Woden

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of strategic marketing for an early-stage medical device company. We have developed a highly innovative and sophisticated technology platform to alleviate key symptoms for patients suffering from chronic Rhinitis in the physician’s office.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Woden?

Our company was founded by CEO Brian Shields and CTO David Townley, culminating from their work at the BioInnovate Ireland program at the National University, Galway. Brian and Dave had a great vision for the company and the technology. As we grew in size and moved closer to commercialization, we wanted to effectively distil that vision and imbue it within the growing team. Finally, we wanted to give a common voice to our story as we started to interact with our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Woden was engaged to help us extract and verbalize our unique brand story with the backdrop of a highly competitive commercial landscape. The Woden team did this by methodically engaging internal and external stakeholders including our key advisers, potential customers, and team members.

What is the team composition?

We primarily worked with Ed (Managing Partner) and Andrea (Brand Storyteller). Ed and Andrea assembled and brought in a team of five other Woden team members with specialized skills to assist with the project at various stages of the engagement. 

How did you come to work with Woden?

Ed had connected briefly with Brian, our CEO in 2019/2020 and introduced the concept of the brand story and Woden. In early 2021, we decided that it was a good time for us to explore the concept and shape our brand story as we built our commercial strategy.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested under $25,000 for the project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the actual work in March 2021, though we did have prior conversations back in 2020. We have completed the brand story phase of the project that we originally set out to do. We are exploring opportunities for future engagement as we embark on our commercial journey later this year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since the project is about crafting a brand message, quantifying its success is hard. We have a more qualitative assessment of their work, and we’re happy with the overall messaging we currently have. All of us feel that we’ve captured the essence of the company. 

Woden has helped us distil that essence and articulate it in a simple and elegant manner. The brand story has also focussed on differentiating us from our competitors. Overall, our team is very pleased with our brand story.

How did Woden perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management process was highly professional and efficient. All expectations, deliverables and timelines are laid out and well-executed.

As the project lead, Andrea ran the process efficiently. Any delays or deviations from the schedule were largely due to ever-changing schedules of key participants in the COVID environment. Overall, the project was managed extremely well and a pleasure to work with.  

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, we made the best of video and telephone conferences phone calls. While it would have been beneficial to meet in person for a couple of key sessions, I think that we effectively accomplished our project objectives through virtual meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

As an early-stage company with limited resources, we constantly evaluate the timing and value of services at every stage. Woden focused on understanding our immediate needs and concerns. Based on that they crafted a phased project proposal that was attractive to us from a time and risk perspective. Ed and his team have demonstrated their ability to effectively tailor their approach to companies small and large, and across varying sectors.

Are there any areas they could improve?

None currently, I am very satisfied with the overall execution of the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clearly define your expectations and more importantly your concerns. Ed and his team do a wonderful job of listening to your needs and concerns while crafting the project proposal and plan. Timely, honest and decisive feedback is very critical to the process. While Ed and his team can expertly extract your story weave a creative narrative, the final outcome is highly dependent and only as good as your input.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of sales for an IT managed services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Woden?

We were looking to create a new brand for our company because it was quite outdated.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We engaged with Woden for their branding services, and I was brought in to strategize a marketing approach. They help us create what’s called a story strategy, and it gives a comprehensive look a what’s called the hero arc — this helps us better understand our customers’ pain points.

We’re currently working on a full story guide and rewriting the copy on our website’s narrative.

What is the team composition?

I work with Ed (Managing Partner) and Andrea (Brand Storyteller).

How did you come to work with Woden?

I found them on LinkedIn and I partnered with them because I liked their approach and strategy.

How much have you invested with them?

The total of the contract we have with them is roughly $30,000 USD.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in July 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re professional, responsive, and organized, so the results of the engagement live up to the quality of their work. Woden goes out of their way to make sure they’re listening and refining what we need, and it’s been such a positive experience.

How did Woden perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform very well from a project management standpoint and they meet all their deadlines. We typically communicate through email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re very impressed with their commitment to excellent customer service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they could improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise being very clear with what you’re trying to accomplish and educate yourself on the story strategy approach to get the most out of your engagement with Woden.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an international airtime transfer hub, and we also resell gift cards.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Woden?

We were trying to revamp our branding position and our story to create a more up-to-date and innovative identity.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a discovery phase to understand our business, culture, people, and customers, and discussed what we wanted to achieve. They also identified our competitive landscape in the overall industry and markets that we operate in, so we can do an analysis based on our positioning and opportunities.

