As the team here at Tenet closes out 2024, we’ve received another mark of recognition as one of Chief Marketer’s 2025 Top Agencies of the Year, a listing of the industry’s most innovative marketing agencies. It’s further confirmation that our longstanding focus on brand innovation continues to be the right strategy.
Looking forward to 2025, I’m excited by the direction our industry is taking. AI is driving massive change in the advertising and marketing space, as evidenced by the impending merger of two major sales and marketing holding companies: Omnicom Group and IPG. The combined enterprise is looking to scale up its use of AI and data analytics to inform and execute marketing—a huge force for change that will ripple upstream and influence how brands are built and managed.
This is far from new territory for Tenet Partners. We’ve been at the forefront of the AI trend for more than five years with our data science practice, and are expanding AI use in our workflows and areas such as foresighting and inspiration. At the same time, we recognize the enormous value of human knowledge, insight, expertise, creativity and strategic thinking. AI promises to further empower us and our clients, but essential work such as strategy, messaging, key campaign elements and content will still flow from our most valuable resource: the skilled and experienced professionals who make up our team.
As I look back on 2024, I’m struck by all we’ve accomplished. The recognition by Chief Marketer is just the latest in a long and growing string of awards and acknowledgements.
This year alone, we’ve won six Rebrand awards and three Transform awards spanning everything from enterprise rebranding to creative strategy, brand architecture, and internal communications. We’ve also maintained our ranking as a Top 5 Branding Agency on Clutch, and as I write this we’re holding the #1 spot in the branding category Leaders quadrant. And to round it out, we’ve once again been recognized by Gartner in their annual buyer’s guide for brand consultancies.
But of far greater importance than accolades is the stellar work the Tenet team has done for our clients—a list that includes some of the world’s greatest brands. In 2024 alone, we’ve taken on major initiatives for organizations such as The Smithsonian, Dow, Bluetooth, Hearst Health, Canon Medical, The Bancorp—the fintech innovator that issues PayPal and Venmo Mastercards—and more.
I am both deeply impressed by and proud of our team. Tenet’s ongoing success—and promising trajectory for 2025—is powerful testament to their dedication and ability. It’s giving me great confidence as we all look forward to what the coming year may bring.
Naming a product or organization can be surprisingly difficult. It’s also a great opportunity to evoke emotion, memorability and positive associations for your brand.
It sometimes seems as if names are generated randomly in a process using a blindfold and a dart board—nice-sounding syllables jammed together with no real intent.
Pop quiz: What are these?
Nubira
Nuvis
Stelara
Stellantis
You’ve probably heard of at least one of these—Stellantis—because it’s been in the news recently. But if you didn’t already know that it’s an international auto manufacturer with 14 brands under it, would you have any idea what the company does?
(The others are: a) a car; b) a camera; and c) a pharmaceutical.)
The function of a name
A century ago, company names tended to be descriptive labels. You could tell what the company did just from its name. U.S. Steel. Standard Petroleum. General Motors. Bell Telephone. International Business Machines. The name communicated essential information about the company: that was part of its purpose.
That approach has fallen out of fashion, in part because so many large enterprises are highly diversified; a straightforward label would confuse, rather than clarify. Also, the number of companies—and therefore the number of trademarked names—has become so large that it’s nearly impossible to own a name like this.
It’s possible to get around the literal label name challenge without fully stepping away from it. For example, the label can be turned into an acronym. 3M, a name with high recognition, wasn’t the actual name of the company until 2002. It had been Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing—name that had nothing whatsoever to do with many of its products.
A name needs to be memorable. And yet, many are not. They fail to gain traction in the public awareness. Google renamed itself Alphabet nearly a decade ago, but few outside of the investment community think of it as anything other than Google. In common usage, it probably always will be. The company is synonymous with its product.
Sometimes a forgettable name may even provide a benefit by distancing an enterprise from controversy. An example of this is Altria, which formerly had been the Philip Morris tobacco company. As awareness of the health hazards associated with tobacco increased, a name strongly associated with such a problematic product could be seen as a liability.
What makes for a great name?
