Tenet Partners

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of global marketing for a major digital interactions company. We helped clients manage interactions with end users through a variety of business services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?

We are a business services spinoff from a Fortune 500 technology company. We needed to create a new brand as well as its assets in eight weeks. We engaged Tenet Partners to develop the guidance and assets for our brand. We also needed a brand portal and methods for managing multiple agencies’ work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tenet Partners set up processes for five other marketing agencies to deliver work for our launch. They developed a Basecamp site to coordinate each agency’s work and allow them to share documents. In addition, Tenet Partners developed every office and marketing template we use. They range from our letterhead to our brochures to our case studies. They also created guidelines on how to use our brand. The guidelines affect materials such as brand collateral, company events, infographics, photo strategies, and tone of voice. Lastly, they built a brand review site. All users looking to upload a piece of media online with our brand needs to submit it to our brand portal for approval. The manager in charge of our portal then assigns that media a brand review number to confirm its acceptance.

What is the team composition?

Larry (Senior Partner, Digital, Tenet Partners) was our key point of contact. We also worked with Ernie (Partner, Digital, Tenet Partners) and several other team members as needed.

How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?

I worked with them on a project for a prior position. The team provided us with a brand portal that was highly accessible and easy to use in-house. It also had a photo library equipped with keyword search and rights management. Tenet Partners’ work deeply impressed me, so I reached out to them first for this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $400,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on this project from August 2016 until January 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our brand had an extremely successful launch. We see thousands of unique visitors and downloads to our brand portal every month. Tenet Partners still hosts and manages the portal and helped us put 22 templates in place. We’ve engaged them for other projects and are highly satisfied with their work.

How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

Tenet Partners stuck to their costs and time estimates from start to finish. Sometimes we expanded the original scope and put in a change request, but they were otherwise highly reliable and diligent in meeting our agreed-upon budget and deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They went above and beyond to deliver the best possible customer service. I can reach out to them at any time and get a quick response to a problem or small task at no extra charge.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re highly satisfied with their work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the creative and branding strategy director for a global nonprofit that provides educational and membership services to about 140 financial investment management professionals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?

We needed a partner to help us develop a brand asset management system. Since then, we’ve worked with Tenet Partners on multiple other projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tenet Partners developed a set of online brand guidelines, tools, and asset library for our internal marketing colleagues and external agencies. We started with a discovery process to determine what kinds of information we needed on the site. We then did persona development for the customers who’d be coming to the site and figuring out what their needs and expectations were. After that, we built out wireframes, referencing examples from other companies’ that we liked.

Beyond producing a finalized site, Tenet Partners also worked closely with our IT and quality control departments, making sure that all the permissions were right and that the site functioned properly. They even worked with our internal communications team to conduct an annual online report.

What is the team composition?

We have one main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?

They were a recommendation. They’re leaders in the online brand centers space and have both the technical and design skills to make an impressive end product, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $500,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been partners since 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We use Google Analytics and have seen good usage of our brands. About 1,000 people have access to our brand center, and they consistently use it. Our colleagues in other regions find it particularly useful, and external agencies also think it’s one of the better ones they’ve seen.

How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

They always provide clear and simple project plans with key milestones highlighted. They’re flexible and adjust to our needs as the project scope and goals change.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re collaborative and work well with our internal team. Their designs are always clean and match our brand guidelines. If I ever have a question, they take the time to explain answers and options, which not all firms do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They had staffing problems at one time and could’ve been more responsive.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of corporate communications at Genesee & Wyoming Inc., a railroad holding company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?

We needed help with branding and web development for several websites.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed two or three corporate websites for us, using their CMS for our website and our intranet. In the past, I’ve had them on retainer for design, for which they did PowerPoint templates for me, as well as web and graphic design.

What sets them apart is the degree of thought they put into everything they do. We begin each project with a call to go over the scope, then they’ll research the background and put together recommendations or proposals that are always well-thought-out and professionally executed.

What is the team composition?

I work primarily with Hampton (CEO, Tenet Partners) and their technology lead, Larry (Senior Partner, Digital, Tenet Partners). There are several additional people working on the project and designers.

How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?

I’ve worked with them for 20 years at three different organizations. They were working on a project at another department of the company I was with at the time, which is how I became aware of them.

How much have you invested with them?

