Award winning, Clutch leader in Corporate Branding
Tenet Partners is consistently recognized as the leader in corporate branding and product innovation. Our philosophy is simple and compelling: We integrate the disciplines of branding and innovation through human-centered design to create value for your company, your employees and your customers. This allows us to continuously live our mantra of "Where brand meets innovation®".
Our approach to experience design changes lives, transforms brand journeys, inspires action and gets work done. We craft vision and strategy positions that accelerate growth. We have the tools and talents to design, manage and protect your brand and engage in cultural shifts that drive change.
Our proven methodology has created compelling signature brand experiences for hundreds of corporate organizations over decades. Our work in consumer branding touches hearts and activates minds by appealing to both emotional and functional benefits.
As long-time experts in all things digital, we create innovative digital experiences for our clients that are both intuitive and rewarding. Our work in digital products and UX design is always rooted on a solid strategic foundation.
Our ability to rapidly understand even the most complex issues of our large enterprise and mid-market clients enables us to bring insights and innovative ideas to the process quicker. With easy access to our senior expertise and resources, we build a true partnership delivered seamlessly to our clients.
Our services
Corporate Branding
Brand strategy and positioning
Brand portfolio architecture
Vision, values and purpose
Naming
Messaging and segmentation
Logo
Identity
Guidelines
Marketing communications
Product and Service Branding
Product identity
Packaging
Touch point design
Consumer insights
Product innovation
Brand Management
Brand management SaaS
Brand management outsourcing
headquarters
other locations
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19 Cambridge StreetRochester, NY 14607United States
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Focus
Portfolio
Mastercard, Gore, Spectrum Enterprise, Edwards Lifesciences, IBM, APM Terminals, Xerox, Voyager Sopris Learning, HSB, The Institute of Culinary Education, Cisco Systems, LG Electronics, Vallen, Collins Aerospace, Long Beach Airport, The Hartford, Legrand, Kraft Heinz, Matrix Service Company, Sourcewell, Samsung
W. L. Gore & Associates
W.L. Gore & Associates has always been an innovator with purpose, contributing to society every day in myriad ways through its products and its people. Yet the company has been known mostly for a single product: GORE-TEX. Research had revealed a deep hunger for a cohesive master brand. Tenet rose to the challenge with robust visual and verbal systems that tie the company together and help deliver on Gore’s brand promise: “Together, improving life.”
Mastercard
Tenet Partners' Managed Services offering takes on many of the day-to-day functions of brand management for the Mastercard marketing team, from logo requests to approval routing. This frees them to concentrate on adding value to the brand. A Tenet professional with long experience and deep knowledge of the brand is dedicated to the account, acting as a valuable member of the Mastercard team and an efficient conduit to agency services.
Catalent
When Cardinal Health’s Pharmaceutical Technology & Services (PTS) division was spun off, the new company had only four months to stop using the Cardinal brand. Facing a tight deadline, Tenet took on the challenge of crafting a new brand with strategy, naming and identity development happening in a dynamic and co-creative environment. The project was a resounding success: seven years after rebranding, Catalent launched an $871 million IPO and has become the world's number one drug development, delivery and supply partner for pharmaceutical, biologics and consumer health products.
ASC Engineered Solutions
The 2019 merger of well-known industrial fitting suppliers Anvil International and Smith-Cooper International, created a new powerhouse out of two complementary companies. Tenet took on the challenge of creating a new brand architecture and masterbrand that would bring the organization together and position it as a solutions provider while retaining existing brand equity. The comprehensive strategic, visual, verbal and employee training project was honored with a 2021 Transform Award in the category of “Best corporate rebrand following a merger or acquisition.”
The Hartford
200 years of service to customers is something to celebrate. As The Hartford—one of America’s oldest insurers—approached that milestone, Tenet Partners helped it craft and execute a new brand that brought customers and their personal stories to the fore.
