How to Brand a Company in 45 days

By Paul Bridson

When Dan Doran came to Brainstorm, he was a guy with a lot on his plate. He had recently developed an ingenious new product line with the potential to revolutionize his company's future. To do it justice, he wanted to create and brand a entirely new division of his company. He also had to get it done fast because his most important trade show was coming up in less than six weeks. And he didn't want to just exhibit at the show; he wanted to dominate. 

He had a budget of $15,000 for:

• A new logo
• Branding message
• Tagline
• Brochure
• 20-foot trade show exhibit
• Trade show graphics

He figured he might be able to get another 10-foot pop-up to expand his existing display to 20 feet and graphics with enough left over for a brochure. Anything additional would be gravy.

Fortunately for Dan, at Brainstorm gravy is our specialty. We wanted him to look like he'd been in his new niche for years instead of weeks.

We recognized that the message and the "look" were the key priorities and got to work. Within two weeks we had laid the conceptual ground work and started work on the custom illustration that would be the foundation for the display and brochure. After doing preliminary estimates, we were sure that we could actually provide an entirely new 20-foot inline booth and graphics for nearly the same budget as adding 10 feet and re-skinning his old pop-up display.

There was enough money left over for the brochure and a juicy in-booth promotion we dreamed up together. We would create three stations for Dan to have i-Pads on which a brief interactive company presentation would be running. In order to register to win the i-Pad, a prospect had to watch the presentation and answer three easy questions.

Brainstorm got busy designing the presentation counters, the interactive i-Pad presentation and the custom web-based contest entry form. In the meantime, Dan had also been busy adding other things to his wish list that he wanted for the debut.
 
Long story short, we did all of what he wanted in less than six weeks for a budget of under $19,000. To recap, Dan got:

• A new logo
• Branding message and tagline
• A new 20-foot exhibit and graphics
• 500 brochures
• 1000 matching business cards
• A new website
• A hot in-booth promotion
• iPad demonstration counters
• Interactive iPad presentation
• Custom web-based form and reporting system
• Custom E-mail marketing platform
• 30 logo shirts
• Matching custom show badges

Click to view a letter from Dan
Here's a transcript of the message Dan Doran left us after the last day of his show: 
 
"Hey guys, Dan calling. Really had a good show. I want to thank you for everything. We got a bunch of good leads, and everyone was duly impressed. Again thanks for all your help. You can pat yourself on the back because I'm sure happy." 

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