Ora Brand Strategy + Design, LLC

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a partner at a company called Ampion. We provide billing and customized physician services for community solar. We’re able to plug people into solar fields and buy renewable energy.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ora Brand Strategy + Design?

We were looking to create a totally new brand for ourselves. Our original logo and website were made years ago by a junior designer. We wanted to create a new brand that includes the logo, name, and all marketing materials.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project was a clean slate—he came up the logo, the name, and the website. We’ve been involved with Jeff (President) extensively over the last five years. He designed our logo and came up with the name. He also redesigned our marketing materials once we transitioned from a B2B-only to include B2C.  

It was a collaborative process, but Jeff is also capable of working on his own. He’s pulled everything together and done a lot of his own research. He also built an enrollment form that helps us gain customers. He designed the UI and interface for that.

What is the team composition?

I’ve only worked with Jeff.

How did you come to work with Ora Brand Strategy + Design?

Multiple friends that I trust recommended Jeff. He was previously a marketing vice-president at a large company.

How much have you invested with them?

It will be around $10,000–$15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started sometime in 2015. We paused the work but invited him back in the fall of 2019 to help with our B2C redesign. That is ongoing.

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

I’m very pleased with Jeff. He knows design very well. In addition, he understands marketing and the customers we have. His skills are very multifaceted — he can do illustrations, content, and web design. He’s been able to deliver a one-stop-shop for us. We’ve gotten positive feedback on the website and logo from friends and clients. With the enrollment form, he showed he’s good with web architecture and UI design as well.

How did Ora Brand Strategy + Design perform from a project management standpoint?

He’s very responsive and gets back to me quickly. If I need something, I can send him a text and he’ll respond right away.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Jeff is a very nice person and has a genuine desire to do a good job for you. He’s fair with pricing, a well-versed designer, and a good person to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure there is good communication. If you have a plan at the beginning, that ensure the project will run smoothly. We had some issues where he’d go ahead with the design and we wouldn’t provide feedback, meaning that he had to go back. Having a clear strategy is important.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a nonprofit that creates energy-efficient technologies, particularly in the lighting space.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ora Brand Strategy + Design, LLC?

We wanted to spin a regional energy efficiency project out from another nonprofit. In response to that, we brought on their team to handle a new brand strategy and brand identity for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We originally had another creative team working on the rebrand. After finding that they wouldn’t be the right fit for us, we brought in their team to manage brand strategy and identity. At that time, we handled a lot of research. They were in charge of design and execution. 

In addition to the brand development, Jeff (President, Ora Brand Strategy + Design, LLC) project managed a website redesign for us that reflected the new brand, imaging, and language. As part of that, they worked with us on value propositions to all of our stakeholders that we could use as part of the website as well. In this case, they focused mainly on design. Once that was complete, we sent the work over to an IT firm for development. 

At this point, they’re still doing branding work for us. For each of our platforms, we have a different logo. They work with us to design and update those logos. Additionally, we’re planning to undertake another redesign of the website in the near future. 

What is the team composition?

I worked primarily with Jeff on the project.

How did you come to work with Ora Brand Strategy + Design, LLC?

I knew him while he was working in a prior role. After talking him through the pain points I was experiencing with my branding team at the time, I asked if he would be able to take on the work.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $100,000 over the course of our engagement. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in the summer of 2016, and they still doing branding work for us now. Moving forward, we expect to continue working with them.

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

We don’t have any metrics on the success of the brand. However, our communication style is now more appreciated by stakeholders. We’ve nearly doubled in size in terms of usage and finances since we started working with Jeff. Our website was an extremely technical tool for a niche audience. Our goal was to make it simpler and easier to access.  

At this point, we average about 30,000 unique users each month. We have a very robust communication platform, so we’ve been much more successful in terms of engagement and ease of use of our tools and materials.

How did Ora Brand Strategy + Design, LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

If there’s anything wrong, we know that we can just send them an email for help. There haven’t been any issues with communication. We did use a pretty comprehensive project management board during the site redesign. That involved a great amount of IT project management on his end. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

He’s been a great advisor in terms of figuring out journey mapping, user feedback, and how to prioritize stakeholders. He’s calm and available to brainstorm. While we’re a large non-profit, we don’t have a marketing team in a traditional sense.

So, no one on my team has ever undertaken journey mapping exercises before. He brings great ideas to us that are informed by his experience in the industry. We appreciated his insight into how to do tasks that aren’t in the toolbelt of a typical engineer. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

He’s a creative guy, but there were a few technical things that were missed in the web redesign. That wasn’t too surprising, because this was a technical project and I had a team of engineers going through it. He’s been very good at updating and designing all branding assets.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be realistic about the time that your partner needs to complete a task. He’s a small shop, so he doesn’t have endless flexibility with taking on unexpected work. Allow him to budget his time but presenting your needs upfront.