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Creative Presentation Brand, Marketing and Customer Experience; Research and Strategy Applied
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Introduction Purpose of this Presentation
Table of Contents
Just as our research and strategic work spans the breadth of our industry expertise, so does the physical embodiment of our work.
Tier
Page 3
Principal Builders
Page 10
Heritage Oaks Bank
Page 17
Western Financial
Page 27
Verida
Page 34
Trans-Orient Petroleum
Page 39
Comerica Bank
Page 46
Awards and Recognition
Page 53
Representative Client List
Page 54
Though MCorp is adept – and highly experienced – at working with in-house marketing groups and agencies of record to implement the results of our research, there are those clients who also choose to turn to us for the visual execution of their brand, and the creative development of key touchpoints. Regardless of medium, our expertise is focused on the creation of research-driven, strategically appropriate brand communications which educate and inform ,and incent desired audience behavior. Online or off, social, interactive or print media, MCorp delivers results across the touchpoints that drive business results. On the pages that follow, please find a representative sample of our creative work, across a range of clients, industries and media. We hope you enjoy what you see.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Tier Background and Services Overview Brand Development and Corporate ID Internal Brand Launch Annual Reports Graphic and Brand Communications Standards Web Planning and Development “Working with a widely respected firm like MCorp allowed us to articulate what Tier stands for, and what we want to communicate to our clients, our investors and employees. The result? We’re meeting the market with one powerful image. Working with MCorp, we came to ‘Expect A Lot’. And got it.” —Chief Marketing Officer, Tier MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Tier
Multinational consultancy builds cohesive brand across industries, geographies, products and service lines. Services Provided: Logo and Tagline Development
Business Challenge: Redefine an organization from tech company to business consultancy, and unite acquisitions across three continents.
Business Papers
MCorp was tasked with articulating Tier's transformation from a fragmented tech company to a unified business consultancy serving multiple international markets. To further complicate this mission was the fact that Tier had recently acquired 15 separate companies across three continents.
Annual Reports Graphic and Communications Standards Internal Launch Materials and Employee Communications Brand Messaging Guidelines and Graphic Standards Customer Communications Website Design
Approach: Brand strategy and implementation, and initiatives to educate and unify thousands of employees.
Results: Brand perceptions are in alignment, both inside and outside the organization. The result? An on-target personality that speaks directly to the needs of the market. Investors, the media and clients have a clear impression of Tier, and the company itself has a clear understanding of their vision, brand values, and customer expectations. The new branding also gave senior managers the tools they needed to woo new business in the government, energy and technology sectors, with a clear pitch and visually unified materials.
The process of inspiring so many to reject their individual identities to think, speak, look and act as one entity – a new entity – began with competitive and capabilities research, internal interviews and a strategic plan. MCorp identified (and, more importantly, achieved) executive buyin to Tier's key attributes, market position and the needs they're uniquely qualified to solve. From there, MCorp developed a warm but active logo, and a tagline and extensive Internet presence that supported all business units. We then orchestrated a series of internal brand initiatives to educate the thousands of employees worldwide, to achieve consensus and internal support prior to external brand launch.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Tier
Logo, Tagline and Business Papers: From logo development and corporate ID to brand messaging, Web strategy and annual reports, MCorp delivered on the brand attributes most important to employees, clients and prospects. The aspirational and inspirational tagline “Expect A Lot� planted a flag in the ground, and presented an organization prepared to tackle challenges in a way designed to delight and surprise its customers.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Tier
Investor Communications: The first annual report after Tier’s new branding was critical for getting the word out to shareholders. With a new brand, their tagline became the hero and rallying cry. We wrote the CEO’s letter around a series of sayings upon which we’d founded their brand, to support the message to “Expect A Lot.”
From a “sassy” book to a more conservative one the following year, these two annuals highlight Tier’s shifting priorities. Year one was to excite, entice and energize, and year two supported a move to focus on profitable niche markets, to continue the company’s upward growth.
The following year, the markets, not the brand, were of primary importance. So the cover featured imagery specific to their niche, and the letter focused on the fiscal reasons to pursue that focus. MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Tier
Internal Brand Launch Materials: To spread the word and motivate employees to embrace the “new Tier�, we developed an employee-centric brand launch. From mouse pads, and Vision cards to office graphics and employee packets, they all served to encourage the company to think as one. How do you inspire 15 newly acquired companies in three continents to act as one? Articulate common strengths and beliefs, and develop an appropriate brand that resonates with the companies and their clients.
