At the first meeting
with Kelly Hampton and her team from the agency, the process
somewhat intimidated the public relations agency folks. The
PR21 management committee was asked to focus more on defining
their culture and aspirations than on their goals for revenue
and awards. Questions about the future were given the same
weight as those about day-to-day operations. And the process
went beyond words, too, to identify images and analogies to
create a three-dimensional picture of PR21.
In the same way that
a communication expert helps clients use analogies to relate
new concepts to the market, the rebranding process forced
the Zeno executives to think about the company as an animate
object, a color, a mood and more. The executives were pushed
to participate in ways that made them a bit uneasy, based
on how quiet these people, who talk for a living, became.
But by becoming unsettled, the PR21 team was also engaged
in fresh ways.
The initial results
were a set of six alternative futures for PR21. Each was rooted
in expressed values but offered a different emphasis. One
was iconoclastic, another more comfortable and a third outlandish.
A second session with the leadership team from PR21
to review these alternatives became a Rorschach test.
For this second session,
the management team was given a set of five visual cues underscoring
and including a name and logo. The cues included a block of
color, a vehicle, a plant, and a set of visual metaphors that
helped inform the logo. For each, there was a story that brought
it all together.
The branding agency
used the exercise to hone in on the values of the firm and
move closer to a final design selection. Their agency believes
that a company's name and visual expression needs to be linked
to its motivating values or it will not work-for the firm,
its people or the market. As an ultimate list of five values
emerged (insightful, connected, scientific, inspired and revolutionary),
the most obvious choice for a name did, too. Here's why:
A brand should
reveal something about the company it labels. The
name PR21 had been adopted in 1998 to represent "public
relations for the next century." The name became outdated
after the year 2000, and the "PR" label was more
limiting than the firm's real range of services.
The Zeno Group took
its name from the Greek philosopher who founded the Stoics.
Zeno of Citium argued that science led to insight and that
action should be aligned with the nature of things. Too often
communication programs are created as if the market in which
they need to work does not have pre-existing qualities. The
best programs are those that take advantage of their environment.
Zeno also said we were
given two ears and one mouth so that we would listen more
and say less. When the agency looked for a role model, Zeno
stood out.
A brand should
support the firm's values. The name PR21 suggested
a firm focused squarely on media relations. For Zeno, the
"scientific" aspect was a key value. It underscored
a commitment to research, a function in which the company
had invested heavily. More than routine retrospective research,
it had created a set of prospective research tools that gave
account teams the ability to allocate resources and plan as
well as measure.
A brand should
reflect and influence the view of the market. An
agency's ability to forge strategic partnerships with clients
is rooted in its people and approach, but it can also be reflected
in its name. Clients seeking communications support
today are looking for agencies willing to assign senior staff
with specific industry experience to their business. And clients
are looking for innovative ways to do more with the same or
smaller budgets. The Zeno brand allowed clients to see more
of what they were looking for in the agency.
A brand should
allow for growth and change. In terms of being timeless
and reflecting the scope of services provided, Zeno allows
for wider interpretation than PR21. It also translates better
globally and does not paint the agency into the corner of
any one practice or function.
In the end, it became
clear to Zeno that a company seeking a name other than its
founder's should take its own advice and seek outside counsel.
Landor helped Zeno uncover its personality, point-of-view
and market differentiators. By creating a brand personality
and understanding the needs of the market, Zeno avoided the
common, the faddish and the misleading.
CEO Epstein says the reaction from employees and clients has convinced him that the name change has already yielded significant return. "Employees tell me they are proud to hand out their business cards," he says. "And clients tell me it is fresh and forward-thinking." He believes the reaction is due to more than the new design or its colors. "It is the story," he says.
John Berard
is a managing director at the Zeno Group in San Francisco
and a member of the communication agency's Business Advocacy
Team. He can be reached at +1 415.845.4388 or john.berard@zenogroup.com.
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