Giving a legacy a personal connection

Penn Mutual has been specializing in life insurance products and annuities for over 160 years. With their long history in mutuality, the company has made serving the needs of their customers a top priority. Our clients wanted this personal investment in their policyholders to be at the core of a refreshed brand identity, which would include an updated voice and humanized visual identity to support communications that would resonate with its increasingly diverse audience.

Cultivating a sound brand strategy

To make communications more effective, a cohesive messaging strategy was vital. We first partnered with our clients to define brand attributes that would influence how the company talked about their products and services. Working alongside the Penn Mutual research team, we then initiated in-depth conversations with senior leaders, advisers, policyholders, and employees to validate our proposed solutions.

By closely working with the many stakeholders over the course of a year, we created an approachable, genuine voice and a flexible messaging system based on demographics and audience. Our recommendations included a matrix to guide the development of messaging internally, to ensure communications would be consistent and effective.

Looking to the future, with a nod to the past

This long-established company felt a strong connection to their logo, so we introduced subtle refinements to create better visibility, and define opportunities to use the logomark separate from the logotype as a key graphic element.

We created a visual identity that leveraged the company’s history and incorporated a color palette and new graphic elements to make their brand communications feel current and fresh. Now Penn Mutual customers can see the brand as both trusted and modern, ready to serve a new generation of customers.