Framed panels mounted to office walls remind staff and visitors of Tier’s Values, Vision, their Culture and high-integrity Actions.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Tier
A Unified Face: MCorp worked extensively with Tier’s marketing department to provide the tools they would need to maintain the brand going forward.
Tier’s brand guidelines—both the print and online versions—provided usage standards for everything from logo and color palette to corporate voice.
From new employee packets, to business paper templates, to tradeshow graphics, it was imperative for all materials to spring from the same source. With MCorp’s help, Marketing launched an online version of the manual as well, with the information and messages that employees companywide would need.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
Tier’s simple tradeshow booth panels become a place for “branding graffiti”, publicizing what makes them tick.
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Client: Tier
Website Design: In the highly competitive IT and business consulting arena, it was important to communicate Tier’s unique values. We designed their Website to be clearly navigable and easily expandable. With clear branding and positioning applied to the Web, Tier’s audience of clients, government organizations, financial analysts and media are able to zero in on Tier and understand exactly what they are.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
“You guys do SUCH great work.” —Tier
Not wanting to be lumped in with boutique consultancies, Tier’s Website communicates cleanly and directly, from a personal, results-oriented perspective.
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Client: Principal Builders Background and Services Overview Brand Development and Corporate ID Graphic and Brand Communications Standards Web Planning and Development Direct Marketing “Once we met these guys we didn’t want anyone else to talk to our customers, and guide us through the branding process. And thank goodness we did – we credit our brand with helping us grow exponentially in a super competitive market.” —Managing Partner, Principal Builders
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Principal Builders
Irreverent start-up positions itself for market leadership by standing apart from the old-guard competition. Business Challenge: Breaking a start-up into a well-established, conservative market.
Results: Skyrocketing corporate growth, a client base of true fans, and the beginnings of a revolution. The accessible, irreverent, and masculine system was applied to a fleet of trucks, corporate brochure and business papers, website, construction site banners, wearables, and direct mail campaigns.
Corporate Collateral
Launching with the stellar reputation of its founders was enough to make startup commercial construction firm Principal Builders a success its first year. But this visionary group needed more than that to create the company it dreamed of. The challenge was to build a brand that spoke to the company’s principals, would resonate in the marketplace, and have a positive impact on how the construction industry conducts business.
Customer Acquisition
Approach: Don’t fear being bold if the message is on target, and the time for change is ripe.
Website Design
Their brand is recognized city-wide, and there is no doubt where their principles and commitments lie.
After codifying the results of senior-level internal research, MCorp turned its focus outward to customers and prospects. The resulting recommendations for brand principles, attributes and vision drove a bold brand promise that Principal Builders knew would shake up the market.
Services Provided: Competitive and Customer Research Strategic Planning Brand Articulation Logo and Tagline Graphic and Communications Standards
Their campaigns routinely garner a 15% response rate, the firm has completed over 150 significant projects in three years, and they’re routinely sitting at the bidding table with the “big boys”.
The resulting visual brand incorporated a simple logo and tagline, with a more complex system of interconnecting elements: principles, characters, and color palette, that truly defined the brand.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Principal Builders
Corporate Identity Because the client set out to not only grow its business but revolutionize how the construction business works, a logo and tagline weren’t enough. MCorp opted for a simple logo, which marries with a series of principles and a cast of characters. Together, solo and in combination, they create the Principal Builders identity.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Principal Builders
Brand Standards: This comprehensive Brand Standards Manual ensures that the visual brand will be used to maximum effect, but without corruption. As important, the building blocks of the brand are detailed in the Brand Values section, and the Principle Builders tone and style is articulated in the Brand Voice section.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Principal Builders
Website: The Principal Builders website is simple and clean, acting as a collection point for news and shots of newly completed work. Each section is branded with a “cube” with its own character and color palette, and the pages provide an excellent vehicle for posting client’s rave reviews.
