You are an organization with huge responsibilities. You have to be many things to many stakeholders. Every priority brings with it a paradox: Encouraging a thriving economy whilst enforcing safety and environmental controls.
Representing the collective interests of the industry whilst answering to the government and the public, your sole shareholder
At times these roles and priorities seem to conflict and that leads to confusion.
Times have changed. A new course and strategy have been decided. BUT…
How do you create a brand platform that allows you to be true to yourself and your roots whilst enabling you to stay relevant to your diverse stakeholders.. now and in the future?
T H E S T O R Y
We all get confused sometimes
The Port of Rotterdam takes care of business in the world’s second biggest port. The Port of Rotterdam has many hats: authority, ambassador for port industry, real estate agent, guardian of the environment.
Their tricolor and logo (now over 30 years old) are well recognized internationally. Once this might have been considered a strong identity, but nowadays you need more than a logo and some colors to cut it. Alongside recognition there is a thing called relevance that comes in to play. Playing multiple roles involving so many activities means there is no single, unifying story. There are several.
The Port of Rotterdam had no framework to draw their communications together. The lack of a clear brand architecture meant their different roles often drifted into one another creating confusion.
They identified so much with their working environment (the very photogenic Rotterdam harbor) they forgot that this is only the backdrop for their actions. Communications dominated by big ship bows, containers and boulders, projected an image similar to that of any international port.
S O L U T I O N
Unleashing a force of energy
We worked closely with everybody that was involved with the brand internally. To help them we got in some of our other clients: the photo-museum to talk about images and TNT to talk about managing design.
So used to speaking for the collective they forgot to speak about their own role and position. The Port of Rotterdam as the organization of energetic people that it is, had to be communicated.
In brainstorms we broke down the brand DNA and rearranged its building blocks in three columns: the why, the how and the what. Each domain has its own specific style, flavor and characteristics capturing the relationship with the target audience yet unified by a shared language.
Once the roles were clearly defined and delineated we just needed a common thread that tied everything together. At the heart of the sustainable strategy for the future (and the key to operating in this competitive market) is “Energy”.
‘Energy’ became a simple measure for the style and tone of voice of the Port of Rotterdam. Does this image exude ‘Energy’? Does this text pump me up?
R E S U L T
Mapping the domains
‘The why’ captures the more strategic long term story of the organization.
‘The how’ focuses more on the salesman role, making the connections between needs and benefits: what can the Port of Rotterdam do for you in this or that situation?
‘The what’ is rooted in the explanatory domain of the rules and guidelines which the organization has to apply as the port authority.
Its a lot easier doing business with someone who doesn’t sound dazed and confused
Besides coming up with a new visual style that is more fluent, natural and elegant (in contrast with the old sturdy industrial look & feel) the communication architecture helped the Port of Rotterdam to articulate their intentions on different levels.
The new framework for communication helped the organization open up to the public. The Port of Rotterdam is succeeding to balance the different interests better because they themselves are clearer about their own position.
