CRAFTING BRAND STORIES
The strongest brands know their story.
They succeed because that narrative forms the core of their business, shaping strategy, heightening focus, inspiring messaging, enhancing culture, and driving decision making.
Woden crafts clear, compelling brand stories. We’ll help you define who you are, why you matter, and why people should care. We then help you align every facet of your business behind that narrative—unlocking your potential for growth.
Our engagements deliver both an effective, customer-centered message, and a comprehensive blueprint for how to implement it. We’ll provide you with competitive analysis, customer feedback, interviews, strategy, and copy synthesized into an easy, digestible format your company can use to carry itself forward.
Armed with these tools, you’ll have the power to forge lasting bonds with stakeholders, manage growth, gain market share, and convert customers into evangelists for your brand.
headquarters
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Portfolio
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Shaw University
People were well versed in where Shaw had been, but didn’t understand how the institution was planning to move forward serving the non-traditional student seeking a flexible, accessible, and career-oriented educational environment. Shaw is one of thousands of smaller, private liberal arts institutions, each one boasting its academic excellence, bustling student life, and opportunities for career preparedness. Articulating what was different about Shaw, and why the institution was the place to develop the next generation of leaders, thinkers, and innovators, represented a core challenge for new University president Dr. Paulette Dillard.If Shaw was going to succeed, it needed to clearly communicate its vision. The institution needed a clear, compelling, and differentiated story about why Shaw University is uniquely prepared to lead each student to success without People were well versed in where Shaw had been, but didn’t understand how the institution was planning to move forward serving the non-traditional student seeking a flexible, accessible, and career-oriented educational environment. Shaw is one of thousands of smaller, private liberal arts institutions, each one boasting its academic excellence, bustling student life, and opportunities for career preparedness. Articulating what was different about Shaw, and why the institution was the place to develop the next generation of leaders, thinkers, and innovators, represented a core challenge for new University president, Dr. Paulette Dillard.
If Shaw was going to succeed, it needed to clearly communicate its vision. The institution needed a clear, compelling, and differentiated story about why Shaw University is uniquely prepared to lead each student to success without compromising the rich historical legacy that made the university what it is today.
Story Solutions in Finance
Swift Financial is a leader of next generation working capital, providing small business owners with a flexible and powerful suite of solutions for obtaining long term sustainability. Though it provided an effective service with a personal touch, Swift Financial needed a way to make its finance services not just more compelling, but irreplacable to small business owners seeking easy to use solutions.
Reviews
the project
Branding for Renewable Energy Company
"The way that they executed very systematically was interesting and 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 CEO of a renewable energy company. We're a seller, distributor, and financier of solar home systems to off-grid communities on a pay-as-you-go basis in sub-Saharan Africa.
What challenge were you trying to address with Woden?
We hired Woden to develop a strong and internally aligned understanding of our brand identity, our purpose, and how we speak about it to all of our stakeholders.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Woden developed a story kernel and story guide. They also facilitated a full-day story seminar with our whole team.
What is the team composition?
There were about five people working on their team. Ed (Partner) was more of a relationship manager as well as the project manager that I dealt with on a day-to-day basis. There was this other person and she had people behind her that I dealt with less directly. There were graphic designers, copywriters, and strategists.
How did you come to work with Woden?
I can’t remember how I found them, but I might have gotten an email from them. I was intrigued by how they presented their email with a brand storytelling approach.
How much have you invested with them?
We invested $20,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We’ve worked with them from March 2018–January 2019.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Woden delivered a fairly impressive document and deliverable that's useful for us.
How did Woden perform from a project management standpoint?
The project management aspect of it was very well done. They were very diligent at scheduling meetings and calls to share drafts and get my feedback and turning that around. They delivered on time. I can recall that their model depends on them being very well structured and being able to turn things around in a timely manner, and they followed through on that pretty well.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Woden’s insight into the use of storytelling to talk about our brand is very powerful. I think the product was very compelling. They were a group of very smart, creative, and motivated folks.
