“What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name might smell as sweet.”
-William Shakespeare
While Juliet may have had a valid point in Shakespeare’s day, in today’s age of in-your-face advertising, with a barrage of brands to numerous too count, a name is so much more than just a name-it is survival of the fittest.
As a result, when Partnership board of directors and executive staff determined that it was time for the agency to undergo a brand make-over, it was not a resolution that was made on impulse.
“It’s actually something our directors have been discussing for quite some time,” says agency President, Deb Denbeck. “Because of the continual growth of our programs and services, we came to realize that our organization’s name just wasn’t portraying an accurate reflection of all that we represent.”
So how do you go about altering what has essentially been the public identity of an organization, with programs that have been community staples for nearly three decades? Yah, it stumped us too-so we brought in the professionals.
Advertising and public relations firm Lovgren Marketing Group got right to work with hours of research and multiple focus group tests until the final product began to take shape.
“This re-branding effort affords the organization a great opportunity to feel a renewed sense of purpose,” says owner and CEO of Lovgren Marketing, Linda Lovgren.
The new brand was revealed in late summer this past year when Denbeck announced the agency known as “The Partnership For Our Kids” would hence forth be known as “Partnership 4 Kids”. She also unveiled the agency’s new logo. It features a mortar-board and tassel, encircled by the updated moniker and the four core principles, on which each of P4K’s programs are based.
The number ‘4’ in the new agency name signifies these core principle which include; goal setting, mentoring, college access and career 
exploration. The mortar board and tassel at the center of the image is symbolic of the organizational mission to ‘guide our youth to academic success from kindergarten to careers’.
The final facet of the new logo, the golden circular backdrop that the other components of the emblem are centered around, while subtle in imagery, might be the most symbolically significant of any of its elements.
“We kept using this phrase, ‘full-circle’, to describe what makes our programs distinguishable from all the others,” explains Partnership Events and Communications Coordinator, Lori Lundholm.
“Full-circle just sort of perfectly defines our agency in so many ways, from our roots as two individual organizations coming together with a common goal, to the services and support that we provide for our students through their entire academic careers,” says Lundholm. “It’s really beautifully fitting.”
