The Cincinnati Country Club has been around for 130 years and is making moves to position itself to last another 130 years.
A strategic way the club is doing that is through a recent rebranding project, which updated the club’s mission statement, employee strategy line, and logo.
“Being 130 years old, we knew we needed a brand refresh, but we wanted to make sure that we were respecting our history and still being relevant for today’s world, our employees, and our membership,” says Joe Zinchini, who is in his 17th year at Cincinnati CC, seven of those years as GM and 10 as the club’s golf professional.
The Trigger: “Logo Creep”
Cincinnati Country Club was founded in 1895 and offers its 870 members numerous amenities from an 18-hole golf course, robust racquets 
program, fitness facility, a lap pool and resort pool, and an extensive dining program operating out of three kitchens and eight different venues.
The push for change began two years ago during a golf course renovation project. Zinchini noticed that the club’s logo was not consistent across the different departments within the club.
“I would call it a ‘logo creep,’” says Zinchini. “The logo was there, but there were different versions of it everywhere depending whether you were in the tennis shop or golf shop or how a certain department was printing it.”
This inconsistency sparked a broader conversation with the Board of Governors regarding the club’s internal and external messaging.
“Our mission statement is 100 years old and it’s just not relevant to the club today,” he says. “It was great when it was created, but the board and myself wanted something that we could instill into the fabric of our employees. Something that actually means something when you read it.”
Defining the Mission
After a year-long partnership with a local marketing firm and a committee of members with marketing backgrounds, the team developed a comprehensive “brand story.” This narrative led to a new mission statement:
At Cincinnati Country Club, we honor our rich legacy while evolving to meet changing expectations. We offer our members meaningful experiences and a vibrant community – devoted to extraordinary each and every day.
The final phrase of that mission—“Devoted to extraordinary each and every day”—serves as the club’s new employee service line.
“We wanted something we could practice,” Zinchini says. “As it’s come to fruition, I tell our employees: if what you’re doing doesn’t fall under being ‘devoted to extraordinary,’ then you should be asking yourself why you’re doing it.”
Honoring History Through Design
The cherry on top of the rebranding strategy was creating a consistent logo for the club.
Zinchini and his team went back through old membership booklets from 1895 and on and looked at what the logo used to be.
“You could see how the logo started, how it stayed consistent from roughly 1960 to 1980, and then how it shifted and kept slowly changing in the late 80s,” he says. “We put them all in a slideshow and asked ourselves: how do we merge these versions to respect our history?”
Zinchini wants people to see the new logo (pictured) and understand it stands for something bigger than just themselves.
The resulting logo returns to the brand’s original core. Zinchini says it took several months of passionate discussion centered around what it should look like and how members are going to feel about it when it’s released.
Today, the club operates under strict brand guidelines for everything from digital assets to apparel embroidery.
Results Driven by Membership
Zinchini says this rebranding project helps give employees and members an identity and understanding of the culture the club creates.
“A mission statement is really important and it shouldn’t be something you have and never talk about,” he says. “Everything we do should be guided by that mission statement.”
Zinchini wants people to see the logo and its four specific colors and identify it as the Cincinnati Country Club brand.
“Brand identity is really important and if you think about the great clubs in the world their logos are easily identifiable,” he says. “We wanted to make sure that we were not only identifiable but identifying differently from everyone else.”
Zinchini wants people to see the logo and understand it stands for something bigger than any of his team or members, but focuses on the wholeness of the club.
The new branding wasn’t created without membership input. The club surveyed members across all demographics to find out what the institution meant to them.
“What really caught me by surprise was the consistency of the answers,” Zinchini says. “We talked to 35-year-olds, 75-year-olds, and everyone in between. Those surveys helped write the brand story, which in turn wrote the mission statement.”
Looking Ahead
As Zinchini and his team move into the implementation phase, the focus is on internalizing the message. He wants the logo and its four specific colors to be instantly identifiable, signaling a standard of excellence that stands for something bigger than any one individual.
“For a 130-year-old club, we are not stuck in our ways,” Zinchini says. “If you don’t stay relevant—if you don’t have the programs, facilities, and properly trained staff—you’ll fall behind.”
His advice for other GMs considering a similar undertaking? Be patient.
“Dig deep by talking to people,” he advises. “The more membership you can represent, the better. Don’t just throw another logo out there; be strategic.”
