Transformative act of renaming
What We Did
The Work
The challenge:
As the International Reading Association approached its 60th anniversary, it faced many challenges, including a shared acronym with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and alarming drops in awareness and membership. They decided to re-brand and undergo a name change.
The new name:
International Literacy Association
Why it works:
We discovered this organization's remit extends far beyond reading
to LITERACY, and its transformative power throughout one’s lifetime.
This shift from reading to literacy greatly expanded the brand purpose and awareness of its purview. It ended overlap with the IRA. It gave people a name they would readily use in full. And was an important first step in modernizing the brand and giving it a bold platform for future development. See before/after below:
Owler Hook:
Name changes don't have to be extreme. Simple, one word changes like this one effectively reset the stage and avoid external disruption or internal resistance. Unless breaking with the past is crucial, an evolutionary approach is often the better option.