Website home and primary pages with character cubes and testimonials
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Principal Builders
Direct Mail: Principal Builders addresses prospecting and outreach in unusual ways. Rather than directly asking for business, the company provides gifts that are not only appropriate, but are Principal Builders- branded.
This New Year’s Card offered a choice of a polo shirt, muffler or baseball cap – all branded – via a customized landing page and sign-up form on the corporate website.
Because one of the company’s brand values is to have fun and enjoy work, this approach is well in step with who they are.
Rather than mailing out a new corporate brochure, the Company brought prospects up to date on the past three years via a deck of trading cards that highlighted employees, completed work, clients, and as always, their principles. MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Principal Builders
Business Package: For the serious business of submitting bids and communicating with clients and prospects, Principal Builders uses a very clean and user friendly system. Without losing the grid and the bright color palette, the focus of the business package is to make information easy to find. The horizontal tabbed, spiral bound proposals use three interchangeable covers, all with a die cut but mimicking different materials and textures.
Business papers for client correspondence and templates for proposal submission
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Heritage Oaks Bank Background and Services Overview Brand Development and Corporate ID Corporate Collateral and Electronic Marketing Graphic and Brand Communications Standards Print and Television Advertising Web Planning and Development “The great thing about working with MCorp is that I kept learning. I’ve got the MBA and bank marketing school and all that – but these guys just kept teaching us new things. So not only are we better positioned to compete, we’re smarter about how to leverage our investments to do so.” —SVP Marketing and Sales, Heritage Oaks Bank MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Heritage Oaks Bank
Regional community bank brands across all customer experience Touchpoints. Services Provided: Employee, Competitive and Customer Research Business Consulting Strategic Planning Brand Articulation Logo and Tagline Development Business Papers Graphic and Communications Standards Email Marketing TV and Print Ad Creative Direction Website Design
Business Challenge: Double market size in a highlycompetitive environment without “buying deposits.” Heritage Oaks Bank is a highly profitable, well-managed community bank focused on growing through organic means on an ambitious schedule. In the perceptual position of a “commodity business,” they chose to leverage a new brand to differentiate and grow market share. Through an intensive research study, the team articulated values that suit the Bank today, and that will grow with them into the future.
Leveraging the strategic plan and brand-rollout recommendations, a refreshed logo and new tagline were developed, followed by business papers and marketing materials for all Bank entities and locations. MCorp provided creative direction and development for all internal and customer-facing materials; guiding product development, articulating features and benefits, developing all brand Touchpoints including e-mail marketing templates, print collateral, corporate website, brochures and product sheet templates.
The Bank’s goal—to be demonstrably better than its competition at delivering outstanding customer service— served as a touchstone throughout the engagement.
Results: Employees enthusiastically support the new brand, and energize service delivery around the values that differentiate the Bank.
Approach: Understanding of internal and external perceptions drive new positioning and brand delivery.
With a highly successful Internal Launch program setting the stage for launch, the brand has received enthusiastic support from employees, shareholders, and officers alike. MCorp has delivered dozens of pieces of collateral for immediate use, and for the Bank to extend to new products, services, and offers going forward. And the Bank’s new e-mail design, delivery, and tracking platform will help the Marketing team execute successful (as well as highly targeted and trackable) marketing campaigns and promotions.
Beginning with an in-depth understanding of key business and financial metrics, MCorp worked with the Bank to develop benchmarks for a performance dashboard that included business, brand and customer experience metrics. Additional research included quantitative internal and qualitative prospect and customer data points, driving a new brand based on a defensible market position which the Bank can support as it grows to meet its goals. Based on this research and MCorp’s analysis, we integrated key findings and recommendations into the Bank’s brand with internal and external activities that put a face and voice to its vision, values and core attributes.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
The process of branding has galvanized the entire organization to assess each customer interaction through the lens of the Bank’s brand promise. The Bank is poised for significant growth as it pursues its goals—and generates measurable results.
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Client: Heritage Oaks Bank
Logo and Business Papers: Creating and using a visual identity system ensures that the Bank’s identity is conveyed in every piece of material viewed by the public, from logo to website to brochure to envelope. It also creates a graphic look and feel that leverages the Bank’s “heritage” while positioning it for future expansion.