Apart from that, they conducted all of their internal research throughout the organization and understood our products, services, and business models. They also compared the differences, advantages, and gaps to help us determine what the brand stands for, and how we project ourselves in the marketplace as well as our employees.

Furthermore, they recommend guidelines, wordings, and statements related to our identity, brand, and service offerings. The actual ad copy and the execution of various elements will follow, so Woden will be working with us on an ongoing basis.

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with their CEO, designers, account managers, and a variety of research and creative specialists.

How did you come to work with Woden?

I received a lot of emails from Ed (Managing Partner), so they were the ones who found me first through their own outreach program.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent somewhere between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing partnership started in January 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While we haven't moved to the implementation phase yet, the expectation is that it will dramatically increase our business development, customer acquisition, overall market presence, and digital footprint.

How did Woden perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is excellent and I’ve been very impressed by their follow-through, delivery, timeliness, work quality, and attention to detail. They dove in and understood our industry like they're a part of it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re very impressed by their overall work ethic and quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they don’t need to improve on anything at this point.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to approach the partnership with an open mind. Work with Woden as a partner instead of a vendor, and engage them in your thought process and they will deliver.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing and customer experience at an insurance company. We’re a regional property and casualty insurer based out of Pennsylvania, and we focus solely on insuring multifamily housing habitational properties.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Woden?

We were having a tough time nailing down our purpose and mission statements. We had done quite a bit of work defining our values and understanding our culture, but we still struggled to articulate our purpose, positioning, and mission.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Once Woden kicked off with us, they requested us to send them documents that could help them understand our culture better. Some of the things we sent them were onboarding documents, marketing materials, various information about us, and more. After that, they applied the meta-analysis method to make sense of the documents we gave to them. They also conducted a couple of interviews with our employees to identify what made us unique. 

On top of that, they conducted customer, employee, and agent surveys, which allowed them to gain quantitative information about our identity and how we were viewed in the marketplace. Once they compiled all of that information, they came back to us with an example of what they believed our story to be.

Woden presented our brand pillars as well as our updated values, mission, and vision to our culture team. Once our culture team approved what they had developed, they created recommendations on how we could incorporate our brand identity into various tactics we were going to implement in our operations in the future.

The team continues to support us in a consultative fashion as we implement their recommendations. This month, we’re focused on rolling the brand to all employees, so they’re helping us create a PowerPoint presentation and brand cheat sheet to reinforce our story. In any process that we’re in, their services range from designing, editing, and conceptualization. We’ll continue to work with them on a monthly basis until it no longer makes sense to partner with them.

What is the team composition?

Normally, we interact with two primary contacts, including a project manager and Woden’s owner. They also have 6–8 folks behind the scenes who usually drop in on certain meetings.

How did you come to work with Woden?

My CEO saw something about Woden, and I did some follow-up phone calls to understand what they were offering and what their process was. I had been doing brand research for 20 years, and I paid a lot of money for research that wasn’t actionable and that wasn’t implemented.

As a result, when I had great conversations with Woden, I felt that they would be a good fit for us culturally. I also appreciated their thorough process that I knew could help us in implementing recommendations in the future. Furthermore, they were committed to providing a framework for implementing all of our findings. Above all, their price was good, and everything seemed to line up well.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent $45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We officially kicked off in February 2021, and we continue to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve just recently finished aligning the framework that would help us guide our decisions moving forward, so we don’t have any metrics at the moment. Anecdotally, the outputs that they’ve defined for us have been extremely helpful. 

How did Woden perform from a project management standpoint?

We frequently stay in touch through email, Zoom, or a web app. They’re the ones who are often waiting for me, so they are doing a great job holding me accountable — per my request. I wear many hats, so if something drops, I can count on them to keep me on track. I also know that I can send them an email and get a response from them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I come from a background where I deal with a lot of quantitative work, and Woden has come up with better results with less quantitative work. In particular, their storytelling narrative approach has been incredibly effective and unique.

Are there any areas they could improve?

A few deliverables we received had some grammatical errors, which when brought to their attention, they have fixed.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust their process, and be open when they push back on things that you believe to be true.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of PayRange. We are a mobile payment network for everyday purchases.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Woden to help us position the company's brand and story.

SOLUTION

How did you select this Woden?

They were a cold call solicitation to us. They pitched us what they do and after a few calls, we decided to give them a shot.

