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Institutional Investor

Institutional Investor

FEATURED WORK

GLOBAL BRAND TRANSFORMATION

Optimizing the customer experience to increase global subscriptions

OVERVIEW

Institutional Investor is the world’s foremost multi-platform convener of global institutional investors. Worked directly with C-suite and division leaders in the USA, Europe and Asia to help drive brand transformation & customer experience across global markets.

WEBSITE

Implemented new UX/UI design systems across the digital customer journey to increase subscriptions.Partnered with channel owners across departments to reimagine disparate business offerings into a unified subscription product that was architected around user needs and behaviors.

DEMAND GENERATION

Implemented a new demand generation program and design systems to include email, digital ads, social media, and landing pages via A/B testing and marketing automation.

EMAIL MARKETING

Implemented modern user experience practices and continual optimization of segmented messages to email marketing programs that would engage users along a customer journey and convert prospects into subscribers.

BRANDING

Worked alongside internal and external stakeholders to reposition and rebrand the company and its multiple businesses and divisions into one unified brand message, value proposition and visual identity. Led design thinking for an enterprise application that would convene allocators, asset managers and II’s relevant content, research and forums into a unified experience. 

RELATED WORK

Hutzler

Hutzler

FEATURED WORK

REBRANDING HERITAGE

A legacy family brand needed a brand for the future.

OVERVIEW

Since 1938, Hutzler has been producing some of the best house and kitchenware on the market. Their products are recognizable around the world, but their name, and brand, was a different story. A family-owned and family-run business for over 70 years, asked us to put a face on their legacy.

BRANDING

We created the new Hutzler brand to bridge the continuum of innovation that connects the past, present, and future of the company. In the logo, the break between the “T” & “Z” represents a mark in time, well suited to the new tagline “Fresh Since 1938” —a three word encapsulation of the company’s over 80-year old history, their enduring commitment to innovation, and the practical function of their offerings.

AUDIENCE STRATEGY

We took Hutzler from a brand that created products to a brand with a mission: to empower families with the freedom to make healthy food choices. Insights from our research revealed the two main buyers were single women between the ages of 24-45, and “millennial moms” who wanted to be smart and forward-thinking about the choices they made for their families. We took this as an opportunity to define Hutzler’s vision as the brand that would “keep fresh food, fresh longer.”

PACKAGING

To exude the “fresh” strategy we created packaging that evoked the airy simplicity of Northern European design practices —elegant, clean, and allowing the product to speak for itself.

CORPORATE IDENTITY

Internal and external corporate identity was also a large part of our Hutzler mission. Business cards, letterhead, web and mobile responsive web platforms were all revamped in the new brand elements. Like their products, each of these assets projected an ironclad competence that was accessible and easily used by all employees to maintain brand consistency.

RELATED WORK

Total Defense Branding

Total Defense Branding

FEATURED WORK

GOING BEYOND PROTECTION

Total Defense gets a new brand that goes Beyond the competition

OVERVIEW

As a new internet security company, Total Defense needed a brand that would allow them to stand out and compete against industry leaders. After naming the company, I led a team of specialists to build the new brand anchored around a “beyond” the category strategy. While the competition focused on selling features and software, we positioned Total Defense as more than just internet security, and differentiated the company through a relentless commitment to protect their customer’s digital lives through a multi-layered offering of software, services and support that goes Beyond Protection.

PACKAGING

To stand out in the crowded retail shelf space against better known internet security providers, we designed the packaging to look like “pentagon level security.” Sleek, with a masculine color palette —the silver foils and raised emboss attracted shoppers to pick up the product, while allowing them to feel the multiple layers within the shield.

BRANDING

The inspiration for the brand came from the layers of protection from the Roman centurion’s armour. After establishing the Beyond Protection tagline, we went to work on building a brand that would be known for their multi-layered approach to protect businesses and consumers from cyber criminals.

DIGITAL

At the heart of the brand redesign was the eintire digital ecosystem. We modernized the company’s ecommerce website, product interface design, partner portals, email programs, landing pages, and social media properties.

SIGNAGE

RELATED WORK

Marcus & Millichap

Marcus & Millichap

FEATURED WORK

REBRANDING A NYC LEADER

Marcus & Millichap rebrands their multifamily real estate division

OVERVIEW

New York Multifamily (NYM), a subsidiary of Marcus & Millichap, NYC’s leading multifamily real estate investment firm was in need of a major brand overhaul to combat competitive threats. We helped NYM bridge the gap between private capital and institutional investors through a comprehensive rebrand and a digital transformation that also helped to automate key parts of their business process, and give them a competitive advantage.
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BRANDING

Through extensive research we devised a brand strategy that would allow the company to be repositioned as leaders in their space by leveraging their core strengths as “niche experts” powered by technology and the resources of a national organization, Marcus & Millichap. We then modernized their brand DNA from naming, to visual identity to messaging. New York Multifamily  would now be know as NYM and their new logo and brand would exude NYC wealth, power and elegance. 

