Proudly, a Veteran-Owned Business
NEP Group
A naming and messaging project with entertainment giant for key products in their ecosystem.
Client
NEP
Date
Jan - Mar 2022
Role
Agency Partner
Website
Contributors
Chuck Granade
Business, Account Strategist
Pete Gade
Brand, Content Strategist
Bobby Hougham
Executive Creative Director, TNB
Sevrin Daniels
Executive Creative Director, TNB
Relationship Summary
We spearheaded a consulting engagement for NEP Group, focusing on brand strategy and product naming to support their imminent go-to-market initiatives. Our approach began with in-depth market research, client input sessions and virtual naming workshops, laying the groundwork for a robust brand platform.
We conducted comprehensive brand audits, analyzed market landscapes, and explored industry dynamics to inform our strategy. The resulting NEP Brand Platform articulated the brand's essence, defining tone, voice, and top-line messaging. This foundation guided the development of a naming system for ten priority products, ensuring alignment with NEP's brand vision and market positioning. Our work extended to conceptual treatments for NEP's three main operating segments and a light brand refresh, including updates to style guides and key sales templates. Throughout the process, we maintained a delicate balance between innovation and practicality, delivering a strategic framework that positioned NEP for success in their product launches and beyond.
NEP Brand Platform Slide
Market Research & Client Inputs
Our approach combined rigorous analysis with strategic foresight, ensuring that our findings would serve as a solid foundation for NEP's product launch strategy and long-term brand positioning. By synthesizing competitor insights with broader market trends, we aimed to identify unique opportunities for NEP to differentiate itself and reinforce its leadership position in the media technology space.
Competitive Audit
We identified and analyzed four key competitors in NEP's space, examining their market positioning, targeting strategies, brand tonality, and product offerings. This evaluation encompassed both strategic and creative perspectives, assessing visual identity, creative expression, and consistency across marketing efforts.
Market Research
Recognizing NEP's position as a global leader in a complex and evolving industry, we conducted a high-level analysis of category dynamics. This assessment built upon NEP's existing research, providing a comprehensive view of the broadcast, live events, and entertainment sectors.
Pinpoint NEP's ideal customer personas
Ensure alignment with NEP’s business objectives to resonate with broader cultural trends, positioning NEP to stand for something greater than its products alone.
Identify unique opportunities
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Establish key filters and brand touchpoints
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Brand Development and Creative Platform
we integrated creative exploration with strategic development, ensuring that our conceptual ideas had real-world applicability. Our process involved a comprehensive review of existing materials, including existing business strategies, GTM plans, stakeholder inputs, and market research.
Creative Platform Development - "Big Idea"
Following the strategic groundwork, we moved into the development of a unifying creative platform, or "Big Idea." This concept serves as more than a tagline or creative direction; it's the distillation of NEP's strategic platform and guiding principles into a potent, telegraphic expression.
Our process involved:
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Developing three distinct Big Ideas, each tailored to support Broadcast Services, Live Events, and Virtual Studios
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Creating comprehensive idea platforms for each concept, including:
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A core idea or thematic line
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A concise idea narrative
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Visual and tonal reference materials (akin to a production treatment)
These Big Ideas were designed to be evergreen, informing and guiding all brand expressions while maintaining brand integrity across diverse applications.
The final selected direction will serve as the guiding framework for all subsequent brand and messaging activities, ensuring consistency and impact across NEP's portfolio of 10 products as they go to market.
Brand Expression
Working in an agile fashion, we will have already begun directional ideation for the building blocks of your core brand expression. Working directly off the brand platform, we will now take our early creative thinking and brand taxonomy to articulate the storytelling platform for NEP, translating our brand strategy into a creative concept that will guide efforts across NEP's brand touch points.
Product Naming:
As a first step, and in tandem with further developing the Big Idea and Visual Brand Identity, we will begin an accelerated but still rigorous naming exploration which would include the development of filters for name generation:
Pragmatic considerations: ease of pronunciation/spelling, defensibility,
ownability, clarity, applicability to business offerings, competitive &comparative noise.
Strategic considerations: fit with brand strategy, impact on target audiences, sales enablement, differentiation from landscape, tonality
CREATING A COHESIVE VISUAL IDENTITY & SCALABLE NAMING STRATEGY
Brand Identity Development
Upon alignment on the core "Big Idea," we initiated the Brand Identity development process, running concurrently with other creative activities. This phase involved:
1. Collaborative engagement with the NEP team to ensure alignment throughout the process
2. Application of initial design thinking to foundational brand elements
3. Meticulous attention to detail, ensuring each aspect of the brand experience contributes to a cohesive, strategy-driven identity
4. Creation of an enduring brand foundation capable of supporting NEP's refreshed market presence
Our approach focused on developing a visual identity system that not only reflected NEP's strategic positioning but also provided flexibility for future growth and adaptation across various product lines and market segments.
Brand Architecture and Naming Strategy
Recognizing the complexity of NEP Group's product portfolio and go-to-market strategy, we developed a comprehensive brand architecture and naming framework.
This process encompassed:
In-depth analysis of NEP Group's existing product lineup and market positioning Integration of market research findings and creative insights to inform the naming strategy.
Development of a scalable architecture capable of accommodating the 10 new products and future additions. Creation of a unified creative platform to ensure consistency across product names
Our naming process involved multiple rounds of brainstorming sessions, followed by rigorous evaluation to ensure:
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Ownability: Assessing market noise and potential conflicts
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Digital presence: Evaluating availability across digital and social media channels.
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Legal viability: Conducting preliminary USPTO searches for all finalist names.
This comprehensive approach to brand architecture and naming strategy aimed to provide NEP with a robust framework for current product launches while maintaining flexibility for future expansion and market evolution.
If you're looking for brand identity and naming experience, I've got this.
LEVERAGING DIVERSE EXPERTISE TO DRIVE INNOVATION AND GROWTH
So, Who is CRRNT, Anyway?
CRRNT is a boutique consultancy born from decades of interdisciplinary excellence across gaming, entertainment, outdoor lifestyle, and emerging brands.
Our strength lies helping brands modernize, pivot, go-to-market, innovate, and grow. We’ve got deep digital marketing roots, a healthy mix of consulting fueled by a passion of applying immersive technology to creative ideas, products, and solutions for underserved communities. We build businesses and create solutions to thrive in the future.
Experience Highlights:
Chuck (pic right) is CEO of The New Blank as part of our Venture Studio
Decades of experience across gaming and entertainment
We use a fully remote, distributed resourcing model
Veteran-owned small business
OUR MISSION
We’re in the Business of
Building Businesses ™
With nearly half of the US GDP tied to small and mid-market businesses, fulfilling dreams of building businesses doesn’t happen on a playground - it’s on a battlefield.
CRRNT exists to accelerate those dreams.