Seven case studies that exemplify the quality of R. Jay Olson's work as a Senior Brand & Marketing Strategist at Quad/Graphics Creative Solutions.

1. 1/14/2014
CASE STUDIES
R. Jay Olson
International Design Guild Brand Positioning
Challenge
The International Design Guild, a subsidiary of CCA Global Partners, is an alliance of over one hundred,
independently-owned, luxury floor covering showrooms. The Guild, the largest of its kind in North
America, offers its showroom members access to exclusive products, the power of collective buying, as
well as robust marketing programs and operational tools. The luxury consumer in this category is unique
– quality and style, in addition to value, makes this segment especially demanding. Looking to broaden
its niche and expand product lines, The Guild turned to Quad/Graphics Creative Solutions for some
strategic guidance. Assurance was needed that such a move would be well received by its primary
audience, the interior design community. Equally important, and perhaps even more challenging,
showroom owners needed to be convinced that the expansion strategy would be in their best interest
because of the additional investments they would need to make. The Guild’s leadership team was also
concerned because The Dabbieri Collection, its new exclusive line of floor coverings, was not yet
receiving the attention needed from its showroom members.
Solution
We conducted in-depth interviews with select influential showroom members and close to forty interior
designers who were members of the American Society of Interior Designers across the country to better
understand their needs, goals, awareness, perceptions and interests. We learned that lack of awareness
was a major problem for The Guild, The Dabbieri Collection,
and even The Guild’s member showrooms. We also learned
that there was overwhelming interest by the design
community in The Dabbieri Collection as well as The Guild’s
strategy to expand into additional flooring lines, such as
hardwoods, and offer a broader range of choices for style,
color, pattern and texture. Interviews with the interior
designers were videotaped and presented to the showroom
owners at The Guilds’ next annual conference. The resulting
six-minute video clip provided a compelling argument to
adopt the new strategy and support The Dabbieri Collection.
Based on findings from the brand audit, we then updated
brand positionings for both The Guild and The Dabbieri
Collection. The new positioning for The Dabbieri Collection
featured “the industry’s largest selection of designer-driven,
high-quality flooring products, so interior designers and luxury
consumers alike can create their own unique vision of style,
elegance and sophistication.” We additionally developed an
integrated brand communications strategy and designed a new website, brochure and other collateral
to reintroduce The Dabbieri Collection.
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2. 1/14/2014
CASE STUDIES
R. Jay Olson
Results
Although challenging to get quantifiable data from showroom owners, The Guild’s leadership believes
that the re-launch of The Dabbieri Collection brand was highly successful. The Dabbieri Collection now
features over 10,000 SKUs, including hardwood floors and area rugs, in addition to carpets. The line has
been successfully adopted and enthusiastically supported by a vast majority of The Guild’s member
showrooms. In spite of a challenging economic environment in general for luxury marketers in recent
years, The Guild has enjoyed healthy growth in sales, traffic and showroom membership.
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3. 1/14/2014
CASE STUDIES
R. Jay Olson
SoftwareONE Brand Positioning
Challenge
SoftwareONE, an international software licensing company based in Switzerland with $2.5 billion in
sales, 1,300 employees and operations in over 80 countries, was looking to refine its brand message to
better engage with business audiences here in the United States. The company turned to Quad/Graphics
Creative Solutions for recommendations that would not only create stronger relevance and resonance in
this market, but also ensure cohesive alignment with its global brand.
Solution
A comprehensive brand audit was conducted that examined the current state of SoftwareONE’s global
brand while identifying the local nuances in the U.S. The audit focused on understanding the
needs/drivers and decision priorities of SoftwareONE’s target audience, the company’s vision and
strategic focus, core values and brand personality, as well as its competitive advantages. SoftwareONE’s
expertise and singular focus on software licensing stood out as its strongest competitive advantage. This
also resonated with clients, because it gave them complete confidence that all of the complexities and
intricate details of software licensing would be expertly managed, along with an overarching strategic
focus on optimizing the value of their software licensing assets enterprise-wide. This direction was
incorporated as part of SoftwareONE’s new message strategy and an integrated brand communications
plan we developed to implement it.
Results
The new message, “ONE Focus – Software Licensing,” was adopted globally while regional differences in
service offerings, language and look and feel
were accounted for on the United States
version of SoftwareONE’s new website and
collateral. This new strategic message
platform helped bolster SoftwareONE’s
position in the marketplace and image as
the only service provider with an exclusive
focus on software licensing. SoftwareONE has since become the fastest growing Microsoft Licensing
Solution Partner (LSP) in the world.
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4. 1/14/2014
CASE STUDIES
R. Jay Olson
QuadSIP Brand Positioning
Challenge
Quad/Graphics was looking to expand its presence in the $2.3 billion special interest publishing industry.