Spectrum Enterprise
After its formation in 2014 by Charter’s acquisition of Time-Warner, Spectrum Enterprise needed an aggressive marketing program to establish its new brand in the large-enterprise technology space. Lacking internal resources, it turned to Tenet to help develop a cohesive communications strategy and asset creation pipeline including content, design and on-site project management services. By becoming an extension of the Spectrum Enterprise marketing team, Tenet helped the company work smarter and faster.
Cadence Bank
In 2021, two leading regional financial institutions, BancorpSouth Bank and Cadence Bank, joined forces. Their challenge was to unify the company and bring out the best of both legacy organizations. Tenet was tapped to help build a new brand from the ground up, including strategy, brand culture, employee engagement and comprehensive visual, verbal and sonic identities. A glimpse of the new Cadence Bank was given to the world in January 2022, with a logo reveal and NYSE opening bell ringing. Ongoing integration and training took place over the following months, leading up to the full launch of the contemporary, high-impact brand in July.
Long Beach Airport
As part of a major reconstruction, Long Beach Airport captured an opportunity to increase traffic by redefining the passenger experience. Working closely with Tenet Partners designers and strategists, the airport created a new, nationally recognized brand that captures the warm and welcoming spirit of Southern California.
PDI Healthcare
PDI is a maker of evidence-based medical solutions designed to help reduce preventable infections. For the launch of a Surgical Site Infection (SSI) nasal decolonization product—a new category for the company—it needed a branding approach that would appeal to its traditional clinical audiences as well as patients. Tenet applied our own evidence-based rigor to the project, testing positioning concepts and ultimately developing a brand that was a fresh departure for the company, designed to position SSI as a new standard of care.
APM Terminals
APM Terminals was closely associated with its owner, global shipping giant Maersk. To grow, the company needed to connect with other shipping lines while protecting the link to its parent. Tenet Partners strategists and designers dug deep, gaining insight that yielded a winning approach: an independent brand and user experience that led to significant growth.
Sourcewell
The National Joint Powers Alliance (NJPA) was one of the nation’s largest government purchasing cooperatives, bringing billions in purchasing power to 50,000 government, educational and non-profit entities. To stand out as a national leader while staying true to its core regional audience, it turned to Tenet for help in developing a unifying brand platform and identity that would position the organization for future success. The new Sourcewell brand delivered: One year after launch, business grew by 20% and web traffic increased by 300%.
TIAA
Tenet enabled venerable industry leader TIAA, one of the nation’s largest financial retirement services organizations, to achieve clarity across its diverse portfolio by creating a thoroughly researched masterbrand strategy. In a series of engagements we helped the enterprise migrate to the new brand and create a powerful new customer experience that differentiates TIAA in today’s fast-changing financial services marketplace.
Storylines
Storylines started as an intriguing idea: take an experience once available only to the very wealthy—a life of cruising the ocean full-time, living aboard ship—and make it accessible to a new population of “cabin condo” owners. That category-breaking concept demanded an equally novel brand, built from the ground up. In less than four months Tenet brought together strategists, designers and content creators to create an award-winning global brand. The result: significant earned media coverage and deals for two $1M-plus cabin condos within two weeks of launch.
ACA Group
ACA Group is the recognized gold standard in Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) consulting. To retain the high ground in an industry shifting its focus to technology and service-based GRC, ACA turned to Tenet to create a new, technology-forward brand. Through an in-depth strategic engagement, we identified a holistic path forward that would retain ACA’s heritage and industry-standard positioning while advancing it in a changing environment – and enable the brand to grow over time. This paid off in global client wins and created the basis for a major expansion leading up to ACA’s 20th anniversary celebration in 2022.
Collins Aerospace Izon
When aerospace innovator Collins was in the process of developing a compelling new digital platform for business aviation, it turned to longtime collaborator Tenet Partners to create a new product brand and associated launch campaign. The comprehensive engagement included customer research, brand strategy, verbal and design development including the name, tagline and messaging, sales enablement and full campaign creation and execution.
HSB
When a company with a proud history going back more than 150 years pivots to a bold forward-leaning vision, the challenge for its brand is to honor the past while signaling acceleration into the future. Hartford Steam Boiler, a Munich Re company, turned to Tenet Partners to help it walk that fine line. In a comprehensive engagement, Tenet created a dynamic new logo for the company now known as HSB, along with key strategic support and a brand launch campaign that brought three companies together under a single global banner.
