Case Study
Consulting Firm Rebrand and Thought Leadership Drives 22% Growth
Marketing Strategy
Branding
Thought Leadership
Content and Creative
A management consulting firm that helps large, complex companies realize sustained performance improvement by elevating the way they serve their customers and the way their employees work together.
The Situation: A management consulting firm stuck in the doldrums
After a decade and a half of success, Navigate’s revenue growth had slowed. They knew it was time to do some deep thinking on how to spark the next phase of expansion. The partners took a good, hard look at every aspect of the business—and knew that part of the solution would be to up their marketing game.
We established from the jump that the goal was to be extremely targeted—like most professional services firms, they didn’t need to find their next 100 clients; they needed to find their next 10. We also agreed on the value of deepening their existing client relationships to secure new projects and drive revenue.
“To reach our very busy, very high-level buyer, we need high-quality, compelling content that both makes our prospects think in a different way and creates a level of faith that we can do the work they need,” said Navigate CMO Heidi White.
The Complication: Launching a new brand in the teeth of a pandemic
Navigate hired us at the tail end of 2019, and just as we were about ready to launch their new brand, Covid 19 hit. If you remember back to those crazy days, business screeched to a halt. No one knew how to move forward, or whether to move forward. This once-in-a-lifetime level of uncertainty caused us to recalibrate the rollout of the new Navigate brand, but in Q2 of 2020 we helped Navigate step boldly into their new identity.
The Solution: Articulating the Navigate brand with confidence
We started with Articulation and Alignment—refining the Navigate brand story and messaging and building the go-to-market plan. We walked in without any preconceived notions and listened to what they said and how they said it. We sat in on strategic business discussions.
We asked questions. Lots of questions. We dived into reviewing their existing materials and researching the competition and the broader industry context. We poked and prodded, challenged assumptions and bounced around ideas.
The result was a new brand story, a new visual brand and identity, a new thought leadership-oriented website … all in all, a renewed confidence and credibility presented to the marketplace.
Obviously, this was merely the start. There was still much work to be done.
We implemented a modified account-based marketing (ABM) strategy, focusing on creating thought leadership content specifically written and designed for high-value targets. We worked side-by-side with Navigate’s subject matter experts to gain insight into the conversations they were having and what the “Nav POV” was on key topics like operating model design, the intersection of customer and employee experience, remote work (thanks, Covid!), and the importance of delivering customer value by embracing rapidly evolving technological advancements.
The Result: Brand awareness and growth
In the first 18 months, the Navigate team embraced thought leadership and changed internal business development behavior—paving the way for significant growth. Marketing tracked thoughtful shares, especially by the firm’s partners, and Navigate exceeded the goals they set.
They dramatically increased the percentage of new business pursuits and deals won that included the use of content marketing. Thanks to this customized ABM focus, as well as some other business changes, the company reignited significant growth—securing 22% revenue growth in the year following the new brand launch.
Website Design and Development
Visual Brand
