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The Brand
Rachio’s origin began with a rainy day and the observation that even during a downpour, sprinklers kept running. With the singular mission to reduce wasteful watering through smart technology, the founding team developed both hardware and software to reduce unnecessary water waste and optimize a home’s outdoor water usage with a personalized approach to every yard. The Rachio 3, their signature smart sprinkler controller, has helped their customers save tens of billions of gallons of water all while keeping yards lush and thriving.
The Objective
SIZE's Brian Schwartz was engaged to fill the interim Chief Marketing Officer role. With a newly appointed CEO, Kim Sentovich, at the helm of Rachio, the company was ready for a redefined brand identity, vision and voice to guide them through the next phase of growth and position the business to capture emerging opportunities in the market.
The Challenge
Rachio has an impressive mission-driven origin story. The intention of this engagement and SIZE's brand work was to preserve the integrity of Rachio’s original vision while leveraging the advantages of the business, team and technology to position the brand to expand into new categories. The repositioning had to remain true to where Rachio is today but also provide vision and direction for where it can and will go.
The Approach
The SIZE team began the engagement with a multiple day immersion. Key voices from Rachio’s marketing, e-commerce, design and leadership team convened over several sessions to provide the SIZE team with insights into Rachio’s history, customers, retailers, competitors and more. The intention of the immersion was to gain a deep understanding of where the brand had been, the unique advantages that have compounded over time, and the opportunities where Rachio is well-positioned to win.
The results of the immersion were then distilled into two directives, a Brand Foundation and a Visual Language that includes a mission, positioning, customer analysis, values, key messages, brand story, brand voice, a bank of copy and a visual guide. All these elements are designed to work in tandem to to tell Rachio’s new unified story around ‘Connect Outside’. The SIZE team worked closely with Rachio to iterate and refine these documents into a master playbook that will serve as a guide to all marketers and creatives executing on the Rachio brand.
The Results
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The Rachio marketing team operated seamlessly through a leadership transition and were well positioned to welcome a new full-time CMO to lead their brand and marketing efforts. SIZE’s Executive Recruitment expert, Lara Osment led the talent search for the role and placed Aaron Pollack as the new Chief Marketing Officer at Rachio.
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Rachio is now armed with a foundational brand and visual strategy to support where they are today and where they will be able to go and win in the future.
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Rachio has a unifying brand tagline — ‘Connect Outside’ that speaks to both the technology’s ability to connect a home’s outside space to smart technology and a rallying call to action for customers to create an outside space they want to spend time in to connect with family, friends and nature.
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SIZE has been engaged to support Rachio with other expert consultants from our greater network. SIZE's Lisa Robinson and Molly Mulloy, with their Crafted team, are now handling media relations for Rachio. After repositioning the brand and creating relevant materials, they have been focused on securing top-tier national media during the company’s sales season.
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Why do you enjoy your work with SIZE?
"I enjoy partnering with SIZE when recruiting team members. Working alongside their team of advisors brings deeper market insights and a collaborative approach. Together, we deliver more tailored solutions for every role, like our search for a CMO for Rachio with a strong background in growth marketing and consumer tech—adding immense value through enhanced intelligence and expertise.”
LARA OSMENT
Talent Acquisition Advisor, SIZE
SIZE + Rachio | Interim Leadership & Brand Strategy
An industry-leading smart watering brand, Rachio, engaged SIZE's expertise to redefine their brand strategy and support a leadership transition. SIZE Advisors Brian Schwartz, Lara Osment, Molly Mulloy, and Lisa Robinson worked together to guide Rachio through an interim CMO placement, talent acquisition, and creative services, helping to launch their new brand vision, 'Connect Outside,' while maintaining operational continuity.