The RIA industry has seen unprecedented growth and M&A activity. With this rapid level of change, it’s only natural that more firms are exploring changes to their corporate identities or even totally new brands. The road to a rebranding can be a massive, expensive undertaking, but if done right, it can not only raise your firm’s profile in a crowded marketplace, but also clarify exactly what value you offer to clients and prospects.

About a year ago, our new firm was forged when Bronfman Rothschild was acquired by Sontag Advisory, and after the deal we undertook the daunting task of identifying a new brand strategy for two newly combined but well-established RIAs as they came together. How would that look? Would we refresh an existing name, or start with something new? In the process, we learned many valuable lessons about forging an identity in the independent advisor space.

Just What Is Your ‘Brand’?
We all absorb elements of branding as we move through daily life in our culture. It’s more than a logo, more than a slogan, more than a color palette. A brand is truly the full measure of who you are and how you choose to convey yourself to the world. It has visual aspects, includes written or spoken language, or even things as granular as your body language or your “tone of voice.” Some aspect of it should be present in everything a client or prospect experiences: in your onboarding documents, your everyday e-mail messages, your client appreciation events—it’s even reflected in your office space.

With this in mind, how do you know what brand will work for your firm? While it’s important to create something that resonates with others, it should also be “authentic” and credible. If you take some time to think through an identity that resonates with you or talk to a few of your closest clients and colleagues, they will also likely find that confusing and artificial brands are easily spotted.

The other key to a strong, well-executed brand is consistency. If you have a fabulous website and snappy new logo, the things that make them stand out should be present elsewhere. This is why you hear experts say you should “live the brand”—it means there should be an element of your unique personality in all key communications.

Does Your RIA’s Image Need To Be Refreshed?
Before pursuing a potentially challenging and expensive initiative to remake yourself, consider what your current “brand” really is. Chances are you haven’t thought about it in depth before, and it may have developed gradually over time. You can get a handle on it with a few questions:

• Does the language on your website match how you communicate your value to prospects and new clients?

• What consistencies exist across your client experience? Are those consistencies apparent within 60 seconds of reading any of your marketing materials?

• If you were to ask clients why they like working with your firm, would you be surprised by the response?

• Does the look and feel of your client materials convey the personality of your firm’s culture?

These questions get at the heart of the “why” statement around rebranding: If the message you send to the marketplace doesn’t match who you really are and it doesn’t set you apart, it might be time to consider changes.

Brand Strategy Review: Leave No Stone Unturned
Given the importance of a brand being built on your organization’s unique qualities, it shouldn’t be too surprising that the road to a new strategy starts with a thorough investigation of who you are. It can be tempting to skip over the discovery, either because you think you already have a good handle on who you really are, or you’re excited to get to the fun, visual part of the rebranding process. But this oversight can ultimately lead you to a brand that looks and sounds great but isn’t truly credible, or one that your team does not totally buy into.

When Wealthspire Advisors began its own discovery, we included the following data points:

• Interviews with firm leadership, advisors and other staff in various geographies;

• A review of similar firms and how they communicate their value;

• Online surveys and in-person discussion “forums” for all employees that allowed all to weigh in on our identity and best traits for brand expression; and

• Client feedback, either through interviews or surveys.

Focus Groups And Brand Strategy
While you gather feedback, I recommend you also form a working group to discuss and prioritize the results. The group that worked on our brand launch came from varying backgrounds and roles within the firm. The thought diversity provoked excellent discussions.

Even with such a dedicated group, it can be challenging sorting through the findings. Once you have data and feedback, what do you choose to incorporate into the new image? For us, this is where a professional brand consultant was most valuable. We worked with Grafik, and they were instrumental in pointing us in the right direction.

Our working group found it helpful to boil down data and feedback into overarching observations about our firm’s core traits. Here are just a few examples from our exercise:

• Our people are our greatest asset.

• Many of us feel driven by a higher purpose.

• We believe our team-oriented approach is powerful and distinctive.

• Our size and scale present tremendous advantages for everyone.

• A shared vision for the future of the firm will guide us forward to great things.

Once we agreed to those, we discussed whether we needed a new name or wanted to work with the existing names. We also created a list of “adjectives” that described our real personality.

Ultimately, the working group decided to embrace a new name. The team felt strongly that our work and brand had a certain “calling” to it. We enjoy coming to work every day to help others improve their financial lives, and we identify with an “aspirational” quality of continual improvement to serve our clients.

It was from this consensus that “Wealthspire Advisors” emerged as our new identity.

The Process
The creative stage of the branding process could take up an entirely separate article. We work in an analytical industry, yet many of us are far more creative than we give ourselves credit for, and it is enjoyable to see a working group of financial advisors and investment professionals discuss their ideas.

While rebranding, I picked up a few rules of thumb:

• Avoid change for the sake of change. If you like an element of your current brand, there is no reason it has to go away. Incorporating legacy brand elements can even create a sense of consistency for employees and clients. When we took the name Wealthspire Advisors, we observed that the colors of the two legacy brands were remarkably similar and well-liked, so we stuck with them.

• Consider the ramifications of new creative elements. Think of what it means to change font files and colors. How easily can new fonts be installed for your employees to use? If you are happy with your current print shop, what colors do they recommend? If you do not have a graphics expert in house, a brand consultant can usually help you with these aspects.

• Be mindful of how your new brand is added to your website. You may need a completely new website, or the one you have may be in fine shape and just need to be “reskinned” or have the new brand styling applied to it. Just keep in mind that brand is more likely to show up in styling and language than it is in website layout, so a reskinning may be a good way to save money on rebranding if you are happy with the structure of your current layout.

Implementation And Launch
This stage is where the rubber hits the road—now you must take your new brand concept and apply it to every aspect of your firm. You know that the strategy and creative design phases will take time. But so will the rollout, which will likely be underestimated in terms of time and effort. In theory, this stage requires you to change, adjust or update almost every document or digital platform your firm uses. You must give yourself a cushion of time, allowing for hiccups, and be sure that your marketing team or creative agency has sufficient support.

This is also the time to plan for your new brand’s eventual launch. Will you want to host a client event to introduce it to your clients? Would a small gift make sense for clients or employees? While we were rolling out our own rebranding, we decided to provide a window of time for advisors to share the new brand personally with their clients, and we were happy we did. Your clients will have many different reactions and feelings of investment in your new public identify. An event keeps them in the loop before your launch while also allowing you to get some feedback from them before you share it with the broader public.

Where Next After Launch?
Once you launch your new brand, take the time to celebrate and thank everyone involved. Keep in mind that your launch does not mean the completion but rather the start of your new brand’s evolution. As time passes, you will see what resonates best about your new personality, and it will likely grow and change as your company grows and changes.

Along the way you’ll encounter frustrations and challenges that make you wonder why you started this in the first place. But when all is said and done, going about a rebrand the right way could make a meaningful difference in how you are able to communicate what you do every day, and this could have a lasting impact on your clients, prospective clients and the members of your team.

Jill Cockerham is the senior vice president and director of marketing and communications at Wealthspire Advisors in New York City.