CorpComms Magazine

Employees at Reckitt Benckiser's global headquarters in Slough, Berkshire could be forgiven for blinking in disbelief when they turned up for work on February 11.

Overnight, the healthcare-to-cleaning products company had shed its dull black and blue corporate image and adopted a new vibrant brand. Screen savers and mouse mats had been replaced, new stationery and business cards filled the store cupboards while the walls were covered with artwork and posters highlighting the new image, with the catchphrases Unleashing performance or Powering ahead.

With the exception of a sign attached to the front of the building, which awaits planning permission from the local council before it can be dismantled and reinstated in the new corporate livery, all the signage reflected the rebranding. There was even a handful of chocolates, branded RB, on every desk.

'Employees left the building one evening and returned the next day to the rebranding,' explains Andraea Dawson-Shepherd, global director of corporate communications and affairs.

It also marked the end of a journey begun by Dawson-Shepherd when she joined the FTSE 15 company last March. 'I felt that the old brand didn't reflect Reckitt Benckiser [or RB, as it is referred internally]. We have such a huge character, a real soul and a strong sense of who we are,' she explains.

The old brand, with its lacklustre lettering in black and blue, almost looked to have been thrown together when Reckitt & Colman, a company with roots dating back to 1814 when Jeremiah Colman first began to mill flour and mustard, merged with Dutch company Benckiser in 1999 to form the world's biggest household cleaning group.

A modest approach

For a company with such iconic consumer brands, such as Cillit Bang and Finish, and its focus on 17 global power brands, which generate nearly two thirds of revenues, Reckitt Benckiser's lack of attention to the corporate brand was perhaps surprising. But Dawson-Shepherd also believes that it is typical of the company. 'The corporate brand is absolutely behind the other brands. We describe ourselves as The power behind the power brands. Our brands are at the centre of the company, and there are little moments every day when they have a role to play in people's lives,' she says.

But there comes a point where external stakeholders can misinterpret such modesty. Reckitt Benckiser has also evolved since its merger. Its acquisition of Boots Healthcare International in 2006 provided a new platform for growth in over-the-counter healthcare products, such as Nurofen, Strepsils and Clearasil, and expanded the company's remit.

'Part of the reason why my role was created was to ready the business to meet its future growth needs,' explains Dawson-Shepherd. 'We needed to ensure that people who might be part of the future of our worldwide business were clear about what Reckitt Benckiser is. We needed to develop our character.'

In many respects, that character is rather idiosyncratic. Unlike other global companies, Reckitt Benckiser has a flat management structure and prides itself on the fact that most employees are just two people away from the chief executive, Dutch born Bart Becht. It is a culture that recognises and rewards innovation. The company is constantly looking at ways to evolve and develop existing products. For example, where consumers were once satisfied with Nurofen, today they enjoy a variety of versions ranging from a melt in the mouth format to analgesics targeted at cold and flu symptoms or back pain to express versions that tackle problems twice as fast. Indeed, between 35 per cent and 40 per cent of all sales now come from products launched over the past three years.

Entrepreneurship and ownership

Majority rule does not always prevail. For example, if a handful of people in a meeting do not agree with the others, their views or ideas will not be dismissed. Instead, they will be offered the chance to explore them further because, as Dawson-Shepherd puts it, 'if they feel that strongly then there just might be something to it'.

She adds: 'There is the entrepreneurial attitude of small business here. People have ownership of their ideas. They do what is needed and take the initiative. It is fast paced. Decisions are made quickly; there is not a lot of people second guessing.'

When Dawson-Shepherd commissioned Islington-based agency, The Workroom, last May, after a three-way pitch, she gave them a very open brief. 'The old brand identity really did not reflect what Reckitt Benckiser is about now,' says Brigid McMullen, managing director at The Workroom, which has worked with the company for nine years.

McMullen and her team conducted a series of brand workshops and one-to-one interviews with Reckitt Benckiser's stakeholders, such as senior management, regulators, financial PRs and institutional investors, to discover how they perceived the company. They also had access to research conducted by the company across its global operations.

'We got a very good picture of how they saw themselves and how others saw them,' adds McMullen. The entrepreneurial spirit was a recurring theme, but Reckitt Benckiser was also viewed as energetic, multinational, direct and rigorous. These discussions led to a new positioning for the company, The power behind the brands.

'The discussion then became what might be an appropriate visual metaphor for the brand,' explains Dawson-Shepherd. 'A high performance sport kite was very appropriate and memorable. It could fly up and up and onwards, or turn and change direction.'

Kite mark of success

As McMullen adds: 'Reckitt Benckiser is an innovative business driven by energy and performance, harnessed to drive success. In professional hands a sport kite is competitive, spirited and dynamic, designed to outperform the competition. This idea distinctively represents the spirit of the business.'

A dramatic, almost Day-Glo, colour palette was used to ensure that the brand remains highly visible, even when competing with the vibrant colours of the packaging of some Reckitt Benckiser products.

The new branding was introduced to the company's top 40 executives in early February. It also sees 'RB' introduced alongside Reckitt Benckiser for the first time, in a move aimed at simplifying pronunciation of the company on an international basis. A kite mark graphic device sits above the typographic logo, containing the two letters, which will be used as a standalone branding tool once the new identity has been established.

Ambassadors of change

Reckitt Benckiser has appointed 60 brand ambassadors - one in each of its markets - to champion the new identity and to coordinate the manner in which it is rolled out within their locality. 'We launched it in one day in the UK at the end of quarter one. In Bangladesh and Russia, it was rolled out overnight, while in North America it took another 10 to 12 days,' says Dawson-Shepherd. 'They are still rolling it out in India and it will be introduced later this year in Australia.' Budgets were allocated for each region's rebranding, and can be distributed as deemed appropriate.

Dawson-Shepherd rejects suggestions that a rebranding programme in the current economic climate may appear inappropriate. 'These are the most challenging markets since our creation. Rebranding provides us with a great opportunity to distance ourselves from our peers, and to engage with new people,' she says. 'But the feedback from our headquarter event [where competitive kite flyers demonstrated their prowess] was that there was so much doom and gloom around that it was really exciting to have something new and dynamic. The common response has been I love it.'

McMullen says the response has 'been extremely enthusiastic', adding: 'This is a very vibrant dynamic representation ofthe brand.' 

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