Lessons learned from the multi-year name-change
effort pulled from the independent agency
network’s past, present, and future
By Maura C. Ciccarelli
All company names have backstories. Choosing a new name balances not only the history and current story of the organization, but also where it will be in the future.
Ironpeak, the independent P&C agency network formerly called The Iroquois Group, is no exception. After a four-year process, the nearly 50-year-old company relaunched as Ironpeak last November, says CEO and President Laurie Branch.
“We realized, as hard as it was, that if we didn’t do it now, we probably would never do it,” says Branch, daughter of Paul Branch, who founded the network with other agency owners in Western New York in 1977. “We’ve invested 40-plus years into building the [Iroquois] brand, but was it the name that would be right for us for the next 40 years? [As a family-owned business,] we have 40-, 50- and 60-year perspectives.”
“One of the things we have always said is that we wouldn’t change it until we found a name that we all loved,” says Matt Ward, executive vice president and head of carrier relationships and field force. “We’ve loved Iroquois, but we wanted to find a name that we all agreed was a better representation of who we are today and who we want to be for generations to come in this independent family business. Ironpeak ended up being that name.”
To get there, Branch pulled together a team that included the organization’s leaders, field regional managers, marketing team, and outside consultants to come up with a name that could convey the organization’s key marketing messages. They learned not only about the importance of the process to create buy-in to all the company’s stakeholders but also how looking deeply at their organization could generate a meaningful new name to take them into future decades.
What’s in a name?
Today, the network has 2,900 member agencies producing some $3.4 billion in premium annually with Ironpeak carrier partners. Before The Iroquois Group was founded 50 years ago, there were no organizational models to give a united group of independent agencies the size and strength to survive in a very hard market back then, Branch says.
The original name was inspired by the history of the Haudenosaunee, a cooperative group of five then six First Nations people called the Iroquois Confederacy by the French. Over centuries, the indigenous people created a formal set of rules to remain independent while working together to trade, resolve disputes, and join together in defense. Its model inspired some of the U.S. Constitution.
Branch says that as The Iroquois Group spread across the continental U.S. over the decades, the historical Iroquois reference needed to be explained in areas further away from the Northeast, where middle schoolers typically learned about it in history class. Iroquois was hard to spell and pronounce. Plus, it didn’t embody the expanded marketing messages the company wanted to promote.
To get started with the rebrand, Branch hired external consultants to join the team. One consultant generated potential names and led the name-finding process. Another was a copywriter who worked on the brand messaging and advertising copy. Another designed the logo, colors, fonts, and other visual identity components, with direction from the brainstorming team.
The result was about a year and a half of weekly brainstorming meetings to hash through the naming options and associated marketing messages and visuals. “It was a fantastic group that came together with a lot of love and trust and the ability to spitball ideas and be very candid with each other,” Ward explains.
Ironpeak is a kind of portmanteau inspired by two ideas: strength and performance. “Iron” speaks to the strength of the network’s relationships with its members and carrier partners, one of its distinguishing characteristics. “Peak” speaks to Ironpeak’s performance and that of its members with a select group of carrier partners.
“[W]e all know there are many ways to get to the top of the mountain. … One of the things we at Ironpeak do so well is to find a unique path for each of our members. … They all need a different approach, a different path, and a different speed, but we’re all going up.”
—Laurie Branch
CEO and President
Ironpeak
“We closely track our performance with each carrier and measure against their overall results and that of other national networks,” Ward says. “Our superior performance generates superior compensation for our members, which in turn incents them for more profitable growth.
“The Ironpeak name combines strength and performance,” he adds, pointing out that it’s the strength of the relationships that holds the network together.
Branch says the peak analogy also harkens back to the company’s founding town of Olean, located in New York’s Enchanted Mountains. “One of the reasons we picked it is that we all know there are many ways to get to the top of the mountain,” she says. “There’s not just one way.
“One of the things we at Ironpeak do so well is to find a unique path for each of our members, because each agency is very different,” Branch notes. “They all need a different approach, a different path, and a different speed, but we’re all going up.”
“We’ve loved Iroquois, but we wanted to find a name that we all agreed was a better representation of who we are today and who we want to be for generations to come in this independent family business.”
—Matt Ward
Executive Vice President and Head, Carrier Relationships and Field Force
Ironpeak
“It’s never a zero-sum game,” Ward adds. “It’s always figuring out how we drive the win-win-win so that we’re building an abundance that’s good for our member agencies and carrier partners first, and ultimately good for Ironpeak at the end of the day.”
Ward says the name change was well-received by the member agencies and carriers, even though they loved the founding story. “As soon as they let go of the nostalgia for the name they’d come to know and love, they were quick to say it was a great name and they loved the new look,” he says.
Fears that Ironpeak would change its operations were quickly quashed, he adds. “We are the same people, the same great home office and field team, and we have all the same values and strategies. We’re doing this to ensure that we have a name and a culture and an independent family business that’s going to be here for the long term. [That reassurance] was very well received.”
Lessons learned
The hardest but most necessary part of the process was carving out time for the rebranding, Branch says.
“We took our time to get buy-in and get our people excited about it,” she says. “That pays off in the end when they’re calling their key members and carrier reps to tell them we’ve got a new name and there’s real enthusiasm in their voice when they’re talking about the name.”
Another benefit was codifying the Ironpeak brand by working with external experts, Branch adds. “We didn’t think we needed an outside consultant. How hard can it be to pick a name? We were wrong.”
Ward says his biggest insight was learning a lot about marketing—fonts, colors, and the brand’s voice and personality. “It’s very interesting stuff that will serve us well for a long time.”
He also says the new name is an opportunity to reintroduce Ironpeak “as who we are today—an independent, strong, and performance-driven organization that is going to be here long term.”
Branch also advises that other organizations considering a name change keep an ongoing watch on their brand’s impact in the marketplace. “If you think a name or the brand that you have right now isn’t serving you well, it’s not going to get better if you wait five years to do it. It’s a big, big project. Tackling it sounds intimidating. It can be overwhelming. But, if you think you should change it, you should,” she advises.
While all the hard work was worth it to create a name that captured the network’s brand and value today and into the future, Branch had one more thought. “We’re never changing our name again,” she laughs.
For more information:
Ironpeak
ironpeak.com
The author
Maura C. Ciccarelli is a longtime freelance journalist originally from Philadelphia. She writes about business and more from an adobe home in southern New Mexico, after spending nine years living on the road fulltime with her husband in their Airstream trailer.
