Transforming an Engineering Firm With an Elevated Brand Name

Your brand name is often your audience’s first impression of your business. In fact, 64% of communication professionals indicated that word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective form of marketing. We spend so much time and energy perfecting the visual aspect of our brand but chances are your audience has already formed an opinion before facing the identity.

Is your current brand name no longer accurate and limiting your reach, is your name lacking a user-friendly tone, has your business naturally progressed or become focused on a new venture? There are many reasons why a business requires a new name but the common denominator in achieving a successful and long-lasting outcome is the process.

Recently we transformed a humble engineering firm into a senior market player with our tried and tested brand naming process. Now hosting a strong new name to complement its refreshed visual identity, Matter speaks to the firm’s future both culturally and professionally.

Matter Case Study 

Matter came to us as SY Structures, a structural engineering firm with considerable growth since its 2017 inception and no intention of changing its name. After a series of strategy exercises and brand interventions, we began to question – what will push this engineering firm into its next phase of growth?

As a servicing body to a large volume of disciplines, it was critical that we developed a confident brand name that authentically communicates core values and can successfully integrate these values into all functions of the business.

1. Discovery Phase

The discovery phase is about looking deep into the fundamentals of your service offering. Data is collected and analysed through a series of exercises to identify all plausible themes and directions for your brand name.

After completing the discovery phase, we realised that this engineering firm was becoming richer in people, culture, and history but ‘SY Structures’ was only communicating one thing – engineering.

A brand name becomes the soul that encompasses every brand value and asset. It was time for SY Structures to become ‘Matter’.

2. Finding Core Values 

Initial Values:  Innovation, Superior Service, People, and Social & Environmental Responsibility

Articulating your core identity relies on a strategic brand naming process that considers all viable name options. Hosting a set of core values in your brand arsenal sets the tone for your brand and ensures consistency and confidence through every stage of marketing.

Despite reflecting their service, Matter’s values were not looking into the future as a firm compliant with the latest standards, innovative in-building solutions, and reluctant to climate ignorance. To bring Matter’s visions and prospects to the surface, we conducted a comparative analysis – What do we currently do? What do we aim to do? What makes us different? – identifying gaps in their value proposition to build integrity and enhance communication.

3. Comparative Analysis

After comparing multiple elements of the business, one comparison clearly stood out. The business was currently servicing the Melbourne and Adelaide markets but was working towards a nationwide offering. Acting as a vehicle for growth, the brand name demanded confidence in its delivery and five new core values that could bring purpose to the ‘Matter’ name.

Another core discovery was the firm’s drive to alter stereotypes. Matter felt it necessary to bring a subtle edge to their name, to change how people think about engineering.

4. Defining The Future Narrative

New Values: Innovative, Reliable, Pushing boundaries, Sustainable

At this stage of the process, we reflect on perception development. Does the brand look and feel different after this exercise? Has the direction shifted and what themes should we take forward to accommodate this new direction?

In Matter’s case, there was a clear distinction between SY Structures and where they needed to be in order to reach the entire Australian market. We brainstormed new literary representations of ‘SY Structures’, combining business direction, instinct, and a configuration of letters that pull together a name that embodies their structural engineering practice.

It came down to one realisation, what Matter does, actually matters. Their service is the skeleton of all design disciplines, monitoring safety, sustainability, and efficiency in large-scale development projects.

Your project, matters to us, quality assurance matters to us, our engineering legacy matters!

In a more literal sense, structural engineering requires the acquirement of matter to physically develop supportive building networks.

See the full Matter folio here

Reflections

Naming your brand is the cherry on top of the hard work, long hours, and passion it takes to develop and run a company. Maximising this output with a well-thought-out brand name is not only what your business needs but what it deserves to successfully stand out amongst a sea of hungry competitors.

At Principle Design we are helping clients, in all stages of development, redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at critical moments of change. Discover what else we do here.