the wall of the secret inner workings – you never know when you might hear something that the brand needs to say. Not the team member – the brand.
Sometimes the truth hurts…but it’s what you need to get to the guts of your brand.
Someone in the team will always question whether you even need a rebrand. They’ll say the old one’s perfectly fine. They’ll tell you why the ins and outs of their own particular department are the most crucial to consider. They’ll say a logo reminds them of something completely subjective that nobody else would ever consider thinking. They’ll sometimes make you wonder what you’re doing it for.
These are the people who aren’t afraid to tell you what you don’t know. Sometimes it can feel like certain people are out to derail the whole process or bring a cloud of negativity over the room but, even if they’re sucking the life out of the vibe for 58 mins of the hour, they’re often the ones that will deliver 2 mins of useful, clear, original thinking.
Always remember that, while some of these conversations can be difficult, they’re usually the most useful.
Because you’ll never know what unites the people in your team until you know what divides them. And you’ll never know your brand until you know the people that make it.
So don’t worry about the inevitable negativity – it all goes towards giving you the change you need.
