WANT

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m VP of corporate marketing & brand management at Protect Plus. In addition to consumer packaged goods, we have a portfolio of restaurants and other service-based businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire WANT Branding?

For more than a year, we've been struggling to name a new restaurant that will open in the southeast region. The restaurant is scheduled to open within the next 90 days and our management team has been unable to arrive on a name that everyone can agree on.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking for a thoughtful list of names that could clear the trademark process.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I considered 6-10 agencies but chose WANT Branding because they understood our goals and had the same sense of urgency that we felt. It was clear during the interview process that their team clicked well internally, but also had great chemistry with my internal decision makers.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

After providing a project summary document for my approval, they provided a list of names for discussion. They originally promised 20 names but came back with more than that. We went through the presentation and gave them feedback, which they used to provide a second round.

What was the team composition?

We worked with several of the agency’s creative staff throughout the entire process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

WANT Branding took us through a very structured process of consideration in less than two weeks. We struggled on our own for a year, churning through hundreds of names. With their help, we were able to pick a name and quickly start the trademark process. We needed their team to be the voice of reason to aid us in making a decision.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They were mindful of my timeline and the amount of other work on my plate. They touched base regularly, but not to the point that it was too much or frustrating.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was most impressed with their sense of urgency, creative inspiration, and immediate understanding of our goals for the project. They were very easy to work with, and they blew me away with their ideas. The most challenging part was narrowing down the list because they provided so many great options.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I was pleased with the experience and would highly recommend them. My only concern would be whether they'd want to work with us again because our team isn't the easiest.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Kork empowers consumers to control their data and receive compensation for its use. I'm a founder and the COO. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire WANT Branding?

We hired WANT Branding to help us pick a new name.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to pick a short, memorable name that made sense for our business.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found WANT Branding by searching the top naming companies. We considered five or six companies and individuals. The deciding factors were quality of work, price, and the fact that the founder seemed to understand that our name was extremely important.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

WANT Branding began by interviewing me and my co-founder. They also sent us a questionnaire with questions about our values and the types of company names we like. We answered, made a follow up call about our answers, and received a list of possible names. They presented another list of names based on our feedback, but the name we chose was on the first list.

What was the team composition?

Between one and four people worked on the project, including the founder. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I love our new name and have received a lot of positive feedback from friends and colleagues.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was extremely smooth. We worked well with WANT Branding.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by their ability to communicate and understand exactly what we were looking for.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former vice president of marketing and communications at a destination marketing organization. We focus on five different cities in northern California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WANT Branding?

We were looking for an overarching strategic point for all of our outgoing communication materials.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WANT Branding came up with a tagline for all of our materials and established pillars of communication that would flow under that main message. This entailed meeting with our stakeholders and partners to grasp the challenges within our market.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Jonathan (Founder & CEO, WANT Branding) and Bruno (Senior Director, WANT Branding).

How did you come to work with WANT Branding?

I met Jonathan in 2001. After seeing his work through the years for other companies, I decided it was time to bring him onto a project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January–March 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I really enjoyed working with WANT Branding. They did their best to determine our communication needs and delivered a fresh perspective to an old problem. Plus, they were obsessive about trying to please us.

How did WANT Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

Both of them were extremely responsive and willing to please. I never felt like I was left in the dark. They were diligent about all the work they provided for us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

While you can see the differences in their skill sets, the two of them work well together. Jonathan has always been an impressive person. He is always trying to raise the standards in everything that he does, which reflects in the finished project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of marketing at Arkadium. We produce interactive content in the form of games and interactive data visualizations for brands (e.g., NBA or Nike) and publishers (e.g., Washington Post or CNN).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WANT Branding?

Arkadium has been around for 17 years and gone through a number of transitions. A major shift happened a few years ago, which was moving from a consumer-facing company to one that was solely B2B. We wanted to hire an agency to help us create new messaging on who we are and what we stand for, as well as coming up with a new visual identity.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first step of the process was a discovery phase. WANT Branding met with Arkadium executives to understand their role, their challenges, and what the company means to them. They did historical research of old press releases and articles. They also sat down with us to understand our current market focus and objectives.

