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Solutions July 2005
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CLASS:
Branding Your Company
LESSON:CoreVision
Group drops its alter ego and
rescues clients.
Print
Technologies Inc. offered branding,
design, web development and other
services, but customers viewed
the company only as a print supplier.
Convincing them to rely on the
Carol Stream, Ill.-based distributorship
for strategic marketing expertise
was difficult. As president and
CEO, Leonard Maucelli felt like
Superman, but his clients thought
he was Clark Kent.
During
a presentation to a prospect,
Maucelli reached his breaking
point when a client said: "You're
a printing company. It's
in your name. It's all you
do. Everything in front of me
reeks of print, and there's
nothing that tells me that you're
a marketing company." Maucelli
says, "That's the
moment I decided we've got
to change the name of our company."
Print Technologies entered the
telephone booth, so to speak,
and emerged as CoreVision Group
Inc.
Before
changing the company's name,
Maucelli weighed potential benefits
and consequences. Had he thought
it would adversely affect any
segment of the business, the change
wouldn't have taken place,
he says. To have no effect at
all also would have meant no change.
"When you decide to change
your name, it needs to be attached
to added services and competencies,
and you have to be able to deliver,"
he says. "If you're
changing your name just to change
your name, it's a waste
of time and money." CoreVision
Group's value-added services
already existed, and Maucelli
determined a name change could
only help the company market and
sell them more.
Process
Takes Time and Money
The
process took four months and cost
$150,000, Maucelli says. He started
by brainstorming. Employees helped
list nearly 200 possible names,
including Envision and VisionCom.
"Vision"
and the word "core"
came up in multiple suggestions,
so Maucelli put them together
to form CoreVision Group. "We
felt that CoreVision was representative
of what we try to do—take
our customers' core competencies
and deliver a vision," he
says. Maucelli faced some employee
resistance to the name change.
Salespeople were particularly
skeptical about how well the name
would be received. To bring them
on board, Maucelli held a series
of sales meetings explaining the
need for a change. During one
meeting, he says, "We had
a show and tell of new products
and services. Everything the salespeople
brought to the table that was
exciting and profitable wasn't
just print." The meetings
helped convince the sales force
that the name change would reinforce
the company's strategic
positioning. Employee support
is crucial to the success of a
name change: "Make sure
that all the employees buy in
on it," Maucelli says.
Marketing
a Name Change
In-house
designers created the CoreVision
Group logo and sales literature
to reflect the company's
focus. The company purchased letterhead,
business cards, and interior and
exterior signage for headquarters.
It then implemented a plan to
market the name change.
Print
Technologies gradually reintroduced
itself as CoreVision Group through
a staggered direct mail campaign.
The first mailing alerted existing
and prospective customers about
the upcoming name change. The
second mailing elaborated on the
company's theme of "becoming
focused on your vision."
The final mailing officially announced
the new name.
In
concert with the name change and
promotional mailings, CoreVision
Group established a "Circle
of Communications" showroom
at the company's headquarters.
The room is devoted to highlighting
the distributorship's full
range of capabilities. "We
took a square room and visually
made it round," Maucelli
says. "It goes around the
entire circle and shows what we
do in each of our seven core competencies."
Prospective clients are invited
to visit the showroom. A virtual
tour of the room is available
on the company's web site.
Once
word spread, the company leveraged
its new name to gain business.
CoreVision Group no longer needs
to explain the change. The company
has refined its marketing efforts
to reach select prospects in various
niche markets, and it's
developing a case study based
on its experience to sell the
corporate identity services it
offers.
Tangible
Results
Maucelli
turned Print Technologies into
CoreVision Group because he expected
the change to drive sales. It
seems to have worked. "It
is definitely measurable in the
areas that we were doing very
little business in, including
strategic marketing," he
says. "We're now doing
a lot more strategic marketing
for our clients, including branding,
design and web sites. We've
done corporate identities, from
front to back end, including all
the print. We're involved
in a lot more e-commerce."
CoreVision
Group's signage business
also is expanding. It installed
an exterior sign at the Kellogs
School of Management at the University
of Chicago, and it's redesigning
and installing systems at two
hospitals in Chicago. "I
think we're finally getting
to the point where our clients
look at us as a one-stop shop
rather than just a print supplier,"
Maucelli says.
It
helped that existing customers
greeted the name change with excitement
and curiosity. Their inquiries
about the change became opportunities
for CoreVision Group to re-educate
them about its offerings. New
customers also have responded
to the message behind the name,
even the prospect who prompted
the change. CoreVision Group reintroduced
itself and won business from the
account.
1.
Adopt a mindset that accepts periodic
change. "If you look
at any major product, they're
always tweaking either the logo,
the look or the message,"
says Leonard Maucelli, president
and CEO of CoreVision Group Inc.,
Carol Stream, Ill. "Printing
distributors have a habit of doing
the same thing over and over.
If someone says, 'I have
25 years of experience in the
printing industry,' is that
1 year repeated 25 times or 25
different experiences?'"
2.
Implementing a new name effectively
depends on the efforts of all
employees, especially the sales
force. Make sure everyone
in the company understands why
the change is taking place and
how it fits into the company's
overall marketing strategy. If
you can't communicate the
significance to employees, you'll
have a hard time explaining it
to customers.
3.
Sell your expertise at reinventing
corporate identities by sharing
your story in a case study format.You gain clients' trust
by demonstrating that you've
personally experienced what they're
about to go through.
Homework
Solicit
testimonials from two customers
for use in your marketing materials.
Contact
two previous customers and ask
how you can help them.
