Hybrid teams everywhere know how difficult it can be to manage office space and meeting rooms when team members are constantly popping in and out—a problem that Kadence, an intelligent workplace platform, set out to solve.
According to TechCrunch, Kadence reduces office space by 68% while increasing the number of employees coming into the office to collaborate by 25% month over month—translating into more efficient use of resources.
It’s a huge achievement for a startup that began life as Chargifi (networked wireless charging) and was forced to pivot when the pandemic hit.
The new name and current branding have helped Kadence grow to where it is today—but are they up to the task of global expansion?
We put the Kadence brand under the spotlight to see how it stands up against its competitors and propose some branding strategies to help Kadence achieve its business goals.
Let’s dive in.
Analysis: Kadence’s competitive landscape
Driven by the pandemic-induced shift to hybrid working, the space management software market is growing at 15% CAGR, and will be worth $2.2 billion by 2027, according to research by Verdantix,.
These figures indicate that there will be more opportunities for businesses in the space management industry to grow in the coming years—and strong branding will be essential for any company that wants to get ahead of its competitors.
Key players in the space include Tactic, Robin, Envoy, and Skedda. Compared with these competitors, Kadence is currently only winning 1% of organic traffic, with Envoy taking the lion’s share at 47%.
Let’s take a look at these competitors to see how branding may be contributing to their growth and success.
1. Kadence vs. Tactic
Compared to Kadence, Tactic has a lower authority score, ranks for fewer keywords, and has fewer backlinks and referring domains.
Despite this, Tactic’s organic traffic is nearly five times higher than Kadence’s, and its paid traffic costs are significantly lower.
Perhaps most telling of all: 96% of Tactic’s traffic is branded, compared to just 3% of Kadence’s.
This means that while Kadence is ranking for non-branded keywords, Tactic has invested heavily in brand awareness (possibly with the support of PR or out-of-home campaigns), positioning itself as the industry equivalent of a household name.
2. Kadence vs. Robin
Robin rakes in 19% of organic traffic share among these five key players, ranking for more than 10x more keywords and welcoming over 10x more organic traffic to its website than Kadence.
Although Robin’s branded traffic is significantly lower than Tactic’s, at 15%, it’s still more than Kadence’s.
In early 2023, Robin announced the launch of its new visual identity, including a new logo and color palette, to align with its vision of shaping the future of hybrid work.
This rebranding process, alongside other brand awareness efforts, is likely to have contributed to Robin’s organic branded traffic.
3. Kadence vs. Skedda
Skedda comes in second place, with 27% of the total organic traffic. With an authority score of 43, over 17,000 organic keywords, and over 500,000 backlinks, its website receives more than 50,000 organic clicks each month.
Like Tactic, a significant portion (80%) of Skedda’s organic traffic comes from branded searches, pointing to a solid brand strategy.
4. Kadence vs. Envoy
Envoy is the clear market leader in the space management software sector, taking 47% of the organic traffic.
Although non-branded keywords make up just 33% of its organic traffic, they total 31,263 compared to Kadence’s 2,474. Additionally, 67% of Envoy’s organic traffic is branded, indicating that it’s invested heavily in branding.
To position itself as a challenger brand in this competitive industry, Kadence will need strong brand positioning that makes it synonymous with workplace management and appeals to global audiences.
We’ll examine how you might do this below. But first, let’s answer the question…
Why should Kadence rebrand?
“Refreshing Kadence’s image and modernizing its identity will position it better for global expansion,” says Danielle Clarke,” a UK-based brand strategist and consultant whose clients include ŠKODA, Gtech, UK Biocentre, Healthful Mind Clinic, and GIRLvsCANCER.
She points to the example of Zapier, a popular automation tool, which rebranded in 2019 to better reflect its mission and values. In 2020-21, Zapier’s revenue reportedly increased by 50% YoY, and its user base grew to over two million active users in 2021.
Getting a fresh new look may just be the worst-kept secret in B2B SaaS: in 2023, a whopping 92% of B2B websites implemented a visual uplift to improve conversion rates—and Kadence shouldn’t get left behind.
Slack—a leader in the hybrid and remote work space—understands the importance of a strong and meaningful visual brand. In 2019, it underwent a visual brand uplift to create a more cohesive visual identity.
The resulting Slack logo is a speech bubble disguised as an octothorpe (hashtag), representing Slack’s mission to facilitate communication and collaboration among teams. The incorporation of the octothorpe gives the logo both a modern feel and continuity with Slack’s old logo.
So, what about Kadence?
Kadence already has a strong visual brand, with bold colors and a well-designed website, so we would suggest giving it an uplift rather than a full-on makeover.
According to Danielle, a brand refresh will help Kadence “align with its current values, mission, and offerings, as things will have changed since its launch during COVID.”
Kadence’s new offerings since then include Kadence Flex, which provides flexible office space booking for distributed teams, and Kadence AI, an assistant that can save team members time by automatically booking meeting rooms.
