Dow Jones & Company

In May 1996, Dow Jones was the rare corporation without a logo. Though it is a public company, management had never considered “Dow Jones” as itself a brand; the brands were The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Telerate. But with Chairman Peter Kann’s modest suggestion to his annual report designers Belk Mignogna Associates (BMA), “Perhaps we should have a logo,” a learning process began. BMA’s Howard Belk invited my assistance; we met with Peter Kann and together started listing and addressing the issues.

“Maybe two or three interviews” grew to twenty-six, as the Chairman grew more comfortable with the process and more engaged by the conflicting viewpoints and developing consensus. And perhaps because Peter Kann is a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter he wanted to see detail; so we put all our interviews on the record (highly unusual) and transcribed them. (Perhaps also because he is a journalist, Mr. Kann is comfortable with our telling the story. )

The four books of transcripts total 277 pages. Highlighted quotes in them provided the raw data of identity analysis, and the documentation presented to support our conclusions.

Using these data, the next step was to build an identity platform defining the Dow Jones brand… its intended positioning, corporate purpose, mission, composition, culture and personality:

Dow Jones Identity Platform

Positioning
Dow Jones is the world’s preferred source of business knowledge.

Purpose
Our corporate purpose is to comprehend the business of the world. By sharing that comprehension as universally as we can, helping people everywhere to understand the business in their lives, we will provide an exceptional return to our shareholders.

Mission
We are motivated by the conviction that the free flow of business knowledge is fundamental to free markets, and free people.

Composition
Although historically we are formed of strong, freestanding businesses, today convergence and coherence are more important to us than division. Our purpose is best served by an open flow of ideas, skills, people and information throughout Dow Jones.

Culture
Our most fundamental passion is for the integrity, accuracy and relevance of the information we provide. This Dow Jones value crosses all unit lines.

Personality
We are not a bronze plaque. Our defining personality is dynamic, fast-moving, real-time. We are innovators.

Approved by Peter R. Kann October 9, 1996

For its brevity, clarity, actionability and potential impact as a corporate change event I believe the Dow Jones Identity Platform is a model many institutions might learn from. Remember -- this is not something the consultant imposes upon the client. Every word in it came directly from management interviews. And in our Identity Plan presentation every member of the management team saw the data, saw the leadership decisions, and saw how the debates and the consensus came to be resolved.

Every piece of the platform is important, but for Dow Jones the biggest cultural changes (and for identity planning purposes the most actionable) were the Composition and Personality statements.

Thc Composition statement triggered a re-branding process; henceforth the units would salute the Dow Jones flag, and those especially who shared the Dow Jones name would participate in building one coherent global brand. The re-branding of Telerate as Dow Jones Markets was an part of the identity plan, signaling the sincerity of the 1997 effort to save this unit. (Telerate would still be available as a life-raft brand in 1998, when Markets was sold.)

As for the new logo, obviously the Personality statement would drive the design. Without it, anyone asked to design a Dow Jones logo would start with a ‘bronze plaque’ mental image of the historic Dow Jones. From the perspective of Peter Kann’s intentions, this was exactly wrong; Dow Jones had to be blasted out of its proud but static, heritage-centered culture into a more forward-looking dynamic culture.

The BMA design team responded to this challenge with enthusiasm and creative skill. Peter Kann joined us in BMA’s logo ‘war room’ both to select the most promising directions from scores of ideas, and to choose the best few for refinement studies. Identity veteran Don Ervin contributed logo refinement and application studies.

With no fanfare (it was a ‘stealth launch’), Dow Jones’ first official logo appeared in the top left corner of the January 2, 1997 Wall Street Journal. The ‘worldmark,’ Dow Jones astride a horizon, effectively expresses the positioning goal “the world’s preferred source of business knowledge,” guided by a personality statement very different from its “bronze plaque’ heritage.

Thus Dow Jones, in 1997, provided a classic illustration of all three ways a leader can use identity tools -- to assert corporate direction, promote the required culture, and clarify the supporting corporate composition.

As of April 1998, the Telerate divestiture was announced, the stock was near its high, and Kann ruled a slimmer but stronger, clearer brand.