Paid advertisement by IMA Financial Group.
What’s in a name? A lot.
We have a name and brand that is respected in our market and with industry partners. For two decades plus, Diversified Insurance Group has been associated with quality and excellence. Our insanely high client and employee retention is evidence of the strength of our brand, and we will always be proud of what it meant.
The time came earlier this year though, for us to make a difficult decision and launch our “rebrand.” With our 2021 partnership (a nice way to say acquisition) with IMA Financial Group, a name change was inevitable at some point. While we were under no pressure to change our name to IMA, we expedited the rebrand process for three distinct reasons:
- “Newly minted office.” We recently moved into Salt Lake City’s newest and most advanced commercial building – 95 South State. A move to beautiful state-of-the-art space was the perfect catalyst for change and a new beginning. There were also pragmatic reasons to make the change. Believe me, it is significantly easier to put IMA on the building’s street level monument than trying to squeeze Diversified Insurance Group on it. The IMA sum is greater than the partner parts. When you sell a company to a much larger organization, you understandably lose some autonomy. There are tradeoffs; however, and I can’t overstate this enough, the positives of our partnership have far outweighed any negatives. If we had to do it all over again, we would absolutely do it. IMA is the largest widely-held, employee-owned, independent broker in the country with over 2,200 employees. IMA is also one of the fastest growing firms and has partnered with several top 100 brokers. We decided to take full advantage of the strength of IMA’s brand which is also known across the country for its quality and excellence. We’re much better together and as “one.” We are in the future business. Our mindset is to continually improve, adapt, and transform the client and employee experience and we are doing this by being laser focused on being the “Broker of the Future.”
A company’s name also reinforces its brand and culture. In other words, employees must fully believe in and get behind the name, brand, and mission of the organization. Or in our case, a rebrand. Everything tied to a company needs to drive its purpose, and values, even the look and feel of an office. These are all components of a winning culture.
A company’s name and brand are most definitely part of this winning culture equation. What the name/brand represents and how it is viewed among a company’s stakeholders and in the communities in which it operates, including with competitors, is the essential building block of its identity. If you do not believe in the name, you have no culture. If there is belief, it is a massive advantage.
What made our rebrand so successful? Simply put, our team truly believed it was time for the change. While the Diversified name meant so much to our team and there was deep fondness attached to it, we had overwhelming support for the next phase of our journey.
And with that, our journey and brand continues as IMA.