Resound

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing at a CPA firm in the Phoenix Metro Area. I oversee two other people and all of the marketing functions here at the firm, including branding, proposals, advertising, collateral pieces, content marketing, and marketing budgets.

What challenge were you trying to address with Resound?

We felt that our visual brand didn’t match who we were internally. We were fun, outgoing, and not your typical CPA firm, and we realized we were communicating otherwise. Visually and verbally, our communications were representing an old, stereotypical CPA firm, so I approached Resound to help us completely redo our branding.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a brand audit back in June of 2015 where we spent 3 months surveying clients and employees. We also did some company research on who we are as a firm, and also audited all of our existing marketing materials.

After we used the brand audit to come up with an action plan, we hired Resound again to do the actual overhaul of the visual rebrand, logo, and tagline. They defined our visual and verbal guidelines, and also developed a Remarkabook, which took a few months. They did some minor logo design, brand guideline creation, and also developed our WordPress website.

We had an existing website that was 5 years old, but Resound created a more responsive one from scratch. It’s an informational website, but it also has a lot of contact forms throughout so prospects can easily contact us. It’s also easy for marketing to utilize now, whereas the old site required an external web person to do everything for us, which was costly. We’re now able to edit 95% of the content by using a CMS, which saves us money in the long run.

We have a form on the front that we can change throughout the site. We can also put e-books on it, or whatever kind of lead generation we desire.

How did you come to work with Resound?

I did a Google search for a local company. I came across one of Resound’s old blogs, and I felt like what they were saying about a brand resonated with our company.

I interviewed them along with two other companies, but still liked them the best. They really understood rebranding. They didn’t just want to give us a cool new logo or website, which is what other companies were offering. They really wanted to help us reshape how we present ourselves.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $40,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June of 2015, and we launched our website in October of 2016.

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

There’s usually a lot of negative feedback in a firm with numerous partners. However, between the 18 partners and 150 employees, we’ve had nothing but positive feedback from everyone. Everybody loved what Resound did. Visually, everything was great, and the website allowed us to measure success based on session times, page views, number of visitors, etc.

We tracked the first 6 months for the purpose of submitting for an AAM Award, which we won for the website and the rebrand as a whole. With that tracking, we had 1,200 sessions in the first 3 days of the website launch, which is huge for an accounting firm.

We also saw a 23% increase in page views for the first 6 months, a 20% increase in average time sessions, a 620% increase in visits to the services page, and a 600% increase in visits to leadership page. Our new and responsive website has also seen a 70% increase in mobile users in the first month. Resound really made a positive impact, and every single person within the firm was happy.

How did Resound perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. They were really effective with communication throughout the entire process. We used Google Docs to work on content creation together so we could both have access to it. That’s the only tool we used collaboratively.

They were also very cooperative in working with our in-house team that consisted of myself, a graphics coordinator, and a content writer, which saved us a lot of money.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to work with all kinds of people is impressive. They managed to make everyone within the firm happy, and their knowledge around branding is also commendable. They really understand the whole process from the beginning to end, and they’re also very good at creating a unique design. I didn’t want another stereotypical accounting firm website, because that’s not who we are. They applied sound strategy to give us something that accurately represents our firm.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, because I was able to address any issue with Mike [Managing Partner, Resound] throughout the entire rebranding process. I can’t think of anywhere in which they’re lacking.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the vice presidents and engineers at a small civil engineering firm. We were established in 1995, and we have around 25 employees right now. Our specialty is flood hydrology and fluvial geomorphology, mostly for government agencies in the Southwest U.S.

What challenge were you trying to address with Resound?

About five years ago, we transitioned from a single owner to employee-owned (about 18 of us). We realized that no one in the company was consistent with the brand, and we all communicated with our clients differently, which made us seem unorganized and scattered. Everyone in the Southwest had a different view of who we were and what we did, so we needed to get organized and consistent. Also, our project manager and I felt our brand had aged and the company had grown, so we wanted to develop a brand and logo that were authentic to what we’d become. Our 20^th anniversary was coming up, so we wanted to freshen everything up and get a new site, logo, and maybe even name before then.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first thing Mike [Managing Partner, Resound] and Jeff [Co-founder, Resound] did was internal and external market research. They surveyed employees to learn what the most important aspects of the company were, and they interviewed clients to discover what they thought of our company and what they liked or disliked. They also did competitor research, brand definition, brand auditing, action planning, and budget estimates.

They came back with a report of how we were perceived from the outside and the inside. From there, Mike and Jeff developed a brand metaphor and potential name options. I’d never heard of a brand metaphor, so they walked us through that and even participated in a strategic planning meeting with the whole company. Resound and another one of our consultants led the meeting and talked about the branding process and how to help us all unify our image.

Resound helped us realize that we’re a services company with a niche and a specialty. Our project manager and I helped shepherd the project, such as leading feedback sessions until we finally developed a new name and logo based on the brand metaphor. Unfortunately, the board thought the changes were too much, so they shelved the branding initiative.

This wasn’t a problem with Resound or their process, though. We had some strong resistance from inside our company to outside help, but they did a great job of overcoming that. Mike and Jeff identified a real problem in our company, that we have a vacuum in executive leadership since the ownership transition, so we've been waiting for leadership to develop before we attempt further branding changes. We tweaked the logo a bit, but that was done in-house.

How did you come to work with Resound?

I knew Mike from church, and we started talking about the branding process. I realized it was something valuable, so we hired his team.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership lasted from May 2014 to May 2015. However, we need to develop a brand for some new software, and we want to hire them again.

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

While we weren’t able to apply any of the major brand changes, Resound still left us with some great products. We have a brand metaphor, name and logo options, and market research that, hopefully in a few years, we can look at again and better utilize. Other than the physical products, the project manager and I learned a lot about the branding process. Mike and Jeff wouldn’t just go away, draw something up, and then present it to us. They took time to teach us the process, which was incredibly valuable. Without a doubt, the things they taught will be helpful down the road.

How did Resound perform from a project management standpoint?

Their management and customer service was phenomenal. Mike was great at scheduling meetings, coordinating tasks, and keeping on schedule. In fact, he usually had to wait on us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their work product was great. They were responsive, and I was humbled by how much better they were at customer service than us. They served us much better than we served our clients, which is saying something. I could tell Mike really strives to help other companies have the best brand and marketing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing that I can think of.