case studies

KingSett Capital

Name / Visual Identity

Under the name KingStreet Capital Partners, Canada's leader in private equity real estate investments completed over $2 billion in deals between 2002 and 2006. Unfortunately in 2006, a New York firm of the same name launched a costly trademark infringement challenge against them. Our client's Managing Partner gave Instinct the task of renaming their organization.

Key to our challenge was the client's original desire that the name be changed simply to initials — a common wish among companies undergoing a name change. We offered our view that such an approach would not be in the best interests of the Brand, because their new clients would ask what the initials stood for — requiring that the story of the lawsuit be forever told. Further, successful initial names are earned, not created.

Our recommendation was that the new name, developed through our Naming PathWays™ process, should preserve as much equity as possible of the KingStreet moniker. This evolution, not revolution approach intensified our creative challenge, in that we were determined to arrive at a new name and visual identity that held the "word" and "shape" equity of KingStreet.

KingSett — a "sett" being a small rectangular paving stone — accomplished all of this and more, in that the meaning of "Sett" kept the legacy of "Street" alive. Launch of the new name was straightforward, highly cost effective and virtually seamless, with little disruption or unnecessary explanation required.