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“Rebranding – in which we not only attempt to change the perception of the brand but also its name and livery – is an unpalatable option. You do it for only one reason – because for legal reasons you have to.”
Until this very moment, I had dutifully followed Ritson’s advice in my marketing career. The only complete rebrand I had worked on was exactly that – one we had to do for legal reasons. That was, until now.
In this article, I’ll share the stories behind three pivotal brand decisions I’ve been part of, with some key lessons for anyone contemplating a major brand shift in the B2B arena.
Identity crisis 1: The acquisition
The year was 2014. Everyone was doing the ice bucket challenge, and I was working at the Australian arm of international private bank Investec – a brand associated with high-net-worth customers, sponsorship of top-tier sporting events, and sophisticated branding featuring an iconic zebra.
That year, the Australian part of the business was listed for sale by its South African owners and was ultimately acquired by Bank of Queensland. As part of the transaction, it was agreed the acquired entity would be able to create its own new brand.
It was a daunting task. The distance between the ultra-premium Investec aesthetic and BOQ’s jovial cartoon retail banking identity was further than Brisbane and Joburg. A distinctive new brand that bridged the two was essential if we were to retain the business’s high-net-worth customers. The only requirement from our new owners was that the name included ‘BOQ’.
Led by B2B marketing powerhouse Tracy Ruff and creative genius Paul Garbett of Garbett Design, our marketing team took on the herculean task of rebranding a bank. With a fixed launch date to align with ASX disclosure requirements following the acquisition, we worked many late nights to take a brand-new brand and implement it across thousands of assets.
Work that would often take years was accelerated into the space of just a few months. All of this amidst deep internal anxiety from staff who were more loyal to that zebra than many people are to their spouses. The stakes were high.
At the end of all this work, BOQ Specialist was born. The new identity not only honoured the legacy of Investec but also positioned BOQ Specialist as a distinctive, sophisticated brand in the market. Despite the enormous pressure and tight timelines, the rebrand was a resounding success, with 100 percent retention of all customers and employees one-year post-launch.
Key lesson: An acquisition is certainly grounds for a rebrand, according to Ritson’s rule. When rebranding after an acquisition, it’s important to honour the legacy of the acquired brand. Recognise and integrate its value to both employees and customers to ensure a smooth transition and maintain brand equity.
Identity crisis 2: The disconnect
When I arrived at Talent International four years later, it was clear that another brand dilemma needed to be solved. I had been approached to work at Talent by a recruiter who told me incredible things about a highly progressive technology recruitment business with a world-class culture.
Everything she described sounded fantastic, but when I explored the brand’s assets in the market, there was little evidence of it. Instead, what I found was dated stock imagery, generic language, forgettable values, and brand confusion. It could have been any old recruitment company.
Once my feet were under the desk, it was evident that everything she told me was, in fact, true. It was an awesome place to work with a culture unlike the typically transactional ‘champagne and razorblades’ that is synonymous with the sector. Though there were – and still are – challenges with the word ‘Talent’ being so ubiquitous in the industry, it was clear that a brand revitalisation was the answer.
While consistency is key, it is essential for brands to evolve. As Ritson says, “Time makes fools of all the brands that stand still.”
After extensive research, our global team embarked on a brand refresh project, anchored in the philosophy ‘break from the pack’ – a mantra often championed by Talent’s founder, Richard Earl. For us, this meant recapturing the innovative, tech-focused spirit that the business was founded on back in 1995 and purposefully breaking away from the stuffy, dated industry standards. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Spotify, Atlassian and Canva, we crafted a brand strategy aligned with Seth Godin’s ‘purple cow’ theory, making us stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Armed with in-house creative guru, Mike Powis, we breathed new life into the Talent brand. Same name, same original spirit, but with new values, new look and feel, new tone of voice. The result of this change has been significant, with ‘break from the pack’ results achieved across business revenue, employee engagement and multiple award wins in our sector and beyond.
Key lesson: As Ritson says, “It is easy for brands to forget themselves and – over time – lose track of what makes them special. When this happens, step back, understand it again, and then step forward with a brand-new version of the past.”
Identity crisis 3: The confusion
If you’re still reading, I take you now to the year 2024. An Olympic year that brought us an Olympic-level brand challenge.
Here’s the background. In 2018, Talent launched a division called ‘Talent Solutions.’ Talent Solutions provides outsourced and embedded recruitment services such as RPO, MSP and many other acronyms that HR people will understand.
At the time, this name stood out. It was fresh and original in a market where ‘RPO’ and ‘outsourcing’ were the go-to terms. In the years since, however, the name evolved from being a unique differentiator to the industry standard.
For some time, Talent Solutions’ managing director Tom Mackintosh and I had sensed this was a problem. However, we resisted rebranding due to all the valid reasons Ritson outlines. Launching a new brand means sacrificing so much, starting from scratch, significant costs, and, in the case of adding an additional entity to an existing house of brands – stretching your resources across a wider remit. So, we tried to push through without rebranding.
However, at the 2023 SEEK awards, the problem became palpable. Talent Solutions was nominated for RPO of the Year alongside Manpower Talent Solutions and Chandler Macleod xPO Talent Solutions. Also at the event were several other companies with ‘Talent Solutions’ in their names.
We decided ‘award show déjà vu’ was a pretty good reason to get serious about a potential rebrand. After much research and with the full support of Tom and Talent’s phenomenal CEO Mark Nielsen, off we went.
If you have ever tried to come up with a new name for a business, you’ll know how hard it is at the best of times. But this brief was especially challenging. It needed to be something more distinctive than what we had, but also simple. It needed to be punchy but also give a sense of what the business actually does. It was also important that we retained the ‘Talent’ name somehow, to minimise the impact of the rebrand and to connect to our overall group brand architecture. No big deal.
After countless workshops and brainstorming sessions, we finally got there. Next, it was time to land on a brand identity – an equally challenging task. The brand’s customers range from edgy tech startups to multinational enterprises. It was critical that the direction we went in would be appealing to both while keeping to our ‘break from the pack’ ethos.
Now, after nearly a year of work, we are thrilled to be launching Solve by Talent. A new name, a new look, but with the same people and expertise.
It’s a brand that I am proud to say we have developed and executed entirely in-house and are already having so much fun with. Most importantly, it brings to life the personality of the team behind it, who are thrilled to have their own unique brand to go to market.
Key lesson: While complete rebrands should be avoided whenever possible, there are times when a rebrand becomes unavoidable. In such cases, it’s critical to conduct thorough research and make a well-calculated assessment of the potential benefits of rebranding versus the risks and opportunity costs of maintaining the status quo.
So, will this particular rebrand lead to ‘happily ever after?’ Only time will tell. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from these experiences, it’s that brand projects – much like marriage – are a calculated leap of faith. You do your research, you listen to your gut, and then you dive in headfirst, hoping like hell that you made the right move.
Chloe O’Toole is the managing director of marketing at Talent. She is a marketing leader with more than a decade of experience in B2B marketing across recruitment, banking and real estate sectors. At Talent, O’Toole oversees strategies for brands and is passionate about addressing challenges women face in tech, She has spearheaded events and research reports on the topic.
