Do you know Lady Gaga’s real name? It’s Stefani Germanotta. In 2011 did you take notice when Terasen Gas became FortisBC Energy? Probably. People, and companies, change their names all the time; they do it for a lot of different reasons, and for those looking to maximize results sometimes the name game is exactly what they need to play.
I believe that companies change over time and for those leaders and stakeholders who love what they do changing one’s business name can be an amazing experience. The re-branding, and by extension, re-positioning experience can make for some really exciting plays.
And speaking of exciting… we’ve just completed a name change! My agency, Relevention, is now called CREW Marketing Partners!
Why the change? Let me take you under the hood.
When I started Relevention out of my basement eight years ago I was attempting to do something different. I wanted to combine marketing best practices with top-level creative services and make 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 (3) key areas:
1. Low Brand Recall = Slow Growth
People have a hard time remembering Relevention, spelling it, and most importantly telling others about it. This is called Brand Recall. If Brand Recall is low, the most effective form of advertising, which is word-of-mouth, will also suffer. If they can’t spell it, they can’t find it on search engines—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 have 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. A New Business Model
Not only do we partner with clients in their marketing efforts but we’re also a group of entrepreneurial partners who are working with organizations in many different areas. Our growth as an agency is going to come through bringing on partners who open offices in cities across the country. Our new name is more mainstream to enable these new partners to establish themselves more quickly.
In the past month, we have helped five businesses create new names, brands and strategies for their businesses. It’s a daunting task for everyone involved but it’s rewarding when you find the solutions that work.
Our team is super excited about this new chapter and organizational engagement. Momentum is an intangible asset in any business and we’re thrilled about what the future holds for CREW.
Let me know what you think!
– Braden