DSM

New:  Strategic repositioning, culture, logo, visual system, taglines

Launched:  to employees 16 February, to public 23 February, 2011

Story in brief:
It's hard to find a more comprehensively planned and confidently launched rebranding than this one, used by a leader to consolidate and communicate change. 

In 2007, when Feike Sijbesma became its CEO, DSM was perceived as "trustworthy and reliable but at the same time as an inward-looking, diversified chemical company; gray, reticent, very Dutch and product-focused," according to Jos van Haastrecht, Director of Company Branding. "We were a company which was internationally often unknown or misunderstood compared to our peers including the likes of DuPont and BASF." Sijbesma led a comprehensive corporate restructuring, to focus more narrowly on two higher-margin growth segments, Life Sciences and Materials Sciences, in which DSM could more credibly aspire to leadership positions.  Restructuring was accompanied by a sweeping cultural initiative, "the DSM Change Agenda," to instill desired behaviors and values (such as external focus, accountability, diversity, inspirational leadership, and unification) in support of a new common societal mission – "to create brighter lives for people today and for generations to come."

Sijbesma understood that restructuring, without rebranding, may be tentative and incomplete –  because change which can be seen is more certain.  Seeing is believing.  So in 2008 he asked Angelique Paulussen, SVP Corporate Communications, to lead his rebranding team, assisted by Branding Director Jos van Haastrecht (for whom this became a full-time 30-month assignment).  In the course of 2010 a dedicated Project Director, Kees van Helden, was added to the team as well.

After initial research by Interbrand, the program team chose Coley Porter Bell, identity specialists within Ogilvy's London office, for design and identity counsel. Their contributions included
-  The logo, featuring an abstract symbol whose color-toned forms swirl around a hexagon-shaped void
-  A visual system whose color palette and shapes directly extend the logo's graphic presence
-  Type families (Meta-Pro and Trebuchet)
-  Both an identity tag, "Health-Nutrition-Materials,"
-  And a theme line... "Bright Science. Brighter Living."

See The building blocks - overview (a PowerPoint page)

"The logo is bright, colorful and modern," says DSM's news release, "and the multitude of overlapping colors highlights our diversity and our unique combination of skills and expertise" ... "The blue colors are drawn from the heritage of the company and are important to retain a sense of confidence, credibility and trust. They are combined with fresh, vibrant colors to add an optimistic, emotive and energetic spirit."

Launch messaging makes it clear that the rebranding is seen by DSM as the culminating act of its entire transformation process. "Identity, strategy, culture – all these come together in our new brand – it is one of our most important tools supporting our corporate strategy.  For our internal community, the new brand will serve as a binding force."

The launch was unusually aggressive. On 16 February, 23,000 employees worldwide received special-event invitations. They saw a 45-minute film in which a fictional reporter travelled the world to investigate the DSM story; then they each received a copy of "Global Times," the resulting publication, to take home with them. (Go ahead, open the pdf;  it's a fresh way to tell a full rebranding story.) Employees were further impressed, a week later, when they saw the public campaign launched with large-space ads in newspapers and business journals worldwide, backed up with outdoor billboards and posters in major airports. The campaign was developed with McCann Erickson's London office.

For more, visit the new DSM Brand Center home page. 

Credits:
C.E.O. - Feike Sijbesma
C.C.O. - Angelique Paulussen, SVP Corporate Communications
C.B.O. - Jos van Haastrecht, Director Company Branding
Identity design - Coley Porter Bell; creative director Stephen Bell

First Impressions:
Strategy:   I'll say it again: "Identity, at its best, is vision made manifest. " CEO Sijbesma gets top grades for understanding that rebranding is integral to an effective restructuring process, especially so when directional and behavioral changes are required as well.
Design:  It's hard to find a more classic example of knife-cut 20th century modern, giving way to soft-worn 21st century technocolor.  I like the new symbol's energy, and its message of diversity in common cause, more than I like the (somewhat formless) thing itself; but in a system, it functions beautifully. This is another good illustration of the trend (previously noted) toward logo-extending visual systems.

Other Comments:
Granted, it had to be sacrificed on the altar of change; but take a last look at that flat 1962 symbol, and see it as a 3D cube. Yes, it was flat and abstract - but dynamic, too.  R.I.P.
 

Corporate Brand Matrix ratings:  
0% structural,  100% strategic,  0% functional