DTS

Posted on August 25, 2023August 25, 2023 by Natalie Jorgensen

DTS

Reimagining technology as a lifestyle brand

OVERVIEW

A longtime leader in digital audio, DTS brings the sound of countless movies to life and plays a role in the performance of most audio brands. Yet, despite its behind-the-scenes prominence, the company was relatively unknown. It needed to gain traction with key audiences, from consumers and equipment manufacturers to music and film producers.

CHALLENGE

The company’s name reflects its origins in the film industry—it was originally called Digital Theater Systems—and it was time to change that mindset by finding the best way to speak directly to end users, so they could better understand the presence and value of DTS technology in their lives.

HOW WE HELPED

Tenet took a two-pronged approach to helping DTS advance its brand. First, our strategists worked with DTS to explore positioning opportunities in new application areas such as car audio, personal computers and other related entertainment businesses. Second, we enabled the company to enhance its visual presence by bringing DTS technology to the forefront—a key element of becoming more consumer-focused.

The “technology inside” approach to visual branding is well established, having been used successfully by DTS competitor Dolby among many others in related industries. Tenet strategists expanded on this by recommending a more personal positioning, using the tagline “Surround Yourself” to emphasize the high-quality experience that DTS provides.

Tenet’s creative team developed a new graphic identity and launch campaign to raise excitement for the brand. We also helped redesign and fine-tune the DTS and DTS-HD logos. The new design and brand architecture made the identity more prominent and easier to use on audio equipment, in software and in expanding digital communications channels. This provided the company with a clear presence in the lives of consumers—a subtle reminder of DTS as part of their entertainment experience.

OUTCOME

Thanks to more effective positioning against its competitors, DTS has been able to maintain the value and price of its technology as well as differentiate itself from arch-rival Dolby Labs. Today, DTS technology is built into hundreds of millions of electronic devices worldwide, unlocking theater-quality audio for consumers everywhere.

Digital Living Network Alliance

Posted on August 25, 2023August 25, 2023 by Natalie Jorgensen

Digital Living Network Alliance

Highlighting the real-world value of industry standards

OVERVIEW

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is an industry-led consortium of consumer electronics, telecommunications, computing and mobile device companies focused on creating seamless interoperability and connectivity for consumers. Looking to drive membership and consumer engagement, the organization brought in Tenet Partners to help.

CHALLENGE

DLNA was having difficulty gaining consumer awareness and visibility. With little articulation of the organization’s vision and value in evidence, an important opportunity to help the industry grow was going largely untapped.

HOW WE HELPED

Given the natural complexities of a member-driven standards group, DLNA’s Board needed help setting a clear course for advancement of the brand and mission. Through a series of facilitated workshops, Tenet unearthed a critical gap in brand positioning, and at the same time established a series of strategic imperatives for brand development including clarification of the DLNA value proposition and helping manufacturers leverage the brand in helping consumers understand the value of interoperability and its impact on the products they buy.

Tenet conducted field work including visits to trade shows and retail stores, along with one-on-one interviews with consumers and industry professionals. We observed pockets of interest in DLNA, but not broad-based enthusiasm among many of the key participants. Explicit support for DLNA was evident in select manufacturers’ communications—LG and Samsung, for example—but by no means all. While other member companies acknowledged support for DLNA, most had little visible presence of the certification in their communications. And the largest challenge was that few people could articulate DLNA’s benefits clearly.

Diving deeper into the challenge, Tenet conducted a global quantitative research study that focused on understanding the issues consumers had expressed during the qualitative interviews. Part of the study tested visual and verbal concepts and assessed the brand equity of the DLNA Certified mark. Building on the resulting insights, Tenet then led a collaborative process to articulate a clear brand strategy, messaging and design approach, and to build consensus with the DLNA membership.

OUTCOME

The program helped DLNA regain momentum as a vehicle for achieving a common objective in delivering a better consumer experience. Key to that success was a deeper level of engagement with all stakeholders to embrace and support the organization and its mission. By June 2015 the organization claimed membership of more than 200 companies, and over 25,000 device models had obtained “DLNA Certified” status.

Cadence Bank

Posted on August 24, 2023March 25, 2024 by Natalie Jorgensen

Cadence Bank

From rich history to bright future

OVERVIEW

After BancorpSouth and Cadence Bank – both leading financial institutions serving the southern United States – completed their merger in late 2021, a new corporate brand was needed to unify the company internally and signal the arrival of a new and stronger organization to customers and communities across the region.

CHALLENGE

The challenge for the new Cadence Bank brand was to communicate a value proposition that would capture the experience that made the organization stand out as something different.

The brand also had to unify the organization while retaining the strong equity of both legacy brands in terms of visual identity, service and culture—and provide a springboard for the future.

HOW WE HELPED

Research quickly revealed common strengths across the two legacy organizations that differentiated them: deep expertise, a focus on listening first, personal service and strong relationships with customers, among employees and within communities. Taken together, these attributes helped both organizations provide guidance in the way that’s most meaningful and helpful to their customers.

