Rebranding Your Identity -- Playing the Name Game

The top companies in the commercial printing industry must have chosen their moniker for a good reason. To those not familiar with the giants of the graphic arts world, the names RR Donnelley, Quebecor World, Vertis and Banta could just as easily be leaders in any field.

The fact is, they don't exactly scream "printing."

Today, printers do so much more than just put ink on paper, that having "print" in a company's name doesn't tell the whole story. In fact, it could pigeon-hole a company from getting work not traditionally thought of as done by "printers."

The most recent big-name printing company to go through such a metamorphosis was last year when Englewood, CO-based Mail-Well Inc. announced it rebranded itself as Cenveo and took on the corporate tagline "Vision Delivered." The name derives from a combination of "cen" for center and "veo," which relates to vision and understanding.

"Our new company name, logo and tagline provide an overall identity that unites the broad portfolio of solutions we provide, under one company," noted Paul Reilly, then-chairman, president and CEO, at the time of the announcement. "In addition, our new corporate identity is a strong representation of our new streamlined organization that is easier to do business with."

But you don't have to be a $1.7 billion behemoth, like Cenveo, to change not only your company name, but also your corporate culture and philosophy as a communications provider.

Take, for instance, Charlotte, NC-based Integraphx. Up until September of last year, the $4 million company was known as The Printing Office. But it offered much more than what its name implied. So, when the company moved into new, larger facilities in 2004, it also took on a new identity.

"While having the word 'print' in our name wasn't necessarily a negative, we did find it limiting and it did not reflect all of our capabilities," explains Scott Nowokunski, sales manager. "We have found our new name, Integraphx, to be more descriptive of our total package—integrated graphic communications."

Integraphx offers capabilities such as Internet-based ordering of print jobs; creative services; full-color digital and offset printing; on-demand black-and-white copying; large-format printing; binding and finishing; kitting; mailing and fulfillment services and more.

"When we approached customers and prospects with our previous name, The Printing Office, the customer immediately put us in a box as being a good source for printed material and boxed us out of the more complex non-print related items such as fulfillment, coordinated e-mail campaigns, Website development and true variable data applications," Nowokunski reports.

Companies such as Integraphx are on the right track, asserts sales and M&A guru Harris DeWese, chairman and CEO of Compass Capital Partners. Adding new capabilities and services is the key to success for today's printers.

"The name change is not nearly as important as the changes required in the firm's culture, knowledge, sales, technology, operations and management philosophy," DeWese advises. "The advantages of becoming an added value, multi-services printer are better margins and better customer retention."

At Reflections Printing, in Minneapolis, a slight tweak of its name has taken place. The company has decided to drop the word Printing, moving forward with the single-word title Reflections.

The company says it is ready to press forward with a refreshed brand image, expanded capabilities and the addition of a second location. While printing remains at the heart of Reflections' business, company officials see their role changing in the delivery and distribution of the materials that it produces.

To that end, the organization simplified and streamlined its name to Reflections, tagged with "Responsive. Resourceful. Results." Company officials believe this subtle identity shift will better reflect its business philosophy going forward.

This is a step in the right direction, according to DeWese. "A good way to send the message is the use of a sub-name or a tagline," he councils. "For example, DeWese Printing is improved by adding a subhead like, "An on-time, can-do, full-service graphic communications company."

For Nowokunski at Integraphx, the name change has blossomed into a tremendous amount of excitement from customers, prospects, vendors and employees.

"Since changing our name, there has been a natural progression to a different type of customer—as well as a different type of person seeking employment with our company," Nowokunski reveals. "A lot of prospective customers that would never talk to us before are looking to us to help solve their business problems. On top of that, several of our most recent hires have stated they never would have responded to an ad for The Printing Office."

Another well-known printer—recognized for its waterless printing expertise—has also gone through the rebranding process. Fontana Lithograph/Affiliated Graphics was a mouthful—as well as of one of the largest printers in the Washington, DC, area. It sought a new name that would eliminate the distractions inherent in one company being known by two distinctly different names.

Also, it wanted to define an entirely new business segment, Corporate Print Collateral Consulting, while retaining its core identity as a printer—all while not stepping on the toes of its existing client base that includes advertising agencies, branding consultants and graphic design shops.

"For nearly six decades we have delivered first-rate service to every customer, on every job," enthuses co-owner Joe Fontana. "Yet our two names didn't convey the one strong company that we are."

So the company turned to Igor, a San Francisco-based naming and branding agency. With Igor's help, the name Mosaic was born. The company feels that Mosaic is the one name capable of conveying the idea of arranging many visual pieces into the most effective presentation possible. It also adopted the tagline "Your Image, Our Passion."

While the rebranding process is gaining popularity and serves a purpose, DeWese reminds printing executives that a name does not make a company—service does.

"Without a doubt, senior managers will brainstorm, hire consultants, commission agencies, use Ouija boards and wail at the moon to find new names that eliminate words like "printing," "offset lithography" and "press," DeWese remarks. "I lean toward the Ouija board."

The bottom line, however, is that your company needs to produce results for its customers—no matter what name you go by.

"At the end of all this talk, if your name is Trash Litho, and your customers and prospects recognize your company as a problem solver that delivers on-time and provides database management, image management, Web design and hosting, information technology to make transactions easy and fast, kitting, dimensional packaging assembly, fulfillment, mailing, digital variable data printing, manage branded premiums, track response rates to its clients' marketing campaigns and, finally, provide the finest quality offset lithography (or flexography or gravure), bindery and finishing services, then I would stick with Trash Litho—or maybe change it to Classy Trash Litho," DeWese concludes.