Cover Brand: Trendy Versus Timeless
What happens when the guy who spent twenty years building one agency ends up helping run one that's nearly a hundred people strong? In this episode, Ethan Decker sits down with Jason Clark, CMO of Tectonic, to talk about the rebrand that took his company from a dated, easily overlooked name to something that reads big, solid, and built to last. Jason walks through the thinking behind the name Tectonic, the moment he realized his old agency was too small to win the clients he wanted, and the difference between a rebrand that sticks and one that flops. Ethan brings the science behind why certain names and sounds just feel right, and the two dig into what it really means to separate your reputation from your logo. Expect sharp stories, some surprising brand science, and a couple of very memorable side trips into hair metal and Lebowski Fest. Great for founders, marketers, and anyone who has ever had to talk leadership into a rename.
Main Topics
Why Jason sold his twenty year old agency, and what losing a major pitch taught him about being the right size for the clients he wanted
The thinking behind Tectonic's name and rebrand, and why the goal was to sound big, solid, and a little bit vague on purpose
Little b brand versus Big B brand, and how much equity can get destroyed when a name or logo changes too fast
The physical, almost bodily science of why some words and sounds just feel right, and how that shapes how a brand is perceived
What separates a rebrand that actually clicks from one that flops, and why ego is usually the reason it fails
Links to Additional Resources
Tectonic, teamtectonic.com
Featured Cover: Jason Clark's vocoder and synth cover of Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls, available under his alter ego Angel of the Bottomless Pit on SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.com/angel-bottomless-pit/for-whom-the-bell-tolls-live
If you have ever had to talk a leadership team into a rename, or wondered why some brand names just sound right, this one is for you. Subscribe to Cover Brand for more, share this episode with someone who has sat through a brand strategy meeting that turned into a debate about fonts, and head to appliedbrandscience.com to dig further into the science behind the stories.
