Why Implementation Matters

It was late last year First Great Western revealed they were changing their name to GWR.

It was a bold move, given the heritage wrapped up in the name – the original GWR was referred to by some as ‘God’s Wonderful Railway’, without any hint of the modern train passenger’s irony. Additionally, the rebrand included a visual redesign as they adopted a more modern approach while retaining a link to what lives at the heart of its new old name – great engineering.

Travelling on the service recently, I was impressed with the large, strong, industrial logo and the new colour choices. But what I didn’t see was anything substantially new. The same old items simply had a new logo while the experience was still a classic British train ordeal; the same clunky and complex booking system with a multitude of ticket types and restrictions on travel that would give Apple’s Ts&Cs a run for their money.

Seven months after revealing the identity, it now seems like another example of a brand simply doing the same thing in a better-looking way, rather than doing something new.

This reminds me of the clients Wolff Olins often meet who’ve previously launched a new brand without seeing the results they were expecting. They may have had the right ambition, certainly when creating their new brand. But, in many cases, it disappeared when the time came to implement real change. The result? The business didn’t change – it just looked a bit different, and a couple of years later they were looking to rebrand again.

This is where implementation comes into play. Traditionally, implementation specialists come in later to focus on auditing the existing visual assets and work out the costs of changing them. Both are important but it is not where implementation should begin.

Brand – be that design or strategy – is frequently discussed without the added complexity of making it real. At the same time, approaches to production, budgets and resourcing are discussed without giving consideration to the importance of design.

Today’s executives understand a rebrand is more than a logo. Customers will still recognize their beloved brand with or without it. But this is often forgotten by the time it comes to the brand’s implementation. In focusing on solely the logo, GWR are missing a huge opportunity.

The reality is that any implementation should never be a pure cost exercise, or an attempt to win awards for the most consistent logo placement. It’s much more than that.

Reality? Check.

It’s vital to remind ourselves why this costly change is happening. Otherwise all we achieve is a very expensive paint job - typically at the expense of budgets from other areas of the business that also need change.

Our approach to implementation at Wolff Olins is to consider the creative and the practical side by side. We work with both clients and partner agencies to lead this change in a different way -  by ensuring that time, effort and budgets are focused on what really matters – which is signalling real change to customers and employees while ensuring a smooth transition.

Maintaining the focus on people while enabling a smooth transition from theory to production is one of the most challenging tasks a company can face. By acting quickly, decisively and breaking down the tasks into the correct stages, we can ensure the complexity is manageable.

The first stage is to create an approach that factors in the ambition: what this change is signalling to the business and the rest of the world. Key questions such as whether your brand should launch overnight, with a big reveal, or whether it should grow gradually into the market, become easier to answer with this ambition in mind.

Ensuring your first discussion is about the ambition and approach to launch is a great step and one that will set your project on the right path. 

Change across the whole business?

Now is the time to spread change across the business. Use the ambition and new brand to engage the entire business in discussions on what should change (and when).

Discussing this early on allows time to plan in a way that gets maximum bang for your buck. In areas such as product development, culture change, and digital infrastructure, the timelines can be long; the sooner the change is agreed upon, the better. With this headstart, you can create tangible and impactful change that sits at the heart of a brand launch.

This is where the role of an implementation partner becomes key. As professionals, we like to think we can achieve real change through creative planning and using the ambition to justify everything that changes. But this needs to be combined with a clear plan for transition and the key stages that will deliver it. The skill of combining the emotive with the methodical is one that sets apart the kind of great implementations that can systematically change a business.

Focus on the essential

A clear roadmap is a key implementation tool. One of the best ways to create one is to focus on the essentials: consider what achieves the most impact, what best demonstrates the new approach your company is taking, and what items must change to avoid confusion. By focusing on these three areas, rather than the traditional cost + audit approach, you’ll have a roadmap that will allow you to invest in what really matters.

These are a few thoughts on how to tackle implementation more effectively. However, it’s a complex piece that touches every part of a brand, and thus every part of a brand project. But by starting with an ambition, building an approach that works across the business, and basing your timings on something more than cost alone, you’ll be able to give yourself the best possible start.

Take a step back and remember: anyone who creates a new brand understands that it’s about more than a logo change. It’s time for the people implementing brands to embrace this too.

Illustration by Erik Yang.

Corin Mills is Implementation Manager at Wolff Olins London.