Why to Rebrand Your Business
I do a lot of branding and rebranding work for all kinds of businesses. And part of the discussion is the question “should we invest money now to do this?” The purpose of creating a new identity is not change for the sake of change. Businesses outgrow their old identities, and they need to represent themselves in new ways to the world. Often, the rebranding is part of a larger push (like this project I did) into more professional marketing execution. As a brand grows, the way they show up for current and potential customers needs to keep pace. The cliché about “what got you here won’t get you there” is often true when it comes to marketing. So rebranding is a way to keep the business moving forward.
I first met Frank Overton in person at the SBT GRVL race in Steamboat Colorado. But I’d known about him as a coach for many years before that. I always liked his point of view, his podcast, and his straightforward training principles. So I was excited when he asked me to help him create a new set of assets and marketing point of view for his business, FasCat Coaching.
We started by talking about what the brand stands for. At FasCat, that means, sharing our knowledge to help you go faster on the bike. That “sharing” part of it is really important. While there are other coaching services that help you get faster, Frank has gone out of his way to build a popular podcast and a new pro gravel team that will travel the country riding in events and sharing their knowledge with participants
Once we articulated the why of Frank’s business, we engaged designer Ben White to help bring FasCat to life visually. We started with the word mark to visually express what the brand stands for. Then we extended that look to all the places we’d use it: website, team kit, van, social media, ads, etc.
The existing FasCat identity had served Frank well until this point, but he needed a more contemporary look that communicated his values across many different touch points.
With the new identity finished in various versions, it was time to apply the look to other things. The new gravel team is an exciting outreach concept for a coaching business, and the athletes on the team come from the FasCat staff. All of the FasCat coaches previously raced at the professional level on the road or in MTB. And they all love to ride gravel. So he has the core of a very strong team built into his business. In addition, FasCat has partnered with a bunch of brands: Cervélo, Excel Sports, Panaracer, Pearl Izumi, Gu, Normatec, and HED. The partners can work with the team and also gain exposure to Frank’s massive community of cyclists & customers. We used the new branding to create a visually strong collaboration for all of the brands we’re working with. The mountain profile skyline design element we used on the kit and the back of the van comes from an actual Strava ride in the Boulder area.
After this it was time to spruce up the website. While we’ve not yet done a complete rebuild, we did create new home page images that match the energy of everything else. We turned to Spark6 to help put this together.
The point of all this is to get the whole ecosystem aligned, so FasCat is speaking in one voice, no matter where you see them. For instance, the gravel team will be setting up a booth at gravel events with a kind of genius bar to answer training and racing questions from participants. And this totally fits with the “sharing” part of the mission statement. Here’s what the booth set up will look like:
The new branding will carry FasCat forward for the next few years. At some point, it will need to be updated again, but for now they have a platform on which to grow their business and inspire more current and potential customers.
