Global Brand Works

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Corporate Recruiting with a global leader in workforce management solutions offering staffing services to top companies across a variety of industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Global Brand Works, and what were your goals?

We partnered with GBW on the research / insight as well as the design of the platform and messaging phases of the employer brand / EVP project.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

GBW was known to our in-house Corporate Marketing leaders.

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

Phase 1: Research and Insights - surveys, focus groups, competitor analysis Phase 2: Envisioning workshop; personas; EVP platform influencing Phase 3: EVP core message pillars Final Deliverable: positioning for designing creative content / copy of EVP

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

Generally, 3-4 GBW colleagues supported the project - with 2 being most influential across the project scope.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Because of the project we have several data points / insight that influenced the platform - including personas and messaging themes. In turn, this will allow us to design and develop of EVP collateral.

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

All communications were clear, concise and timely - always operating with a partnership style and tone. Project objectives were well defined and tracked; expectations were set and properly managed; any course corrections were handled smoothly and promptly in a collaborate yet accountable manner.

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

GBW acted as a true partner - imparting their expertise while consciously aligning / flexing to our goals and needs. They acted with integrity and commitment, and genuinely demonstrated care and concern for the output of the project.

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

N/A

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of an interior design firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Global Brand Works?

We wanted to refresh our brand and solidify our personality in the industry.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Global Brand Works provided branding services for us. They started by diving deep into our company to learn about the services we provided, the goals we wanted to achieve, and our customers' experience with us. Consequently, they took that information and narrowed down our brand personality to come up with words to describe us as a company.

In terms of deliverables, they developed our brand guidelines, created a logo, colors, typography, collateral content through a designer, and a brand book that we refer to in case we need to create something.

What was the team composition? 

We worked with both Caroline and Shannon (Co-Founders).

How did you come to work with Global Brand Works?

I’ve known Shannon personally for a while, but we chose them because they had done amazing work for large brands, and I thought their creativity was exciting.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent around $30,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January 2019–September 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

People loved Global Brand Works’ efforts; we received great feedback from everyone, including our employees, so we considered this a successful partnership.

How did Global Brand Works perform from a project management standpoint?

They were always receptive to my feedback to incorporate it. Regarding communication, we used email and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were creative, enthusiastic about the project, and tailor-made everything for us. Overall, Global Brand Works had the expertise and dedication to my project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I didn’t think there was anything they could’ve done better because they did a great job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend people working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a program manager and change management officer at an online payments platform. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Global Brand Works?

We hired Global Brand Works for their design and branding services. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Global Brand Works helped us roll out a project by handling its UX design and branding. They also worked on our talking points for this project. We wanted them to make the design user-friendly. This was going to roll out enterprisewide, so it should apply to many different roles across the company. We wanted people with different knowledge bases to interact with the materials at different levels.

In terms of deliverables, they worked on logo development, color schemes, and the title of the project and sub-projects within it. Global Brand Works did branding work on other smaller projects. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people directly. The two company owners were on it, along with a project manager and a designer. 

How did you come to work with Global Brand Works?

I found Global Brand Works through an internal referral; they’d already worked with our company before.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $200,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project lasted from August 2020–July 2021. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We checked success metrics like click rates, material downloads, click rates on email communications, and attendance in brown bag sessions where we presented the materials.

How did Global Brand Works perform from a project management standpoint?

Global Brand Works’ project management was great. They communicated clearly, and I enjoyed working with them. We used Excel tools. To communicate, we used emails and Teams. We had weekly meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were truly creative. It was nice to generate ideas with them, and I appreciated their creative expertise. They were creative not only in terms of visualization but also in terms of communication, messaging, and how we could rate those. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If your team doesn’t know where to go with something, be upfront with Global Brand Works. They’ll come back with creative ideas to help you think. They may also do a working session with you to help piece out exactly what you have to accomplish. They’ll be a great thought partner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the SVP of marketing at Vesta, an AI platform that provides fraud detection for e-commerce companies. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Global Brand Works?

