But other rebrands have been far more successful. While BackRub, Datsun and Marafuku Company are far from household names, the majority of people will be familiar with what these three brands eventually became – Google, Nissan and Nintendo.
Bellshill, Lanarkshire-based print and mail firm Document Outsourcing, a company formed in 2003 after parts of Stortext were sold off into smaller units, was hoping for the latter effect when, on 5 January 2015, the £17m-turnover company launched its own rebrand and became Critiqom.
The challenge
The business has a downstream access licence and one of its core products is software sortation engine Primepost, which was launched in 2007. This service takes customers data, prints their documents, sorts them and then injects them into the Inbound Mail Centre.
With the aid of this service, which the firm says has 95% day-definite delivery and is 35% cheaper than sending post via second class Royal Mail, the business has built a strong reputation as a vital communication partner for both the private and public sectors.
The company serves more than 50 local authorities as well as a host of debt management and financial services companies. Electoral material is a key part of its output – and an area that is growing rapidly, according to Critiqom managing director Neil McCallum.
Besides its Bellshill base, which it relocated to from Hamilton in 2007, the business has opened a raft of other units over the past five years to cope with its rapid expansion.
It opened a second factory in Warrington in 2010 – and doubled its size in 2013 – and has also recently opened sales offices in London, Newcastle, Birmingham and Cardiff.
In the past 12 months the business has invested in new Xerox printers and Kern enclosing lines and installed new guillotines at both factories, built a new print room in its Warrington factory and implemented Shuttleworth MIS across the business.
“We’ve done quite a lot. We’ve generally taken any increase in revenue in generating gross margin and we’ve reinvested as much as we can back into the business,” explains McCallum.
“We do much more full-colour digital printing now than we ever did before and it gives our customers much more flexibility. It also increases our hybrid mail capacity no end and we’ve seen a large increase in orders from that as well.”
With a turnover increase of around £4.2m in the past 12 months, and ambitious sales targets for the next few years, in the second half of last year the business decided to undergo a rebrand to enable it to continue to evolve and adapt to market changes.
The method
The company began a strategic review to see how it could keep growing its momentum to continue to expand the business.
As part of the strategy, the firm made a number of key recruitments to its board and senior management teams, including Keith Wright from Xerox as technical director and Chris Sutton from Royal Mail as customer services director.
“We started off by taking on marketing director Pat Kelly. We wanted to improve our messaging, how we go about it and our targeting for customers. Pat has a long history of senior appointments in this industry and she has been fundamental in helping to change the business, particularly with the rebrand and the rename,” reports McCallum.
“Pat understood that the Document Outsourcing name could be perceived as old fashioned and that it came across as just another supplier. And we don’t want to be just another supplier, we want to be a partner.”
Last autumn the company began work with marketing agencies to develop a list of potential new names, taking into account what it wanted the name and the new company image to represent.
“We wanted something that was modern, electronic and digital, something crucial and we wanted to be known as a partner. It’s also about a whole set of visions and values within the business,” says McCallum.
After deciding on a shortlist of names, the business went through a similar process to choose its new logo and branding.
“We looked at the colours and branding and then put it to some of our staff, some of our customers and some of our board members and we agreed on what we think best suited who we are. We looked at three or four fonts and chose the one we liked the most,” explains McCallum.
“Critiqom defines who we are and what we’re interested in doing, which is critical communications. The IQ in the name represents the intelligence within the heart of the organisation to deliver that. It’s evidence of real change in the organisation, it reflects our proposition and we’re using it as a galvanising force internally.
“The feedback we got from the customers we tested two or three names on is that they could really understand the name Critiqom. Our staff, who we asked before anybody else, also liked it and bought into it.”
To embed its refocused vision and values among its workforce, the firm carried out an internal cultural change programme, which every member of staff has gone through.
“We don’t have many staff for the size we are so every staff member we have is incredibly important to us and we look after them,” says McCallum.
“We’ve always been a living wage employer, we over contribute more than we have to into their pension schemes, we do staff incentives and bonuses and I do team briefs to every staff member across the country once a month. Every single person understands that they play a key role in this business.”
