UAC NEWS
Knowing when to make a change
Rebranding can improve your company culture and revenue by Jimmy Miller When Pam Dooley first started the process of a rebrand in 2016, she simply wanted to redesign her website. Its outdated appearance made navigating the site an exercise in patience. But after a few conversations with some experts, she realized her company’s problems were rooted deeper than just the website. “They were like, ‘Who are you?’ and I said, ‘What do you mean, ‘Who are we?’” Dooley says. “They made me realize that the ~ Pam Dooley, Owner website was the very end of the process. There was no way that we could develop any website that connected with people that we want to attract without knowing who we were.”
UAC MAGAZINE | SPRING 2020
“We were at the 10-year mark, and I did not believe that our current identity was attracting those employees and customers that we wanted to serve.”
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Dooley says prior to the rebrand, her company – Plants Creative Landscapes, based in Decatur, Georgia – was stagnating. It started in 2005 and just hit a wall a decade later. “We were at the 10-year mark, and I did not believe that our current identity was attracting those employees and customers that we wanted to serve,” she said. The rebranding process took several years. Dooley says the company saw its top line blossom by 42 percent in two years and its bottom line also steadily rise over several years.
Even now, Dooley says the company’s top line revenue of $5.2 million should jump to $5.5 million in 2020. Growth is still happening at the remodeled Plants Creative. But the rebranding process wasn’t just changing the company logo and slapping it on all their trucks. It took a deliberate, step-by-step process to develop a strategy they still use today.
Getting to know who you are At Compass Creative, which Dooley worked with on the rebrand, creative director Diego Lopez says many companies think their websites are good enough because they generate new client leads. But Lopez and the rest of the Compass team usually turn around and ask if the company’s website generates leads from clients they aspire to serve. Typically, the answer’s no. That’s where a rebrand can help.
“Not a lot of landscapers know how to communicate what makes them different than the next guy.” ~ Diego Lopez, Compass Creative He says companies should determine their short- and long-term goals, and how they believe their website will help them achieve those goals. There should also be time spent evaluating the company’s identity and whether its logo and brand are consistent across all assets like trucks, fliers, social media and on the website. Lopez says Compass often spends three or four weeks with a client getting to know them, though that might not be an industry precedent. He also adds that Compass dives into the client’s company culture and creates a full marketing analysis. Based on that initial phase of brand discovery, Compass makes recommendations from there.
