Case Studies

Company/Client: LocalTel Communications

Reorganizing, Re-branding and Executing all marketing to the next level!

LocalTel Communication is a rapidly growing, increasingly diversified telecommunications/technology company. I had done work for LocalTel for years and have had a good working relationship. The company grew from a four-man Computerland franchise in the late 1980s to four years ago it was a Telecom company with 65 employees that offered Telephone, Internet, Television, and Networking services to a three-county area.

The Problem

Prior to hiring me, they had no central marketing department. Their marketing, advertising, web, and email marketing, duties spread out to various people in various departments and their social media presence was literally nonexistent. This led to a disjointed branding message and all too often good opportunities were being missed.

The Solution

I was hired as the Marketing and New Media Director. The branding, marketing, and communications for all divisions were centralized under my department. After I came on board the company added two more divisions (wireless Internet and security systems and services) as well as another company (SolelyOn Broadcasting – NCWLIFE Channel) and grew to over 120 employees.

When I started their branding was all over the map and their visual ID and web presence were disjointed slow and out of date. I'm pleased to say that working closely with ownership and other departments huge strides were made in achieving a leadership role in the product and service category in the region. Here’s an overview of some of the work I did during my employment there:

• Redesigned logo. Keeping “legacy” feel but updated the design and made it much more effective for presentation in all media.
• Developed a solid branding program that covers all outward and inward-facing communications.
• Named, designed logo, and marketing materials for new wireless Internet division – SkyFi
• Designed logo and marketing materials for new commercial and residential security division – Guardian Security
• Redesigned the company fleet of vehicles, these 24 plus "rolling billboards" put forward an attractive consistent message to the region.
• Redesigned and developed company web site. Moved from a cumbersome, slow, content management system that had serious SEO issues to a responsive Bootstrap framework / PHP / MySQL based site.
• Designed logo and branding for new OTA Broadcast TV station NCWLIFE channel.
• Set up and trained staff on Wordpress content management system for NCWLIFE.com
• Set up a Social Media program and trained staff to gain maximum exposure and impact.
• Designed logo, marketing materials, and web site for their Subsidiary broadcasting company – SlolelyOn Broadcasting LLC.
• Rapidly increased on-line effectiveness tracking and adjusting content and presentation based on Google Analytics and Social Media tracking tools.

The Results:

The company experienced phenomenal growth over the five years I worked there. LocalTel has a solid, stable, effective brand that represents its good reputation and presents a consistent "voice" for the company to the region. By consolidating the marketing, planning, and budgeting in one department not only is the messaging more consistent and the advertising more effective but there were significant cost savings due to better planning, and execution.
I left LocalTel on exceptionally good terms and moved to Florida. Stellar references are available on request.

Email Me, or call: 509.630.3510

Example newspaper ad and product logos

Email Me, or call: 509.630.3510

Company/Client: Stemilt Growers

Bringing an Apple Industry Giant into the Digital Marketing Age!

Stemilt Growers is a family-owned tree fruit growing, packing and shipping company based in Wenatchee, Washington. Stemilt is the largest fresh market sweet cherry shipper in the world, and one of the nation's largest grower-packer-shippers of apples, pears, cherries, and stone fruit. Its signature apple varieties include Piñata, Honeycrisp, Gala, and Pink Lady. The company is also a leader in organic fruit production, producing 26% of Washington's organic apples and 32% of the Pacific Northwest's organic pears. The company ships over 20 million boxes of fruit a year and employs over 1,500 people full-time.

The Problem

The marketing management at Stemilt recognized that the tree fruit industry tended to be at “the bleeding edge of obsolescence” when it came to the use of new technology in their marketing efforts. Their web site and content management system was cumbersome and difficult to keep current and was quite SEO challenged.  Stemilt marketing was primarily focused on B2B, their customers being retailers, but they wanted a way to better reach the end consumers to drive demand for their product. They had attended several of my Social Media seminars and knew they had to get a handle on social marketing but lacked the experience internally to do so.

The Solution

Stemilt contracted me to update their web site and guide them on moving into the social media space.