At the very least, a name should be “sticky,” so that it increases awareness. It should be easy to say and easy to parse when written. But that’s not enough.
A good name is tied to strategy as well as brand personality. It should age well. It needs to “feel” right and resonate in a way that speaks to your audience—it should, ideally, say something about the product or company and spark emotion.
The best names are those that become part of the brand’s story. America’s first high-speed rail service, Acela, is an excellent example. The word itself, derived from “acceleration” and “excellence,” connotes speed and suggests the benefit passengers get when they choose the service.
A Tenet Partners client, Broadview Federal Credit Union, shows how an evocative name can spark a powerful narrative that didn’t previously exist. The legacy naming was very literal, in keeping with the category: a straight-label approach that described location and clientele. Changing it to Broadview pivoted from talking about the enterprise to talking about the brand’s essence. The name became a centerpiece of a new brand story about expansive future possibility and all-encompassing customer relationships—taking a broad view of people’s finances and the credit union’s important role in the community. By changing the focus to put the spotlight on outcomes and customers, Broadview now has a way to show that it truly is different.
All the good names are taken… or are they?
Naming is a highly stimulating creative exercise. It’s truly fun to play with words, and it taps into the creativity of your team at the deepest level. But it’s not as easy as one might think. At Tenet, it’s not uncommon to come up with several hundred names for a given assignment before all is said and done.
Chances are, any name your team comes up with, no matter how original and clever it might seem, has been used by someone at some point. A legal review of trademarks is an essential part of the process. Prior use is not a deal-breaker—a name can still pass muster if the existing trademark is out of category—but we counsel clients to submit multiple names for clearance and not to fall in love with any particular name until the lawyers give the go-ahead.
Establishing a naming process grounded in objective criteria is critical. The question to answer is not whether the team likes a name. Instead, a name should be judged by whether it supports the business or product, and helps move it forward.
Even if the name you love isn’t available, you can still come up with a great one. In the end, a name is another tool for communications. If you can connect the dots to your brand and build a narrative around the name you’ve chosen, that’s a strong indication that it will serve you well and stand the test of time.
Think about that as you go about your day. What names have stuck with you over the years? Why do you think that is? What is it that you like, or dislike, about a particular name? What does it say to you? Let us know in the comments.
While consumer brands can lean on the experiences their products deliver to tell their story, services firms don’t have that luxury. They must build their reputation on expertise and relationships. The way forward isn’t found in flashy campaigns or clever taglines—the creation of a successful professional services brand comes from understanding, and addressing, what truly drives client decisions.
In the push for growth, many professional services firms lose sight of what matters to clients. Selection isn’t made solely on the basis of cost or capabilities. Today’s clients want to know what makes your firm tick: what you value and what gets your people excited to come to work each day. A strong professional services brand is grounded in what makes you, you—the people, understanding of client priorities and purpose behind every engagement. This will drive an approach that speaks to your market in an authentic and tangible way.
People
Your brand lives and breathes through your people, leadership, as well as employees. Without genuine and enduring buy-in at every level from the corner office on down, even the most vigorous branding effort can fade into little more than a short-lived marketing exercise. Senior leaders need to do more than simply approve: they must set the tone by actively championing the brand development process and weaving it into their strategic thinking and internal messaging. Knowing that leaders are personally invested in the brand inspires and motivates those on the front line every day, selling and delivering work. It’s also a two-way street—when you tap into and value your team’s insights, experiences, and contributions, you get better solutions while also naturally creating champions who will deliver on your brand promise for years to come.
Understanding
How well do you really know your prospective clients? A key challenge many firms face is the lack of comprehensive market data. Unlike consumer brands, professional services don’t have extensive syndicated research to rely upon. Each firm must build its own fact base, but the effort and investment can be well worth it. While qualitative insights help identify issues, quantitative research becomes critical to truly understand what drives client decisions. Demonstrating an in-depth understanding can be the crucial point of differentiation that wins a contract.
