Is that a new logo???
We talk a lot about Continuous Improvement. Our product reflects that with 1,500+ updates per year. We continue to offer our customers more and more. We continue to hire new people. More and more races continue to use us (thank you!). In short, lots of change!
We recently went thru a “branding exercise”. Peter Abraham helped us go thru the process of updating our understanding of who we are – looking at the market, our partners, our customers, and ourselves. It was really hard and really good (and we would encourage any race organization to think about doing the same thing).
Here are some pics from the 3 day exercise:
Out of that, came two key things (NOT the new logo – that came later!):
Our Mission
Elevate the endurance and fundraising communities with the art of technology.
Our Values
- Be Open
- Work Collaboratively
- Embrace Change
- Continuous Improvement
- Build for the Long Term
It is always easy to have a long list of 50 powerpoint slides, but distilling the very meaning of a company and community down to a few words is what made this exercise very difficult.
What was very reassuring is that the Mission is very close to the original mission statement we have been “running” on for almost 9 years – “The Running Community Uses our Web Services”. And our values fit right in with our Guiding Principles (which do not change):
Branding
Now we are in the process of updating the visual representation of our core mission and value. You can see an overview of this in this cool Adobe Spark document. You will soon see a new front end website, new email templates, new product features and of course a new logo (as seen at the top of this blog!).
It is important to have a strong brand that represents who a company really is. Employees, customers and partners need to be able to understand what the company is striving to do, so everyone keeps moving in the same direction. The power of a well defined brand is immeasurable, especially when it comes to word-of-mouth recommendations.
There are some major themes from the core of who we are that get represented in our new brand. We will be blogging more on this topic as we release our website, but there are several important themes:
Art of Technology – We have written about the Art of Technology. It is the very core of who we are and the value we bring to the endurance and non-profit community. Technology is totally unique and is a skilled craft. Our entire organization is set up to take feedback, distill it, and create great solutions that elevate events and bring communities closer together. Our updated website will reflect this with artistic photography and original artwork designed specifically for our community soon.
Complete and Open – The new circle-based logo represents these two things. We provide a complete solution to the endurance community for the entire race lifecycle from promotion to registration to fundraising to race day in an open manner so our customers can use the parts that fit their needs. We gather a community of partners around us with our Marketplace that helps our customers have open choice. And our business model of No Lock-In is becoming the standard, giving customers freedom to use the technology that benefits them the most.
Change – Technology is changing faster and faster and is having a larger and larger impact on the endurance and non-profit communities. We embrace and embody that. Our decision to totally change our logo is a visual reminder of that.
Build for the Long Run – Our employee owned company does not answer to investors – we answer to our customers, partners and ourselves. Our team is here because we want to stay here – building great Art that the endurance and non-profit communities can benefit from for decades to come.
