Today, the alphabet soup of NAPL/NAQP/AMSP, one of our favorite industry associations, is getting rid of the unwieldy name generated by a series of mergers and acquisitions in favor of brand-new branding as Epicomm. I spoke with Ken Garner, CEO of Epicomm, to learn more about the what and the why.

The Why

It’s been more than a year since the acquisition of AMSP by NAPL/NAQP and even longer since NAQP joined the mix. Garner reports that one of the reasons rebranding took some time is the Association’s desire to be sensitive to the strong emotional ties members had to each of the individual brands. “We were actually hoping that members would raise the rebranding issue,” he says, “asking us to create a new, fresh brand that unifies and aligns what were at one point three independent trade associations, and that’s exactly what happened.”

The rebranding work, which was conducted with outside professional help from third-party expert AMP, began in September and followed a very aggressive timeline, with the work being completed in December in plenty of time for today’s announcement at the organization’s Executive Leadership Summit being held in conjunction with EFI Connect in Las Vegas.

“We conducted a lot of interviews with members, board members and staff, giving them an opportunity to participate in the process,” Garner explains. “This is the second rebranding I have gone through in four years, and I’d rather not have to repeat the process. It is a dynamic and fast-changing market, and we needed something that could withstand that change as the industry mission, vision or member segments might change in the future, and we also needed something aspirational that would appeal both to our existing members and the next generation of leadership as well.”

The What

Enter Epicomm. This name was chosen from a final list of about a half dozen options, according to Garner. “The board selected Epicomm with a high degree of unanimous enthusiasm,” he says, “And then the roll-out work got underway. We will arrive at the Executive Leadership Summit as alphabet soup and emerge at the end of the first day as Epicomm. Rebranding of our web site, our community forum and more is launching simultaneous with the announcement.”

Garner points out that Epicomm, in the opinion of the board, is a name that can last for a long time, but the organization will still have the opportunity to fine-tune the branding with the tagline, should it need a slightly different focus. The current tagline is Association for leaders in print, mail, fulfillment and marketing services. “That says a lot,” he adds. “It says that the association is focused on leadership in the industry and very specifically lays out the practitioner and service provider focus areas of the member segments we serve. While Epicomm might be a big vague, the combination of the two is very specific.”

According to Garner, Epicomm is a combination of Epic – something aspirational, the pinnacle, the best; and communications to identify the focus of that aspiration identification. “Communications can be print,” he says, “but it is broader than just print. It encompasses what we want to be and who we are at the same time.”

Welcome Epicomm! We wish you well.