The brand launch at North Highland’s 2007 annual meeting was met with major praise. Employees new and old were moved by the personal story of their founder and rallied around the new brand and beliefs highlighted for them in the brand presentation and in the books that each employee got to keep. Read Full Story
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The brand launch at North Highland’s 2007 annual meeting was met with major praise. Employees new and old were moved by the personal story of their founder and rallied around the new brand and beliefs highlighted for them in the brand presentation and in the books that each employee got to keep.
Business Situation North Highland is a management consulting firm with offices in 14 cities across the US. Their unique local focus and experienced professional team put them at the top of their game, but rapid growth left them with an inconsistent company vision. The North Highland team was growing so quickly that they were hiring 25% new workforce each year. This new workforce was not consistently presenting their new company’s brand. North Highland found it very important to create a set of core messages and beliefs that would help these new employees get a better feel of where they worked and internalize these beliefs as their own. They wanted their new employees to know immediately that they worked for a special company.
Solutions Merge began a re-branding effort by helping North Highland understand and convey where they stood in the marketplace, resulting in a more powerful and concise brand positioning. Merge then partnered with North Highland to develop core messaging targeting various audiences. First, Merge helped to build North Highland’s new brand by creating a brand book to initialize the launch at their 2007 annual meeting with 500 employees and international partners. In front of this large crowd, North Highland and Merge revealed the brand book that succinctly told the story of North Highland founder Dave Peterson. It informed employees about how North Highland came about, why they operate in the fashion they do and, most importantly, it personalized the beliefs held by this large organization. It solidified the message that North Highland truly was a unique and extraordinary place to work.
After the internal launch, Merge turned their focus to launching the brand to external audiences. Core messaging and brand standards were established to be used across all media types. A new website, logo, stationery, business cards and presentation materials were also developed to finish up the second half of this project.
Results The brand launch at North Highland’s 2007 annual meeting was met with major praise. Employees new and old were moved by the personal story of their founder and rallied around the new brand and beliefs highlighted for them in the brand presentation and in the books that each employee got to keep.
One North Highland employee said that the book accurately described why she joined and why she’ll stay. A presenter at the meeting said that the story moved her nearly to tears. In the days following the launch, Rick Berg, Director of Operations at North Highland, was inundated with emails praising the new branding and the stellar presentation, each commenting on a “job well done.” Berg claims that the new branding really drove home the idea of employee ownership. “We (the employees) own this place, that’s why we can guarantee our work.” He continues to praise Merge for their efforts and the succinct way that they portrayed North Highland’s distinction in the marketplace, “This rebranding has changed the way I describe North Highland to employees and clients.”
