Hello, Goodbye (and other brand lessons)

Elvis changed as he grew. He went from gold lamé to black leather to white jumpsuits. He stayed Elvis throughout, with the same power to influence people, but he evolved.

The Beatles changed as they grew. They went from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” innocence to “Eleanor Rigby” introspection to “Strawberry Fields Forever” innovation. They stayed The Beatles throughout, with the ability to shape the perceptions of millions, but they evolved.

There’s a lesson to be learned here. Growth brings change.

The Martin Group has been going through a fair bit of change in recent years. We’ve expanded to Rochester, acquired Travers Collins and merged to form Martin Davison Public Relations. We acquired outstanding new relationships and worked our tails off to strengthen the ones we’ve had for years. And while we’ve remained The Martin Group throughout, we’ve evolved. So it was time for our brand identity to evolve as well.

The new Martin Group brand reflects who we are and where we’re headed…but how we started and where we’ve been is never far from our minds.

So we made our new brand simple to represent how we always work to uncomplicate a complicated business. We made it flexible because we will always be the agency that values the small business down the street as much as our largest clients around the country. And we made it understated to ensure the emphasis is on our clients’ brands and not our own.

In 1967, when they were at the absolute height of their powers and in the middle of the greatest change they would see as a group, The Beatles wrote “Hello, Goodbye.” It is a song about seeming contradictions—and brand is often a seeming contradiction of its own. The new Martin Group brand changes and still represents the core of who we are and what we promise to our clients.

We’re saying goodbye to our old identity, but hello to what we excitedly think will be many more years of growth.

We think we’ll look awesome in jumpsuits.