Make the decision
Greer used a cross-functional team of employees from different units in the company to get the branding project down to five names and ultimately one to be recommended to the board.
He asked each of his business unit presidents to select people who they felt stood out in the crowd.
“They are more progressive in their thinking, and they are willing to challenge the status quo,” Greer says. “They are innovative so they have characteristics that tend to stick out in your day-to-day dealings with people. … They are not yes-men because they are going to tell it the way they see it. If you select people that are passive, you’re going to have that kind of problem.”
When you work with your leaders in the company to identify the best people, you’ll find it much easier to gain the support of the rest of your employees.
“The business unit president is going to trust somebody that gets things done and that is an influencer,” Greer says. “When you select the right kind of people that have trust within the organization, the organization will look at them and say, ‘OK, these are guys that are willing to speak out.’”
When it comes down to making the final decision, Greer says he wanted his team to ask themselves if they believed the brand would stand the test of time.
“You don’t want a brand that limits your brand equity in the market as you grow,” Greer says. “One of the things we saw in Greatwide was that we could use descriptors to position future offerings.”
Greer and his team created mock images of the design to see how it would look on a truck, on a Web site, on business cards and in literature.
The ultimate decision to choose Greatwide was one Greer supported. If you come to the end of the project and you as the CEO do not support the choice your team has made, you’ve probably done something wrong.
“If the research is done right and the overall representation of who you are and where you’re headed is clear, I think you get the outcome that you can ultimately endorse,” Greer says. “If the team is working the process right, you’re going to come up with the right result. If the CEO tries to influence without proper knowledge and information, you could end up with a result that the organization is not going to embrace.”
The new name and logo for Greatwide Logistics Services was unveiled publicly on Jan. 10, 2006.
As he looks back, Greer says the now $1.24 billion company went through the rebranding process in the right way.
“You can’t satisfy everybody,” Greer says. “At the end of the day, somebody isn’t going to completely come around, but at least they know they have been heard.”
HOW TO REACH: Greatwide Logistics Services, (972) 228-7300 or www.greatwide.com