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

The process was fairly extensive. They have a model they use and are very good at what they do. It's pretty structured which makes the process efficient and effective.

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

We worked with about a half dozen people on vendor side with Ed leading the team, and Hannah being the primary representative driving the work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This is still new to us, but we intend to integrate the learnings and deliverables across a variety of things in the company. We'll first kick it off with a company meeting and share high-level outcome with the team.

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

We had scheduled meetings at key junctures, and the deliverables were clear at each stage. They are very good at communicating and setting expectations, and then making sure the project is on track.

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

Their work quality is very high. They lived up to the promise of what they would do. With a marketing firm, it's always such a fuzzy thing and a risk if the company is just good at talking and selling, but not at producing the desired output. In the case of Woden, they definitely exceeded expectations. They walk the talk.

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

They did a great job given the COVID restrictions and doing the project remotely; however, I'm sure their work could and would be better with some onsite visits (they of course couldn't do this with our project given the circumstances).

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

UpMetrics is a tech platform that targets impact organizations. Our key verticals are foundations, nonprofits, and impact investors, but it could be any corporation that works in their communities to drive change or impact.

We collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data to identify new areas of opportunity for these organizations. We see the impact they’re making and how that might affect how they talk about themselves to raise money or attract volunteers, or to see if they’re really making a difference where they intend to.

I’m the head of marketing, so I’m in charge of every facet of it. I work on branding, which is where we engage and do awareness work. I also work with sales, solutions, marketing, demand, retention, and more.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Woden?

I started with UpMetrics in the fall of last year, and we were originally thinking about working with a more traditional agency. However, nobody knew us, so we were trying to start the journey of identifying our brand and increasing awareness.

It turned out we didn’t have any sort of data that would allow us to do that in an effective way, so we had to take a step back and ask ourselves who we wanted to be and what our core verticals were. We had to go through that, decide what we wanted to be known for, and really double down there. That’s why we pivoted toward Woden, who had more of a storytelling approach.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we initially talked to Woden, they explained their trademark approach. They work with clients to build a story that follows the traditional hero’s journey. Then, they apply that story in different formats to all of the different touch points.

We started with a robust discovery period, which was exactly what we needed. They interviewed our clients and internal people to find out what they were saying about us, and they did competitor and general market analysis. Woden presented all of this information to us, which was very helpful.

From that, we got to the high-level story, where they told us what our mission, vision, unique value proposition, and client situation were. We engaged in collaborative sessions. The whole concept of storytelling and any marketing concept built from this idea of selling your brand through a story was very new to us.

Woden was very good at facilitating conversations, bringing in thoughts, starting questions, and having collaborative notes so that we could hear from everyone involved. We went through that exercise, and they went on from there to translate everything to a few core elements.

We’re currently working on the implementation of some of those items, and they support us in that regard and in the few areas where we need help with the next steps.

What is the team composition?

Hannah (Brand Strategist) is our main point of contact with the team. She’s great, and she’s very accessible via email. We’ve been through quite a few rounds of feedback with her, asking for clarification in her notes and so on.

They have different designers, copywriters, and people of various expertise to provide suggestions. We also had a pretty direct line of communication with one of the managing partners who took us through the importance of narrative and storytelling versus a more traditional branding campaign.

How did you come to work with Woden?

It was through a referral. I've gone through a few rebranding exercises in my past roles in different organizations. I've gone through it when I was in a tech company, and again in a nonprofit. I also did it when I was in publishing. While I was going through the pitches from other traditional agencies, I realized that we didn't have the information when we were going through those rebranding efforts. Some of them didn't go very well; we ended up not taking a lot of what was done because we didn't ask those key questions in the beginning and get that alignment across the organization.

The reason why I chose Woden is because they had a baseline information. Also, they traditionally work a lot with sales which is my key internal partner. Revenue is my biggest indicator of success.  I made sure that they were really brought along the ride in other organizations I've been in. It's more marketing and leadership, maybe PR, who does this branding effort, but that does not come across the organization in terms of transparency and collaboration.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $25,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2021, and the relationship is ongoing. They just launched a new offering where they’re available for additional help. In our case, since this is new to us, I think we have to go through the internal implementation to get that buy-in, but they do offer it. They’ve also recommended a service that they have, and they’ve connected us with third parties that they’ve worked with for things like website design.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There are a few things that have immediately improved thanks to their work. First, we were inconsistent about how we talked about ourselves on the website and other sales places, and it was a pretty immediate advantage to have those conversations and internally decide how we wanted to categorize ourselves. Otherwise, it’d be a bit harder, since we’re still in the rollout stage.

