The Zest Lab

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of a French wine importing company that operates under the name Vignobles Sullivan.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Zest Lab?

Our main challenge was branding and name recognition. We wanted to establish a larger presence for our company wine importing scene because reputation is a really significant part of the industry.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They are doing pretty much everything. That extends from building content like press releases and actual marketing materials such as sales sheets to handling our advertising. They do a lot of print media deals with magazines as well as running our handles on Instagram and Facebook.

All of our marketing activities are basically outsourced to them at this point. I’m in direct communication with them on a constant basis, as is the owner of our company, to offer guidance or give a thumbs up or thumbs down on different projects. To a large extent, though, they have reins to do whatever they think is best for our company.

What is the team composition?

I regularly have touchpoints with about 5–6 people there, including a graphic designer, a project manager, and some more administrative people.

How did you come to work with The Zest Lab?

They were hired by our owner before I came to work with the vineyard, but when I started on they became a much more integrated part of our venture.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started with the company in January of this year, and we are continuing to work together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The advertising with Wine Spectator and the Wine Enthusiast has given us pretty substantial clout in the industry, which is really valuable because reputation matters a lot in our industry. Their team is a very diverse group of people that come up with a lot of great ideas. We just throw them all against the wall and see what sticks.

The work they’ve done has made us look very well put together and really represented us better than we’ve been able to in the past. I communicate with our clients a lot, and they appreciate that we have our marketing materials so well put together. People are very impressed with their work.

They also do an excellent job of capturing our vision for the company. The reason we are able to entrust so much of the operation to them is that they really took the time to understand the DNA of our company and figure out how to present that. We are really focused on having a strong company culture focused on environmental sustainability, and they capture that perfectly.

How did The Zest Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is very collaborative and does a great job of keeping us on point with all of our different projects. Their project manager will always stay on me when something needs approval on our end and has to get done in a timely manner.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a really fantastic attitude. We run into challenges fairly frequently in our work, and sometimes it can be difficult. Our owner is a very successful guy and he has pretty high expectations for others, but they handle the pressure extremely well and they come to the table with a can-do attitude and a cheerful disposition.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really don’t think there is anything they could substantially improve in our engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate with them on a regular basis. I think one of the most helpful things for me has been the weekly call. It really helps to keep the momentum going and stay organized on both ends, in terms of time management.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the Vice President of Product Development & Sourcing. I was responsible for pulling together our first promotional postcard as well as Tradeshow coordination for our Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 timeframe.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Zest Lab?

We were looking for a team to pull together our ideas and execute coordinating and printing for both projects.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Networking

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

After several discovery meetings, the Zest Lab presented options on the postcard and the event details. We worked from there on revisions via calls and it was a very smooth process.

What was the team composition?

We had a client respresetnative that handled our account, Nate, and he coordinated all the designers and Dest Lab employees to work on our project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Very successful events

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective workflow; they were very easy to work with, and they communicated clearly. Met all deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their Zest! :)

Is there any area for improvement or anything that could have been done differently?

No