A tweak here, a tweak there
Sometimes, it”™s the way the name rolls off your tongue.
Or, it”™s the feeling you get from a carefully selected color palette.
But for one Westchester company, it was about seamless integration.
Amalgamated Life had a new address in White Plains, six burgeoning subsidiaries and no one cohesive way to express that.
“The company, over the years, has operated in what I call six silos and branded themselves very differently,” said John Thornton, executive vice president of Amalgamated Family of Companies. “When David Walsh (president and CEO) and I came in, the decision was made that we would look at the company in its totality to leverage the strength of each individual company.”
Amalgamated Life Insurance Co. had moved some 400 employees in October 2008 to White Plains from a Waverly Place address in Manhattan that Thornton called “disgusting, quite frankly.”
The new offices, the former headquarters of General Foods at 333 Westchester Ave., gave employees ”“ nearly 75 percent of them ”“ an office with some form of windowed view. This was all the more reason for the company to freshen its image after a fresh move from the city.
“Amalgamated had its own color palette before we came here,” said Kay Spalding, marketing director. “We wanted to refine it, make it cleaner and more visually appealing.”
The last thing Amalgamated wanted to do was to lose its name and thus, its historical character born from the union movement in 1943. But it has redesigned its logo and produced new collateral promotional materials.
The ballpark cost of the Amalgamated Family of Companies rebrand was north of $100,000.
“It”™s cleaner, it”™s consistent and it has an updated look,” Spalding said. “We”™re going to also incorporate it into the website, but at least now the color scheme is the same, the logos are the same.”
Though the Amalgamated Family of Companies can cross-market and sell the company as a cohesive whole, for some companies ”“ particularly in the consumer goods”™ industry ”“ brand loyalty is, at times, a thing not to be trifled with.
Allan Ross, president of advertising agency A.J. Ross Creative in Chester, referenced The Coca-Cola Co. and the attempt to remarket the product as the “New Coke” in 1985, a marketing effort he said “blew up in their face.”
Sometimes, the tried-and-true route is safest.
“McDonald”™s hasn”™t changed their logo in over 40 years,” Ross said. “It works. People are used to it. They”™ve got equity in it.”
The State University of New York ”“ and its 64 campuses ”“ last year revamped its brand, logo and strategic plan called The Power of SUNY.
A grassroots campaign was kicked off by Chancellor Nancy Zimpher statewide, presenting the SUNY school system as a formidable means of partnership for businesses and communities.
The face-time with the consumer or student, in SUNY”™s case, is invaluable.
“If you”™re not shaking your clients”™ hands, or your people at McDonald”™s aren”™t being nice to your customers, no matter how much you advertise, your brand is down the toilet,” Ross said. “Twitter does not sell your product.”