Also, I’m using the main themes and points that came out of their exercise in new campaigns. I’m hopeful that those will resonate. Finally, we have been really taking advantage of their work to pin our pain points. The internal and competitor insights they provided directly translated into pain points that I’ve been able to map as different problem statements, and that’s informing all of our customer communication. There aren’t any metrics yet, but those are things that we didn’t have before at all.

In terms of implementation, we’re still a little early in that stage, but the branding has resonated really strongly. We knew what we did before, but we were able to nail down our unique differentiator and use their language to create a slightly more urgent variation that we really needed. We’ve definitely seen higher engagement in response to that.

How did Woden perform from a project management standpoint?

Our main communication method is email. We’ve used Google Drive to share documents so they can go through them and have a better idea of where we are and what needs to be improved. Otherwise, there have been a lot of phone calls, and I’ve had a few check-ins with Hannah. Most of the process has been pretty self-explanatory to me.

It’s been more about getting feedback and identifying where we’re stuck and want to go, which has been challenging for us. It’s been a big educational period; Hannah has actually joined an internal meeting to go through all the competitive research in order to be helpful across teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think sales are their strength, and also applying templates to how we’re talking about ourselves and what we can do for content, social events, fundraising, and so on. We’re soon going to raise more funds for our organization, and they’ve done a really good job at bringing in examples and actual content that will be tremendously useful.

Also, they presented our competitors in a pretty interesting light, which made it easy to see how we compare to them. Those abilities on insight and sales were their biggest strength for me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Some of the marketing recommendations were a little robust to adjust, like on paid ads and content. However, it’s hard because we’re not paying them on retainer, so it’s not meant to all be done right at once. That’s why the recommendation is so large. Nonetheless, I think it would have been helpful to break it out.

Furthermore, I think ad copy could be a little stronger, but I think it comes down to their whole specialty. Telling a story is less direct-response than an ad, but we still kind of need it.

Any advice for potential customers?

Definitely think ahead of time of what internal coordination needs to look like. Think heavily of that strategy so you can figure out how to get people on board internally. Since I was somewhat new to UpMetrics, I was a little challenged at first.  I hadn’t worked with an agency that provided me with so much information, which has been great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the current president of Clear Path Paper, and we’re a brand of consumer cardstock paper. We manufacture packs of cardstock for consumers in the crafting space who do things like card making, scrapbooking, and other types of crafting activities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Woden?

We were founded in 2016 and we wanted to better articulate what our brand was about, and identify our core, positioning, and brand values.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Woden provided us with a high-level brand strategy.

What they delivered is what they call a “story guide” — which is basically a brand standards document. Their process was to do a series of interviews, to try and learn how we’ve been talking about our company, brand, messaging, and value propositions. They also wanted to figure out where we were trying to take the brand in terms of perception in the marketplace.

They then internally worked in what’s called a “story kernel” — a type of marketing, branding, positioning, and value proposition statement that’s uniquely focused on narrative. They used this concept called “the hero of the story”, where you, as a service provider, are helping the customers accomplish what they need to fix their problem.

Going through a narrative process and coming out with a document that’s over a hundred pages long, is a really interesting process. The document really talks about our brand and how it can relate to our target customers through a narrative approach. They have a framework they work through, but it was highly personalized to our company and brand.

What is the team composition?

Outwardly, we worked directly with 3–4 different people, that included one of their principals, a project manager, and two writers.

How did you come to work with Woden?

They were referred to me personally by other people that I trusted. This is important because I tend to put a lot of stock in good referrals. Then in terms of the decision to do business with them, I liked their approach. A lot of times in the world of marketing and branding, things tend to be a little academic. Their approach appealed to me in a stylistic way — it’s much more humanistic, because it’s centered around the idea that your relationship with your customer is an ongoing story.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested approximately $15,000 in the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August–December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Brand strategy tends to be more qualitative than quantitative. However, I do have quantitative numbers, and our business has been growing since working with them. In 2019, our gross sales were up by as much as 67%. Obviously, the partnership contributed to part of it, but it’s hard to make a direct 100% association.

However, in the world of qualitative response, every time we worked with another creative resource — whether it’s a design firm or an advertising agency, the first thing I do is mail them a physical copy of my book that Woden developed. If they want to understand how they are going to convey the company’s message, they have to go through the guidebook.

