Rebranding With Grace

“The name ‘Graceworks’ reflects the organization’s core theological beliefs,” Smith says. “God gives grace to humanity, and the organization’s works put it into action.”

The new symbol for Graceworks Lutheran Services shows four hands coming together in the image of a cross. Smith explained that the vertical hand coming down represents God’s hand reaching down to humanity, and the vertical hand going up is a human hand reaching up to God. The horizontal hands illustrate that Graceworks reaches out to all people. The four hands cross in a pattern that creates a weaving or a fabric effect to illustrate the diverse programs that reach the entire community.

“The new name communicates the breadth of our mission to serve the needs of all people through a wide range of services,” says Willis Serr, Graceworks’ president and CEO. “It’s the result of a strategic effort to more clearly identify who we are and what we do and to create a common identity among all our programs and services.”

Promoting the new brand
Graceworks spent five months introducing the new name to its nearly 900 employees and 1,000 volunteers, as well as to its donors and the various congregations with which it works.

“We believed it was their role to deliver on our brand commitment,” Blumensheid says. “If your internal people aren’t committed, you won’t have a strong brand experience.”

Graceworks also did extensive brand training for its employees and volunteers. This entailed a 45-minute training session that explained what the new brand was, why it changed, what would change (the name), what would remain the same (the mission), and what their role was. The name change also inspired new publicity campaigns.

“The new brand helped us to introduce a theme for our ad campaign, which will run throughout the year,” Blumensheid says. “We have also integrated the new name and common messages throughout our publications. We’re still revising brochures and are overhauling the Web site — making each page more uniform with common messaging.”