When the magic happens, You’re making change happen.
Identity stamped to perfection.
Understanding:
style, thinking, love, goals and aspirations.
There are always ways to re-imagine.
Be who you are. Strive to be better.
*This is a new day, a new era. My new personal brand stamp marks each letter as if to say, “Hi there!” We need to have a conversation about creativity and art and art and creativity and that relationship specifically.
It’s been a slice since I’ve been on here. It’s because I have recently (well, about five months ago now) started a new job! I’m so excited. It has been the opportunity of a lifetime, and I am learning so much about a new industry and finding myself passionate about the projects I’ve been undertaking. Who is the new company? Delta Water Products! The head office is locally based in Chilliwack and has 14 branches across Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest. I’ve been hired as the new Marketing Manager, and my very first task was to take on the company’s rebranding as it became the parent name to several sub-brands, which required a complete revitalization of the brand.
Now, it’s essential to remember that rebranding is not a mere cosmetic change like a new logo or catchy tagline; it’s a strategic initiative that can redefine a company’s identity, reposition it in the market, and set the stage for long-term success. As businesses evolve, rebranding can be crucial in aligning a company’s image with its vision, values, and the market’s ever-changing demands. Understanding this strategic nature of rebranding can empower those involved to make informed decisions about their company’s future. Let’s delve in to understand better what a rebrand is.
What is Rebranding?
Rebranding is the process of changing an organization’s corporate image. It involves updating or completely overhauling the brand’s name, logo, visual identity, messaging, and sometimes its core values and mission. The goal is to create a new identity that resonates with customers, differentiates the company from its competitors, and reflects its current or future ambitions.
For many companies, rebranding becomes necessary after mergers or acquisitions, market shifts, changes in customer preferences, or a desire to enter new markets. It’s a way of breathing new life into a brand and ensuring it remains relevant and competitive.
What Makes a Successful Rebrand?
A successful rebrand is one that not only captures the essence of what a company stands for but also resonates with its target audience. Here are some key elements that contribute to a successful rebrand:
Clear Purpose and Vision: A rebrand should be driven by clearly understanding the company’s goals. Whether it’s to attract a new customer base, reflect a merger, or reposition the brand in the market, the purpose behind the rebrand should guide every decision.
Consistency Across All Touchpoints: Rebranding isn’t just about changing a logo. It’s about creating a consistent brand experience across all customer touchpoints—from the website and social media to packaging and customer service. Consistency helps build trust and recognition among customers.
Stakeholder Involvement: A rebrand should involve input from critical stakeholders, including employees, customers, and partners. Their insights can provide valuable perspectives on what the brand represents and how it should evolve.
Authenticity: The new brand identity should reflect the company’s values and heritage. A successful rebrand doesn’t mean abandoning what made the brand strong in the first place; it’s about building on that foundation.
Effective Communication: It is crucial to communicate the reasons behind the rebrand and what it means for customers. Transparency helps in gaining customer buy-in and ensures a smooth transition.
Rebranding for Sustainability and Longevity
A well-executed rebrand can significantly contribute to the sustainability and longevity of a company. Here’s how:
Adapting to Market Changes: As markets evolve, so do customer needs and expectations. Rebranding allows a company to adapt to these changes, ensuring it remains relevant and competitive.
Expanding Market Reach: Through rebranding, a company can reposition itself to attract new customer segments or enter new markets. This expansion can lead to increased market share and growth.
Strengthening Brand Equity: A robust and consistent brand builds equity over time. Rebranding can refresh and reinvigorate a brand, increasing its perceived value and enhancing customer loyalty.
Reflecting Growth and Evolution: Companies grow, and their brands should evolve to reflect that growth. Rebranding allows a company to communicate its progress, innovations, and future direction.
Building a Unified Brand Identity: In the case of mergers or acquisitions, rebranding can unify different entities under a single, cohesive brand. This simplifies the brand architecture and helps create a more substantial, recognizable presence in the market.
This rebrand was not just about a name change. It was about unifying these brands’ strengths and unique abilities to offer a broader range of expertise, products, and services. By becoming Delta Water Products Group, the company has expanded its geographic coverage across Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest and diversified its product segments, including Irrigation (Turnkey agriculture irrigation solutions and products), Pumps & Motors (Groundwater, industrial, commercial, HVAC, agriculture systems), Waterworks (Civil and municipal waterworks, wastewater, and drainage), Wildfire Response (Rapid action to supply big water for structure protection and heli teams), and HD Conduit (Cable conduit, fibre optics, and communication boxes).