Tenet saw a warm, personal approach distinct from that of many larger financial services companies: an urge to meet people where they are on their financial journeys, develop and sustain long-term relationships, and provide the flexibility required to meet individual customer needs. It is not uncommon, for example, for customers to be greeted by name when they go to a branch.

This shared culture and the personality attributes that shape it led to a new brand promise: “Ease your day. And your mind.” The concept of ease was central to positioning as well, providing a way to tell a rich and nuanced story that goes beyond “we make banking easy.” At Cadence, ease is as much a mindset as an operating principle. It’s as much about creating convenience as it is about putting customers’ minds at ease.

The visual, sonic and verbal brand identity stands out in the marketplace as something fresh and new while being rooted in the proud history of both companies—showing how two leaders have joined under the new Cadence brand. Together, these elements evoke a strong sense of people and community that complements all aspects of the customer experience. It puts weight and credibility behind the new tagline: “Helping opportunity take shape.”

Notably, Tenet designers found a way to echo the highly recognizable BancorpSouth gumtree logo with a completely new take on the iconic symbol. Since the Cadence name was retained, it was important for BancorpSouth employees and customers to see themselves reflected in the new logo. By evoking the gumtree through color and perfectly balanced shapes working in harmony to complement the name, the logo provides a clear link to the past while moving the brand forward.

The brand rollout was supported by an extensive communications and employee engagement program, including regular communications on a dedicated internal microsite and the company intranet. Tenet and the Cadence team also implemented a “train the trainer” program for Cadence Bank brand ambassadors—selected individuals who went on to immerse thousands of employees in the new brand, focusing attention on the Cadence Bank culture and values, and the part that employees play in the customer experience.

OUTCOME

The resulting brand is a clear reflection of the very best of legacy BancorpSouth and Cadence, coming together to create a new, modern and human-centric financial services organization. According to the client, the brand has generated an overwhelmingly positive response from thousands of employees and customers, and has won awards for the bank.

“One of the aspects we’ve liked most about Tenet Partners’ approach is their ability to effectively balance art and science when developing our new brand. They are exceptionally strong in both areas, which is rare for a branding agency.”
– Jackie Hooper, SVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Cadence Bank

Dow

Posted on August 24, 2023March 25, 2024 by Natalie Jorgensen

Dow

Showing a commitment to sustainability

OVERVIEW

When Dow decided to incorporate sustainability into its brand strategy as a key competitive element, it turned to Tenet Partners for help. In a project that grew in scope over time, the Tenet and Dow teams collaborated to develop a robust framework to support what Dow is doing today as well as its ongoing sustainability evolution. The result is a fully-evolved set of brands that bring the framework to life.

CHALLENGE

Dow’s sustainability branding strategy went far deeper than putting a sustainability spin on its existing portfolio. Dow chose to tangibly demonstrate its long-term commitment to environmental sustainability by creating a brand architecture around the idea of “Sustainability Science.”

While a vitally important global initiative, this was not to be an overhaul of the existing Dow architecture and identity. The key challenge was to both fit within and complement the existing Dow enterprise brand; the sustainability brands had to be unmistakably “Dow” while also being distinctive.

HOW WE HELPED

The multifaceted project started with brand architecture. In a highly collaborative engagement, the Tenet strategy team took Dow’s ideas as a starting point and developed the concept of “sustainability pillars” under an overarching Sustainability Science umbrella that encompasses all sustainability activities at Dow. Each pillar is dedicated to a specific area of focus: carbon reduction, bio-based materials, recycled content, circular design, biodegradable materials and resource efficiency.

With Dow being a large, matrixed organization, consensus building was crucial. Working closely with Dow, the Tenet team developed a complete sustainability brand architecture, brand platform, pillar descriptors and brand names, messaging, logos and a visual system along with governance planning and implementation, including employee training.

All work was based on qualitative research as well as an extensive verbal and visual audit of Dow and its competitors, including Dow’s corporate sustainability initiatives and reporting around its 2025 and 2050 sustainability goals.

Using these insights along with the existing Dow brand guidelines, Tenet focused on key strategic, verbal and visual opportunities that would enable Sustainability Science to fit seamlessly into the overarching Dow brand while having a life of its own. The nomenclature, messaging, logos and flexible, scalable visual system are consistent with Dow brand guidelines while referencing sustainability benefits.

By uniquely expressing elements already present in the Dow brand such as color, the new system conveys a nature-inspired feel that separates the sustainability brands from Dow’s corporate identity while dovetailing with it – a system within a system. As a result, Sustainability Science enables Dow to both retain the integrity of its core enterprise brand while opening up new pathways for the future.

OUTCOME

With a strong and distinctive sustainability-focused branding approach that is unmistakably “Dow” while carving out its own distinctive niche, Dow is clearly communicating its commitment to the future both verbally and visually. The company is now introducing its sustainability brand and governance across all business units, communication functions and with partner agencies globally in preparation for a global rollout.