New Look BCC

[StickiVicki]

Not sure how I ended up here, but I'll add my two pennethworth anyway.  The shape and style of the logo is ok, but I feel that it will quickly become dated.  The colouring is wrong though.  Orange is just not right, and a bit jarring.  The problem is that just about every colour has been claimed by some sort of group as theirs, and because of the dominance of Pink I think that the groups already associated with orange will not be very accepting of it and may see it as another case of Pink dominating the fund raising scene.  Maybe different shades of pink would be better, or including Lavender for the Lavender Trust which comes within the remit of BCC anyway.  Actually you could have used the colours in the Lavender Trust logo.

Good to hear you are not just going to be scrapping all the old stuff.  Lord knows now much is wasted by institutions each time they rebrand.  In my opinion if you have to keep rebranding you are in danger of losing your core supporters who already support the brand that you have and may feel alienated by the new styling.

IMHO

[Angelfalls]

Thanks for your response, Helen. It's good to hear that BCC will be using up old materials before replacing them with the new look versions. That certainly wasn't the case back in 2007/8 when, as a volunteer, I was told not to use anything with the previous logo as it would dilute the rebrand and cause even greater confusion among the general public if BCC was using two different images at the same time... Good to hear that thinking has changed and that in 2013, a more 'waste not, want not' use of limited financial resources is taking precedence.

However, I agree with much of what Cornishgirl has said and question how much of the cost of this latest rebranding will actually be recouped, given the current economic climate. I sincerely hope that your research on this point is more accurate than your research on the forum update and this year's SBCAD...

I would also like to add that I think it's a real shame that the colour of the Lavender Trust hasn't been incorporated into the new branding, especially given the rising numbers of under-50s being diagnosed. Some kind of recognition of those of us with mets would have been appreciated, too - maybe some black or dark purple... But that's just my personal opinion, of course.

[cornishgirl]

Thanks for that Helen , I can understand what BCC are saying but I think the with the current economy everyone is feeling the pinch ,and many people are having to pull in their purse strings just to survive therefore leaving less and less of their money available to be able to support any charity , I'm still just not quite sure how rebranding any charity organisation would make much if any difference when peoples finances are so tight.

If BCC has made the decision to spend money on rebranding, I wonder why not instead they didn't  consider TV advertising like CRUK and MacMillan has done, surely this would have been much more effective and reached far more people? 

BCC does at present (even without the new branding) still gets the highest "hits" on Google of all of the breast cancer charities , which far exceeds other breast cancer charity's such as Breakthrough, Breast Cancer.org, Susan Kormen etc, so along with all the other high profile stuff BCC does around the country including having their info in most breast clinics in the country which most other breast cancer charity's do not  I still struggle to see how a rebrand would make much of a  difference if any.

Re the colour, I personally don't like the Orange, because Orange has always been associated with Leukemia, MS and also Kidney Cancer ,  not Breast, looking now at the BCC home page it is probably 2 3/rds Orange ,even the drop down menus are Orange so it doesn't scream out Breast Cancer at all to me , I personally would never buy an Orange BCC t-Shirt or an Orange BCC Hat/Pin etc as I don't think the public would reconise it as being for breast cancer , I understand that many people DONT like the Pink , but like it or not Pink is and always will be synonymous with Breast Cancer, that's just the way it is and has been since breast cancer fundraising first began , and to be fair even if some don't like pink, pink has raised more money for any individual cancer than any other  colour for cancer. 

I personally would have liked to see in the new re-branding (If BCC had to be re-branded) much more emphasis put towards Male Breast Cancer , and for BCC to have included the colour blue  ,as I  think Male breast cancer whilst not so prevalent as female breast cancer, rather neglected and often only included as an after thought on most of the  breast cancer charity websites , I suspect its hard enough for men already with breast cancer having what most people regard as a "Woman's" disease without getting  much recognition on any the major breast cancer sites, Where do men go for their support? even here on BCC Men are placed right at the bottom in the category "Talk to others like me" I think BCC could have rebranded to attract more men with breast cancer as a way of attracting and reaching far more people also and at the same time also standing out from all of the other breast cancer charities which are predominantly always female websites.

Anyway that is just my thoughts, and I guess you never going to please everyone , still really dislike the Orange though!