We hired Global Brand Works to lead a project; we needed them to build a product-naming convention. They also had to deliver the final names for those plans. We wanted to standardize how we named our products and solutions. Our team was all over the place, so we needed their help. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Global Brand Works collaborated with our team at a global level to create a detailed architecture for how we could name our platform and all the products, services, and solutions associated with it. In other words, the expected deliverable was an entire naming convention architecture. They also had to provide the first round of names for our primary set of e-commerce fraud detection products. 

Beyond the main deliverable, they also did an extensive amount of direct market research. They ran surveys and detailed one-on-one sessions with companies that were potential purchasers of our products and solutions. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people from Global Brand Works, including a project manager. 

How did you come to work with Global Brand Works?

I’d known Global Brand Works in the past since my previous company engaged them. We decided to move forward with them in this project because they had the domain expertise in the market. They had an extensive list of fintech customers, meaning they truly understood our space. 

Moreover, we could deal directly with their principals and the people who owned and managed the agency. We weren’t pushed down to the third- or fourth-level person. Global Brand Works was highly engaged with us from the start, and we dealt with the principals from day one. Finally, we also liked the reviews of their work from the references they provided. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $100,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from June–December 2021. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our success metrics included the time to deliver; we had a fairly rapid timeline, and Global Brand Works met it. We didn’t want to have a project that exceeded 5–6 months, and they exceeded in delivering within that timeframe. 

Another success metric for us was the deliverables. We wanted to ensure we had a full architecture and a series of names — the team delivered both of them. Finally, we also checked their quality of work and understanding of our potential customers’ needs. They were enormously successful in terms of these. 

How did Global Brand Works perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t use any project management tool; we managed the project through Google Documents. It was difficult for us to use third-party tools because of our PCI compliance. In terms of communication, the frequency of our meetings depended on the phase of the project. Every phase had a series of milestones. 

At the minimum, we talked to Global Brand Works once per week to discuss our progress. Sometimes, we engaged them 2–3 times per week. We’d also done calls and interviews 2–4 times a week. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Global Brand Works resources were extraordinarily great listeners. They had a solution for every problem we presented to them. They didn’t push back. Instead, they worked hard to tailor their services to our exact needs — that was crucial for us. Many other agencies had cookie-cutter strategies. 

Moreover, the team was extremely thoughtful in what they do. They had a deep understanding of branding, and they applied that to our company. On top of that, they could extract the best out of a diverse group of stakeholders. We threw them a number of stakeholders — ranging from CEOs to product managers — and they were all impressed with Global Brand Works. They extracted the information we needed, and they delivered that in an extremely impressive way. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. I couldn’t speak highly enough of the way they truly understood our needs and produced meaningful results. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Sit down with Global Brand Works and have a thoughtful onboarding process. Set metrics, build goals, and define your expected outcomes. That way, you’ll ensure that there’s no disruption in the timelines or process even when you do a changeover in the middle of the project. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a startup that makes unique solar products for the recreational vehicle industry. As a very small company, I’m the head of operations but all four people on staff do everything.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Global Brand Works?

We hired their team to help with our initial marketing and branding.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We signed up for their “brand in a box” program, which takes a company like ours with nothing and develops a basic brand strategy, along with some associated deliverables, including logos, messaging, stories, color schemes and artwork.

Global Brand Works started off doing in-depth interviews of our industry, figuring out where we fit in, who are competitors are, what those business are doing, and what our authentic message was compared to other peoples’. They also helped with positioning.

What is the team composition?

I work with Shannon (Partner & Co-Founder) and Carolyn (Partner & Co-Founder). They’ve brought in experts at different stages for tasks like market research and graphic design.

How did you come to work with Global Brand Works?

I don’t recall where we found them specifically, but we liked their “brand in a box” program. It fit our company as a startup at our stage.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $40,000–$50,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In the first 60 days after launch, we had almost $1 million worth of pre-orders. Our lead database now contains almost 10,000 people interested in our products. All we have to worry about is executing on delivery.

We were most likely a painful customer, as we changed our minds a lot and went back and forth. The engagement was supposed to run for three months but ended up taking six. Global Brand Works stuck with us and saw the work through to the end.

How did Global Brand Works perform from a project management standpoint?

