Launched: January 1, 2010, was the target date for member firms to drop their heritage names.
Noted here: May 2011, following its wins in Europe's Transform Awards 2011 (including two Golds and two Silvers).

Story in brief:
"We now get more and more rebranding jobs whose brief begins with 'don't change the logo'" says Simon Case, creative director of Greentarget. True;
I have seen significant rebrandings using tools other than the logo (such as nomenclature, brand architecture and visual systems), and Identityworks has been late to take note of them. (Another example: Eaton 2008, which also deserves a Review). It is important to catch up on these cases, and in future to be more alert to similarly logo-less rebrandings, because this may be an important trend (related to the increased incidence of more assertive visual systems).

BDO is a worldwide network of accounting firms; with 47,000 employees in 119 countries, and fee income (2010) of $5.28 billion, it ranks at #5. In 1973 it became "Binder Dijker Otte," communicatively "BDO." Ssince 1988 these initials have been used to co-brand the heritage names of its local firms; thus BDO marketed in the UK as BDO Stoy Mayward, and in the US as BDO Seidman. But like other rebranders in this category (Grant Thornton in 2008 and PwC in 2010), BDO now feels better represented by a more seamless global identity. So it has imposed radical unit name surgery, replacing all heritage names with country names... BDO United Kingdom, BDO Albania, etc.

While the backbone of this rebranding is verbal, its face and arguably its primary force is visual... the global imposition of an assertive visual system, anchored by vertical red lines lifted from the logo. The system's universal presence is a visible manifestation of cooperation, coordination and discipline across national and institutional borders, which supports perception of "one network, to deliver consistent methodology, services and specialists worldwide."

Herding cats? Getting 110-plus service firms onto the same page, all swallowing their pride to embrace a common identity called for extraordinary leadership, salesmanship and team-building. CEO Jeremy Newman madeit look effortless. Julia Henniker-Heaton, his Director, Brand and Marketing retained identity consultant Rachel Fairley, formerly a Landor analyst/planner. Seven design firms competed for the subsequent RFP, won by Greentarget because "we mixed creativity with pragmatism, or so we were told" (says designer Simon Case).

And the awards?
• GOLD for Best Brand Evolution
• GOLD for Best Implementation of a Rebrand
• SILVER for Best Internal Communication of a Rebrand
• SILVER for Best Corporate Rebrand to Reflect Changed Mission/Values/ Positioning

Credits:
C.E.O. - Jeremy Newman
C.M.O. - Julia Henniker-Heaton, Director, Brand and Marketing
Identity counsel - Rachel Fairley, Fairley & Associates;
Identity design - Greentarget (Creative Director Simon Case)

First Impressions:
Strategy: Courageous; painful and risky. The local name (e.g. Seidman, in the U.S.) was in most markets probably the stronger name component, compared to the initials BDO. Pinning it all on "BDO" thus comes close to starting from scratch. And because these are empty initials (not intended to evoke original-name recall) it will be very difficult to infuse them with brand-power personality; this will require ingenuity, as well as time and money. In the long run, it might actually have been cheaper to kick-start this with a logo change too (if not indeed a name change).
Design: The red-spined visual system is certainly a strong, unifying brand-binder. It is also intrusive and may soon prove tiresome (to insiders faster than to outsiders; patience and discipline are called for).

Corporate Brand Matrix ratings:
0% structural, 100% strategic, 0% functional (est.)

Not replacing...

CEO Jeremy Newman

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