Immersion learning
MassPay was a Massachusetts-based company with its roots in payroll services (hence the name, MassPay). However, since its inception the company had evolved greatly. They were no longer serving only Massachusetts customers and their roster of HR products went well beyond payroll.
Though it wasn’t the assignment, I knew they needed to change their name.
But changing a company name is not always an easy thing for a company to do. It gets emotional, people are attached to the old name, inertia can be sticky. But I was pleasantly surprised as I interviewed the top executives at MassPay that they were just as enthusiastic about a name change as I was.
We stole a page from Kentucky Fried Chicken, who changed their name to “KFC” when fried anything went out of vogue, and quickly settled on “MP” as the new name. The name MP still had roots in “MassPay” to placate existing customers, but wasn’t descriptively inaccurate anymore. You could say it was now neutral territory, a name with which we could infuse meaning and relevance through a great brand idea.
The question now was, what’s the big idea?
Key insight: To win in this competitive HR marketplace we knew the brand idea had to be bigger than MP’s current roster of products/services. Those will constantly change as the brand innovated. The brand idea had to differentiate based on who the company is, not on what it is. We needed potential customers to believe in MP. And the fact was, this HR company had incredible technology and you know what? They loved this stuff. They loved HR and everything that went into it. I could see it in their enthusiastic eyes when they talked about their past, about the industry, and about the future. Hmm…
the ideas
I presented eleven different ideas, each taking a different approach on the insight. Some were internally focused, some were more benefit oriented. And, for the first time in my career doing this, we had a clear winner by the end of the meeting and it was the very first idea I presented (first one below as well), “Wired for HR.” It was the perfect marriage of MP’s technology superiority and its passion for HR.
Below you can scroll through each idea exactly as it was presented. Tip: make your browser bigger so the images become big enough to read.
Manifesto
This manifesto is written to truly unveil the motivation of the company, or the company’s “WHY,” so that every employee knew exactly what the brand would be all about. Only then can they “channel the brand” into everything they do.
Click to enlarge
Logo And identity
Armed with a new name, a new tagline, and a manifesto, we briefed a designer I like to work with to come up with new logos. After some back and forth we landed on this one. I love it because it’s simple, it’s friendly (it’s Human Resources after all), and the two dots in the “p” are an electrical outlet suggesting technology/wired.
Activations
This idea was fully embraced and activated almost immediately by MP. Before I knew it they had updated their website, created Covid masks with the logo on them, brand identity table-tops for employees, even M&Ms with “MP” on them. And judging from Jason’s and Amy’s reactions below they have only just begun their transformation of the company. Love it when that happens.
Some examples:
client reactions
Jason Maxwell, CEO
“Will’s process and brilliance helped us to shift our brand that helped us transform our business. With his leadership, our new brand helped us to build a more aligned and energetic business that helped internal and external stakeholders realize our shift in direction.”
Amy Wieman, Director Of Marketing
“Will has an authentic ability to uncover the true essence of a brand. Working with him was both an exciting and seamless process. From discovery to manifesto development and brand execution, he quickly connected with stakeholders to distill the company’s core values and focus in on what makes our brand unique. The results have been amazing.”