Vallen
Mergers can be tricky. Customers, suppliers, employees and investors all need reassurance—and the new company’s value must be made clear to all. When industrial suppliers Hagemeyer and IDG came together, integration became a critical goal. A highly successful, broad-based program from Tenet addressed everything from identity to launch strategy and cultural integration. The result: One team, one company with shared strengths.
Mastercard Cybersecurity Talent Initiative
In 2019 Mastercard was a leading participant in a nonpartisan, nonprofit cybersecurity recruitment effort to attract the next generation of cyber talent to public service. A compelling brand was needed to intrigue candidates and appeal to sponsors, but it could not use the Mastercard brand system. Tenet spearheaded the project, capturing the importance of the initiative’s mission with a brand that won honors in the 2020 REBRAND® Global Awards and exceeded expectations: after launch, three major corporate sponsors signed on and 500 applications for the program’s first 50 slots were received.
Institute of Culinary Education (ICE)
When one of America’s oldest cooking schools sought to differentiate itself in the hyper-competitive NYC food landscape, it turned to Tenet Partners to uncover and communicate the compelling idea that lies at the very heart of its identity.
Sensient Technologies
Universal Foods Corporation was evolving and becoming a technology leader in flavors, fragrances, textures, inks and dyes—a shift in focus that was outgrowing its name. With no single idea holding the company together, employees failed to recognize the company’s vision and valuation suffered from poor analyst coverage in the food category. Tenet crafted a powerful idea around an ethereal benefit, with a brand promise of “enhancing the sensory experiences” and a name and design system that drew attention to the senses that the company’s products touch. With the launch of the new brand and positioning, the stock price saw a 20% gain, and the company continues to grow and expand its footprint into Europe and emerging markets.
Reviews
the project
Branding Analysis & Architecture for Chemical Mfg Firm
"They have a keen focus on ROI, which allows us to optimize our resources to meet objectives."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the director of corporate branding for a chemical manufacturing company.
What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?
We wanted to measure the value of our brand as well as brand awareness and favorability. As a result, we partnered with Tenet Partners to gather data about our brand value.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Tenet Partners does a core brand analysis every year of the Standard and Poor's 500 (S&P 500), and they collect that data regardless of whether or not we buy it. In doing so, brands like us have the opportunity to assess our brand value, awareness, and favorability not only within our industry, but as well as against top brands like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon.
The data then gives us a benchmark based on our communications spend versus our results. Before the data is presented to us, we have specific objectives at the outset so that their team can gather the data we need and read out against our objectives. Once the data is available, two people usually walk us through it.
We’re also currently working on a branding project with them, and we’re looking at the value of creating a brand architecture around our sustainability offering. The team is helping us with how we should position our sustainability offering to the market against the brand awareness and favorability goals that we have.
On top of that, we’ve been able to create brand strategy decisions around our sustainability offering based on the data they have. In addition, they’re engaging in interviews and proposals as well as working sessions with our executives, marketing teams, and businesses to make recommendations on our ongoing project.
What is the team composition?
We typically engage with about two people.
How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?
Tenet was very well recognized as an expert in brand value assessment.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent in the ballpark of $100,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We began working together in January 2007, and it’s ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’ve been with them for 15 years, and their work has had a huge impact on our brand and campaign strategies because of the historical data they’ve been able to provide. Their data shows us our campaign investment, target audience, and results. Due to their data and insights, we know exactly if our actions are making movements in the area of brand favorability and brand value.
How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?
Their project management is excellent; they’re very responsive and easy to work with. They’re also good listeners. Above all, they don’t just take directions, but they internalize our objectives and help us carve the right path forward.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They have a keen focus on ROI, which allows us to optimize our resources to meet objectives.
Are there any areas they could improve?