Incorporating these elements into the brand’s visual identity and value proposition could help Kadence stand out as a leading innovator in the workplace management industry.
Positioning Kadence as a global brand
Ultimately, hitting the reset button on the Kadence brand will help it “reconnect with its audience, clarify messaging, and strengthen market presence,” according to Danielle. This will also strengthen its global expansion plans.
Countries like the US and UK might be leading the way when it comes to hybrid work, but with talent becoming increasingly global, demand for hybrid working services and office space is growing rapidly in other regions.
For instance, 72% of companies in Latin America have adopted a hybrid work model, while in Europe, the figure is 54%.
To successfully serve these new markets, Kadence would benefit from a rebrand that takes into account geographical, cultural, and demographic considerations beyond its native US user base.
“Being culturally sensitive and ensuring brand language, imagery, and tone are on point is super important,” explains Danielle.
Appealing to a broader global audience requires an inclusive approach to branding, as diversity goes hand-in-hand with flexible and hybrid work. One way to do this would be to highlight how Kadence will adapt to diverse work environments and cultures and showcase its own diversity as a company.
From a technical perspective, this could look like having a flexible website infrastructure that allows for easy creation and management of regional sub-pages.
Such a structure would allow Kadence to create regional sub-pages with localized content tailored to each market. For example, a page dedicated to Latin American users can feature content that resonates with cultural preferences, trends, and interests specific to that region.
Additionally, this flexible structure would allow for language customization, offering sub-pages in the region’s dominant languages, such as Spanish and Portuguese for Latin America. It also facilitates the incorporation of culturally relevant visual elements, like colors and symbols, that appeal to local audiences.
Finally, regional sub-pages would allow Kadence to run marketing campaigns, offers, and promotions tailored to cultural preferences, which will help boost engagement and drive brand awareness.
Rebranding Kadence: 3 strategic recommendations
Based on the analyses above, here are our strategic recommendations for a Kadence brand uplift.
1. Develop strong brand positioning around team dynamics
Our research unearthed a keyword opportunity around “team dynamics”—a term that visitors to Kadence and competitor websites are searching for variations of in large volumes.
Kadence can capture much of this traffic by positioning itself as a brand that helps teams improve their internal dynamics in a variety of ways—for example, through the new Home Dashboard that launched in 2023 with features designed to improve collaboration and boost productivity, such as “Starred Colleagues,” “My Office Activity,” and “My Schedule.”
This new strategic direction would set the stage for a new brand positioning statement that emphasizes Kadence’s commitment to enhancing team collaboration and productivity, solidifying its reputation as an essential tool for modern, dynamic work environments.
2. Uplift the visual brand
When it comes to Kadence’s visual brand, Danielle recommends crafting “a logo and brand identity that are modern, versatile, and reflect the core essence of the brand.”
Nate Smith, our lead designer, suggests that a light-touch uplift will provide a more consistent brand experience across all channels—which is essential for building brand trust, according to 77% of marketers.
The new logo should incorporate symbols that resonate with Kadence’s mission and values, making it both visually appealing and deeply meaningful, like the new Robin logo that clearly represents a seating plan or the Hubble logo that’s shaped like a chair under a desk.
Our design team put together some logo concepts for Kadence that aim to capture the brand’s innovative spirit while incorporating elements that represent space management.
These concepts have a playful feel to them that would make the Kadence brand come across as a little less corporate and a little more personal, helping you stand out from your competitors.
3. Incorporate interactive and user-centric web design
“The Kadence website should be intuitive and highly responsive,” says Nate. “Adding interactive demos and animations would make it more engaging and dynamic,” he adds, pointing to Robin’s demo video on its homepage as a good example.
Nate also highlights Hubble as a best-in-class space management website that puts the end user’s needs front and center, with booking buttons clearly visible at the top of the homepage. This makes it easy for existing Hubble users to do what they came to do without searching through the navigation menu.
Additionally, the copy clearly communicates Hubble’s services, who they’re for, and the benefits of using the platform. Combined with photography of real people and workspaces, this gives the website a personal look and human touch, despite being a large corporation. There are even photos of the customer support team!
Adding similar features to the Kadence website will complement and strengthen your new brand identity and encourage visitors to interact with your brand, ultimately leading to more conversions.
Kadence: let’s get you ready for growth
Kadence—let’s weigh up your options for a moment. You can leave the brand as it is and try to expand into new markets without differentiating from the competition or gaining an understanding of your target market’s needs.
Or you can follow in the footsteps of successful companies that understood when a rebrand was needed to meet new business goals — like Pepper, a platform that describes itself as “Shopify, but for the food service industry.”
We designed and launched a new website in record time so they could wow customers at an upcoming industry event.
Will Kadence be the next B2B branding success story?
Book a free rebranding strategy session with our branding team, and let’s find out.
