IdeasBIG, the branding sister agency of Modern Marketing Partners, recently took on the challenge of renaming an existing brand. This is a Case Study of our experience working with AfterMath Claim Science.
OBJECTIVE: Rename a corporation to achieve a compelling repositioning in a conservative (health insurance) industry and create a tagline that complements the name.
BRIEF: A successful, three-year-old company was feeling growing pains with a legacy name Cannon Cost Solutions, based on a founder’s name, and perhaps the most cliché business jargon ever (“Solutions”). Realizing the limitations, Cannon sought a brand strategy that would aggressively differentiate in a conservative, generally literal-named category.
After much competitive benchmarking, it was evident that the category was saturated with literal names, along with several synthesized names, but few quality metaphorical names. See competitive name mapping below.
Key words that related to positioning options and category terms were generated and grouped. Name generation was undertaken. After careful analysis, we determined that Cannon could defend a positioning of superior claims data mining technology and expertise that results in substantially improved claims overpayment recoveries.
Over 100 names were generated and mapped by name type. Next, the generated names were scored and ranked using several criteria including distinctiveness, relevant positioning, meaning or associations, trademark and domain name availability and more.
Names that scored and ranked the highest were screened via the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) trademark database, and the Internic (WhoIs) domain names registration database.
The table below shows mapping of many of the names generated by name type.
After a name candidate scoring and ranking process, as well as a trademark screening process (both described in the next chapter), the top-ranked names were voted on by the management team, and five of these names were sent to legal for trademark review. Two passed legal, and both were submitted to customers for feedback (a mini-focus group). With customer input, a finalist was selected—“AfterMath”—a hybrid name with a metaphorical association, but also a combination of two words, after and math, which relates to post-pay claims (“after”), and algorithmic modeling (“math”).
It was possible that a negative association could be perceived with the word “aftermath” often referencing a disaster. To counter the potential negative perception, IDeas BIG developed a tagline or descriptor that could frame the context of the name, and changed the negative into a positive. Over 100 taglines were developed.
A similar process of scoring, ranking and screening was employed to assist in selecting the tagline—“Claim Science”— (another hybrid with both metaphoric and literal attributes). The tagline strongly delivers the positioning of superior data mining.
The result—AfterMath Claim Science—is unique in the category, provocative, begging for explanation and highly “leverage-able” from a messaging perspective. Additional identity elements, including logo and graphic theme, further reinforce this positioning.
What do you think of the result in the above case study on renaming an existing brand? What questions do you face when renaming a brand? Share your experiences and retweet, facebook like, and more with others!
