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Archives for March 2013

Livestrong Rebrands as Livestrong Foundation without Lance Armstrong

livestrong foundation logo old newWhat happens when the face of your non-profit organization is publicly disgraced?

That’s what Livestrong faced when cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to using illegal substances throughout his career. He was stripped of his Tour de France titles and his affiliation with the organization that he helped to start. Call in the crisis team because like so many celebrity brand endorsements before, the man’s revelation brought the brand under a negative spotlight, too.

With the non-profit organization separated from Lance Armstrong, Livestrong has rebranded as Livestrong Foundation with a new logo and a new focus on the foundation, not the man who was once the face of the foundation. The old and new logos are shown above, and most people probably won’t even remember that “Foundation” wasn’t part of the logo in its previous version. However, the redesign does better position the brand away from Lance Armstrong. It’s subtle and simple, but it works.

In a speech (you can follow the link to read the transcript) from Executive VP of Operations from Livestrong Foundation, Andy Miller, which was delivered at the annual Livestrong “State of the Foundation” address on February 28, 2013, the point was made that  the rebranding is part of the foundation’s efforts, “towards becoming more us, more clear, and doing more work.” In other words, Livestrong Foundation wants to become “more us” and “less Lance.” Andy said:

“We accepted the apology he made to us in order to move on and we remain grateful for what he decided to create and helped build. As the world poses the questions, “Is the LIVESTRONG Foundation bigger than its founder? Will it survive?” The answer is a resounding yes. Our success has never been based on one person — it’s based on the patients and survivors we serve every day, who approach a cancer diagnosis with hope, courage and perseverance.”

Livestrong Foundation is taking the rights steps to move past its affiliation with Lance Armstrong, but finding new ways to recoup earnings from merchandise sales will be a tough battle. The “cool” factor that many people felt when they wore a bracelet, jacket, or other item with the Livestrong logo on it has disappeared with the fall of Lance Armstrong’s celebrity status.

The Livestrong Foundation has a tough road ahead of it and changes will need to be made internally to get through this time, but at the end of the day, the organization’s mission is an important one. Hopefully, it will continue to navigate through the negative publicity it’s facing right now and come out on the other side with a stronger brand than before.

I think Andy summed up why this brand can survive a celebrity disaster quite well in his speech when he said:

“The real reason the Foundation took root is that it touched a chord deep in all of us. It inspired us to take action! But we didn’t do it for Lance. We did it for our loved ones. Our husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. We did for our children. We did it for our friends and neighbors. We did it for ourselves. Because we believe in life! We believe living every minute of it with every ounce of our being. And that you must not let cancer take control of it!”

Repositioning the brand away from “the Lance Armstrong charity” and toward “the charity that helps people with cancer” should be the Livestrong Foundation’s top priority. And of course, avoiding dependencies on celebrity endorsements and spokespeople should be at the top of the list of things not to do again.

Do’s and Don’ts of Corporate Social Media


Social media from a corporate point of view is an important part of branding, customer service and online marketing. Get it right and your brand’s revenue and reputation could rocket, get it wrong and the damage could be irreparable. So it is important to know the basic etiquette of having a presence on social media, which is why I have put together some do’s and don’ts of using social media in the corporate world.

DO: Be Fast To Respond

People feel that a brand on social media is approachable, and will often post comments or send messages. It is important to respond, and in a timely manner, to ALL comments and feedback, positive or negative. This shows the customer that their opinion is important to you and their voice is being heard.

DO: Concentrate On Image

The way your brand is represented by you and interpreted by others on social media is vital to your reputation. That is why everything you post, share, comment on or respond to must be polite and censored, to ensure you are keeping up the brand’s image.

DO:  Connect With The Competition

There is nothing wrong with openly following and checking out the competition, and expect them to be doing the same to you. As long as you are all respectful of each other, there is no reason why you can’t get along, and it gives you a regular insight into what they are up to.

DO:  Help Promote Others

For a number of reasons that many people don’t realise, promoting others and their content is beneficial to your company. Not only does it give your followers something to keep them interested and break up the constant talk of YOU, making your brand appear more diverse, it also puts you in the good books with others and encourages them to do the same for you and your content, helping your reach a wider audience and get a reputation as a friendly and thoughtful brand.

DO: Be Clear and Concise

You should always aim to be understood if you want your content to be enjoyed and shared. Too many companies forget that their followers may not know as much about the company or the industry as they assume and therefore their content becomes less engaging.

DO:  Be Active

Social media never sleeps, so your company needs to be as active as possible if you want to keep your presence known. Multiple times a day is the ideal for interactions, and a minimum of one post per day will keep your company on the radar.

DO:  Be Visually Exciting

Although text is the main aspect of your social media postings, you need to maintain a level of visual stimulation to keep people interested. Having changing and stimulating profile images and header images, as well as including multimedia content such as video and images when relevant to a post will help to peak the interest of your audience.

DON’T: Constantly Push Sales

Yes, the main aim of any marketing strategy is to get people to spend money with your company, but you need to tailor your approach. Being too pushy with sales on social media is not the way to create a worthwhile presence. Instead have a steady stream of engaging content and posts that offer more subtle nudges towards sales, and include some that are purely for the audience’s benefit, no sales involved.

DON’T: Repeat The Same Responses

When someone comments positively on your brand’s post or page, it is easy to want to just say ‘thank you’, but this is impersonal and generic, not giving the brand much of a personality or giving the person commenting much gratification. Try to personal responses to show there are people behind the brand and it will encourage more people to interact.

DON’T:  Steal Digital Content

Digital content belongs to someone, whether it is tangible or not, and too many people online forget that. It is too easy to ‘borrow’ or ‘repurpose’ content or images from social media without going down the proper routes, which can cause serious problems for your brand if the owner finds out, not to mention the ethical issues.

DON’T: Go On and On About Praise

If someone compliments or praises your brand, it is easy to feel like shouting about it to everyone, but doing so can often look bad on your company. It’s nice to receive praise, but don’t share every single nice comment or mention of your brand, simply concentrate on saying thanks to the people who said it, after all not many people go out of their way to give positive comments these days, its usually only when they have a complaint they want to let everyone know!

Media: Last 24 Hours

General Electric has implemented a unique timeline feature into their website. This timeline provides information about GE activities, and links that click through to blog posts, news, games, and other media that GE has published within the last 24 hours.

By including such a unique feature, site visitors can really get a feel for just how innovative GE really is. It’s an intelligent strategy that immediately engages site visitors. It also draws them deeper into the website, where they will discover more information about GE.

Such an innovative idea represents the swift speed at which website development is proceeding, and offers an example for the type of innovative website practices that keep corporations ahead of the curve.