SGI Compliance - The Challenge

The rebrand project for SGI Compliance is a very intriguing project to undertake. They are a European business to business service who consult and advise customers on staying compliant with environmental regulations. They also provided lab testing and inspection services as part of the proposition, however, there had to be a clear separation of the two businesses in some countries. The business is based in 5 countries across Europe; UK, Norway, Belgium, France and the Netherlands. The group of companies used a variety of brands. At the investment and group level they used the name; Shield Group International which was not a market facing brand. The go to market brands where mostly a version of the owners of the group, Kiwa, which itself was a global business; Kiwa Compliance, Kiwa Oesterbaai, Kiwa Inspection & Testing, Kiwa Norkjemi and Fibrecount.

The driving force behind the project was that Shield Group International and the companies and brands that made up this business were sold and a transitional service agreement between Kiwa and the outgoing businesses was coming to an end. This meant they had rebrand and stop using the Kiwa name by March 2021.

Some of the challenges that the business faced and hope to be solved by the rebrand project were:

1) inconsistent brand proposition across the group

2) inconsistent use of the existing brand

3) complicated brand architecture

4) out of date marketing materials and technology

The goal of the project was to unify the business under a single master brand, proposition, website platform and architecture and upgrade marketing materials and technology.

I broke the plan into ten buckets:

1) Discovery - cataloguing and reviewing all the items within the business that existed and would be impacted by the project

2) Brand name - the process of choosing a brand for the business

3) Brand proposition - company vision, mission, values and tone of voice.

4) Brand creative - the visual style of the new brand

5) Brand assets - the individual templates and assets that will be used by the business

6) Regional planning - working with teams within each country on requirements and lead times

7) Regional delivery - working with the teams in each country on delivering the changes into the business

8) Internal communication - timely and informative emails and video announcements to the business relating to the rebrand and upcoming changes

9) External communication / brand awareness campaigns - timely and informative emails and videos to the market relating to the rebrand, upcoming changes and building awareness of the incoming brand

10) Website - build and launch of a new group website as well as country sub-sites that on the same platform

My next blog will cover the solution we reached.