What's In a Name? World Trade Center Anchorage rebrands as Alaska International Business Center.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Date: 01 March 2024

Since its inception in 1987, World Trade Center Anchorage has been known by both its original name-World Trade Center Alaska--and by the Anchorage moniker that it was required to adopt a decade ago. This year marks one more name change for the organization that it hopes will better represent the breadth of services it provides to Alaska and beyond as the Alaska International Business Center (akIBC).

"Every year, we take a look at whether the World Trade Center (WTC) brand is serving us as well as it could--sort of a cost/benefit analysis--and this year, for multiple reasons, we felt that it was time to rebrand to help us grow from our existing base," explains akIBC President and CEO Greg Wolf.

"When we talked to prospective businesses, we found that they often believed that the WTC brand was only for import/export businesses, and if they didn't provide those services, it held them back from joining," he says. "While we do offer import/export advice, in recent years we've added a much broader range of services."

When the parent WTC organization required the Alaska branch to change its name from WTC Alaska to WTC Anchorage ten years ago, Wolf felt that it hampered the group's efforts to attract members statewide. "Public perception is that we're just an Anchorage group, and that sometimes doesn't play well in the rest of the state," he says.

For this and a number of other reasons, the organization publicly announced the name change on November 17, 2023, a change that Wolf says was well-received.

"Our members stuck with us universally, and we've had great support from the business community and others," he says. "The day we announced it, I received twenty emails saying 'Congratulations,' 'Great move,' 'We support you,' 'We want to help you grow,' and more."

According to Paul Johnson, who has been a member of the center since 2008, the rebranding better reflects what akIBC does. "Branding is important, and the new name reflects that the akIBC Is an independent organization focused on Alaska," he says. Johnson owns Highliner Consulting Group, which provides strategic and business planning services, knowledge management, and business valuations.

"The previous name was starting to limit our ability to grow, and the new brand more accurately reflects the variety of Information and services we provide," adds Wolf.

Far Beyond Import/Export

With the name change, akIBC's goal Is to let more people--in Alaska and across the world--know about the breadth of services it provides.

While akIBC continues to offer import/export trade services to help Alaskans find markets for the products they sell, It is only one of the services they offer. "Exports are very Important to the Alaska economy, as many...