Reining in a global safety program for brand alignment.

Background

In 2018, a pilot program intended to develop strong body mechanics in front-line operations workers launched, and the program owners were looking for an identity. During my initial pitch with stakeholders, the name and logo were decided and WorkingWell was born. By 2022, the pilot had expanded from one city to about 2,000 locations globally.

The Challenge

The visual branding for the initial pilot program included a basic set of materials intended for a US English-speaking audience. As the program rapidly expanded, program managers around the world prioritized speed over quality by personally modifying or localizing materials without oversight. Approximately 20,000 materials were created ad hoc—a majority of which were unknown to our US-based content studio when they were created. Quality control was lost, and the rapid program expansion had muddied the program’s purpose and image. A new mechanism was needed to both refresh the program and enable managers to move quickly. Ideally, the mechanism would remove the need for a manager to modify the materials or manage localization.

The Approach

Success hinged on defining the program better. We started from the beginning by creating a brand strategy. Over a 6-month period, I spearheaded branding exercises with representatives from the program and directors within Amazon. Together we conducted a brand audit, then used the audit to create a vision statement, define the program’s customers, explain why the program existed, its tone of voice, and what qualified something as part of the program. We could now approach the visual design objectively and refresh the materials to align better with how for program owners used them.

Results

After refreshing the program’s look, we focused on a mechanism to mitigate the need for managers to modify materials: tool kits. We created a collection of topic-based materials based on patterns we found during the brand audit, then worked with localization experts to translate everything so program stakeholders didn’t need to. The approach approved successful. As new tool kits were launched, older materials were phased out.

Before the brand audit, the program was misaligned to internal Amazon standards. Capturing the brand essence on paper allowed us to revise the program logo and bring it into alignment. We selected brand-aligned colors and developed communications templates with tools everyone had access to. Older materials were phased out as new ones were created. Instead of self-translating or modifying materials, a subject matter expert anywhere in the world can now follow a simple step-by-step guide to deploy brand aligned and quality controlled communications specific to their region.