Episode 184: Why BNI’s New Branded Look

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Synopsis

By the first of this year, you will see a new branded look for all of BNI, including this website. This is the first time we have a system to implement a unified look all across the globe. (See branding slide presentations.)

Here are five reasons why a consistent branded look are so important.

1. BNI is a global brand.
2. We want to make the new BNI brand memorable.
3. Having a uniform image protects the brand and prevents brand dilution.
4. The uniform use of the brand will prevent other groups from copying BNI.
5. There are so many localized versions of the BNI logo that it’s getting difficult to distinguish genuine BNI groups from imitations. We need one authorized version of the logo.

In the next post you’ll see two PowerPoint presentations that explain more about BNI’s new branded look. Pay special attention to Slide 15 in the first presentation.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 184 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, CA. I am joined today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you?

Ivan:
I am doing great, Priscilla, talking about something that I think is pretty exciting for us. Members all around the world, keep your eyes open because you will gradually see all over the world a change to our new branded look, including this website. By the first of the year, you will see a new branded look for this website and everyhting we are doing. I think it is really exciting. For the first time in almost 26 years, we’ll be celebrating our 26th anniversary in January. It’s the first time BNI has a truly unified and global brand, but more importantly a system to implement that all across the globe. I am really thrilled to see a great step forward to really strengthen the organization and increase our worldwide visibility.

I wanted to talk about five reasons why we did this because I am a real believer- I never tell BNI members, “It’s policy,” when somebody ask[s something]. I try to train my Directors to never say we do something because it’s policy and that is the way it is done. That is a bad answer. A good answer is why. People need to know why our policies exist, why something is done a certain way. I think it is really important thing for BNI members to understand why a consistent branded look is so critical to a global organization.

So I have five points that I want to make. The first is that BNI is, in fact, a global organization. It’s a global brand. You know, the way our branding people started talking about this was at one time, BNI was a U.S. company that went international. Today, we are a global company that basically has their headquarters in the U.S. But we truly are a global organization.

Priscilla:
How many countries are we in?

Ivan:
Almost 50. As of today, we are in almost 50 countries around the world. That is growing every year. It’s crucial that we have a branded image, and this new branded material, first, of all, there will be a link here and we’ll make sure it is on the podcast with the new look. So you can click on it to see the new visual look in a Power Point slide that gives you a sense of what the new visual look is. So in this podcast, you will have a link where you can look at it.

The first reason we’re doing this is we’re a global organization. We need a global brand.

The second is making the brand memorable. It needs to be used consistently. The new BNI brand will remain memorable from a visual perspective. From a visual prospective, which will result in easier brand recall- so that when people hear the name, BNI, they get a strong visual image for what that means. You know, what image comes to mind when someone says Coca-Cola or McDonalds? You know, with Coca-Cola, it’s that calligraphy writing, and with McDonalds, it’s the “M”. There is no question what image comes to mind no matter where you are in the world or where you live.

This is what the new BNI brand image will do for BNI. It’s not just the logo, although the logo is a integral element of it. It’s the visual of the brand, which will be done in basically a map of the world, and this map is localized based on what continent. So from the US, you are going to have the Americas highlighted. In Europe, Europe will be be highlighted. Asia, the same. Australia, Asia, all of the world will be highlighted based on where they are at, but it is all based on a visual globe. But it looks the same. You could be anywhere in the world and you’d recognize that branded look, even though there is a slight variation from continent to continent with that continent being highlighted. It’s a consistent visual look.

The third reason for why- and this is an important one- is the protection of the brand. Having a uniform brand image prevents dilution of the message and the professional appearance that BNI wishes to put forth. Again, think of McDonalds and Coca-Cola. We can instantly recall their brand image, and we now what they stand for and what products they are known for because they have a uniform brand image. One of the things that I have learned in moving form literally my house into a 33,000 sq ft building over 26 years and the huge growth of this organization is that protecting the brand is very important legally for your trademarks and doing business in many countries around the world. So I ask members to understand that the visual look goes beyond just their chapter. It’s the maintenance of their brand from a legal perspective.

Fourth is the uniform use of the brand will prevent other groups from copying BNI or using the unauthorized versions of BNI’s materials and its trademarks. It’s so, so important as we become global..

The last reason why is that there are so many localized versions of the BNI logo and artwork representing BNI that is found online, that if we didn’t create this unified image, it would get easier and easier for everyone to create groups mimicking BNI and it would get harder and harder for prospective members to discern between valid BNI groups and imitation groups. This is really important.

There will be a second link. The first link will be a PowerPoint slide that gives you a sense of the visual look as it is all around the world from continent to continent. The second PowerPoint presentation- and if you have a chance take a look at this. It’s an edited version of a PowerPoint presentation that BNI’s corporate counsel did as to why we have to get our act together on the brand and why it needs to be consistent. I want you to look at this PowerPoint presentation; I particularly want members to look at slide number 15, which is other modified BNI logos. These are regions or chapters that took the BNI logo and modified it in some way, and it is shocking how the BNI has been changed, just the logo.

Any brand expert in the world will tell you this is really, really, bad from a branding perspective and really bad from a legal perspective. So we have to stop having the logo altered. There are probably ten different versions of the logo there on slide 15, and none of them, not one, are authorized logos. So take a look at that PowerPoint, and that PowerPoint will go in detail and take you really in depth as to why this is so important. There is a lot more content than I can do in a ten or twelve minute podcast.

Put simply, this new brand image is cementing the credibility that we have developed over more than 25 years, building a global organization, and it will help prevent us risk losing credibility due to unrecognizable diluted brand image. I hope that members can take a few minutes to just look over this material, look over these links.

The last link in this podcast will be a link to BNI branding standards, so that anybody that wants to use our branded material has to go and read this so that they use it properly. One of the great things about growth is that it’s exciting to have all this growth. But one of the challenges about growth is keeping everybody kind of coloring within the lines. Entrepreneurs like coloring outside the lines. That’s great and it’s one of the reasons why we’ve grown, but it can be problematic when it comes to inconsistent brand. For most businesses, it’s their franchisees or their corporate offices that have access to the logo and are using it. In our case, it’s the clients. It’s our members who have access and are using it.

So sometimes things can easily get changed by members and by chapters when we really have to have that consistent brand. I ask members to take a few minutes to look at this material, and work with us to maintain the brand recognition that has helped build this organization to be the world’s largest business networking organization. It’s happened because of our attention to details like this.

That’s everything I’ve got, Priscilla. As a member, you’re a member of a chapter- what are your thoughts on this?

Priscilla:
I don’t think I ever gave much thought about the brand. I mean, we’re presented with some materials when we join BNI. It has a logo and you just sort of go forward from there. You don’t really think much about it. Hearing about the importance of branding, I think, is good for all business people just to know that maybe individually, maybe we should be working on our own brand and why that is important, might be important to us.

Ivan:
That’s a good point. With this podcast, I wanted to talk about why we did it and the importance of why we did it. Next week, I want to talk about the benefits. What are the benefits to a member, for us, having a consistent brand. That’s what I want to talk about in the next podcast. If you’re listening to this podcast, remember the three links that are here. One is the new look. One is the PowerPoint from our legal counsel as to why we are changing and building a specific brand. The third is the BNI standards. If you have a chance, please take a look at these three links.

Priscilla, thank you so much for the podcast today.

Priscilla:
Great. Thank you so much, Ivan. Well, that’s it for this week. I would just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.