What o8 did
Goal & Starting Position
FinMarie was already on the market, founder Karolina had already achieved lots of visibility in terms of PR etc. When the finance-savvy Caroline Bell joined her as CTO, it seemed like the perfect moment to polish FinMaries presentation a little bit.
The Brand Makeover
Branding & Business Model Workshop
The two owners received a list with coaching questions in advance, that were used for preparation. In early January then a one-day workshop took place.
The topics were:
- The business model and it’s market / target groups
- The owner’s brand vision
- A benchmarking regarding existing communication approaches on the market (“knowing what you DON’T want to do”).
To make the discussion easier, we brought a benchmarking from OVERW8 side. Regarding women and finance that was mainly to show what to avoid. Such a determination can also be very useful:
What we don’t want to do
What we’ll do instead even more.
In a case like this, where the business model literally questions and counteracts existing beliefs, this is a very appropriate approach.
Brand Strategy
The contents outlined in the workshop were summarized into the brand strategy, that was checked, refined and then released by the customer. These documents then go to the design apartment.
From vision to plan
Marketing Plan
Before the brand design was developed, a rough marketing plan was set up, so that
- there is a clear plan regarding the future sales funnel set up,
- it is clear what to tackle first – and what can wait,
- and which points are relevant at all or not for the brand manual (measures that don’t exist, don’t need a design right now).
Brand Design
As usual at OVERW8, in step 3 different approaches were developed. Apart from the technical correctness this leaves room for the owners personal visions. To clarify: With this procedure usually one of the three approaches happened to already be 90% fitting.
Good preparation is everything after all.
Approach 1
Approach 2
Approach 3
These 3 approaches were presented in a video conference. The decision for one of them was an easy one for the owners – it was ‘Paintbrush’.
Adding depth to the chosen approach
The chosen approach is then broken down.
In a way this is both a creative process as well as a logical work process – the single elements need to add up to a logical product in the end.
Result: The FinMarie brand manual.
A good brand manual always involves examples of how NOT to do it.
A few Specialties
The Semi Custom Icon Set
The Work Sheets
New Outfit
Website Redesign
On this basis it is quite easy to tackle the makeover of the wordpress page. Here templates are chosen that are already similar to the vision. Then they are tweaked to match the brand visual.
Challenges were more structural:
German and English language contents were previously created with a slightly fidgety structure that was hard to comprehend for search engines. This needed some cleaning up.
Central content like the front page, the “About us” page etc. where completely restructured and given new text.
Technical Specialties:
- Press Plugin
- Events Plugin
! Well chosen and implemented plugins result in a well structured presentation in search engines such as here:
A little tuning for the product
In the work process we don’t just check off the list, but the entire sales process is thought out. That’s how the successful idea of the espresso coaching came to life – now a central part of the FinMarie acquisition.
Why does it work? Because it lowers the threshold to enter!
Who has a good reason, not to make use of this?
Brand Material
Social Media Equipment with Style and Class
Well prepared for events
Work sheets, info material and business cards
Branded Presentations
(for workshops and sales)
Press Material, Fact Sheet + Online Clippings
Being independent
Social Media Coaching
At OVERW8 we are open to build an offer in a way, that fits the customer and his situation. In this case the wish was to take over social media on their own in the future while bringing the brand to life with every post.
That’s why the social media material was created as a template set and some coaching sessions were organized for the new marketing manager Azra, so she could learn to work on the “live object”.
Themes:
- Choice of images and editing them (filters, cutouts)
- Captions und CTas
- Storytelling – how do I break down a bigger message into a series of posts
Secrets to Success
- clear decision structure on the clients side
- quick and reliable decisions
- proactive communication on both sides
- from the rough to the details
- project management with Asana, Slack, later Teamwork
- flexible usage of tools depending on the situation – from a flipchart to Google docs and from MIRO to Canva
Want to do something similar?
Every situation, goal and company is different. We are happy to advise you to find out what suits you.
