Insperity | Taking it to the streets

On March 3, 2011, the Administaff family gathered to celebrate 25 years of success and a new beginning as Insperity. Some members of the Addison Whitney-Insperity team were lucky enough to attend and witness this magical evening.

Picture this – Minute Maid Park home of the Houston Astros, deep in the heart of Texas, buzzing with the excitement of more than 3,000 people. As we all filed into seats along the third baseline, we were met with an incredible program. Hosted by new Insperity spokesman Jim Nantz, it featured a conversation with Steve Forbes and presentations by company leadership. Saying the presentation by Chairman and CEO Paul Sarvadi was inspiring and energizing just does not do it justice. He passionately talked about the company’s evolution over the past 25 years and his vision for the years to come. This new vision coupled with the new corporate identity was unveiled in 3D – yes, thousands of guests put on branded 3D glasses for the unveiling.

The night featured an amazing spread of food, dancing and festivities. As we headed out to left field to get our souvenir – an Insperity-branded box filled with mementos celebrating the company’s history – Michael McDonald took the stage to cap off the night.

Often times when our clients launch new brand strategies or corporate identities, we do not get to witness the excitement of the event. So being able to attend was very special for our team. Every detail of this event and the Sales Convention happening at the same time were so well thought-out and very impressive including the signs, stage lighting and the entire color palette – all of which changed overnight.

To borrow something we overheard employees saying that night: here’s to Insperity – cheers!

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Insperity | Laying the Strategic Foundation

The extensive market research conducted among internal and external audiences helped provide critical insight to help drive both brand architecture and brand positioning recommendations.

Addison Whitney worked closely with various business units to understand the existing brands, their key challenges, and how each could support the Administaff corporate brand. Like many B2B companies, a mostly master branded strategy was ideal due to the efficiency and ease of managing one main brand versus many standalone brands.

Once the organization of the corporate brand was clearly outlined, Addison Whitney began developing the Administaff brand positioning. It’s important that a brand positioning be believable and compelling. Looking back at the research, Addison Whitney correlated compelling to attribute importance ratings and believable to attribute performance ratings. The recommended positioning strategy defined Administaff as the trusted advisor who provides business performance solutions to guide clients toward success.

To help the Administaff team communicate the brand positioning to target audience groups, Addison Whitney developed targeted messaging for both clients and prospects. These messaging guidelines will ensure consistency in communication – one of the most critical parts of brand management.

In addition to driving the brand architecture and brand positioning, one more finding came from the market research. With minimal brand awareness among prospects and incorrect brand associations, it became clear that a corporate identity change would set Administaff up for future success. This decision was not taken lightly by the Administaff team. Nearly 25 years of hard work had built the Administaff brand, and it was time to set a new, strong foundation for the next 25 years of success.

Next step…corporate name and tagline.

(Please note: Administaff is now Insperity. You can find them on the web at insperity.com)


Insperity | Gathering New Insights

When Administaff first approached Addison Whitney in late 2008, it was experiencing strategic challenges similar to many of our clients. In recent years, the company had grown through acquisitions and product development, creating a need to redefine who it is (brand positioning) and how its brands relate to one another (brand architecture).

Founded in 1986, Administaff pioneered the Professional Employer Organization (PEO) industry. The PEO provides small and medium-sized businesses with HR services, including payroll, benefits and administrative support, so that these businesses can better compete for employees and remain compliant with state and federal regulations. As the company grew so too did the types of services it offered.

Through acquisitions and internal product development, the scope of Administaff’s services expanded. Administaff now had to manage not only its own changing corporate brand, but also to develop a strategy for integrating new product/service brands.

Strong market research is critical to developing a compelling and differentiated brand strategy. Addison Whitney’s market research team worked closely with the Administaff team to develop a thorough research plan that would gather insight from internal and external target audience members.

In-depth interviews are a great way to gather detailed insight. First, in-depth interviews were conducted among key Administaff team members to learn about challenges and to help drive the brand process. Then, in-depth interviews with members of the external audience (customers and prospective customers) were conducted. Both of these studies helped the Addison Whitney team develop the survey instruments for quantitative studies with employees and external audience members, which were both conducted online. The employee and external studies were designed to closely align with one another in order to show perceptual gaps.

Using both qualitative (in-depth interviews) and quantitative (online surveys) methodologies to evaluate external audience perceptions, Addison Whitney was able to identify unmet needs and areas in which Administaff out-performed competition.

Having strong, detailed and quantifiable data is important to drive strategic decision making and to support the proposed brand positioning and architecture. This multi-layered research design was important for the Administaff team and critical to the next step in the process, brand strategy.

(Please note: Administaff is now Insperity. You can find them on the web at insperity.com)


Introducing Insperity

Insperity

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For those of you who have been following our recent tweases (Twitter teases) noted by our hashtag #AW3095, you already know the news. For everyone else, it’s our pleasure to introduce Insperity, formerly Administaff.

Addison Whitney has been working with the Insperity team since February 2009 and is so proud of its team’s hard work throughout the process, and especially at the launch some members of our team were lucky enough to attend.

We are excited to begin our Insperity series to highlight the key steps from throughout our more than two year relationship with the Insperity team. Throughout each post we will give you some insight into things we learned or just fun facts from each phase.

Here are some headlines to get you excited and coming back for a double dip of Brand Salsa.

- Market Research – gathering key insights from current and future customers
- Brand Strategy – who are we and what to do with all of these offerings and brands
- Verbal Branding – farewell Administaff, hello Insperity
- Visual Branding – Insperity’s new look and feel
- Brand Rollout – dancing in the streets of Houston
- What Makes a Great Project Team – we’ll tell you because we worked with a fantastic one at Insperity

Stay tuned!