We haven’t worked with Tenet Partners in other areas, but I imagine they must have some kind of offering around creative services. It will be helpful if they offer full service around creative service offerings.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Think about what you want to achieve because you can lean on Tenet Partners to develop the strategy around what you need to do. Once you come into the engagement knowing what you want, their team will help you get to where you need to be.
the project
Marketing & Branding for Biotechnology Company
"Tenet’s hands-on approach and ownership of the project are impressive."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the chief commercial officer of a consumer health and biotechnology company.
What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?
No one in our company could market our products. We needed someone to help us with communications, marketing, and branding.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Tenet has been building our communication and marketing strategy from the ground up, involving our team throughout the process. They are creating our brand’s structure.
What is the team composition?
I work with at least six people, including marketing and communications specialists.
How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?
Someone referred Tenet to me through word of mouth. We got on a call, and they explained their services and processes. We found them to be entrepreneurial, someone who would listen to our problem and come back with a solution, so we chose to work with them.
What is the status of this engagement?
We’ve started working together in August 2020, and our partnership is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Tenet’s work has been outstanding, and it has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our global customers. They’ve helped us grow our business.
How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?
Tenet is very organized and excellent in project management. They are timely, and they even work during weekends. Our partnership has been very good so far. We collaborate through PowerPoint, Miro, and phone calls.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Tenet’s hands-on approach and ownership of the project are impressive. They behave like an extension of our team. Additionally, they are very strategic and systematic.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I can’t think of anything. Tenet has been great.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Have a retainer model instead of paying a set amount. Unlike other agencies, Tenet is honest. If they say there’s more work to do, there are really tasks left to be completed. You’ll get the best out of them by working that way.
the project
Marketing Services for Transportation Company
“They can distill down complex topics to create 2–3 key points and articulate them powerfully in their content.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I am the senior marketing manager at a transportation company.
What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?
We hired Tenet Partners to assist with our marketing efforts.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We’ve worked with Tenet Partners on various marketing projects that span several different initiatives including branding, messaging, and content development.
What is the team composition?
We usually work with a core team of three, but they bring in additional resources as necessary.
How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?
A colleague had worked with Tenet Partners previously and recommended them to me.
What is the status of this engagement?
Our partnership with Tenet Partners began in June 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’ve continued to work with Tenet Partners for the last few years because their work is outstanding — the Tenet Partners team is meticulous and their content creation is outstanding. Tenet Partners has been a fantastic partner: they are easy to work with and consistently deliver to or exceed expectations.
Tenet Partners has been able to help us differentiate our products so we can better compete in the market. Tenet Partners has definitely helped us focus our initiatives, consolidate messaging, align on information, and introduce new concepts that have been successfully adopted in-house.
How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?
Our team at Tenet Partners has excellent project management skills. We mainly communicate with Tenet Partners via email and weekly status calls. Tenet Partners is responsive and flexible.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Tenet Partners has powerful capabilities when it comes to creating impactful messaging. They can distill down complex topics to create 2–3 key points and articulate them powerfully in their content.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I’d advise customers to be transparent with the Tenet Partners team; customers should provide Tenet Partners with as much information about their business and goals as possible. Regular cadences are also crucial to maintain constant communication and align on the project.
the project
Branding & Design for Financial Services Company
"The Tenet Partners team's attention to detail and industry knowledge was valuable to us."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the senior VP of marketing at a financial services company. We provide financial solutions to everyday people who prime lenders often overlook.
What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?
We had two new consumer-oriented financial service products and needed help with naming and brand mark development.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Tenet Partners helped us build the branding for two of our products. For the first product, we gave them the name we wanted to leverage to work off of. They then proceeded to work on its brand mark, which is the identifying feature that sets it apart from other competing products.
Afterward, the Tenet Partners team helped us name the second product. We gave them product specifications to help them, and they came back with a name and a logo.
The team also provided general brand guidelines. Additionally, they designed some templates to help us market the two products.
Before submitting their deliverables, Tenet Partners first conducted stress tests to ensure that they were all effective.
What is the team composition?
We engaged with six people: a project manager, a creative director, a copy director, and three other teammates involved in creating the deliverables.
How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?
I found several vendors through market research and boiled it down to four firms with extensive experience in the financial services space.