They excelled at holding meetings and keeping schedules on track. We were 99% successful, I’d say. The only reason they schedule was extended was that our side kept flipping things, but Global Brand Works was very gracious.

We communicated almost entirely online, through Zoom, Google Meet, and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were highly focused on two things: strategy and competitor research. Their strategy focus empowered them to nail down our brand and authentic story we were attempting to tell. Researching competitors helped us know how we matched up against others in our industry.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If anything fell short, it was us — taking too long to give feedback to Global Brand Works.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Follow their program; it’s sound, straightforward, and logical. We ran into trouble when we deviated from it, which extended the timeline. It would have been more efficient to stick to their curriculum if you will. Global Brand Works has a lot of experience. The result speaks for themselves.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Chief Operating Officer of a large Bay Area Union Painting and Wallcovering subcontractor.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Global Brand Works, and what were your goals?

Our company has been operating successfully since 1985 but our logo and branding still reflected that era. We wanted to refresh our image and update it so that our clients would see us as both stable and established and adaptable and renewed.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Global Brand Works had done this very type of project for our industry representation organization and they did a fabulous job so we relied solely on them for this service.

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

To start, they interviewed our internal team so they could have a sense of our organization and what drives us. They then spoke to some of our key clients to get a sense of our market reputation and brand perception. Once they understood this, we collectively worked on a mission and our goals and they created an entire brand package for us. This included a fabulous new logo and marketing materials.

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

I worked directly with their Project Manager but there was a team of people supporting this effort.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have not launched our new logo as of yet. We will be on December 16th and we know it will be very well received. We can't wait!

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

We had weekly meetings to go over progress as well as workshops to help further create and define our company's image. It was a truly enlightening and fun process for our entire office.

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

Their creative talent and true passion for their work. I could tell they were really invested in our project and became very involved in getting to know our company.

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

Not one single thing!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of a global talent acquisition marketing team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Global Brand Works?

I realized we needed to start marketing to candidates the way we market to customers. I needed an employer brand to help us find what we wanted to do in our marketing campaigns.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us define our employer brand values. They also helped us define three persona profiles, one for each of our major lines of business that we hire for. They recommended a process for how to build a brand story and personas. It was founded on deep listening and being able to collect insights to inform employer brands.

It started with a listening tour of our leaders with a confidential conversation. I provided leaders that represented different regions and different parts of our organizations. They conducted confidential phone conversations asking them different creative questions. The team also did a competitive and best practices audit. We decided to have them audit seven key companies that we work with. The team audited their talent brand strength, and how their content performs. It allowed us to see that some companies are heavily investing in the recruiting marketing space.

Next, we did an external candidate quantitative survey. They managed the survey that helped us learn what we think of ourselves, what our competing companies think of themselves, and what candidates would look for at our company. We did it regionally across three global projects. They summarized all three steps. I held the workshop and input sessions with key employees across the board at the company, which represented a group of 15 teammates globally.

Then, the team worked with us to create an employer evaluation survey. We asked some partners of our own internal team that does employee surveys to validate the findings that we had. Not only did Global Brand Works lead the milestones, but they captured the data.

How did you come to work with Global Brand Works?

I found them via a word-of-mouth recommendation. I interviewed them for a project that I was too small for and they needed a larger audience. I liked that it was a smaller agency and that it was women-owned. The two founders are professional women that have spent many years running brand organ. It seemed like a really good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent just around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2020, and we wrapped up in February 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I appreciate the fact that they proposed this six-step process and put it together. They’re fantastic. They’re always engaged and have resources that help them. They went above and beyond anytime that I asked them to. They’ve always been a great partner. In fact, my corporate team recently brought them on to be their partner.

How did Global Brand Works perform from a project management standpoint?

They kept me on track, which I needed. I was very honest, and I needed their help. The team kindly helped me make my work the best it could be. We communicated via Zoom and text.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Global Brand Works delivers a true sense of partnership. I knew the project was just as important to them as it was to me. The team almost became an extension of my team. They reach out and become very collaborative.

