Knowing When to Start
We are known as a civil engineering firm. It’s not a bad thing to be really good at one thing, but when you want people to see your other talents and attract a diverse spectrum of work and employees, it can be difficult. This idea of showing off new service offerings and leading with diversity is what started the year-long process for the Qunity re-brand.
Getting the Name Right
Researching and selecting our new name was difficult. We needed to find a name that encompassed our values and communicated our increased capabilities in creativity and design. This name would need to speak to all of our employees as creative problem solvers and not just general titles such as architects and engineers. We wanted to communicate our quality services as special, sophisticated, and hard to come by. We tried many different words but ultimately found the word “Qunity” to be just the right fit.
Understanding the Brand
Our name, Qunity, embodies many qualities that make our firm distinctly our own. First, it contains the word “unity,” which speaks to our commitment to maintaining an equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace and culture. Second, it sounds like “community,” which we strive to build every day through the projects we deliver and our close relationships with the people, municipalities, and agencies we serve. Finally, our name’s initial “Q” stands for the quality of people and work we do every day. Qunity is a name that proudly embraces the traits that set us apart—and those that bring us together. The juxtaposition of colors is a nod to a re-energization, and the blue hues pay homage to the blue in our previous brand and the history that it had established. As part of the process, we developed brand guidelines complete with our logo, brand colors, typography, standard images, and more to fully develop and mold our new brand. With these guidelines, we completed new marketing materials, including a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) template and business cards, among many others. Having a complete graphic package helps us maintain our image and develop new materials quickly, something we didn’t have before.
Digging Into the Message
Once we had a name, we dug into our values even deeper. We circled back to all the surveys, industry, and competitor research we conducted at the start of this process. What do we want our message to be? What should accompany this new brand name? Ultimately, we want to elevate our clients’ projects beyond what they believe they can be. There are greater possibilities within each project, and we are obligated to search for them. This idea became our new tagline: building better places to live, work and play. Having the capability to design a project from start to finish is something that makes our firm unique. From architectural design, engineering services, land planning, stormwater management, and construction administration, we offer our clients a streamlined experience while creating aspirational environments.
Taking the Leap
Taking a company that has been established in its industry for more than thirty years and deciding to change its name is no easy feat. We were nervous that people wouldn’t recognize our new name and we could potentially lose out on new connections. We soon realized from client responses to the change that we are not just recognized for our name but for the individual employees that have made a positive impact on our clients. We realized that no matter what name we chose to use, we would keep the trust and friendship of our clients. This realization confirmed that our new name and message focus on the most important thing about our company: its people.