They worked very diligently and hard to understand our company and the environment that we operate in and turn around something that was relevant and practical for us in a professional and slick package.
Woden’s project management and discipline was obviously something that they'd done before and they had a very systematic approach to completing these kinds of projects. The way that they executed very systematically was interesting and impressive.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I think we would have gotten more value out of this if we had been willing to invest more and go something a little bit more in-depth and bespoke.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Know that it isn't a full-service, bespoke, and in-depth brand identity and development service that they provide. Setting your expectations is important and it was something we lacked.
As an organization before you invest, you need to have the assurance and the confidence that you’re going to be able to implement the stuff effectively after they deliver their deliverables.
the project
Branding for Medical Device Company
"Woden delivered many outstanding ideas that we probably should have thought of ourselves."
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.
Checkpoint Surgical is a medical device company based in Cleveland, Ohio. Our devices are used intraoperatively by surgeons looking to locate, assess, and/or protect nerves. It’s used in complex procedures where nerves are at risk.
We have an outside sales team tasked with identifying surgeons that complete procedures within our space and getting them to try the product in an upcoming procedure.
What challenge were you trying to address with Woden?
We hired Woden to help us tell our story more effectively. Before Woden's enlistment, our focus had been more on factual or procedural based information about the devices. It was a very clinical approach to marketing and sales.
We wanted Woden to help us craft a story to invoke a more emotional response from our customers.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We first worked with them to craft our story, which involved a one-day checkpoint on a more emotional level. We talked about the why behind the device and the background. One of the stigmas we deal with within our industry is the perception that nerves could be sacrificed in a procedure for a greater good, like saving someone’s life. The reality is that there doesn’t have to be a choice – nerves can be protected, and lives can be saved.
The story now explains that on a more personal level. The deliverables impact our organization internally and externally. Their team did a comprehensive review of all elements within our organization and told us where and how the story could be incorporated into these elements and how we could weave it into daily life.
They gave us around 40 specific suggestions – some were incredibly actionable, and others would take much longer to execute.
What is the team composition?
We had heavy contact with Ed (Partner), and we worked with support people who reviewed our collateral and provided insight.
How did you come to work with Woden?
Our CEO received their pitch piece. He came to me and asked me what I thought. We were looking for a more holistic marketing approach, and we were interviewing a myriad of traditional marketing firms. Woden seemed more out of the box, and we liked it.
We presented the various proposals from different firms to our executive team, and everybody liked Woden’s approach. We invited them to give an in-person presentation. After that, we decided to go with them.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with them in March 2019.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The feedback has been very positive. Our purpose was met; we received a checkpoint story and message that we could clearly articulate to our customers and internal team. Woden delivered many outstanding ideas that we probably should have thought of ourselves. They made those ideas into actionable projects for our organization.
Our need for them has reduced, but we still communicate with them periodically on a consulting basis.
How did Woden perform from a project management standpoint?
From a project management standpoint, they’ve been excellent. We had no issues. If there were delays, they were likely on our side.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their ability to come into an organization that they knew nothing about and diagnose opportunities quickly was extremely impressive. The team found ways to communicate our story, engage our customers, onboard employees, and present design ideas effectively.
Are there any areas they could improve?
This might’ve only been visible to me because I’m familiar with this type of work, but I would’ve liked a little bit more personalization. I could tell that they worked off a template.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
We engaged with Woden. We pushed back on some of their ideas and edited their work. At the end of the day, it was a collaborative process that allowed us to come up with something very good.
The best way is to become extremely collaborative. If you don’t agree with something, then push back. If you have a better idea, present it and make them then defend their way. In that type of environment, you come up with something great.
the project
Branding for Environmental Monitoring Tech Company
"They were able to stay focused on that and what they heard from customers and turn it into actions and words."
