The ChallenGE
Behringer, a 30-year-old commercial real-estate firm, needed a fresh start after enduring a tremendous amount of brand damage amid the financial crisis. Instead of merely slapping a fresh coat of paint on the company, Behringer's ownership group threw the baby out with the bathwater and decided to start from square one.
As the VP of marketing, my in-house marketing team and I were charged with the monumental task of birthing a new brand—which meant formulating a new name, brand identity, and value proposition—in under six months. Not only this, but our team needed to design, develop, and launch a new customer-facing website in tandem with a nationwide, multi-channel advertising and public relations campaign.
Importantly, we'd also need to win the hearts and minds of long-time Behringer employees who'd been with the company through thick and thin and were apprehensive of change. If we were to be successful, we'd need to regularly communicate our strategy and tactics to our executive leadership team, whose buy-in was critical to enrolling the rest of the firm in the journey ahead. My role was to shepherd our multi-disciplinary team through this adventure.
STRATEGY
& TACTICS
Our strategy was essentially three-fold:
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Create the brand
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Devise and execute a go-to-market strategy
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Support the brand through various sales-support marketing tactics
During this time, our product team worked hard to re-tool our investment line-up, and it became apparent that our new firm would essentially serve as an access point, where our customers (financial advisors) could access not only high-performing financial products, but also market insights, analysis, and continuing education. This idea eventually evolved into our value proposition as brand began to take shape.
Next, we needed a new name. We pitched the executive team on the name Provasi—derived from the Greek word for “access”—and immediately had a winner. With the trademark secured, it was up to our creative team to design a new logo, website, and a full-suite of marketing, sales, and educational collateral, including videos, white-papers, and product brochures.
Proactively, we also needed to ensure our efforts would make a big splash with our core audience. I led a nationwide advertising and brand awareness campaign ahead of our launch, which was executed via an omni-channel strategy of paid, earned, owned, and shared media.
In addition to all print and digital advertising, I oversaw the execution of our social media strategy and led key executives on a public relations and media tour, where we met with editors at Bloomberg and other trade publications. Our efforts yielded positive results: our CEO appeared on the cover of Asset TV Review Magazine, and one of tweets was referenced in a story by U.S. News and World Reports that appeared on Yahoo News.
RESULTS
On October 5, 2015, Provasi was unveiled to the world. For the next three years, our marketing team continued to support sales operations through a regular series of conferences, webinars, and live-events. Ultimately, we delivered on our mission: we brought a new brand to market and ensured that even the most cynical of critics understood that we were an entirely new entity. When our CMO departed the firm, I was promoted to the executive leadership team where I continued to guide the marketing and creative teams to deliver on our brand promise.
In March 2018, the company had raised $300M in capital investment from 22K new investors. Due to our visible success, we attracted the attention of much larger, more established firms. Ultimately, Provasi was acquired by Destra Capital, based in New York City—a bittersweet ending to one of the most challenging and rewarding endeavors of my career.