Purpose
Clients today look for firms whose values and approach align with their own. They’re looking to hire a team of experts they can trust and work with. This is why strong professional services brands aren’t built through marketing campaigns—they’re built through countless small interactions between your people and your clients. When you align these moments with a clear sense of purpose and strong leadership support, your brand becomes more than a logo: it becomes a true competitive advantage that drives growth and attracts both talent and clients. This means moving beyond capability statements and credentials presentations to reveal what truly sets your firm apart. When you can articulate not just what you do, but why you do it, you create deeper connections that lead to lasting relationships.
The path to a stronger brand starts with honest conversations—with your leaders, your people, and your market. It demands recognition that your brand isn’t something you create once and finish. It’s something you nurture and strengthen constantly, through every aspect of your firm’s operations.
Your brand. My reputation. My reputation. Your brand.
In late October, David and I got to talking. Despite one of us living in a Blue state and the other living in a Purple state (with not near enough electoral votes to be a swing state), we were seeing similar things.
It was the time of year when an abundance of signs began appearing on neighborhood lawns, street corners, down highways and even near government buildings. There were also spooky pumpkins, skeletons and purple and orange-colored Halloween strand lights (who ever thought those would become a thing?) As scary as those were, we’re referring to something more frightening: the political signs.
It wasn’t about politics. It was about brands. And it made us think. The brands you choose tell others about you … whether or not that’s your intention. It’s called the self-expressive benefits of a brand—how your choice to use or associate with a brand reflects your larger personality or preferences. Or in other words, what your association with a particular brand says to others about you.
Aligning brands with values
But it’s not only about what people think about you. It’s about what’s important to you. The brands we associate with reflect our values and beliefs. In fact, a statistic from the IPSOS Global Trends Report confirms customers want to do business with companies who have purpose. Further, more than two-thirds want to purchase from companies who align with their values.
We with our wallets (and our yard signs), tend to select brands who align with our values. Whether Hobby Lobby, Target, Bud Light or Chick-fil-A —we often choose to do business with companies who we believe, think and act like we do. And that says something to others as well.
Just a few weeks ago, in fact, I overheard two men pleased when the supermarket shelves were full of Bud Light but empty of other beers. It took me a minute, but I finally caught on. Or I think I did. In their minds, people were disagreeing with Bud Light’s decision to feature a transwoman in an advertisement. Wherever you stand on the issue, your perception of these men is likely informed by their reaction.
A virtuous circle
Let’s take it one step further. It’s not only about consumers and users wanting to purchase from brands who align with their values, but also about brands self-selecting customers who align with theirs. It’s a virtuous circle. And it seems to say as much about us as individuals as it does about those companies that sell to us.
Take for example, Patagonia. The company’s vision is to “save our home planet.” It is known for its passion and action for environmental causes, including its One-Percent For the Planet initiative. Several years ago, Patagonia decided it would no longer allow co-branded embroidery on its apparel. The reason cited was that the co-brands shorten the lifespan of the garment and limit its re-use. The more subtle message was the Patagonia wanted to disentangle itself from the finance and tech companies whose employees are renowned for their Patagonia branded vest “uniforms.” The decision both promoted the company’s values and distanced itself from customers who did not share those values.
Lululemon is yet another example. Over the years, the company has made decisions regarding sizing inclusivity and the models it has selected for its promotion and advertising that have made it clear, Lululemon prefers a specific (thin) woman to be wearing its clothes. While the most vocal representation of these decisions has been from Chip Wilson, the former CEO, the brand remains associated with the beliefs (despite admitted changes in action). And the former CEO does not deny his intention; he has instead stated “And I think the definition of a brand is that you’re not everything to everybody … You’ve got to be clear that you don’t want certain customers coming in.”
Agree or not, Wilson is correct. We choose brands. And, they choose us. So, next time you make a brand selection, you may think about what it says to others. Or it may be more important to you to understand whether their values align with yours.
We live in the age of the listicle—short, consumable bits of information served up through our apps. In that context, how do marketers build an enduring brand narrative?
