Introducing Kazolu

Changing a company’s name when your services remain fundamentally similar can be a tricky move, and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.

I recently did this myself anyway, shutting down a six-year-old brand identity. “Sociable Communications” became “Kazolu” overnight. I didn’t make the change lightly, and once the decision was done I moved as quickly as possible to switch over all public brand identity elements to avoid confusion - I wanted to make the conversion as quickly and fully as possible.

“Sociable” began its life as a virtual full-service marketing agency, and it did pretty well in that role. In 2009, there was a market for a consultancy that could corral third-party creative talent to deliver the services that more traditional full-service agencies provide. It was a good business model for a consultancy, but it is a very difficult model to “scale” since the core service provided was fundamentally delivered by one person – me.

Since 2009, the market for marketing services has continued to fragment, and I found myself working more closely with a few core competencies that delivered strategic planning, clear message-writing, and video production.

The good news (and no big surprise) was that these elements are of greatest interest to me. This is the stuff that really motivates me – taking really complicated concepts and making clear, concise communications to support them. Effective video productions require clear communications at their core – video works best when it is focused and simple – so that also made sense as an extension of my core deliverables.

The recognition that the core offering of “Sociable Communications” had shifted gave me the opportunity to redefine my professional identity in a manner that better reflected these services, and reflected myself better too. This brought about “Kazolu” – a fabricated word that relates to nothing, other than my business. Like my services, the word is simple, concise, and straightforward. It’s easy to share verbally, and it’s easy to type into a dot-com URL. And, it is rooted in something that is central to my personal identity (which I’ll keep a little bit private), but it is independent enough that it can apply to the business venture alone.

Taking a leap into a fundamental business change is daunting, and I didn’t get everything 100% right at launch because I felt that waiting for 100% to arrive might never happen. There is something to be said for swinging the bat, recognizing that your swing may not be perfect, but understanding that lessons learned quickly will allow for relatively quick course-corrections. Also, I’m not a big business, so few people are watching me anyway – any hiccups in the transition will matter infinitely more to me than they will to anyone else.

At the end of the day, my professional identity is now Kazolu. Rather than providing comprehensive marketing plans that are strategic and tactical, I provide ideas, writing, and visuals – strategy, communications, and video – which are much easier for me to deliver, and they are simpler services to scale. There is both art and science to delivering clarity – and it is a process that can be taught and shared. This is something I have a proven track record on – a distinct competitive advantage, and a much greater value to existing and future clients.

Would I recommend that a company change its name and its entire brand identity? It depends entirely on its situation – but most importantly it depends on the business owner’s comfort with the past, vs. their willingness and comfort to embrace change. If you are comfortable with the change, then chances are your customers will be too – and you might even gain new ones that respond to the new energy you have revealed.