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The ConnectShip Rebrand
How We Rebuilt Our Brand Persona And What We Learned In The Process
The ConnectShip Rebrand
How We Rebuilt Our Brand Persona And What We Learned In The Process
September 19, 2019
W
hen a company finds that its business strategy or company culture does not align with its visual identity, it is time to consider rebranding. An effective rebrand can help companies adapt to changes within their organization or the market and serve as a lens for assessing relevance and competitiveness of a company, a window into how they intend to move forward. It is a method to re-establish/reclaim one’s place in the industry.

In December of 2018, we found ourselves in exactly this position. We were separating from our sister subsidiary whom we had been working in collaboration with for roughly a decade. We wanted to re-establish our place in the market. We wanted to refocus our core competencies and our company culture, which had started to shift from what it once was. Oh, and our visual brand? Dated; it was not at all representative of who we are, the technology we hold, or our wicked smart, fun, and innovative employees. In the case of ConnectShip, it was the perfect time to reinvent ourselves for all of the reasons listed above, and many more.

We knew we had to start from scratch in order to effectively rebrand. This meant months, possibly years of intensive work, both internally and in the marketplace -but we knew this was the perfect opportunity and one that we couldn’t ignore. So our marketing team prepared to start a process that would effectively change our world. We started with research, tons of research, and through this research, we were reacquainted with our own impressive history.

ConnectShip has been in this industry from the beginning, we still have print ads from the days of the PMS 500 in our archives, we have news article after news article about the innovations brought to the industry from our tiny company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Those advertisements I mentioned, they were fun! Yes, we create software for the logistics industry, but these vintage marketing materials where clever and light hearted! We decided that we would get back to that innovative start-up feeling, a company with employees who are legitimately excited to come to work in the morning and feel free to pitch that crazy concept that they just can’t get out of their head. We decided to internally call this our 'back to basics’ campaign. We set out to completely reinvent ourselves in order to recapture everything that we had in the beginning and combine it with the knowledge and experience we’ve gained since. We were inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s idea of being lost. “Not till we are lost do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations”.

We reevaluated who we were and what we had become. We realized that all of our major successes centered around two things: carrier compliance and community. It was decided that this ‘back to basics’ campaign, this company-wide rebrand, would focus on consistently positioning ourselves as the source for both while continuing to build more relationships to further optimize our compliance. Fast forward about eight months, and it is working. Our culture is well on its way back to what it once was.

Our new brand is everywhere and gaining recognition every day. We’ve attracted some amazing talent and gained impressive partnerships. We have restructured our partner program, reorganized our website to better support our community. We have ventured into channels and platforms previously unheard of to our company, and because we rebranded from within; our people are our biggest brand ambassadors!
Krista Barnes
Marketing Analyst ~ ConnectShip
 Krista Barnes joined ConnectShip as a web development specialist in the Marketing department in 2007 . During her time marketing ConnectShip solutions, Krista has been instrumental in the current and future direction of the company website, product marketing, communications, and event production. A graphic designer by trade, she has helped to evolve and then rebrand the company’s identity into what it is today. Krista earned her Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design and Art History from Oklahoma State University.