The websites were six-figure projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together 20 years ago and continue working together for web maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A rebranding project they worked on contributed to that company being acquired at a significant premium to its pre-rebranding share price.

How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management was excellent, and they were very detailed. Everything is done within an estimate of the project plan. We use phone and email to communicate, and they also have a client portal for exchanging documents.

What did you find most impressive about them?

First and foremost, they have a thorough understanding of business and branding. They’re don’t approach projects solely from a technology perspective. They’ve got a thorough understanding of branding and the quality of their design is always amazing. The degree of thought that they put into all their projects impresses me. Their work is of good quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their focus is on projects that are larger than what I typically do. I have to be selective in what I use them for because I’ve got a smaller budget. On the project management side, they’re good at sticking to estimates.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of corporate communications for a multi-line specialty insurance company. We also provide engineering management, inspection services, and IoT services. We are the leading provider of equipment breakdown insurance in North America.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?

We needed help maintaining our brand identity after acquisition. We also wanted help with various branding efforts, system design, and logo development projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They took a deep dive into the consumer market segment we were targeting and did secondary research on our competitors. They helped us find a way to position the product so it was distinctive in a competitive landscape.

They presented five brand identity and logo options to us. Several of them were excellent, but one stood out as the best match for the values and attributes we wanted to convey. It was a homerun effort that we were very pleased with.

What is the team composition?

We work with one of the partners. He acts as the strategic guide to the project. We also worked with an account person, a creative director, and a few other team members.

How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?

Our focus has primarily been B2B but we are diversifying our business and growing revenues with new B2C offerings. Our very strong B2B brand had no equity in the consumer market and our parent company mandates that B2C businesses use an autonomous brand.  We needed help to launch a consumer brand, tell a compelling story, distinguish it in a crowded category and convey the heritage, reliability and trustworthiness of the company without using our B2B company name or symbol.

We needed a brand consulting firm to with deep expertise who could help us develop a consumer brand that could fight above its weight allowing us to compete with competitors with larger marketing budgets. We also needed them to develop brand standards and to define the foundational rules for using the visual system elements so that we could achieve consistent expression of the brand in multiple media executed through both internal resources and external vendors.

How much have you invested with them?

They’ve worked with us on two major projects for the consumer brand we needed. Each came to roughly $19,500, so our total spend is over $39,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We received proposals from them beginning in July 2017. We approved the logo by mid-September 2017 and we completed the whole consumer product brand and brand standards identity by January 2018. We sent everything to the marketplace after that.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We recently launched the marketplace, so the success is yet to be determined. We feel we have a terrific brand with very good consumer-facing offerings. Tenet Partners have done really outstanding work and the value is incredible.

How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

They were exceptionally good project managers. They laid out a schedule and kept everything on track. They defined everyone’s responsibilities and reminded us about deadlines and due dates. They were always tactful and diplomatic but also direct.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their team is wonderful. We felt like we were working with a leading independent branding consultancy with very distinctive native talent. We had a great experience working with them and I really trust them. They have a data-driven process and made sure the guidance they provided was grounded in fact. We were assured that they were preparing us for the right outcomes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re very consistent and understand the importance of brand image. They primarily market themselves as a brand consultancy that offers corporate identity or product services. They do have other competencies, so my only recommendation to them would be to increase their merchandising for their other capabilities. They’ve developed literature, videos, and other materials for us, and they do a good job with all of that. It’s not obvious that they have those abilities without probing deeper into their company. They also have a strong digital competency in microsites and other online media.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of communications at the Connecticut Fund for the Environment & Save the Sound. We are a leading environmental advocacy non-profit. We have litigation, lobbying, and on-the-ground components. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?

Our website was in desperate need of updating. We had migrated it to Wix several years ago, from a professional service, which made it easier to make in-house edits, but it was not professional-looking. Things were gradually deteriorating on it, and it was really time to get back on the professional bandwagon. One of our primary goals for the whole project was figuring out how to make the site be welcoming to and work for our users, rather than be designed around the staff’s needs.

We had also brought on a third brand last year. The Connecticut Fund for the Environment and Save the Sound were originally separate organizations that were merged, and we brought in Soundkeeper in 2017. This presented some branding challenges.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We originally approached Tenet just for web work. As an organization with a small and busy communications team, we don’t have a deep bench of coding knowledge. It was important to us that the site be made on something that was easy to use, and which we already had some familiarity with. They decided to build the site on WordPress, listened to our specific needs, and built several custom approaches within WordPress when we needed them—sometimes on short notice.