Ultimately, what drove us to select Tenet Partners was their long-standing relationship with Mastercard. They were proficient in the credit card industry, which differentiated them from other vendors we had talked to.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent between $100,000–$200,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
The project started in February–August 2021.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
They were able to scale to meet our needs. They finished the project in half the time it would’ve taken us to complete on our own. We honestly don’t know if we could’ve done it without Tenet Partners’ expertise.
How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?
Their project management skills definitely get high marks. Tenet Partners was a very well-run organization, and the team was thoughtful and willing to take our feedback.
In terms of communication, we had weekly status calls. Additionally, we used email and phone calls.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their people were very good — everything from the sales process to the onboarding went seamlessly.
The Tenet Partners team’s attention to detail and industry knowledge was valuable to us. We didn’t have to educate them on how the market works and what we do — they already had an appreciation for how our niche worked within the financial services space.
Their robust process also really stood out to me. Not only did Tenet Partners use their creativity to introduce a different perspective, but they also conducted stress testing for the color palette and so on.
Overall, we were pleased with the brand marks they designed and the thoroughness of their testing phase. We would love to work with them again.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Some of their ideas weren’t suitable for a retail environment. However, it didn’t end up being a roadblock, and it was just a normal part of the ideation process.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Dedicate the appropriate time to creating a detailed brief and provide pointed directions and guidance. The more information you can give, the better their deliverable will be. Overall, we highly recommend them.
the project
Rebranding Services for Engineering Solutions Provider
"We were never short of obstacles but the Tenet team never stopped reacting and adjusting to the changes."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
I am the Vice President of Marketing. Our business, ASC Engineered Solutions is defined by quality,—in its products, services and support. With more than 1,500 employees, the company’s portfolio of precision-engineered piping support, valves and connections provides products to more than 4,000 customers across industries, such as mechanical, industrial, fire protection, oil and gas, and commercial and residential construction. Its portfolio of leading brands includes ABZ Valve®, AFCON®, Anvil®, Anvil EPS, Anvil Services, Basic-PSA, Beck®, Catawissa, Cooplet®, FlexHead®, FPPI®, Gruvlok®, J.B. Smith, Merit®, North Alabama Pipe, Quadrant®, SCI®, Sharpe®, SlideLOK®, SPF® and SprinkFLEX®. With headquarters in Commerce, CA, and Exeter, NH, ASC also has ISO 9001:2015 certified production facilities in PA, TN, IL, TX, AL, LA, KS, and RI.
For what projects/services did your company hire Tenet Partners, and what were your goals?
We recently merged two businesses with strong brand equity in the market. We needed to retain our market equity while paving a clear path forward as a combined company. All of our stakeholders, including our employees and customers, needed a clear identity and vision of the future.
How did you select this vendor?
We conducted a thorough online search to start vetting the top 5 candidates out of a pool of about 15 potential candidates. We then conducted a round of interviews to understand capabilities and cultural match to each. We eventually met with our top two candidates face to face to meet their team, further understand their capabilities and understand how they were going to help us accomplish our goals.
Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.
One of the reasons we selected Tenet was due to the detail and structure behind their information gathering. The spent several months interviewing internal and external stakeholders, deploying surveys and truly understanding our business. We then moved into strategic design which was informed by the work that Tenet did up front. This led to a high confidence in the strategy we developed, which ultimately led to the development of a full brand package - everything from messaging to a corporate mission, vision and values.
How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?
We worked directly with two partners on the team, plus key strategic brand developers. In addition, we worked with their project manager and sales director. All of whom knew us and our business very well by the end of the project.
Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
This project has laid the groundwork for us to attack our strategic priorities with clarity and purpose. It has enabled us to begin to bring desperate brands together under one name and open the door for increased opportunity as our stakeholders begin to associate our new image with any one of our 15+ product brands.
Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.
From the onset, we had a timeline and held each other accountable to the deliverables. There are always unexpected issues that pop up in projects this large. We were able to dive in with the Tenet team and make adjustments as needed to ensure we stayed the course while also delivering the final product. We were never short of obstacles but the Tenet team never stopped reacting and adjusting to the changes.
