Story in brief:
There's an industry (new to me) that calls itself "3PL," for Third-Party Logistics... essentially the outsourcing (by manufacturers) of management of physical distribution. Coyote, for example, oversees U.S. beer distribution for Heineken -- contracting and coordinating scores of transportation companies -- and does this for other food and beverage, consumer product, forest product, metals and plastics companies and for the U.S. government. Launched only five years ago, Coyote is its industry's fastest-growing company (and one of America's).

Whence "Coyote?" I spoke with founder and CEO Jeff Silver. In 2006, he had sought an edgy name that would stand out in a sea of descriptive or person names. Thinking of shippers (customers), carriers (service providers) and especially employees, he wanted to express a culture of aggression, initiative and agility through such names as Alleycat, Bellyfire and (inspired by a brainstorming friend nicknamed Wiley), Coyote. Then when Silver and his wife (and HR director) were at home, struggling with the final naming decision, a coyote trotted confidently through their yard; they took this as a sign. (She settled in, Silver says, and raised three pups.)

Logo design was sourced locally, "and we didn't spend much on it." Five years later, the decision was made to upgrade marketing materials and especially the Web site -- but not, at first, the logo. "We'd invested in a lot of logo swag, including hockey uniforms, and I was highly reluctant to redo the logo."

London-based Moving Brands had been strongly recommended by a director, who had experienced their work on a pro bono assignment (a great new-business tool). The chemistry, apparently, was immediate: "Loved them. They dug us."

Moving Brands' consultants heard Silver's charge to "recreate the magic culture we had" at the company's inception, and reinforce it. Through interviews they distilled defining cultural values Silver recalls as TENACIOUS, TRIBAL, SMART and proactively TRUE, and identified "loud, loyal, fiercely energetic" as personality attributes. With this grounding, Moving Brands overcame their client's logo-change trepidation, and in due course provided a starkly classic arrow-animal symbol, a freight-evoking stenciled wordmark, and a visual system dominated by a category-owning green, applied with confidence. (See the Moving Brands' generously shared case presentation and video.)

Launch efforts, including special films and "lots of swag," were directed primarily at employees -- to help renew and sustain that magic "tribal tenacity." Happily, the timing coincided well with Coyote's relocation to bigger, brighter new office space, providing the opportunity to infuse its design with the look and even the language of the new branding (as in the TENACIOUS office, below).

Once reluctant to change the logo, Silver is now happy to ascribe "a huge impact" to it. Adds Jodi Navta, VP Marketing and Communications, "A new logo and website was an awesome opportunity to tell our story internally and to the rest of the world."

Credits:
C.E.O. - Jeff Silver
Identity planning and design - Moving Brands, San Francisco office

cards, front and back

First Impressions:
Strategy: Great case of a visual rebranding solidly grounded in leadership intentions – which were in good part formed and focused as a direct result of the rebranding process.
Design: Almost perfect. The symbol is scarily effective, especially so when freestanding. The supergraphic VALUES words add a new dimension to "visual system." Not sure I'm entirely comfortable with the need for stenciling (bit of a distraction?), with the wordmark/symbol size relationship in lockups, and with sometimes freestanding wordmark applications, but these are minor and tentative questions.
Overall: Among the thirteen programs I reviewed in 2011, for its strategic grounding, CEO ownership, design impact and comprehensive implementation, I rate Coyote's as the best corporate identity change of the year.

Other Comments:
We first noted Moving Brands in 2007 for Nokia Siemens, then in 2008 for their Swisscom logo (conceptually in constant motion, if in practice usually static). More recently we have seen them at work for Hewlett Packard. Moving or static, I'm pleased to add them to our "Other full-service identity firms" links.

Woof. Brilliantly simple and linked to the values of the company in a way I've seen done successfully only a handful of times. Compared to the sad redo of UPS, Coyote rips them to shreds. William Agush

Corporate Brand Matrix ratings:
0% structural, 90% strategic, 10% functional (est.)

Replacing ..

CEO Jeff Silver

Sample "swag" ... "loud, loyal
and fiercely energetic" ...

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