Twitter founder and ex-CEO Jack Dorsey founded Square in 2009. As a start-up, Square revolutionised the way that small businesses were able to take card payments. From their simple and sleek approach to product design to their ability to understand their customer’s needs. Square empowered small business owners and won their loyalty in the process.

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In 2021, Dorsey announced the rebrand of Square Inc. to Block as a new corporate identity that will “create room for further growth.” Square will still exist, just under a new holding name. Let’s take a deep dive into what this brand restructuring means as well as take a closer look at what made the Square brand successful in the first place.

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Niche target marketing:

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When Square started out, their initial marketing strategy was simple - start with the lowest hanging fruit. They targeted local vendors who were tech-savvy and were already using social media to market their products and services. This was a great place to start as these groups were more likely to be open to using a tech product like Square to take payments.

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They niched down, targeting specific small businesses such as beauty shops and food services, engaging with highly-targeted publications related to each target audience as well as local publications.

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Square knew their audience, they knew that small local business owners were more likely to engage with local or industry publications rather than engage with high-level press like Wall Street Journal or TechCrunch. This helped them get the word out about Square and kept the brand focused on their target audience.

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As a product, Square was solving a major problem that small vendors had no other solution for at the time. The ease of its system accompanied by its aesthetically pleasing, eye-catching design made the product simple to adopt and scale. Along with customer testimonial and word of mouth marketing, which we’ll discuss later, Square was able to grow quickly and use that as leverage to broker partnerships with established brands like Apple, Visa and Starbucks, further adding the brand’s social proof.

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Customer stories:

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Square’s customer stories were at the centre of its brand strategy as the success of small businesses powered the Square brand. Customer stories were used for social posts, blog content and shared with reporters to build out press packages.

These stories served as powerful anecdotes showcasing the positive change that the product had on the small businesses they served. When a customer shared their experiences about how Square helped them increase their revenue and scale their business to multiple chains in various locations - it showed a wider audience that Square as a company is a force to be reckoned with.

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As a company that was the first to make a product of its kind, they were able to use their positive word of mouth and record of customer success stories to stay ahead of the competition and maintain a great brand reputation.

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Press and Content marketing:

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Another way that Square increased its brand awareness was through press articles [link]. They recognised that getting good press coverage required building good relationships with reporters and publications as well as pre-packaging a press-worthy story.

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According to the ex-Director of Product Communication and Marketing at Square, this includes ‘providing executive quotes, customer testimonials, product imagery and related statistics (Square often shares data about small businesses, for instance).’. She emphasised that by packaging your story in this way to a reporter who has already shown interest in your business, your chances of getting a positive story vastly increased.

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In addition to press, Square hosts a business resource centre on their website called ‘Town Square’,  aligning with their purpose of empowering smaller businesses through payments. Town Square encompasses blog content, guides, webinars and research all of which are directed at small businesses who want to grow their business.

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Customer listening:

When it comes to understanding the needs of your customer, Square is an excellent example.

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When Square noticed that beauty shops were one of the company’s fastest-growing customer bases, it launched its appointment management tool. They then used this to gather testimonials from salons owners that use Square about how the feature impacted their business. From the beginning, Square knew that they had really understood the customer in order to create the best products for them.

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Through repeating this process of customer listening they were able to diversify their complementary services, as well as bring out new services that cover the entire ecosystem of needs for their customer. Square now offers a range of services from employee-management software, small-business loans and even marketing training and software.

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Rebrand to create a new overarching ecosystem:

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Similarly to Meta, Square rebranded to Block.

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Block says the new name “acknowledges the company’s growth” and will act as “an overarching ecosystem” – or corporate brand.

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There seems to be a recurring trend of unicorn tech companies of the 2010s restructuring their internal brand architecture to make space for their projects that will compete in the next digital economy. The Block brand will include music streaming service Tidal, Cash App, TBD and Square.

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“[Block] has many associated meanings,” it says. “Building blocks, neighbourhood blocks and their local businesses, communities coming together at block parties full of music, a blockchain, a section of code, and obstacles to overcome.” - Block announcement.

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The name Block clearly emphasises the brand’s growing interest towards Web 3 technologies like blockchain and exploring new economic territory.

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“Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy.” Jack Dorsey.

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Changing a company name is always strategic and by distancing the brand from the Square name -  its core product - could indicate that Dorsey has a bigger project up his sleeve.

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What we can learn from this:

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• Customer listening - Focus on your customer’s needs and build a product around them. When you continuously solve a problem for your customer, you can be sure that you’re creating a great product. Your customers will begin to associate your brand with value and will increase brand affinity.

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• Testimonials -  Testimonials not only ensure social proof for your brand but it is also useful for a press opportunity and investors. Testimonials allow you to show that your product is making a positive impact.

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• Start with your lowest hanging fruit - Even if you think your product is for everybody, start small. Really niche down and think about who you can capture right now with the resources you currently have and use this small group to optimise your marketing strategy.

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• Brand architecture - When taking your business in a new direction think about how you can restructure your brand in a way that is authentic and still connects with your audience. Think about the meaning behind this change, what your new brand represents and its values. This is not always an easy task and should be made with care - see Meta.

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Next: Meta’s rebrand breakdown.

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