Emailvision: a look back at the rebranding and the big API shift

This forum is brought to you by Elie Chevignard. Elie returns to the change of name from Emailvision to Smart Focus and gives us his opinion on the matter.

For an established company, a rebranding is no small feat: it's not like a startup that changes its name after six months. I was at PricewaterhouseCoopers during the transition to "PwC a major change. It was only a matter of logo and initials, like when Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC in 1990. But still: everyone had to focus on this strategic issue. Behind a new look, there is a change in values, in theUSPetc. All this costs millions and keeps communication experts busy for months: a mistake can be very expensive and nothing can be left to chance.

When a brand chooses to change its name altogether, it is often due to extreme conditions. Because of a bad reputation, Andersen became Accenture after the Enron scandal; and Philip Morris became Altria to be less "cancer-tobacco industry". However, a negative image is not the only reason for a rebranding: losing market share can lead to this kind of choice.

A rebranding due to loss of market share?

Emailvision was listed on Alternext until September 2010, before going private again when it was acquired by the Francisco Partners fund. As a result, the financial information that can be found since that date is scattered. The company seems to have been doing well until 2011, when some elements escape me.

A press release published on emailvision.com and still available in the Google cache reports a 50% increase in sales between 2010 and 2011 ($90M). For 2012, radio silence. On the other hand, the Journal du Net does include Emailvision in its ranking of " French SaaS Champions 2012" . Growth of 19.6% is reported. The figures are based in part on an annual report published by PwC (AFDEL).

Problem: the turnover of the press release does not really fit. Indeed, on the one hand, we have the 72 million euros ($90M) of the 2011 press release, and on the other hand, a "51 million euros", for the same year (cf. source JdN). On societe.com, a third, even more alarming sound of the bell: 31 million euros of turnover for 2011. Is the machine running out of steam? (Or am I missing some accounting subtlety, but which one? I am not an expert). Note that I'm talking about sales, but the break-even point is obviously far from being reached. Anyway...

In early 2013, Nick Heys removed from the position of CEO to make way for Brad Wilson, a former Microsoft executive. The iconic founder had been in place for 13 years, but had liquidated its shares in 2010His departure is not necessarily due to poor performance, he may have wanted to turn the page. Still: a lot of changes since 2011.

2011: new emailing services and deflation

This year 2011 corresponds to the arrival on the market of a series of new players, specializing in routing and deliverability, all with a flexible model and without commitment. Even Amazon launched at this time ... Many customers of the historical emailers such as Emailvision used only the routing function of the service, without worrying about the multiple marketing features. Therefore, it was obvious for them to turn to this new generation of routers.

The historical email marketers could not adapt their price or their product, because they had neither the technology nor the organization to do so. The best choice seemed to be to continue their diversification from "email marketing platform" to "360 marketing platform". But this positioning does not solve everything.

The potential mirages of the all-in-one "cloud marketing platform" positioning

Historic ESPs can react to deflation in different ways: either they try to create more value with email, or they try to diversify by "getting out" of email. It is this second choice that is made by Emailvision and this is what the rebranding reflects. The jargon of the new site is quite obscure, but at least here is how I understand the pillars of this less email-centric offering:

• CRM, customer lifecycle management
• Big data
• Social media management
• Traffic acquisition
• Mobile
• Email and deliverability

Strongmail, which has become Strongview, has more or less the same positioning, as has Epsilon and many others. The goal seems to be to cover all marketing needs, with one product: in short, the good old "Suite" model of the 90s. Yet, as a customer in 2013, I would think a bit: should I use one service? Or should I select a product for each of these needs, and integrate everything?

Monolithic solution VS separate elements

Let me make a comparison. The dilemma is very concrete, a music lover encounters the same when he wants to equip himself with hifi: he has the choice between the all-in-one system and the separate elements. In one case, he pays once and only has to connect a plug to the mains, in the other he has to pay, connect each of the elements and arrange everything by himself. But in the first case, he will have a block providing basic performance, in the other, he can select each element that best suits his particular needs. The separate elements allow for customization.

The comparison stops there, because in hifi, buying by separate elements is more expensive than buying in one block: this is not the case in SaaS. Hence the potential "mirage" of the omnipotent "cloud marketing platform". APIs are carrying an underground revolution: carving out a solution that is both more powerful and customized can be cheaper than buying in one piece. Welcome to 2013. For each pillar of the "360" offerings there are indeed very innovative and competitive solutions, born in the last 2-3 years.

In addition to the routing and delivery specialists mentioned above, there are now CRM specialists: Klaviyo, Userfox, Customer.io, Vero, Sailthru, Totango, Evergage, Intercom.io and USERcycle. As numerous as they are efficient. On the Big Data segment, ditto. In France we have for example the very sharp TinyClues and Dataiku. The same is true for mobile, social, etc. The list would be long.

Being an established player against start-ups is normal, but what about existing references in the field of marketing automation? Hubspot or Marketo are competitors. Eloqua and Exact Target are also competitors, except that they have just integrated ecosystems that increase their power tenfold (Salesforce and Oracle...).

The "SmartFocus" shift: an attempt to return to the future?

Given what I've just explained, you'll understand that this new name is not a coincidence: it is in fact the name of a company bought by Emailvision in... June 2011. It's a bit like Facebook changing its name to "Instagram". Or Yahoo renamed itself "Tumblr". Quite original. The goal is obviously to reconnect with a spirit of innovation, to get up to speed.

That's why we notice a 360° pivot on the API strategy, the new site announces a "complete range of APIs" and a "community of developers (that) extends the SmartFocus environment by creating innovative applications". This is completely new, and we can see that they are currently recruiting for this: they are looking for a API Product Managera key role for any cloud service (I had devoted an article to it last April).

The entire email marketing industry is changing

I have focused here on the Emailvision example, but as mentioned, they are not the only ones with dilemmas. All the historical emailing players have to either expand their core business or develop value-added services focused on email.

In the first case, they are faced with players as dangerous as those who have changed the routing-delivery game. In the second case, they must either innovate quickly or develop a quality of service that sets them apart. Think of consulting: this activity can indeed generate new revenues, without disrupting the core business and the brand. Bluehornet for example, has chosen to be ultra-proactive in supporting its customers.

In the end, it is difficult to decipher the strategy behind Emailvision's move to Smartfocus. In addition to the points raised above, there is the impression that this key change was done in haste: in the first few weeks, the new site was riddled with errors, layout problems and poorly managed redirects. Even if this is only cosmetic, it questions the underlying issues. Nevertheless, the site has now been completely redesigned, and it even looks quite nice.

The word "email" has disappeared from their brand, have they also lost their "vision"? One wonders. If I had advised them on branding, I would have at least recommended them to take a name like "Smartvision": the best of both worlds in a way. When you think about it, that's what Strongmail did by becoming "Strongview". To be continued.

Image credit: Clusterternote, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license