There is no one answer, and there are many brands out there succeeding in unique ways. But there are sound guiding principles that can set you up for success—presented in easy list format:
Develop an authentic yet aspirational brand platform
Make sure all campaigns ladder up to that unifying platform
Maintain a consistent brand voice in all communications
Tailor by audience and/or channel without losing your brand essence
Sounds simple, right? Not exactly.
Digging a little deeper, your brand platform should be centered on a big, universal idea that captures who you are now (authentic) while giving you room to grow in the future (aspirational.) It should be brought to life through a messaging framework that considers who your target audiences are and what they are particularly interested in. For those executing your marketing, a key part of this platform and framework is a defined brand personality which translates into tone-of-voice guidelines. And while your platform should be evergreen—barring a rebrand—your messaging framework can and should be a living thing. As audience concerns and interests shift, you need to continue showing how your unique value meets their needs in ways other cannot.
If properly executed, this gives you a flexible toolbox of brand elements to work with. And this is where short(er) lived campaigns come in—they allow you to focus in on a single idea or theme at a time that resonates with audiences in a unique way. With intelligent oversight, these campaigns can combine to create a narrative arc that reinforces both your brand platform and the lived experiences customers have with your brand.
Nike offers an excellent example of these principles in practice. For more than 50 years, the brand has stayed true to itself while remaining relevant and interesting to audiences.
While the company was founded in 1964, we’ll begin our history in 1971 with the adoption of the Nike, Inc. name. From day one, the founders knew what this brand was about: athleticism and empowerment. The name itself comes from the Greek goddess of victory, nicely encapsulating the underlying brand premise.
In 1977 Nike ran its first brand ad campaign, “There is no finish line.” The campaign notably featured no products. A 1988 campaign brought us the famous slogan, “Just Do It”—probably one of the most-well know and, yes, enduring brand slogans of our day. In more recent times, the summer 2024 campaign, “Winning Isn’t for Everyone” featured “a collective of the world’s greatest athletes, all motivated by victory.” Across these various campaigns, Nike has featured inspirational headlines and copy such as:
“Beating yourself is a never-ending commitment.”
“Do things history could only dream of.”
“It’s only a crazy dream until you do it.”
“You can’t raise the bar without raising a little hell.”
Nike runs two types of ad campaigns: brand campaigns like those listed above and product campaigns. While product campaigns of course focus in on a product, usually shoes, brand campaigns consistently choose to feature athletes only—a way of not-so-subtly telling customers, we exist for you. In fact, Nike’s current homepage animation makes this subtext into text, reading, “We serve kids/pros/dreamers/women/teams/coaches/men/beginners/girls/rebels/athletes* *If you have a body, you are an athlete”
Overall, Nike consistently excels at creating brand communications that both work as a single touchpoint and help build a clear, enduring brand narrative. It is no wonder Nike is considered one of today’s most valuable brands.
Our brand consultancy, Tenet Partners, is in the intellectual property business. Clients hire us for our original thinking and creativity—our distinctive expertise, developed over decades of award-winning work for some of the world’s most prestigious brands.
Today, we’re experiencing a new challenge: the rise of artificial intelligence, and in particular the generative AI tools that are taking the world by storm. This powerful technology is disrupting many industries, including ours. As part of our value proposition, we are making a commitment to clients that our work is not being done by AI.
AI is a double-edged sword
Make no mistake: when used properly AI can be enormously useful technology and in fact, our own analytics practice is rooted in predictive AI. There’s a lot of value there, and such tools can make it far faster and easier to uncover trends and create useful insight.
But at the same time, AI can pose a hazard, because it has the potential to diminish the perceived value of human expertise—particularly when generative AI is applied to creative activities such as content development.
AI is a trap that we willingly walk into
As useful as it may be for organizing thoughts and generating content quickly, generative AI can be a trap precisely because it produces good results so easily. Humans crave convenience, and are all too willing to lean on technology in the name of speed and ease. Over-reliance on technology risks erosion of creative, observational, critical thinking and decision-making skills through lack of use.
Does keeping creative skills sharp by exercising them matter? Are humans better when it comes to creativity simply because we are human? Generative AI blurs the lines, because it has the potential to be more than a tool that enhances our productivity. Why take the time and effort to craft thoughtful, compelling content if you can just tell a machine to generate it for you? It’s a legitimate question.
