Brand OverKill – Windquest

WindQuest is a racing sailboat owned by Dick DeVos, of Amway fame.  Amazingly, this sailboat has been the inspiration for numerous companies mostly owned by the DeVos family.  It is interesting to see how this boat has become a branding tool for the family.  In my opinion. consistently branding unrelated companies with the same name dilutes the brand and can lead to confusion in the marketplace.

Let’s take a look of all the WindQuest branded companies in the DeVos portfolio:

• Windquest – Is a MaxZ 86 boat, owned by Dick DeVos.  Dick along with his brother Doug race the Windquest in various races, including the Race to Mackinac Island, winning it in 2007, and placing 3^rd in their division in 2008.
• The Stow Company – Formerly named Windquest, the Stow Company is a home organization company, selling closet, garage, pantry, entertainment center, and other home organization solutions for the home.  They wisely rebranded in May 2010, by changing their name from something that conjures up images of sails, and boating accessories (things this company does not manufacture), to a word which defines exactly what home organization is all out “Stowing all your stuff, neatly and orderly in your house.”  This company has been in business in 25 years, and just recently celebrated that annivesary.  I wonder if they just got tired of people calling them asking them for sails.
• Windquest Building – This is a building owned by the DeVos family, at 201 Monroe in Grand Rapids.  This building was rebranded from the  River City Building to Windquest building (bet you couldn’t see that one coming).  Now a building is one item that seems to be the total opposite image of Windquest, it’s a building, its stationary, its mostly impervious to winds.    This building has recently been remodeled, and redesigned, most likely to do with the renaming of the building.  Wonder if a bottle of champagne was broken on the façade of the building.  This building also houses the Windquest group (surprised yet?) which we will cover shortly.  Additionally it also houses Pomegranate Studios, a business incubator owned by Rick DeVos (son of Dick DeVos) which launched Spout.com and ArtPrize.  It also houses another Rick DeVos group Momentum, a venture firm investing in internet startups.  Lastly a new wine bar called Reserve owned by the Dick and his wife Betsy DeVos opened up on the ground floor.  In case you ever wondered what happened to Spout.com, a movie focused social media venture which was founded by Rick DeVos, it was acquired by SnagFilms in May 2010.
• Windquest Group – Is an investment holding company which relocated to the new Windquest building that Richard DeVos along with his wife Betsy own.  The Windquest Group is involved in a number of thing and here is only a small sampling of what I found.  A joint partnership to produce HydrAid BioSand water filter.  Cascade Engineering is working with International Aid to create a water filtration system for developing countries and Windquest is supporting this endeavor with capital.  Windquest is also providing financial backing to the Green Machine, a clean energy solutions. This is a joint partnership between ElectraTherm providing the technology, Pro Services has the  application, and Windquest providing the capital.  I am sure there is plenty more out there that the Group does, so if you know please comment or send an email.
• Request Foods – Now Request Foods is not a DeVos owned company but take a wild guess on how Request Foods got its name. That is right, the founders were inspired by the Windquest boat sailing on Lake Macatawa.  Believe me I wish I was making this up.

I suppose branding all your various companies around one word which is not your last name or initials is a good thing.  Because I would much rather see something named Windquest over DeVos.  Just because last names are boring.  Maybe next time bring one of those marketing/branding people and pick their brain, maybe they can come up with something creative like maybe WaterMission.

So do you think about the use of the name Windquest?  Do you any other information of other Windquest Groups activities or investments, or any other DeVos companies that are housed in the new Windquest building?

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