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 CEO of Nielsen-Kellerman Company. We design and manufacture niche electronics that are for consumers and professionals, predominately in the weather and environmental monitoring field, as well as sports performance measurement spaces.
What challenge were you trying to address with Woden?
We’d made two acquisitions of companies that made weather stations. One company imported stations at consumer price points, predominately from China, and the other made high-cost stations in Maine. We intended to market one of those from under our weather brand we already had in place. Neither of those companies had any marketing to speak of so we wanted to get our arms around the story for those two acquired companies. This would help us align our efforts as we started marketing and outreach. Quickly, we decided to include our own brand in this project to establish the key differences in the stories.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They did a lot of research, which was tremendously valuable. They’re really good customer researchers and use a variety of techniques including direct outreach, web scanning, and search. They figured out what customers already perceived and believed about the three firms since all three had been around for a while. They also analyzed where there might be opportunities to capitalize on that existing thinking.
After presenting their research, they crafted all three brand stories. This took the form of long-form discussions of the role of the brand and the products in the “hero story.” They follow the “hero” model; it’s a customer-centric model where you talk about how the brand helps the customer succeed, rather than just talking about the brand.
We had meetings to tweak the stories, and focusing on the differentiators between the three brands. They also delivered slogans and keywords for each brand, as well as a roadmap for implementation, marketing, and customer outreach efforts.
What is the team composition?
I worked with 4-5 people on this. Hannah (Brand Storyteller) and Rachel (Creative Team Manager) acted as the lead researchers, and Ed (Partner) was on all the teams. There were two story people as well. They got impressively familiar with an area that they knew absolutely nothing about on the frontend. A couple of other people helped with research as well.
How did you come to work with Woden?
We’d previously worked with another firm on brand stories. I knew we needed to get these new brands off the ground quickly. I ran into them on LinkedIn, and, after viewing their website, I knew we would align. I reached out to them and we created a fixed-price deliverable. I preferred that over an open-ended retainer.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent around $65,000–$70,000 with them.
What is the status of this engagement?
We worked together from February until June 2020.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
It would be challenging to track it statistically, as it’s being employed across a broad range of marketing activities. Anecdotally, it’s definitely helped my team get their feet under them in terms of messaging and differentiation, since they’d never done anything with weather stations before.
A lot of our focus has been on social media activity for the ambient product, as well as PPC on Amazon and the wider internet. In this year, they’re up over 10% YoY. I don’t know if I can directly attribute that to the story work but it for sure helped my team execute our plan.
We haven’t used the other brand much yet because we’re still finishing the product, but it will get used significantly. They’re producing launch materials right now.
How did Woden perform from a project management standpoint?
They’ve had excellent communication and have stuck to their schedule. Working with three at once was a lot but they stuck to it. That’s the advantage of having a standardized process.
What did you find most impressive about them?
We started at the front very well-aligned in how we thought about the project: it really matters what the customers think and how we’re going to help them. They were able to stay focused on that and what they heard from customers and turn it into actions and words, incorporating even the potential negatives. They were quite specific, which I find that younger marketers have a hard time doing. Woden dug in and really understood why weather stations were important by the end of the project.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I don’t think they’d ever done a project where they were working with three similar products before. Initially, all three story guides were kind of the same, but they took the input and participated in the discussions to learn how to differentiate the three brands. We didn’t know how we were going to do it either in the beginning, so it was a group discovery process.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
It would be somewhat challenging for an organization with no internal marketing team or marketing chops to take what they do and use their work effectively. If you need someone to take over your marketing and do I for you then they’re not the right choice. If you need exceptionally good customer research, customer insights, and story guide distillation, however, then they’re a great choice. They’re also very cost-effective compared to most outside marketing firms in my experience.
Woden delivered an impressive document and deliverable that's been useful to the client. Beyond top-level communication, the team displayed discipline, creativity, and a deep insight into the use of brand storytelling. Customers can expect a committed partner.