Heritage Oaks Bank and Heritage Oaks Financial Services often operate under the same roof; and their parent Bancorp provides corporate oversight for both. All three entities needed to share a memorable, competitively differentiated corporate identity, while remaining separate and easily identified businesses.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Heritage Oaks Bank
Overview Collateral: Commitment to service and to the customer experience serve as the primary visual anchors for all Bank collateral.
The banker and customer images provide a visual and metaphorical framework; brand benefits stream in the background, reinforcing the Bank’s values and attributes, while showing ways the bankers support customers.
Leveraging equity in the existing brand for the corporate ID, MCorp delivered an entirely new look for the brand. The sophisticated and dramatic color palette remains warm and approachable.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
Brochures were designed for flexibility of content, with marketing and advertising standards to help the Bank to select appropriate photos and write benefitoriented, clear, consistent copy for future brochures.
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Client: Heritage Oaks Bank
“Take-one� brochures present a multiple-product comparison for easy reference. The Bank can extend these brochures to new products, and print as needed.
Product Information: The Bank had a broad and confusing array of products, so MCorp helped identify a competitive subset of products and services to market. We developed a naming convention, wrote a comprehensive and compelling set of features and benefits, and designed product sheets to be used on the website and in customer interactions.
Single sheet templates showcase products, banking services, and special offers. They are a primary source of product information on the new website, and are available to staff for training and reference.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Heritage Oaks Bank
Email Promotions: We recommended that the Bank develop and track response rates for marketing of all types, including product promotions, internal sales contests, and direct mail campaigns.
Newsletter, E-mail Promotion, and Business Letter Templates designed by MCorp and updated and sent by the Bank
MCorp provided an e-mail platform to update, deliver and track newsletters, business letters, and e-mail promotions. Among other electronic communications.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Heritage Oaks Bank
Brand Standards and Internal Launch The phased launch strategy that MCorp coordinated for the Bank included activities and materials to build internal awareness and excitement, including a pocketsized “vision book” and marketing and branding standards to help each employee understand what it means to do business with—or for—the Bank.
A comprehensive Standards Manual ensures that communications resonate and stay on brand, and that marketing staff and vendors can easily adhere to the Bank’s newly articulated voice and visual standards.
Employee brand book gets employees “on board” with the brand, giving them a sense of ownership and excitement that will translate to their interactions with customers. MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Heritage Oaks Bank
Print Advertising: How do you drive brand awareness and deposits? By ensuring that work produced by the Bank’s internal and existing creative services vendors focuses on those things important to key audiences.
Newspaper ads ran in major regional papers, and were timed with the launch of the new brand to both reinforce positioning and drive transactional activity and revenue to the Bank.
MCorp provided strategic, conceptual and creative direction, supporting the Bank’s production partners and internal marketing staff to deliver cohesive, resultsoriented advertising in all print media.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Heritage Oaks Bank
Television Advertising: Working closely with the marketing team, we provided oversight of concept development and storyboarding, as well a review of talent and production. A joint effort of the Bank’s marketing team, outside creative agency, videographers and creative talent, the process of developing costeffective and compelling television was a team effort.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
Final TV spots introduced the new brand, proving the Bank’s commitment to its “Expect More” tagline and promise, and conveying a general branding message that resonated with local retail and commercial banking audiences.
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Client: Heritage Oaks Bank
Website Design: A significant portion of the engagement centered on strategy, design, architecture, content and programming for the Bank’s website.
The Bank’s website features regional photography to give a sense of place and delineate each primary section.
This CMS based site serves as the primary source of information for customers, prospects and shareholders. Fast, comprehensive, intuitive and attractive, it’s also SEO optimized, regularly driving inbound marketing opportunities.