The cost of the rebrand, including the new website and email addresses and the replacement of various collateral including internal and external signage, stationery, vehicle livery, staff uniform and new systems, was “a good six figures”, according to McCallum.
“We managed to get it all done from start to finish, from when we agreed it to the launch, in three months.”
The result
The new branding, including signage, collateral and the new website, was launched in sync by what McCallum says was “an army of people” between 6am and 8am on 5 January 2015. The business then held a launch party and began to heavily promote the rebrand.
“We marketed it all over; we’ve done lots of interviews and press and sponsored very targeted events,” says McCallum.
The business has also ramped up its social media and general internet presence in a range of other ways to promote and reap the benefits of the rebrand.
“We’ve done many more case studies, lots of different blogs, Linkedin and Twitter. And the amount of people that are now engaged with us, whether it be physically or electronically, on a day-to-day basis, has gone through the roof.”
And the rebrand has only attracted positive feedback so far, reports McCallum.
“It’s gone down really well with our customers. We’re also seeing really good sales through our new website at the moment; we’ve had some six figure orders, which has been absolutely fantastic for us and made a huge difference.
“The awareness of the Critiqom brand is also far greater than it was for Document Outsourcing.”
Early signs suggest that the rebrand has been a roaring success for Critiqom, and its medium-term targets to become a £30m-plus company by 2016/17 and a £50m-plus company by 2018/19 are within reach, according to McCallum.
“We’re winning many more bigger customers at this moment in time, and those new customers are staying with us. We’re also fortunate to have very loyal customers that we’ve had since our launch in 2003 and are very proud to have.
“Our customers, particularly on the local authority side, are having a hard time with budget cuts, the economy and everything else and we want to work with them at a senior level to be part of the solution to help them to develop ways to meet their challenges. We want to be here in 40 years’ time,” he concludes.
VITAL STATISTICS
Critiqom
Location Production sites: Bellshill and Warrington (each 1,394m2); sales offices: Newcastle, Birmingham, Cardiff and London
Inspection host Managing director Neil McCallum
Size Turnover: £17m; Staff: 76
Established In 2003 as Document Outsourcing, which was formed after parts of Stortext were sold off into smaller units
Products Print and mailing service
Kit Xerox Color 8250 and DocuPress HLC180 colour printers, Kern 2500 and 2000 enclosing lines, Paragon M5180 and Moore 4800 pressure sealing machines, Ideal 4850-95EP and 4850A guillotines, Microtek 9800XL A3 flatbed scanner, Agfa Avalon Thermal CTP and various Agfa, Epson and Canon proofing devices
Inspection focus Executing a successful rebrand
TOP TIPS
Involve customers and staff in the market research process, to ensure that costly mistakes are avoided. There have been many examples of failed rebranding in the past, where customers have not connected with new names or other major changes.
Divide responsibilities up to make changes more manageable. Four separate groups with between six to eight members of staff each worked to ensure that changes to Critiqom’s technology, operations, finances and collateral were all fully planned for and in order.
Think carefully about your new name and corporate image and what you want it to evoke. Ensure it represents your business in the way you intend it to.
Realise that some core values will inevitably need to stay the same. “We’ve always had visions and values about being sustainable and we support a number of local charities and fundraise. From a green perspective we’ve also always understood our carbon footprint. One of our other values is to have fun; we like to have a laugh with our customers,” says Critiqom managing director Neil McCallum.
Brief staff on any changes. To embed its refocused vision and values among its workforce, Critiqom carried out an internal cultural change programme, which every member of staff has gone through.
Decide on a planned launch date for all elements of the rebrand to go live simultaneously and plan accordingly. Staggered changes will lead to mixed brand messages and cause confusion.
Market the rebrand and let people know why you’ve done it and what it represents. “We had to let people know that it’s the same management team, the same ethos, ethics and people but what we’re doing is an outward sign of confidence that better reflects who we are now, not who we have been,” says McCallum.
