Today, 1 October, the Royal College of Midwives, announces a smart new look – a rebranding trailed teasingly by Chief Exec (or General Secretary in old money) on the most recent episode of their engaging podcast.

Branding and unions had a legacy of seeming a counter-intuitive pairing:  Shiny, profit-making PR companies somehow at odds with the common good collectivism of the labour movement.  But that is firmly in the past now, with the principles of branding firmly embedded in most unions’ strategic planning and communications strategy.

We can signpost you to two items from the archives. If you want to delve deeper into how branding and unions learned to love each other.

The first is this post from 2017 which asks if the relationship is a cause for concern of celebration.  Some unions may have changed their imagery since then, but the arguments remain.

Then you can also reprise Andrew Pakes of Prospect talking about why his union embraced branding and some of the unexpected consequences of that in this UnionDues podcast from last year.

Sometimes it can be hard to get well-informed analysis and background on union stories.  “Friday’s Deeper Dive” aims to fill that gap.  I hope you find it useful.

Featured image credit – Balazs Ketyi/Unsplash