Product tables, map links and simple logins provide easy access to information.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Western Financial Background and Services Overview Brand Development and Corporate ID Corporate Collateral Graphic and Brand Communications Standards Web Planning and Development “MCorp took our management team collaboratively through the entire process from research and development to creative and execution. Always quantifying the results of their work. I would highly recommend Michael and his team.” —CMO, Western Financial
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Western Financial Services
Retail lending giant drives customer experience by uniting business units, customer types and geography. Services Provided: Employee, Competitive and Customer Research Strategic Planning Brand Articulation Naming and Tagline Development Corporate ID Graphic and Communications Standards Customer Communications Website Design
Business Challenge: Leveraging brand to increase growth opportunities among multiple businesses. Western Financial is a large, NYSE-traded financial services firm with commercial and retail banking operations and a large consumer loan portfolio. Prior to its recent acquisition by Wachovia, multiple divisions operated under different names with different brands. Our challenge was to find a way to position the brand across disparate segments to leverage acquisition, retention and cross-sales, while uniting different business units. Approach: Research points the way to new brand architecture and articulation of shared vision. In pursuit of a corporate strategy to cross sell and integrate its customer base across divisions, MCorp was hired to assess the brand and make recommendations for strategy and implementation.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
Initial research included in-depth interviews with executive and mid-level management, line staff and intensive one-onone customer research. Based on analysis of the business and research results, MCorp identified key areas for consolidation and made recommendations for a revised brand architecture, positioning and supportable brand attributes. Recommendations were quantified through additional research, with over 100,000 customer respondents. Results: Share-of-wallet and product penetration for existing clients booms; new client growth follows suit. The re-branding implemented by MCorp has driven brand messaging and attributes relevant to the customer base throughout the organization, while providing benchmarks for brand equity and relevant perceptual attributes. There is no longer any confusion as to what the organization's divisions do, what it stands for, or its commitment to—and benefits for—customers.
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Client: Western Financial Services
Three separate company names and disparate logos were unified into one strongly branded organization with three parts.
Naming and Corporate ID: Research drove brand architecture and a corporate hierarchy, naming, tagline, and logo development to help leverage attributes and service delivery to grow business from the inside out. Print and electronic business papers further unified fragmented divisions, and assisted in bringing the new brand to customers—across the table and across the country.
Corporate Identity applied to business papers, along with several hundred customerfacing communications.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Western Financial Services
Collateral Design: From small tri-folds to larger, more formal full-size brochures, MCorp conceived, designed, and produced a variety of in-branch and direct mail pieces. These collateral pieces helped move Western Financial’s customers along the Customer Relationship Lifecycle—by informing the audience and increasing their Knowledge of the Bank, and ultimately moving them into Satisfaction and even Advocacy.
Business Banking Overview Brochure
“Take One” for Checking Options MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Western Financial Services
Plastics Program: “Branding the wallet” was an important part of MCorp’s overall strategy to create and reinforce Western Financial’s identity across all customer Touchpoints.
Retail and Business Banking Cards
By designing and producing a series of branded credit, debit, check, and ATM cards, MCorp was able to bring the Client’s customers into daily contact with the brand.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Western Financial Services
Brand Standards: To ensure that employees truly ‘got’ the brand—and by extension, ensuring a highquality, consistent experience for employees, customers, and shareholders alike— MCorp developed a comprehensive Standards Manual. This document articulates the brand voice, provides color and logo guidelines across all channels, and guarantees that the Bank’s own marketing department has the tools it needs to maintain the brand. Standards Manual
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Western Financial Services
Website Design: MCorp designed and developed a series of websites to showcase Western Financial’s strong customer orientation. From site architecture and service definition, to design and programming, MCorp created a consistent face for each customer segment served.
Audience focused commerce and interaction driven websites for Bancorp, Bank, and Auto Divisions
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Verida Background and Services Overview Brand Development and Corporate ID Annual Report Web Planning and Development
“They worked closely with us to create an on- and offline brand that truly communicates who we are. Our customers, investors and business partners were blown away.” —Executive Vice President, Verida
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Verida
Internet market-maker builds presence to communicate with shareholders, partners and the media. Services Provided: Strategy Logo and Tagline Development Business Papers Graphic and Communications Standards Website Design Investor Relations
Business Challenge: A complex business proposition during a time of start-up company madness, as the tech bubble begins to collapse.
Results: Attracted millions of dollars in funding and launched a successful online grain trading business, as the first of its net markets.
Verida Internet Corp. built vertical B2B portals, and developed the underlying e-commerce technology that supported them. They turned to our team to create a brand which would accurately communicate their very complex market—and their very clear value proposition—to their core audience of Global 2000 companies.
Through consistent application of the brand, materials and message, this start-up company quickly became a sophisticated, targeted sensation. Partners clearly understood the value that Verida brought to their business, and investors believed in the company’s model and foundation.
