Xeneta Brand Transformation

Context and challenge

The brand belonged to freight, not to what Xeneta was selling

A stronger product and a revised commercial strategy were moving Xeneta upmarket, with higher pricing, larger contracts and more senior buyers. The identity it had was inherited from the category it sells into, so it read as a shipping business at the point it needed to read as the definitive source of market intelligence.

The identity had to establish authority and credibility at first impression, so the commercial team could confirm a position rather than argue for one.

Brand is the only thing operating in the market before there is a conversation.

My role

Positioning first, then design

I led the rebrand end to end, covering design strategy, identity and implementation across every touchpoint. The work started with positioning rather than design. I worked with the VP Marketing, VP Product, product marketing and the product teams to get clarity and define what Xeneta is and what it needed to be understood to be, then built the identity out of that.

MY Approach

Three jobs for the identity

Xeneta is not a freight company. It sells data and software into an industry that doesn’t buy much of either, and the identity it had belonged to the category it was selling into rather than the one it was creating.

I set the identity three jobs. It had to read as software rather than logistics, so that price and product were consistent. It had to carry credibility on sight, because when the data is the foundation of the value proposition, credibility is the first thing being judged. Lastly, it had to hold movement, because freight is a market in constant motion and Xeneta’s position is we are industry leaders on a mission to change how freight was bought and sold.