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As you will certainly have heard by now Blackwater Worldwide announced last week that they are changing the name of their corporate holding company to Xe, pronounced 'Zee'. It seems that even Blackwater has recognized President Obama's call for change that can be believed in.
It's hard to really dispute this decision simply because as Xe spokesperson Anne Tyrell confirmed the events associated with the company's operations in Iraq were fast becoming synonymous with everything the company was doing and that simply is not an accurate portrait of the entire organization.
There are two portions of this decision. First, was it necessary to make the change in the first place? Secondly, will it work? As a rule rebranding exercises have a mixed history with as many failing ascoming. It's a dicey business to change your company's name, its image, its brand, really its entire persona. But given the alternatives there really were not any. It is certainly worth a try.
The cruel irony for Blackwater must be that they are the only private security firm in the world who has achieved single-word household recognition. I mean just test this out and ask someone who does not follow our industry and ask them if have heard of CRG, URG, EODT, SOC-SMG, MVM, etc, etc, etc. See how many you can name without any recognition and then ask them the control-question, "Have you heard of Blackwater?" It's an interesting exercise and one not like what professional marketing and public relations firms perform in focus group testing when considering branding issues.
Think about what that means. Financically speaking that kind of notoriety is incalculable. Consider other brands that have spent decades and untold millions of dollars to achieve the same level of recognition. Companies such as Nike, Reebok, Avis, Hertz, Coke, Pepsi are simple examples of brands which in a single-word deliver immediate recognition for who they are and what they sell.
However, in the case of Blackwater that association was, over time, synonymous with an image that was almost inevitably negative for the 95% of the general population. In this business being unknown to the average-guy-on-the-street is OK and some wouldgue preferable. Perhaps the next best thing is being known by name but conjuring a neutral response. But being associated with almost entirely with negativity is just bad for business. So to answer the first question; is a change like this warranted? Without question the answer must be, yes.
Will it work? That is harder to answer as it depends on so many factors. All sorts of companies rebrand themselves or their products when they feel that they are losing market share and need to create a new buzz in the market place. But as indicated this is a gamble.
Rebranding sounds easy but customers and the general public are pickle. A rebrand signifies change but simply changing the packaging will not suffice in meeting consumers' expectations for 'real change'. In consumer goods customers are looking for physical improvements in the product such as better taste, more appealing aroma, longer shelf-life, convenient features that improve use or performance. In a service business like security or training it's not so immediately tasty. Changing the stationary, business cards, web site and corporate colors may gain some initial market attention but if the customer does not see or feel or quite believe that 'real change' has occurred they will not embroce the new image or the company behind it.
There is an old adage with respect to decision making. It's not often the first decision that guarantees success or failure of a venture. It's usually all the smaller decisions and actions taken after the fact which can lock in success or ensure doom.
There are some obvious exceptions to this rule such as making the initial decision to jump off a high building without aid of parachute or arresting gear. That decision would be poor and can not be salvaged no matter how many other decisions you make on the way down to the ground. But let's proceed …
The point is that for this to work Xe is going to have to follow through on their commitment to change. That basically comes down to going quite effectively and not creating any bad press of their own doing. At the same time they need to engage the media about the other aspects of their business. For example, President Gary Jackson has indicated that they will not pursue close protection contracts as actively as before. Instead they will focus on their training products and services as well as other aspects of their portfolio.
Fair enough, so since the majority of that business is training city, state and federal law enforcement staff there should be no reason why some aspects of this business can not be communicated to the other public about how or tax dollars are being spent at their facilities to keep the cops one step ahead of the crooks. Similarly, if they are going to continue with their anti-piracy work primarily in the Gulf of Aden then they should be making it clear the ways in which they are working in concert with navies and shipping carriers to be part of the solution. In other words the next 10 news stories we hear about Xe better be positive in tone. If we open the papers tomorrow and Xe contractors have mistakenly sunken a fishing vessel of the coast of Yemen killing all onboard … well it's not going to go well for the company.
There are myriad of small choices and actions to be made in the coming months. The sum total of all of those decisions and actions will determine whether or not this rebranding is absolutely a success. So, like any other company they are going to have to seek the right kinds of contracts, staff them with the right people, manage their projects and do a good job. If they can do that then they will have a long and profitable run. If they continue to have breakdowns operationally they will continue to make the headlines and then the public will not embrace the name Xe or the company behind it.
It's clear that by changing their name Xe have bought themselves some time and in many people's eyes will get another chance. But the ability to capitalize on that chance lies in Moyock and not in the media, the blogosphere.
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