L

[HelenL_BCC]

Hello Angelfalls and Cornishgirl,

I’ve spoken to the team – here are some answers to the questions you’ve raised; hopefully they’ll go some way to addressing your concerns, as well as give you a bit more background about why it was needed.

Our last rebrand began in 2006 and since then lots has changed – the economy has got much worse and charities have become more professional in the way they talk about themselves and ask for money. It means we need to work harder for attention and to attract funds in order to provide our services and reach more people with our support.

Throughout the process, we worked really hard to keep costs down and we’ll be bringing in the new look gradually. So we don’t waste money, we’ll be using up stock of our old materials, rather than replacing them immediately. We won’t be throwing things away. It was a big decision to spend money on a new look. But we’re confident the cost will be more than recouped by the additional income and support we will attract with this stronger, bolder and more distinctive new brand.

It was also a big decision to add another colour, orange, to our identity. The biggest challenge we face is standing out from the sea of pink - we can’t stay purely pink if we want to set ourselves apart from the other breast cancer charities as a support organisation. However, the colour pink is closely linked with breast cancer in people’s minds and is well liked by many of our supporters. So we kept a good proportion of pink in the logo and in our visual identity across the board.

We’ve had fantastic feedback during the research we carried out on the new brand; lots of people are really excited by the new look. And we’re looking forward to working with our volunteers and supporters to roll out the brand over the coming years. More importantly, we hope it will help us achieve our long-term ambition to ensure everyone diagnosed with breast cancer knows that Breast Cancer Care is here to support them.

Finally, it may appear that there have been lots of changes to the forum over the past few weeks, but this has been a gradual process of bringing together both the new forum and the new brand identity.

I hope this helps, Helen

[cornishgirl]

Well I hate to think what it will all cost , I've always empty my purse into the breast cancer care tins  in all  the shops every week, I also do the breast cancer care Lottery, have bought numerous stuff from the shop over the yrs , pins , cards, hats, T-Shirts etc, help to fundraise for BCC in anyway i can, but I'm not going to anymore , I don't even like the latest BCC  branding ,I think the colours are way too Gawdy and wont even be recognisable as breast cancer to Joe public, so a waste of money and totally unnecessary in the first place in my view,  

Shall continue to wear my BCC pins for as long as they last ,or until I loose them , but after that shall buy my BC stuff from breakthrough. 

Sorry BCC but really fed up with the constant changes and what it must all cost ,the money from fundraising should be directed much more appropriately and not wasted on what a lot of people would consider to be unnecessary stuff .

Though sadly i suspect It's a waste of time anyone complaining ,as  no one ever really listens!

[Angelfalls]

It's not just the website, Cornish Girl.

http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/about-us/were-changing

So, all publications will have to be reprinted with the new branding, volunteers will get new t-shirts, stationery, business cards, etc. And any item with the old branding will just get binned... Or, at best, recycled! And I just can't help wondering about the cost of all this...

[cornishgirl]

I think you do have a point Angelfalls, BCC  really needs to "Settle" on something that they like and more importantly "works" for everyone and maybe stop trying to tweak the site constantly , most people like to see something that is "Familiar" and also easily Recognizable, by keep changing, tweaking, and re-branding, the organization, It surely will just become confusing to the general public ,and I'm sure it must also continually cost money all the time, which  I would think could be far better spent elsewhere, this is the 4th website change , and it seems to still be making  changes, since I first joined Bcc 6 yrs ago, and  for me personally after using them all over the yrs I still think the very first one was the best. (If it aint broke, maybe don't fix it? )

I also can't really understand why people don't know about BCC ,because if you type Breast Cancer into any Google search bar ,BCC is the 3rd site to be displayed on the very front page, just beneath CRUK , I'm also pretty sure that most breast clinics pass out info and leaflets from breast cancer care too (I know mine do).

I really hope this is the last reincarnation also for a good long while ,as rather than becoming more recognisable, for me at the moment BCC is actually becoming more "Unrecognisable".

L 

[Angelfalls]

Another new look, another new logo, another rebrand, another relaunch... And so the money goes... Is this what people are fundraising for?!

With BCC changing their image almost as often as the energy companies put up their bills, it's no wonder to me that Jo(e) Public can't identify this organisation amongst the sea of pink. Maybe to consolidate an identity, you need to keep it for a little while, rather than wasting more money changing it. Yet. Again.

Will existing literature with the "old" branding be binned, even though the information therein is correct? What a waste!