Blue... what's in a brand?

REFLECTIONS ON BUILDING A BRAND FROM SCRATCH

In the early days of Blue Cottage, our small team thought a lot about our brand and the ideas that we wanted to put out into the world. We saw our emerging brand as a promise to the clients that we hoped to secure, the partnerships we were forming. From the very beginning it was clear that one of our differentiators was in how we formed relationships with and supported clients. And to this day, this is still one of the hallmarks of the Blue Cottage experience. In this article (click the link below to read), I’m writing a little about how I thought about brand in the early days and how that thinking has evolved as we’ve grown to a much larger firm. This is part III of the reflections this week, looking back at Blue Cottage 2009-2024…

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Although brand is much more than a logo/identity, we did spend an exorbitant amount of time coming up with both the name of the company and the identity artwork. I knew I wanted Blue in the name – a tip of the proverbial hat to University of Michigan and our ties to Ann Arbor, but also because I knew that shortlists for projects were often issued in alphabetical order and I wanted to be near the top. Blue Ocean Strategy was also an approach that we were following, so for all those reasons, Blue in our name was an easy decision. The second half was harder. We considered over 100 versions of Blue _____ Consulting.?

We planned a weekend retreat at my small cottage on Lake Huron for a few of us to sequester ourselves until the papal smoke emerged from the chimney and we could fill in the ____ and leave the cottage with a name. We discussed how the atmosphere of the cottage was the perfect place for this important exercise because when the stakes are high and you have a big decision to make, there’s no better place than a cottage to convene with people you trust. Cottages are beloved for many because they create space for deep conversation, for connection, and at times, for working through life challenges and giving yourself the time to focus.? And when we articulated all of these attributes and advantages of cottages, we realized that we had it! We didn’t need to have the retreat because we solved it – we’d call the company Blue Cottage Consulting in hopes that it would convey our desire to create the right space and time to focus to solve deep problems with people you trust.

Truthfully, there were many we liked better than Cottage, but all of them were taken either as business names or web addresses.?When we tested the name with potential clients (target market) most either loved it or hated it, with equal enthusiasm, so we knew we were on to something. Love it or hate it, people would probably remember it.

None of us involved in founding Blue Cottage had ever started a company. We laughed a lot about that in those early days and basically decided that we would approach everyone in our orbit with unbridled enthusiasm, unapologetic confidence, and unrelenting curiosity. We also would use our point of view as a differentiator. We believed in Healthcare for All and supported the ACA and Medicaid expansion when those topics were controversial (2008/2009). We were public health advocates and believed in healing environments, and that every patient deserved exceptional experiences and quality clinical care. We weren’t afraid to give an opinion in an industry where consultants often muttered “it depends” in response to difficult decisions. And we decided early on that there would be “no black boxes.” Whereas other top tier consulting firms weren’t offering transparency in how they built their analytical models and were handing over output but not the “secret sauce” of the algorithms behind their work, we’d be different by giving it all to the client. To us, anyone who put the time in could develop much of we were creating in our products – the difference was that most clients couldn’t put the time in, or didn’t have enough people on their teams with the talent to build these things. There was no reason not to share everything and even teach clients how to use our products.

We also made responsiveness and accessibility a huge part of our brand promise. This is not something that you can communicate in an ad or tell people that you do. The only way to do this is to do it – it’s a show, not a tell. I answer the phone – almost 24 hours/day, 7 days a week. I’ve never had a separate work phone – every client gets my personal cell and I welcome their calls. This extends beyond the project life. To me, one of our biggest differentiators was/is how we think about our clients. We answer their calls and texts because we care about their success like a friend cares about a friend in need. When we get an email about a potential project from someone who may want to work with us, we try to call them within 2 hours to talk about what they need. Responsiveness is a differentiator – but only because so many others, for a myriad of reasons, don’t answer their phones and don’t respond to their emails quickly.? This is low hanging fruit!? If you want to start a business, answer your phone.

I have so much to write about brand but I’ll end this article by saying that to me, how we act every day in interactions with one another, in the ways that we share our points of view, in our awareness of what’s happening in the greater context of a community or the world, and how we help our clients succeed, is how we communicate our brand promise. It’s not a statement on our website – it’s in the experience had by anyone who interacts with us. And we never stop thinking about it and never stop working on it. But even that level of awareness and persistence…that’s part of our brand!?

I’ve realized over my career that the best business advice is free to those who listen. You may need a consultant to help you map how to get from where you are to where you’re going, but your customers define your North Star destination in every interaction. They tell us what they need.? They tell us what they want. They tell us about the consultants on our team that they love most and can’t imagine doing a project without, and they tell us when the process may be more important than the product/deliverable. They tell us when alignment is more important than the outcome, when participation is most important, and when they need us to help navigate tricky political landmines. All of these things they tell us – there are business and growth opportunities in every conversation. When you make it your business to respond to your clients with a commitment that you’ll never let them fail and you’ll always tell them what your gut says with the same level of conviction that you tell them what the data says, that shapes your brand.?

When Blue Cottage joined CannonDesign in 2019, we considered changing the name. In the end, we decided together with CannonDesign leadership that the name mattered to our clients and our team. So we kept it!

This is part of our story - what happened for us - this is not meant to be business advice – it’s just sharing one company’s journey and reflections on fun and challenges along the way!