WEBSITE

With the new brand in hand, we overhauled their website to look and function as a clean, modern digital experience across all devices. We re-architected their website using the latest user experience practices to deliver their value proposition that led prospects or clients to easily take action and find what they wanted fast. The design was minimal and utilitarian with dynamic content and navigation functions leading the design approach to deliver an enjoyable and intuitive experience.

SALESFORCE INTEGRATION

This is where a lot of the magic takes place on the NYM website. Beautiful and easy to use on the frontend, but highly complex and loaded with technology integrations on the backend to make managing and updating property information and managing leads effortless, or shall we say automated. We built a custom dashboard with seamless integration between WordPress and Salesforce to ensure there was one centralized truth for data.

MESSAGING

As part of the rebrand we also created a new messaging platform that allowed the company to speak as one voice and clearly deliver their value proposition and core message across all marketing initiatives. We unearthed their mission, vision and core values. We then established the tone and copy for each of their products, services and their unique differentiator.

SALES ENABLEMENT

With the brand foundation and website infrastructure set, we then redesigned all of NYN’s sales enablement and marketing collateral. We created a unified look with their new messaging infused into all of their collateral, and as part of the digital transformation, we synced up the document creation process with their Salesforce CRM to create blazing fast collateral on-demand. This included offering memorandums, proposals, sales reports, market reports and other documents that would help NYM close deals faster and in style. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

All of the efforts culminated in developing new multichannel marketing deliverables so that NYM could hit the ground running on the launch of their new brand. We put together social media, digital advertising, email strategies, content calendars with designed assets and guidelines to empower their team to do their own marketing in-house. We of course were here to support and guide them through the process, but since we were collaborating so closely throughout the entire process, the hand-off was a breeze.

RELATED WORK

Total Defense

Total Defense

FEATURED WORK

SECURITY, FOR HUMANS.

Repositioning an Internet Security challenger to connect with everyday consumers

OVERVIEW

Total Defense, an internet security company needed to differentiate its brand to stand out in a highly competitive market with larger competitors. After intense research, I recognized that everything had changed; from the way internet security was purchased —to the purchaser —to the value proposition. This change created an opportunity to disrupt the market with a new approach to internet security: “Security for Humans.”
I helped Total Defense reimagine their internet security products and repositioned the company with a new brand that appealed to a diverse audience: from Millennials to Boomers with a powerful product that was easy to use and easy to buy.
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BRANDING

Security for Humans, the new tagline informed everything we did. We set out to create a brand that was friendly, approachable and in-tune with what people wanted —worry-free protection from cybercriminals and hackers. This was in stark contrast to the industry norm that sold you the latest features with complex jargon that no one really understands. Do you really care what a root-kit, trojan or zero-day threat really is, or do you just want your smartphone, tablet or laptop protected from the bad guys.

MESSAGING

More than just messaging. We led product strategy to ease buyer fatigue by simplifying Total Defense’s products around the user’s lifestyle needs and architected a tiered product hierarchy with a logical naming convention. We developed core messaging around real-life use cases and benefits, while pairing consumers to the appropriate products. For the more saavy shopper the features were written to easily allow the user to comparison shop with a clear understanding of what was under the hood. The voice and tone of the new brand inspired confidence without intimidation.

PRINT & PACKAGING

To support the new subscription model, product packaging needed to evolve from the physical boxes to sleek gatefold “wallet” packaging that when opened, welcomed the consumer with a clear quick-start guide and installation instructions. The soul of the brand was infused at the retail level with color-coded product displays that were clean, modern and inviting.

WEBSITE

At the heart of the brand and the new subscription model was a new, human-friendly responsive website that was loaded with micro-interactions to facilitate the customer journey and inspire action. Everything from a simplified navigation to a clean visual design delivered a conversational brand story that made it easier for the user to research, learn and buy on any device, anytime.

USER EXPERIENCE

Intuitive user experience built around persona defined user flows where architected around the user’s needs. From our research, we identified that people seek internet security at three core moments: when their current internet security product is up for renewal, when they purchase a new device, or when they get hit with malware and need help! Conversational forms, at-glance product scrolls, simple product comparison tools and smart pop-ups streamlined the user experience and personalized the sales funnel.

INTUITIVE ECOMMERCE

The online shopping experience was redefined with inviting product pages that were segmented to inspire immediate action above-the-fold, while persuading users through easy to understand features, organized systems requirements for advanced shoppers, and product ratings, reviews and testimonials to seal the deal. An elegant shopping cart made it easy to upsell and cross-sell users, while a condensed form made for a speedy checkout.
After their purchase customers were able to easily share on their social channels the good news that a portion of their purchase was donated to help rescue missing and exploited children.

RELATED WORK