Hanson Design And Brand Tool Box Develop Powerful New Brand Presence For Sterling Capital Management
NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- New brand strategy and distinctive digital presence will accelerate the growth trend of Sterling Capital Management's core business segments and establish a strong national brand presence to boost its ability to substantially grow their assets under management, a key driver of profitability.
The Challenge: Sterling Capital Management, a growing financial services company, needed a robust brand strategy that clearly defined the authentic, distinctive qualities that have been at the core of its long-standing track record of success. Sophisticated design management techniques and powerful digital strategies would be the key to providing the brand strategy with the necessary traction to lead the charge in expanding Sterling Capital Management's emerging mutual funds business.
The Approach: A Brand Tool Box consulting team worked with Sterling Capital Management's senior leadership team to define a brand strategy that clearly articulated the authentic, proven qualities that drove the firm's past successes. The design and digital strategy teams at Hanson Design used this brand strategy as a platform to create a compelling new corporate identity and extended it into a broad portfolio of digital and traditional tactics to project a distinctive, relevant brand presence.
The Result: The team launched sterling-capital.com and sterlingcapitalfunds.com – a mobile-friendly online resource hub for both institutions and advisors that clearly branded Sterling Capital as a growing national asset management firm. Launched April 2015.
"The stakeholder reaction to the new brand identity and the website user experience has been very positive," says Gil Hanson, CDO of Hanson Design. Sterling Capital now has an ideal digital foundation with which they can grow their offerings and services, determine future client needs, and expand the resources that can make Sterling Capital Management's clients more successful."
Sterling Capital's senior management gave Hanson and Brand Tool Box complete access to their cross-functional teams, so they could:
- Define and articulate Sterling Capital's internal and client-facing brand ethos,
- Create a new brand positioning: One of the most highly regarded investment advisors, whose partnering style and entrepreneurial spirit are rewarded with long-term client loyalty,
- Transform Sterling Capital's brand identity to be more culturally aligned to the firm and its positioning,
- Create a new web presence to help investors and financial advisors serve their clients more efficiently, and with greater insight.
With a consistent, distinctive voice and clear navigation, the new websites inform Sterling Capital's user communities, and make good on the Sterling Capital brand promise: Driven to Deliver What Matters Most to Our Clients.
"There was little doubt that a strong brand resided inside Sterling Capital Management. It was evident in their cultural norms and the long track record of success," says Karl D. Speak, Principal and Founder of Brand Tool Box. "By clearly articulating the authentic qualities in ways that were distinctive, relevant and consistent we created a powerful, concise Brand Platform that led to the great design and digital work that followed."
"It was an exciting challenge to energize and help reinvent a complex financial services company's brand," Hanson adds. "Working with Brand Tool Box, we aligned Sterling Capital's brand with its core brand promise—which led to a new vision and messaging that rings true both internally and with their clients and sales teams."
Hanson's brand development work for Sterling Capital Management included:
- An extensive Needs Assessment, and multiple discovery sessions with senior management and cross-functional operation teams
- A competitive audit and online survey that revealed opportunities for creating competitive differentiation
- A 30-page Strategic Plan & Requirements document that analyzed the market situation and provided a detailed a roadmap for design and development
- Creation of a new brand mission, value proposition, and identity, including a brand logo, messaging and 40-page style guide that included a family of new sub-brands, customer-centric web tools, and suite of marketing materials.
Founded in 1970, Sterling Capital Management is a group of more than 100 seasoned investment professionals who manage more than $49 billion (as of 3/31/15) for clients in 40 states and 9 countries. It is an independently managed firm backed by BB&T Corporation—one of the largest and most respected financial services institutions in the country—and benefits from BB&T's resources, financial stability and support.
Hanson Design (hansondesign.com) specializes in developing integrated brand marketing for a wide range of global clients, including: American Express, Pernod Ricard US, Clearwater Paper, Colgate-Palmolive, JPMorganChase, Radian, and USAA.
Brand Tool Box has over 30 years of experience working with some of the best brands in the world to define their brand strategy and use their propitiatory internal brand-building programs to actively engage employees in consistently delivering on the promise of a brand. Some of Brand Tool Box's clients include American Express, BASF, BMW, Cargill, AgStar Financial Services, CenterPoint Energy, Honeywell, Land O Lakes, Medtronic, The Scotts Company, Stanford University Medical Center, Target, Terex, Thomson Reuters, The Wall Street Journal.
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151021/279069
SOURCE Hanson Design
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