Background
Before Aleron became Aleron, they were Superior Group—a workforce and productivity company with thousands of employees in offices around the world. But they weren’t always so large or complex. In 1957, Superior Group was a fledgling drafting firm with a local client base. As demand for their services grew, more talent was required, and a recruiting service business was born. Over the next 60-plus years, additional companies launched under the Superior Group umbrella, each positioned to provide different talent, process, and outsourcing solutions. By the time Superior Group engaged Block Club, they organized their various lines of business under three sub-brands: Superior Talent Resources, Superior Workforce Solutions, and Superior IT Innovations.
Like many growing companies, Superior Group’s years of expansion added new layers of complexity to their brand portfolio. Even with regular portfolio evaluations, Superior Group had a brand confusion problem. Clients, prospects, and even some internal stakeholders had trouble delineating the differences among their sub-brands. This issue was particularly problematic when it came to business development. Potential buyers often didn’t realize that there were distinct companies and business lines. Instead, they tended to lump them together as “Superior Group” and associated them all with talent acquisition. As a result, Superior Workforce Solutions and Superior IT Innovations, neither of which were staffing companies, were often passed over for more recognizable competitors in their respective verticals.
Superior Group needed a strategy that would alleviate the brand confusion and allow the company to grow well into the future.