This rebranding effort underscores Delta Water Products Group’s commitment to sustainability and longevity. By consolidating under a single, cohesive brand, the company has strengthened its market position, making it more agile and better equipped to meet the needs of its customers today and in the future.
I hope this all makes sense to you! Just keep in mind – rebranding is a powerful tool that, when executed thoughtfully, can increase a company’s relevance, market share, and longevity. It’s more than just a visual overhaul; it’s about aligning the brand with the company’s current and future goals. For companies like mine, rebranding has provided a renewed sense of purpose, a more robust market presence, and a clear path forward in an ever-evolving industry.
We took many steps to execute the rebrand, including building a new landing page, updating email signatures, and releasing brand announcement letters. My next big project is building one unified website to consolidate the brands and represent our group. I’ve shared a couple of different brand announcements I made below so you can understand my approach and the new branding. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me anytime!
Member A – Marketing is a constantly evolving landscape.
Member B – Ideas ignite and fizzle away.
Member C – A structured and creative ebb and flow transpires.
Member D – New campaigns take flight.
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Evolution.
We seek out different and diverse points of view, embrace and respond to change, and plan only to a level sufficient to ensure effective prioritization and execution. We find ourselves encountering a phenomenon called—CRITICAL MASS.
Akin to when celestial planets align, critical mass is that single yet multifarious moment when our efforts transcend the ordinary and catapult into the extraordinary. It’s a transformative point when our brand’s message resonates with such force that it achieves unstoppable momentum, similar to a cascading waterfall or an awe-inspiring avalanche.
Achieving critical mass can ignite a spark in the collective consciousness of a team, sparking a wildfire of enthusiasm that spreads contagiously through diligent becomings – social networks, word-of-mouth, and media channels. One clever idea can transform into an iconic cultural touchstone, etching your brand’s identity into the minds of engaged onlookers everywhere.
When an idea reaches critical mass, it propels forward and impacts a team’s ability to meet goals.
Here are some ways your team can make that impact based on some common marketing objectives –
Boost Brand Awareness
As your name, products, and services become more recognized, brand awareness will naturally increase. When your brand reaches a certain level of visibility, popularity, or adoption, it triggers a self-sustaining momentum (critical mass), fostering a positive feedback loop that fuels growth and solidifies your brand’s position in the market.
Obtain New Clients
Your team can focus on targeted campaigns to showcase your USP (unique selling proposition) and differentiators while also highlighting your clients’ success stories and effectively communicating the value of your product to attract a steady stream of interest (demand generation), then ultimately converting that interest into actual sales and new clients (client acquisition).
Strengthen Relationships with Existing Clients
You can contribute to this effort by implementing a preferred client program, personalizing your internal and external communication via channels like social media, email, and content, and creating a detailed plan and strategy around launching new products that address client challenges, needs and pain points.
Increase Sales
As your market presence and brand awareness expand, so does sales potential. A larger customer base combined with the effective execution of a strategy will lead to more opportunities. Your marketing team can collaborate closely with your sales team to generate and nurture high-quality leads, provide sales enablement materials, and optimize the customer journey to convert prospects into loyal clients.
So, what do you think?
Critical mass is a powerful catalyst for any growing team. By reaching this point of substantial growth and influence, your team’s efforts – recognizing ‘critical mass’ as it occurs and creating models to emulate its course – become pivotal in driving continued success.
Inspiration can be a behemoth, and it is waiting for y’all!
Hey everyone! My gosh, has it been a long time! I’ve been so busy working on my career that I haven’t had two seconds to post on my personal website. Transparency aside, I wanted to share a new series based on a weekly project I run at work called Social Media Update. In this series, I touch on social media and general marketing strategy, and I thought it would be great to share it with you all.
I’ll work my way back to when I started at Longboard, so here is our first instalment! Have fun with it, and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out at info@chonafecanlas.com.
Finding the ‘intriguing angle’ is the idea that we can focus on big-picture topics like our core aspects (innovation, sustainability, quality) to create compelling content that impacts our target audiences.
When creating social media content, we can ask and answer a couple of questions:
Q: What is a significant concern for our business and other businesses today?
A: Our audience demands a greater understanding of where and how our products are sourced and manufactured.
