In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of its founding, Rockbridge has introduced an updated expression of its brand language and visual identity that cofounder/CEO Jim Merkel said represents the hospitality investment company’s evolution.
“We’ve evolved as an organization,” said Merkel. “Any good organization evolves to remain relevant and grow. You can’t be a great company and a durable company if you don’t grow because you can’t keep the best people. You have to create opportunities for them. We’ve had a really blessed track record, and we’ve had the pleasure of being a staple in the hospitality industry and the investment community for the last 25 years.”
The company’s evolution really took flight when Merkel took over as CEO following the financial crisis in 2008. “It was really a moment to evaluate who we were, what we were going to be, where the opportunities were and what we felt our competitive advantages were…if we were going to grow into a more integrated, hospitality-centered investment firm,” he said.
Jim Merkel, CEO/cofounder, Rockbridge, presents the refreshed brand identity and language to his team in Columbus, OH
The refresh has allowed the company to put into words what its mission has been over those last 15 years. “We never took the time to do it, not because it wasn’t important, but because there was always a reason to stay focused on something else,” said Merkel. “It wasn’t holding us back as an organization to really focus on getting our brand language and visual identity to better align with who we are and where we’re going. “
What Merkel called the cornerstone of the effort lies the company’s newly articulated foundational language:
• We are steadfast optimists.
• We believe we can, and should, make
the world better.
• We relentlessly pursue excellence in
everything we do.
• We cultivate value in everything we touch.
• We are a hospitality-centered investment firm
designed to enrich life.
“I knew we were going to get a visual identity that was going to look beautiful and have meaning—and we did that,” the CEO said. “But my first priority—and what I continue to beat the drum of—is how we articulate the brand,” he said. “The words we use matters because we have a complex business. And as we look to build brands, make investments and make decisions about how we use our resources, we’re going to filter those through our brand language of who we are. We are steadfast optimists, and we believe we can and should make the world better.”
He continued, “We relentlessly pursue excellence in everything we do. We are trying to make Rockbridge the best it can be because we have a responsibility to our community and to our teammates to do that.”
Not surprisingly, the new brand language is similar to the foundation statement of RTRX, the event created by Merkel in 2012 as an immersive leadership experience that brings together businesses and individuals “to create a better, brighter future through a focus on leadership, innovation and well-being.” It is a unique partnership between his company, Pelotonia and the Columbus Partnership, and has raised more than $7 million for cancer research.
The CEO said this brand language will affect everything the company does going forward, adding, “Everything that we do will fit into that prism. These are the words that articulate that we are a hospitality-centered investment firm designed to cultivate value and enrich life. What that means is that we are going to make investments and grow in hospitality to be even a bigger and more impactful organization over the next 25 years.”
The four founders of the company created a goal 25 years ago that they would build a company that could survive “without any one of the founders still in existence,” said Merkel. “So we want to create a durable company, and that’s a tall order, especially in the investment business. It’s my job over the next cycles to continue to build those anchors so that the future of Rockbridge as a staple and a premium investment company in hospitality exists for decades to come. That will depend on our leadership and the decisions we make over the next 20 years.”
Merkel is excited that the brand language Rockbridge has created will help the company achieve that goal. “We wanted everyone in our organization, outside of our organization, all potential new hires and everybody new and old to know who we are and what we do—and that it what this brand refresh does,” he said. “We are more focused as to where we’re going and who we are than we’ve ever been in our 25-year history.”
