• 17 Sep 2019
• opticom

Sooner or later the time comes when your corporate identity is no longer up to scratch. Recognizing when this is the case is difficult, but in the life of a business various moments arise that lend themselves very well to a change, or even necessitate one.
On average, organisations and brands change their corporate identities once every seven to ten years. Being in the Kenyan market 8 years was a slight indication, a re-brand is more than restyling logos, color palettes and visual language the motivation behind a re-branding project is often a combination of several factors and the Opticom family would like to share what those reasons were.

The norm has been for companies to re-brand when things go sideways. This is reactive re-branding. Then there is proactive re-branding, just as Opticom is proactive in security matters, so was our re-brand a proactive one. Pro-activity seems to sit well with this family, seeing as our parent company Optimum Security also went through a complete restructure and re-branding the same time this year.

Was it a brave move? Yes, because employees and consumers can reject a re-brand, it can be risky but with over 23 years experience in the same industry our CEO made the call, and we are already reaping the fruits.
Behind this call was predicted growth and when a company is preparing for expected growth, it might re-brand products and services into a consolidated brand. This is often done for consistency and also happens when a company simply needs to create a greater sense of brand unity across its business. Opticom has been known in the fire and CCTV markets and unifying these brands through the monitoring arm Optiwatch has yielded fruit.
As we were entering into the new line of business in monitoring although cohesive to the existing brand identity, the re-branding again came into play to launch this, seeing as the discreet nature of our service isn’t one to shout about.

Remember when Apple was known as Apple Computer? As the company evolved into new lines of business beyond computers, the original brand name was too restrictive. With a simple snip to the ancillary word in the brand name in 2002, which most people didn’t use anymore, the brand was ready for new growth and opportunities.

We are ready for new growth opportunities beyond fire and CCTV installations; we monitor all our installations in real time. This is the point technology is at in 2016. Technology never sleeps, we are keeping up with the fast pace to introduce new services that will deliver safe communities for all.

Re-branding your business can be a daunting task to undertake. It is, however, a rewarding process that will deliver significant commercial benefits. Re-branding can breathe new life into your business or product, but it has to be actioned with a focus on strategy, a clearly understood process, creative vision & thought, and most of all for the right reasons.