Everyone has an opinion on when rebranding a company is a good idea, and when it is not. The smart ones recognize that, done properly, a corporate rebranding exercise can provide a catch-all solution to multiple business challenges.

I am going to lay aside the tired examples of a thousand marketing seminars – BP, Firestone, New Coke etc. Instead I want to concentrate on our less sensational reasons for a rebrand. Our business challenges stemmed from the way I had started the agency.

Back in 2005, as soon as we were up and running I immediately immersed myself in client service. In my spare time, I put in place the rudiments of a corporate identity, deliberately avoiding huge expenditures of treasure (which was limited) and time (which I preferred to spend with my clients). I knew that I would want to change things, further down the line.

After three busy years, I was able to look around and take stock. Though a global recession had not allowed us to grow at the rate my most optimistic daydreams had envisioned, we had built an agency and a reputation, serving clients that we cherished in the US and abroad.

I realized, however, that to maximize our competitiveness in the down economy, now was the time to take decisive action. Now was the time to kick things up a notch, to refresh our brand and more accurately express the post start-up nature of our agency. A number of specific factors added to the urgency:

• While maintaining a strong public affairs practice, we had expanded the number of clients in marketing support and corporate communications, drawing on existing strengths with analysts and business media while developing new areas of expertise. Over time we had become more than simply “the issues management people”. We needed to express this better.

• In common with our more savvy industry colleagues, we have had a steep learning curve as web communications have become ever more crucial in all our campaigns. We have developed significant expertise and a solid track record in this area. We needed our identity to reflect this.

• The look and feel of our website and marketing materials (our corporate identity) though good enough for a start-up, needed more polish – a more mature look. Likewise, I wanted to get away from our start-up name The Keymer Group. I wanted to simplify things. Keymer seemed the right thing to call us. An unusual name with…. ahem…. personal significance*.

There were other factors, but these were the main ones. Of course many out there (the disciples of Malcolm Gladwell…yawn…) will point out that we have not really ‘rebranded’, we have simply tweaked the name of the firm, created a new corporate identity and rewritten our marketing materials. To a significant degree, they are right. The point to take away, however, is that all of these changes allow us to express better our unchanged brand promise – the one thing I did spend significant time on when I founded the business:

“Keymer will provide smart, innovative communications consulting and execution to clients in the US, in Europe and elsewhere, while maintaining a true focus on clients, personal service and attention to detail.”

So there you have it. I’d love to get your feedback. Email me or leave comments – tell me what you like and don’t like. We can take it – we’re grown up, now….

*(Aside: You should know that while many in England boast that their families are so old that they came over from Normandy with William the Conqueror in 1066 AD, the Keymers were there to meet them when they arrived. I trust there will be no “brand ramifications” from the fact that the name itself is popularly meant to mean “dweller by the cow pasture” in a form of Anglo-Saxon…..)