Rebranding? Look deeper to find your core purpose

When companies go into a rebrand, they have an opportunity to look beyond the way things have always been done -- to purpose. Jim Manskey, President at TBG partners, talks about how taking a deeper look at their business changed everything down to the way they tell stories.

Robin: Hello and welcome to this edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies. I am Robin Tooms, VP of Strategy at Savage Brands, and my guest again is Jim Manskey, President at TBG partners. So Jim, I’m so glad that you’re back on Brandonomics.

Jim: Well thank you, Robin. It’s great to be back.

Robin: Well Jim, obviously TBG partners has been around since 1987. You have a really long legacy. The last year, as part of your leadership transition, you started a rebrand process, but I’m curious; I know why you started that process, but what did you really uncover during that process that was surprising to you?

Jim: Actually, the complexity of delivering on that promise. We had historically looked at what we thought were brand promises, and they became superficial — almost veneer-like — as we’ve discussed. We realized we needed to go deeper over a long period of time to integrate organizationally, structurally, culturally top to bottom how we deliver on that promise.

Robin: So what was different for you this time was really seeing that this isn’t just about the image that we’re presenting, but how we’re living and truly internalizing that as an organization.

Jim: Yeah, I think you nailed it in terms of living it. We recognized that we had to live it in terms of communicating – literally changing our conversation that’s become our own lexicon in delivering our particular industry in design.

Robin: What would be an example of that?

Jim: You know, for example, we really emphasize the user experience when we talk about our purpose in making the world more memorable. When we deliver our designs, we perceive that with stories about the user experience as opposed to the kind of environment that we’re creating physically.

Robin: So you help paint that picture?

Jim: Absolutely, that’s really a good characterization.

Robin: Well thank you for sharing how you discovered something very, very important there and how you’re living that every day, I appreciate that.

Jim: Thank you, thank you.

Robin: Thank you. This had been another edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies.

 

 

TBG is a landscape architecture firm specializing in community development, corporate campuses, civic spaces, hotels, hospitals and educational facilities. Over the past 28 years, the firm has grown from a single office to an integrated practice with more than 125 professionals working on projects around the world. https://tbg-inc.com/