Five lessons from our brand strategy partnership with Rivian

When Parliament partnered with Rivian , the electric vehicle brand was a blank slate. They had spent seven years working in garages and warehouses, and our collaboration was designed to create the company’s coming-out party.

Reflecting on our partnership, we identified five insights that emerged from our work to determine what they needed to communicate and how. See if any of these are helpful as you form a stronger connection with your audience.

1. Translate your internal vernacular into effective brand messaging 

   1. As a company flush with engineering minds, Rivian had developed an internal vernacular that, while precise, could have been more fit for connecting with the average consumer. One of the earliest challenges we had to solve for Rivian was translating this specialized engineering language into consumer-friendly storytelling. 

   2. Here’s an example. During our work together, some brilliant team members fought to replace the word divide with bifurcate because it was more accurate. Mind you, the copy in question was consumer-facing. While bifurcate may, in fact, be precise, it would not resonate with Rivian’s target audience. 

   3. We developed a lexicon as part of Rivian’s messaging framework. The tool translated Rivian’s internal vernacular into consumer-friendly terms. For example, the company might internally say, level 5 autonomy. However, they should use something like fully autonomous for external copy because it’s more meaningful to customers. Again, it may not be as precise, but it’s certainly more relevant.

   4. The words you choose in your messaging create worlds. You must honor that by choosing appropriate language for your brand and the audience you’re shaping the world for.

2. Don’t settle for industry norms when introducing innovation

   1. You face a unique challenge when your product defies traditional categories. How do you describe something that doesn’t fit established industry labels or terminology?

   2. Despite Rivian offering a flatbed vehicle, its CEO/founder found it difficult to use the term truck or pickup even internally. The terms carried a lot of baggage—especially when a significant percentage of his team has a history of designing trucks for Ram, Ford, and Chevy. In traditional truck spaces, the terms conjures images of bloated duallies in fields with hay thrown in their beds, or workers in muddy boots bound for construction sites. These are valid uses for trucks, but they didn’t align with Rivian’s vision for their vehicles. And just by saying truck, that baggage was being brought into the building.

   3. We needed to reframe how Rivian’s team and customers thought about these vehicles, arriving at Electric Adventure Vehicles (EAVs). This new terminology differentiated Rivian from traditional trucks while emphasizing the brand’s still-rugged aspects. 

   4. The EAV moniker wasn’t just a marketing gimmick. It reframed and aligned the Rivian’s internal team on how to think about their vehicles. It freed them from the mental picture we all make when we hear pickup.

   5. What’s the lesson? Don’t allow industry norms to constrain your product. If your offering doesn’t fit neatly into existing categories, create a new one that reflects your vision. At the least, it might liberate your team. Best case scenario: it also resonates with your audience. 

3. Delegate through clear strategic and brand documentation

   1. As your company grows, you’ll face a common challenge: how do you scale without losing your focus? That special thing that sets you apart?

   2. Being hands-on with every decision might be manageable when you’re managing a small team. But as you scale, maintaining a hyper-control becomes unsustainable.

   3. This was a key hurdle for Rivian’s founder, who found it difficult to oversee every detail as the team expanded from a few dozen folks to thousands. Time is a finite resource, whether you’re a founder, CEO, or marketing manager. You have more valuable ways to spend your time than diving into the weeds rewriting product copy.

   4. article 7m read

      There are five types of CEOs. Which is right for your company? Read the article

      

   5. In concert with their rapidly expanding team, we developed a comprehensive brand platform rooted in the founding vision. We spent a lot of one-on-one time with their CEO/founder, translating his vision and articulating it in a way that provided actionable guidance to his entire team. The documentation facilitated and encouraged delegation and served as a shareable compass for the organization. 

   6. Hiring teams could now recruit people who connected with how Rivian runs their business, and the brand team could now make decisions aligned with the founder’s vision with much less of his direct input. By investing in this strategic documentation, you’re building a foundation for scalable growth. 

4. In-person connection is vital to brand development

   1. Virtual meetings have become the norm, but there’s no substitute for face-to-face interaction when it comes to understanding a business. Our experience with Rivian underscored this point emphatically.

   2. By visiting their office, manufacturing facility, and test track, we gained invaluable insights that simply couldn’t be conveyed through a screen. This firsthand experience doesn’t just show you a product—it immerses you in the reality of the brand and its business. This level of understanding was a priceless way for our team to truly develop a belief in what Rivian was doing.

   3. While remote collaboration has its place, don’t underestimate the power of in-person experiences. It pays dividends in the form of richer understanding, greater trust, stronger partnerships, and ultimately more effective work.

5. Craft different messaging strategies for multiple stakeholders

   1. As your brand grows, you need to develop a message that connects with an expanding and diverse array of stakeholders. This was a key challenge with Rivian. Their messaging needed to resonate with more than potential customers. It also needed to connect with potential investors and supply chain partners.

   2. You must tailor your message to each audience while maintaining a cohesive brand identity. For Rivian, this meant developing distinct yet interconnected narratives for each stakeholder group.

   3. For example, supply chain management is a critical part of the end product in auto manufacturing. These vendor partners don’t want to hear the same marketing language you give consumers. It’s irrelevant to them. However, they want to know if your product is on track and whether you will deliver on time.

   4. The key is to create a messaging framework that allows for flexibility without losing the essence of your brand. This approach ensures that communications about your fundamental values and vision remain consistent whether you’re speaking to a potential customer, an investor, or a supplier.

Transform your vision into an engaging brand 

Navigating the complexities of brand transformation and development might require a specialized partner. From developing accessible language frameworks to reframing industry norms, the right agency can help you articulate your unique value proposition. 

With the right partnership, you can transform that expertise into a brand story showcasing your innovations and creating a message that deeply connects with the audiences you need to meet your business goals. If this approach sounds like it will help your brand, we should talk .