Strabo Case Study
Brand Consulting - Brand Development - Website Development - Collateral Design
Strabo went from being a startup solo-preneurship to an established brand in the business leadership consulting world.
"I could not be happier with the collaboration and creativity during the consulting process. I highly recommend the team at Resound. They helped create my Brand story, logo, and now website. As I found out trying to do it myself, its not the information in the site but rather the story it tells. If you are struggling with telling your story in a way that you are satisfied with, I highly recommend calling Resound."
Classics Meets Business Wizardry
After sixteen years of leading teams in the credit card lending and inventory management departments at Chase Bank, Albert Loveland had the experience, the people-skills and the passion for making a solo leap into business leadership consulting.
With that, the world said hello to ‘21 Days Consulting,’ a business leadership organization manned by one brainy, determined solopreneur.
As his own one-man consulting firm, Al brought everything to the table. Financial and industry-specific knowledge, workforce and leadership experience, problem solving, growth strategy—clients quickly realized that they’d found the real deal in a warm, approachable, straightforward and genuinely insightful consulting partner.
But with an increasingly busy schedule, full of meetings and conversations centered on his clients’ success, Al realized that he needed someone looking out for his.
Al had his philosophy down pat—both literally, with his love of classics and history, but also in his rock solid approach to strategic growth and business leadership. And yet his brand expression and brand name didn’t seem like they were keeping up with him.
Consulting a Consultant
Through a referral from a colleague in the MAC6 coworking space where he kept his office, Al reached out to the Resound team, initiating a splendid and unique partnership, one with a local branding agency consulting a consultant.
From the start, and with another client so close to Resound’s office that he could walk over anytime, we hit it off with Al. Realizing this was a chance to come alongside a sophisticated, knowledgeable and seriously driven solopreneur, we initiated a partial rebrand and a full overhaul of Al’s visual logo, name, and website.
While there’s nothing we love better than heading out for a full branding workshop, coming alongside someone who knew what he was doing and already had a strong vision allowed us to flex our own muscles as brand strategy and brand expression consultants. Ultimately, we developed a close, working relationship with Al that gave us the chance to present him, his experience, and his vision to the world in a compelling way.
Strabo’s New Start
Guiding from the sidelines like a basketball coach—or more accurately, from the rooms in our office where Al frequently dropped in for five minute conversations with our CEO Mike Jones—we realized that some of Al’s unique interests were actually tremendous strengths. And ones that many a marketing team would probably overlook.
We knew Al loved classics. Greek mythology, 300 Spartans, the School of Athens—any mention of history or philosophy and Al’s face would light up.
Our own lightbulb moment was when we realized that Al’s knowledge, experience and leadership principles, (with a straightforward model that divided into ‘Four P’s’) reflected and came from his love of philosophy and history. Rather than making the mistake of trying to dumb down something remarkable, or worrying that going with classics and Greek philosophers might make someone look too eggheaded, we riffed on Al’s interests… and the results confirmed our impression that we didn’t need to build from scratch.
With the basis for a solid brand consulting partnership we had everything we needed to walk Al through a visual rebrand… to make him look even more remarkable.
Origins to Optics
Starting with the brand’s name, Strabo, (the original Strabo was a Greek philosopher who traveled all over the Mediterranean and impressed the Roman conquerors who modeled much of their own culture on ancient Greece), we made Al’s classic vibe an instrumental part of his firm’s brand expression.
Strabo himself, along with his gnarly, flowing beard, became Al’s new logo. The masthead on a clean, trim, purple and gold website that we filled with clever nods to the classics.
The Power of Proximity
Over the visual rebrand, Mike and Al continued their short, five-minute conversations, and our team learned that one of the best services we could offer was simply being a decent sounding board for Al’s questions, ideas, suggestions, and concerns. We validated, heard him out, and gave him our best feedback on whatever he asked for… and Al’s eagerness to talk with us made the partnership blossom. The walking-distance proximity gave us, and Al, the flexible luxury of chatting about his brand and the exciting places it was going… almost anytime.
This also naturally allowed us the opportunities to help Strabo establish their web presence and put together one of Al's most valuable tools as a networking consultant: his business card.
Invest in Where You Live
It’s always a treat when location brings us a wonderful client and the chance for a new consulting approach. With Tempe, and its local culture playing a huge role in our company, along with Al’s consulting business, the common ground didn’t disappoint.
And with his new website, company name, not to mention a brand expression that capitalizes on his eccentric love of knowledge, history and classics, Al continues to attract and consult clients that see how remarkable he really is.