Quality management is often seen as a corporate obligation. But what if quality could open up limitless strategic opportunity?
ETQ — for “Excellence through Quality” — thrived for 25 years on the strength and versatility of its core product, Reliance. Acquired in 2017 by growth-capital firm TCV, the company rebranded to signal strategic realignment and accelerating innovation — all designed to help extend its footprint and drive growth.
The rebrand was calibrated to launch in concert with significant upgrades to Reliance, and a restructuring of the product offering to support a consultative, solution-based sales process.
Duality executed a comprehensive research process, including:
• Qualitative research interviews with ETQ’s executive, technical and operational leadership
• Direct engagement with parent-company TCV’s leadership
• In depth, 1-on-1 conversations with a broad array of ETQ customers across industries
• Verbal and visual audits of key competitors
Informed by the research, the company’s new wordmark was created in bold, distinctive colors intended to establish a highly individual identity, setting the company apart from its visually homogenous competitive set. The new mark features an evolution of the original logo’s arrow motif, preserving but modernizing ETQ’s proud legacy.
In close collaboration with ETQ management, and drawing from research, Duality crafted a corporate messaging platform intended to elevate the standing of quality management in the industry. The multi-faceted messaging strategy is anchored by the new tagline: Quality Creates.
A comprehensive visual system was developed, extending the core elements of the new mark. The new system included primary and secondary color palettes, typographical families imagery guidelines and other visual language assets.
A well-informed and enthusiastic employee base was crucial to the success of the initiative. Duality worked with ETQ management to create brand Q&A’s, a brand vision book, comprehensive brand guidelines and other assets to educate and inspire the employees on the brand strategy in advance of the launch event.
Duality held multiple sales team briefings to define the intent, application and potential of each component of the messaging platform in the sales context.
Duality worked with ETQ’s marketing team to create an integrated system of assets that were deployed at the company’s annual user event, where the new brand was launched. These included a “Brand Essence” video, environmental elements like custom lighting and large format graphics, and other branded materials for distribution among attendees.
The new ETQ brand was launched at ETQ’s User Conference in October 2018 and will roll out worldwide throughout 2019.
