Rest Industry Super launches new brand

Consumers feeling disengaged from super funds has led Retail Employees Superannuation Trust (REST) Industry Super to launch a new brand, now to be known as Rest.

The rebranding is part of a wider customer-led strategic direction for Rest, which will include a significant CX focus.

Rest general manager brand, marketing and communications, Mary Atley, said the new brand experience principles inform every aspect of the customer experience as they work towards its strategic direction.

"The fund has been transforming for quite some time, we've changed the way we operate, how we engage with our customers, we've got a great focus on CX and driving a great CX, and we've also made significant investment in technology, and in our services and offerings," Atley told CMO.

"The old visual identity didn’t reflect the organisation we are today. We are delivering a new brand to signal to the market we have transformed as a fund, to better reflect our brand personality: straightforward, optimistic, and encouraging."

Atley said it has involved 12 months of hard work, featuring co-creation and customer-centred design workshops, to discover what customers are looking for in a super fund. The company worked with branding agency, Principals, on the refresh.

"Super is a disengaged category; customers are looking for a partner in a super fund, a fund which is optimistic, encouraging and supportive, and straightforward and honest. Findings from the co-creation workshops have helped to create the brand personality and brand experience principles we will be delivering," she said.

The launch of the brand is the beginning a huge program of work for Rest in the next 12-18 months to deliver the desired brand experience through all partners and vendors, to ensure consistent customer experiences.

Rest launched a new app in November, and they have a new CEO starting at the end of May. They also just launched Google Home. 

This follows Rest revitalising its VoC program last year by implementing the MaritzCX platform, including advanced text analytics with Spotlight data mining and case management, to address a pressing challenge of a lack of visibility into critical touchpoints of the customer experience journey and gain deeper insights into the voice of the customer.

"Our strategic direction will align from a branding and CX perspective. We will also be ensuring we maintain our performance as a super fund," Atley explained.

"We have a huge data transformation project happening at the same time, in order to gain a better understanding and knowledge of our customers through data and insights. We use MaritzCX, a customer service platform that supports our VoC program, and we also use Marketo, which we're optimising to create one-to-one experiences with our customers across different touchpoints.

"We launched a new website the year before last, and we have the chatbots and AI on the website. We have a whole lot of innovations happening, so we work very closely with service and marketing to drive communication and responses to all of our touchpoints so customers are serviced appropriately.

"From cultural and brand experience perspective, we’re driving the right experience internally and externally as well," she said.

The new brand experience promise is built around motivating people to keep their super savings in good shape. This major brand repositioning is the first undertaken since Rest was founded for members in 1988. A new logo and visual identity support the change.

Rest interim CEO, Andrew Howard, said the new brand was about the fund’s evolution and response to customer expectations and needs.
 
"We’ve listened to our customers and are continuing to refine our offering to meet the increased demand for brand experiences that are real, convenient and connected," he said.
 
“Our members have asked for a super fund that helps make it easier for them to connect with us and to keep their super in good shape. Rest’s new brand reflects the evolution in how we interact across a multitude of channels. These include our new and enhanced digital options like the Live Chat function on our website, interactive online member statements, and the Rest app with an industry leading in-app messenger."
 
The brand identity and graphic was launched on April 4 and will be supported by a media buy during the Commonwealth Games as well as outdoor, digital, and cinema.

Established in 1988, Rest was originally the superannuation fund for retail employees, but now accepts members from all occupations and industries. As of December 2017, the fund had around two million members and $50 billion in funds under management.

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