Brand Strategy
OMT-Veyhl had the vision. We had to capture it.
OMT-Veyhl already had a tremendous culture and world-class product development and manufacturing capabilities. Detail after detail confirmed it wasn’t just its products that were engineered to an exacting vision; the entire company was too.
The problem was that OMT-Veyhl hadn’t ever clearly articulated what that vision was.
Traditional positioning-based brand strategy approaches wouldn’t work. While those tools can communicate how a product compares within its category (usually at retail), a features-and-benefits-based approach fails when engaged in a complex, months-long sales cycle.
To share the OMT-Veyhl brand vision in a manner that was clear, memorable, and believable, we relied instead on the most powerful communication tool humans have ever invented: story.
We documented the many sales stories OMT-Veyhl had to tell. Then we built a story architecture to align its tone, characters, verbiage, color, and emotions to create a unified brand strategy.
The core element of this story architecture is an archetype. Aligning the OMT-Veyhl brand character with the Jungian archetype that most closely embodied the existing OMT-Veyhl vision and culture brought the OMT-Veyhl brand to life.
At its most essential, OMT-Veyhl’s story is that of a Hero that rescues people and projects that are in trouble and empowers others to be Heros themselves. The tagline suggested itself: “Make It Happen”, which is both a reflection of what OMT-Veyhl does every day and an exhortation to its customers to do the same.
Marketing Strategy
Build the Brand and Increase Market Share
OMT-Veyhl approved the brand strategy and began to incorporate it in internal events, educating its employees about how OMT-Veyhl embodies the hero and what it means to “Make It Happen.”
We were now responsible to create a marketing plan that would bring its brand to life and achieve its goals of attracting its target customers while increasing its share of wallet among existing customers.
The strategy we recommended for the first 12 months focused on several prongs at once:
- Brand Identity: Refine its brand assets
- Photo & Video: Tell the OMT-Veyhl story in captivating fashion
- Web Updates: While retaining its existing design, incorporate new photography and messaging
- Signature Brand Brochure: Tell the OMT-Veyhl story in a signature piece that could be a peer to the highly designed brochures its customers are accustomed to.
- C-Suite Direct Mail: Capture the attention of the C-Suite at each of OMT-Veyhl’s target customers.
- Guerilla Trade Show Marketing: Create curiosity at the industry’s main tradeshow (even though it wouldn’t exhibit)
- Digital Marketing: Nurture its existing audience through retargeting and regular content.
Brand Identity
Making an Existing Logo Heroic
OMT-Veyhl’s existing logo was competent, modern, and yet featured typography that contributed to a slightly unbalanced appearance. Aside from its trademark orange, OMT-Veyhl’s brand identity was almost entirely devoid of personality.
With the brand strategy formulated and approved, we needed to update the logo to embody its archetype. That said, we couldn’t sacrifice what equity OMT-Veyhl had in its existing brand identity. A careful redesign was in order.
We chose a more confident typeface that retained the cleanliness of its existing sans serif while feeling more heroically muscular. We also rearranged the logotype and retained its existing logomark while enlarginxg it to provide additional balance and punch.
The result? A new logo that captured OMT-Veyhl’s existing personality without requiring it immediately to redesign every brand asset it used.
Website
Upgrading an Existing Asset
OMT-Veyhl’s existing website was easy to navigate and, like its other assets, competent. While it wouldn’t win any design awards, it didn’t need to in order to serve its role in OMT-Veyhl’s marketing plan.
While we could have designed a more attractive and heroic website, we concluded OMT-Veyhl’s budget was more wisely invested in other assets. So we updated the copy and added new imagery to its existing site instead.
The result? A big statement on a small budget.
Print Design
A Signature Brand Brochure
OMT-Veyhl’s existing sales collateral was strong on data, features, and functionality, but weak on story.
Defined by design-trend-setting firms like Herman Miller, Steelcase, and Hayworth, the contract furniture industry, however, is accustomed to carefully crafted and highly-designed marketing. By taking the care to tell its story in the same fashion its customers tell theirs, OMT-Veyhl would encourage prospects to sit up and take notice.
We designed a signature brand brochure that lovingly told the OMT-Veyhl story in all its dimensions, from how it began to its tremendous success and the vision behind its tailored solutions and line-of-manufacturing services.
The result? A leave-behind with presence and power.
Direct Mail
Getting the Attention
By the time we began working with OMT-Veyhl, it already counted 13 of the top 20 companies in its industry as customers. To continue its growth, it needed a new way to get the attention of prospects who had been thus far reluctant to engage.
Any outreach had to create intense curiosity, demonstrate OMT-Veyhl’s unique capabilities, and do so in a manner calculated to get attention while being sensitive to the ethos of its prospects.
The solution we designed was a direct mail package that included four elements: a one-page letter, a highly visual eight-page booklet, a limited edition sculpture designed and manufactured by OMT-Veyhl, a certificate of authenticity, and the custom box it shipped in.