New York, NY (October 14, 2024) – Tenet Partners has continued its unbroken streak of wins in the annual Transform Awards North America competition, scoring two Silver and one Bronze for 2024, the fifth straight year in which the firm has submitted entries. As in previous years, Tenet went up against many of the top firms in its category.
Each of the client projects entered won an award:
EMC Insurance: Silver for best internal communications during a brand development project
Fairtrade International: Silver for best brand architecture solution
Canon Medical Systems USA: Bronze for best creative strategy (business)
“This year’s awards reflect the depth and breadth of our capabilities as a firm,” said Hampton Bridwell, CEO of Tenet Partners. “Moreover, they highlight the foresight and engagement of our clients. Each one of these prizes is testament to the close collaborative relationships we build, which are key drivers of success.”
The awards, given by Transform Magazine, honor the very best work in the field and are one of the largest awards competitions in the industry. 2024 marks the end of the first decade of the competition, which is the only awards program in the region to celebrate the transformative power of rebranding and brand development.
Tenet’s work for EMC Insurance amplified the brand to better reflect the company’s strengths and distinct, human character—work that required internal education and buy-in, which Tenet helped to achieve through a robust brand ambassador program. Transform Awards judges noted that the internal communications that were part of the program were handled “deftly and successfully.” The full scope of the project can be seen in the EMC Insurance case study.
Fairtrade International is a non-governmental organization promoting better working conditions and fair treatment for farmers and workers in developing countries. Its vitally important work was hampered by a complex certification scheme that was hard to understand. Tenet helped to simplify and bring clarity to the architecture, prompting the Transform Awards judges to call it “a great evolution!” that can be seen in the Fairtrade International case study.
Canon Medical Systems USA, a medical imaging company, faced intense competition from long-established global vendors. Tenet helped the company leverage its emphasis on expertise, relationships and positive impact with an identity that linked to the global Canon brand while enabling Canon Medical to stand out as a preferred partner for the medical community. The work can be seen in the Canon Medical USA case study.
Tenet Partners is a brand innovation firm that transforms organizations through a blend of insights, strategy, design and technology. Our mission is to help companies create brand value and open possibilities in today’s digital-driven and customer-focused world.
For more information, please contact: Jessica McHie Partner, Business Development Tenet Partners +1 212 329-3166 jmchie@tenetpartners.com
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.
An iconic name is a tremendous asset, but it can also create a real challenge when the company that bears it needs to turn the page. The Campbell’s Company seems to have gotten it right.
The Campbell Soup Company was founded in 1869 and adopted its now-familiar name in 1922. Its best-known consumer brand is practically the definition of “iconic:” the instantly recognizable red-and-white can famously immortalized by Andy Warhol in the early 1960s and TV spots that bring back fond memories of childhood, such as the melting snowman ad that ran for years.
That’s the kind of equity and name recognition that’s well worth preserving. And a week or so ago, the company made a move that did exactly that: It dropped the word “Soup” and will now be known as The Campbell’s Company.
In a mid-September letter to investors, Campbell’s CEO Mark Clouse hit the nail on the head: “This subtle yet important change retains the company’s iconic name recognition, reputation and equity built over 155 years while better reflecting the full breadth of the company’s portfolio.”
He has a point. The $9.6 billion company has been far more than a maker of soup for many years… a diversification journey that began in 1948 with the acquisition of V8. Its consumer brand portfolio now includes many other familiar American staples: Pepperidge Farm, SpaghettiO’s and Swanson to name just a few.
It’s evident that the company sees the greatest growth potential in continued diversification and expansion beyond its traditional soup – ahem – base. By changing its name, Campbell’s is telegraphing its intentions to the market and showing confidence in its future direction: a powerful message. The ongoing shift in focus towards meals (including but not limited to soup), beverages and snacks is a trend that’s not going away.
It’s an astute move that shows Campbell’s has done its homework, listened to its customers and assessed the market before making a change with strategic implications. The company has concluded – rightly – that it cannot walk away entirely from its storied name, and yet there was a clear need to make a change.
The answer couldn’t have been simpler: a non-disruptive tweak that honors Campbell’s legacy while freeing the company to pivot. There’s a clear – and compelling – thread running through its brand story. Dare we say, the name change strikes us as Mm! Mm! Good!
Canon Medical Systems USA faced intense competition from long-established global medical imaging vendors. With the competition mainly focused on technology, Canon Medical saw an opportunity to leverage its emphasis on expertise, relationships and the positive impact it has on customers and patients as a way to stand out.
CHALLENGE
Canon Medical’s visual identity was taken from the global Canon brand, which limited its ability to tell a distinctive story tailored for its target market. The critical challenge was to respect that link to the power of the global brand while enabling Canon Medical to stand out as a preferred partner for the medical community.
