We kick off our brand challenge

I currently have about the best brand and communications gig in Australia. No. I'm not exaggerating. I have one of those rare opportunities to head a working group, whose task is to research and develop a new brand as our superannuation fund merges with another to create the 8th biggest profit-for-member fund in the country.

How often do you get to start from the ground up to create a new brand for a substantial organisation? Sure, we've all worked on brand refreshment programs - a tweak to the logo and the corporate style guide, but the opportunity to get back to basics and thoroughly research two large organisations as they proceed down the path to merger is something like manna from heaven.

The outstanding news is that the executive teams from both organisations have recognised that thoroughly understanding the new entity's value proposition will be a primary driver of product and services modelling and even organisation structure and its required skills matrix. It's been a long haul for me in elevating brand to the point where it's a substantial driver of business strategy and modelling.

No doubt, the next couple of years will be extremely exciting and a period in which we'll  accumulate various brickbats and bouquets. I just hope we'll be receiving more of the latter when the project is completed!