It’s been a little while now since we announced our new name and new branding. We’ve been absolutely blown away by the positive response since it launched. We’ve received so much support from our subscribers and the wider animal therapy community.
If you have messaged us commented or left a like on a social media post about the rebrand, then thank you! Unveiling something so different when you have a loyal customer base is nerve-wracking, so we are thrilled it has been so well received.
We’ve talked a little bit on our social media about the reason we rebranded, but we’ve had lots of questions, so we thought we’d explain a bit more about the thinking that happened behind the scenes before we went public with the new name!
Earlier this year, we had big plans for new features and at that stage there was no plan to rebrand. We were on a mission to reach a wider audience and make Equicantis even better by adding more time saving features.
Before investing too heavily in new features, we always do our research. This involved a lot of conversations with our subscribers and with other animal therapists who don’t use us yet.
During this process, it became apparent that Equicantis was not a name that was going to grow with us as we evolved. Feedback and told us it was time for a change.
Laura Clinton, our founder, spoke to lots of animal therapists about the platform, its features and what they would like from it in the future. Some conversations also included the reasons why people weren’t choosing us, important insights that would help us understand what they were looking for and what they thought of when they saw our name or brand.
Through these conversations, it became clear that some canine and small animal therapists had assumed our focus was on equine physical therapy.
Here’s what Laura said about the process, “I realised some small animal therapists dismissed us not because of our features but based on the assumption we were primarily equine. This wasn’t and hasn’t ever been the case. However, the reality is this was the perception some canine and small animal therapists had of us.
That realisation hit hard and letting the name 'Equicantis' go was not a decision that was taken lightly. But businesses have to evolve. Sometimes you have to make a bold decision to be ready for where you’re going next, and this was one of those times.
Equicantis included 'equi' for equine and 'can' for canine. But the canine part was getting missed.
It was becoming more of a problem, and that problem was only going to get bigger. The name was a barrier to sales for a big chunk of our ideal market and canine therapists were missing out on access to the perfect platform for them because of it!”
What followed this conclusion was lots of discussions on messaging, future plans, our ideal audience and many many late nights brainstorming for new name ideas!
Names were chosen, checked and then disregarded as web domains were taken or names were already in use for other businesses. The process was painstaking and it was so important we got it right.
Laura was keen to include core in the name as therapists talk about the core all the time, plus core means central and vital. Exactly what we're trying to achieve. 'Velio' came quite accidentally but 'vel' for velocity and speed, and 'io' for input/output, as well as a nice little nod to phys’io’. It felt right instantly.
With the name decided, we set about instructing a designer to create a logo and colour palette and visual branding which worked with our messaging and brand personality. The rebrand was born. The bold orange you see in our logo was because our founder Laura had a dream that orange was part of the new logo and decided to run with it! And what we now call the Corevelio blob (technical term 😂) represents a vertebrae which contributes to the strong brand identity we need to take Corevelio to a wider audience and support more animal therapists around the world.
Following the success of the rebrand we’re busy working on V3 and all the new features that sparked the process in the first place! We can’t wait to share more news of the features with you soon!