CLS's brand had become dated and no longer reflected the firm's evolved capabilities or market ambitions. The existing brand strategy failed to resonate with target clients or differentiate CLS from competitors, and any refresh had to protect existing client relationships.
Vivaldi developed a brand revitalization strategy that refreshed positioning while building on existing equity. The approach redefined target segments, articulated a contemporary value proposition, and updated brand expression. Change management protocols ensured a smooth transition for internal teams and external stakeholders.
CLS launched a revitalized brand that better reflected its capabilities and market position. The refreshed strategy strengthened client engagement and supported business development in target segments while maintaining continuity with the firm's established market presence.
CLS engaged Vivaldi to refresh a brand strategy that had become dated and was no longer reflecting the firm’s evolved capabilities or market ambitions. Vivaldi redefined target segments, articulated a contemporary value proposition, and updated brand expression with change management protocols that protected continuity with existing clients, producing a refreshed brand that strengthened engagement and supported business development in target segments.
CLS is a professional services firm serving commercial clients across multiple business segments. The firm has evolved its capabilities over time and operates in a competitive advisory services landscape.
Vivaldi delivered a refreshed brand strategy that aligned with the firm’s evolved capabilities and market ambitions while protecting existing client relationships. The launched brand strengthened client engagement and supported business development in target segments without disrupting the commercial continuity that a services firm depends on.
The revitalization built on existing equity rather than replacing it, which meant working out which elements of the current brand carried positive recognition with long-tenured clients and keeping those intact while updating the parts that no longer reflected the firm. Change management protocols then sequenced the rollout so that internal teams and external stakeholders saw a logical evolution rather than a discontinuity, which is what protected the client relationships through the transition.
A professional services firm’s brand sits on top of long-cycle client relationships that often outlast individual engagements, and an abrupt brand change reads to those clients as a signal that the firm they hired is no longer the firm they have. Refreshes that ignore this dynamic generate churn at exactly the accounts that funded the firm to the point where it could afford a refresh in the first place, which is why continuity is a commercial imperative, not just an aesthetic preference.
The lesson from CLS is to treat the refresh as an act of selective preservation rather than a clean-sheet design, which means identifying the assets and associations the existing client base values and explicitly keeping them in the new system. Change management around the rollout, especially how relationship partners explain the refresh to their accounts, matters as much as the design work itself.