Why keeping it real matters
Relying on human creativity matters for brands because, while AI may deliver impressive content with a few simple prompts, there isn’t real intent or original thought behind it. It’s lacking in, for want of a better term, intellectual and creative nutritional value. The arguably excellent form of AI-generated content can mask an underlying lack of substance and nuance.
Branding is, in essence, storytelling done verbally, visually and experientially. And we are all storytellers. Storytelling is as old as humanity. It’s something we do our whole lives—we tell stories even before we learn to speak. AI simply cannot fully satisfy that deeply human urge to connect with others and share our experiences.
The best stories—the ones that move us—come from within. They resonate because they speak to shared human experiences. And that is precisely why it’s so important to base brands on human creativity.
No bots were harmed in the making of this blog post
As Tenet’s editorial director, verbal communication is my livelihood. Storytelling and the use of language are of great interest to me, as is the process by which great ideas come to life. The Tenet team has a very strong and productive collaborative approach to content creation in which we bounce ideas off of one another and bring different perspectives to the table. It’s a stimulating, engaging, and very human activity.
I am deeply aware of the potential of generative AI, both good and bad, and its impact on my work. As a content creator I know all too well that I, too, can fall into the AI trap. For that reason, I’ve made a personal decision to rely on my own ideation, composition and language skills rather than turn to AI. By fully exercising my abilities, I believe I can keep my mental muscles toned and continue to deliver the quality our clients expect from us. It may be more work, but I am convinced that it’s beneficial in the end.
Ultimately, the decision of when, how, and even if, generative AI should be used in your own organization warrants a deeper discussion and thoughtful assessment of its benefits and pitfalls, both practical and ethical. There may well be instances in which generative AI is the best way to handle a given task, but as the old saying goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. It’s a tool like any other, and its proper use is up to the person wielding it.
When our client EMC Insurance told us early on that they wanted to include unique “experiences” for employees at the brand launch event, we were not only energized by the team’s vision but also excited at the prospect of what we could ultimately create.
The client team had already done tremendous work in organizing a historic event for the company. As a national insurance carrier, the workforce was spread out across the country, making opportunities for the majority of employees to gather in person logistically challenging. The team dug in and did the work, organizing a launch event dubbed “One EMC” where over 1,700 employees would gather at the headquarters in Des Moines to hear a keynote from the CEO and other leaders, an inspiring presentation from Scott Hamilton and other events.
For the brand experiences, we partnered with the tremendously talented team at Aardvark Studios (formerly FKB), and the journey to conceptualize and create the installations was inspiring and challenging. Ultimately, we created four distinct experiences, all completely custom-designed, programmed and fabricated:
An old school photo booth, that both gave employees branded, printed keepsakes but also sent digital versions of the pictures to a 20-foot-long interactive video wall
An immersive game called “Trusty Bubbles”, where teams of participants gathered on an area of the floor to dodge projection-mapped “trust eroders” or land on and collect “trust builders”
Two large scale, old school 8-bit style video games with full size standing gaming consoles and custom designed screen graphics, all geared around insurance scenarios and concepts
Apart from the ability to expertly craft seamless digital and physical installations, the team at Aardvark Studios were as passionate about brand as we were. This led to one of the most interesting parts of the project, and one I challenge anyone crafting unique experiences for employees or customers to take to heart: embrace the opportunity to “bend” your brand.
If your brand has been built the right way, you’d be surprised where it can take you. The task of figuring out how the new brand identity for EMC could adapt to 8-bit style animated characters, consoles and “Bouba/kiki”-inspired shapes that chased participants around the floor was demanding but incredibly rewarding. Far more than simply “sticking a logo” on some pre-built installations, the full integration of brand identity and personality into the entire experience not only made it more memorable, but also helped seat the concept behind the new brand firmly in employee’s minds.
