CASE STUDY: Charles Mann Enterprises Family of Brands
Creating a Brand Family to Reach Multiple Markets
How we helped Charles Mann Enterprises create a brand family to reach multiple markets.
Client: Charles Mann Enterprises
Executive Summary
Charles Mann Enterprises, a minority and woman-owned Certified Business Enterprise that serves clients in both the private and public sectors, wanted to position itself to reach a new audience.
Our team came in, did extensive research, and found that the best way forward was to create a family of brands optimized to reach their new and existing audiences. We then set out to build all of the brand assets for each brand—website, social media presence, sales tools, and stationary.
GOALS
Reach a new audience
Reposition away from being seen as a broker
RESULTS
We successfully positioned the client for a new audience and optimized them for their existing audience.
DELIVERABLES
2 Brands
3 Websites
3 Social Media Presences
3 sets of Sales & Marketing Tools
Background
Charles Mann Enterprises (CME) is a Washington, D.C.-based business enterprise serving public and private clients across the United States.
Charles Mann Enterprises came to us for help positioning themselves to reach members of the billion-dollar roundtable, a sector they wanted to grow into as an organization.
The How
DISCOVERY
Before doing anything, we first had to understand Charles Mann Enterprises and its audiences—current and new.
Our research involved looking at the internal and external forces to understand the current and new audiences. As part of our research process, we conducted a survey and interviews. Through this process, we found that the current and new audiences had different needs and values.
Their current audience was located in the D.C. metro area, valued availability and price. Whereas their new audience was national and sought expertise and value. The only common thread between the audiences was the value put on Charles Mann’s name. The findings from our discovery lead us to the recommendation that a brand family should be developed.
PUTTING IT INTO ACTION
Brand Family Development
We started by segmenting our audience by their value/service groups to create two new brands—Charles Mann Contractors for construction supplies and Charles Mann Partners for professional services. Then we created positioning statements and messaging documents for each new brand.
Once the brand names had been created and the messaging was clear. We started to work on the visual identities for each. The brands share common typography and tone but separate iconography, photography, and colors.
Websites
We then went to work on the websites. We created an e-commerce site for Charles Mann Contractors (CMC) so that users could quickly attain whether CMC had a product—answering one of their key questions. Whereas, for Charles Mann Partners, we created a brochure site that showed off expertise. Lastly, we revamped the Charles Mann Enterprises website to direct current and new traffic to the new websites.
Sales & Marketing Tools
Lastly, we created each brand’s business cards, stationery, and PPT templates.
The Results
Once we had successfully built the brand family, their brand was optimized to create better results for their current audience and enabled them to move into a new audience. CME achieved its goal of repositioning and reaching a new audience.
Where Are They Now
As a result of our working together, Charles Mann Contractors and Charles Mann Partners have been very successful. The CME brand family has grown to include a new 501(c) 3 non-profit called Charles Mann Academy which we are working on.