Starfish

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the VP of Worldwide Marketing at an innovative medical technology company focused on improving women's health globally.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Starfish, and what were your goals?

Our business created a brand new product. The largest women's health survey in the World covering 93% of the world population. We needed to brand the new product, establish globally relevant and unique brand equity attributes and generate awareness for the product.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Four companies competed based on a standard creative brief. A panel of five senior leaders unanimously selected Starfish based on strategic alignment, broad capabilities and creative excellence. Once Starfish clearly demonstrated superiority we negotiated a formal Statement of Work and annual Marketing Plan.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

Starfish met with and interviewed senior leaders, key internal and external stakeholders as well as external partners.

Based on the interviews they modified their recommended plans, gained alignment with global women's health index leaders, finalized a Statement of Work covering all elements of brand creation including but not limited to brand design, benefit visualization, messaging, target audience, Personality, tone and brand character.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Between 6 - 10 depending on the needs and stage of the project. Very flexible to meet the new product needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Yes. Our CEO and Charmian is publicly quoted multiple times in global venues saying the following, "For all the products we've made over our company's lifetime (35 years) ... The data we get from the Global Women's Health Index may turn out to have the biggest impact on human health of anything we've ever done."

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We used weekly 1-hour team meetings to insure the entire team of internal and external partners were aligned.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Speed. They were filled with smart creative people with a strong bias for action and passion to win.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

As with all new product launches there are always opportunities for improvement. Starfish is a strong collaborative parntner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of global brand marketing for Principal Financial Group, a financial services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Starfish?

We were in need of a brand strategy relaunch. The last time that we relaunched our brand was in 2015, and we needed to make sure our brand was still representative of what was happening on the outside, but also reflected how we have advanced and moved forward as an organization.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Starfish to help us navigate through the whole process of relaunching our brand positioning, which entailed both internal and external research, stakeholder interviews, competitive analysis, and preview and insight analyses. The work we did with them was critical for us to then set the stage for other critical initiatives strategies (e.g. CX, Though Leadership, Creative Strategy).

Aside from that, they also assisted us in making sure that we had a clear brand promise and brand personality by helping us sharpen our brand position as well as the pillars supporting that promise.

Starfish also took the job of translating our strategy into our brand book, brand guidelines, visual identity, tone, and voice. The work that they delivered was paramount to the creation of our other branding materials.

What is the team composition?

We worked with David (Founder & CEO) and Rachel (Account Executive).

How did you come to work with Starfish?

They had previously worked with the CMO in other projects, so they were already assigned to this task when I joined the organization in 2020.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent somewhere around $500,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on this project from November 2019-December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We track our advertising through another data analytics company, and we have definitely seen some improvements in our awareness, favourability, consideration, metrics, and also brand attributes as a result of our new brand strategy and positioning.

In terms of the quality of Starfish’s work, I’d say that I see an improvement in the consistency across all the different messages that we're bringing to life, not only through advertising but also through corporate communications.

How did Starfish perform from a project management standpoint?

Starfish performed very well in terms of project management. I’ve never worked with such a committed partner like they were. The way they worked was very personal — even their CEO was always available whenever we needed them. 

I also appreciated how thorough they were — they made sure to cross all their t’s and dot all their i’s before handing the final products over to us. They really are the kind of partner that will go above and beyond to make sure that they deliver the best possible solution for their clients.

We typically communicated through phone calls, emails, and video conferences, and we used Excel to manage the timelines of our deliverables.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m really impressed with Starfish’s leadership skills, strategic mindset, and business expertise. The breadth of their experience in different verticals within and outside the industry really stood out. 

They helped us connect all the different dots and understand how customer consumer insights would help us better articulate and put together our different proposals. They asked the right questions and challenged every word we put into our brand pyramid to make sure that it reflected who we are today and what our aspirations for the future are.

They always made sure that we were not losing track of our goals and that we had considered every possibility that was out there. They brought a fresh, external perspective, yet they managed to keep us really focused on the outcome that we needed to deliver in the first place.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to give them as much information as possible and to bring them to your decision-making meetings. Treat them as a business partner and not just a vendor, and make sure they are involved every step of the way.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the head of communications and marketing for a fitness company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Starfish?