A new business unit – the Special Interest Publications Group (aka QuadSIP) – was formed to serve the
unique needs of this growing market. While Quad/Graphics’ reputation for quality and innovation was
well established in its core markets – commercial long-run printing for catalogs and magazines –
awareness was low in this new arena. A brand positioning platform and market launch strategy needed
to be developed that would address the following objectives: (1) create awareness and educate
potential clients about QuadSIP’s unique capabilities and ROI advantages; (2) demonstrate that QuadSIP
understands the unique needs of small magazine publishers and is committed to serving them; (3)
leverage Quad/Graphics’ reputation for quality and innovation and establish QuadSIP as a leading brand.
Solution
An extensive brand audit was conducted, which included an industry-wide study to establish a baseline
measurement of awareness and perceptions. The study was also designed to increase understanding
about special interest publishers’ needs, challenges and priorities. The findings revealed that building a
high quality image was a top priority for SIP publishers and that lack of support from existing suppliers
was a chief concern. The new
value proposition that was
developed, therefore,
emphasized QuadSIP’s
commitment to “provide
personal care and attention,
while delivering high quality
standards and end-to-end
solutions that help small
publishers run more efficient and profitable operations.” A brand communications roadmap was
additionally developed to launch QuadSIP’s brand positioning platform and ensure a consistent voice
across all audience touchpoints. Internally, QuadSIP’s sales and customer service teams were trained to
effectively deliver the new value promise. A new web page, tradeshow booth, multichannel direct
marketing campaign, trade ads, newsletter and sales collateral we’re also created to build the brand
externally.
Results
When polled a year later, nearly half (48%) of all special interest publishers said that they were
somewhat or very familiar with QuadSIP, catapulting its status to become the second most recognized
printing brand within the segment. QuadSIP’s reputation for quality also received an agreement rating
of 78%. While “providing attention to the needs of small publishers” fell somewhat short of expectations
(i.e., an agreement rating of only around 40%), intense efforts were made operationally to strengthen
perceptions on this attribute and this helped boost QuadSIP’s rating as the top printer in customer
service the following year when our wave 3 industry survey was conducted. Additionally, QuadSIP was
ranked third by Google for searches using the keywords “special interest publishing” and its market
share grew to an estimated 15%, ranking it second highest amongst all printers in this segment. The
results confirmed that QuadSIP’s brand message was believable, its brand promise was being effectively
delivered and that its leadership position was already becoming well-established in this new market.
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5. 1/14/2014
CASE STUDIES
R. Jay Olson
QuadTech Repositioning
Challenge
QTI, a subsidiary of Quad/Graphics, was founded in the late 1970s as Quad’s technology arm. The
company designs, develops and manufactures a wide range of press controls that improve registration
and color saturation, identify defects and maximize press performance (through reduced waste, greater
efficiency and increased speed). In addition, QTI markets its technologies to other printers, which in
effect helps recoup R&D investments for its parent company. QTI planned to change its name to
QuadTech and rebrand to create a stronger visual connection to Quad/Graphics. So, it turned to
Quad/Graphics Creative Solutions for help to assess the upside potential and risks associated with these
changes, as well as to develop a differentiated brand positioning and integrated, multichannel
communication strategy to support its vision and global growth strategy.
Solution
A multi-phased audit was conducted that included in-depth interviews with key internal stakeholders,
focus groups with Quad/Graphics pressman and supervisors, and in-depth external interviews with key
audiences in eight countries, including OEMs and end-user customers and prospects. We learned that
QTI was well-known and highly respected across all audiences. It was perceived as technologically
advanced, innovative, highly responsive and an industry leader. QTI’s affiliation with Quad/Graphics was
also well known, the affiliation was largely found to be positive and downside risks to changing the
name to QuadTech were minimal. In fact, we learned that much was to be gained by linking the names
together and more strongly promoting the connection of these two highly regarded companies.
Reactions to alternative positioning directions also lead to the development of a new singled-minded
value proposition – “QuadTech is uniquely suited to help customers win because we grew up in printing”
– and a new tagline: “Our passion is your success.” Following development of QuadTech’s new strategic
brand platform, our focus quickly shifted to conceptual development and design execution to launch
QuadTech’s repositioning campaign at drupa in Dusseldorf, Germany, the world’s largest printing
technology tradeshow. All new rebranded materials needed to be produced within 60 days, including
QuadTech’s new brand guidelines, corporate identity, uniforms, website, ads, tradeshow exhibit,
training materials, sales collateral and more.