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
One of the deciding factors for us was the employee engagement program that Tenet proposed. We knew that empowering our employees with the new brand and creating a new vision for everyone was critical to our success moving forward. We were able to execute on an effective engagement program that jump started the new brand at launch.
Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?
Moving forward I think the team can always work to better understand timing and cost implications of changes up front. This way there are no surprises when the inevitable change in scope happens.
the project
Go-To-Market Plans & PowerPoint for Education Company
“They’re extremely responsive and professional.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I was the senior product marketing manager at a literacy enhancement company.
What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?
I needed help with a go-to-market plan for a high-level professional development product.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Tenet Partners helped me with advertising and marketing in a variety of different ways. The team helped me with a customer-facing PowerPoint and go-to-market plans for commercial advertising. I provided them with customer-facing collateral.
What is the team composition?
Andrew (Senior Partner & Creative Director) was my main point of contact. There were five people on the team in total.
How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?
I believe my direct manager knew of them from previous work they had done together.
How much have you invested with them?
This contract was somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in October 2020, and we wrapped up in 2021.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The customer-facing PowerPoint was excellent and well-received in the company.
How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?
They were excellent. We met via Zoom and email to discuss the project.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They’re extremely responsive and professional. They seem to be well-priced. Overall, they’re genuinely lovely people to work with.
the project
Rebranding for Healthcare Provider
“They handled the complicated task of cleaning up the other agency’s work with grace and efficiency.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the former VP of Marketing for CenterLight Healthcare.
What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?
We hired Tenet Partners to help us with a sweeping rebrand, including the introduction of a new corporate identity system.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We did an extensive briefing and collaborated with them, using their tools and analytical rigor to lay out challenges and desired results. For example, mapping the client journey was one aspect they focused on, which is uncommon yet important in healthcare.
The Tenet Partners team made improvements to work done by another agency, attended to some administrative issues, and increased some of the creativity in the rebranding. They also helped develop brand architecture to encompass each sub-business unit to keep their own identity while joining the larger corporate entity. They helped with culture building, as well.
What is the team composition?
Hampton (CEO & Managing Partner) was my main point of contact.
How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?
I knew of them from some of their previous work, so I reached out to Hampton. With their experience in corporate identity management, I felt they were the right fit.
How much have you invested with them?
Their work came at about $200,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We worked together from May 2011–2014, when I left the company. They continued their partnership until roughly 2019.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
They handled the complicated task of cleaning up the other agency’s work with grace and efficiency — it was seamless. Internal feedback was good, as well as feedback from the business units. A nurse at one of the facilities expressed relief and satisfaction at understanding the rationale behind the brand. We also wanted to maintain a connection with the organization’s Jewish heritage, and Tenet Partners helped us do that.
How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?
We met fairly at our offices or theirs.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They did a great job. Hampton was dedicated to the project, gave honest feedback and input, and made suggestions to help us create the best brand identity possible.
Are there any areas they could improve?
There isn’t much I could’ve asked for that wasn’t provided.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Provide a thorough and detailed brief.
the project
Branding & Marketing Campaigns for Education Publisher
"They were easy to work with, highly communicative, very knowledgeable, and extremely creative."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
Voyager Sopris Learning is an education publisher focusing on reading, math, professional development, and some assessments. They’re part of Cambium companies, which are a major force in the education technology business.
I worked there for five years as the former senior vice president of marketing. I was in charge of all of the digital marketing and brand programs.
What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?
I did three projects with Tenet Partners (Tenet). On the first one, Cambium had just bought the American Institutes for Research (AIR) Assessment product line, and I led the branding. The work I did with Tenet was for ClearSight, one of the products that we were going to launch with AIR and Voyager.
We had a name, but we didn’t have a marketing campaign. It was a challenging proposition because it was a new product coming into a very crowded and competitive market.
We worked across different companies. We’d just bought AIR, and there were a lot of extra steps in the process.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Tenet helped us with logo creation, branding implementation, and some marketing campaigns.