We needed help to re-envision our brand, as well as with our strategic transformation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Starfish helped us with our strategic transformation, so their work involved qualitative and quantitative research. They also provided us with a roadmap for transforming our brand experience in the club and helped us with a brand campaign for the new year.

What is the team composition?

We worked with five people from Starfish on an ongoing basis. Their team included the president, the creative director, a program coordinator, and a copywriter.

How did you come to work with Starfish?

Starfish was recommended by a board director who had worked with them before.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in mid-2021, and we stopped collaborating when the Omicron wave of the pandemic hit around September 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The research that Starfish did for us was on point and very helpful.

How did Starfish perform from a project management standpoint?

Starfish’s project management was great. They were very communicative and timely, and their work was really well done. We communicated via email and Zoom meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Starfish did a great job. We were a complicated client because our business was in constant flux, but they were very patient and flexible, which we really appreciated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be crystal clear on what you want them to accomplish.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an advisor to a government agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Starfish?

We were faced with public perception issues perpetuated by media stereotypes of our clientele and the reasons behind their situations. It affected our external communications, as well as the perception of our work by our internal staff. Starfish was initially brought in to help with our internal marketing (build our optimism for the work) by building a strategic plan involving an overarching document, video, and internal/external collateral. Now, they’re doing ongoing video work for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Primarily, they’ve created digital video for us for our social media and website, as well as other platforms like taxi televisions and kiosks.

After one of our main public-facing services was assigned to a different agency, we were left with a question as to what we were selling and what our call to action should be as an agency. The projects since then have run from general awareness and learning campaigns that drive people to our website to sharing opportunities for volunteer participation and partnering with other agencies.

There was also a public-facing project that informed local residents to call 311 or connect with our team through our app if they saw someone on the streets that was in need of our services.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with around 10–12 people in total. I mainly work with our project manager and their associate, but there have also been editors, subcontractors, who did the actual video work, and writers.

How did you come to work with Starfish?

I came on in the middle of our initial internal branding project. The person in charge of our communications team had done some work with Starfish previously or knew someone who’d worked with them before, I believe. When I had these other projects in mind, I thought of Starfish again. Part of the initial strategic plan was a video, so we knew what their video work was like.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $1,000,000 so far with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We see a lot of response when we put pieces up on social media, as well as a lot of impressions. It drives an increase in our web traffic too. Internally, people love our videos and think they’re very moving. Starfish seems to get what we’re after from virtue of knowing well what we’re working on. They’re great at bringing that to life.

How did Starfish perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re somewhere between hands-off and hands-on. They’re good at sticking to deadlines but are also able to shift priorities when we have several ongoing priorities, as we sometimes do toward the end of the fiscal year.

I didn’t use any project management tools. They knew our deadlines and told us what we needed to do to hit them. We communicate mainly over email and phone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a great team, and it’s always good to work with them. They’re professionals dedicated to their work, and they’ve worked for similar agencies to ours in the past.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We wouldn’t have them do things any other way because the production value is so high. Anything else would be counterproductive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In our environment, which has a lot of internal stakeholder opinions and requests, I try to defer to Starfish. They listen to us and accommodate our specific requests, but we try to let them do their thing since I trust their expertise.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the chief marketing officer for a law firm operating out of New Jersey.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Starfish?

Simply stated, we wanted to build our brand, raise the firm’s profile and position it more strongly in the market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The overarching goal of the project was establishing a visual identity, which essentially consisted of a new logo and accompanying design integrations across the entire firm. That plays out in digital and traditional media, so our website and digital properties as well as stationery and print media.

We did two major redesigns of the website, and they were in charge of the whole design process, from UI/UX planning to the actual execution in development. Beyond that, they provide us with marketing assets and then we use them to elevate the company profile.

What is the team composition?

I was consistently in contact with the owner and our primary project manager throughout the project, but I believe there were about five people working on the project in total.

How did you come to work with Starfish?

