Schubert's Carango on Rebranding: 'You Can't Rebrand to Something You Wish You Were'

Schubert, a b-to-b marketing agency based in the Philadelphia area, introduced a new logo, tagline, and new promotional materials last week. It is the first major rebranding for the firm in its 33-year history. "The best time to change a brand is when you undergo some kind of change that's worth noting to your audience," Rich Carango, president of the firm, told us in an interview. Carango was also promoted to president of the firm after serving as VP of creative services. We recently asked experts to chime in on what makes for a successful logo redesign. Looking more broadly, we talked with Carango about why and how Schubert rebranded its firm. "It was the culmination of a goal," Carango said. When the firm was founded in 1978, it sought to be a top firm in the surrounding Delaware Valley. And over the past two years or so, the firm has focused on how b-to-b companies should use social media. "The Internet has changed the way that people source vendors and communicate with each other," Carango added. "It's always been our role to help companies take what's coming and use it to their benefit." With those things in mind, the company decided on an update. Many of the publicists we consulted with talked about speaking with customers before undertaking a logo redesign. Schubert did that to make sure the redesign "made sense" and was "based in reality." "You can't rebrand to something you wish you were," Carango said. A rebranding should "reinforce your position." Among the methods used to contact people, the firm used direct mail to drive traffic to their website (many e-mail inboxes have spam filters and are filled to overflowing), offering sneak previews of the site and the logo along the way. Once the rebrand launched, the firm began reaching out to the media. "You do want to push the boundary [with] something new, but it has to make sense with what's already in their mind, particularly with existing clients," he added. With new clients, an unfortunate redesign can read as "false advertising."

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Schubert's Carango on Rebranding: 'You Can't Rebrand to Something You Wish You Were'

Tonya Garcia

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Tonya Garcia