An association’s rebranding can better speak to evolving member groups or attract new ones. Either way, research and patience are key. 

Sometimes, finding evidence of the need for a rebranding is as simple as walking into a laundromat. 

Formed in 1960, the Coin Laundry Association has represented the interests of laundromat owners looking to serve customers who brought piles of quarters to operate their machines. But in recent years, the coin-op business has moved into payments via app, loyalty card, and credit card. Moreover, CLA membership had grown to include groups that weren’t directly in the laundromat business, including manufacturers and distributors. 

“The term ‘coin laundry’ did not capture or represent the whole industry,” says CLA Executive Vice President Danielle Bauer, CAE. 

So, in 2024, CLA staff began to explore the possibility of a rebrand. Working with the marketing agency mdg, it researched perceptions of the association within the industry. It found that while there was a lot of loyalty to CLA’s identity, its name and image presented an overly conservative vibe to those who had entered the laundry business more recently. 

It was more than ‘Should we change our name?’ It was also understanding what value we were bringing to members. 

Rhonda Clark,
Association for Accounting Marketing Executive Director

“Members who were not just new to our association but newer to the industry, they were seeing us as more old-school,” Bauer says. “A lot of people who own laundromats come from other industries—they’re in real estate, or an accountant, or an engineer, and they decided, ‘I want to be an entrepreneur.’ We wanted them to see us as a modern association that really represents their interests in the industry.” 

That focus on entrepreneurship sparked a rebranding that included a fresher, bluer, and cleaner color palette, and a slightly tweaked new name: CLA, The Laundry Association. Bauer says the CLA acronym still had a fair amount of “brand equity,” and wished to retain it. Though the letters no longer officially stand for anything, its marketing highlights three future-focused elements of its mission: “connect, learn, advocate.” 

When the new branding was introduced in 2024, CLA received pushback from some members, particularly the holdout coin-op laundromat operators, and the companies that manufacture the coin boxes for them. But most members embraced the change, and understood the virtue of showing that the industry has a bigger reach than coin-op businesses.  

“Our membership has increased slightly (since the rebrand), and I don’t know if I’d tie it to the rebrand, because we’re doing lots of other things as well,” Bauer says. “But we’re in a tough industry. Small business owners don’t see as much value in a trade association. So even getting it out there that there is a trade association for your industry, the rebrand helps with that marketing.” 

Room to Grow 

At the Association for Accounting Marketing, the rebrand shift has been subtler, responding to industry changes that are not as easy to see at a glance. AAM was founded to support those in marketing and event-planning at accounting firms, but in recent years the scope of those jobs has become broader and more complex. 

“We were seeing that the roles of our members were evolving,” says AAM Executive Director Rhonda Clark. “They were helping  help shape firm strategy. They were driving growth. They were strengthening client relationships, and they were influencing the direction of their firms.” In the meantime, she adds, the association was also attracting members from the business development side of  the accounting world that provide support for those shifting roles, prompting AAM to develop more programming for them. 

So, in 2025, following a board discussion, AAM brought on a branding consultancy, Graphek, to connect with members and explore a rebrand that better reflected those shifts.  

“The whole first part of the rebrand was conducting a brand assessment and gathering input from our members and key stakeholders through surveys,” Clark says. “It was more than ‘Should we change our name?’ That was part of it, but it was also understanding what value we were bringing to members—do you see the benefit, do you feel that membership should be expanded to include these other roles? And the research strongly indicated yes, our members felt that way.” 

The outcome of that effort, announced in May at its annual conference, is a new name: Association for Accounting Growth, which the association will formally adopt in December.  

Clark says she is hopeful that the rebranding will serve the dual purpose of speaking to current members in marketing roles at accounting firms, while also showing that it can welcome and support a broader range of members. 

“We want our current members, our marketing community, to continue to see themselves as an important part of this organization,” she says. “But the intention is also to grow and expand membership. We want to see more business-development folks coming on board, people working in client experience, and chief growth officers.” 

Clark stresses the importance of patience during the process, noting that AAG’s board spent a year in discussions about a rebrand before deciding to explore it. 

“It’s a process, and you need to be thoughtful and mindful about it,” she says. “Even before you begin thinking about engaging with an agency, you need to have conversations with your board, your key stakeholders, and your members.” 

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