Case Study: Acumenity

The Problem

Acumenity is a small development company. Small groups and companies often come to branding groups asking for a logo. Convincing them that logos are part of a larger overall strategy is a challenge for branding specialists. My suggestion to Acumenity was that if they want to compete with global brands they needed a strong strategy behind their communications. So, on a shoestring budget we needed to strike out and discover a way communicate that would help make this small company competitive.

The Solution

There was a huge challenge in discovery having minimal budget. We researched other small developers and spoke to clients both current and potential. Then we moved on to identify their value proposition in the development market. They differentiate themselves by moving beyond being just a development company and use their atypical skillset to build communities for their clients. The way they do that is through the duality of the two personalities that created the company: Majid in tech and Jason in consulting and education. The digital side and the human side make Acumenity attractive to companies that don't want to get into the weeds on tech. I presented two strategies for Jason and Majid to consider for the Acumenity rebrand.

Brand Strategy: Ownership = Duality

Majid and Jason embody the two parts that make the whole of Acumenity. These two create a force to be reckoned with in both development and moving beyond a simple website and building communities where businesses flourish through the give and take of information.

The next step is to make the leap to the visual and verbal. I developed language and suggested visual devices that represent the duality they could sell. The design concept of contrast serves this idea perfectly. Perspective also served as a visual device that could visually communicate their value proposition, showing their depth and duality.

Brand Strategy: Against-Positioning

Again promoting the value proposition of moving beyond being just a development company and using their unique skill set to build communities for their clients, I presented the classic against-positioning strategy, which they ultimately chose. Their positioning statement:

"We don't build websites. We build communities."

This is the first chapter of the story acumenity would tell.

For the visual side, I explored two options for visual devices, inversion/mirroring and pixels. Inversion was about turning things on their heads so we can see them from a new angle and show you something you’ve never thought of before. Ultimately, the pixel won out. Pixels are our building blocks for your community. Acumentiy builds communities literally out of pixels and figuratively out of people.

The acumenity "a"

I drew inspiration for the acumenity a from Dali's "Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea ...". It transforms from a techy, pixelated visual of Abramham Lincoln to a portrait of Dali's wife, Gala. The lowercase "a" equals quiet, confident leadership. It shares the pixel metaphor. The typeface, Didot, is classic with elegant serifs, doubling down on the human side of acumenity, contrasting with the hard pixels of tech. Nascent green represents freshness and inventiveness. Animation shows transformation of a brand from colors and fonts to a community customers who exist within. It's a brand you can become a part of. The cryptic nature of the pixels draws people in and inspires them to ask questions, opening up the conversation to the process and the nature of how acumenity builds communities out of pixels. This brand story is an essential tool to tie in to the visual and verbal of the brand. This tool enables effective communication of the brand promise to deliver something well beyond technology.

The Result

acumenity came away with a solid framework of a brand: value proposition, positioning statement, a visual device including a logo, and a brand story that explains the acumenity brand promise. Which they leveraged to win a major partnership with Intuit which enabled them to build their signature CRM product called Cinch.