This is a follow-up to the April Fool’s Day post.
In this post, I unpack eNitiate‘s branding journey in the past 6 years.
When I had decided it was time to take a leap of faith into the entrepreneurship maze in 2008, coming up with the name of my new venture was no trouble, “it came to me in a dream”.
eNitiate Integrated Solutions
Find out more about our services on the Homepage, to gain understanding of the descriptor part of the name “Integrated Solutions”.
After this first branding step, coming up with a logo became a whole new challenge that was exacerbated by a tenuous balance between proper brand development (think time and money) and the need to hit the road running.
In a typical world of a start-up entrepreneur with limited resources and a BIG dream, the latter wins.
It was no different in my case.
This is how the journey unfolded.
Table of Contents
eNitiate's first logo
The year was 2008.
There is an interesting story – at least to me – behind how eNitiate‘s first logo was conceptualised, but this post is not the place.
I hope to tell the tale in my yet-to-be-written autobiography titled THE 1-MINUTE MAN.
To ensure I do not deviate from the topic of this post, I shall not say anymore about the book.
Suffice to say that I was happy to get going.
So, here is the logo that was used to launch eNitiate:
With business cards printed, I was feeling rather proud and ready to sell my business to all and sundry.
Thankfully, this logo did not last long.
eNitiate's second logo
The year was 2009.
Not everyone shared my pride in the first company logo (above), including a gentleman called Keith Mafu.
Keith offered to put his creative skills to work based on my short brief, and he came up with the logo that became eNitiate‘s visual brand representation for more than 5 years.
The 3 growth bars on top left have become a permanent feature of eNitiate‘s logo, and represent our promise – that we help brands to develop their digital footprint effectively, with the outcome being growth, as determined by their metrics such as Web traffic, reach, social media communities, engagement and leads.
Fulfilling this promise is important to us, hence we track, monitor and analyse ALL our digital content marketing activities using various online tools that measure the selected metrics above.
As time went on, this logo was adapted for application on different digital platforms.
In addition, the eN part of the logo was expanded to include words such as eNiversity, eNimation and eNivation to keep it relevant.
eNitiate's future logo - 2015
It has now been over 6 years since the founding of eNitiate.
I believe the business has paid its dues, and it is now ready to take full advantage of new opportunities as content marketing is increasingly gaining recognition in the business world.
Together with my team of eNitiaters, we have put in place solid growth plans for this year.
To be able to unlock the targeted growth, the need has arisen to take a fresh look at our business structure, leading to the breaking down of our company into 5 separate but interdependent businesses.
Our current core business – content marketing – is now called eNitiate Contently (written as content.ly).
Notice the upliftment of the logo’s design, making it distinctly simpler and cleaner?
The permanent feature – the 3 growth bars – is now owned by Contentl.y.
And the tagline?
Content that Counts
For clarity purposes, we have not changed our brand promise but we are now exploring the best and yet simpler way to communicate it.
Simplicity is key
My next blog in this series
I shall unpack eNitiate Visually (written as visual.ly) – our media content business, in the next post.
As for now no need to keep your ear to the ground, with the noise we intend on making, you will definitely hear us.
