CorpComms Magazine

1: Keep things in perspective A rebrand usually involves months of planning by marketing, brand management and other areas within the firm. It can gather an internal sense of importance not necessarily indicative of its external news value.

2: Consider the rebrand background Is it a simple name change to reflect a new business plan? Does it involve emotive changes to a well-loved brand? Does it reflect a change of ownership? All these factors will determine your messages and media positioning.

The big issue for Aegon was the 'Scottish question'. There had been persistent rumours that the name Scottish Equitable would be axed, to which the Scottish press reacted vociferously. We had to consider this carefully. We very much wanted to maintain our connection with our key audience - our Scottish customer base - so we made sure when talking to the Scottish press that we gave special attention to the reasons behind the name change. We explained the need to promote the Aegon name, and reiterated that we did not want to distance ourselves from Scotland; after all, we are based in Edinburgh.

3: Know your audience Recognise that news of a rebrand may be received differently by different audiences; anticipate their reaction and develop the media plan with this in mind. It is important to get the balance right. We didn't want mainstream media coverage, for instance, because it was necessary only to alert financial advisers. Huge coverage could have alarmed our customers, so we restricted initial advertising to trade publications.

4: Fully integrate the PR plan Be aware of when the first wave of advertising is due to run, when customers will be advised and - importantly - when the announcement will be made to staff. You don't want to risk the news leaking before the planned announcement, so it is vital not to leave too much of a gap between informing the staff and informing the media. You have to be aware of the different audiences that need to know about the change. A rebrand might be emotive, for example, for staff who have worked for a brand for ten or 15 years. We informed staff on the Friday before the official announcement to the trade press.

5: Plan the rebrand announcement carefully Timing is important. Choose a day that will enable you to achieve the right amount of coverage. A quiet news day could leave your announcement attracting more attention than intended, while a busy one could mean it is overlooked. Our announcement fell on a Tuesday immediately after a bank holiday. That was a good day because the trade publications we targeted go to press on a Tuesday. Also, we didn't want our news to get lost among the bank holiday press releases. It is vital to carefully plan the timing of advertising. We had originally planned to buy advertising space in the September issue of Money Management, a publication for financial advisers, before realising that the issue would be published in mid- August - before the announcement! Instead, we went for the October issue.

6: Use eye-catching photography It should feature the new brand and have jpegs of both old and new branding.

7: Remember that short-lived is good While it may be big news for a short time, if your communications strategy is successful, the change should quickly become accepted and you can move on.

8: Beware third-party commentators Work out who journalists may approach for comment on the new brand strategy and brief key individuals at the earliest opportunity on the changes and the reasons why for them. Hopefully you can bring them onside as endorsers but, even if they don't agree with what you're doing, they will be commenting from an informed perspective.

9: Have a good flow of news stories This will demonstrate the new brand in practice and make people familiar with it. We had stories ready to roll shortly after the announcement in order to reinforce the rebrand message and keep it in people's minds. For example, two weeks after the rebrand we launched a retirement planning product that gave us the opportunity to use the new branding.

10: Realise that people need time to get to know the new brand Some people may need a gentle reminder if they continue to refer to the old brand. But a tactful approach is advisable: acting like the 'brand police' could be counterproductive. We reinforced the message that we had changed our brand by holding a journalists' drinks party to coincide with the launch of our new retirement planning product, where we were able to talk to people face to face about it. You have to keep a balance, though - journalists in particular don't like having lots of marketing thrown at them.

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