Wenck
Situation
Wenck Associates, Inc. was founded in 1985 as a small engineering firm in Minnesota, but as it approached its 30th anniversary in 2015, it had grown significantly to include four operating companies, a dozen offices, hundreds of employees, and thousands of clients nationally and internationally. To properly reflect the growth of the enterprise, it was in need of a new brand image that communicated the company's professionalism and values.
Solution
Wenck is employee-owned, which made it important for the company as a whole to understand and buy in to the branding project. To ensure that happened, The Event Group team first met with key stakeholders to discuss the process and solicit feedback. After gathering information from a cross-section of employees and researching the history of the company, TEG developed an enterprise brand strategy that incorporated consistent visual cues and messaging that communicated the look and feel of a large enterprise versus a small business. The first step was to help Wenck put into words its business philosophy. Next, several logo solutions were created and then narrowed down using focus groups. A final logo was refined and ultimately selected in close collaboration with the company's CEO. In addition, a new tagline was developed that embodied the Wenck philosophy: "Responsive partner. Exceptional outcomes."
Success
Wenck's CEO unveiled the new brand to the company during an October 2014 retreat presentation that TEG helped produce. Afterward, members of the TEG team met with small groups of Wenck employees to discuss the new tools that had been developed through the process (including a style guide and a new 30-second elevator pitch). The brand was officially unveiled to the public a few months later in conjunction with the company's 30th anniversary year and rolled out on signage, business cards, websites, documents, equipment and apparel around the country. The TEG team worked with Wenck to redesign all these elements. TEG also produced a 30th anniversary newsletter focused on the branding. In the end, the response both internally and externally to the brand update was phenomenal, and Wenck’s image now better communicates everything the company has to offer.