We’ve gotten really good feedback from people saying it’s a unique and helpful way to communicate our brand. It tells other service providers what our brand is about and how they can approach it. The book also gives us a perspective on how to build an internal corporate culture. I still reference it frequently even though I already finished it almost two years ago.

How did Woden perform from a project management standpoint?

We typically communicated through email and phone. Back then, we used to meet in person. Luckily we happened to live in the same city located in Philadelphia. I’m not aware of what they used for project management, our engagement was all just done through emails with the project manager.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with how they approach a project, because it allows them to really get in-depth with the brand quickly. I realize it’s kind of a broad statement, but if you think about your brand as a narrative in a story, you very quickly get into the things that are important. It can convey emotions, how you want people to feel and think about your brand in a meaningful way — as opposed to a quantitative way.

They’re smart and talented people too, but the approach they brought was impressive and they were very professional. We could tell that their principal, Ed (Managing Partner), had a goal and drove the project towards that. Which was nice because, in high-level brand strategy situations, you could go off into the ether, and you’d be lost. I didn’t feel that way at any point in this project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When I was working with them, I requested to have more of a structured follow-up to the process. It would’ve been nice to continue working with them in the future because the story about our brand is always evolving.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Always make sure you have everybody, including the important stakeholders, involved and that they’re actually bought into the concept of the project in general — whether with Woden or anybody else. Since this project is qualitative, what you produce and what you pay for will just sit on a bookshelf if you only have one person who’s really enthused about it. It wouldn’t be effective if most of your team aren’t motivated to use or engage with it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of STIR Foods, a B2B manufacturer of sauces, dressings, soups, and marinades for industrial customers. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Woden?

We were a relatively new company, and we bought several companies who had their own identity. We were bringing them all together and looking to build a singular culture and team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Woden’s work involved interviewing our internal staff and some external people, including me, my leadership team, and a customer — our ecosystem, if you will. We also came out to California to meet with their team in person. 

We went through multiple documented iterations, which helped us write the story. They researched our industry, got to know our competitive space, and learned how our competitors shared their own narratives online and in other marketing materials. They used that perspective to help us craft our narrative and the company story we’d share internally and externally. 

What is the team composition?

Ed (Partner) was my primary contact. We also worked closely with Hannah (Brand Strategist). 

How did you come to work with Woden?

I needed something to help me tell our story, which I wasn't doing well. At the time, they somehow tracked me down after I clicked through on something. They had a white paper that spoke of the challenges I was wrestling with, and their story resonated with me. Their offer was an opportunity for us, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $20,000–$30,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from May–September 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Woden's work around the narrative of our business was timely. Ed and Hanna were good partners, and the product was very useful. I didn't use it word for word by any stretch, but we were able to take it and use a language that was more specific to us. Their business process forced me and our leadership team to spend time focusing on what we wanted to be and how we wanted to share our story. 

We tweaked the narrative a bit and made it our own. They were great in helping us spur that process on and give us something to work off of. They quickly understood who we were and did a great job of capturing what we were trying to do for our customers. 

How did Woden perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was great. They stayed on timelines and were great at turning things around. I was the one who took longer to give feedback. We communicated via emails and conference calls. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very approachable, personable, and easy to talk to. I was also deeply impressed with how quickly they understood what we did and were able to speak our language. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There wasn't anything that they needed to do differently. There were times where the language felt too different from our voice, but this was a fairly quick project. It wasn’t a long-term and expensive engagement. They could get into our business pretty quickly, but some parts of it were a little hard for them to understand remotely and without knowing our people. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Invest time in working with Woden because customers are going to get more by putting in more. It’s going to help the team understand them better as a customer.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a professional services firm that contains a large law firm, a financial services consulting firm, and an investment bank. We’re a lobbying organization in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I’m the entire platform’s chief operating officer. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Woden?

We hired Woden to develop our brand messaging. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Woden interviewed about 50 of our clients that we specifically identified for them. They surveyed all of our revenue-producing professionals. 

In addition, they made a report based on the information that was collected from the survey. They produced a rather lengthy statement called a story kernel to summarize and capture all the information they obtained. 

Ultimately, they put together a brand book, which set forth how we would implement the brand both internally and externally. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a couple of people. Occasionally, we’d have video meetings, and there’d be a team of 2–4 other people.

How did you come to work with Woden?