They were already engaged in work for the firm when I joined, so I think what I did was continue and grow the relationship.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first started working with them in September 2017, and I left the company about nine months ago, but the two firms are continuing to work together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As we implemented the redesigns of our website, we saw very clear improvements in our engagement metrics. I’m not familiar with the exact numbers, but we were definitely seeing healthy double-digit increases in traffic and click-through rates and things like that.

They are really good at coming up with not just creative ideas, but also effective design solutions, if you will. It can be very difficult to develop highly targeted brand messaging while also satisfying the wide range of requirements and personalities that you find in the legal services and consulting part of the business community, and yet they continue to exceed expectations on all fronts.

How did Starfish perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very accessible and very proactive about staying in contact. Their team stays on top of all deadlines and communicates very openly. Throughout the project, it was always very clear that we were being taken seriously and that we were important clients to them, which we really appreciated.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve got a wide range of abilities in their personnel, but they are also very accurately aware of what they can and can’t do. It’s clearly important to them to deliver on everything they promise, so they are very careful about turning down anything they feel they might not be able to complete with their standard of quality. Their integrity in that respect was really valuable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have a recollection of anything I wished they would improve in working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open with them, not only about your requirements and what you want them to do, but also about what it’s going to be like working with you. At some points in our project, I had to tell them that it was going to get messy because of all the hoops we had to jump through, and preparing them for that made everything go much more smoothly than it would have otherwise.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of marketing and communications for a law firm of about 350 lawyers across the country. We specialize in Life sciences and technology investment funds, and I oversee all of our advertising, our website, and our social media and public relations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Starfish?

We’ve had lots of challenges that Starfish has addressed with us. One of the largest ones was a complete overhaul of our website's home page and a refresh of all of our internal pages, which they worked closely with us over a period of months to complete.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team started by coming up with design concepts for the home page and taking that all the way through our internal approval processes, which can take a lot of time at a law firm. From there, they designed our internal pages, helping to refresh our branding guidelines and producing content.

Starfish manages all of our advertising, including prominent videos on our site and about 70–80 print and digital ads over the course of the year. They handle everything from color palette, typography, and placement of graphic elements, to advocating for content and investment decisions with the partners at our firm.

What is the team composition?

We have a couple of primary contacts on their team, primarily David (CEO, Starfish), Dayna (Account Director, Starfish), and Elizabeth (Assistant Account Executive, Starfish).

How did you come to work with Starfish?

We started working with Starfish before I joined the firm, but I’m sure it was a competitive pitching process. Since then, it has been a really easy decision to stick with them because of the quality that they deliver.

How much have you invested with them?

I’m not sure how much we’ve spent in total on the account, but it is certainly upwards of $1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in 2015, and we continue to rely on them for all of our advertising and website needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The feedback from within the firm, which is one of our most important factors, has been extremely positive. Leadership loves the new home page and the way the whole web site works.  People feel that it is clean, efficient, attractive, and gets the right message across. They managed to strike the right balance so that design doesn’t get in the way of content.

In terms of metrics, our website gets many more eyeballs than it used to on our old site. Page views are up. Our headlines get more attention, and people stay longer on given pages. Their whole team has just been incredibly helpful and really efficient. They never sacrifice quality for the sake of expedience, which is really important to us.

How did Starfish perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re super organized and always start with a consultative approach, which I think is the right way to go. They ask lots of questions and get feedback, and they know who to go to for approval on different things in order to start work.

Then, they come back with concepts and ideas and walk us through the whole design review process. When it’s time to execute, they do that in a very organized, calendar-driven way, which is really helpful.

We have weekly project status calls, but the majority of our communication is via email. We use phone and schedule in-person meetings, but those are much harder to arrange, just logistically speaking.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re incredibly smart. Lots of places can do good design or provide good copywriting. With David and his team, it’s clear that they’ve been around the block. I came up in advertising as well, and it’s obvious to me that David has been in advertising for decades and really knows what he’s talking about.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Unless they wanted to give us things for free, I really don’t have any criticisms.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The most important thing as a client is to do some of your own thinking. Price matters, but you have to think about what your goals are. Be ready to come to the meeting prepared, because their team is great at making those kinds of decisions, but it has to be a two-way street.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for an anti-discrimination non-profit organization, and I’m the vice president of branding and marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Starfish?