Approach: Re-frame presentation of company’s model and value proposition, to simplify the message without losing its depth.
One year after launch, the company was running Canada’s largest independent grain trading clearinghouse, and generating significant revenue.
The strategic plan pointed to the need to clearly frame the company’s value proposition in order to attract media attention, funding, and potential market partners. Through a simple and compelling naming structure, a clear elevator pitch and message points, graphics that held a warm and personal appeal, and intensive training on talking to the media, we were able to position this startup apart from the crowd.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Verida
Naming, Logo and Business Papers: Specializing in the creation of online markets focused on specific industries, MCorp began its engagement by naming the company. Using the prefix “Veri� gave it classical roots and provided a springboard for branded products and services (VeriPlace, VeriSuite, etc.) to maintain a link with the corporate brand.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Verida
Website Design: Verida built vertical B2B portals, and developed the underlying ecommerce technology that supported them. The company Website had to operate with a sophistication that would prove the technological prowess of the team, while still being warm and friendly for its non-tech audiences. Programmed for speed and simplicity, the copy and graphics were warm and realitybased. A core requirement was the ability for all content to be quickly and easily updated through the web by “untrained� administrative staff.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Verida
Annual Report: Though a company that could only exist because of the Internet, Verida was about making human interactions simpler and clearer. It was therefore imperative for all marketing communications to cut through the clutter, and ground Verida in the real world of its markets: agriculture, transportation, and communications.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
The annual report uses solid colors on matte paper, clear graphs to support key messages, and industry-based images that bring heady concepts down to earth.
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Client: Trans-Orient Petroleum Background and Services Overview Annual Report Web Planning and Development Corporate Collateral “Finally, a branding consultancy that gives us defensible market data, and ways to actually apply it to our brands.” — Chairman, The IREMCO Group (Trans-Orient)
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Trans-Orient Petroleum
Energy exploration and production company builds a differentiated brand around education and passion. Services Provided: Strategy Website Design Annual Report Investor Communications
Business Challenge: Help a wide audience of retail and institutional investors understand the mission—and the business—of oil and gas exploration and production.
Results: By increasing key audience stakeholders’ understanding of and passion for the business, Trans-Orient developed a highly loyal audience.
The business of frontier oil and gas exploration is a competitive one. Through cycles of boom and bust, energy companies fall into and out of favor with investors, analysts and the media. The challenge this company faced was to develop a brand that truly connected with key audiences, simultaneously communicating the passion and excitement of company leadership—as well as the long-term prospects for the industry.
By focusing on bringing audiences more closely into contact with the business, the geology, the politics and the excitement of energy exploration, Trans-Orient was able to create an industry presence that rivaled that of much larger competitors. In a notoriously fickle climate where capital to fund exploration is the lifeblood of the business, the company was able to leverage their unique market position to acquire significant assets, driving loyal, long-term relationships across investor, analyst and business segments.
Approach: MCorp created a brand that stands apart in the marketspace by communicating the business and the excitement of frontier oil and gas exploration. Avoiding the clichéd “top down” communications style of others in this industry, company leadership agreed to a brand strategy of audience education and industry knowledge that would create a loyal, engaged audience. This translated to a series of targeted communications pieces, ranging from educational pieces on oil exploration and production to the annual report.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Trans-Orient Petroleum
Annual Report: The primary goal of this annual was to educate recipients about oil and gas exploration by clearly articulating accomplishments and challenges over the last twelve months. Another key directive was to communicate goals for the future, focusing on nearterm plans while keeping a long-range perspective.
With the shareholder base dominated by “baby boomer� money managers, the annual was focused on the wants and needs of this demographic, including the use of slightly larger type for ease of legibility. MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Trans-Orient Petroleum
Website Design: While money managers and the media use services (e.g. Bloomberg, First Call, etc.) for financial data, they appreciate getting the company’s past, present, and future summarized in a way that tells the story behind the numbers—without marketing hype. At the same time, individual investors want the Company to tell them a story about its potential as an investment.
