Virginia Brailey

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I worked with Virginia in two organizations. I was the president at the first organization and my responsibility was to relaunch the brand in the marketplace, including our website, collaterals, and messaging. Meanwhile, I was the COO at the second organization, which was an auto-finance business that was going through a re-messaging and rebranding process. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Virginia Brailey?

In both companies, Virginia helped us with rebranding tasks and marketing projects. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Virginia was essentially the chief strategist in both our rebranding projects. Serving as the project manager to the third-party vendors that helped us out, she brought on designers and content writers whenever necessary. In one of the companies I worked at, she brought on translators for us to have a multilingual website. Overall, she provided key resources that helped us build the end result that we wanted. 

Meanwhile, one of my organizations operated in the human capital space, and it was a crowded market. The website we worked on was stoic, old, and ancient. As an organization, we wanted it to be customer-focused and user-friendly. We also wanted to identify our points of differentiation. Virginia did a market analysis and scanned all of our messaging; she understood and learned deeply about our product, services, and target areas. Then, she helped us translate all of those into our brand messaging, which was in turn translated into our marketing collateral, including a newly launched website. 

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with Virginia. The third-party resources she brought in essentially became a part of their team. We interviewed them together, but we engaged them separately. 

How did you come to work with Virginia Brailey?

Virginia and I worked together many years ago at a telecommunications company. That was how I learned about her skills and capabilities. Over the years, we kept in touch. When I was working in the human capital space, I knew she spent time as a CMO at a human capital business. In other words, I knew she had the industry knowledge I was looking for, so I reached out to her. I asked her to help me understand the space better, and that was where we started our first project. She then continued helping us with the actual execution of the strategy we developed. 

How much have you invested with them?

Over the course of the two projects, we invested $40,000–$50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our most recent project lasted from January–May 2021. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In terms of the quality of her work, Virginia came up with a clear strategy document. Her work was well-researched and easily verifiable from a source perspective. It was also multidimensional; it came from various sources, research, and communications.

In terms of website development, the process was diligently executed. While the creative process took some time, we ultimately launched the site and followed up quickly with its multilingual version. From that point of view, the project was executed quickly. 

When they presented the website to stakeholders, it was overwhelmingly well-received by everyone, saying that we nailed it. That was what we wanted; we had our people behind it, and it became easier to move the ball forward. 

How did Virginia Brailey perform from a project management standpoint?

Virginia provided realistic timelines, articulating where the project was going, what milestones existed, what we needed to do, and what she was going to handle. She was good and diplomatic even when we all overestimated our ability to accomplish things. If we slipped by the timelines, she’d tell us when she wanted it done. On top of that, she knew what I was like since we’d worked for so many years; she knew when I didn’t pay attention to the minutia, and that was good. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Virginia always put in the time to do market research first. She didn’t have enough exposure to the finance market — neither did I — but she managed to tell us what our competitors were doing, what gaps existed, and what opportunities were there. In a matter of weeks, we were heading in the right direction.

Moreover, we always received more than what we paid for the projects. Virginia always did research, so I had a lot of confidence in the things that she brought to the table. I knew they were well thought out — that was one of her strongest values. This made her work defensible. When we had to go up against the board, we couldn’t just bring a flimsy one-pager. Fortunately, Virginia’s outputs were well-sourced and credible. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Because of our engagement, I’ve learned that marketing is the face of corporate strategy. From that perspective, it’s important to give Virginia that information if you want a good product at the end. Let Virginia do her research and build the plan because she’s good at formulating strategies and messaging, taking into account the broader corporate strategy. You should be willing to share that strategy with her and have an open discussion around it.