After the discovery phase, WANT Branding put all their findings together. Then they launched an initial draft of our message and visual identity. Several versions were presented, including logos and style guides. Next, they worked with us to finalize the message and iterate on the visual identity until we were satisfied.

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with two people, their managing director and their head of marketing.

How did you come to work with WANT Branding?

It was an exhaustive search. We approached about 20 agencies. Our criteria included everything from experience within our industry, to a preference for a local New York City vendor, to price point. After the qualification process and in-person meetings, our team was most excited to move forward with WANT Branding.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $43,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from December 2017–March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything they created is spot on. From a messaging standpoint, they got who we are in our DNA. That's something that was lacking previously. There’s a real sense of excitement around the new visual identity. It's modern, clean, and sophisticated. We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback both internally and externally to the new logo.

How did WANT Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

They led us through all phases of the project. I typically take the lead role so it was great that they stepped up in that way. They were on top of everything.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really appreciated how much their managing director was involved with the project. A lot of agencies use their top executives when they’re pitching, but then they disappear. That's not the case with WANT Branding. They had several senior people working and executing on our account.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only little thing that sticks in my mind is that, at least initially, the visual elements were generic. They looked like they could be applied to anybody and probably were used for other accounts. I got the sense that they were trying to steer us in a particular direction.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company organizes awards in different fields of art, such as architecture, photography, and design. I'm the head of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WANT Branding?

We were working on rebranding and needed help with finding a new name for our company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We discussed our goals with them and helped them understand our business and our strategic position. Then, we went through three rounds of naming, where they delivered their recommendations. They also did a trademark research for us.

What is the team composition?

I mostly worked with Jonathan (Managing Director, WANT Branding), Bruno (Senior Director, WANT Branding) and Celeste (Brand Consultant, WANT Branding).

How did you come to work with them?

I found them on Clutch. At that time, I was considering about six other companies. WANT Branding was eager to understand our challenges, and I liked their attitude, so I chose them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a little over $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between May–June 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're still in the market phase, but we’ve already seen improvements in our business compared to the last year.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They worked quickly and brought a lot of ideas to the table. They gave us plenty of names to choose from, so that was a very positive experience. Also, they're a fun team to work with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I liked Jonathan's personality and the fact that he's fast and smart.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I was very happy with everything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a partner at Tusk Ventures, a strategic advisory firm with traditional venture clients. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WANT Branding?

We were working with a client who needed to undergo rebranding and renaming for many of their properties. The client was a national improvement retailer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

WANT Branding began by doing an overall assessment of the company’s brand from top to bottom. They did store visits, online customer interviews, focus groups, and background. They created a baseline of the current status of the brand and met with our team and senior management to review what they discovered. They then performed a strategic brand assessment and gave provided multiple rounds for feedback. They delivered everything from customer giveaways to signage.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Jonathan (CEO, WANT Branding).

How did you come to work with WANT Branding?

I found Jonathan through a former colleague that had worked with him in the past. He was recommended to us because of his smart, hands-on experience.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent roughly $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked from April to December 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There aren’t exact metrics on our end, but I hired them to work with more clients because of their performance on this project. Our end-client loved their work and found them very easy to work with.

How did WANT Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent to work with; they met deadlines and were very receptive to feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The talent that WANT Branding brings is impressive; they’re smart and hardworking. He always gives us a number of choices and thinks of multiple approaches.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is nothing that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of a creative agency that includes branding. We mainly come up with brand strategies, and from there we build out the entire brand. This includes website development, search engine optimization, and social media campaigns.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WANT Branding?

We needed to create a new digital bank for the U.S. market and we required naming and branding assistance.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They walked us through the naming process; they presented us and our end-client with the name options for feedback. They researched the industry, clarified our brand direction, and created a narrative about where the general industry of digital banking is going.

What is the team composition?

We worked regularly with Jonathan (Managing Director, WANT Branding) and Bruno (Senior Director, WANT Branding). Jonathan handled presentations, strategy, and concepts behind everything. Bruno worked on the creative portion of the project and performed research. We also worked with their legal partner on finding trademark availability.