We have a main homepage, along with three rotating tabs for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, Save the Sound, and Soundkeeper brands. Each one leads to a landing page for that brand, so that we can choose where to direct people at any given time. Each page has its main content, and, after scrolling past that, will display an “engagement bar.” Those bars display snippets of our calendar of events, blog, email action network, the call to become a member, and an invitation to view our videos page. These items are made visible on every page, in order to draw people to different engagement points.

Tenet’s team recognized our complex branding challenges right away, and offered to engage in a brand identity and alignment process with us. They led a half-day workshop around our brand identity, which included a fairly large number of board and staff members from our side. We came to rough consensuses, which they distilled into a report. We refined that report a bit, and it has continued to be very helpful to us like in writing for the website or developing elevator pitches. Having experts in both branding and web design in one shop was huge for us—they made the process streamlined and kept the big picture in mind.

What is the team composition?

We have a dedicated account manager at Tenet, and we have also worked with their Senior Strategy and Research Partner, Senior Digital Partner, and their Digital Marketing Director. They assigned a designer to our project as well. 

How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?

We went through an RFP process, but they were actually recommended to us by one of our board members. They had previously worked with Tenet on a complex brand issue.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested $27,000, and I would estimate Tenet has given another $75,000 or more in their services pro bono.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking with them one year ago. The kickoff meeting and branding process started in June 2017. The website visioning meeting took place in August and September of that year. We’ve continued to work on the actual development and content creation.

The site launch is planned for mid-April, after which we will have a public launch at the start of May 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have quantitative results yet, but we have been previewing the site with board members. The response from them has been extremely positive. One of our new board members called the site “confident but inviting”, which is exactly what we were going for.

How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve communicated extensively through both email and phone. I know that Tenet has an online platform available, and I was invited to join in, but found it wasn’t as helpful for me.

The majority of lags have been on our end. There’ve been a couple of times when we had to follow up with them, but those were due to unforeseen needs for which they had to develop solutions. This occurred when Tenet had other major projects going on. They have been extremely responsive to any questions or requests for updates. We have asked for more of the tech team’s time than originally anticipated, but they’ve been generous in providing it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have in-house expertise in a lot of different areas. It was certainly much more seamless than having a branding and web design process with difference groups. It was great to work closely with people who really know what they’re talking about. It never felt as though we had to compromise.

The staff I’ve been working with is located in three different geographic offices, but they’ve worked together seamlessly. Location has never been even remotely an issue. I’ve also appreciated how personally invested they became in the project. They all seem to get behind our mission and enjoy helping us achieve it. They’ve also gotten into the technical challenges, and helped us solve those.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Both Tenet and our team were juggling multiple projects at once, so we hit some busy times that slowed us down, but I always felt Tenet’s staff was making our project a priority. Some specialized departmental needs took a while to work out. They’ve been committed and understanding of nonprofit realities.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

In retrospect, I wish I’d asked for guidance on how much time our staff and Board should expect to put in, based on Tenet’s experience with similar projects. Because we hadn’t worked on a project like this in a number of years, we weren’t fully prepared for how much time the content writing and site development problem-solving would take. Some folks on our team found it hard to turn something around in a couple of days during the visioning stages. It’s also important to make sure the right people are in the room from the beginning: the final arbiters, the folks who maintain the site, and the program heads with specialized needs. Those are all different people in our case so there’s been a big pool to coordinate. Tenet has been helpful in facilitating that, and has worked well with every level of our staff and Board.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the president and CEO of Connecticut Fund for the Environment/Save the Sound, Connecticut's largest environmental advocacy group. We combine traditional advocacy campaigns with on-the-ground habitat, river, and marsh restoration activities. We also have a legal team to enforce environmental laws when necessary.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?

In addition to having a significantly outdated website, we were also growing and evolving as an organization. As a result of two merged nonprofit organizations, we were in the process of absorbing additional programs. Our initial challenge was establishing brand clarity and developing a new website that was more engaging to our membership and the public.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tenet asked us to form a broad team, which ended up consisting of about 10 people from both our board and staff. From that core group, we went through several workshops together to go over our goals and define our mission. After eliciting our collective beliefs, they created brand statements which were then reviewed and became part of the core guidance for setting up the website. Finally, they designed and developed the site, consisting of three different landing pages.

