So we changed our name recently from Delphic Sage to Delphic Digital. This is about the third time that I have undertaken this type of effort at a company. I am continually amazed at how much harder it is than it seems on the surface.
For context, this post is not a comprehensive how to on rebranding a digital agency. I find the “7 steps to” type posts personally so overhyped these days thanks to SEO and other underlying motivations. Rather this post is simply meant to reflect on a few high level observations from going through the process.
Why we did it
When I originally named the company Delphic Sage, I chose a vague name on purpose. I did this first and foremost out of an abhorrence of names that lack any creativity – techweb, web 2000, that kind of thing. The second reason is that this business changes very quickly. I wanted a name that could evolve with changes to the business model. I declare success on these two points.
What didn’t turn out so well was the name rolling off the tongue clearly. Introducing the name at a cocktail party or over the phone typically elicited a response of “delphic what?”.
So, my new partner (along with some other less than subtle cajoling) strong armed me into a subtle change over to Delphic Digital (or just Delphic for short). The advantage with this name is at least the digital part gives context to the business immediately. And Delphic is short and snappy.
So that settled, off we went revising the brand itself.
The Rebranding Process
From start, be sure to understand and reinforce with your team the difference between a brand positioning and brand identity. I am a firm believer that you need to take the time to hash out the former prior to undergoing any sort of design work. Without it, design efforts are simply pretty images with no underlying context to stir both the emotional and rational portions of the brain.
Deciding on the team is another critical piece. Take some time and choose wisely. It’s easy for people to derail the process through disagreement – intentionally or unintentionally. Take in feedback, but realize that you may not be able to get all the way home through consensus. In fact, you probably won’t get consensus so be sure to make clear how the decision making process will work.
Rolling your rebranding effort out
If you have not rebranded a product or company before, one of the first things you will note when you start to take stock of rolling it out is the sheer volume of places your name and/or logo exists. Even if you are a small company – it’s everywhere: contracts, banking, signage, web sites, documents, email signatures. Don’t underestimate the time needed to track down and revise these assets, as well as the the cost.
At Delphic, we continually suffer from cobbler’s children syndrome. For that reason, we decided on a rolling rollout. Key items like the domain name change, website, invoices, etc were tackled first. In fact, we are still rolling out items a couple months later. Not ideal, but you make do.
Do you have some perspective on your efforts? I’d love to hear them.
