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In 1909, ABM was one man with a mop and a bucket; today, it's 100,000 employees in fifteen countries, generating $4 billion. In 1994, having added security services, parking, energy management and engineering services to its heritage base, janitorial service for office and other institutional buildings, and having outgrown "American," it exchanged "American Building Maintenance" for simply "ABM."

To an already chaotic portfolio of acquired brands, in 2010 ABM added Linc Group, greatly expanding ABM's physical footprint and service range in mechanical equipment, in particular.  "Linc was transformative, a game-changer for ABM" says Brett Knox, now ABM's SVP Marketing.  Knox came with Linc and together with his boss, Linc's CEO Tracy Price, made the case to ABM CEO Henrik Slipsager to consider rebranding -- to project "a new ABM," and more importantly to unite all divisions, subdivisions and acquisitions (Linc included) into one defining brand, "One ABM." 

This idea fell on fertile soil. For several years, Slipsager and his board had talked about rebranding; they now welcomed action, and charged Knox to manage the process. Given the okay "to find an alternative logo," Knox sent an RFQ to "a number of agencies or specialists across the country." Three firms were then commissioned to develop logo concepts, including  the Irvine, California-based RiechesBaird and the team of Joe Finocchiaro and Jerry Kuyper, who had collaborated on the 2006 Cisco rebranding. "We were impressed by RiechesBaird as strategists" said Knox, "and happily they agreed to sign on for that, and to design the logo applications. But we chose Joe and Jerry's logo," which puts ABM's people at the heart of its identity. Executive team approval was unanimous and immediate ; CEO Slipsager's only question was "What do I need to do to support this?"

"As you know"  says Knox, "it's the repositioning that matters, more than the new logo; the logo change just makes it an event. It signals the rebirth of a 103-year-old company, to become the global leader in integrated facility solutions."

In designing the visual applications, RiechesBaird added a circular "collaboration icon." The two-minute launch film on ABM's "Our New Brand" page emphasizes the "One ABM" story.

Other tactics:  "Industries" retained for legal name applications only. Addition of tagline, "Building Value." Unit signatures moved toward monolithic.

Logo: Joe Finocchiaro and Jerry Kuyper
Strategy: RiechesBaird

Submitted by: Tony Spaeth, 5/03/2012
Status: Confirmed by Brett Knox, SVP Marketing, 7 March 2012
Category: Facilities maintenence services
Country (HQ): United States