Zipline has come a long way from humble beginnings as a Communication Manager’s idea: Today, we’ve transformed how retail operates by making it easier for employees to do their jobs (and love their work!). Now that we power over 60 of the world’s best known brands, we decided it was time for a brand overhaul. In the interview below, our Content Team talks about how Zipline’s new brand comes to life through the written word.

Emily Lane, Head of Content

Briana Loëb, Content Marketing Manager

How does the new brand reflect the mission of Zipline?

Em: Zipline is all about improving the lives of retail workers. We have a saying: “The product isn’t the thing that you build, the product is the impact you have on the people who use it.” That’s why I love our new brand – it’s completely people-centric. The imagery is based around photography of real people in authentic situations. Similarly, our voice and tone is rooted in real, conversational language. We speak like real people, not a corporation. That makes Zipline a great brand to write for.

How would you describe the “personality of Zipline”

Bri: Fun! I think our love of emojis and GIFs makes that clear. 😉I’d say our personality is also very positive and celebratory. When our customers succeed, we want everybody to know about it. Our goal is to make the customer the hero, focus on the improvements they’ve made and the stories they can tell – instead of talking about ourselves.

What do you consider when you’re creating content on behalf of Zipline?

Em: Empathy is always at the center of everything we write at Zipline, whether it’s a blog post, an email, website copy, a social media post, or even a job description. Zipline is unique because it was created by people in the retail trenches, which means we’ve walked in our customers’ shoes and know the communication struggle inside and out. We’re not here to preach or lecture. When we speak to our customers and prospects (and employees, too!) they need to know our message comes from an authentic place. That’s why before writing anything we really try to put ourselves in the audience’s position and use language and terms that they’re familiar with. For instance, if we’re writing for a Store Manager audience, we might throw in retail-centric phrases like “holiday hiring” or “POG resets” to let them know we’ve been there, we know what they’re going through, and we can get on their level.

What’s your favorite part of the new rebranding? Or what’s your favorite content piece that you’ve been a part of/that you’re proud of?

Bri: We’ve started to bring the internal culture of Zipline front-and-forward. Our website not only features our internal company values, but now also highlights the way some of our employees work (remotely, of course!). The people who make up our company are all very mission-driven and are what make Zipline such a great place to work, so I’m excited to see us highlight them more externally as we build out our employment brand.

Em: One of the projects I tackled as part of the rebranding was our overview video. This is sometimes a prospect’s very first impression of who we are and what we do, so we knew we had to get it right. I really love where we landed – it’s informative and upbeat with just the right amount of quirk, and the message is still rooted in empathy: “we’ve walked in your shoes.”

What’s next for the Zipline Brand?

Bri: I think formally dropping the “Retail” from our name is a hint. We’ll never move away from retail (it’s where we started, after all!) but moving forward we’re going to look at ways we can be more inclusive of all the built-industry companies that we can help. What we’re finding is that retail is the gold standard for field organizations and Zipline works for even the most complex field hierarchies. We’re already working with construction companies, hospitality companies and non-profits. It’s a really exciting time to be at Zipline!