Unleashing the brand: a well-established tech firm starts at zero with new branding.

• Author: Madison, Rachel
• Position: At Task work front

In January, Lehi-based software-as-a-service company AtTask did something huge: It changed its name to Workfront. The decision to change the name of a company that's been around for more than a dozen years wasn't one company leaders took lightly.

"We knew this name change is something that would be disruptive for us," says Joe Staples, Workfront's chief marketing officer. "We're going from brand equity that we've built over the last 13 years down to zero when we change the name. That's why we needed to be bold." Through an intense, four-month process, the company totally revamped its name and logo, and revealed the new brand to the public on Jan. 22. Company leaders learned a great deal from the grueling process, and they share some of those lessons here:

(Re)Define the Brand

When Eric Morgan, CEO of Workfront, joined the company three years ago, the company was at a crossroads, he says. "When I joined the company, our opportunity in the market was to be a solution for larger enterprises, but we started on a journey at that point to really take our business in a new direction to serve the needs of larger business in larger enterprises," he says. "As we focused on larger organizations, our name became a bit of a detriment."

Morgan says the general perception of the company via the name AtTask was that it was a tactical, lower-end solution. "That was not at all true to who we are," he says. "We have a robust solution for companies like Disney and Nordstrom, and having a name with the word 'task' didn't fit who we were becoming." Because Morgan didn't want the company represented inappropriately in the marketplace, he decided to move away from AtTask.

Rebranding the company was a calculated, strategic decision. "We didn't just all of a sudden go, 'Wow, I just thought of a better name so let's change it,"' Morgan says. "You have to have a good reason, and when you do it for a good reason it can be very exciting and can get people rallied around it. If you do it for the wrong reason, you run the risk of people being tied to the old name and you have to work an uphill battle that way."

Staples adds that just coming up with a new name that's better than an old one isn't a good enough reason to change a company's name. "The list of reasons why you should change your name is pretty short," he says.

Commit to the Change

Once company leaders decided to change AtTask's name, they also made the decision to make it happen quickly. They didn't want to...