DORMEN rebrands as Dorset Business Mentors
In 2019 DorMen commenced a wholesale review of its marketing, the aim to increase awareness of the service to some 38,000 businesses in Dorset. The service was founded in 2005 to support the resilience and growth of micro, small and medium size businesses across Dorset and over the years has established a reputation as a centre of excellence for business mentoring in the UK.
The service is now 15 years mature and has served well over 1600 business owners, demonstrating impressive and measurable benefit to client mentees and the wider context of the local economy. At such a milestone, and having received additional funding from the European Regional Development Fund to formalise marketing activities, a review of our branding and positioning was timely.
Due consideration preceded our name change from DorMen to Dorset Business Mentors. However it was felt that while DorMen is familiar to those that already know us - the name had ambiguity to those coming across us for the first time. Some questions posed over recent years have been: Are your Mentors only men? Do we supply door bouncers?! The answer to both being a definite no it was time to ensure our name did not require explanation, instead communicating the service concisely and clearly.
To anyone reading this who was fond of DorMen, we have no doubt that we will continue to refer to the service internally in this way. It is, after all, a convenient and fond shortening! However, henceforward all outward communications are as ‘Dorset Business Mentors’.
So, having decided to rebrand as Dorset Business Mentors we turned our attention to visuals and messaging. The first of these, visuals, proved an interesting creative process, and one that quickly arrived at a unanimous outcome among the Management Team.
Our resulting logo symbolises mentee (to the right) being discreetly supported by mentor (to the left), with the upward inflection to the arm inferring a pathway of upward growth. The two figures are encapsulated in a circle which was designed in response to our desire to communicate a rounded, whole service that supports both parties.
The colours navy blue and yellow were selected to convey our established and trusted position (navy blue) and our offer for relevant support to achieve a brighter future (yellow).
Our messaging, highlighting our position in being acknowledged as a centre of excellence, has also taken a leap in being segmented according to the stage of business owners will identify with (from start-up, through growth, when established and looking ahead to exit) and to highlight our service to social enterprise and charities. This segmentation ensures that our communication is relevant to the reader’s experience. As we add case studies to the Insights pages of our website these are filtered to ensure readers can quickly find examples of mentoring relevant to their stage of business.
We are delighted to have a brand that truly reflects the incomparable service we offer, and we hope you like it. Please do share your feedback with us at marketing@dormen.org.uk
We would like to thank and recommend the team at Keeping Studio for their design work and contributions.