Q: What approach can we take?
A: We can and should comment on sustainability by promoting a transparent and traceable approach. This entails a mix of carefully curated messaging that effectively positions our differentiators while driving an emotional reaction from our audience.
For example, we could share that all production is on-site and that we have an incredible production team that helps to build our premium products. We would also mention that we pursue responsible consumption and production, which helps create sustainable architecture that positively impacts the environment and the communities around us.
Our team is mindful that we must not fall into the trap of hoping word will get out and the customers will come. Through proactive and strategic messaging, we can understand why we do what we do, and share that message with the world.
So, what did you think of that? Do you feel inspired to identify some core aspects of your business, then do a deep dive into how they can impact your target audience? Please share your thoughts!
A good curveball is an opportunity (remember, problems are opportunities) to:
1 – Own your dreams.
2 – Reimagine the world.
Own Your Dreams
To own your dreams, you must recognize, acknowledge, and value the fact that something is waiting for you out in the world.
It is there to fulfill.
It exists to make you happy.
You are satisfied when united (or reunited) with it.
It becomes a part of you and can be shared with others.
A Good Curveball
Owning my dreams is being connected to work I’ve always envisioned doing—building a sustainable and scalable brand that will influence people inside and outside the operation.
Reimagine the World
Second, to a good curveball is our ability to reimagine the world. Through a clear and defined vision and mission, we can accomplish anything. With a good heart and holistic stance, our world can become something better, more equal and more understanding.
Reimagining the world involves pushing boundaries, setting new standards, and developing a structure or process that leads to innovation, progression, and growth.
I think I get thrown more good curveballs as I age, so I hope this becomes the norm and the opportunities don’t cease!
As I continue to inspire and empower people to make a difference in their daily lives, I recognize three things that matter to me today. Of course, there’s always more, but let’s get started with these!
Become Indispensable
1- Relationships
One of the biggest influencers in my marketing career has been the formative relationships I have built over time—in both the long and short-term. Having a direct report has taught me to be vulnerable and courageous as I’ve had to steer a small team in a viable direction while maintaining strong, personal connections which benefitted the entire team. I am particularly grateful for the opportunity to work directly under the Founder and CEO of Clearbridge, Ryan Kononoff. He has taught me many things about engagement and the effort required to make meaningful projects matter to an audience. I am also thankful for every other team member I’ve had the chance to grow alongside.
You are bright.
You are dedicated.
You are special!
2 – #goodenough
This is one lesson that has helped me to conquer my perfectionism. I recall working on one of my first projects, a new brand book (or later called a Playbook), which in scope was a huge undertaking that could have demanded months of work. But with the knowledge that a marketer should be agile, or as the Agile Marketing Manifesto states –
“To keep up with the speed and complexity of marketing today, we must deliver value early and often over waiting for perfection.”
In creative marketing, we challenge ourselves by generating work that is original, unique and that manifests a change in its surroundings. In analytical marketing, we must use data sets to quantify results. Pairing the two (creative + analytical marketing) is where #goodenough truly shines—we can experiment to determine what approach works the best, and we don’t have to wait to be enlightened. We should find insights with every movement or decision we make!
3 – Indispensability
I rarely finish an entire book in one sitting. It’s often hard for me to finish it at all. I prefer to scan information and read what will be of value to me. Such was the case with Seth Godin’s book Linchpin. As he writes –
“You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must.”
Such an important lesson because it’s much too easy to forget your worth. We must use every inch of our being to recognize and become more self-aware. In marketing, the potential to get lost in a sea of tasks and activities might forsake where the value truly lies—creating, ideating, and examining the wonder and change that a type of approach can incite.
Being indispensable takes:
Courage
A growth mindset
Initiative
Risk
And most importantly…talent. You can’t duplicate indispensable work. I truly believe this!
The Playbook
A pièce de résistance, I hope you find value in reading it!
I love to write, and emails are a breath of fresh air.
No editing. No fancy words. No issues over length. No need for profundity.
It has been almost five years since I left Bell Mobility to pursue a career in marketing, and one thing that has drastically changed is how often I communicate via email.
I miss the simplicity of it all. I miss reaching out to my clients daily. I miss the back-and-forth motion that builds connection.