MCorp’s subtly animated “splash” page brings life and action to the waters below the deep-sea drilling rig.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Trans-Orient Petroleum
Corporate Communications: Trans-Orient’s communications materials speak to particular investor needs while educating them on the business of exploration. For example, the Chairman’s Report showed a company timeline of its oil and gas exploration in Austral Asia.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Trans-Orient Petroleum
Corporate Communications:
The Exploration Strategy Guide illustrated the process via a dashboard for each company permit.
With a planning, seismic, drilling and production process measured in years, it was important for investor education pieces made the steady, methodical, scientific and hands-on nature of energy exploration interesting and understandable.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Trans-Orient Petroleum
Corporate Communications: Because investors received email alerts, the goal of this map was to further educate them by providing a physical map to help stakeholders better understand company holdings.
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Comerica Bank Background and Services Overview Direct Marketing Corporate Communications
“Finding a way to successfully reach the top-level decision makers in mid-market businesses is a real challenge for any organization. Working with MCorp, we have found a way to consistently get our bankers in front of these executives.” —EVP Marketing, Comerica Bank
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
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Client: Comerica Bank
National business bank blows traditional response rates out of the water by targeting audience pain points. Services Provided: Strategic Planning Direct Mail Client Magazines Product Communications Collateral Design
Business Challenge: Increase client acquisition in a crowded market, in fragmented marketing environments.
Results: Direct mail results have grown exponentially every year, and disparate markets focus on similarities.
A premier, dedicated business bank, Comerica Bank competes with every business bank that caters to middle market businesses: from large national chains to super regionals to small community banks. Adding to this intense competition for business is the fact that this national bank was built through acquisition across the country. So different cultures persist in different regions.
Though MCorp has delivered more than direct mail for Comerica Bank, the success of the DM campaigns shows the results in black and white.
Approach: Articulating internal points of unity and pinpointing audience needs drives targeted communications. MCorp used the Bank’s existing tagline and values as a starting point, and through research, helped articulate meaningful points of commonality throughout the Bank: the financial strength to offer a complete range of services, experienced senior staff, personalized, consultative service, and an entrepreneurial spirit that leads to customized solutions.
From a 3.5% response rate the year before MCorp took over marketing to Comerica’s Middle Market, our first campaign doubled the results with a 7.3% response rate. The 2005 campaign response skyrocketed to 13.4% and 2006 continued the upward trend with a 16.1% response rate. The 2007 campaign finished out the year at an 18.6% overall response rate, continuing the upward trend, and the 2008 baseball themed campaign is on track for a “home run” as well. With Comerica’s outbound telemarketing team following up on mailings, the target-specific messaging, two-part premiums and Comerica’s business development officers helped Comerica stand out in a perceptually commoditized industry.
At the same time, pain points for the target audience were identified leading to campaign messaging that speaks to the real needs of recipients. In addition, the “performance metrics” previously tracked were based on traditional direct market success: inbound responses. Our analysis led to a new metric—appointments set, a more meaningful measure of campaign, financial and business success.
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Client: Comerica Bank
Eye-catching boxes effectively presented the initial premium, brochure, and personal letter.
Direct Mail 2008: For the fifth year, MCorp pushed creative boundaries for campaigns that track to Comerica’s values. Following a nostalgic style, MCorp created boxes in the shape of a home plate, with a branded baseball and branded base. The fulfillment item this year (presented at the first prospect meeting) is a highquality branded canvas sport duffle.
Small 8-page brochure in a nostalgic theme provided compelling messages and the benefits of conducting business banking with Comerica
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From contest rules to hang tags for the Comerica gym bags, every detail was thematically branded.
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Client: Comerica Bank
Direct Mail 2006: A dartboard was appropriate for illustrating how Comerica’s bankers become experts in the financial aspects of every client’s business. Added to that was the appeal of receiving a real metal dart (with stand), plus a fullsized dartboard and darts at the meeting.
“What’s the point of a business bank if it doesn’t help you hit your goals?”
Set appointments hit over 16%, with MCorp awarded their third, consecutive Direct Marketing Association Echo award for this campaign.
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A Comerica-branded, metal-tipped dart with branded base were sent in the package, while bank officers showed up at the meeting with a high-quality, 12-pound branded dartboard and sets of darts.
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Client: Comerica Bank
Personalized letters speak to the recipient’s pain points, and articulate delivery of the second two-way radio.
