Acronym

The concept of “branding” sounds very academic, but as the Special Libraries Association can tell you, it can rouse deep feeling in members. As Thomas Calcagni of SLA said in the “Changing Your Association’s Brand” Learning Lab today, “I’m going to tell you a story that involves bare-knuckle politics, separation of families, deep concern … I’m talking about SLA’s previous effort to brand itself.”

He shared a few lessons from their experience:

- There needs to be a loud, vocal commitment on the part of the board. Branding can be very emotional and political, and they need to be fully committed for the process to succeed.
- Involve your members’ customers. What do they think about your members? What do they want from them?
- Focus on a broad strategy rather than just a single component—not just the name, the logo, and other things that are building blocks of the overall brand and overall brand promise. One of Calcagni’s board members described it as a “game change, not a name change.”

I do wonder what Ken Schmidt of Harley-Davidson, one of today’s thought leaders, would think of the idea of “changing a brand.” Schmidt described your brand as your “noise”—what your customers say about you when you’re not there. Is there any direct way to change “noise” that can be voted on? Or does it need to develop organically over time?