Merging brands to move business forward
Liquibase taps New Kind to develop a unified and flexible brand foundation
Background
Ride-sharing. Streaming media. Mobile banking. The apps and experiences defining our time are changing constantly. Rapid releases and continuous delivery is the only way to keep up with customer demands.
Any time a change is made to an application, the underlying database needs to change along with it. But databases weren’t designed for today’s high-speed, continuous integration and delivery world. That’s where database change automation from Liquibase comes in.
Industries: Database Software, Technology
Services: Identity System, Positioning, Rollout Strategy, Storytelling
Why New Kind?
When we needed expertise to launch our new brand into the world, New Kind was the clear choice. No firm comes close to matching their open source experience. They understand brand strategy for technology infrastructure companies—and the nuances of navigating enterprise and community brands. They delivered.
Dion Cornett
CEO, Liquibase
The Opportunity
Adopt a new name. Align the brands. Accelerate the business.
Datical came to us at a pivotal moment. Long the leading contributor to the Liquibase open source project, company leadership had decided to fully finally embrace these open source roots and adopt the Liquibase name.
Unifying as a single Liquibase brand—with one simple and powerful story and a refreshed visual identity—positioned the company for accelerated growth.
A change of this magnitude brought with it many strategic considerations, including:
- How to strike a balance between growing a business and nurturing a community.
- How to chart a new course while preserving the best of the Datical brand and culture
- How to make progress and iterate quickly without disrupting day-to-day operations.
The Datical team found in New Kind a partner with deep open source expertise and a comfort for building brand strategy at the speed of tech.
Story and Messaging
A story to resonate from the command line to the C-Suite
Discovery interviews with customers and internal stakeholders helped us identify gaps between what we say and what customers want—gaps our new story and message could bridge. Competitive messaging analysis highlighted areas where Liquibase could carve out a differentiated position in the market.
Following a full-day strategy workshop at Liquibase HQ in Austin, TX, it quickly became clear the new Liquibase story needed to resonate not only with business leaders, but with the increasingly influential developer audience, too. After all, software purchases finalized in the C-Suite often start with the dev teams who use the software every day.
For developers, Liquibase automates traditionally tedious, time-consuming work of database change. So they can stay in the flow of coding. Enabling companies to continuously deliver incredible experiences.
Breaking down roadblocks to releases. Creating happier, more productive teams. Helping the database drive business forward, not hold it back. A spirit we captured with Liquibase’s big brand message: Fast database change. Fluid delivery.
Visual Identity
Creating a new vision with the best of two worlds
Adopting the name Liquibase provided a well of inspiration for our visual system work. Following an open, iterative process allowed us to make progress fast. A quick succession of design explorations soon resulted in a new logo we named The Liquid Database.
With a subtle nod to the beloved Datical logo and a fresh take on the familiar database symbol, the logo honors the company’s past while bridging into a brighter future.
The broader visual system was designed to support Liquibase’s current and future product releases, using color and specific product logo-lockups to draw a clear line between community and enterprise offerings. We emphasized simplicity across all visual touchpoints to reflect the ease of use and value of Liquibase’s software.
Web Content Coaching
Bringing the new brand to life online
The final piece of our process involved taking the new Liquibase story and identity from the pages of the brand guidelines to the homepage of Liquibase.com.
We collaborated closely with both the Liquibase marketing team and their chosen digital partner, Glide Design, to prototype web content and design.
The Outcomes
The combined effort and focus on increasing affinity with developers and practitioners led to demonstrable results: Liquibase has been downloaded over 100 million times. New members have grown the active open source contributor community, and the company has launched a Liquibase University certification program to help them quickly become experts.
Furthermore, the company has rolled out liquibase.com for enterprise experience and liquibase.org for the community experience, helping it relate effectively to both audiences.