Reinvigorating a Brand

Thomas M. Rich & Associates – TMRA – is a marketing strategy and qualitative research consultancy outside of New York founded in 1996.

Challenge:

Its President, Tom Rich, took two years away from his business to serve as the global Vice President and the President of QRCA – The Qualitative Research Consultants Association. This two-year commitment away from his business decimated it.  He called upon me to help him to jump-start his brand, and re-establish his stature as an influencer and thought leader.

Driving Insight:  Tom’s stature as a major influencer and thought leader in qualitative research circles had to be re-introduced and reinforced with former clients, and his prominence reestablished with lapsed clients, researchers, and new prospects who thought he had gone out of business or with whom he had lost touch. His philosophy is that market research must be firmly grounded in business issues, and must yield actionable insights. This has served as a major differentiator that sets him apart from most other qualitative researchers.

Solution/Action:

We started brand awareness from the ground up. Launching in April 2020, the marketing program included a monthly eNewsletter, a corresponding website blog post, and use of social media platforms to reinforce the core message.  Every outgoing correspondence had be meet the criteria of: thought-leadership, provide innovative approaches to qualitative research, contain sharable and interesting content, and continuously drive traffic to the website whose ongoing analytics showed almost zero activity to the home page and other pages prior to the start of the campaign.

Results:

Website traffic increased from virtually nothing four years ago to almost 14,000 annual page views in 2023 – a 78% increase over 2021/23; bounce rates fell 11% in year two; time on page averages 4:49 minutes, and exit rates dropped 61%.

The monthly eNewsletter subscriber base has more than doubled going into 2024.   Initially, open rates averaged between 25 and 30%.  In the last quarter of  2023, open rates repeatedly registered between 45 and 53% – far surpassing 2023 industry norms for the consulting industry of just over 20%. This rate continues to be sustained into 2024 with stellar first-quarter performance.

Initial return on marketing investment is 3.5:1.0 – surpassing category norms by 13%.

Branding an International Association

Qualitative Research Consultants Association is an international association of over 1000 qualitative and user experience researchers.

Challenge.  QRCA is an international association of qualitative and user experience researchers. Due to the shifting landscape in the research vertical – and in the absence of any formal marketing department or leadership –  QRCA needed experienced guidance to identify opportunities for marketing to new member segments. 

Driving Insight: The research landscape was rapidly transforming and QRCA was not keeping up with the changes in the industry to remain relevant.

Solution/Action: A visionary, multi-platform brand marketing program was created whose goal was to acquire new members, and migrate/retain current ones. Program elements included a new positioning line, website redesign and optimization, development of new e-Commerce programs and integrated social media platforms. 

Results: In 2019, a new positioning line was tested and launched; membership increased 10%; 2020 annual conference attendance increased 20%;  on Social Media, LinkedIn followers increased +73%, Facebook + 10%, and Twitter users +115%; e-Mail to non-members achieved an open rate of 32% with an average click-back of 10.6% to the core blog content –surpassing industry averages; website traffic improved across all Google Analytics metrics.

Rebranding Success Story – Website Driven and Aided By Social Marketing Techniques

Client Messiah Village – one of Pennsylvania’s oldest and largest providers of seniors residential, support and enrichment services serving 900 lives in one market – felt it needed to conduct a serious examination of its business model with an eye towards growing the scope of its rehabilitation, support and off-campus services, and modernizing its image to stay current with trends in seniors marketing.

Challenge: CCRCs are having a difficult time recruiting new residents especially in challenging financial times.

Driving Insight: “The old model is broken. Today, seniors need to be engaged credibly, offered a broader spectrum of services and a better value proposition.”

Solution/Action: Led the account planning effort in the formulation of a revamped business structure, brand architecture and positioning, and recommended the use of website marketing/social media tools to initiate a dialogue between residents living at the CCRC and prospects contemplating a move there including a resident populated blog and Facebook page.

Results: The blog was created which recorded 800 hits in its first month; web traffic and inquiries to the residential sales and at-need nursing units increased exponentially during the first 4 months online.  In the first 18 months after the new brand architecture and identity re-launch went to market, MLW increased the size of the population it serves from 925 to 2500+ lives and expanding from 1 to 3 geographical markets.

Brand Awareness and Call to Action

Winner – Gold EFFIE

The Connecticut Department of Revenue Services is the tax collector for the State of Connecticut

Challenge: Government mandated the State collect $32 mm in unpaid taxes only five years after an amnesty initiative collected $53 mm so how could another amnesty program be successful on the heels of the first one.

Driving Insight: “Tax scofflaws aren’t necessarily criminals, they may just not understand the law”.

Action/Solution: Uncovering this key insight that tax scofflaws most often did not comprehend the complexity of Connecticut’s new tax codes led to the creation of “The Three E’s – Educate, Empower, Enforce” strategy and 360-degree, multi-media communications campaign for the highly successful 1995 Connecticut Tax Amnesty program.

Results: Connecticut collected $47 million – 149% of goal.

Brand Architecture Re-design. Positioning. Re-launch.

American Electric Power was the nation’s largest electric utility.

Challenge: Facing category deregulation, the largest energy producer in the United States consisted of 10 autonomous unbranded operating companies offering a multitude of regulated and non-regulated products and services, but none shared an overarching USP; customers were unfazed, shareholders ambivalent and regulators hostile

Driving Insight: “AEP was a corporate mystery to most, yet in its value proposition laid AEP’s real competitive edge.”

Action/Solution Comprehensive due diligence was conducted with all key stakeholders to define a new brand architecture and unifying value proposition that would be leveraged under one mother brand; Aggressive brand identity, value-of-service, and safety communications ran at saturation levels, public and shareholder affairs programs were introduced.

Results: After only 12 weeks of saturation-level advertising and promotion, awareness of the AEP family of now branded operating companies – and its value proposition – rose from 15% to 34% of over 2,500 customers surveyed in the benchmark and subsequent tracking surveys.  In under two years, awareness of the AEP value proposition tripled, top-2-box attitude and perception scores rose 21%, and incremental sales of discretionary products increased 22%.