I’d interviewed and hired them for another firm where I was a consultant. Then, after I left that firm, I remembered my positive experience with Ed (Partner & Co-Founder). When our company was considering hiring a professional for branding, we brought them into consideration.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $40,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2019–January 2020. The project has moved on to a design phase now, and we hired a different vendor to do our website. We haven’t used Woden’s consulting services. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They did a very good job for us. The story kernel was very good in its positioning and identifying several attributes that made it easier for us to plan the implementation of the brand. 

Ed has been very friendly, approachable, and facile. He has deep experience in companies and industries that are of interest to me personally. I’m an entrepreneur on the side, and Ed is someone that I will count on for advice in the future.

How did Woden perform from a project management standpoint?

Woden performed very well, and they had a set process, which they communicated to us. They followed it very closely and were clear that this was the process they use for all their clients. However, when we needed them to deviate, they were able to do so. 

We asked them to do an executive summary in lieu of a more unabridged branding book, and they were able to do it. They were happy to do it, though we knew that fell outside of their normal process. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We are a professional service firm, and we have two constituents. We have our partners who are the needle-in-the-haystack experts that we seek to recruit to build our practices. Then, we have our clients. 

We wanted to create an environment in which our partners can deliver differentiating services to our clients. 

Woden came up with a branding structure that addressed our branding needs to both those constituents. It was brilliant and clearly demonstrated that Ed gained an understanding of our professional services firm very quickly. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

At the outset, they should’ve asked more questions about the nature of our business at the outset when they were doing their due diligence. 

Operating a law firm where your assets are your professionals makes the business rather unique and certainly different if you’re more used to emerging technology companies. I guess every executive says their business is unique, but we do have a unique business. 

I could’ve provided more information at the outset, but I certainly didn’t understand it without experiencing how important it would’ve been to have more conversations about the unique aspects of our business. 

Having said that, they were able to develop the brand message that I described. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ed makes all of his brand books and a lot of them are available. I’d suggest people read them with an eye toward deciding whether they can implement them in their organization or not. Try to convey the unique aspects of their industry, so the ultimate product could be better.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and president of Bri-Tech Inc. We’re an electronic systems integrator in the New York metro area.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Woden?

They did an evaluation and story-based branding for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We received a 180-page document after their process of interviewing our clients, looking at our competitors, and speaking to our employees. This included a summary and a story format of content to use in our marketing and help develop and maintain our culture.

From the beginning, I wasn’t sure if we had a “special sauce” per se, but Ed (Partner) told us that, if we’d been alive 30 years, which we have been, he guaranteed that we had a special sauce and that they were going to find it and find a way to explain it to people. They didn’t reinvent us. Rather, they told our existing story. It was very genuine.

The book also included cut-and-paste content we can put on our website and social media. It was a comprehensive deliverable.

What is the team composition?

We worked with six people, including Ed. There were a number of people in different specialty areas. There was a project manager, Hannah (Brand Storyteller) as well.

How did you come to work with Woden?

At the end of 2019, before Coronavirus, we were looking to do some marketing to up-level ourselves. Everyone I spoke to (about five, some of which were outside recommendations and some I’d worked with before) had a different recommendation, and it was what each one of them was best at. If they were best at digital or social media, they would advise us that we needed those channels. I felt very uncomfortable moving forward when everyone had a different opinion.

I knew Ed and had seen his work with a large international nonprofit, so I looked him up online. I read his story book, which he gives out for free, and felt that going with them was what we should do.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $30,000–$40,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from March until September 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They went more in-depth than just our brand. Their work gave us a deep understanding of who we are. Rather than creating a brand for us to become, they analyzed who we were and put it into words that are going to help us get our message across.

How did Woden perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a high level of trust that they were moving forward properly. There were touch-base meetings, but we took a leap of faith, for the most part.

Every two weeks, Hannah ran us through a PowerPoint that detailed where they were and what they’d be doing next, as well as mixed in graphics and information.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The results are the most impressive. Everyone seems to be smart, intelligent, and on-trend. They really have a current approach, which a lot of marketing experts don’t have.

The document they produced is easy to understand. In the past, the market research we’ve had done has been very boilerplate. Woden’s work feels more contextual and specific to us. Their work was tailored, even though they do work in an established system.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to say since I’m not an expert. I’d be reaching, right now, if I said anything needed to be improved.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The key is to put time into the project. They’re not going to come up with the best solution and content if you don’t talk to them. Your organization has to understand that storytelling is important. If someone signs on with Woden and doesn’t give them the time, then that person is wasting their money. Give them as much access as they need. Be as open with them as possible.