HOW WE HELPED
Tenet’s approach to developing the visual system was highly collaborative, combining an extensive competitive audit and image review with work done by Tenet brand strategists and input from the client to visually represent key elements of the refreshed brand. In this way, the visual system was firmly grounded in brand strategy.
Strategic elements included themes of meaningful innovation, alignment with Canon corporate brand values, its tagline of “Made For Life” and Canon Medical’s new positioning theme: “With you all the way.”
Picking up on the themes of human expertise and partnership, the photo style emphasizes humans engaging with one another, with the viewer and with technology to complement images of equipment.
The new visual identity links to the global Canon brand in subtle, yet compelling ways, making good use of the corporate red along with gradients and geometric shapes. The system’s graphical underlay is a transformation of the highly recognizable letter C shape that’s part of the Canon wordmark, replicated and rotated to provide a rich texture that suggests technology without overwhelming the more human elements of imagery.
OUTCOME
Canon Medical’s new visual identity and Tenet’s accompanying strategic brand work has been greeted very positively by the organization’s leadership, providing a solid foundation for continued growth and differentiation in the medical imaging market. A few months after the updated brand launch, Canon Medical saw a 45% increase in engagement with its PR and social media content.
Fairtrade International is a non-governmental organization spearheading a global movement to change the way trade works through better prices, decent working conditions and a fairer deal for farmers and workers in developing countries.
CHALLENGE
Fairtrade promotes its agenda through a system of certification marks on product packaging help brands signal that they are part of a more sustainable, responsible worldwide economy, giving consumers assurance that they are making ethical purchase decisions. It was felt that this multifaceted system was too complex and difficult to understand.
HOW WE HELPED
The organization saw the need to make the scheme more clear, but wanted to make sure any changes were driven by research and a sound brand strategy. Fairtrade came to Tenet Partners for help with streamlining its certification architecture to better communicate with the market.
Building on extensive research, the Tenet team recommended a simplified approach based on use cases. The new system is straightforward, easily understood and modular, with a single certification mark that combines the two legacy marks and supplemental visual elements that can be added or removed based on the use case.
OUTCOME
The new approach makes identification of Fairtrade-certified products easier, while still allowing for the inclusion of relevant information. It also sparked valuable discussion and consensus-building within the organization.
With clarity around adoption of the new architecture achieved, Fairtrade International is poised to move forward with a clean, flexible system that allows qualified businesses to better communicate with their customers—and for the organization itself to advance its vision.
The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) is a professional organization that represents more than 100,000 member-physical therapists, physical therapist assistants and students of physical therapy nationwide.
CHALLENGE
While developing its 5-year strategic plan, APTA leadership determined that the association’s brand was not serving the needs of its membership. This was proved out as the 71 specialty sections, state chapters and major programs that comprise APTA were using their own branding, creating a highly fragmented face to the organization.
While national leadership desired a more consistent identity, it was concerned that developing a cohesion might also create friction—with most chapters wanting to maintain their individual identities.
HOW WE HELPED
Tenet research confirmed that the national association was underappreciated by its members, who were more connected with their local chapter or specialized member group than they were to the broader organization.
In parallel with visual identity work, Tenet strategists engaged APTA national and chapter leadership in collaborative exercises designed to build consensus around an evolved brand architecture that would establish a more prominent connection between the chapters and the association.
That process helped to shift the views of leaders and members, who agreed that a more cohesive branding approach would go a long way towards increasing the stature of the association, and of physical therapists in healthcare and among the public at large.
A new logo and visual system were also developed to express the end benefit physical therapists provide their patients: a notion of fluid activity and freedom of motion, driving forward and upward. The refreshed visual identity provides both consistency and flexibility, allowing APTA to build a cohesive brand while giving the 71 disparate groups the freedom to customize their own identity by choosing from a range of pre-designed options.
In a further endeavor toward consistency, Tenet also developed a messaging playbook—a key resource that APTA’s national staff had never had before—along with comprehensive brand guidelines, launch strategy and communications.
OUTCOME
The national brand launch was timed to coincide with the association’s centennial celebration, featuring prominently in APTA’s new headquarters. By tying the launch to a major event, the refreshed brand generated considerable excitement and buy-in. With a solid architecture established, the individual member groups now have the tools to roll out their own refreshed brands.
The new brand approach quickly proved its worth. A prominent APTA group that had separately undertaken its own brand refresh hired Tenet to design its new brand. We demonstrated how the architecture solution, new identity and visual system could be used to create a powerful brand expression at all levels of the organization.
Building a unified digital presence after a merger
OVERVIEW
Following the merger of two New York capital region credit unions—SEFCU and CapCom—to form the Broadview Federal Credit union, creating a unified digital presence was a top priority. Tenet Partners led the creation of the Broadview brand, and then the organization turned to us once again to create a cohesive website that would fully embody the new brand identity.