How did you come to work with WANT Branding?

Their company is local to Miami and we had heard of their work with bigger brands. We knew that they had experience in naming, especially within the financial sector.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $50,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March 2016 to March 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have any metrics at the moment, but we built a brand new digital bank. In terms of awareness and sales, we’ve seen positive results.

How did WANT Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent, in terms of project management. They have an incredibly structured, thorough system that was unbelievable. We mostly communicated via email and also use Teamwork.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive aspect of working with them was how well they presented their ideas.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I think they have their process down.

Any advice for potential customers?

If you can find them when they are available, get them. They’re busy but they’re very good.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

At the time of the project, I was the CEO of Flux, which was an early stage fintech business that built technology for entrepreneurs. Flux has since been absorbed into another entity.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WANT Branding?

We engaged WANT Branding in the early stages of the business, when branding and naming were going to be critical to our success. We were operating in a crowded space, and financial services businesses generally have a high bar when it comes to building brand trust. We contracted with WANT Branding to make sure we did it well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was a very disciplined and methodical eight-week process that involved meetings in person, online, and over the phone. We started with big-picture questions of what we wanted the brand to represent and what kind of emotional attachments we hoped to create with users of the brand. We boiled that down to a critical value statement about who we were. That then sparked conversations about brand position and naming. Throughout the process, we sought input from the principals in our organization. Investors, advisors, and other luminaries in financial services weighed in, as well.

What is the team composition?

We worked solely with Jonathan, a brand strategist.

How did you come to work with WANT Branding?

I first became aware of WANT Branding because of a naming and branding presentation Jonathan gave at a TED Conference. I was intrigued by his approach and the thoughtful way he discussed the process in the space. Our first call was to him, and after speaking with three or four other providers, it was clear WANT Branding was the best choice.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from September through November 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With this kind of a project, you can only determine the success by how much the brand resonates with the industry and the people in it. You can always tell if you got it wrong because customers will tell you. But it’s clear that WANT Branding got it right because we received positive feedback regarding our presence.

How did WANT Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

They strike the right balance between driving hard to make sure everybody provides the feedback they need to in order for deadlines to be met, and showing a soft touch and being flexible when the moment calls for it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

WANT Branding has an evident expertise in the industry. I’ve worked with a lot of branding firms, but nobody has impressed me in the way that WANT Branding has. If this process is done well, you likely end up with several strong-willed people having passionate conversations, and WANT Branding is able to navigate those and reach a common ground.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

At the time, I was senior director of brand strategy for Time Warner Cable. The company has since been purchased.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WANT Branding?

We realized that the naming function and some of the branding elements had been done outside of marketing for too long, so we were looking at how we could handle naming going forward. Previous naming projects had been done by the people who came up with the product, feature, or service that was going to launch, and not through marketing. This is how we became involved with WANT Branding. My role was to create, build, and own the branding functionality for the organization during the project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were initially brought in to help us determine if we wanted to do a relaunch and a rebrand for the organization generally, meaning whether we would change the name of “Time Warner Cable” to something else. For various reasons, that project didn’t proceed. However, we were happy and impressed with their work, so decided to put them on retainer for naming in general.

They offered us multiple rounds of names. I think we went through four to five names per month, but we also worked on what we called “naming maps." They always did different rounds for us, as well as initial trademark searches. Following that, they would partner with our own legal team in order to ensure that the proper trademark classes were checked.

What is the team composition?

We worked with different people, mainly under the leadership of Jonathan (CEO and Founder, WANT Branding). He had a hands-on approach and his expertise was extremely helpful to the process at large.

How did you come to work with WANT Branding?

We found a few providers initially. WANT had the right combination of an effective, inspiring leader, in addition to the right price point for us. Their initial presentation for the potential company rebrand was very good. Even though we didn’t do that project, we were sold on them overall.

How much have you invested with them?

