Salt Branding

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior member of corporate marketing at a technology telematics company, and we recently acquired a vehicle protection service provider.  

What challenge were you trying to address with Salt Branding?

Our company had been around for over 30 years and underwent multiple mergers and acquisitions. The business had shifted over time and never had any rebranding or repositioning. We now have to bring both the two companies together in their representation, in one form or another.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The process began with us interviewing our executives and CEO to ensure we had a cohesive, specific vision that satisfied everyone. I also provided my marketing recommendations to Salt Branding, and they considered those comments. They learned our industry, company, and audience by hiring a market research company to perform in-depth studies. Their results helped us asses our brand equity, competitors, and the direction of our brand. From there, Salt Branding began developing our unique positioning through establishing a specific language and tone. After finalizing it through rounds of feedback, they embarked on the creative process with our style, aesthetics, logos, and templates. They were then able to compile a complete set of brand materials, guidelines, and templates for both brands.

In addition to the branding support, Salt Branding provided product architecture for our thousands of unfiled SKUs. We had no system for organizing these files, and they were able to categorize everything in a more digestible format.

What is the team composition?

We primarily worked with Rick (Founder and Managing Director, Salt Branding). For creative development, we worked with Paul Parkin (Founder & Creative Director, Salt Branding).

How did you come to work with Salt Branding?

We sent out our RFP to vendors, and we found that Salt Branding had everything we needed in a partner. They were the most well-rounded, experienced team that we knew would collaborate well with our team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began in January and completed the work in August 2017.

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

In large part due to Salt Branding’s work, we were able to launch the new brands at the biggest trade show in our industry, and our stock price reached a 52-week high after the unveiling.

How did Salt Branding perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly check-in sessions and I never needed to initiate a follow-up because they were on top of everything. They responded to all emails within a few hours, and they always made themselves available. Salt Branding was a perfect team to work with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They built a strong partnership with us; we’re working together again because of this experience. Even after the work was completed, they were readily available and willing to help us. They are a rare, fantastic team that produced phenomenal work.

Please provide a description of your company. 

I work for Nyca Partners, a newly formed venture capital firm that focuses on advising and investing in technology companies.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the vice president.

What was your goal for working with Salt Branding?

When you look at venture capital firms or private equity firms, there's a lot of similarities in their brands. I think it's very easy for these companies to sound pretentious, and we were trying to avoid that. As a startup, we were trying to introduce a new concept that would stand out. We went to Salt to help us figure this problem out.

Please describe the scope of their work.

They've worked on branding, naming, and our website design. Pretty much anything has to do with communicating our message, Salt has helped in some way.

What was your process for selecting Salt Branding with which to work?

We spoke to a few agencies, but Salt really stood out. Their process is incredibly thoughtful and comprehensive. Before we even got into the work, we probably had five sessions where we just brainstormed the business and the brand before we made any concrete decisions. While it took extra time, it really set us up for success.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they've done for you?

The project has been in the range of $20,000 to $50,000.

What was the timeline of the project?

I want to say it was three months. We started discussing the project in December 2013, and we probably had it completed in January or February[of 2014.

Do you have any statistics, metrics, or general feedback to show the success of the project?

Everything was world class from my standpoint. Within a few months' time, we walked into meetings and people knew exactly who we are and knew the brand. So, I definitely think that's a relevant metric, the time from inception to traction. Salt's work made us standout in the industry.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

You get really good attention, and you always have access to their top management. I would say the culture of the firm is such that everybody you interact with carries that with them. They're incredibly responsive. Even if you ask a quick question on the fly, you will get a thoughtful, detailed response. They hit all of their timelines. Everything we've sent them, they have over-delivered on, and that's why we keep giving them more work.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

I think especially when you're a startup company, you want things very quickly. We had to temper some of those expectations, but that is more on us than them. Overall, their schedule and timelines were great.

Please provide a description of your company.

I work for a nonprofit dedicated to improving the education system in America. I work in our California regional office, and oversee our operations in Richmond, Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I lead the external affairs and operations team in the Bay Area region.

What was your goal for working with Salt Branding?

Our organization has been going through a huge shift for the last couple of years. We’re going from a national organization with a series of regional arms and shifting to a more regional-centric organization. 