HOW WE HELPED
Proven best practices developed over years of comparable engagements served as the basis of Tenet’s comprehensive, strategic approach to the assignment. This was more than a simple redesign of an existing site—it needed to fully support Broadview’s business strategy and make the most of the credit union’s new brand.
Digital strategy: Our team began by crafting a robust digital strategy that aligned with Broadview’s brand vision and business goals. This strategy provided a clear roadmap to the harmonization of the two legacy websites with unique navigation, content and customer experiences, ensuring consistency and alignment across all digital touchpoints.
Information architecture and content analysis: We meticulously structured the website’s information architecture to enhance navigation and the user experience. Thorough content analysis was conducted to ensure relevance, clarity and consistency in messaging.
Wireframes and component library: Wireframes were designed to help visualize the layout and functionality of key pages, while a digital component library was developed to maintain design consistency and facilitate efficient updates.
Visual and experience design: Our visual design team created a modern and engaging aesthetic that reflects the distinctive Broadview identity. Working concurrently, the experience design team focused on user-centric principles, ensuring intuitive and seamless interactions.
Content development and integration assistance: Using the verbal platform that was part of the Broadview rebrand as a starting point, the team crafted compelling content that would resonate with Broadview’s diverse audience. Additionally, we provided integration assistance to ensure smooth implementation of new content, UX features and functionalities.
Page-level design and project management: Each page was carefully designed to ensure a cohesive look and feel. Throughout the project, our dedicated project management team ensured timely delivery, quality assurance for content and seamless coordination among stakeholders.
OUTCOME
The new Broadview website is a testament to the power of strategic UX design and execution. By integrating SEFCU and CapCom’s strengths into a single, unified platform that fully expresses the brand, we created a digital experience that not only reflects Broadview’s new identity but also enhances member engagement and satisfaction. At the same time, we created the tools, resources and knowledge needed to carry the site into the future, empowering Broadview to evolve its online presence going forward.
By tapping into our development, visual, verbal and strategic strengths, this project exemplifies Tenet Partners’ expertise in delivering comprehensive digital solutions that drive success.
EMC Insurance is an Iowa-based carrier primarily focused on risk solutions for business. As a mutual company that relies heavily on independent agents, local presence and close relationships with communities and businesses, it has a powerful story to tell.
CHALLENGE
EMC leaders knew they had a strong presence in the market, but felt that there was an opportunity to amplify the brand to better reflect the company’s strengths and distinct character.
HOW WE HELPED
Starting with extensive internal and external research, Tenet strategists zeroed in on what makes EMC special: that at its core, it is a very human company.
That ethos was captured in a revised brand platform as a foundational element: “The national carrier with a local heart.” This laddered up to a new brand promise: “Keeping insurance human.” In keeping with this, the platform and brand voice shifted away from a product-first approach to larger themes of partnership and prosperity.
EMC’s existing look—hard-edged and dark, typical of the industry—felt dated and was not ideally suited to the company’s focus on working with agency partners to help policyholders and communities thrive. Tenet designers created a warmer, more engaging visual identity, using an in-person workshop to help the EMC team get up close with the creative process.
As the amplified EMC brand was being prepared to launch externally, leadership understood that connecting with the internal audience was critically important, as they are the ones embodying the brand promise across all touchpoints.
The Tenet team knew that the employee training program would be most effective if delivered by the employees themselves. A Tenet-crafted “Brand Ambassador” train-the-trainer program tapped 60 uniquely qualified individuals across various geographies and areas of expertise to be the faces and voices of employee engagement throughout the organization.
It all came together at One EMC, an historic event at EMC headquarters. Through unique and memorable employee experiences, the team generated excitement, teamwork and a greater understanding of the amplified EMC brand.
OUTCOME
The new brand identity, Brand Ambassador program and One EMC event were hugely successful and popular with employees, serving to bring clarity about the company’s path forward and build genuine enthusiasm about EMC’s future.
“The collaborative partnership we had with the Tenet team resulted in a highly creative and impactful visual identity that further enhanced our broad strategy,” said EMC’s vice president of customer experience & marketing.
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
A global nonprofit organization founded by well-known inventor Dean Kamen, FIRST is dedicated to improving education and interest in science. The company touches the lives of nearly 700,000 kids globally through its robotics programs. Kamen, holder of more than 1000 patents and founder of DEKA Research and Development, set a vision for the organization to “create a world where science and technology are celebrated…where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes.”
The identity of FIRST is an excellent example of a grass-roots creation that takes a life of its own through its application. Unlike regimented corporate programs, the company’s symbol is applied freely to just about everything imaginable inside and outside event venues – by FIRST staff, by the thousands of teams and fans, and by the many corporate sponsors and partners contributing time and resources.
Tenet Partners donated its services and talents to helping FIRST create a new logo and signature system that updates its image, solves a range of application issues, and clarifies the structure of the growing nonprofit’s numerous offerings.
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