The overall cost of the project was around $500,000. We averaged $30,000–$35,000 per month on the retainer, across a couple of years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them at the end of 2009 and worked with them for the next 2–3 years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we presented the naming maps to our company, a colleague told me it was one of the most impressive conversations he’d had all year. That was a nice metric for the success of the work we’d done. We received feedback from executives about the positive and successful names we came up with.

We took a couple of names created by WANT and used them for brand-new products for the company. For example, the first time the company went into the security space in a big way, they used the name “Intelligent Home”, which came from WANT.

We sometimes tested WANT's names against others and theirs were always the top. The simple fact of keeping a naming agency on retainer for a few years if pretty rare. I would work with WANT again in a second.

How did WANT Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

One of our leaders was a bit quicker to change things around and wanted changes all the time. They responded quickly to that and adjusted timelines effectively. Within the same day or week, we would make changes, but they would handle it very well. We felt that things were well-organized and that WANT was a true partner.

They were very easy to work with and easy to talk to. If someone asked me for a naming agency or a brand identity expert, they would usually be on my shortest list.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The idea of the naming maps for looking at the company at large is what distinguished WANT in my mind. Instead of doing their work in a vacuum, they took the time to set up meetings with the right people, and they encouraged my participation. They were able to do the work in a thorough way, without a lot of back and forth.

Not having a huge staff helped keep the cost down. It allowed us to keep them on for as long as we did. It made us feel like we were getting a lot of value: we received a naming policy manual, naming advisory and development, and other things that added value to the actual name generation. It was unique for me at the time, and since. It helped me create advisory documents when communicating a new name to the company. These are extra, above-and-beyond things that come to my mind, and helped distinguish them from the general services we might have gotten from another provider.

The names themselves also felt as though they hadn’t just been generated by a computer. Many bigger agencies made us feel like the names were computer-generated. I felt that the work with WANT was much more strategic and thorough.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m sure that, at the time, I could have mentioned things to work on and improve. In hindsight, it was a great relationship, it was helpful to the organization at large, and we definitely felt that we got our value for money every month. For those reasons, I really can’t think of a negative right now.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a multi-billion dollars medical device company with products in the minimally invasive surgical space. I’m the director of product branding.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WANT Branding?

We had a major initiative with a new product that we needed to name.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with defining our business goals and brand architecture before creating a stable framework and strategy to establish the original project scope.

We subsequently engaged with them to help with strategic naming and development of our naming hierarchy for the company. They ended up doing an inventory of all of our product names and creating a framework to understand them. They collaborated with us to develop a new hierarchy and also used the emerging framework to help me name several products simultaneously. We used their international language capabilities to check if our proposed names had issues in different countries.

The first contract was a very specific statement of work around helping us name a product. The second one was a retainer where the scope of work was much more strategic, leading to development of an overall naming hierarchy that informed various individual naming projects. The individual product naming projects were part of the retainer, where the strategic work also included naming a set quota of projects per month.

What is the team composition?

We worked with their founder and CEO as well as a senior director who did a lot of the name and heavy lifting. Celeste (Brand Consultant, WANT Branding) handled the project management.

How did you come to work with WANT Branding?

A consultant we’d been working with on brand strategies recommended them to us.  He said he knew several other naming consultancies, but felt that WANT was more strategic.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $180,000–$240,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2016 until December 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They performed an inventory of our existing product names (700-800 names) and organized them into four categories. They were able to make sense of the names we had used the past and propose a naming decision tree to help us make decisions of when and how to create future product names. We ended up using that filter tree to develop a naming hierarchy in conjunction with them that's been pretty successful.

How did WANT Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

Celeste did a good job. I have a pretty strong project management background and found them fairly flexible in adapting their style to ours. It worked well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very willing to work in a deeply collaborative way with us. They weren’t afraid to educate us so that we could make better decisions and evaluate their work more effectively. They were very open to feedback around other strategic considerations they needed to think about. It was a very natural and open type of working model, which I really enjoyed. Consultants can sometimes want a much clearer statement of work to control the scope. Because we worked on a retainer basis, it was much easier for us to act strategically and flex the work to what was important and necessary.

Are there any areas they could improve?

While they were very strategic, I think they could have gone even further in that area. Perhaps we were an unusual client in that regard.