Affinity: Recreation in motion

Affinity Group is the world’s leading communications and services company serving the recreational vehicle (RV) and outdoor power sports industry. Whether it’s magazines, trade shows, events, consumer services such as financing and roadside assistance, or enthusiast clubs, Affinity is a major presence in these industries with a large number of diverse brands, products, and solutions.

This diversity and reach came about through shrewd acquisition and business development over a number of years. Therein also lay the seeds of a challenge for Affinity. Internally, and when dealing with business and industry partners, the corporate structure was confusing. To the outside world, Affinity looked like many companies, not a unified entity. As a result, Affinity’s business partners were hard-pressed to understand the value of the entire company and its full suite of services.

The company engaged BrandLogic to bring clarity to its business-to-business relations and to devise a way to present Affinity Group as a one-stop shop, demonstrating that Affinity can offer complete solutions, not just partial answers.

The first phase of the project was designed to uncover perceptions and gather input about the company from many sources, so an accurate picture could be built. BrandLogic interviewed partners, advertisers and even perceived competitors. The BrandLogic team also provided a forum through which employees from across the company could come together and share their thoughts.

Using this input, BrandLogic developed a leadership platform – a clear, concise statement of Affinity’s vision, mission, personality and culture – to help Affinity employees truly understand what the company is about and the value it offers, and also guide Affinity in its future growth. This critical deliverable provides a single rallying point, signaling Affinity’s confidence and pride in its role as America’s champion for the fun, freedom and adventure of recreation in motion. .”

To strengthen its position as one of the leaders in the recreational vehicle industry, the company needed to think of itself in a new way. Three clear goals were formulated by the BrandLogic team:
•    Simplify the business to help outside partners, advertisers and stakeholders better understand the value, breadth and depth of the company’s services.
•    Unify all aspects of the company in order to create a rallying point that helps inspire employees with an aspirational vision and compelling goals and objectives..
•    Challenge the status quo to take what is already good and make it better, making Affinity the provider of choice.

Simplification and unification of the company were critical elements. The existing corporate structure made the Affinity link secondary to the business unit’s identity. Magazine editors, for example, thought of themselves as working only for their division. The same issue existed for advertisers who, looking in from outside, didn’t see a group of publications held by a single company; rather, they did business as if each publication were a separate entity. The same disconnect between Affinity and its brands extended across the enterprise.

To help partners and employees gain a clearer understanding of Affinity as a whole, BrandLogic proposed a new business structure consisting of four units: Media, Clubs, Ventures and Events. Any of Affinity’s numerous divisions can operate within one or more of these four groups. From the point of view of industry and business partners, these four units are all that’s visible, and all that’s important.

The lack of consistency in how people referred to the company was another obstacle to brand unity. Some called it Affinity or Affinity Group, while others used AGI or simply ignored the Affinity relationship entirely. To help eliminate this barrier, BrandLogic explored the possibility of changing the company’s name. Workshops with management were held and a Web site where employees were invited to submit potential names was set up. At the end of the day, the decision was made to use “Affinity” as the communicative name. The naming exercise reaffirmed the relevance of the name for a company charged with unifying those that share the passion behind “recreation in motion.”

BrandLogic also designed a new logo The new logo conveys contemporary relevance and a sense of motion, echoing the energy of the new “Recreation In Motion” tagline and better reflecting what the company does.

To help ensure that all at Affinity understood how to articulate the brand value, BrandLogic ran a series of workshops to identify key messages and proof points that bring clarity to the marketplace as to the company’s value proposition. BrandLogic also created a messaging guide to be used by those responsible for communications as well as by the entire sales force.

The unified identity gives Affinity a number of important benefits. The company’s value is now truly clear not only to the industry, but to employees – and prospective employees – as well. This helps Affinity attract and retain higher-quality personnel. The new architecture also helps drive revenue from advertisers and other business partners, because it helps the company cross-sell between brands.

 “We’re very pleased with the results of BrandLogic’s work,” says Mike Schneider, CEO of Affinity. “The launch of the new identity went really well, and we got many comments and accolades on both the direction and the execution.”