It Will Move Only if It Is Moving

"In today's reality, we have a wide range of marketing tools, but even the best of them are ineffective without a strong strategic foundation," says Yehuda Reznikov, CEO of the branding company RazGroup. "Companies often invest heavily in their marketing without first formulating a clear strategic identity that tells their brand's story."

Since its inception, RazGroup has positioned itself as a leader among branding, strategy and digital agencies in Israel, based on the principle of combining a distinctive brand strategy with creative and emotionally engaging ways to present it.

The RazGroup's creative and design processes are managed by Reznikov, and his partner Yossi Koren leads the company's strategic planning efforts. Over the years, their agency has earned awards and accolades for developing branding strategies for clients ranging from major corporations to high-tech startups.

"Branding is one of the most powerful tools in the business," says Koren. "Every organization needs a distinctive and clearly defined identity. If your audience can't see how your benefits are different and appreciated, they'll go to your competitor. Strong differentiation enables premium positioning. This structured yet adaptable process is true for businesses of all sizes, from startups laying foundations to established brands seeking to evolve".

The Critical Role of Branding
RazGroup's unique approach is reflected in its client list, which spans sectors and company size. It includes established institutions such as the Bank of Jerusalem, Harel Finance, Madison Pharma, real estate giant Mivne, Peregrine Ventures and MLead Ltd. (part of the Milgram Group company behind the M3 metro line), as well as hi-tech, startups like Valtech,
Cardiovalve and Innovalve, which together achieved exits totaling over five billion shekels.

"Tech entrepreneurs and R&D experts are incredibly skilled in their own domains," says Koren, "but often struggle to articulate what makes their company truly different, hamstringing efforts to raise funds and move their company forward. That's where we come in. We distill their uniqueness and translate it into a compelling and intriguing narrative."

"In competitive arenas, branding can make the difference between success or failure," says Reznikov. "Even groundbreaking innovation can get lost without a clear story. Certain clients, who are continually growing or facing critical decisions, repeatedly return to us to refine and sharpen their branding — and greatly benefit from deep thinking and strategic exploration of their current crossroads. The goal isn't necessarily to change the design or the logo, but to reevaluate strategic direction at pivotal moments."

Reznikov recalls working with a CEO, who told him: ''Our growth depends on our ability to keep evolving, not cling to ideas that worked yesterday" - a mindset that guides RazGroup.
"Branding is about far more than design and clever slogans," stresses Reznikov. "It involves a broad understanding of markets, macro-trends, changing environments, creativity and strategy. We offer our clients a complete package comprising strategic concept, brand narrative, creative direction and visual design, touching every marketing tool across platforms. Every aspect stems from the brand's authentic identity, revealed through strategic exploration of core values and market potential."

Forward-Looking Strategy: Finding What's Next
Reznikov and Koren bring decades of experience in design, visual communication and strategy to every project. A graduate in Industrial Design and Visual Communication from the Holon Institute of Technology (HIT), Reznikov founded RazGroup in 1993, and has worked extensively with tech and corporate clients. Koren, an Architecture graduate from the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design with an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, joined in 2016 after a long career in journalism, communications and corporate leadership. He is a former global VP of Corporate Communications at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, where he worked on branding, strategy and communications.

During these years working with global firms, he developed the NEXT methodology to help organizations identify 'the next big thing' in their brand identity and business conduct. "It helped me lead over 150 strategic branding projects at Teva alone," he says. It is now used at RazGroup.

This methodology involves structured interviews with internal and external stakeholders, managers to customers, focused on the key question: What's next for your brand? As well as interviews, RazGroup comprehensively analyzes the competitive landscape," explains Koren. "We cross-reference the three key players in the arena – the market, the customer and the brand, with the its three key behavioral factors: the business strategy, customer behaviour and media presence."

Visual Identity that Brings Strategy to Life
Based on the insights gathered in the search for 'the next big thing,' RazGroup helps clients define their core values. "Great branding always grows from within the organization itself," emphasizes Reznikov. "Their core values reflect the brand's components from three perspectives — rational, emotional and behavioral — and these become its foundation. One of our key principles is, if it doesn't touch emotionally, it won't touch your audience." Or as hey phrase it :– it will move only if it is moving

Reznikov integrates design and business thinking to create a holistic branding process. Once a strategy is approved, the creative team translates it into a compelling visual concept. "In every branding process, we run an internal competition between our designers to generate multiple creative interpretations, and our clients choose from the strongest ideas," he says. "It's a unique and resource-intensive process, but consistently produces excellent results. The biggest challenge for our clients is often deciding which outstanding direction to pursue!"

Redefining Identity: the Bank of Jerusalem
Two years ago, RazGroup was selected to rebrand the Bank of Jerusalem, whose identity had not been updated in decades. "This was particularly complex," says Reznikov. "The bank's official positioning was 'complementary banking' focused on investments, loans and mortgages, not checking accounts — but there was more beneath the surface."

Following in-depth interviews with 30 stakeholders — executives, marketing managers, branch managers, customers, and investors — RazGroup found the bank's real story to be very different. "We realized that 'complementary banking' didn't reflect its true identity," recalls Koren. "What characterized it was that it frequently serves clients rejected for loans or mortgages elsewhere — an ultra-Orthodox family without payslips, for example, or a cash-based Arab business. They had been told: 'Try the Bank of Jerusalem.'The Bank of Jerusalem listened to these clients, identified their dreams and helped them qualify for loans."

RazGroup's team concluded that the Bank of Jerusalem is an organization that tries fulfill dreams for people who hit a financial brick wall. Listening is part of its DNA. And this was what we presented to the bank's management. 'You're not 'complementary banking,' we told them. 'You're attentive banking.'"

Informed by this insight, RazGroup created a refreshed, modern and compelling brand for the bank, whose graphic packaging won the Israel's Brand Academy's 2024 Israel Brand Award. "As so often happens, the essence of the new brand was already within the organization," says Koren. "We helped articulate it strategically. In the year since, we've seen the bank make significant strides in public perception, and we continue to support them."

Branding That Wins Contracts: The Metro Project
Another landmark project was preparing MLEAD to compete in Israel's Metro tender — the country's largest-ever mass transit infrastructure project — planning and building the M3 metro line over the next 20 years. The MLEAD consortium comprised Mahod Engineering Ltd. (Milgam), In-Project and France's Artelia, and it needed a compelling identity to stand out in the high-stakes bidding.
"We had to build the brand from scratch," says Reznikov. "That meant creating a powerful corporate identity, defining the messaging, building the full narrative and preparing the tender presentation. For five months, our entire team worked day and night, bringing together strategic thinking, branding, industrial design and visual storytelling, and additionally translated the strategic insights into a formal tender submission for the local and international professional team. MLEAD's winning of the tender was a high point of my career."

Reznikov concludes with a message to public decisionmakers:
"Israel has world-class creative and strategic talent. There's no need to look outside the country. Keep the projects here. Trust the Israeli teams, and they'll deliver the best and most original results. That too is Zionism."

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