ColorJar

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a co-founder and CEO of Rentalutations. We offer a platform that improves rental experience for do-it-yourself landlords and their tenants.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ColorJar?

We wanted to improve our brand messaging and brand identity, so we were looking for a company to help us with that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was a three-step process. The first phase was developing the brand foundation: we identified our business, our mission statement, user personas, and company values. That process helped us clarify why the brand exists.

During the second phase, we were developing the brand identity: we chose our name, colors, a logo, and other brand assets. The third phase was focused on putting all those assets together in a clear way and building brand expressions that resonated with the users we identified in phase one.

What is the team composition?

We had several people on our team, but we mostly worked with David (Gardner, Fonder and CEO, ColorJar).

How did you come to work with them?

They have a great reputation in the Chicago tech community. Besides, some of our investors and advisors recommended ColorJar to us. We met with several firms, but we felt most comfortable with ColorJar.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2017 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We received positive feedback from our internal team and our employee engagement has increased. The platform is not live yet, so we haven’t launched a brand either.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They did an excellent job and performed a project pre-mortem, addressing all the potential issues that could derail or hinder the project. They're great communicators and included us in discussions when needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very experienced and thoughtful. We provided a lot of feedback at every stage and they were very responsive to it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the vice president of marketing for a restaurant chain. We own, manage, and operate over 100 restaurants throughout the US. We have locations in Arizona, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Washington, DC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ColorJar?

We worked with another firm when we first launched the site in 2008. Our old website was outdated and very large, so we wanted to build a new one. We needed a partner who could redesign, improve it technically, and launch it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ColorJar is providing full-scope development for our WordPress site. Depending on the portion of our project, there are between five and ten people from ColorJar working on the site.

How did you come to work with ColorJar?

Someone on our team had a relationship with ColorJar’s founder, David Gardner. We were interested in working with a local company from Chicago that understood our restaurants and had possibly even dined in them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We had our initial talks with ColorJar at the end of 2015. The project started at the beginning of 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We plan to launch the first phase of the site in June 2017. The analytics behind it and the number of users accessing the site will be my main priorities for the project. The goal is to take the existing data from our current website and see some improved key performance indicators. We also need to make sure that the user experience is better. We will be focused on the backend data and will work with ColorJar on a continuous basis, making sure that the site is meeting everyone’s needs.

How did ColorJar perform from a project management standpoint?

Our current project manager is incredible. The start was a bit rocky because ColorJar’s manager didn’t push us as much as we’d have liked. ColorJar recognized this and changed our project manager. The person we’re working with now is excellent.

What did you find most impressive about ColorJar?

We appreciate how much ColorJar cares about us, our site, and our business. This has led to the positive relationship we have. They wanted to be an extension of our team and really be a part of the process. ColorJar dove in and immersed themselves in as much information as was possible. I found that to be impressive.

Are there any areas ColorJar could improve?

We are working with some very vocal partners on our side who are not necessarily technical people. ColorJar could have managed expectations a bit better with our partners, which came down to the project manager we were working with. We’ve learned a lesson and determined that we had to be strict with milestones and deadlines. There are many opinions in our organization, so I don’t completely fault ColorJar. It’s hard to please everyone. Once we regrouped and reset, the process became seamless.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We’ve created a digital marketplace for our clients to find prepackaged event experiences to entertain their corporate clients. What we’ve done is, we’ve communicated with venues to create these experiences in a prepackaged way. Within four or five clicks on our home page, you’ve got a fully vetted, completely structured, and engaging event experience that you don’t have to worry about.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the Marketing Director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with ColorJar?

We don’t tout ourselves as an event company. We are much more inclined to call ourselves a digital marketplace. ColorJar has done an incredible job in helping us really push that message to the forefront, both stylistically and through development on the back-end. We try and describe ourselves as a place where you can come transact and purchase this particular good. One of our biggest goals of partnering with ColorJar is to better build trust with the consumer and clearly communicate our value propositions, so that a new customer or client of ours has more of an inclination to go to our website and purchase an event, without having to call in or request more information.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

ColorJar is in the process of restructuring our entire home page. It is a huge undertaking, and it’s something they’ve done very well and have worked very diligently on. We gave them a very tight timeframe, and we’re quite close to completing our goal of having everything restructured. They’ve been able to take the things that we like to articulate on our home page, from aspirational content, to functional content and create a dynamic page that allows us to really articulate that we are a marketplace not event planners.