Needless to say, the launch event was a huge success, the buzz of which is still being felt more than six months later. Taking the extra effort to be creative with the spirit and expression of your brand – bending, but not breaking, it – as you infuse it into immersive experiences keeps it alive in more ways than on
Credit unions—by definition member-owned, not-for-profit organizations—are charter-bound to put the interests of customers and communities first. That’s an extraordinarily powerful promise that goes far beyond mere marketing.
For customers, knowing that a financial institution is truly on your side and looking out for you is a compelling value proposition that, arguably, should be a cornerstone of a credit union’s brand. However, in today’s fast-evolving financial services landscape, that may no longer be enough for a credit union to capture and retain market share. As mainstream banks and agile, non-traditional financial technology companies (fintechs) continue to reshape the industry, credit unions must adapt to remain competitive and grow.
In our ongoing work with credit unions as well as traditional banks, Tenet Partners has identified four critical areas where credit unions can focus their efforts to scale successfully. If you’re part of the team charged with making your credit union grow, making the most of these opportunities opens the door to a new brand narrative that combines traditional credit union strengths with a bold, forward-looking point of view that can secure your place in the future of finance.
1. Lay the groundwork for scaling your credit union—and your brand
Credit unions, especially smaller ones, often struggle to match the resources of larger financial institutions when it comes to technology, marketing and product development. However, this doesn’t mean they can’t compete effectively.
To grow efficiently, make the most of what’s available to you:
Instead of going head-to-head, focus growth initiatives on niche markets or specialized services where you can differentiate, and make that part of your brand story
Forge strategic partnerships with fintechs to gain access to leading technology without massive capital investment; this can help position your brand as a leader
Consider mergers or collaborations with other credit unions to pool resources; a merger is a great opportunity to rebrand and raise awareness
Invest in solutions that can scale efficiently as you grow, such as cloud-based offerings
By finding ways to do an end run around scalability challenges—and more importantly, make them part of the conversation—you can punch above your weight class and compete with larger institutions.
2. Embrace personalization to differentiate your brand
Today’s consumers expect service providers to provide an experience that aligns with their needs and expectations: a trend set by tech-driven enterprises and embraced by fintechs, and one that’s raising the bar. For credit unions, personalization is not just a feature—it’s a necessity for attracting and retaining members, especially younger, digital-native customers who may never set foot in a branch at all. A focus on meeting members where they are can also be a powerful part of your brand story.
To build strong relationships, make personalization a central part of your brand offering:
Leverage AI and machine learning to analyze member data and offer tailored product recommendations
Implement predictive models to anticipate member needs and offer proactive solutions
Create personalized financial wellness programs based on individual member goals and behaviors
Use data analytics to customize brand communication and marketing efforts for different member segments
By offering more personalized experiences and leaning into them as part of your brand, you can deepen relationships with existing members and appeal to new ones who value individualized attention.
3. Boost member engagement to build your brand
Engagement is crucial, particularly as younger consumers—whose relationship with a credit union may exist entirely online—show a willingness to switch financial institutions. To stay at top of mind, credit unions must strengthen their brands. That means finding effective ways to build loyalty, increase product adoption, and turn members into advocates.
To show that you’re an invested, caring financial partner, stay close to your members:
Look beyond the technology table stakes of “me too” mobile and online banking experiences by branding around financial insights, education and interactive planning tools that help members visualize and achieve their goals
Use gamification elements such as dashboards and progress trackers to make financial management more engaging, especially for younger members
Improve the online banking experience with responsive, effective AI-driven chatbots and efficient, easy-to-use self-service account management tools
Strengthen the human side of your brand by fostering a culture of service, collaboration and personal relationships
Be present in local communities by creating programs that align with your members’ values and interests, to raise local awareness of your brand
By focusing on engagement as a key brand differentiator, you can get closer to your members and become an integral part of their financial lives.
4. Take inspiration from fintech brands
Fintechs have set new user experience standards in financial services, emphasizing simplicity, speed, and innovation. In a very real sense, they’re changing the way people think about working with money. To scale successfully, credit unions should consider adopting a similar mindset while leveraging their unique strengths to tell a brand story that stands apart.
