It was just a couple of years ago that Time Warner appended "AOL" to its name and company chieftains Jerry Levin and Steve Case couldn't help themselves from the high-fives.
Now they're both gone from the company, as is "AOL" from the corporate name, which will soon return to its original moniker. The company says the streamlined name "better reflects
the portfolio of our valuable businesses," but analysts say the change cuts Time Warner loose from the daily reminder of a dot-com acquisition that many blame for the company's
financial woes.
Meanwhile, we're left to wonder what role the company's PR shop will have to play in the coming transition. While AOL Time Warner communications execs declined to comment for
this story, other corporate PR pros who have been through the process say that Time Warner communication execs will have their hands full with tasks ranging from big-issue
branding work to the trivialities of stationary.
Front and center
Take the former Complete Business Solutions, a 5,000-person technology consulting firm that changed its name to Covansys in 2001. "The whole process of changing your name is
more complicated than you might imagine," says the firm's chief communications officer, Michelle Jones, VP-marketing. "We needed people to accept the name, but then there were all
the operational issues as well, everything from invoices that had to be reprinted to things as big as building signs. Everyone got new e-mail addresses. New voice mail scripts
were developed and distributed. From a logistics perspective, it's not simple."
As the communications exec running the show, "you have to become a little bit of a control freak," Jones adds. But why should PR be in control? It's a natural fit, since a name
change inevitably involves a branding (or re-branding) effort. Bill Alberti, senior planning manager at strategic communications firm Magnet Communications, says that for such an
effort to succeed "You need solid messaging that everyone understands and that everyone can get behind." He adds, that it makes sense for the communications shop to quarterback
the effort.
But leadership comes with a price. If you haven't picked nits until now, this would be a good time to start, says Tracy Schario, a vice president with the technology-oriented
PR firm Strategic Communications Group. She's currently leading a name change effort for a $100 million government contractor that has no in-house PR personnel.
"You have to be an extremely detail-oriented planner. You would be surprised how easy it is to let typos go out in the stationary or the Web site. It really becomes a matter or
organization and quality control," she says. In order to control quality, Schario has established a rigorous chain of command. She will talk to the leaders of HR and sales, as
well as to a representative from the executive suite and another from the board of directors. These individuals will then pass the information up and down their own chains of
command and report back to her.
"It needs to be collaborative, but at the end of the day it needs to be no more than five or seven people making all the decisions," she says. "If you can't make decisions in a
small group, the whole process gets out of control."
A name-change marathon
At window- and door-maker JELD-WEN, Corporate Communications Manager Teri Cline has during the past year been leading something of a name change marathon. Until recently, all
the companies JELD-WEN ever bought have operated under their given names. But the parent firm decided it was time to change the names to match the corporate name -- 20 in all.
The trick, she says, is to stay organized.
Each time a name change approaches, she begins by talking to the respective general manager, at least once every two weeks, either by phone or e-mail. She drafts a step-by-step
plan for how and when to tell employees, and produces a FAQ sheet addressing employees' anticipated concerns. In addition to the usual questions -- Does this mean the company is
in trouble? -- Cline tailors answers to focus on concerns particular to the corporate culture. "We know for example that they would worry about seniority and their hire dates,
because those things are important in this company," she says.
Such Q&A material is typically a vital part of the name change process. "What we didn't want is managers having people come into their office asking questions, and then the
manager doesn't have the answers," says Ron Petrie, VP-marketing/public affairs at Victory Capital Management, formerly known by the name of its parent company Key Asset
Management.
He adds that the Q&A he created for managers during the name change served two purposes. First, it reassured employees. Second, it gave managers the comfort level they
needed, and assured that they would buy into the renaming process. "You don't want to have a manager hear a question and then say, 'Gee, I never heard of that,'" Petrie says.
"High-level sophisticated professional people don't want to be caught off guard."
Meanwhile, there is the letterhead. It's no joke: Someone has to make sure the stationary gets done, as well as business cards and signs on any buildings. Plus, the baseball
caps, pens, e-mail addresses and three-part invoice forms. All of this is imaging stuff, so guess who gets to convert them?
"We don't have to do it all, but being in PR we are maybe more aware of the public exposure that we have, as opposed to the people in operations who may not always be mindful
of these things," says Craig McDaniel, VP at PR firm Michael A. Burns & Associates. "It is not our responsibility to do all those things, but it does fall in our lap to make
sure those things are covered before we go out and try to make the new name well known in the community."
Contacts: Bill Alberti, 617.587.8912, [email protected]; Teri Cline, 541.850.2606, teric@jeld-
wen.com; Michelle Jones, 248.848.2269, [email protected]; Craig McDaniel, 214.521.8596, [email protected]; Ron Petrie, 216.689.5627, [email protected]; Tracy
Schario, 301.408.4500, [email protected]; Wes Warnock, 214.665.1336, [email protected]
The Name Game
What tools are PR pros using to effect a painless name change?
- Brand book: Details the colors and font sizes and so forth so that others can share the job of imaging
- Focus group: Talk to managers before rolling out the change in order to anticipate concerns
- Horse's mouth: Produce a video with the pres/CEO discussing the reasons for the change
- Steering committee: Don't go it alone. Bring together leaders of all major departments to help implement the change
- Delegate: Don't order the new stationary yourself. Assign such tasks and let others do the legwork while you quarterback the process