Companies naturally change over time and for those leaders and stakeholders who love what they do changing a business name can be an amazing experience. The re-branding (and by extension re-positioning) experience can make for some really exciting plays.
Benefits of a Name Change: Our Agency's Rebranding Experience.
We changed our name from Relevention to Crew. Why the change? Let's look under the hood.
When our agency started in 2007 (out of a basement I might add), it was called Relevention. We were attempting to do something different organizationally. I wanted to combine marketing best practices with top-level creative services, making it accessible to entrepreneurs and mid-sized organizations.
I liked our name Relevention—which combined the words of Relevant and Invention. I thought I was being so clever and crafty – and the dot com was available. At the time of its inception I was thrilled with the name and brand presence.
However, we encountered a few problems that prompted the change and they rested in three key areas:
1. Low Brand Recall = Slow Growth
People had a hard time remembering Relevention: spelling it, and most importantly, telling others about it. This is called Brand Recall.
If Brand Recall is low, word-of-mouth (the most effective form of advertising) will also suffer.
If they can’t spell it, they can’t find it on search engines either, and this limits one’s ability to use coverage media strategies such as Out-of-Home ads or Radio. This leads to slower growth and that was a problem for us because we had aggressive growth plans.
2. Better Alignment with our Internal Culture
Even though we created hundreds of name options for our new agency, we landed on Crew — the acronym for our core values: Character, Relationships, Execution and Wow. This name also better represents how we want our clients to view us.
We’re your Crew—a group of specialists that partner with you in your marketing efforts in order to achieve results. Who wouldn’t want their own Crew?
3. Expansion
Our growth as an agency came in part from opening offices in different cities. The name Crew was more "mainstream" and memorable, thus enabling quicker starts in new markets.
We have since helped hundreds of businesses create new names, brands and strategies that are right for them. It’s a daunting task for everyone involved, but it’s rewarding when you find the solutions that work.