BRAND STRATEGY

Changing Stakeholder Perceptions with Strategic Rebranding

Helping RSG transition from regional player to statewide force

"The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine and reset our world."

Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum

THE CHALLENGE

RSG is a 40-year-old community development consulting firm serving public agencies and developers in over 100 cities and counties in California each year.

After successfully navigating the pandemic with employees working mostly remote, RSG saw an opportunity to rethink how to best serve its stakeholders and grow its business.

A strategic decision made to decentralize operations, reallocated resources from the Southern California headquarters to strategically placed offices across the state.

RSG needed help rebranding to reflect their increased state-wide capacity and a marketing campaign to communicate the change to stakeholders.

We knew that to effectively leverage this opportunity, we needed to develop messaging that would challenge stakeholders' established perception of RSG

THE PROCESS

We approached this challenge by first focusing on the core beliefs of internal and external stakeholders. Brand strategy workshops with leadership and employees were conducted focused on a 360 mapping of the company’s stakeholders and assessing the impact of the proposed change.

We employed process mapping tools to identify key touchpoints and decision points of public agencies and developer customers. Then conducted research to understand the psychological and behavioral drivers of RSG's customers and developed detailed benefit statements aligned with each stakeholder group's core needs.

By analyzing behavioral patterns and the decision-making processes, we identified local market understanding as a key driver in selecting a community development partner. This insight led to our strategic positioning of RSG's distributed workforce to highlight the competitive advantage.

THE IMPLEMENTATION

Armed with a unique positioning statement, we employed mind-mapping and brand storyboards to develop a tagline and messaging strategy that highlighted geographic dispersion as an important competitive advantage.

EMBEDDED IN THE COMMUNITIES WE SERVE

To communicate the new messaging to stakeholders, we executed a targeted marketing communication strategy. This included specialized presentation materials for municipal audiences that emphasized local knowledge and commitment, updating their website with new content, creating social media and digital content, and developing collateral materials. A reimagined trade show strategy, improved messaging, and increased flexibility of exhibit materials while prominently conveying the new messaging

THE IMPACT

With new messaging and increased visibility, RSG successfully reshaped stakeholder perceptions to achieve recognition as a true statewide presence.

Increased visibility with public agencies, highlighting its ability to serve geographically dispersed clients, expanded its market reach into previously untapped regions across California.