Rebranding Speeda: A Customer-Centric Process

When setting the rules for the names, I thought the key would be the users’ benefit and/or action. 

While researching similar cases in Japan and abroad, I found a notable example in Adobe’s corporate service suite, Adobe Experience Cloud. Its services are named by combining “Adobe” and the user’s benefit or activity, such as Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, and Adobe Experience Manager, and they all used the same logo with a few exceptions. 

By the way, the name “Adobe” comes from the name of a creek. I don’t think many people know this fact. This is proof that users actually don’t care about the meaning of the brand name itself. It’s purely a signal for recognizing the brand. 

So we stopped asking the question of what the name itself should be. I suggested taking the approach of combining a cognitive sign with a term describing users’ benefits or actions. This ultimately became the ground rule for naming our products.

Actually, there was another name that we considered apart from SPEEDA: UB. Uzabase employees often call the company “UB” for short. Someone suggested changing the company name to “UB, Inc.” and naming the SaaS products “UB XX” based on a master brand strategy (excluding NewsPicks).

Behind this idea was the concern that choosing one name from among SPEEDA, FORCAS, and INITIAL might raise opposition from employees who felt attached to the others. We thought that the name UB, which all of us could stand by, might help retain that attachment even when the product names were changed. But looking back, this idea was ill-considered.

When we brainstormed with a management advisor and discussed the options of SPEEDA and UB, the advisor correctly pointed out how we were straying from a customer-centric approach. Outside of the company, people wouldn’t know what “UB” stood for. After that, we reconsidered the matter from a customer-centric perspective and settled on SPEEDA.

For a product that has been in the market for 15 years, this was by no means a high rate, and we realized there was huge room for improvement.

And even before the rebranding project, we had been hearing from members engaging with customers that SPEEDA was often mispronounced. They had even suggested adding Japanese writing so that the name could be read correctly.

We had no doubts about using Speeda as the shared cognitive sign across the aligned product names, but were concerned that people might struggle to read it. So I suggested that if we were to consider complementing the logo with Japanese, we should rather create a logo written in Japanese from the beginning.

At that point, I had already let go of my ego around presenting something cool, together with anxiety that my colleagues might oppose the change. I was purely focused on choosing the best signal for users, and concerning Japan, I was sure that katakana would be recognized more quickly than alphabet letters.

At the time I joined the project, the dominant idea was to create an alphabet-based logo. I was hoping to give the logo a sophisticated look distinct from the former logo, which was composed of capital letters. At that point, Sugahara-san started saying that katakana would be more recognizable.

My initial reaction was a feeling of disbelief [laughs]. I wanted to make something that looked really cool, and his idea seemed entirely contradictory to that approach.

But looking back, I’m glad that we decided on katakana. It’s much more recognizable for the customer. People can just see the name and put it in the search bar. I’ve come to believe that it’s more effective as a marketing strategy.

The third time we presented the logo ideas, Sakuma-san said, “We really need this switch to katakana.” He said that if we created a katakana-based logo in the SaaS market and succeeded, other companies would want to follow suit. “I see a future where Uzabase is the first to succeed, and everyone wants to copy us. Let’s be the pioneer.” Those words actually sparked my excitement.

I thought, I’d love to stick to cool design, but we might be able to do something crazy here, in a good sense. That’s when I became attached to the katakana idea.

I was mindful of the seven factors at the beginning, but eventually came to think that what mattered was something else. I had the sense that the logo should convey a certain kind of feel, or impression.

In order to capture that feel, I explored how customers already perceived SPEEDA, FORCAS, and INITIAL, and considered how to work from there. Based on that input, I thought about the ideal perception of the new Speeda brand. 

When asked about the most important element of this logo, my answer is “functional beauty with clarity.” We explored how the logo can function as a logo in the clearest way. The desired recognition, impression, and emotional factors are all important, but first, we had to ensure that it functions effectively. I figured that the emotional factors could be enhanced through the details after that.

On that note, I think that in the beginning, we were focused on creating something symbolic. For instance, we discussed how to convey the sense of speed: we considered motifs such as light, the fastest element in the universe, and a falcon, the fastest living creature on earth. After that, we shifted to pursuing a logo that embodies functional beauty. 

Since we have declared our transformation into a customer-centric service provider, I believe that demonstrating consistency in that stance is the best branding for Uzabase.

Being recognized by the users as quickly as possible and serving them in the fastest way possible—that is the goal of unifying the branding under Speeda and changing the logo. 

Some customers said that the new logo didn’t feel like Uzabase, and that we were letting go of our sophisticated image. To those comments, I reply with confidence: “You’re right. Uzabase is going to change for our users.”

The name Uzabase reflects the founders’ aspiration to keep creating services that become an infrastructure for the users, and this stance stays the same. In order to keep going in this direction, we need to change and adapt to the business environment. 

With regards to the logo, I’ve heard positive comments from the designers at our customer companies, saying “The extent of change is striking” and “Uzabase made a bold move.” I’d thought that it was extremely important for people to feel the change, so I’m glad that we received such responses.

Some people might have negative feelings, but I believe that engaging with Speeda through various touchpoints will gradually enhance the familiarity of the logo’s design and color.

I hope the sales and CS (customer success) members will quickly feel the impact of the rebranding. That would boost their confidence in the brand.

It’s said that a good brand defines the behavior of the people who represent it. Disneyland and Starbucks are good examples. If the renewed Speeda brand successfully defines the behavior of Uzabase members, that means every one of us will be taking customer-centric actions.

Whether it is through our product or CS/sales activities, if the customers feel that people at Uzabase always act in a customer-centric way, that will further strengthen our brand.

Branding has external and internal aspects. At the Speeda business design organization, we are preparing the “Speeda identity” statement for internal reference.

We are establishing guidelines for what Speeda stands for, to help members understand the stance and conduct that best represents Speeda. I hope we can strengthen the Speeda brand by conveying those values to our customers. 

Having a shared language will clarify standards for decisions and make work easier. Going forward, we would like to spread such shared language throughout the company so that we can measure our actions against the standards of the brand.