Direct Mail 2005: To break through, Comerica took a risk on a bright and humorous direct mail approach. Adding a follow-up premium of a second two-way radio (given at the appointment), and honing creative based on key metrics based on the previous year’s performance dashboard, boosted response to over 13%, and won a DMA Echo Leader Award. Strong results led to adoption of the direct mail program by other Bank divisions.
Playing off of Comerica’s tagline (We listen. We understand. We make it work.), this campaign set up a literal dialog with the recipient.
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Brochure
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Client: Comerica Bank
In Touch Magazine: Comerica Bank needed a vehicle for remaining in touch with clients, and continually representing its expertise to drive loyalty and new business. These thematically driven magazines profiled a client every quarter, highlighted a product, and discussed a relevant topic focused on serving client needs and concerns. MCorp wrote, designed and coordinated every aspect of these quarterly publications.
Themes ranged from positioning businesses during times of economic uncertainty, to strategies for business expansion.
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Addenda Representative Client List Awards and Recognition
“I want to take a moment to say not only a big thank you, but to sing your praises. I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate your talent, patience, wit, speed and calm under fire… I’m very thankful that I am working with someone on whom I can so heavily rely… Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
– GE Financial Assurance
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Representative Client List Consulting and Services
Retail Banking and Credit Products
Insurance
ACUMA (American Credit Union Mortgage Association)
Bank of America
A.J. Gallagher Company
BARRA
Barclays (Juniper)
Argo Group
Barclays Global Investors
GE Financial Assurance
Charles Schwab
MetLife Investors
Financial Crossing North American International Auto Show Western Independent Bankers
Check 'N Go Digital Insight EverBank
Commercial Banking Comerica Bank Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco
Consumer Products C&W Frozen Foods
Heritage Oaks Bank
Torani
Tamalpais Bank
Cain Cellars
Visa
Healthcare|Biopharmaceutical
Trefethen Vineyards
Westcorp
Cephalon
Investment Banking and Venture Capital
Hardware
Alex Brown & Sons
DSC (Alcatel)
Energy
Hewlett-Packard
AMG Oil Indo Pacific Energy TAG Oil Trans-Orient Petroleum
Bain Capital Brinson Patrick Securities IREMCO Trident Capital
HSBC
Apple Computer, Inc.
McDonnell Douglas Non-Profit College of Marin
Software
Full Circle Programs
Advent
Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic
Netopia
NEA Member Benefits
Novell
United Methodist Church
Microsoft
Western Independent Bankers
Scitor Corporation MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
Wells Fargo Bank
Inviro Medical NeighborCare
Internet AT&T AgriPlace CBS MarketWatch Found Value Wine PocketList
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Awards and Recognition At MCorp Consulting, the rewards we seek from helping our clients solve their brand and marketing problems are simple: better customer relationships, improved performance and increased revenue for them, and a reasonable profit for us. Still, it’s nice to have external recognition; no one is immune to flattery. We have been recognized with awards for excellence by the following organizations and publications: The American Advertising Awards American Corporate Identity 5 American Corporate Identity 7 American Corporate Identity 9 American Corporate Identity 10 (Four awards) American Corporate Identity 16 (Three awards) American Graphic Design Award (Four awards) Direct Marketing Association: 2004 ECHO Finalist Award Direct Marketing Association: 2005 ECHO Leader Award Direct Marketing Association: 2006 ECHO Finalist Award Graphic Design USA (Four awards) Harvey Communications Award for Excellence in Advertising (Four awards)
MCorp | Strategic Brand and Marketing Consultants | www.mcorponline.com
The Legal Marketing Association (Research Excellence) Logo 2000 (Two awards) Logo 2001 (Four awards) Printing Industries of Northern California (Three awards) Print’s Regional Design Annual (Three awards) The San Francisco Show VIII The San Francisco Show IX Media we have been published in includes: American Corporate Identity BAI | Banking Strategies Magazine B2B Marketing The Business Observer Customer Management DM News Graphic Design USA Graphis (6 Issues, 4 Annuals) HOW Journal of Financial Services Marketing Print Magazine (3 issues, 3 annuals) Sales and Marketing Management
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MCorp Consulting, Inc. 1-866-526-2655 www.mcorpconsulting.com
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