We were trying to rebrand the organization to become closer to our changing constituents. Our organization has been around for 100 years and we brought Starfish in after the hundredth year of our existence, so our audience and the needs of that audience have significantly started since we got started. Our new leadership wanted to make sure that we were presenting ourselves in the most compelling and current ways.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first step was to conduct a lot of interviews to help Starfish form a really deep understanding of the organization and the challenges that we were facing. They spoke with leadership, long-term and new staff, and donors to really get a sense of what people need from our organization.

That set the stage for a very broad research study that we did about awareness and segmentation. From there, the challenge was to segment the market and determine where we should be focusing our publicity efforts and how we should be positioning our brand to encourage people to get engaged.

What is the team composition?

We worked with David (Owner, Starfish) as well as two account leads and several designers. They also partnered with a research agency for the study.

How did you come to work with Starfish?

I had met David several years earlier and was really impressed with his diligence and customer service, so when this job came up, he came to my mind first. Since I wasn’t the only decision-maker, they had to present and impress out of about 14 other organizations through three levels of review by my colleagues. In the end, they were the group we decided to go with.  

How much have you invested with them?

All in all, we spent somewhere between $250,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from May 2017–December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They really helped us come up with a new positioning for our work which centered around a great tagline that we were able to settle on after many, many rounds of trying to figure out the perfect one. We are extremely pleased with their copywriter’s skills and the result they were eventually able to produce for us. The new brand is extremely sharp, flexible, and fresh.

How did Starfish perform from a project management standpoint?

I think they are a little stronger creatively and strategically than they are with project management, but they hit all of our changing deadlines and worked well with my colleagues. We took a long time to make decisions and considering that, they worked at a very high level.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are able to really dig in and understand their client’s problems and challenges. They take the core issues to heart and figure out how they can really solve the most underlying problems. We were very impressed with their creativity as a group.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have some room for improvement at the mid-level of project management. They were great with the overall planning and the granular detail-oriented stuff, but some of the day to day gets a little bit lost in the process. I do have to add that they had some staff turnover issues that may have contributed to that as well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

At the time of the project, I was president of Haier America, a consumer appliance and electronics manufacturing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Starfish?

They were responsible for pretty much everything regarding our brand design, so they were helping us with web and packaging design, as well as in-store displays and numerous other side projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

From planning to implementation, they were really essential partners for us. They helped develop a brand strategy for Hair around television products to establish us more firmly in that market. From there, they delivered a go-to-market strategy around display and packaging for our products.

Their team also completely managed our web design from start to finish. At the time we were working with Google on an Android platform for our newest product and Starfish was right there with us through discussions between Google and our product people. Thanks to their work, we were able to communicate our proposition to the marketplace and our dealer partners as well.

What is the team composition?

We worked very closely with their president and one of the senior partners at Starfish that was responsible for our account, as well as with several staff members at their headquarters who were more behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Starfish?

One of the main reasons that I reached out to Starfish when I got into the role was that it was clear to me that we needed somebody who fully understood the electronics business who could be a real partner with us. They are more of a boutique agency and demonstrated pretty early on that they had the ability to really provide support at any given moment, regardless of timing. That convinced me that they could be the essential partner that we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

The budget for the whole project was in excess of $1,000,000 for that period.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2018, and that team is continuing to work together on the web design and subsequent product launches.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From an external standpoint, I think the fact that our dealer partners receive the information that we provide to them very favorably says a lot. Package design is a huge challenge in the television space because there’s such a highly competitive market. Starfish really played a strong role with us making sure that our packaging stood out on the floor.

We also received a lot of comments from our retail partners on our web design basically thanking us for being able to provide a good tool, not only for them to be able to research information on the product, but also for consumers that want to learn about the products that are in their stores.

How did Starfish perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated very regularly with their senior management, which I really appreciated. When it comes to their attention to detail, my experience there has been second to none.

