S'more Brands

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’ve worked with the company for nearly 10 years now. We help politicians and government agencies analyze and present census and political data. I was put in charge of finding a service to rebrand our company to include a new identity and website.

For what projects/services did your company hire S'more Brands?

We had never put any effort into building a brand and relied on existing relationships. But with increased competition, we needed to start presenting ourselves in a way that would help attract new clients. That included the need for modern branding, identity materials, and a refreshed website.

What were your goals for this project?

We want to make sure we’re taken seriously by potential clients around the country who may not know us by our D.C reputation. And we felt that the first step was to present ourselves in the best light online.

How did you select this vendor?

We had a strict budget for this project and were turned down by a couple agencies who were not able to work within that budget. I actually found S’more Brands through an ad on Facebook. After reviewing their previous work and learning some about their process I ended up setting an appointment to speak with the owner. We discussed the project and I received a step by step outline of how it would all come together. Once we learned they would be able to work within our budget, it was an easy decision.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The company offers a service called Brand Camp that we ended up going with because it fit within our desired timeline and budget. Everything was scheduled out in advance and required us to join them for two meetings. The first one was a video conference where we discussed the business, our clients, and what we were trying to accomplish. We also discussed our design preferences, which I don’t think we were very helpful with! Regardless, they were able to extract what they needed to get the design work started. The next meeting was scheduled for two weeks later and was expected to last a full day. During that meeting we reviewed a number of logos and were very happy to select one of them. From there they started building all the items we agreed on, including letterhead, business cards, signatures for our email, and the design for the website. We were done late afternoon and were very pleased with what we all came up with. About a week later we were able to review the coded website, which ended up looking exactly like the designs we approved during the last meeting.

What was the team composition?

We worked directly with Erik, the owner, during the first call where we developed the strategy. His head designer was also present and gathered the information she needed at the end of the call. During the full day session I worked with the head designer, her assistant, as well as Erik who popped in regularly to check on the progress and to help us make decisions.

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

After seeing the new branding and all the items we received, I don't know how we survived for so long looking so bad! Everything has a polished feel that immediately makes us look competent and professional. We run our own server so our I.T. guy will be launching the website soon and we are very much looking forward to seeing how people respond to it. We've shared our logo and business cards with some select clients and have received extremely positive feedback.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

This was a painless process with excellent communication the entire way. They have a strict process that they adhered to the entire way. We always understood what was going on and what was next. It was very confidence inspiring for someone who isn't experienced managing design projects.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I understand that they used a lot of complex strategies to plan and then build out our project. But none of it felt complex to us. We simply had to show up, answer questions, give feedback, and give approvals for each item. That's exactly what we try to do for our own clients – simplify the complicated.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Spending a full day working on the design was tricky. When our clients need us, we need to be available. So breaking up the full design day into two or three parts could have made this even easier for us.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the president of a consumer goods manufacturer in the sporting goods space.

For what projects/services did your company hire S'more Brands?

We're a startup without an internal marketing team, so we contracted with S'more Brands to help us come up with a marketing plan to launch our business. We originally wanted them to work on our e-commerce website, but they explained marketing was important, so we’ll work on the website later with them.

What were your goals for this project?

To have a team that could show us what we needed to focus on. Since we're a startup with limited funding, we need to make sure our efforts are put into doing the right things.

How did you select this vendor?

We wanted to work with a company that has a local presence, so after contacting a number of agencies in the Portland area, we landed on S'more Brands. Their owner freely shared advice that we really appreciated, particularly the recommendation that our first project should be our marketing plan rather than the website.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

We started off with a call that lasted a couple of hours to discuss what our goals were, spending a lot of time figuring out what our target market looks like and discussing ideas about how we could best achieve them. They did their research and came back with an outline of the strategy, which we provided our input on.

It covered our target market, a strategy for the website and its SEO, advertising opportunities, ideas about how to communicate our message, a social media strategy, and a plan to create content for the blog and YouTube. The plan included a recommended timeline with everything prioritized into phases.

What was the team composition?

I worked with their owner directly who handles all the high-level strategy. The rest of the small team does the work. For the website project, we'll be collaborating with both the owner and their in-house designer.

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

We're still in the early stages of implementing the marketing plan. The outcome so far is that we're confident in the direction we're heading, and we know what needs to be done.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication was very quick and efficient; meetings always started on time and we received the final plan by the date they estimated.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to breakdown all the complicated parts into a system that makes sense was much appreciated.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The pricing was a little difficult for us, but I can see how much work went into the plan we received. For more established businesses I'm sure it's easier, but a condensed plan option for startups would be good.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a photographer specializing in weddings & portraits and have been in business for more than 25 years.

For what projects/services did your company hire S'more Brands?

I hired S'More Brands to revive my web presence, update my logo and help with my overall approach to branding.

What were your goals for this project?

My goals going into the project were to have a new web site and logo. What I got was so much more!

How did you select this vendor?

After a few weeks of searching similar companies, reading reviews and having phone conferences I settled on S'More Brands because of their customer service & dedication to working intimately with my small business to truly understand my brand and how they could help me succeed.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

We started off with a phone call where they tried to dig into my current brand & vision for the future then scheduled what they call a Brand Camp Counseling session where we took the deep dive into color schemes, logo designs, verbiage and over all brand goals. They used this meeting to work up some sample graphics and more. Our next meeting was about two weeks later and we were all in starting with logo design approval then into site design, color schemes, downloadables, verbiage, thank you cards and so on. By the time we were done with that meeting they had everything they needed to build my site and all of the peripherals for branding.

What was the team composition?

The S'More team is composed of 2 people, Erik & Lalena. Erik took lead with the technical aspects of the web design while Lalena was the master graphic designer.

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

Since the creation of my new branding & web site my traffic has increased due to the overall professional look & feel you get when visiting my web site. Beyond the site, I'm using the tools they helped train me on to engage with my clients to capture more successful leads that are resulting in more bookings.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was fantastic, engaging, and personally styled to fit my needs.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The most impressive thing I found about this company was their level of professionalism while maintaining a personal touch and getting tasks managed.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I really love their approach but you will need at least one full work day to go through the Brand Camp together.