Stewarding a deeply lived brand through its next phase
The Moment in Time
Brand arc: Evolve
Context: 20-year legacy brand with a deeply lived culture
Ruby was a rare case. The brand was strong, clearly articulated, and genuinely lived inside the organization. People knew what Ruby stood for and why it mattered. That clarity showed up everywhere, from how teams worked together to how the company showed up in the market.
Internally, Ruby was thoughtful, values-led, and human. The culture reflected inclusivity, care for people, and a clear sense of purpose. Externally, however, the brand expression had not kept pace with who the company had become.
The visual identity leaned heavily on mid-century nostalgia. What once felt warm and distinctive was beginning to feel dated and less representative of Ruby’s role as the leading CX SaaS company serving small business owners.
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The Disconnect
Nothing about Ruby’s culture or core brand was broken.
The tension was that the external brand began to feel dated. It read less modern and less inclusive than the company actually was. That gap mattered because Ruby’s customers experience the brand from the outside first.
Ruby had already invested in a rebrand, but the visual system and its execution were not deeply thought through. It lacked the depth and breadth needed to hold up across touchpoints and channels. That made it hard to lock the brand in and be cohesive. Teams stayed in a constant cycle of testing and tweaking instead of building consistent momentum.
The risk wasn’t a weak brand. It was a strong brand being undersold by an external expression that did not fully reflect its values or its personality as a SaaS company.
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The Shift
The decision was to evolve Ruby’s external expression with more rigor and intention, without disturbing what was already working internally.
The work focused on building a clearer, more cohesive system, anchored in Ruby’s customer promise. Ruby is a B2B SaaS company, but the value it delivers to small business owners is deeply human. Peace of mind. Professionalism. A stronger connection with their own customers. Grounding the brand in that promise helped shape an expression that felt more inclusive, more relevant, and true to the experience Ruby actually delivered.
The goal was to establish a point of view the brand could stand on, so execution could build instead of constantly being reconsidered.
When Nicole started at Ruby, it was so clear that she had a brand vision for leaning into the SMB community in new ways that would ultimately secure Ruby as the premier service in market.
Rebecca Grimes, Chief Revenue Officer