Almost any marketing academic will tell you that rebranding a company is usually a bad idea — with a minefield of potential hazards to overcome. Number one of these is that after months of hard work the rest of the world doesn't give two hoots. Unless perhaps they're one of a select group who already care about your organization.
So, if you've read this far, I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume you already have a modicum of interest in Loadbalancer.org — either because you're a happy, existing customer, or because you're a prospective customer wanting to know if you've landed on the right website!! Well, the short answer is yes!! You are in the right place! And here's a picture of our old logo to reassure you:
Feel better? Me too. So. For the select few who are still with me (thank you!), here's why we bothered. And what it means for you.
So why is Loadbalancer.org going all out with a rebrand?!
Like many smaller B2B companies our old brand was focused on trying to look like our customers, and perhaps trying to give the impression of being a bigger organisation than we really are. However, we came to the conclusion that this previous 'look and feel' was at odds with our company's true personality. So although the path to a new brand is filled with potential pitfalls (!) we felt that it was important that our 'outer skin' was a more authentic representation of who we really are and what we stand for.
Having made the decision to rebrand, it was important we created something that was therefore a true reflection of who we really are as a collective family of weird, wonderful, passionate individuals, obsessed with uptime. To that end we conducted a series of surveys and interviews with senior stakeholders and staff to ensure we captured the true essence of who we are. It turns out, we're straight talking, funny, creative, knowledgeable, and contrarian, which is what visually underpins our new brand. So, without further ado...here it is!
Do you think it shouts straight talking, funny, creative, knowledgeable, contrarian from the rooftops? We hope so!
As a relatively small player in a market with some very large competitors, we also hope this new, more distinctive brand will help us standout in a crowded market — after all we have read Mr Sharp's famous red book ; ) .
People care about what we do and how we do it
However, we hope that over time our new brand will resonate with those who interact with our products and staff, and start to associate it with their experience. After all, our customers quite rightly care far more about what we do and how we do it. For example, do our products solve their problem? Does our support team help them get back on track when something unexpected happens?
We hope that by focusing our attention on our customers and their needs, with our own particular brand of enthusiasm, that we can continue to build on our reputation as providing value that extends far beyond load balancing, while still offering great Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) at the right price.
While it's great to look good (hey, we're not going to say 'no' to looking good ; ) ), we still have to continue to earn the trust of our customers and actually be good!!!
Our new product roadmap
In fact, apart from our new brand, 2023 will be a big year for Loadbalancer.org for many reasons.
New Portal
Kicking us off will be the launch of our new Portal — offering a way to centrally manage not just our own ADC appliances, but also other vendor's ADCs as well!
New products
Secondly, later in the year, we also expect to be shouting about some other really big product announcements!!!!!
New chapter
Although we are a small player, thankfully we are at least no longer a teenager (yuk!), as the launch of our revised brand happens to coincide with Loadbalancer.org celebrating its 20th anniversary. So, we hope we can at least say that our new skin reflects the evolution of the company as a whole over the last two decades, and hints at our vision for the next 20 years.
When we first started we were worried that some of the big corporations we worked with might be put off by our unique personality. We tried to blend in with everyone else and present ourselves in a way we felt the market expected. However, we are now fortunate enough to work with some pretty big partners, that are also increasingly disruptive in their own thinking.
We also have thousands of end users we sell load balancers to, and the human touch certainly seems to have gone a long way in reinforcing our ever-growing repeat business. They tell us time and time again that the reason they keep coming back is because of our personality, unique perspective, and because we offer a better fit.
It's definitely time to stand out and be proud of who we are, so I'm pretty stoked about 2023 and what we'll be offering our customers — from our own, unique perspective ; ).