Lapidarius

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder, CEO, and majority shareholder of Loud Lemon Beverage, LLC. We’re the parent company and manufacturer of a spiked sparkling lemonade called Loud Lemon.

What challenge were you trying to address with Lapidarius?

I’m a creative person with over 30 years of knowledge. However, I needed someone to help me with high-level projects, and turn my ideas into a cohesive plan with strategic checkpoints.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The initial scope of the project was to identify our brand hierarchy, values, and go-to-market strategies. However, they actually led a COVID-19 strategy for us because we were right in the middle of launching during the pandemic. We leaned to Lapidarius heavily to take their knowledge, outlook, and exposure to the rest of the world, to advise us, and look for a couple of different quarters for COVID-19.

We went as far as identifying the strategic elements of package design, and the formulation of the products. After our launch, we didn’t want to do anything without running it by them, so they put a strategic view on all our marketing initiatives to help us identify the right social and digital agencies to use — I even had a meeting with higher key executives just so they could see the chief strategy and people behind our brand, but also because I value their feedback.

Lapidarius is instrumental in looking at what our brand does, what our competitors are doing, and who we’re likely to target and attract from a consumer standpoint. They identify the platform for us to use and review all the content to make sure that things are still on-brand. Additionally, they’ve led two different rounds of consumer research for us.

Marketing is such a big catch. Everything we’ve done, like the creation of our website, strategic pieces we put in place, the copy we created, and whatever we want to put out visually and content-wise, we run those by them — I consider their organization as our chief marketing and strategy officers.

What is the team composition?

I’ve been dealing with a total of four employees from Lapidarius, including Benedict (Co-Founder & CEO), Tori (Co-Founder & Strategy Director), and Maleka (Executive Assistant & Marketing Coordinator).

How did you come to work with Lapidarius?

I’ve done my research, but they’re very well-known in the industry. The people that I wanted to do my packaging design also recommended Lapidarius to us, as they previously had a working relationship together. Additionally, about three other food and beverage owners who are also friends of mine highly recommended them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The initial contact started in March 2019, and it’s still ongoing.

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

I can say that we’ve grown to over 2000 visitors per month on our website, and Lapidarius has been very good at making sure all the little components are properly implemented — even though some parts of our playbook can’t be readily deployed because of COVID-19, they’ve still been able to find alternate ways for us.

Moreover, they’ve been very good at getting what I call the connecting point, and the connecting point for us is when a consumer becomes intrigued enough to contact us for more information about the product. When actual customers take their time to click through the website with the intent to purchase, that’s what I consider to be the culmination of all our different awareness efforts.

How did Lapidarius perform from a project management standpoint?

Their performance from a project management standpoint is probably where I’ve been most impressed. Lapidarius had the strategic and accountability pieces before they even start the project. Them owning these projects, keeping us on task, and making sure everyone is aware of the processes has been very challenging due to the pandemic — so they have to come up with creative ways to accomplish everything.

Additionally, their project management is very unselfish and professional, because there were quite a few pieces of the project that they didn’t own, such as the financial and alcohol compliance aspects, but they gladly included them in their process. They could’ve said no to managing them, but because they’re intertwined with their responsibilities, they still took ownership of them.

I’m grateful for how they manage the project, because they go well outside their scope to ensure that everything is moving smoothly — they’re in it for us to be successful, and that’s why we continue to do things with them.

We usually meet up with the entire marketing team along with the representatives of Lapidarius every other Tuesday. I then have a one-on-one with Ben, for an hour over the phone every single Monday.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed that Lapidarius does what they say they’re going to do, and they do so on time. When they advise us, everything always comes under budget, and they insert themselves into other parts of the business that affects theirs. They make it their responsibility whether they receive payment for it or not — they just take complete ownership of the tasks.

Lapidarius takes the responsibility one step further just with the quality of their expertise. We gain key learnings from the different types of industries they worked on, and they extrapolate those resources to help clients like us. They’re knowledgeable people with incredible work ethics, and they operate with high levels of integrity — they’re just very honest people.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If I’m being asked to find even a small piece of constructive criticism, so far, I can’t. Their communication and skillsets are great, and they’ve got massive amounts of game, as I call it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would tell them to know their business, but more importantly, know what they don’t know. Trust, but verify, because I believe Lapidarius has the expertise, and they thrive on advising clients and having them look at alternative ways. However, at the end of the day, they should just trust the process, but be aware of what they’re getting into.