‘All wearing the same jersey’: Why Highspring connected multiple brands with a single identity

It has been a busy year for consultancy firm Highspring, which after doing business as Vaco Holdings for over two decades, made the decision to rebrand in March to streamline its portfolio and create a clearer proposition.

Following a series of strategic acquisitions over the years, the business was made up of several legacy brands, each with its own identity and specialism, but without a through line connecting them. This was leading to missed opportunities because clients did not understand the breadth of its offer.

Working with agency Colossus, it rebranded four brands – housing management consultancy MorganFranklin Consulting, healthcare IT firm Pivot Point Consulting, retained executive search firm Focus Search Partners, and digital consulting firm Built – as Highspring, enabling the business to streamline its offer and better communicate what it does to customers.

“It gives us more credibility with enterprise buyers as a strong cohesive family of integrated services versus a family of brands,” says Katie Strout, senior vice president of marketing at Highspring.

However, its talent solutions platform Vaco will continue to operate under its original name, but with an addendum to tie it to the masterbrand. Vaco by Highspring, as it will be known, was seen as a “legacy” business with “more than two decades” worth of equity tied up in it and not worth changing completely.

The change is not just cosmetic though, it impacts all parts of the organisation.

“We weren’t looking to just change how we look in the market,” Strout says. “We were looking to change how we show up in the market.”

She adds: “Generally speaking from a brand perspective, we want people to resonate with our identity and understand who we are and see us not just as a vendor but as a partner.”

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Maintaining client relationships

Client feedback played a big part in the company’s decision to rebrand, particularly as a large number were unaware of how many different services the organisation offered.

Strout recalls client meetings involving “multiple people with different email addresses and different titling structures” which led to confusion within the business as to where to direct clients to access the correct services.

Now, teams go into meetings “all wearing the same jersey”, which Strout says is making communication between teams and clients smoother, as customers better understand the full scope of what Highspring offers.

Keeping its existing customers in the loop during the rebranding process was essential so as to not spring a surprise on them. This involved “check-ins with key clients and stakeholders” so they were aware of changes as they happened and could provide any feedback as necessary.

For this reason, the company took a slow approach to rolling out its new branding.

She describes this as a “beta or preview approach” whereby clients were informed of the changes between 30 and 60 days prior to the wider rollout.

We weren’t looking to just change how we look in the market. We were looking to change how we show up in the market.

Katie Strout, Highspring

This, Strout acknowledges, came with some risks. Despite the possibility of a leak from clients, the organisation decided that “every client would hear from somebody in our company before the rollout”.

Driving awareness of the rebrand and Highspring’s new positioning is now key.

“For us, it’s more about sentiment, customer value and client feedback that we’re continuing to build upon,” she states.

While there will be some successes measured by traditional engagement metrics, such as website traffic and engagement on social media, this is not the priority at this stage.

The importance of internal rebranding

It was not just communication with clients that was key to a smooth transition.

Highspring also had to ensure internal stakeholders were lined up and aware of the changes happening to the business. This meant rolling out the new brand internally prior to any discussions with clients.

This process started six months prior to the public reveal of its new name and structure to build up brand advocacy within the organisation, which Strout says was key.

“Once we had an integrated customer-facing suite of assets, it was well understood internally how to use them and how to move with them,” she explains.

Naturally, this has come with some degree of restructuring for the company to streamline teams. However, Strout is keen to stress that the organisation is “not changing the total number of people” it employs, just how they operate within the business in terms of their specific titles and the tools they use to perform their roles.

Agility at work

Increasing agility has been a core focus for Highspring as part of its rebrand. To help quantify the value of agility it has developed an in-house ‘Agility Index’: a research project measuring the agility and performance outcomes of 517 external businesses.

As part of its focus on agile working practices, Highspring’s rebrand and internal restructuring embodies its new operating philosophy, which it calls ‘Agility at work’. The research conducted for the Agility Index was in part to reinforce the idea that agility is key to a business’s success.Awareness vs familiarity: Nokia on the challenge of transitioning from B2C to B2B

Strout says: “We wanted [Highspring] to reflect momentum transformation, upward movement, the power of possibility, and this idea of agility.”

She insists that for the brand, agility isn’t just a “buzzword” and is instead a “measurable outcome” it is helping its clients leverage as they navigate business challenges.

The Agility Index quantifies an organisation’s adaptability, alignment, and action during change, scoring from -30 to +30, and focuses on the domains in which Highspring specialises in, such as talent and resource management.

“If there’s anything the past five years have taught us, it’s that agility and adaptability are critical in every aspect of business,” she concludes.