They’re happy to raise flags if they think there’s a concern. There were a couple of times where the scope of this project got too big; they were able to tell me that I needed to reconsider some things as the owner of the project. As a result, the project was much more successful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As with any vendor, it took us a little while of working together. It probably didn’t help that we never met each other in person because of COVID-19. There was never a concern that they weren’t going to deliver.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When you hire a small agency, it’s all about relationship building and transparency. To get the best out of that relationship, you need to be inclusive and honest. Make them your trusted advisor in this process, they will align with that quickly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a fintech company that serves a bank and credit union audience. I lead business development efforts and am tasked with direct interactions to grow our sales and partnership funnel.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Global Brand Works?

Our company is 10+yrs old and needed a modern, differentiated branding identity for a new product launch that expanded our offering. We were also appealing to a new type of client -- digital fintechs looking to work with bank and credit unions.

What were your goals for this project?

Build a clearly aligned but evolved product brand that could both stand independently and fit within our corporate umbrella to leverage our solid reputation.

SOLUTION

How did you select Global Brand Works?

I was not responsible for selecting GBW but I was involved with their team as soon as they were brought on to the project.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

GBW's process was predictable but effective. We had several introductory/exploratory sessions in group and individual settings to get their team up to speed on our project and needs. The iterative process was helpful for both our team and theirs to refine our offering and value proposition into one that we're proud of and have received consistently positive feedback on it's ability to portray the values we were aiming to represent.

What was the team composition?

We worked directly with Shannon and Caroline.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The branding work can be see at www.joinaliro.com. The website was created by another firm but the branding and tone are the finished product of our work with GBW.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We pushed their team on timeline and they responded well. Our weekly sessions were productive and on time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The Global Brand Works team operates with flexibility, focus, and heart. Their approach to naming and visual identity is clearly rooted in many of years of experience. They have honed a methodology that delivers powerful and differentiating branding, quickly and efficiently.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Our relationship with GBW was alongside some other providers to bring expertise in various areas of brand development. Communication and coordination between those teams could have been a bit better to reduce some early work that was presented to us but underdeveloped. The final product was fantastic, so this was merely a need to refine and catch up all team members.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the former senior director of branding at PayPal.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Global Brand Works?

Wanting to increase the bandwidth of our global brand team, we hired them for brand training, brand governance documentation processes, and other brand management disciplines.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They started out by speaking with stakeholders at PayPal to better understand the onboarding process. That allowed them to design an internal onboarding module for the brand that organizes how we get new hires acclimated and educated to our company. They wrote the module in three different formats. They delivered a webinar, a training presentation deck, and a PDF, all of which worked together.

Following that effort, they focused on brand governance, looking after the consistency and usage of our brand. Based on their findings, they trained people on how to execute brand governance across the business. In that effort, they helped all of our business units around the globe.

At the time, we had a centralized brand organization and wanted to better centralize marketing for discipline and consistency around managing the use of our brand. The bigger objective was our own brand goal which was to be a top-100 global brand. Eventually, we were aiming to be a top-50 global brand.

Managing audience understanding of the brand and fostering internal pride for the brand were both achieved through their onboarding module and brand governance work. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with Caroline (Co-Founder) and Shannon (Co-Founder).

How did you come to work with Global Brand Works?

They were referred to me by a colleague in consulting. He used their services to get high-quality brand work done quickly. The real selling point of Global Brand Works is both Shannon and Caroline had backgrounds in working for a large matrix organization in both marketing and non-marketing capacities. They seemed to have empathy for clients, strong marketing decision-making skills, and the ability to execute thoroughly on a budget.

They really share the mindset with organizations like PayPal, understanding how effective marketing can turn habits into customs and the difference marketing makes for a brand. That mentality helps the brand, employees, our evaluation, and customers.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent between $200,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the collaboration in March 2015, and they're still engaging with PayPal. They helped with different projects throughout the years as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We used to give surveys at the end of every training session and seminar on brand engagement. After their work, we received predominantly top-box scores. The brand session was usually the top-scoring session at the onboarding training, and we also received positive feedback on the webinars.

Our team did brand engagement sessions cross-functionally, but they always scored highly for usefulness, effectiveness, enjoyment, content, and purpose. Those were the five areas that we measured.