Web Site: At the time most CMS applications were too large, complex and costly or too “light weight” or inflexible in design. The solution was to develop a CMS system using a combination of database driven content and easily updated static HTML pages. I developed the site using ColdFusion, the result was a site that gave them the control they needed and the ability to manage their web site in house. I also trained the staff in charge of content on SEO best practices to be sure the content the developed would assure them the best possible indexing in Google, Bing and others. The CMS system I developed also made it much easier to track their web traffic via Google analytics giving them much better insight on the consumer reaction to the content they were producing.

Social media:  We set up a Facebook page as well as a twitter account and trained the selected staff members to monitor post and interact with the on-line community. We also created a Wordpress Blog that allowed them to share information that was more consumer focused.

The Results:

Web Site: The CMS I developed and deployed for them brought their web site to the next level and the focus on SEO had rapid, positive results on their Search Engine ranking as well as site traffic.  By watching the analytic data on the site we were able to make adjustments to content and structure to make the site a far more effective communications tool for both their B2B customers and the end consumer as well.
*Update note on this project: After using the system that I built for them for several years they have now moved to Wordpress as their primary CMS as well as their blog application. Wordpress has come a VERY long was in recent years and has become a viable option for web site CMS! Many of the web sites I work on now are WordPress based.

Social Media marketing:  Stemilt effectively grasped and I’m pleased to say fully embraced social media (not a common occurrence in their industry at this time) and quickly established themselves as the leading company in the Tree Fruit industry in the social media space.  Stemilt Growers marketing team was a great team of folks to work with and it was a pleasure to have been instrumental in their progress to fully utilizing the web in their ongoing success and sustaining a leadership role in the industry.

Email Me, or call: 509.630.3510

Company: Application Dynamics Inc

Traditional and Digital Marketing Consulting, and eCommerce Software world wide!

Cartweaver became one of the most popular shopping cart applications for the Macromedia and then Adobe Dreamweaver Development communities with thousands of users in 11 countries.
I owned the company, managed the development teams, managed and participated in on-line support for the user base, and managed the marketing. Part of the marketing relied heavily on the Macromedia Newsgroups and later the Adobe user groups. These on-line communities were “Social Media” before it was given that name. I also spoke at numerous web developer conferences including CF United in Washington DC, Powered By Detroit in Detroit, DevCon in Orlando and later in Las Vegas.  I saw the value of and effectively used “Relationship Marketing” and “Social Media” long before those terms were coined.

Application Dynamics also offered web development as well as marketing advertising and social media consulting to companies of all sizes throughout the Northwest and beyond.

A brief client list is:

• Adobe: Consult on Customer Forum UI design
• Washington Apple Commission: Marketing materials design and web site design
• Stemilt Growers: Web development Social Media consulting
• Washington State Wine Commission, Auction of Washington Wines:  Web site design and development Social Media consulting
• Cascade Valley Wine Country: Logo design and branding, web site, social media consulting
• Mack’s Lures: Product packaging redesign, web site eCommerce
• FibroCorp:  Logo, branding & web site design and development
• Highlander Golf Course:  Social Media training & consulting

Many other examples and details of clients I served at Application Dynamics are available on request.

Email Me, or call: 509.630.3510

Company: Get Fit Foods

Paradigm shift for Washington Apple Industry and largest organized promotion in history.

My position: Digital Marketing Specialist from 2004 to 2007
Get Fit Foods created the paradigm shift in apple marketing from a dessert and snack orientation to an All American Health Food. National campaigns were developed and executed in all 50 states with participation by every major conventional grocer.  The flagship promotion the "Three Apple A Day Plan" was the single largest national ad campaign the the Washington Apple Industry's hi story and was picked up and endorsed by Gold's Gym and other national Gym franchises making it a huge cross category success! Unique apple products were also developed and introduced including grape flavored whole apples to per-packaged flavored sliced apples. The “AppleSweets” were introduced during our National Treasure campaign with Buena Vista and Touchstone Picture’s National Treasure movie, starring Nicolas Cage, and were used in retail marketing with Disney’s Chicken Little.

• Graphic design of collateral materials
• Marketing materials design and web site design
• Logo design and branding, web site, social media consulting
• Product Packaging Design, production oversight and execution
• Working with vendors for in-store materials and campaign execution at retail level

For more information on my role in this exciting chapter in the Washington State Apple Industry...

Email Me, or call: 509.630.3510