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6. 1/14/2014
CASE STUDIES
R. Jay Olson
Results
Visitors to the new exhibit and leads generated during the show both doubled vs. the previous drupa
event, and QuadTech received over $7 million in new product commitments. Feedback received from
visitors and QuadTech’s sales force showed strong resonance for the rebranding initiative. Sales jumped
23% the first year following the launch of QuadTech’s repositioning campaign. The company has since
continued to enjoy vibrant market share growth while maintaining its pricing strategy, in spite of deep
competitive discounting and an exceedingly challenging business climate. Continuing innovation and
brand energy, increased product acceptance and brand extensions in adjacent categories, such as
packaging, have greatly contributed to QuadTech’s increasing success as a global leader in the press
controls industry.
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7. 1/14/2014
CASE STUDIES
R. Jay Olson
Current Brand Revitalization Workshop
Challenge
Current USA Inc., located in Colorado Springs, CO is a direct marketer of
greeting cards, gift wrap and accessories, checks, stationery, home
decorating items and more. It has about 1,200 employees and operates
four separate brands, including Current (the flagship brand), Lillian
Vernon, Colorful Images and PaperDirect. While the Current brand had enjoyed a 30-year history of
successful growth, management was looking to create new brand energy and drive future growth in
three key areas: (1) increase wallet share from its existing customer base, which includes around
700,000 highly loyal female boomers (age 45-64), (2) acquire more boomers, and, longer term, (3)
broaden appeal to attract younger audiences (i.e., gen Xers and millennials).
Solution
A brand revitalization workshop was conducted with Current’s leadership team. Two major
opportunities were identified. First, while the printed catalog had served as the primary marketing
channel, its online channels (e-commerce website, pay-per-click
ad campaign and social media networks) offered some exciting
Brand Vision
opportunities to attract new audience segments and drive
“To inspire and enable people of
additional business. Furthermore, research showed that even
all ages to brighten the lives of
the vast majority of boomer’s now shop online at home and are
loved ones by bringing a smile to
their faces and creating
becoming increasingly connected. Second, while a strong brand
memorable moments.”
value message still needed to be communicated, the
opportunity existed to more effectively leverage its core catalog
as a marketing tool to bolster the true value of the Current brand without deep discounting. The lines
between Current’s sale and core catalogs had become increasingly blurred over the years due to the
need to appeal to its existing price conscience but very
loyal customer base. Input was also obtained during the
Revitalized Brand Value Proposition
workshop to develop a forward-looking and unifying
“Current makes shopping fun, easy
vision statement with flexibility to accommodate
and affordable for today’s active
Current’s needs for greater audience and channel
boomer women looking to express
their individuality and thoughtfulness
diversity. Fresh ideas and new strategies were revealed to
by finding those unexpected
spark deeper emotional intensity and attract new
treasures that create smiles and
audience segments, and a prioritized action plan was
warm the hearts of loved ones.”
developed to implement them. Lastly, Current’s value
proposition was revitalized to drive the look and feel, tone
and manner of the brand near-term and, thus, allow time for Current’s third growth strategy to unfold
longer-term.
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8. 1/14/2014
CASE STUDIES
R. Jay Olson
Results
The revitalized message was incorporated to make Current’s printed catalog and online channels more
inspirational, appealing and relevant. This involved a collaborative effort between Quad/Graphics
Creative Solutions, which created the new design
elements, such as new fonts, colors, backgrounds,
icons, etc., and Current’s internal team. Additionally,
action plan tactics identified during the workshop
have also been implemented, including (but not
limited to): acceleration of Current’s social media
engagement program, improved integration and
synergies between its website and catalog, and
broadening of categories online to appeal to more diverse audiences. The evolving strategic partnership
has lead to additional work sessions conducted by Quad/Graphics Creative Solutions and collaborative
design initiatives that have similarly been implemented to support Current’s sister brands.
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9. 1/14/2014
CASE STUDIES
R. Jay Olson
Tempt Brand Revitalization Workshop
Challenge
Tempt In-Store Productions, a subsidiary of Quad/Graphics, had recently completed a sales and
marketing strategy work session to support its three-year strategic business plan. One of the resulting
key action items identified was the need to redesign Tempt’s existing website to properly communicate
its brand message and ensure continuity across all of its marketing materials. To accomplish this, it was
important to first get Tempt’s leadership, corporate marketing and other key brand stakeholders on the
same page. Point-of-purchase advertising, defined as the provision of marketing strategies and tactics
executed within the retail store environment (including displays, signage, A/V networks, etc.), is a $20
billion fragmented industry with estimated annual sales growth in the 16%-19% range. To carve out a
strong and unique leadership position in this robust market, a unifying viewpoint was needed regarding
what the brand should stand for and how it should be branded. Tempt, founded just five years earlier,
had been acquired by Quad/Graphics, a world-renowned printer and multichannel integrator, providing
the horsepower for Tempt to execute at a much larger scale and become a prominent player globally.
