Greater clarity for Epiq
How repositioning a legal services pioneer created new understanding in the marketplace – and inside the company
A pioneer and leader in the legal services and technology solutions space, Epiq recognized that their growing and complex array of business offerings was creating a challenge. After years of strong opportunistic growth, the company found itself presenting a fragmented, product-based image to the marketplace. In effect, the company’s successful expansion strategy had diluted the impact of its brand.
Epiq began taking strategic steps to reposition the company and Tenet Partners was called on to help. The goal: to transition the brand from a technology-based document review company to a value-added service partner known for handling a wide range of highly complex legal challenges for corporations, law firms, financial institutions and government agencies.
A new focus on what makes Epiq unique
We began by refining Epiq’s purpose statement and core values to embody the principles and aspirations of the organization. The values were constructed to be meaningful and actionable across the company.
Recasting the company’s purpose and values was key to powering internal change. Complementing that shift and telegraphing it to the marketplace called for a new visual identity, inspired by the differentiating nature of Epiq’s global scale, high-quality staff and service. Tenet contemporized the Epiq logo and developed new design elements, including a color palette, imagery style, typography and distinctive graphic elements, which brought together the company’s many and diverse business lines in a fresh, unique visual expression.
Reconstructing the website to meet the needs of many
Moving the Epiq brand away from its product-based image met a key competitive need. When law firms, corporations, financial institutions and government agencies search for a partner, they are looking for the one who can ease their burden, a partner who understands what they need, has the right expertise and can deliver the outcomes fast. Accordingly, Epiq’s online presence needed to communicate more powerfully.
A central goal of Epiq’s new website was to allow users in different market segments to easily discover information and navigate the company’s complex offerings in a highly efficient and compelling way. To do this, Tenet conducted an interactive work session with managers across all business lines and functions to discover what the site should deliver to visitors. The task was challenging due to audience diversity: law firms and corporations using eDiscovery and document review services, law firms using bankruptcy case management software, and administrative services and trustees managing large-scale class action claims administration.
With this insight in hand, Tenet created an information architecture based on solutions organized to align with user’s needs in different market segments. A library of visual icons was created to help differentiate product and service offerings, helping users to find information at a glance.
Investment in the brand that drives results Epiq’s new positioning, coupled with the visual identity system and website, elevated the brand’s stature and enabled its designers and communicators around the globe to present a cohesive brand expression whether in the U.S., Europe or Asia.
More importantly, the changes provided a strong platform that helped make Epiq an attractive acquisition opportunity for private equity firms. In 2016 Harvest Partners and OMERS took action resulting in the combination of Epiq with DTI Global to create the first billion-dollar global legal process outsourcing company just eleven months after the brand refresh was launched.
