“Summit Corp. of America” re-brands as “Summit Plating”

“Summit Corp. of America” re-brands as “Summit Plating”

 Summit Corporation of America re-brands as “Summit Plating”

Summit Corporation of America’ rebranding was inspired by a desire to keep pace with contemporary “less is more” communication standards.” At first, rebranding to simply “Summit Plating” was met with mixed emotions from management. There was a lot of pride and respect associated with the established identity that our founder, Leonard Foster, had given to this globally recognized commercial electroplating company.

After careful analysis, we concluded that the growth and success Summit plating has experienced throughout the years was is part die to our ability to maintain forward thinking. With today’s multi-media communications constantly evolving and competing, we decided we should apply our “keep-one-step-ahead”  philosophy to our branding as well. To that end, brevity and clarity became Summit’s rebranding goals.

Summit Plating. Our name didn’t change, it evolved.

We have always been casually referred to by clients and colleagues as simply “Summit.” And the word “Plating” is universally associated with the Electroplating process. Our website URL was updated a while ago to “SummitPlating.com” to make it easier to discover our service value through internet searches. So in many ways, our branding change was really a branding evolution.

A simple logo image that conveys the letter “S,” and also hints at other relevant plating-related images.

At the beginning of the “logo redesign” process, we envisioned a graphic solution that would communicate exactly what Summit does. However, because we offer so many different types of industrial plating, focusing on just service one became problematic. Especially considering we wanted to focus on image simplicity. After reviewing a number of concept studies, our Marketing Design team came up with an image that provided true versatility. An Icon that invited viewers to interpret its meaning.

Initial comments regarding the new logo were overwhelmingly positive. Everyone saw the letter “S”  for Summit. Upon further examination, onlookers inquiries  included:

“is it the top of a mountain… as in the summit?”
“Is in an image of Gold and Silver Electroplated wire which Summit is globally acclaimed for?”
“is it a before-and-after representation of a part being gold plated?”
“does it represent selective Gold and Silver plating?”
“Is it a support bracket lowering a loose part into a plating solution?”
“Is it Electroplated Parts within an electric circuit board?”

The  answer to each one of these questions is…“YES!”

“Electroplating to Perform” A tagline with a purpose: to emphasize ours!

Marketing “best practices” dictate a company tagline should be 4 words or less. A tagline’s first purpose should be to emphasize a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) — to explain, clarify, or reference an element that sets a company apart from competition. A secondary purpose is to communicate related information in a way that engages and appeals to relevant viewer demographics.

Many plating companies concentrate on applying coatings to enhance part appearance. The industrial electroplating solutions that Summit Plating offers go well beyond that value. Our focus is on achieving exact characteristics that insure specified performance enhancement for industrial applications—and also on consistently delivering those performance characteristics throughout a plating program. We accomplish both these things by carefully monitoring a plating program using advanced Quality Assurance technologies. These include Lab testing of base material composition and characteristics, electroplating thickness measurements, tensile characteristic testing, hardness testing, electrical conductivity testing, and more.

Summit Electroplating solutions are designed to first and foremost enhance performance. So we think our new tagline, Electroplating to Perform, perfectly summarizes the true advantages of Summit Plating’s Industrial Electroplating!