Building a brand is like bringing up a child. I am not a parent, so I might not be best positioned to validate that statement. But having said that, I have been around (enough) all kinds of adults trying to parent in so many ways. In bridging Udhyam to its renewed brand, I have tried to relate some of what they say about the subject.
Over the last six months at Udhyam, I facilitated an exercise of re-building our brand to be closer to who we are and what we aspire to be. The aim was not just to arrive at a new brand, it was to create something that inspires all of us – something ALL of us could own, be proud of and would want to use in everyday interactions.
“Parenting is an incredible opportunity of self discovery! “
We started out from scratch. We constantly asked ourselves the difficult questions – over and over again – to arrive at characteristics that influence our behaviours and actions. We worked painstakingly on the articulation of who we think we are today, what we should be and how we can get there. From that, we distilled this universe for ourselves. Udhyam’s Character Universe.
“Give ‘em roots, but also give ‘em wings”
Udhyam is an incredibly autonomous organisation. Every individual exercises high ownership towards the cause and the vision. This extends to communication as well. So we moved away from frameworks and ‘instructions’; we built brand principles that can guide us towards creating exciting material for our audiences while staying true to our roots – ones which are grounded in their lives and stories of the people we work with.
(Udhyam’s Brand Principles)
“It takes a village to bring up a child”
To say that a handful of us worked on this would be unfair. Many in the organisation came together and we have collectively put in a lot of time to arrive at what we have today. There were disagreements, frustration, confusing moments and then suddenly, moments of clarity that were rewarding. We went over the process many times with each iteration bringing us closer to what we wanted.
“You will learn as you do it!”
We built the brand as we built our website (it is awesome! Check it out here., #SpokenLikeATrueParent). We went defining various elements of the brand in different forms in real time. The process enabled us to define ourselves a lot more clearly – what it meant and what it didn’t.
For example, the Surge is the embodiment of who we are. It represents the unboundedness and non-absoluteness of human potential. It reminds us that potential can’t be tapped, only unleashed!
The ellipses bring in energy, is neoteric – modern, fresh. It is symbolic of our journey – a story that is just starting out, with many milestones ahead. (Surge is used extensively in the background and ellipses are used as parenthesis across the visuals on the website)
“You are not alone in this!”
Applied wonder was an amazing partner with me on this. Their ability to straddle both intangible and tangible of a brand – to make it a living and breathing energy inside the organisation is inspiring. They brought wisdom, patience and incredible amount of true-spirited enthusiasm into the process. Jay, would often ask me “Is this who you guys are?”… “Is this who you want to be?”. Ownership, demonstrated in many ways by him and his team, made this journey very moving for me.
This entire process has been stressful but enormously rewarding.
As it dawns on me that parenting isn’t really about the parents – I get ready for the process of letting go. So, the idea of Udhyam can be a whole lot more – driven by its own dreams & individuality… interacting with the world to create its own destiny.
Come, meet my baby : the very ‘new’ Udhyam 🙂
