114: Copper, Blue + Pink: An Artful Name Change / Rebrand

Jan 11, 2019

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If you took every tech company logo and stacked them by color, here's what you'd see: some red, some shades of black, grey, and white, some green. But all those stacks would be in the shadow of one color: blue. Samsung, Facebook, Lenovo, PayPal, hp, Dell—the list of blue logos goes on and on.

So what did Morgan Norman, CMO of Copper (née ProsperWorks)? He went pink. With a dash of creative and a spritz of data analysis, Morgan went bold and rebranded in a major way. But—a rebrand isn't just a name and a color. The new mentality has to fill up every nook and cranny of the company, employees need to buy in, users need to be kept informed. On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew Neisser talks with Morgan Norman about the keys to a full rebrand, some common hurdles, and more about B2B marketing.

Join in to hear lots of inspirational conversation and more on this company name change!

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What You’ll Learn Why a company name change?

Before its company name change, Copper was a very successful business. It was not looking for a different name to boost sales or to pull itself out of a slump. However, there were still various reasons to change its name. ProsperWorks was a hard name for people to remember. It was even harder for people to say. Prior to its name change, it was in 110 countries, and the name ProsperWorks was hard to translate. Studies were also showing that customers were consistently misspelling its name. All of these reasons culminated in a desire to explore new company names.

Just a coat of paint, or a complete overhaul?

When ProsperWorks changed its company name to Copper, it did not just change its name - it changed its entire brand. Morgan explains that every bit of product was overhauled, from customer interactions and existing content, to its brand and the company’s roadmap of where it wanted to go. He said that with the new name, the brand changed to revolve around relationships.

How Copper used a relaunch to generate interest in its brand

Copper used its relaunch to help generate interest in its brand in several different ways:

They launched a new advertising campaign: CRM Minus the Bad Stuff. Their ads were enough to make the public curious enough to finish the story by finding out more information on the product.
Copper utilized billboard ads. They ran 2 at a time in San Francisco near the airport. This captured the audience of people flying in. They also put a human face to CRM.
They produced massive amounts of content about the company and its new name. The name change was surrounded by information on the company.

Timeline

[2:30] Who is Morgan Norman?
[5:52] Why ProsperWorks changed its name to Copper
[7:31] Which came first: the name change or the URL
[12:24] Why the name Copper instead of Copper CRM
[15:43] Why Copper chose pink in branding
[17:46] A complete overhaul: from name to product
[21:34] Internal involvement before a name change
[27:25] The launch of Copper’s new name
[30:18] How to use a relaunch to generate interest in your brand
[35:22] Top lessons from name changing
[38:47] Key metrics that matter in marketing

Connect With Guest:

Morgan’s Bio on Copper’s Website
Connect with Morgan on LinkedIn
Follow Morgan on Twitter

Resources & People Mentioned

Book: Subscribed by Tien Tzuo
Campaign: CRM, Minus the Bad Stuff

Connect with Drew