Engage And Communicate

No matter the reason your company is looking to rebrand, “the most important thing to consider throughout is that you’ve got to engage your clients” and employees “from the very beginning,” said Lisa Agona, chief marketing officer at what was Acxiom IT, an infrastructure management partner based in Downers Grove, Ill., that changed its name to Ensono in January.

Why? Because “sometimes these things are perceived as things that go on with an executive team making decisions without really getting the proper insight and perspectives from the stakeholder groups,” she said.

Ensono talked with customers and former customers, as well as employees, deploying three forms of feedback: interviews, surveys and focus groups.

Internally, a company should create cross-functional teams, including senior-level executives, so that the effort isn’t strictly a marketing team project, according to Agona.

“Everybody has to have skin in the game,” she says.