Branding & Market Strategy for Engineering & Consulting Firm
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Branding Marketing Strategy
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Brand messaging Brand strategy Corporate identity
- $200,000 to $999,999
- Aug. 2022 - Sep. 2023
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
- Other industries
- Windsor, Connecticut
- 5,001-10,000 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Rakas provided branding and marketing services for a global engineering and consulting firm. The team helped with the brand visuals and created a brand report and a go-to-market and communication strategy.
Internal and external stakeholders were pleased with Rakas’ work. The team adjusted to the client’s timeline and communicated effectively through weekly calls, Microsoft Teams, and email updates. Overall, they stood out for their consultative approach and phenomenal management process.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CMO of TRC Companies, a global engineering and consulting firm. We’re leaders in energy transition. We help our clients with their energy transition, climate solutions, resiliency, decarbonization, engineering, and environmental work.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Rakas?
We needed help with an extensive brand refresh project with significant market research.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
We followed a robust process. Initially, we went through a discovery phase, and Rakas spent a lot of time with our CEO and stakeholders in our team for the brand process. They learned about who we were, our clients, and how we saw ourselves. Then, Rakas went into the market to talk to our clients and potential clients about who we were and how we were perceived.
Besides all that research, they also did an internal brand survey with our employees and a few workshops at the stakeholder level. Afterward, they began crafting our brand. We had three sprints, culminating in a report with the direction for our brand.
We didn’t change our logo or name; Rakas helped us with the brand visuals, including the use of color, shapes, and iconography. They also produced a go-to-market plan and an internal and external communications plan.
Finally, we moved through a brand workshop to build the platform we’ll roll out into the market in February.
What is the team composition?
Our main partner in the process was Jeff (Managing Partner). He had a team of about 10 individuals. The creative director, project manager, and account manager were constant throughout the process, but some people came in and out.
How did you come to work with Rakas?
We knew we wanted to refresh our brand, so we researched on Google. We wanted a partner who understood our space because we were in a unique position across the energy transition. We also wanted someone with the same breadth of market experience and understanding of sustainability to be part of our journey to better our message.
I went out, did a lot of digging, and came up with 8–10 different agencies. Then, I narrowed it down based on feedback from my network. I had over 5,000 connections on LinkedIn, so I just put it out there and asked if anybody had worked with those agencies. Many people responded with experiences. I wrote the positive experiences into the “yes” bucket and the others with difficulties in the “no” bucket.
I was left with about five companies; Rakas was one of them. They were a niche firm that dealt with technology-enabled clients and focused on sustainability, ESG, and similar topics. We put the scope of what we wanted to do out there, and they went through a bidding process. In the end, we chose Rakas as our partner.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent around $250,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We worked together from August 2022–September 2023.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We haven’t launched into the external market yet, so we don’t have relevant measurements. We’ll have a large event in February to launch.
Moreover, everyone was pleased. I presented Rakas’ work to our board of directors and executive leadership team. Everyone was excited by it; the work was positively received.
How did Rakas perform from a project management standpoint?
Our organization was quite large and complex, so we had a lot of delays on our end. However, Rakas continually adjusted their time and looked at their process to find efficiencies to speed it up without compromising quality or data collection. Overall, they handled the project exceptionally well.
We had weekly calls, and they provided regular email updates. We also used Microsoft Teams to communicate. Rakas had a project management portal where they illustrated the timeline of the activities and made adjustments. In summary, we had multiple communication layers, and they were very thorough.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?
Jeff was a fantastic leader and partner. He genuinely wanted the absolute best for us and understood the pressures of a role like mine. Also, he was always there to help move things forward and be my sounding board throughout the project. Jeff went out of the way to ensure he supported us through the extensive process, both from the step and the time it took us.
Allbriton (Executive Creative Director) was brilliant from a visual standpoint. He pulled it all together and thought about unique ways to leverage a brand in the market. Overall, he thought outside the box and was always willing to try something new. Working with him was fantastic.
Additionally, two people worked on the brand platform, and they were absolutely fantastic. To be honest, they brought freshness to our brand messaging and our process. When interpreting all the data Rakas pulled together, they were also excellent. It wasn’t easy to look at the feedback and pull out the minor details that would truly set us apart from a competitor, and they were able to do that and put it into a brand refresh to move us forward.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Firstly, their project management process was phenomenal. Rakas worked within the constraints of our ability to respond to them. Many companies take any opportunity to blame delays on our company and our complexity. Even though delays were indeed our fault more often than not, Rakas never did that. They just came up with the next step in the process and kept pushing the timeline forward.
Moreover, I’ve been in marketing for 28 years, working with several agencies. Rakas stood out for their process, which was consultative. They guided us but didn’t put words in our mouths. The team teased out how we saw ourselves as a company and how our internal stakeholders and clients saw us.
They had a gentle way of helping us discover the truth about how all these stakeholders perceived our brand. Other brand agencies also have a discovery phase but tend to influence the process and outcomes. Rakas didn’t; they led us to our truth without affecting the process in any shape or form.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I would point out little things if I wanted to be super nitpicky. However, the reality was that Rakas refreshed their brand while doing our brand refresh. They created a whole new company under them and launched it for themselves without missing a beat with ours. All in all, Rakas delivered, and they should be commended for that.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Be honest with Jeff and the company. Tell them what you’re concerned about in your brand and what you think isn’t great; give them the good, the bad, and the ugly. That honesty and vulnerability will pay off in the long run. Sometimes it’s a difficult conversation, but you have to accept there are things about your brand that aren’t fantastic. Being honest with them will help you navigate through.
Finally, trust Rakas when they say you should do things a bit differently than what was set in the statement of work. They don’t come to those conclusions lightly. If we had held them to the absolute letter of what we agreed on day one, we never would’ve gotten the amazing results we did. Being flexible is part of being a partner with a firm like Rakas. You get the best out of them when you’re honest and open shoulder to shoulder.
RATINGS
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Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
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Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
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Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
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Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