As part of that shift, the national office is giving a lot more autonomy to the regional offices, including on the marketing and communications front. So, we've been developing our regional brand and trying to figure out how to communicate the work we do in the Bay Area in a new and different way. We engaged Salt to think about our rebranding.

Please describe the scope of their work.

Salt initially started doing external analysis, speaking with some of our key stakeholders, teachers, principals, and donors, understanding how we were perceived in the external market, both functionally and overall. From that, we pulled together our key differentiation, and what our brand positioning could be in the region. Then, we developed a plan as to how we could market ourselves regionally and nationally.

What was your process for selecting Salt Branding with which to work?

We found them through the chair of our board, who is connected with one of the partners at Salt. We also spoke with two other branding agencies, but we were most impressed with Salt’s work and their initial thinking on what the strategy could be.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

It was around between $100,000-$200,000.

What was the timeline of the project?

The project started in July 2014, and they gave us the final deliverable in January 2015.

Can you talk about the results of the project, and how you feel they performed in terms of the quality to their work?

We’ve been really happy with them. We’ve been rolling out what they did and pushing that into all of our external marketing moving forward. It’s really in the execution phase at this point.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

The people at Salt are clearly very intelligent. Their insights into what the strategy should be have been phenomenal. Their responsiveness and customer service were fantastic as well.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

Their work at the very end of the project, as we were translating the overall strategy and initial design into a concrete plan, was not as great as the initial strategy work. I think that’s not their core competency and it showed. However, they definitely gave us the raw materials to succeed.

Please provide a description of your company. 

I work for a large food service provider, operating in a variety of marketplaces. The marketplace that my division specializes in is higher education, so we provide meal service to about 270 colleges and universities nationwide.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the vice president of marketing and creative services.

What was your goal for working with Salt Branding?

Our primary audience [college students] is between 18 and 22 years old, so we feel pressure to maintain a very forward thinking and progressive brand. 

Our goal in working with Salt was to refresh our brand, and create a new brand story that would connect [our company] with the issues millennials care about. 

Please describe the scope of their work.

We were looking to improve our strategic positioning around the brand, and to do that we wanted them to package and translate the brand promise into something that would be emotional and relevant to the younger audience. Initially, they were in research mode conducting their own surveys and interviews with key stakeholders as well as students. In addition to the strategy component, Salt created the core brand elements, including the logo, slogan, and color palette.

What was your process for selecting Salt Branding with which to work?

I’m a professor of brand equity management at West Virginia University. The textbook that we use is authored by Kevin Keller, a thought leader in the marketing advertising space, and branding guru. I contacted him for a referral, and he recommended two agencies to me, one of which was Salt. 

I selected Salt for a number of reasons. One was their location. We thought that the Northern California location probably lends itself a little better to a more progressive approach, a more modern, hipper approach to the project. Also, the founder really took the time to establish a good strong connection with me. So, I felt comfortable moving forward with them.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

It was between $100,000 and $200,000. 

What was the timeline of the project?

The project started in April 2014 and finished in December 2014.

Can you talk about the quality of the work they provided for you?

I could not be more thrilled with the results of the initial scope of work. The strategy work was exceptional, the core brand elements were beautifully designed. I was very happy with the deliverables, and we’re very excited to launch the new brand.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

I deliberately went through Kevin Keller because I wanted a real branding agency. Not a marketing and advertising agency that has good designers and just pretends to be a branding agency. Salt definitely met that qualification. We were completely on the same page in terms of pure theory around what good solid brand equity management looks like.

Their team is super smart. I was really impressed with the sheer intellectual caliber of the team they assembled to work on our project. Being located in San Francisco, I think they have pulse of what’s going on in Northern California and Silicon Valley, which is obviously where a lot of the trends that are impacting our business are starting. That also really benefited the project.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

Their strategy work is incredible. In terms of opportunities for improvement, their account management is not the best I've worked with. I didn’t feel the same level of trust in terms of the account management, as I did in my initial contact with Rick [Herrick, co-founder of Salt Branding]. This wasn't really a problem until we moved from developing the brand strategy to talking about execution and implementation.