On the first project, we defined the key players and did a lot of in-depth interviews. It was an early-stage product, so there were a lot of challenges in terms of messaging a product that wasn’t really ready for the market.
Tenet created a branding guide and helped us launch a couple of digital ads and a website. We had interviews and presentations for the creative process, selection of direction, refinement, and the final buy-in.
The second project also included naming for a new product, which was followed by logo creation and branding.
The last project was more on the side of refinement of key messages and PowerPoint presentations. Tenet was going to help us with a campaign as well, but that part never took off.
What is the team composition?
Andrew (Senior Partner & Creative Director) was a key team member. We had a project manager, but I worked mainly with Andrew on the creative side.
How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?
They had a bid on the Cambium Learning branding, and I met them through Cambium’s CMO. We made the choice to work with them based on their proposal; I was super impressed with it.
How much have you invested with them?
Each of the projects was around $80,000, which was a significant amount of money for us. It was our first time working with a top-notch New York firm instead of our internal team or smaller ad agencies.
What is the status of this engagement?
The first project with Tenet started in mid-2019. I believe they just finished their last part of the contract with the company.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We postponed the launch because the product wasn’t ready for market. We did a competitive analysis and found that it was too early and that there were key elements missing. However, the work done by Tenet was amazing.
Their overall creative process produced great results and buy-in. That was huge, especially after having just acquired a company that was probably four times our size in terms of revenue.
The implementation of the branding and every aspect they worked on was fantastic. We had great assets, some of which were implemented on the website, but we didn’t run the marketing campaign. I don’t know if the company did anything with it.
The way they went about their work was really helpful, and they were always open to feedback. A couple of things in the naming didn’t come right away, but they were able to change direction easily. The writer we worked with was amazing with words.
The process during the second project was really smooth as well. The end clients we worked with complimented us constantly about Tenet’s guidance to make the right decisions for the brand.
How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?
For each project, we had scheduled calls at least once a week. It was sometimes hard to determine who should be in the meetings, because there were multiple players and decision makers involved. Once we had that tuned in, it went on smoothly.
We used Basecamp, and I believe that Tenet had a project management tool that looked at deadlines. We also had a lot of email exchanges.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Tenet was one of the most top-notch companies I’ve worked with over my career. They were easy to work with, highly communicative, very knowledgeable, and extremely creative. They had a great ability to learn and understand the task and pain points in the industry. Andrew and his team delivered amazing results.
Are there any areas they could improve?
As projects moved and more things were added, the scope management could’ve been improved. However, I take responsibility for that as well, and Tenet was good at shifting things around when needed.
Another thing was that we got too spoiled with their creative writer, and he’s semi-retired now. I missed him during the second project, but we brought him back in on the third. Some people are good at coming up with top-level messaging, and he was one of them.
Also, I would’ve loved to meet them in New York City, but COVID-19 hit and there was too much going on.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
Clients should do their homework upfront and make sure they understand the scope of the project in order to determine who should be involved.
In our case, there were multiple people involved, and the decision-making process was diluted. Tenet was good at controlling that.
the project
Brand Research & Portal for Financial Services Company
"It’s nice to work with someone who identifies issues before they cause problems. The whole team is pleasant."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I work for a financial services company as the marketing director.
What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?
The biggest thing we use them for is to measure our brand reputation from a research standpoint.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They help us with a yearly brand study, but we’ve used them in another capacity in the past year. We launched an internal website for our employees that covers all of our brand assets and guidelines — it’s a place for our employees to get logos, imagery, and more. Tenet Partners put that website together for us and hoss it on their servers.
The interesting aspect of the site is that its purpose was to both provide assets to employees and talk about the brand. It was designed a certain way using our brand guidelines and identity, and it actually allows access to three other websites we use: our event management company, our promotional company (people can order branded merchandise for their group), and our asset management system. These connections have been a great way for us to deliver an easy interface for our employees to use these extra sites.
What is the team composition?
Larry (Senior Partner, Digital) helped us with the new branding website, but Natalie (Project Manager) is our day-to-day project manager. She contributes to the research piece of the relationship as well. Beth (Senior Partner, Strategy) leads the brand research process.
