Professional services firms are often the hardest to position as the brand walks out the door each night. For BearingPoint, we helped create a brand strategy and new identity to celebrate its 19,000 people, lay claim to the organization’s results and differentiate around approach.

Situation

BearingPoint is a business and IT consulting company delivering customized technology and infrastructure solutions, with 17,000 employees and operations in 41 countries. Since its days as KPMG Consulting, BearingPoint had always struggled to communicate clearly what its teams of consultants can do, and now the company was facing a third year of media criticism for high attrition rates (as high as 27% in 2006), and unresolved accounting and systems issues. To make matters worse, they were also the subject of a number of class-action suits.

Solution

We stepped up to rethink how the company communicates. Rather than pin an advertising tagline onto the firm to aid with recognition, we developed a more assertive red square logo and linked to it a clear business descriptor (Management & Technology Consultants) that is literally inseparable from the logo on business cards, advertising, Web sites and all customer communications.

The new logo is supported by a secondary graphic system of square “windows” that play with the idea of transparency, to represent focus and interactivity. New standards for color, type and photography have resulted in robust and impactful communications. The result of all this is a first-class brand that is emblematic of a new day and new game, and the practical, measurable and sustainable results that will drive BearingPoint to the top of the industry again.