Back by popular demand, more FAQs!!!!

We’ve posted FIVE new FAQ’s to our Contact Us page. They are #25-29, but have a look at them here:

How do I convince the leadership at our firm of the importance and value of investing time, energy, and money into a brand strategy and identity project?

As we make the business case for ROI– in terms of investing in positioning, messaging, identity design and branding — we avoid making sweeping promises about bottom line short-term contributions to revenues and profits. Branding requires a view to the future, so ROI has to include the value of a unified internal self identity that comes with a branding exercise, and also of having all stakeholders on board. Our experience has shown that consistency = client loyalty = repeat business & referrals = ROI. We have a long track record of developing highly effective identity and communication design for our clients, which regularly helps them win work.

How do I get senior managers to change or acquiesce to external experts?

Our role is not to come in to tear everything apart simply for the sake of making something new. We always keep in mind that our clients are experienced experts, often hyper-focused and suspicious of marketing. As experts in our field, we’ve had success infusing this process (which can be emotional) with passionate enthusiasm. The result is even the most suspicious architect, engineer, or other professional will engage and embrace the change that leads to growth and success in their businesses. We ask smart questions, listen carefully to all concerns, respect perspectives, and make sure everyone feels included as a collaborator in this process—not subject to the whims of external consultants. This strategy results in management and others seeing the potential of authentic brand positioning and marketing. We welcome the complexities and challenges that come with retaining good brand equity to attain goals. Our work depends on having trusting relationships based on core competencies.

What is the best way to make me understand how you meet successfully the challenges of our company?

The most honest and effective measure of our success is to refer you to those we’ve served in the past; to see how our other clients have experienced our process and trusted us as expert consultants. We invite you to analyze our work and the results we’ve produced for our recent clients, and to speak with them directly. If you prefer, we do have a few videos of recent clients talking about their experiences working with us.

How do you ensure others in the future will not undermine the brand or recklessly apply it in an inconsistent manner?

We try to be as anticipatory as possible when designing an identity, codifying it, and institutionalizing it with controls and mechanisms such as our Styleguide system. However, the true responsibility for championing the brand and maintaining brand consistency ultimately resides with you—often it’s the internal marketing manager. With Styleguide, and personal long term relationships with our clients, we provide the tools and support needed to make it easier to stay on brand and thus there is less opportunity to stray inconsistently.

After we have the new brand identity, what happens next?

We help our clients launch their brands internally and educate their staff about the brand (not just the logo), helping them buy into it (believe), so that each one of them can serve as brand ambassadors, and so that every new staff member going forward can be educated and immersed in the brand in person. Once a brand is launched and living, it requires tracking and diligence, which we assist with. If a brand touch-point no longer communicates the right message, we help our clients understand how to adjust and adapt. We offer ongoing counsel, bi-yearly brand audits to review brand application and usage, and recommendations so that the internal team can apply the brand consistently without unnecessary external cost. Some of the other specific expertise we provide include: social media strategy and execution, website maintenance and performance updates, and competitive marketing audits.