So Koch Records, Koch Entertainment, et. al., successful noisemakers in the independant record business, announced that they are being rebranded, in accordance with their parent company E1.
The name change was “effective immediately” as of Jan. 23, 2009.
Interesting that the Koch websites don’t reflect this, a full four days after the announcement. There is no also no apparant E1-branded website to match, although www.e1entertainment.com has a “coming soon”, and seems a possible candidate.
To me, this just seems like a sloppy transition.
Advice? When changing ANYTHING (your name, your logo, your website address, your phone number, etc.) do it swiftly and across all channels as simultaneous as possible. When completely altering the name or logo or conducting other drastic changes, it a good idea to keep the old AND the new during a pre-determined “grace period”, before finally shutting the door on the old. This will allow visitors to acclimate to the upcoming change, instead of potentially causing confusion by the simple flipping of the switch, so to speak.
Be sure to point out on your online properties and any PR efforts what has changed, and in some cases, explain why (even if it’s PR fibbing).
In a day and time when record companies are having such trouble, every effort should be make to maintain the loyalty of a follower, or business entity seeking to do business. Confusion during a major branding switch doesn’t help.
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Very good blog. You raise a very good point about a company not executing a successful launch. Being a brand means looking, feeling, sounding, smelling and tasting like the unique company.
But my only question to a Koch/E1 employees would be, where you involved or told of this? If they were told, this was just a big waste of money in an economy that companies can’t afford.
Advise: Employees create brand impressions each time they speak to a customer on the phone, with each hit to a website, and any other occasion in which they interact with our customer. So owners, start inside and work outwards. It is your responsibility to create positive brand impressions. It is also your job to build the brand.
Use it, don’t bruise it!