Kemper

New:  Name and visual identity

Launched:  Name announced August 15, identity August 25, 2011

Story in brief:
Rarely does a business fail, while its name retains enough positive equity to attract an acquirer.   Kemper,  a once solid, nationally-known commercial insurer ran into financial difficulties during 2002 after new management took it into new areas of business "which performed very poorly," according to Wikipedia. "As a mutual company, it was limited in its ability to raise new capital and eventually failed to do so. The company stopped writing new policies and entered runoff," hence Unitrin (a 1990 spin-out from the breakup of Teledyne) bought Kemper's personal insurance businesses (life, home, auto) for which it leased the Kemper name.

Having no love for "Unitrin," a cold and artificial construction, Unitrin's leaders began to see in "Kemper" a stronger brand platform for the kind of company they now envisioned – no longer a holding company, now a unified insurance provider, and potentially a powerbrand.  Said CEO Donald Southwell, "Since the Kemper acquisition, we have looked for opportunities to leverage the value of the Kemper brand throughout our organization. When we had the opportunity to purchase the name outright in mid-2010, we jumped on it.  The Kemper name fits who we have become as a company.  It allows us to bring together all of our approximately 7,000 employees under one banner.”

For over a year, Unitrin worked with Lippincott consultants (led by strategist Michael D'Esopo) to explore, plan, design and stage its rebranding.  There will be a relatively rapid (another year) transition of all Unitrin-branded businesses to monolithic Kemper signatures, backed by significantly higher brand advertising.

Lippincott's design team, directed by Brendán Murphy, provided a strongly-colored symbol-dominant logo — a folded-plane K monogram plus an authoritative all-caps wordmark.

“We view our rebranding as an investment in the company,” said Dennis Vigneau, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. “Over time we expect to see benefits in terms of overall growth and increased shareholder returns.”
 

Credits:
C.E.O. - Donald Southwell
Identity planning & design - Lippincott;
strategist Michael D'Esopo, creative direction Brendán Murphy

First Impressions:
Strategy:  I am biased. As an old Kemper customer, I was disconcerted when I was sold to Unitrin, so now  I'm pleased to be restored to Kemper.  But by any standard, as a distinctive personal name "Kemper" is a far stronger foundation on which to build a trust-intensive service business than abstract "Unitrin." This rebranding is smart and strong.
Design:  My first impression is "manilla envelope" but so what? That's not inappropriate, and anyway it's  clean and kool.  (Krafty?)

Other Comments:
So Unitrin bought and (2011) became Kemper
Precedents include:
1999:  Allied Signal bought and became Honeywell
2000:  Chemical Bank bought and became Chase
2005:  Southwestern Bell bought and became AT&T
 

Corporate Brand Matrix ratings:  
0% structural,  90% strategic,  10% functional (est.)