You’ve Got a Story To Tell
Overview
Outskirts Press is a U.S.-based expert in publishing. They consistently rank #1 in top consumer reviews for their outstanding customer service, affordable pricing, and industry-leading royalties for authors.
The company wanted a fresh brand to replace their outdated one — a brand that would more effectively communicate their expertise in the publishing industry. Outskirts Press sought out the branding experience of MASONKELLY.
The Problem
Our expert team quickly realized that Outskirts Press had deeper needs than a simple brand revamp. In the discovery process with the Outskirts Press Executive Director, MASONKELLY learned that the director felt the business was missing out on prospective authors but didn’t really know why it was happening.
When clients hire a marketing firm, they often want that firm to produce immediate results. After all, the clock is ticking. However, without any conversations to uncover deeper, more fundamental issues, long-term fixes can never be realized — the short-term project acts as a bandage, but the illness is never cured.
We also found that the marketing team stood tall when developing brand messaging and customer wellness communications. But when it came to being an engine to fuel sales— lead generation, event marketing, and social media— the organization and its sales team lacked confidence in their marketers.
Extensive experience across several industries has given Kimberley eagle eyes to spot riffs between a company’s marketing and sales teams. For her, this problem does not really represent a red flag because MASONKELLY is adept at solving these types of process problems and team functionality issues that are typically disguised as marketing issues. In this case, the real issue wasn’t marketing — it was team confidence, and Kimberley spotted it almost immediately.
Solution
MASONKELLY is well-versed in brand development, and we began to develop a new brand designed to communicate Outskirts Press’s exceptional design, printing, publishing, distribution, and book marketing capabilities.
The engagement began like any traditional marketing engagement would — with our team working on a single project.
But MASONKELLY is no ordinary marketing firm. We have years of experience working on multifaceted issues, right alongside our clients, and right inside the client’s company – where all the action is.
Our expert team quickly realized that Outskirts Press had deeper needs than a simple brand revamp. In the discovery process with the Outskirts Press Executive Director, MASONKELLY learned that the director felt the business was missing out on prospective authors but didn’t really know why it was happening.
When clients hire a marketing firm, they often want that firm to produce immediate results. After all, the clock is ticking. However, without any conversations to uncover deeper, more fundamental issues, long-term fixes can never be realized — the short-term project acts as a bandage, but the illness is never cured.
Our MASONKELLY process is different. We do engagements rather than single projects. We provide long-term strategy over short-term gain. We develop a methodical game plan rather than chucking a Hail Mary.
We do what other marketing teams simply don’t do. We learn your business from the inside out, and we develop a much deeper understanding than any traditional marketing agency ever would. We stay with you through the entire process.
MASONKELLY follows a step-by-step recipe to maximize value for our clients. Part of this strategy is employing best practices like Lean Six Sigma and Kaizen to solve the problem the client hired us to solve. In fact, we always solve the problem — but our clients are often surprised at the underlying reasons for the issue at hand.
In the case of Outskirts Press, their problems were not solely attributed to the outdated brand. We took a radically different approach than a traditional marketing firm would by learning the entire process from an author’s perspective.
As MASONKELLY learned more about Outskirts’ business processes, our thorough due diligence showed that confusing product messaging and author dissatisfaction were keeping the company from earning repeat author business. In short, we helped Outskirts Press understand how consumers perceived them in the marketplace.
Looking through a different lens really sheds light on a situation, and seeing their company from the author’s point of view made a world of difference to Outskirts Press.
MASONKELLY’s customer survey results showed Outskirts what authors really thought of them. In some areas, Outskirts thought they were delivering superior service, so they were surprised at the results. We also benchmarked the competition to show Outskirts how they stacked up.
Altogether, MASONKELLY implemented a whole new brand strategy with brand guidelines, fixed outdated messaging, implemented a completely new technology stack, and redesigned their entire sales and marketing process — all to provide Outskirts Press with the tools they would need to be successful well into the future.
Results:
The authors were happy, so Outskirts Press was happy. Recurring authors grew by leaps and bounds. Sometimes, the client felt we might be veering too far into “off-limits” areas, but our “color outside the lines” problem-solving and discovery process resulted in a modified message to communicate Outskirts’ true expertise.
By really understanding the author’s perspective, we were able to give this client extraordinary, sustainable results. The client was thoroughly pleased and commissioned MASONKELLY for several follow-on engagements.
Prior to the rebranding, authors (insert main pain point here) — after MASONKELLY’s strategy Outskirts Press authors experienced (insert improvement here). Outskirts Press was thrilled—and so were the authors they serve.
“This was exactly what we needed. We were initially completely overwhelmed, but we knew this is right and we know MASONKELLY did the right things. They had a fresh perspective, were extremely thorough and exceedingly professional!”
Kelly Schuknecht
Chief Operating Officer Outskirts Press
This is How We Do It
CEOs, Sales Teams, and Marketing Departments, in both the private sector and government agencies, call on us to help unlock their brand’s potential and unleash business performance so they can rise above their competition.