Mountaineer to help firm conquer new brand

By IRENE CHAPPLE

Sir Edmund Hillary will be one of the new faces for an upcoming Deloitte Consulting international campaign as it rebrands itself as Braxton.

Deloitte Consulting's rebranding comes after a year of corporate shake-ups, as the major accounting firms rush to distance themselves from scandals precipitated by the collapse of United States energy giant Enron.

Issues that were raised after the collapse included the independence of consultants and auditors dealing with the same client.

Despite protestations that such independence was already in place, the big four have now all split entirely from their consulting practices.

Deloitte Consulting's separation from its accounting partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu follows KPMG's divorce from what is now known as Bearing Point, PWC's split from what was known as Monday until it was purchased by IBM and Ernst & Young's long established break from its former consulting arm, Cap Gemini.

The job has been done in a relative rush, and at a budget price of US$20 million ($35.5 million) to US$40 million compared with, say, the US$100 million put into marketing the name Monday.

Monday was largely ridiculed as being a name workers associated with intense dislike, then it was dumped by its new owners.

So far, Braxton - which was originally flagged mid last year - has so far had a more relaxed response.

David Redhill, Deloitte Consulting's global director of brand strategy, says the company wanted a "real name", and consulted with its 1500 staff before settling on Braxton.

The name has been used before by Deloitte Consulting. Braxton was the name of a Boston-based company Deloitte purchased in the 1980s.

Named after principal George Braxton Bennett, usage of the name was eventually absorbed into the Deloitte brand, while the trademark remained in the firm's ownership.

Redhill, bought on board Deloitte to assist with the rebranding, says he saw the name within days of beginning the search for a new brand.

However, the process of officially adopting it took months.

It was a cheap option, but also had an existing recognition, and had already been tested for legal and phonetic issues in global markets.

Redhill says he rang Bennett to let him know Deloitte Consulting was adopting the name.

"He was thrilled." says Redhill.

The campaign to push Braxton is expected to begin sometime early next month.

Redhill says Sir Edmund Hillary, who was nominated by a New Zealand staff member, epitomised a spirit of achievement and partnership.

The theme of partnership would run through the campaign, with 16 other characters being used as it was rolled out.

Half are famous and half are not so famous, says Redhill.

"There are no great achievements that are done without the support of those behind it," he says. "This is the personality of us and our culture …we are extremely collaborative."

The initial 10 to 12 week campaign will include television - hoped to be via a major player such as CNN - print and online advertising.

The creative, being done by DDB after a pitch which dumped incumbent McCann-Erickson, will be driven from New York or San Francisco.

The New Zealand DDB offices are unlikely to get much work from the campaign, although they may do some media buying.