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Ambius

CASE STUDY

The Challenge

Ambius, a Rentokil Initial plc company, formerly Initial Tropical Plants, offers a complete range of design and plant services for interior business environments with products and services that include: live and artificial plant displays, complete maintenance service, ambient scenting, commercial holiday decorations, wall art, living wall, and green roof design. Ambius operates in 18 countries and has over 40 branch locations across North America.

Michelle’s employment with Ambius spanned 9 years. She was initially brought in to head up the marketing for Initial Tropical Plants. During her first year, she was challenged with leading the company’s North American brand identity refresh – an identity both internal stakeholders and customers alike could embrace.

The Solution

Michelle kicked off the rebrand by focusing on the name change; it was important to come up with a single name that would allow the brand to extend beyond just plant and design services and that would work internationally. Michelle led customer research that explored the meanings of names and how they translated to different regions and cultures to come up with the Ambius name.

The name ‘Ambius’ is derived from the word ‘ambiance,’ which was oftentimes the way customers would describe the work of Initial Tropical Plants. “You improve the ambiance of our business environment,” was a common theme among customers. The strategy and foundation for the brand were built on the five senses, which allowed the company to add additional service offerings such as scenting, fruit, art, etc. that would appeal to any or all five senses.

In creating the logo mark, Michelle wanted to visually incorporate the company’s core service since they no longer were using the word ‘plants’ as part of the name. The five identical leaf shapes achieved that, while also representing the five senses. The leaf icon in the logo illustrated how one can turn the corporate relationship between people, plants and their surroundings into a fresh, friendly identity. The green color reflects nature, comfort, and health – key emotional triggers associated with the Ambius brand.

Over the course of the 18-month project, Michelle successfully executed the brand strategy she devised by engaging internal stakeholders, listening to insights from customers in several countries and rolling out the rebranding in a five-phase approach.

The Results

The rebrand was successfully launched in 18 countries and eight different languages. This brought together people, cultures and services under a single mission and set of values that contributed to measurable increase in revenue, customer retention and profits.

The rebranding went on to receive both overseas and domestic recognition. Michelle and her team won CorpComm’s Best Rebranding Exercise Award in the UK. And in the States, Michelle authored a by-lined (and award-winning) article, “Return on Interiors,” published in Facility Management Journal (FMJ).

Post-rebranding, Michelle spent the next 6 years leading the international marketing and branding effort, which included leveraging the new name and brand, as well as growing and developing their brand extensions. In addition, she carried out a market research study and an extensive needs-based customer research study in three countries to shape Ambius’ market positioning and define its top buyer groups.

Michelle also pioneered the idea of developing and marketing personal brands for the company’s top sales consultants that showcased their award-winning design expertise. She also co-founded Ambius University as a means to continue the energy and excitement of the new brand with a vision to engage Ambius colleagues across the globe by providing training, research, communications, and social responsibility programs, resulting in customers receiving best-in-class service.

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