What was your process for selecting ColorJar with which to work?

They’ve been a partner of ours since our inception. They worked on our original website about a year and a half ago and did a great job so we wanted to bring them on for the restructuring of the website. This current project has been fast and furious; it’s come very quickly. They’ve been working on this particular project for three weeks, and they’ve been able to turn around a handful of edits, and really have delivered on their promise to have everything that we wanted in that particular timeframe. So, they’ve been very good with us, and to us, during the last few weeks.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

I don’t have a dollar amount for you but they have been working intensively during the last couple weeks to meet our turnaround goal.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

They have created a rigid timeline for what they can do, and when they expect to do it, and they have certainly delivered on their timeline to us. They have met the difficulty of creating this thing in a short time frame. So, in terms of a very minimum, meeting those requirements, they’ve been great during this time period.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

I would assume they tout themselves as a creative agency, and I think that we use that word pretty liberally. ColorJar, their founder, and the rest of the team there, are truly very unique, creative people who do an incredibly good job at not only ideating, but also helping guide the development of content, style, and product development. They are very good at listening, understanding these business problems we have, and then being able to act on a very strategic plan to accomplish our business needs.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

I don’t know of anything that really comes to mind that I would put in a negative or even constructive light. They’ve been really spot on the last few weeks.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our mission is to support independent artists and connect people through art. Right now, we’re doing that through artist-designed footwear, but we eventually think this platform will be relevant to other canvases.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m a senior manager of digital strategy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with ColorJar?

We had a huge performance issue with the website. We were open to different options when we partnered with ColorJar. We ended up going through a few different sessions with senior leadership on our team as well as with senior leaders of ColorJar to determine where it made the most sense for us to partner with them.

We have a lot of mobile traffic with relatively low conversion. Our goal was to increase conversion on tablet and on mobile, but we also did not want to take up too much bandwidth from our engineering team.

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting ColorJar with which to work?

We looked at a few other firms and we decided to partner with ColorJar because we felt it was a good culture fit, their company size was just right, and they were the agency that fit the model for what we were looking for in terms of having Magento experience.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Are you satisfied with their performance?

Overall, we are happy. Given the state of the code that they were handed, it wasn’t in the best form. It’s hard to quantify that. With any digital project, there can be some hiccups and snakes in the grass and we definitely had that. It wasn’t 100 percent perfect, but there were a lot of positive outcomes.

Is there anything unique about ColorJar that set them apart from other business partners?

I think that culturally, they're very friendly. They're very good at putting technical concepts in terms that are easy for anyone to understand. They were also great at managing the internal time and energy that was needed from our team.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

One thing to improve upon would be their scoping of the project. We had a little trouble with our final integration that I believe could have been foreseen with a more holistic view of the project from the start all the way to the finish line.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are HBK Engineering. We’re professional engineering services company that focuses on the utility industry.

What is your role at the company?

I am the vice president of operations for the Chicago office.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business goal were you trying to accomplish through partnership with ColorJar?

The goal was to create a better representation and branding of our services. We hadn’t updated our image or branding assets since 2008. We wanted a clear message on what the services we provided were and what our role in the engineering industry was.

SOLUTION

When did you begin partnering with ColorJar and is it an ongoing partnership?

It is an ongoing partnership. We brought ColorJar on in late 2013. We started the process by looking at what image we wanted to portray and the message that we wanted to communicate. That process took about two months and then we went on to the implementation process.

ColorJar was the only company that we worked with on our branding updates. They helped us to revamp our logo and it looks really good now. They also helped us with some of our Web development needs.

What was your process for selecting ColorJar with which to work?

There was not any official process. ColorJar gained a relationship with our owner through dealings with another company.

Can you provide an idea on the size of the project in dollars or personnel work hours?

