Rebranding INEXS™

Human beings power a better brand story. For INEXS, the geological and geophysical (G&G) consulting company, we’ve used its human focus to re-define its brand. Created a new logo and brand graphics. Spread the word about its new, copyrighted slogan: “Human-Powered Geoscience.” And begun to reinforce emotional attachments among customers and prospects.

This post won’t be the first or last time you hear that a good brand is built on a good story, or rebuilt on a new one.

INEXS used to be an acronym for Interactive Exploration Solutions. Now it stands alone…we joke about it’s being “the other rock group,” an internalized sense of humor that matches the company’s human-ness.

We’ve been working the past few months to re-invent the INEXS brand and its marketing because the company President/CEO has strongly felt the need to refine the focus of his G&G consulting company; to differentiate it from the competition; to make it more distinctive in a very noisy marketplace.

To create the new INEXS brand story, we started by examining the company’s stakeholders* and how INEXS interacts with them.

Revealed: Since the early 1980s, plenty of major oilfield companies have made their fortunes creating, packaging and selling increasingly more sophisticated G&G software (i.e., technologies) to help oil & gas companies find more hydrocarbons. Conclusion: There is intense competition for the “technology mind-space” in G&G consulting.

INEXS has to be “other,” to position itself against the technological emphasis of its competitors by its personability and its human imagery.

It’s not technology that finds oil and gas reserves. It’s human beings. That’s the distinctive new brand story. For almost 20 years, INEXS has emphasized the long-term relationships they have with their customers. INEXS people connect their customers to successful prospects.

For INEXS, the value of every project to every client has to be obvious. When INEXS people help customers find one more drilling opportunity that leads to a profitable discovery, they fulfill the INEXS part of the relationship.

INEXS is not only about the project or the assignment – a decisive brand benefit. It's about the asset team members and managers the company works with every day. They trust INEXS to deliver success.

We re-constructed an INEXS brand story on the new theme: “Human-Powered Geoscience.” No other company in the G&G consulting arena emphasizes the human part of the exploration equation so thoroughly.

New communications, like the revamped INEXS website, will continue that emphasis…creating visual messages that are clear and concise.

The team that’s making this story come to life for INEXS includes Prism Design for the new logo and brand graphics. Naumann Blanchard LLC is handling public relations. Zephyr Salvo is the web enabler. And me? I’m the strategist and stakeholders’ storyteller.

I’m grateful to everyone at INEXS for allowing me to help develop this superb, tightly focused rebranding effort. They’re ensuring that the story and the brand meet their customers’ expectations.

*The Stakeholder Rule says a company’s position ought to take hold – and take place – in the minds of all its stakeholders. “Stakeholder Rule” © Richard Laurence Baron. All rights reserved.