With 50 brands and 70 programs, the Greenville Chamber of Commerce is in danger of fragmenting itself into irrelevancy, according to Marion Mann, its senior marketing manager.
“We had the Lead brand, then Next, then Capacity, then diversity and inclusion and others … and it wasn’t tying back to the chamber,” said Mann, who said even some chamber members, advocates and participants have trouble describing the chamber’s core value. “A lot of good things start with conversations here at the chamber, but whether it comes back that the chamber did it is the question.”
For example, the chamber spent more than $1.1 million on programs and initiatives in 2013, according to its U.S. Department of the Treasury documents. But without recognition for those programs, the chamber can seem irrelevant if people don’t connect the dots, she said.
Now, after months of research and planning, the chamber is gearing up for its second rebranding campaign in 10 years aimed at clarifying the organization’s mission, activities and ultimate value to Greenville. But unlike the 2008 campaign, this year’s effort, which officially launches April 24, will include structural and organizational changes alongside a visual facelift and newly crafted statements.
TOO MANY BRANDS
“The 2008 rebrand was literally just a logo change and maybe a refresh of the vision and mission statements,” said Jennifer Sutton, founder of Greenville marketing firm Bright+Co, hired by the chamber for the rebrand. “Our approach is there were 50 brands and 70 programs, and we’re losing credit out in the market. Do we want a house of brands or a branded house?”
To cut down on the confusion, Mann and Sutton plan to “de-brand” the vast majority of the chamber’s existing programs and place each under one of five “bucket” categories: Advocacy, Business Growth, Diversity & Inclusion, Economic Competitiveness and Leadership Development. While some programs are too established to change the names of – Next, for example, said Sutton – most will get a new name that “simply says what they do,” said Mann.
Mann said the structure for membership costs will also change from one based on number of employees to the level of services businesses want to have. Rather than charging a business more for wanting to grow and add employees, she said, different levels of memberships include different programs, sponsorships, research services and occasional office space, for example.
MEASURABLE MISSION
The vision and missions statements were also rewritten to be more concise, measurable and actionable, said chamber President and CEO Ben Haskew, who has been with the organization through other rebranding efforts.
“It’s been a little hard to navigate the chamber, and this begins to present a more uniform message of what the driving programs and initiatives are in the chamber,” he said. “The community changes, the leadership changes, the business member makeup of the chamber changes … there’s enough change that it warrants a revisiting of some of the core elements of who we are.”
The old mission and vision statements were to build one of the premiere business communities in the world, said Haskew, which is harder to visualize and measure. The new statement is aimed at continually improving the quality of life in Greenville by building and advocating for the business community.
That doesn’t mean things will be easy, he said. Many programs to be de-branded were born through ideas from staff and volunteers, many of whom have put years into growing and improving each. Further, redefining the chamber’s statements can be difficult to adapt to, he said.
“Human nature is you wouldn’t go through this kind of change if you don’t have to, but the fact of the matter is it’s healthy,” he said. “It’s fun in some ways and it’s painful in other ways. … While it’s different, I think it still confirms who we are.”
