Rebranding a 10-year-old company — the journey from Sendinblue to Brevo
Introduction
Rebranding a company is not uncommon, whether it’s a simple logo refresh or a more comprehensive transformation of colors and identity. Sendinblue rebranded in 2019, and I myself have led rebrand projects for major B2B companies during my career. A rename, however, is a different story.
A rename is a major challenge. In the business world, a name is more than just a label. It represents an identity, values, and purpose. For that reason, renaming a company requires investment, commitment, determination, and often a leap of faith.
Every day I’m asked about the origins of our new name and how we came up with it, so I thought I’d share with you the story of our one-year journey from Sendinblue to Brevo — why we did it, how we did it, what does it mean, and what’s next.
We outgrew Sendinblue
Renaming after a decade of operation is quite rare. There could be a number of reasons why companies rename (and as a result rebrand). But the most captivating case is when a company needs a new name and identity to express a major business pivot. This is what happened at Sendinblue:
Since we created Sendinblue in 2012, we’ve grown significantly. We acquired other companies, expanded our global footprint, and launched new products and features. One thing, however, remained constant: our mission to empower businesses of every size to meet their customers’ needs and manage their relationships.
In that same time period, customer behavior has changed dramatically. Today’s customers look for personal connections with their brands. They want to be approached with messages that are unique, and they want to interact with companies at any time, from anywhere. In short: they want to have a great experience.
In this environment, we knew our clients needed more because their customers needed more. Our clients needed modern technology to help deliver great experiences at scale. This is why we’ve evolved from a marketing platform to a full CRM suite.
It’s also why the ‘send’ part of our name no longer describes what we offer. Our old name no longer matches our mission, and we wanted to align with the changing needs and preferences of our customers.
So, we set out to find a name that would propel our company into the next decade. We knew the name had to be simple and accessible, both attributes we’ve built into our products over the years. And because we offer services and support in six languages, the name had to be easily pronounced in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, We saw our ideal name as being short, catchy, engaging, distinctive, and “impossible to forget.”
Where do we start?
How do we find a new name that encompasses everything we are and want to be? A name that incorporates our legacy? How do we bring everyone on board and make them feel a part of the process? From the C-suite to the interns — this change affects everyone. And there’s risk involved.
Compared to this monumental task, I’d say a rebrand is a walk in the park.
So, we looked to the experts at the global naming agency Lexicon, the brains behind iconic names like Swiffer, Sonos, BlackBerry, and Macbook.
From the first meeting with Lexicon founder David Placek, we knew we were in good hands. Internally we assembled the core team at the C-level to ensure alignment across all departments, including marketing, product, and sales.
Crafting the new name
The year-long process we undertook to find a name was not easy, especially before we had the context of a logo or other visual elements. It required a lot of imagination and trust in the process (and in the agency, for that matter).
We started by working with Lexicon to define criteria. The name had to be distinct (within the category), noteworthy, memorable, and easy to process. We wanted a name that would stand out yet be ‘surprisingly familiar.’ It had to be unique, make people think, and offer a novel and interesting idea within our category.
Once we assessed the linguistics that met our needs, we had to check for legal and trademark issues. At that stage, we had a couple of favorites, but we wanted employees to contribute to the mix. So we ran an internal naming challenge in which every person in the company could propose a name that fit the criteria. We then surveyed the employees on the finalists. Finally, after five months, 167 options, 128 hours of lawyers’ time, and three finalists, we had a clear winner. Brevo!
Introducing Brevo
Brevo is rooted in the word Bravo, a ubiquitous exclamation of approval and appreciation. It offers the energy of V and the fullness of O, and we replaced the A with an E to make it our own.
OK, we have a name. What now?
A name by itself isn’t enough to tell a story. It’s merely a vessel. In order to inject meaning into it, we partnered with another world-renowned branding agency — Koto.
Together, we dug deep to develop a new brand strategy, identity, and positioning. Paired with our new name, these brand components will help reinforce key themes of our company philosophy and personality.
To kick off the process, we conducted a competitive analysis, and Koto ran an audit of all existing brand elements. We then held workshops with Koto and our core team to articulate the raison d’être of our company and distill our unique brand strategy — the prism through which we see the world. From that emerged the essence and personality of our brand, visually and verbally.
Design approach
We wanted to express the idea of growth and positive evolution, which is a core part of who we are and how we see the world. That’s also why we chose green as our new primary color. And because focus on lasting relationships with real people, our new our brand look is all about making connections.
The core element of the Brevo visual brand is Growth. The line language of our logo is inspired by the organic forms of growing trees. Note how the curve of the B looks like it’s branching off a stem. That’s also why our primary colors are forest green, mint green, and forest dark green.
For our secondary colors, we wanted shades that not only complement our greens but also help customers identify the products they use and love. Each product is assigned its own lead color from our bright and bold accent palette.
For our typeface, we chose Tomato Grotesk to help our copy stand out and feel approachable.
Brand activation
Of course, building a brand on paper is only half the work. The other half is bringing it to life across the company and across channels. Changing the name and the brand affects every employee in the company, which means this was not just a marketing project, but rather a company-wide change. So, we rallied the employees, prepared new brand training, and kept everyone updated throughout this process. We’ve also set up a task force with representatives from each department to help us track and project manage all the tasks related to this roll-out going forward, from public relations to marketing campaigns and our web and social presence.
What’s next?
Our journey to Brevo wasn’t easy. Renaming our company was a significant decision and an exciting new milestone for us. Yet this name change was necessary to help our company align with our evolving mission and vision and appeal to a broader audience. We’re so proud of everyone who leaned into the process and took us across the finish line, and I’m especially grateful to the team that has been working on this transition for many months now.
We hope this new name and brand will inspire customers and employees alike to invest in long-term sustainable customer relationships.