To compete in a fast-changing landscape, create a streamlined experience:
Foster a culture of customer-focused innovation within your organization to continually improve and adapt, while remaining focused on member needs
Streamline processes to offer quick loan approvals and account openings, and use those advantages in brand communications
Develop intuitive, user-friendly branded digital interfaces for all your services
Implement features such as peer-to-peer payments, budgeting tools, and automated savings programs, and associate them with your brand
Explore emerging technologies such as blockchain for more efficient operations
By aligning fintech-style experiences with traditional values, you can offer the best of both worlds to your members—a unique brand value proposition that can set you apart.
The bottom line: Stay grounded as you grow
Scaling to succeed is not just about getting bigger—it’s about becoming better at serving your members and community. With the right strategies and a commitment to your brand’s core values, you can turn the challenge of scaling your credit union into an opportunity for growth, impact, and most importantly, differentiation.
The future belongs to financial institution brands that can offer the efficiency and innovation of a fintech with the trust and community focus advantages of a credit union—and tell a compelling story about why that matters for customers. By striking the right balance you can stand apart, attract new generations of members, and continue to fulfill your vital role in the financial ecosystem—and not just survive, but thrive.
Whether to rebrand is not a decision to be made lightly. Factors such as if your brand is setting you up for success, how much equity your brand has and if you have permission from target audiences to change all come into play. But one element that often gets overlooked are the real, tangible costs associated with introducing and maintaining a new brand. For a new company, these are simply the cost of doing business. In the case of a rebrand, however, you need to consider whether you can fully support a new brand. If not, now may not be the time for a big change.
Costs can generally be grouped into one of four categories:
Creation: cost to create a brand platform, name and logo
Protection: cost to file and maintain the trademark(s)
Promotion: cost to build awareness and engagement with target audiences
Governance: cost of ongoing, required brand management
Creation: Cost to create a brand platform, name and logo
Even the largest companies with the deepest marketing and creative benches frequently look to outside help—namely, branding agencies—when the need for a new brand arises. Once engaged, diligent agencies will follow a tried-and-tested process to take you from your starting point to a solid brand foundation.
A typical creation process begins with a robust discovery phase that may include qualitative research alone or, if budgets allow, quantitative research and social listening. The next step is a strategy phase, to develop a brand platform that can anchor all creative development and communications.
Next comes creative development, the process of generating and clearing names, including knockout IP searches, developing logo options and look-and-feel designs, and wrapping all that up in usage guidelines.
At this point, some also choose to conduct validation research, to test concepts with target audiences and refine as needed before fully launching the brand.
Protection: Cost to file and maintain the trademark(s)
If a company is fortunate enough to have a legal department capable of trademark clearance and registration, out-of-pocket costs may be kept to filing fees. If not, you are also looking at consultative legal fees. As for those filing fees, there are application fees for each trademark, name and/or logo, for a single class of goods in either the US only or internationally through the Madrid Protocol. Those costs can increase, sometimes significantly, if you are:
Filing in multiple classes
Filing in multiple countries (called “contracting parties”)
Not actually using the brand commercially yet (filing on an “intent-to-use basis”)
Missing requirements in your application
Maintaining these trademarks brings another set of fees. In the US, every ten years you must file to show you are using the brand commercially (or explain why you are excused from doing so) as well as to renew your trademark. Similar filings are also required under the Madrid Protocol. And if, after five years of use, you want to claim “incontestable rights,” that involves another fee.
Promotion: cost to build awareness and engagement with target audiences
Promotion is, without a doubt, the costliest part of the equation. It is also where companies have the most discretion as to where, and how much, to spend. However, insufficient investment can cause a brand to wither on the vine.
When launching a new brand, there are both the implementation and launch costs as well as the year-over-year marketing spend to consider. As a point of reference, the average annual marketing budget is 9.2% of revenue according to the Fall 2023 CMO Survey.
After the basic building blocks—brand platform, name, logo, look-and-feel—have been developed, usually the next step is to create a library of templates and marketing assets—such as PowerPoint presentations, brochures, product sheets, email templates, etc.