What is the team composition?

I mostly work with James (Senior Partner, Tenet Partners) and Larry (Senior Partner, Tenet Partners). However, our internal communications director has worked more closely with other members of their team.

How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?

One of our board members had worked with them before and recommended we reach out. Fortunately, they were very generous and receptive about donating significant pro bono time and energy to our project. We chose to work with them based on the amount of work and the analysis they agreed to do considering our limited budget. No other vendor came close to matching the same services for that kind of value.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested around $27,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2017 and the project is expected to be completed shortly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

About seven members of our staff participated in a walkthrough of the new website and their responses have been unanimously positive. Everyone is extremely appreciative and exuberant about the work Tenet has done.

How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

As I understand from communicating with our communications director, they've been very organized and efficient. They did an excellent job capturing the comments from the workshop and distilling them into thoughtful messages about our brand. Their design work is beautiful and they were receptive to our feedback throughout.

What did you find most impressive about them?

A previous vendor we had worked with took a boilerplate approach to our web design. However, Tenet's team took the time to get to know and understand our organization, and then applied that information to meet our main objectives. They helped us identify opportunities for engagement to get the public more involved with our website. In that way, their design was far superior. Furthermore, we're extremely grateful for the donation of their time and talent on this project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the corporate brand mananger for a global aerospace and defense company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?

Our brand positioning - which was first developed with assistance from Tenet in 2006 - was looking a little long in the tooth. We were trying to refresh our messaging and incorporate major acquisitions that have changed the look of our company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did deep and intensive work to help us update our positioning, as well as develop an integrated campaign to promote our most recent acquisition. To accomplish this, they did internal and external interviews, as well as a deep dive into our positioning since 2006. They worked to understand our brand positioning in the marketplace as well as customer perception of us and our acquired companies - all to aid the transition and boost brand equity.

Based on their strategy work, they also developed a creative campaign that targeted internally and externally to promote the acquisition and the new positioning of the company. They also promoted our new branding with the future in mind, helping with brand voice, video guidelines, and naming strategy for new products.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a big crew of people, justified by the breadth of scope we had. Our key contact was Janice Bissell [Account Manager, Tenet Partners], our project manager. Beth Flom [Partner, Strategy, Tenet Partners] was our brand strategist. They also brought in Larry Oakner [Senior Partner, Employee & Customer Engagement, Tenet Partners], Larry Roth [Senior Partner, Digital, Tenet Partners] and a creative lead. Hampton Bridwell [CEO and Managing Partner, Tenet Partners] came in and out of the project, and helped keep all of his folks aligned and focused on our long-term goals. Plus a rotating team of experts, depending upon our particular needs at the moment. To a one, the whole team was amazing.

How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?

We’ve worked with them since 2006, before I joined the company. When we were considering our options for this project, we did look at other firms, but Tenet’s knowledge and comfort level with some of our key items of branding appealed to us, and we felt they could help us build a strong, resonant brand.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $250,000 on this particular portion of the engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in earnest in January 2017, and the major push wrapped up by mid-summer. It was a six-month project, give or take, although we've continued additional work with Tenet since that time, based in great part on their good work through this major push.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Paris Air Show served as the launch event for a major phase of the bran campaign Tenet had developed, and it earned glowing reviews, both internally and externally. Our internal team and our CEO felt we did a great job and set the bar high for next year. Our customers saw us everywhere, and the campaign really resonated with the target audience.

How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re on top of it. The project was very complex, with a wide variety of people, approvals, and considerations. They did a yeoman's job of managing everything.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They take a holistic view of brand that’s essential in today’s business marketplace. They understand the role of a creative team and building a strong foundation on that creativity. Their integrated view of branding was essential to our success, and surprisingly rare among the branding companies we talked to.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There isn’t anything I can articulate. They did a great job. Probably the one thing I might hear is that our creative approach for the campaign didn't strongly push the envelope, but I think that's more because of the conservative nature of our company and even the industry. In my mind, Tenet listened to us and our audiences and met them where they needed to be, even if that didn't mean earning the AdWeek award.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We hold contracts with vendors and manufacturers used nationally by education, government, and nonprofit entities. We also provide professional development, with other options for funding and partnership support. We operate regionally in Minnesota and are expanding our national business. I am the marketing and public relations manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?

