But when clients are accustomed to seeking out that information from their familiar acronyms of choice, how do you let them know it’s all in one place? By keeping the Circana brand simple, Davis said, and intentionally using details like a clean, sans-serif font, the tagline “complexity into clarity,” and a logo of interlocking circles that evoke Venn diagrams of complex consumer data.
However, there was nothing simple about selecting any of those elements. Davis said her team sifted through 2,700 names, created more than 200 logo concepts and came up with upwards of 1,000 taglines before landing on Circana’s complete package.
The reasoning wasn’t simple, either: The name “Circana” used a circle as its root, alluding to the “marriage” of IRI and NPD Group. Having two “C”s was also important—to represent “the complete consumer”—and carried into the “complexity into clarity” tagline. CEO Kirk Perry wanted a logo that could tell the story beside the company name, so six concentric circles stood in for both overlapping data and complex consumer behavior.
The work ahead
On March 20 at the Wynn in Las Vegas—about two weeks after Circana’s rebrand—the company brought in 1,200 clients for its first event as any brand since 2019. When Circana surveyed attendees before and after the event, it found that 44% liked the rebrand and, in the end, 81% had an extremely positive perception of what the company stood for.
While there’s still a segment of Circana’s client base that identifies with the IRI and NPD Group brands, Davis said that clients’ interaction with the brand in Vegas helped acclimate them to the idea that the services they enjoyed were simply found under a new name.