Next comes launch planning—essentially introducing your new brand and what it stands for to internal and external audiences.
You will likely also need either a new or redesigned website for your brand. Most brands only have a “brochure” site, but consumer-facing brands may also need an e-commerce component. A website may also require one-time search-engine optimization (SEO) keyword research as well as ongoing costs for hosting and maintenance, SEO monitoring and optimization and search-engine marketing (SEM).
You also may want to develop a content marketing strategy. This is all about delivering the right messages to the right audiences, in the right place, at the right time. SEM would likely be factored into this plan, creating a slight overlap in budgets. This content market strategy is in turn implemented through things like advertising, PR, thought leadership and other marketing activities appropriate for your brand.
Finally, you may choose to develop a suite of data science tools to aid marketing decision-making. Common tools include predictive/prescriptive modeling, NLP/text analytics and advanced forecasting.
Governance: cost of ongoing, required brand management
There are two aspects to governance: internal management, to ensure the materials you produce are using the brand properly, and external management, to ensure others are neither misusing nor infringing on your trademark.
Internal enforcement usually starts with an ounce of prevention in the form of employee engagement training. Often, a portion of this training is specifically targeted to a group of brand ambassadors who can help champion the brand internally and answer questions that arise. Larger, multi-office organizations frequently also opt for a brand center, a digital repository of guidelines or standards, training and assets. A brand center also requires ongoing hosting and maintenance—which can likely be bundled with website hosting and maintenance for cost savings. Brand training and brand centers are particularly helpful if you have any external partners who create content or materials for you.
For external management, some turn to active trademark monitoring. There are a variety of software and service options available, and prices vary based on how frequently you check, how in-depth the check is and how much analysis is provided. The second part of external management that can incur costs is legal action for trademark protection. Costs can again vary widely based on what action is required, from filing a Letter of Protest with the USPTO to trying a lawsuit. One important factor to keep in mind: if you do not take action against trademark infringement, it can damage your ability to maintain that trademark.
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As all of these costs make clear, the decision to rebrand is a large commitment. If there is a strong enough business case though, you may decide it is the right move for you.
The aerospace industry, long dominated by established players with proprietary systems, is facing an unprecedented shift. New entrants from Silicon Valley are rewriting the rules of the game, leveraging open architectures and open-source models to drive innovation and disrupt traditional aerospace brands. This transformation isn’t just technological—it’s existential, forcing aerospace brands to rethink how they operate and differentiate themselves in an increasingly open and collaborative environment.
Historically, aerospace companies have thrived on proprietary technologies, creating “black box” systems that ensured ongoing revenue streams through long-term contracts and locked-in customers. However, much like the tech industry in the 1990s, when companies like IBM were forced to adapt to the rise of open-source software, aerospace brands must now contend with a similar wave of disruption. Silicon Valley firms are bringing a fresh mindset, using open-source principles to outpace traditional competitors in speed, flexibility and cost-efficiency.
Take Anduril, a startup from California that has already secured significant defense contracts. By combining open architectures with cutting-edge AI, Anduril has positioned itself not just as a technology provider, but as a mission-critical partner by embracing open architectures. This approach mirrors the rise of open-source software in enterprise IT, where open systems allowed new players to innovate faster and more effectively than incumbents.
For legacy aerospace brands, the implications are clear: the days of relying solely on proprietary systems to generate value are numbered. The future lies in open ecosystems, where collaboration and flexibility drive competitive advantage. This means evolving business models to focus on services, partnerships and integration, while still leveraging legacy strengths.
Brands that resist this shift in both organizational culture and business model design face the risk of becoming obsolete, outpaced by faster, more agile competitors. Aerospace companies must learn from past disruptions, applying foresight to understand how the future will demand new ways of thinking and operating. By embracing new positioning to reframe attributes that underpin their business strategy and brand personality, they can stay relevant in an industry increasingly defined by innovation and collaboration.
The challenge is not just surviving this wave of disruption but thriving in it. Brands that successfully navigate the transition will be those that redefine what it means to be a leader in aerospace, much like Silicon Valley companies have done in technology.
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