When Aston Hotels changed its name to ResortQuest Hawaii last week, it did it with the help of branding consultants.

The Brand Strategy Group and Communications Pacific public relations company, both of Ho-nolulu, were hired to assist with the "rebranding."

ResortQuest Hawaii president Kelvin Bloom said the company's rebranding was a multimillion-dollar national effort that involved — among other things — changing signage and promoting the new brand to travel agents on the Mainland and in Japan.

It marked a turning point for the company.

"Though we've previously been a strong regional player, we are now moving into the strength of a national brand," Bloom said.

Branding encompasses the entire relationship between a consumer and a company, and many companies devote significant resources to it.

"Most people think of a brand as being a logo or a graphic or a tag line for advertising," said Laurie Lang, a former Disney senior vice president of brand management and strategic marketing who recently established BrandCentrics. "In fact, it's anything and everything that a consumer touches, feels, knows about a brand. It may affect how employees deal with their customers, how they answer the phone, how you deal with your factory in terms of getting the product out to customers. When you think about a brand in terms of a relationship to a customer, it puts everything through that lens. Therefore a brand strategy affects everything you do."

Gloria Garvey and Brook Gramann started the Brand Strategy Group in Honolulu 16 years ago.

They have since worked with more than 100 companies and organizations, from Hawaiian Host to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Garvey says Hawai'i is a healthy market for branding consultants.

"There are a lot of opportunities because a lot of Hawai'i's brands need to be refreshed or shorn up a bit," she said. "The market is more competitive to the degree that the advertising agencies all say that they do branding as well."

Communications Pacific and competitor McNeil Wilson Communications, both public relations companies, also offer branding services and agree that there are plenty of untapped opportunities in the Islands.

"This is a very interesting time to be in this business in Hawai'i," said Kitty Lagareta, CommPac's CEO. "It's exciting if you're in the business to know that others see the same opportunities. It makes for a very dynamic marketplace."

Like CommPac, McNeil Wilson also has been adding new divisions that provide more branding services to clients.

"We not only pinpoint their plans but also have the advertising, public relations and interactive resources to take them to market," said David McNeil, a partner with McNeil Wilson.

Lang, the former Disney executive, joined with Pat Loui, president of the OmniTrak Group, to form BrandCentrics which is looking for Hawai'i clients.

"It seems like a prime time to get into this market," Lang said from her California office. "We felt in my explorations and Pat's experience that there are companies that are emerging and looking at growth in terms of their next stages of development — everything from real estate, finance, development, hotels, the recreations industry and the tourist industry is interesting to us."