How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?
I’ve been on staff for two years, but we’ve used Tenet Partners on our annual research study for the past 9–10 years. About a year-and-a-half ago, they pitched us on their additional services beyond the yearly research report. We signed on for the website work at that point.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent around $500,000 last year with the website build and the report, and our costs this year, with maintenance, will be around $300,000–$400,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We’ve been working together on research since June 2010, and the website project began in January 2020.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Feedback from different internal stakeholders, including marketing resources and members of our legal team state that it’s easier to access our brand assets with the new site. Transparency has also increased. Before, people had to email someone to receive a logo, and then the request would be filled by a third person, and now, all our employees have to do is log into the site. It’s a very self-serve experience.
In terms of the research study, there was a point one year ago where we did have some issues with the way they presented part of the work, but we addressed that. We wouldn’t have kept working with them for ten years if we didn’t like their work.
How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?
We have scheduled meetings, but we don’t use a project management tool with them. Occasional calls work for us, and we had weekly meetings while the site was being built. When it’s time for the yearly research study, we start having a call every couple of weeks.
What did you find most impressive about them?
It was an ambitious project because our security systems are very stringent. It’s hard to give our own employees access sometimes. Tenet Partners was able to work around that and integrate our digital partners into this interface.
Our employees use a single-sign-on system for all of our digital applications, and this site uses that same system. It’s simple and easy, but a lot of behind-the-scenes interaction between our internal IT team and Tenet’s team went into delivering that functionality.
Their responsiveness stands out. Natalie is the point person on both the yearly report and the website, and she’s intelligent and responsive. It’s nice to work with someone who identifies issues before they cause problems. The whole team is pleasant to work with.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Nothing comes to mind.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
We used them on one research task for many years, and we came to view them internally as a research agency. In reality, however, they’re a fully capable digital agency. Be aware of their ability to take on and manage different kinds of projects.
the project
Naming & Branding for New Aerospace Product
“I really look forward to continuing our relationship with them.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the director of marketing for a very large aerospace and defense business.
What challenge were you trying to address with Tenet Partners?
We hired them to help us brand and launch a new solution.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We started with a lot of discovery work. Our team and theirs met to align on what we were looking for, what our product’s attributes are, and what we wanted the brand to convey. Then they generated over 500 names. They did some research to see what names were available and they narrowed the list to 60–70 names. They presented about 20 names to us.
We went through that list and provided some feedback. They then proposed a few additional names and we eliminated a few from our lists. We ended up cutting the list down to just four names that we thought had potential. Then they helped us put together documentation for messaging.
As we move to roll out our offering next year, Tenet Partners will work alongside my marketing team to pull together a launch plan that includes white papers, case studies, and targeting.
What is the team composition?
We worked directly with Hampton (CEO) and about four other people
How did you come to work with Tenet Partners?
Before we became an independent company and were acquired, we did a different rebranding project with Tenet Partners.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent about $200,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with them in June 2020 and the engagement is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Internal feedback has been extremely positive. We’re very excited about the possibilities the new branding affords us in the marketplace. I’m looking forward to seeing how it impacts the business in the first two quarters of next year.
How did Tenet Partners perform from a project management standpoint?
They’re great to work with. Our project manager is great about scheduling meetings, preparing an agenda, and moving quickly. Sometimes, those meetings are just quick status reports, and others they’re more developed and they ask us to come into the office.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They have a lot of experience. We actually had Tenet Partners come in to brief our partners to provide credibility to the project and our discussion. It’s a big undertaking to understand our business, but they took the time to conduct customer interviews and sit in on a user forum.
They brought a lot of great insight to our business. I really look forward to continuing our relationship with them.
Are there any areas they could improve?
They didn’t need to improve much.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Share as much information as you can with them and use them as a partner. We’ve found that they began to really understand our business after we shared product presentations or had them sit in on calls.
Tenet Partners' work has tremendously helped the client gauge their brand and campaign strategies. The team's work has also helped them identify the effectiveness of their activities. They're communicative, attentive, and easy to work with, leading to an ongoing partnership.