Solution
Our discovery process revealed that top competitors’ messaging was largely feature-laden, nondifferentiating and uninspiring. It additionally became
apparent that Tempt’s bi-line (i.e., “In-Store Productions”),
Brand Purpose
was limiting. Tempt was interested in expanding its service
“To turn difficult challenges into
offering upstream from print production by including frontunexpected fresh visual
end services, such as insights and strategy, as well as to more
solutions during the path to
strongly emphasize its emerging creative/design capabilities.
purchase that drive action and
Furthermore, extended capabilities offered through
bring brands to life.”
Quad/Graphics provided exciting opportunities that could be
better leveraged, such as its client relationships, global platform, and products and services that extend
beyond the in-store space, such as retail inserts,
catalogs, direct mail, digital media, IPS (interactive
Brand Vision
print solutions), software solutions and more. Insights
“To become the pre-eminent leader and
learned during the brand revitalization work session
go-to resource globally for retailers and
additionally provided a solid foundation to: (1) define
CPG marketers seeking fresh visual
Tempt’s brand purpose and vision; (2) highlight the
solutions that WIN during the
consumer’s path to purchase.”
most important core values and personality
characteristics (from Quad’s DNA pool); (3) identify
specific fascination advantages that could be further enhanced to create stronger emotional intensity;
(4) revitalize Tempt’s brand value proposition.
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10. 1/14/2014
CASE STUDIES
R. Jay Olson
Results
Tempt’s revitalized positioning (see revitalized brand value proposition statement below) and two
additional key strategic branding recommendations were adopted. These included maintaining Tempt’s
endorsed-brand status near-term, and updating Tempt’s
Revitalized Brand Value Proposition
logo, typography and color palette to align them with the
new positioning direction. Maximum flexibility was also
Tempt – an innovative visual
solutions company – combines
provided for Tempt to sell across the continuum of Quad’s
unexpectedly fresh ideas and the
offering, build relationships with regional, national and
latest advancements in technology to
multichannel consumer brand companies, and develop a
create enriched, emotionallystrong market leadership position that is innovative,
engaging experiences that inspire and
differentiating and grounded in truth. Tempt’s new
move consumers to take action
positioning strategy is being implemented internally to
during the path to purchase, while
drive employee engagement and consistent delivery of the
bringing brands to life for retailers
and CPG marketers.”
brand promise, as well as externally through the redesign
of its website, social media networks, marketing collateral,
signage and corporate identity.
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11. CASE STUDIES
1/14/2014
R. Jay Olson
Creative Solutions Inbound Marketing
Challenge
Like so many other marketers, we struggled at first during our initial foray into the realm of social media.
Without an automated marketing solution as the hub, our social networking activities were largely
disconnected and ineffectual. We also lacked a comprehensive strategy driven by great content to not
only increase awareness for our brand and establish our credibility as thought leaders, but to also
generate leads and provide accountability through measurement and attribution of the social media
channel.
Solution
After exploring various automated marketing systems we decided to invest in HubSpot, an integrated
inbound marketing platform that provides a complete set of tools to:


Attract visitors to our website through blogging, social media and SEO
Nurture and convert leads through calls-to-action, landing pages, lead management, email,
marketing automation and analytics
We then defined the pain points, needs, motivations of our target audience; refined our brand message;
analyzed our existing content assets and identified our future content needs; formed a team of
approximately 15 subject matter experts (SMEs)
to help create compelling blog posts and
whitepapers. We additionally developed
an inbound marketing playbook with
clearly defined objectives, strategies and
goals; a six-month editorial calendar; top-,
middle- and bottom-of-the-funnel offers;
inbound paths for nurturing leads along the buying cycle; metrics and a
PURCHASE
systematized framework for analyzing and reporting changes in traffic,
leads and other ROI-based outcomes.
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Greg Norton
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Katie Jarvis
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ISP
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Wineinger
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AWARENESS
CONSIDERATION
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Sam Falbo
Jay Olson
Results
At the end of the first four months following implementation of our inbound marketing initiative, we
experienced a 36% uptick in total site traffic, a 22% increase in new visitors and an 18% change in traffic
generated by search engine referrals on a year-over-year (YOY) basis. We additionally saw a 62% YOY
jump in returning visitors as well as a 36% YOY improvement in pageviews. Since there were no changes
during this time period except for publishing two new blog posts per week and promoting them via
social media and email, the results indicate that our content has been an effective driver of site traffic
and return visitors. Lastly, and importantly, we enjoyed a 300% YOY increase in new contacts generated
through downloads of our whitepapers and videos.
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