Story in brief:
This merger of two strong entities became a Fortune 500 company, managing $58 billion. Nicholson's goal: retain the fraternal commitment to the U.S. Lutheran community, yet express both emotional appeal, and new strength as an player equal to any in financial services.

Credits:
C.E.O. - Bruce Nicholson
Naming and identity design -Futurebrand

First Impressions:
The name and symbol are both winners.

Nicholson's comment on naming is memorable: "I’ve long wondered why all the new companies I read about seem to have ‘made-up’ names. Now I know why, firsthand! In the difficult and intensive process of finding a new name for our merged organization, we found an outstanding one – but only after we discovered that more than 90% of the nouns in the English language are already taken, and the other ten percent are virtually unusable. That’s why you and I read about companies named Lucent, Accenture and Dynegy… and now Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.”

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