We wanted a brand that better represented what we do and the audience we serve. Our organization had grown so quickly, and we didn’t have a brand platform in place. We wanted a company that could differentiate us in the marketplace and build our presence.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We chose them because of the process they use. We knew we wanted a lot of participation from the organization. They set up workshops and gathered input through different phases of the project. They went through a discovery process and came back to us with their recommendations. That gave us the opportunity to speak with all the stakeholders in our organization and develop the messaging and other unique aspects of the platform. We wanted this to resonate with our employees as well as with the public.

They delivered our entire brand platform, geared toward the four different audiences we serve. They walked us through the messaging matrix for each and built a visual package with identity guidelines and a tradeshow booth, plus a number of other deliverables along the way.

What is the team composition?

Our project manager was Kathleen Land [Account Manager, Tenet Partners], who just recently retired. Carol Friedland [Associate Partner, Strategy, Tenet Partners] acts as our account rep. I work directly with her most of the time. Andrew Bogucki [Senior Partner, Creative Director, Tenet Partners] is the team’s creative director. For our internal activation for some of the work, we also work with Larry Oakner [Senior Partner, Employee & Customer Engagement, Tenet Partners].

How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?

We found them through connections on LinkedIn. A few people I trust in marketing recommended them, and vendors we’ve contracted used them for their own branding work. We shopped a number of companies for proposals, but Tenet came out on top because of their process. We wanted to redo our entire visual package—beyond just our logo—and we felt they’d be the best choice.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2016, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are in the process of completing a brand awareness survey and will roll out the new brand next June. We’re measuring their impact now so we can set benchmarks. In terms of employee engagement, the transformation has been phenomenal. Employees loved our old image, but our organization is behind us, and they're excited about the new brand.

How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a great job. We had an online area to review our Gantt charts and action items. I’ve never worked with an organization with so many people involved in the process. They adapted quickly, and we were able to have frank conversations about our needs and their deliverables. They didn’t always agree with us, but they recognized we were different from their other projects. They were well-organized, and we were very happy with their management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very attentive. We felt like we were their only customer whenever they expanded their creative team. We were only planning on a six-month engagement, but we’ve stretched out to more than a year and have had a really great experience with them. Their flexibility and patience were amazing, and they showed thoughtfulness, professionalism, and expertise throughout the process. They did their research and had a good feel for what we needed. We’re very pleased with how things went.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are the worldwide representatives for Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). We are a nonprofit association that lobbies on behalf of REITs and our members to ensure that REITs continue to operate in the best possible environment to continue to be a benefit to the investors and the economy. We also provide resources and research for our members and for investors.

I am the vice president of marketing. I help to ensure that we are on brand with our marketing and communications and that we are engaging with our members and adding value to their membership through events, networking, research, products, and services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?

We are launching a new brand in 2017 and, as part of that, we needed to develop a new brand center so that all of our staff, members, partners, and vendors could have one place to access our brand assets. Tenet Partners helped us develop a website to do that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tenet Partners showed us examples of what they’d done for other clients to give us ideas of different ways we could problem-solve for our different audiences. They supported us from kickoff through development, populating the website with content, and design support. We are still making final tweaks to the project.

What is the team dynamic?

Larry [Senior Partner, Tenet Partners] was key in problem-solving the development of the website. He figured out how we were going to get the work done. Mark [Account Manager, Tenet Partners] was the project manager and he kept the project on schedule. He did status calls and followed up with me for deliverables that I owed him so that we could keep the project on schedule. I worked with several other people who helped with design support.

How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?

They were chosen before I started working here. We had worked with a branding agency before, but we knew Tenet had done brand centers before and we liked their work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them January 2017, and we have a future project that we plan to work with them on in 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have launched the project internally, but it’s a confidential brand launch so we’re not launching it externally until November. Feedback from internal stakeholders states that the website is easy to use and aesthetically pleasing.

