Mutare means change. After 30 years of serving clients as a large scale telecommunications integrator, Mutare embarked on its biggest challenge to date: change Mutare itself.

The company was founded on a clarion charge: change what the world expects from business communication. People should be able to choose how they connect and should be given access to technology that facilitates human interaction — even if a human is “unavailable to take your call.”

Today we have the products of Mutare’s vision: interactive voice response systems answer phones, voicemail inboxes are redundant, customers chat with enterprise teams via text, and message collaboration is HIPAA compliant. All of it built by forward-thinking entrepreneurs and developers.

Now Mutare wanted to transform their business and grow from a vendor into a brand. They wanted to expand their market, grow their offerings into products, sell to the c-suite, achieve record revenue, and establish an employee ownership plan. They needed to simplify and clarify who Mutare was, what it offered, and what it meant to its customers.

Mutare’s transformation began at their Chicago headquarters. Together, we examined company attributes and clarified ambitions. We outlined client and partner personas to get a deeper sense of Mutare's user community. And after the meeting, we validated that information with an additional nine hours of interviews and 50+ hours of industry research. We surveyed their partners, employees, as well as specific customers and analysed the results.

The data lead to three key insights. First, Mutare’s offerings were solid, but clients were reluctant to implement any new telecommunications infrastructure. We recommended a proprietary change management platform to facilitate the adoption of Mutare’s messaging technology. Second, Mutare’s key differentiator in the market was its commitment to personal relationships and service, which they would need to strategically scale as the company grew. Finally, the product portfolio at Mutare had become so overgrown that the core offering was no longer clear to customers or employees. A fundamental restructuring of its product line would be essential to gaining clarity in the marketplace.

New messaging and a streamlined product portfolio laid the groundwork for a comprehensive brand refresh that embraced Mutare’s reputation as transformational and people-focused. Marrow designed a new corporate identity alongside a dynamic visual language. The new assets allow Mutare to showcase not only it’s speech and text messaging services, but it’s simplicity and customization features as well.

A new website followed—custom designed and coded—with micro animations and expandability for a partner platform and product demonstrations. Stationery, business cards, PowerPoint and case study templates, as well as a new marketing brochure ensured Mutare’s partner network understood the brand’s unique position in the marketplace and could clearly communicate that to clients.

The updated brand was unveiled at Avaya Engage 2019 where it was enthusiastically embraced by clients and partners across the country. Mutare took bold first step in reimaging business communication (again) and helping the world "Get the message."