The Minimalist

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of an online music school.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Minimalist?

We needed help to manage our social media pages and campaigns.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Minimalist was responsible for coming up with campaigns. They created all the creative elements from scratch and the campaign ideas to help people understand our product and services. They managed the whole campaign and used keywords to target audiences. They also promoted it on Instagram, Facebook Stories, and Facebook local groups.

Additionally, they were responsible for responding to comments on social media. The campaigns were intended to raise awareness of the importance of learning music at an early age. The Minimalis created infographics to explain that importance in a simple way, and we mainly targeted a specific area.

What is the team composition?

We worked with the lead social media marketing person. Sometimes, we also communicated with the founder.

How did you come to work with The Minimalist?

I reached out to them because we were part of the same community of local entrepreneurs.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January–June 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

In six months, we increased our social media followers and grew our engagement rate by nearly 50%. One metric we looked at was the number of DMs we got every day, and we saw a significant increase.

How did The Minimalist perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated via WhatsApp and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their process was streamlined.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we were happy with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Outsourcing the entire work is more helpful than outsourcing just a few things.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a family-run purchasing and supply-chain company based out of India. I’m the head of marketing solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Minimalist?

We needed help with brand positioning and creating marketing collateral and branding.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I’m giving this review because I didn’t have a good experience with them.

Their main job was to come up with a tagline. We wanted to enter a second line of business, combine the two, and position the brand as one. The Minimalist also did graphic design work for our marketing collateral.

What is the team dynamic?

I worked with the salesperson, a finance person, their CEO, a project lead, and his subordinate. 

How did you come to work with The Minimalist?

They gained some notoriety in India after a logo they created for a large social platform went viral. They became popular on Instagram and other places.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost was $16,000, and I also paid $1,000 for some of their travel and living expenses.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in June 2019. It was supposed to end in three months, but it’s still not done. There are a few things left to do, and it should’ve been done nine months ago. The bulk of the work ended in July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

We brought The Minimalist onboard because they were popular and gave us an exceptional sales pitch. Their CEO came to our office and promised us a dedicated team for the project. In their defense, they gave us one, and the project started off well. I think it went downhill after the first month. The issue with The Minimalist isn’t that they’re bad people, they’re just overworked. I get the feeling that they have way too many clients, and they’re not able to spend enough time with them. I recommended them to a friend, and they’re experiencing the same thing. I feel that The Minimalist is biting off more than they can chew.

I also had issues with the project head’s attitude. They’re not willing to accept their mistakes. We had their team at our facilities for research, and I spent my own money on this. They came back to me asking for the content for the corporate presentation. It’s not my job to give them that. They were sent on a research trip so that they could get content.

There were also simple things like putting in what kinds of certifications my company has on the corporate presentation. That information can literally be found on Google. They could’ve looked up my company and found my certifications on our website. The corporate presentation took three months to do because they were waiting for us to give them those certifications. 

The work isn’t done because I sent the marketing collateral to my printing house, and they found a missing font and an incompatible file. I called The Minimalist about it, and they told me there was something wrong with our software. They gave me all the files in the same format, and all of them worked except one. They hide behind excuses.

How was project management handled?

I feel that they didn’t put their hearts into the project to the same degree that they sold it to me. A branding agency’s job is to tell me how I can look better, but they were asking me what should be put in the presentation. It was their job to come up with the content, but all the information put into those slides was what I gave them, and not one word that they came up with.

It’s obviously not all on them. We’re a large corporation with 4,000 employees spread across the world, so it would sometimes take us a while to get back to them. Their workflow was such that they would give us something and wait for our feedback before starting on the next thing. What we were expecting was for them to do everything and get our overall feedback. The workflow was a little off, and that’s one of the reasons it took so long.

The main thing is that they’re spread out too thin. They’ve taken on way too many projects, and they don’t have the staff to take care of all their clients.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

They came up with a strong tagline for our business. 

In what specific areas can they improve?

To be frank, I didn’t enjoy working with them. I found it to be a massive chore. The Minimalist is one of our smaller vendors. We had a lot of these issues in the beginning, and it took us a month just to clear out their 30-page contract because it was so one-sided and far too elaborate for such a small project. I had to involve my lawyers, who had better things to do. There are vendors that I’m spending $100,000 with, and their contracts are three pages long.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

I’d tell them to save their money and go somewhere else. I hired another company for LinkedIn management, and they’re charging me one-tenth of what The Minimalist was quoting me for the same work.

There are a lot of good branding agencies in the country, and The Minimalist is not one I’d recommend. The only reason I’m doing this is that I don’t want other business owners to go through what I’ve been through. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of RefreshMint, a fintech company which is building a recommendation engine of financial products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Minimalist?

We wanted to design an app which would enable users to input data in a seamless manner and basis which they could see recommendations across financial products.

What were your goals for this project?

An app in which the users don't feel overburdened in giving information and when they see a recommendation they are able to understand the same.

SOLUTION

How did you select The Minimalist?

Sahil who is a cofounder had worked with me earlier in my previous company PaySense. I knew that if you were looking for an outbox and thought through solution they were the go-to team.

Describe the project in detail.

The project was divided into 3 parts:

1) Research--> This involved fair bit of stakeholder interviews, building user personas, etc

2) Flow Design--> This was where a lot of brainstorming was done as flows are critical for users in our app. They need to not just move linearly but also move in loops.

What was the team composition?

Team comprised of Program manager, UI designer and UX designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Since it was a new app we don't have baselines. However, we see a drop off of just 10-15% in signup and recommendation which is amazing for a fintech app.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. We used basecamp for regular communication between the design team, our business team and developers. Apart from that, we had weekly in-person meetings.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Most design companies just jump to the wireframe. With Minimalist, they first get into the shoes of customer and business. That really helps cut down on a lot of re-work

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing in particular.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work as the cofounder of a whole food breakfast and snacks back

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Minimalist?

We wanted the packaging to communicate what we stand for and link it to our overall communication plan

What were your goals for this project?

To get the repackaging along with the communication plan executed

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We invited agencies to submit pitches on what they will do. TM came and presented and even though their work was not the best, they told us it was a 2 day work and we believed them. Their online persona was also quite impressive

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Rebranding and communication work to be done on a retainer basis

What was the team composition?

Project manager, designer and coordinator

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We had an extremely unpleasant experience with them. Their project manager had been quite rude and unprofessional right from the beginning,the work was sloppy and the timelines were just a joke to them

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Extremely bad. I tried to escalate to the founder and he was courteous to drop in for a discussion as well, but the effort was inconsequential , as the one person didn't change and was made the bad cop in the team,probably on purpose

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The founder and their interest to work were impressive. Unfortunately it does not flow down to the team

Are there any areas for improvement?

I would not recommend this agency to anyone, as long as they dont change their high handedness.their projectmanager , Jeremy,has been one of the most unprofessional people I have experienced in my work life. Please be careful when you Meet them