How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent. They hit every deadline we established. I had weekly check-in calls with Mark, and after each call, Mark would send me a report with action items and anything that was outstanding. They were very methodical in making sure we understood how we would get the work done together and how they would be supporting us. It was an Agile process and as we discovered new needs, they helped us adapt our framework for the website to meet those needs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their accessibility was the thing that impressed me the most. No matter what it was or when it was, if I needed something, they always accommodated me. They were extremely helpful in the sense that if we needed something done or a problem solved, it wasn’t that they added an extra fee on to get the work done. We had hours built in for their support each month. I never felt like I had to worry about reaching out. They provided boilerplate content that we were able to edit for some very common things. They had a lot of resources and were able to be flexible and accessible. They were very hands on. We needed someone who would be fluid and flexible with this project, and they were the right fit for this project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have a CMS that they used with our website that is very user-friendly but there were a few things that I found clunky and I gave them that feedback. They took that feedback and talked to their development team about making changes. Like every product, service, or company, they had things that I felt they could improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re about a $2 billion industrial distribution company servicing manufacturing and Fortune 500 customers across the United States. I’m the vice-president of marketing, so I have oversight over all our digital and marketing assets, product strategy, as well as our specialty businesses within the enterprise.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?

There was an acquisition about three years ago. We were merging two companies that both had a lot of heritage behind their individual brands. The business challenge we were addressing was pulling together those two organizations into one company, under one banner, with one culture and one value proposition.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I like working with Tenet because of their boutique nature. Working with a smaller firm, you tend to get more interaction with the senior level folks and the ability to adjust and move quickly when needed. I give them a lot of credit around their flexibility and willingness to flex when needed. In bringing together two enterprises, it can become a little disorganized sometimes. Tenet did a great job of helping us manage that dysfunction.

As far as deliverables go, and where they did a wonderful job from our perspective, is really building out the brand platform that we now leverage, all the way down to the service principles. They really helped us drive what we feel is a brand platform that we can iterate on over years to come, but built in such a way that there’s still flexibility where we can tweak as we move forward, which is great. The look and feel of the logo turned out fantastic; the way they used color, and the integrated patterns of the logo have been fantastic as well. The logo itself plays very well in all types of print, video, and digital media. The team did a great job on the logo development.

The last piece I would like to call out specifically is the training that was built and rolled out across our enterprise. We’ve got 3,300 associates, and we developed a cascading training that went out to all the associates. Tenet worked very closely with us in developing that, and it really drove home educating the two companies on what the new, individual company was going to stand for.

I directly worked with James Cerruti, who is the senior partner at Tenet. Nora Swenson was the project/account manager. We also had Carol Friedland who would come in and pinch-hit for James occasionally, and then we had Rebecca Longman and Larry Oakner that we worked with quite a bit. Andrew Bogucki did a lot of the design work, and another Andrew [Douglas] was our creative writer.

How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?

I joined the company only about a year ago, and I came here to lead up this rebranding effort. I selected Tenet within my first couple months on the job. I found them through a referral. The president of our parent company had worked with them in the past. There were a couple other agencies that we had worked with, one of which went out of business, and that left us in kind of a bind. Tenet was referred to us, and they were very willing to pick up the project and dig right in.

How much have you invested with Tenet Partners?

It’s a seven-figure-plus number. We didn’t hire a company like Tenet in an effort to be thrifty.

What is the status of this engagement?

We contracted with them in May of 2016, and the work is ongoing. We’re finishing up right now, so the project should be completed in the next 30 days.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

It’s all so fresh and new, we haven’t been able to execute on all the surveys and things we want to do with the market to see how well the brand is seated. I don’t have any clear measurable, with the exception being that we’ve trained 3,300 associates on the new brand platform, and we’ve rolled out the new brand across the entire enterprise.

How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re good at identifying the milestones and tracking against those. I would say that there have been a couple of occasions when the project got off-track a bit. It’s hard to identify whether that was on us or them. In a lot of cases, it might have been us because we’re large and a little disorganized. If I was going to knock Tenet for anything, there were a few times when the project manager would get a little too overzealous in trying to hit specific dates. There were times when I’d have to tell James that we had a lot going on, and we needed to make sure we’re communicating appropriately to the people here. I think that was all done for the right reasons, and it was done because they’re ultra-focused on deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about Tenet Partners?

The logo design and the training are the two things that really stand out.

Are there any areas Tenet Partners could improve?

They come across as a very small shop, so there are times when a person is out on vacation and a task has to wait. Some of that is just due to their size. The benefit is that you get more of that TLC and direct executive engagement that you don’t get in larger firms.

One of the challenges for Tenet was that we were moving very slow, and then all of a sudden, we wanted to go very fast. They didn’t know our business, so it was a bit of a handicap. They had to learn a very complicated business in a very short period of time. I don’t know if anyone could have done a better job than they did at learning the business at the speed we required.