Companies change—sometimes in big ways. And if you’re not innovating and changing you’re falling behind. UCN started out as Buyers United, a reseller of long-distance services, which became United Carrier Networks, which became UCN. That’s when we met them. We were engaged to help with yet another change. The company had become something quite different. Long-distance telephone services today are just another commodity. UCN, recognizing the need to innovate, has developed a new product approach that delivers software for call centers over the Internet. The application delivery model, known as “Software as a Service”, provides significant scalability and deployment options compared to typical on-site call center software/hardware.
We used our Perception Branding 5d Process to determine the brand strategy and then used the strategy to inform the execution of a new identity and name change.
We interviewed everybody from the President to the Chief Technology Officer, as well as independent industry analysts and clients. We audited existing marketing materials and their competition’s materials as well. Their company name had no significance to the target audience and suffered from low memorability, as do all companies who use initials. The look and feel appeared sports related.
Together with ideas from the marketing department, new taglines were proposed. An image and adjective brainstorm sought visual and verbal ways to describe the brand. With the research completed, we sifted, sorted and segmented the information to determine the Brand Promise, the target’s “take away” after engaging with the brand.
The Brand Concept Board is a visual depiction of the brand. Together with the Brand Brief, a summation of findings and recommendations, they serve as a litmus test against which design deliverables are measured.
We presented five different conceptual directions for the new company logo and name. The preferred logo direction is based on the idea that real humans man call centers; speaking and communicating, the essence of what customer service is about. The new company name, inContact, reflects the name of the company’s product platform, already familiar to their customers. We’re now working on D5-Deploy, making the new identity and strategy a reality in all the customer touchpoints.
The logo we created was based on the idea that real humans man call centers; speaking and communicating, the essence of what customer service is about. The new company name, inContact, reflects the name of the company’s product platform, already familiar to their customers. We designed stationery material as well as a pocket folder, and developed both printed and online Identity Standards.