Why ‘Y’ Matters


August 25, 2010

It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C- … Er, what’s that …? It’s just ‘the Y’ now …?

As the post title suggests (and/or if you are an outraged Village People fan) you may find yourself asking Why Y of the YMCA’s recent rebranding initiative. When you dissect this program, it really comes down to two key pieces — the update of their mark and the roll-out of an abbreviated moniker. Overall I would say the design here is a fairly average update. Clean logotype, simplified modern lines, if not a somewhat obvious nod or ‘slant’ to a more forward-thinking focus. A diverse palette of color options provides nice variance in execution too. But I think the real story here is in the words.

Too often, branding initiatives focus on the look and feel and ignore the words. The words we use to describe our brands teach our customers how to talk about us. The reverse is true as well in that how our customers talk about our brands should teach us as marketers as well. And the Y has chosen to embrace that by shifting to the non-profit’s colloquial nickname in place of their venerable acronym YMCA, which finds itself minimized in the new roll-out.

I am quick to pile on acronyms as brand names. They are usually employed when a brand is named by a committee and/or to avoid a tough decision on market position, target audience, etc. Plus they usually have little face recognition and recall without an extensive brand activation campaign. In the case of ‘the Y’, some may use this logic to declare the brand even more abstract as its 75% shorter. I would argue that it is actually more accessible because it’s embraced the vernacular of the marketplace. This seems refreshing after the Chevrolet/Chevy debacle earlier this year.

Remember, like the Y initiative, design is only part of your brand’s DNA. Words matter. And not just the words you shout from your megaphone out into the marketplace, but those shared by your customers in quiet conversations with friends. You need to be listening too. A brand strategy without a tactical messaging plan is a recipe missing a key ingredient. You can view an FAQ from the Y on their rebranding initiative here.

Now who’s gonna tell the Village People …?

This entry was posted in Branding, Design, Strategy. Bookmark the permalink.

Email Brand Driven Digital

is a strategist, speaker, educator, and author of Brand Now: How to Stand Out in a Crowded, Distracted World and Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small. He is the Chief Brand Strategist at Brand Driven Digital, an educator at the University of Iowa, and host of the On Brand podcast. More about Nick.