It was also very common for them to jump in a car and come meet with us after-hours to discuss whatever particular issue we were having at the time. No matter what the time or budget restrictions there were, they were always willing to work with us to make it happen.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think the enthusiasm about the brand that they would bring to the project, along with their creativity and willingness to explore new opportunities on how to present the brand, makes for a really enjoyable partnership. They became a strong partner that I hope to and plan to work with in the future.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Quite frankly, I really can’t think of anything that they could have done better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a really good sense of who you are, what your brand stands for, and be specific in translating that to goals that you want Starfish to achieve. If you can communicate that clearly to them, they can take the ball and run with it and come back with some really great ideas.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a multi-unit Natural and Organic Grocery store chain with 155 stores located in 20 states, primarily west of the Mississippi river. My position is Chief Marketing Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Starfish ?

To develop the persona of a voice shopping assistant as well as the consumer journey and user experience when interacting with the voice assistant.

What were your goals for this project?

Develop a world class voice shopping assistant that would be uniquely differentiated in the marketplace and that would drive brand reach, awareness, engagement and store traffic.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed several brand experience/brand journey agencies via a traditional RFP process. They provided the best knowledge and insight into the assignment and were best able to demonstrate their strategic process and approach to developing the solutions and outcomes we were seeking.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Strategic development, consumer research development, insights and findings. Project management of the software developer. Vision.

What was the team composition?

Hands on accountability and involvement with CEO David Kessler, Account Director Grant Wood and Project Managers ran day to day. Their design teams and other support teams provided services when needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Project is still ongoing but we have very high expectations regarding the long and short term impact of this project to drive top and bottom line growth.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Hands on accountability and involvement with CEO David Kessler, Account Director Grant Wood and Project Managers ran day to day. Their design teams and other support teams provided services when needed. This has beeen a very effective structure and has achieved all phases of the development process on time and on budget while exceeding goals and expectations at each phase of the development.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Strategic vision and leadership. World class service. They're totally focused on the client and service. Commitment to quality. Committment to the purpose. Willingness to go above and beyond. Fearless recommendations and advice.

Are there any areas for improvement?

So far so good!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CMO of a management consulting firm. We provide services to public and private companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Starfish?

Our most recent work was an internal communications program, but we’ve also expanded it into our social media and recruiting materials. This program had two goals: create positive feelings about working here and provide employees with a better understanding of the work of our different business units. Not that working here was bad, but we wanted people to feel proud and engaged and help them to know more about what’s happening outside their aspect of the business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed an ad campaign that was manifested with posters, visuals, and copy that went up in our offices. They also appeared as digital wallpaper and digital images, like social media posts, on our employee intranet.

It was a very collaborative process. We gave them a strategic concept, but we didn’t have any executional guidance. We told them about communications channels with employees and that we needed ideas on how to get employees to be proud and feel good about the firm. From that brief, they built five campaigns that we narrowed to 2–3, made refinements to, and shared with our CEO. We then executed one of them.

After the campaign, they interviewed employees and published their stories, handling the copy, photography, art direction, and layout.

What is the team composition?

We worked with five people I can think of, but I’m not sure how many behind the scenes there were.

How did you come to work with Starfish?

We were introduced to their president several years ago by a peer in marketing at a law firm. Then, we attended one of their roundtables for marketing people in professional services like us. Over time, they gave us confidence that they understood our industry because selling consulting services isn’t like selling gum or shoes.

When this project came up, I called them for a proposal. We didn’t go to bid or interview multiple firms because we knew they’d done similar concepts for other firms before.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $100,000–$250,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first phase ran during spring 2019, and the employee interviews were in the fall of the same year.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The aesthetics, design, and copywriting were really good creatively. They also did a good job of including insights from people they interviewed about the work they do and how they feel about it. The bottom line is, they did quality work on time and budget. Additionally, there’s been a lot of internal buzz and anecdotal comments posted on our internal sharing tool.

How did Starfish perform from a project management standpoint?

I would say they were good but not great on the really little details. We’ll forgive the business details because the work was pretty good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One, they demonstrated that they understood our business and industry very well. Second, we got to work with their founder and CEO. Even though he didn’t do all the work himself, we weren’t simply handed off to a copywriter and an art director.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Other than the dotting I’s and crossing T’s of project management I can’t think of anything.