I recently read that AARP is providing financial planning help to individuals in their 20s and 30s in an attempt to assist the woes of financial literacy, and to recruit and retain brand champions. A few years ago the organization changed its name from the American Association of Retired Persons to its acronym of AARP. Now that boomers like me do not want to think of ourselves as old or that we see retirement any time soon, the organization realized that to stay current it needed to change its brand.
A couple of days ago I posted some thoughts about Chad Johnson changing his brand to Chad OchoCinco. As I mentioned then I am rarely an advocate of name changes because organizations and people have so much equity in the name. To discard that might prove harmful. In the case of AARP, I think that change was warranted. I also think the attempt to recruit and retain younger brand champions is a sound move. We need to help everyone be financially literate.
However, for the vast majority of organizations, changing their brand can be the final straw. Just because the world is changing at warp speed and the economy is still hindering much of the economies around the world, that is not the reason to change your brand. In fact, now it is more important than ever that we think about our brand in terms of our name and what that name stands for. Our mission and core values should be guiding what we do. Not the economy or what might appear to be the need too flexible with our brand. We need to retain our brand champions.
Rex Whisman
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