How we helped Claritev launch its new brand in record time.
This was precisely the scenario facing our client, Claritev (formerly MultiPlan). Unlike many B2B rebrand projects, which often afford us a flexible timetable, Claritev needed to launch on February 16 at HLTH’s ViVE event in Nashville, for which they were a prominent sponsor.
Using Claritev’s extremely successful accelerated brand launch as our real-world example, this article will present our recommended approach for when the launch day is rapidly approaching and tough strategic decisions have to be made without cutting corners.
What drives the need for an accelerated brand launch?
- Mergers and Acquisitions: One of the biggest branding priorities in an M&A situation is limiting market confusion. That need often requires brand updates to be handled swiftly.
- Regulatory or Competitive Issues: Whether driven by a trademark problem or emerging threats from a competitor, time is of the essence in these cases to mitigate business impact.
- Market Expansion: Often, a B2B business expanding into a new market may require brand augmentation to establish quick credibility. The timing of this expansion drives the branding timeline.
- Product Evolution: When a company makes breakthrough advancements, that can similarly necessitate a change in what its brand conveys. In this case, the brand update needs to happen quickly.
- Crisis Management: From bad press and customer backlash to sales declines and industry shifts, this is another scenario in which brand updates need to be handled quickly to reduce damage.
What are the key considerations when planning an accelerated brand launch?
It goes without saying that a shorter timeline and elevated pressure require even more precise planning. Agility with precision is key to fast-tracking a brand launch. Though it can be tempting, an accelerated brand launch is not the time to build the plane in the air.
Instead, to ensure the brand launch is comprehensive and not haphazard, creating an overarching brand strategy and prioritizing mission-critical assets must come first.
Simply put, start by discerning what you clearly have to have on brand launch day. That’s going to vary by situation, but whatever that shortlist is has just become your top priority. With the goal of minimizing market confusion, everything else is ancillary.
Then build out a rigid timeline and delegate clear responsibilities in order to ensure the most important items are addressed.
If there is still time and budget remaining, as there was for Claritev, move on to secondary priorities. Most often, these secondary priorities are about the run-up to launch day and the way the brand launch itself is communicated to key stakeholders.
After creating a production schedule for the secondary items, you can start looking forward. That means creating a production calendar with key milestones for the period immediately following the brand launch.
Hit the ground running so the expedited state of the brand doesn’t become the indefinite brand state.
Once again, the situation driving the expedited timeline will determine some strategic steps, but some key questions to ask yourselves are:
- What are our absolute must-haves for launch day? Beyond logo files and color specifications, think about heavily relied-upon sales and marketing materials, email signatures and in-office signage. Think about digital real estate beyond your website, like your social media pages and industry association sites.
- What must be updated on our website on launch day? Even if a full website refresh can’t be achieved by launch day, there likely still is some low-hanging fruit that can be addressed. Depending on how the site is built, the bare minimum should be to update the color palette, logos and uses of the brand name if it has changed.
- Who are the most important stakeholders we need to communicate with regarding the brand launch and how can we most efficiently engage them? This applies both internally and externally. Even if all you have time for is a basic email, take steps to control the narrative by proactively reaching out to contextualize the new brand.
- What key channels must include a brand launch messaging strategy? From your company’s LinkedIn feed to the company newsletter or a press release, which channels can you efficiently leverage to create a curated narrative about the new brand?
- How can we efficiently make internal stakeholders feel like they’re a part of the brand launch? It can be as simple as having a few small pieces of brand merchandise ready for your team on launch day. If at all possible, it’s important that they’re brought into the launch rather than feeling like the rebrand is happening to them.
Armed with your answers to these key questions, your must-haves, nice-to-haves and fast-follows should come into focus. From there, it’s time to work the plan with effective project management, defined responsibilities and clear milestones.
In the case of the Claritev brand launch strategy, our planning phase yielded a strategy that included some pre-launch excitement generation and post-launch support, but most heavily emphasized launch day itself.
This Approach in Practice — Claritev
Phase 1 — Pre-Launch
In the lead-up to Claritev’s launch on the floor of ViVE, we were able to accommodate one content piece or series per key audience — existing clients, internal team members and the broad external audience.
- Existing Clients — Pre-Launch Email: To ensure Claritev’s valued clients had the inside track on the rebrand, an email script was written to be customized and delivered by relationship owners.
- Internal Team — Whisper Emails: We developed a series of fully designed emails that teased several elements of the new brand and were sent exclusively to the then- MultiPlan team.
- External Audience — Teaser Social Posts: Without giving away any aspects of the new brand, we crafted social posts for MultiPlan’s LinkedIn followers to let them know something big was coming.
Without overinvesting in the pre-launch phase at the expense of launch day, we were able to help Claritev create meaningful touchpoints with its critical audiences.
- Brand Launch Video: To present the new Claritev brand in the most engaging light, we created a brand launch video that was produced by Claritev’s videography partner. This allowed Claritev to present a compelling narrative to contextualize the new brand. See the finished product on the Claritev homepage.
- Brand Resource Hub: For internal team members, a digital brand resource hub was created to present the rebrand and its rationale in its entirety, as well as provide an ever-updating roster of sales and marketing assets prioritized by importance.
- External Audience — Teaser Social Posts: Without giving away any aspects of the new brand, we crafted social posts for MultiPlan’s LinkedIn followers to let them know something big was coming.
- Ongoing Material Updates: After updating the mission-critical assets and adding them to the resource hub on launch day, the Claritev team continues to update materials as they are needed.
- Organic Social Posts: While it was important to craft launch day social posts, several additional posts were created in the new brand language to support Claritev’s regular post cadence.
- Town Hall Event: With Claritev’s leadership team being in attendance at the ViVE launch rather than in-office, a subsequent internal team event was required to dig further into the details about the new Claritev brand. This was done through a town hall-style engagement.
- Brand Merchandise: Following the brand launch, Claritev team members were invited to activate the new brand through shirts, pins, tumblers and much more.
No matter how expedited, a brand launch strategy is always vital to a B2B company's success. Don't go it alone.
As demonstrated through our work with Claritev, AvreaFoster has deep experience supporting clients through B2B rebrands of all sizes and timelines. If you’re staring down an imminent brand launch with no time to spare, reach out to our team and we’ll cross the finish line together.
