A product-safety association has rebranded and renamed itself, looking to widen its membership, advocacy, and public-awareness reach.

The Baby Safety Alliance, formerly the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, announced the change on June 24. According to CEO Lisa Trofe, CAE, the change better represents the association’s focus—certifying the safety of baby products and advocating on behalf of those products’ manufacturers—while increasing visibility of its work to a broader community.

“We were looking at what a rebrand could do to benefit the member community and help us become more of a collaborator and a convener within the space,” she said. “It also enables us to be more seen in circles where we may not have necessarily been previously.”

By removing the word “manufacturers” from its name, the association intends to signal that it speaks to a broader community engaged in the baby-products industry. In a statement, chair Anna Early said, “I think most notable is that safety is in our name now, and that’s what we stand for. The use of the word alliance was very intentional. It’s more inclusive of our current membership base and it’s part of our future plans to expand our network of partners.”

Trofe said the association’s board had been casually discussing the idea for more than a decade, but the effort began in earnest last year, when the board established a subcommittee to steer the rebranding along with staff. 

We did a lot of focus group work with parents to understand what would resonate.

Lisa Trofe, CAE, CEO, Baby Safety Alliance

“Rebrands aren’t quick, but I feel like this was very quick,” Trofe said. “We spent the last 10 months being very intentional, focusing on market research, ideating and iterating all of the different versions of the name and the graphics. We did a lot of focus group work with parents to understand what would resonate from the education side, and with our partners to really ensure that the visual identity, the tone, the name, would resonate appropriately.”

In the coming months, Trofe said, the Baby Safety Alliance will track the impact of the rebranding across three main categories. First is membership, and whether the association’s broader mandate will bring in new members who haven’t previously engaged with the group. Second is consumer awareness: Its public-facing charitable foundation, now called the Baby Safety Foundation, is the home for Baby Safety University, which provides resources, guidance, and a list of approved products under its verification program. 

“We are launching some new initiatives that we will be tracking very closely from an impressions and conversion standpoint, that are hyper-focused on education for the very newest parents,” she said.

The third category is that product certification program, now called a verification program. Higher visibility, Trofe said, will hopefully increase the credibility of the program, and attract more producers to it. “As we continue to see the value of the verification seal building in the consumer space, we anticipate even more companies joining the verification program,” she said. 

Trofe said that associations considering a similar change should identify early on the competencies it needs to succeed and maintain their focus. “It can’t be understated, the level of expertise needed to pull something like this off, especially in a timely fashion,” she said. “That is how things stay on time, stay on budget and get done correctly in the way that we would like to see them. The right partners are equally as important as the oversight and the engagement from the decision makers.”

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