At Bell, I had so many great relationships; I used email to build better ones along the way. It was just so damn efficient. Templates allowed the writing to take shape quickly. In mere minutes, I was sending off concise and compelling messages. Over and over again. Each email was re-read once, at most twice, and then sent so I could continue to the next case. It was a beautiful workflow, and it was all supported by Salesforce.
And by the way, I am trying to write more like Seth Godin. Also, finding my way back to my university days. My favourite professor and mentor, Paul Woodrow, graded an essay I wrote on the fallacies of Coca-Cola, commenting in tiny writing and bright green ink, “Swift and punchy, Chona!”
So begets my email manifesto –
I will always try to write swift and punchy.
If I can remember to, that is.
Alas, I have a pop quiz for y’all.
I want you to decide which entry below is authentic, meaning not edited. And which one is “fake”, as in completely and utterly revised from its original style + tone.
How can you tell? What gives it away? Which is written better?
Ah, so many questions to ponder, but if only we had more time.
Off to bed, now, enjoy the exercise!
Entry 1
For all my years as a Corporate Account Manager at Bell, some of my fondest memories included writing emails. I loved how fluid and uncomplicated it was to craft messages on the spot without spending copious amounts of time editing. I would not mind working on some ideas to “wow” our current and prospective customers with something easy to read, memorable, and impactful!
Entry 2
I spent many years as a Corporate Account Manager at Bell, crafting friendly and professional emails. I thought it was so exciting (yup, I love communication!) to be able to write something on the spot that didn’t require any editing. It’s an art form really. Would love to work on some ideas to incorporate more emails into how we communicate with our customers.
(A poem about AI or conversely celebrating My New Job)
As cryptic as it may be, the time has arrived.
“Surprise!” it squeals with utter delight.
After all that hard work, you’ve finally made it here.
I’m ready. She’s ready. She’s finally prepared!
“Where are you going?” it asks quizzically.
Well, I am headed toward reality.
It’s bursting at the seam from being grappled for so long.
I’ve been waiting, hankering, perfecting my song.
“Do you know where you’re going?” it asks once again.
Well, I certainly have an idea. The spot is a delight. Filled with smiling faces, happy circumstances and scenarios of hard work.
“Well, welcome home then, I suppose!” it pats my back congratulatorily.
Why, thank you, my friend! Now, let’s pencil this in!
A little explanation:
On Monday, March 14th, 2022, I had a wicked phone interview that started with a compliment about the same content you’ve been passionately reading here on ChonaBLOX. Swiftly, I was scheduled super bright and early the next day, Tuesday, March 15th, 2022, to meet the CEO and Operations Manager of Clearbridge Business Solutions. I walked away from that interview, thinking I had done horribly. And as I arrived at work, I furiously texted my husband, saying, “Man, I’m worried. I don’t think I did that well.” But it turns out I did because I received a phone call within minutes saying they wanted to offer me the job! So, it’s done. I’m starting a new journey with my new company, Clearbridge. So excited! This is going to be a lifetime experience. Can’t wait to get started!
It’s weird how important points in life can become permanent as art—written in 2018. In other words, it can feel like the universe has swallowed me up, and I have become a planet—experienced as a child and adult. So big, my sight became distorted—on the drive into work. I would look at my bedroom door, and its imposition startled me—the nightmare. I tried to comfort myself by huddling underneath the blankets, but they too swallowed me whole—while dreaming. It was and still is the most alarming thing I have ever experienced.
What is the fear factor? The risk that you will not change. The fault of your pursuits. The question of your intentions. We form who we are based upon who we’ve been and are set on a continuous quest to find and form a new self. These pieces have formed me for a small portion of time, yet they are timeless, ongoing representations of growth and quiescence. My art is my refuge. How do you relate?
Day to day, I think of ways to express the importance of change. How it can help guide us toward growth. How by honouring and trusting in it, we can start to thrive.
Still, we have such a hard time adjusting our habits. They are formed and a part of who we are, though not always good for us.
What happens when you start the process of change and go backwards, reverting to previous habits, undeciding that you’re brave enough to follow through and succeed?
These are the questions I am constantly asking myself. What will be the conclusion? How come we’re not there yet? Will we ever arrive?
And so, as change is constant, we can only continue on our quest, taking the small steps to bring us closer toward our goals.
As you search, tell yourself you’re alright. Then, document your actions and take time to examine how you got to each stage. As Deepak Chopra says, “All great changes are preceded by chaos.” Chaos being –