How did Global Brand Works perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very flexible and understand that timelines can change our end. Because of that knowledge, they expressed empathy for our decision-making process. They're also skilled at devising creative solutions to problems. Depending on our timeline and budget for specific work, they're able to offer a range of solutions that give the business flexibility.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are like part of the team, working in our office, and striving to understand our overall business processes. In that effort, they were close with the HR team to ensure the onboarding module aligned with their vision.

Throughout, they took a great sense of ownership in their work and the success of stakeholders. They were personable, willing to listen, and committed to our success. From the start of the engagement, they were standout team players.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were times when they could have been more proactive about the next step of a project rather than waiting on a brief from us. To be fair, they were trying to be considerate of our budgets and timelines in waiting for our signal.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They were brilliant at giving us instant bandwidth, behaving like part of the team. Their ability to largely onboard themselves to the project and company took the worry off our shoulders.

Because they're a small agency, there isn’t an enormous amount of wasted overhead. Both Caroline and Shannon can add a sense of seniority to the project and also know every brand hack in the book for companies wanting to stretch their dollars. Their resourcefulness is great for clients on a budget.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Chevron Federal Credit Union, and I'm the head of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Global Brand Works?

We are launching our new brand in January, and my team was really focused on updating and making changes to our website. I realized I needed outside help to do the internal brand activation.

We had recently done a new brand strategy and redefined our two distinct brands. We operate as Chevron Federal Credit Union and Spectrum Credit Union, and we contacted Global Brand Works to help us with internal employee brand activation

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The scope of the project was to create a series of presentations around why the brand is important and why it’s important that people be brand ambassadors. We set up five different employee engagements which we did monthly. 

We have a monthly meeting with all of our employees where we educate them on the brand, brand strategy, how they are involved in the brand, how they can live the brand, the difference between a brand and taglines, and our value propositions. 

Global Brand Works put together all of the educational pieces for us and then encapsulated the whole thing into a training module that we could then use as we brought on new employees. Those employees can get all of that training in one training module.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Caroline (Co-Founder) and Shannon (Co-Founder).

How did you come to work with Global Brand Works?

I met Global Brand Works at a conference where they showed me some work they had done. It was interesting that there was an agency that specialized in helping people do internal brand activation.

I talked to them and they were going to do exactly what I needed. They had a system in place and had all of their recommendations, so I knew that it was going to be really easy for me.

How much have you invested in them?

The five sessions and the whole package cost $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in July 2020, and we are finishing the project in December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We didn’t go in with any specific KPIs. With 300 employees, we know that everyone has consumed the information which is great because we have a way to test that. We got so much positive feedback from our employees about how much they enjoyed the branding education, sessions, and exercises. 

We spent an hour a month working with them and they did all the work. It hit me that if we had done this on top of everything that we were doing, it would have been impossible to get this level of quality of education.

How did Global Brand Works perform from a project management standpoint?

Global Brand Works was extremely responsive. They always followed up, and if they were going to be late with a deliverable, they would send me a message that they needed more time. 

The communication between our teams was really good. I always heard back from them right away. We mostly talked via Zoom, and we used email. We didn’t use any project management tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were truly experts in this brand activation. There are a lot of agencies that do branding that could probably do this work, but what I liked about Global Brand Works was that they had done this many times. 

They have a system and they know how to take someone who doesn’t know anything about branding from nothing to something. I am happy to have found an agency that specializes in this. 

We didn’t have to take the wheel at all. The team had all this great stuff off the shelf and made suggestions about doing certain exercises. Global Brand Works was a true partner for our brand activation project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would've been good to have a shared folder system. We were sending some big files back and forth, and I think it was more on our end where we couldn’t receive them so we had to figure out a way to get these files back and forth because there were videos embedded in them, but that was a little glitch. With some of our other agencies, we use Basecamp or Google.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go in with a strong sense of where your employee base is now and what they need to learn and where they need to go. You need to have a really good sense of where you want to start and how you want your employees to act or behave at the end.

Global Brand Works will then come back to you with all the different things that they could do for that type of employee pool.