We partner with D&B to develop and manage their joint venture, endorsement and ingredient brand strategies and standards that build value in the corporate brand across world markets.

Situation

By 1999, Dun & Bradstreet had grown to be the leading global resource for essential business information, but the brand was mired in its paper-based, commodity data past. Business and marketing communications that featured a complex and confusing family of different product, service, discipline and business brands suggested an organization in disarray rather than a provider of unique business insight and expertise.

Solution

In 2000, the organization re-branded as D&B with a new logo and brand promise: Decide with Confidence. Rolling out a new corporate identity allowed D&B to clean house and simplify its brand architecture. The new architecture was built around four customer-focused competencies, helping customers and prospects better understand what D&B does and where D&B could help them improve business performance. Instead of investing in multiple evocative product brands, we established a straightforward, descriptive product naming strategy.

Over time, the architecture has been carefully expanded to include strategic co-brand and ingredient brand programs, as well as the D&B Worldwide Network — an alliance with regional market leaders who bring local expertise and market-specific solutions to D&B customers in 200 countries.

CoreBrand also worked to bring the new identity and brand personality together in a differentiating visual communications system that translates well across all print, environmental and Web applications. The modular shapes and bold colors reinforce the energy in the logo and dispel the perception of D&B as institutional and old-fashioned.