The initial effort to design the look, feel, and website was about an eight-month process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Are there any metrics or statistics that you can share about ColorJar’s performance?

I think they performed very well. My company is in a very technical and specific industry. They helped us look at ourselves in a different way. The end result was very strong. It tells our story very well. They worked hard to gain an understanding for who we are and what image we wanted to project. They understood those things before they came to us with their solution. 

Is there anything unique or special about ColorJar compared to other companies with which you have partnered?

ColorJar was very accessible. It was easy to reach out to ColorJar and discuss things we wanted to see in a certain way. Their artistic design is really great. They have a solid understanding of what a professional services firm needs.

Is there anything constructive that you believe they could improve upon or that you would have them do differently?

If there was anything they could improve on it would be their content development. I think they could have spent a little more time with the subject matter experts and provide more of the copy based side of things as opposed to just the imagery and look.

BACKGROUND

Please give a brief description of your organization.

The company is All Terrain Productions, Inc. 

What is your role at the company?

I’m the creative director. I oversee the creative process innovation and implementation of not only print, but also a lot of our digital endeavors from websites to app development to global. The whole range of things to support the campaigns we’re working on. I bring in and assess vendors and partners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business goal or challenge you were trying to accomplish through partnership with ColorJar?

ColorJar has been a partner of All Terrain for probably five or six years. I don’t like to think of them as a vendor. The first project I brought them on for was a revamping of All Terrain’s website. We needed development help. I wanted to work with someone who would be able to work hand and hand with us to help design the website we were looking for. 

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting ColorJar with which to work? 

I considered three qualifications when I was first selecting a partner. I was looking for someone who could handle all of our coding needs. I was also looking for efficiencies in cost. Lastly, I was looking for a partner who could go beyond our coding and development needs and provide an overall strong brand strategy. Their attention to brand strategy was why we selected ColorJar over the other companies we were considering. 

Can you provide a dollar amount for the size of the work they’ve done for you?

We’ve had a variety of partnership sizes with ColorJar. We partnered and produced about 25 smaller ad-hoc apps with ColorJar. On the medium-sized range, we developed more apps with ColorJar that were more expensive and time intensive. At the highest end of projects was our website, and that was in the $50,000 range.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Did you have any metrics on their ability to perform?

The biggest metric for me is being on time. They were never late. That is the most important metric for me. Another one would be whether it works. They always made sure we had enough time for testing. A third would be the response time as you’re going through the project. That is a metric that changed through the years as ColorJar has gotten bigger. But, it’s gotten better. They now have more project managers and response time is very good now.

Is there anything unique about ColorJar that makes them stand out compared to the other business partners you have?

They think beyond the initial scope of the client’s project. They look into what they’re doing currently could be integrated with future initiatives of the client. They’re thinking about the overall strategy involved with their services and how it can best be maximized.

Is there anything that you believe ColorJar could improve upon or would have them do differently in the future?

The only piece of constructive criticism I have would be learning to market their agency as a strategy and thought leader. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Marketing Officer of Sofanya

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Sofanya is a beauty, wellness and wisdom brand that merges intellect with intuition and spirituality with science to create products and experiences to support your unique journey, helping you remember, connect, awaken and shine your best you.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ColorJar to accomplish?

• Identify a brand DNA
• Build a logo and brand guideline
• Develop packaging design

SOLUTION

How did you find ColorJar?

Referral

Why did you select ColorJar over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from ColorJar were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Phase 1: Work with the leadership of Sofanya to become immersed in the values, mission and vision of the brand through multiple meetings and strategy sessions; review top 5 competitors online presence including positioning and messaging in order to deliver a "top insights" deck that distills the information and helps directionally with brand development.

Phase 2: Define the brand personality and tone by selecting a brand archetype and associated character traits; begin visual aesthetic strategy by mapping the visual direction, finding exemplar brands from any category, defining the new brand visual strategy and defining the visual tone through mood boards and image direction. This results in a "brand persona" deck deliverable.

Phase 3: Logo design with and without color; visual system design including color palette, brand typography and and any other visual elements associated with logo. Deliverable is a new logo and identity system and folder with all design assets in various file formats.

Phase 4: Style guide development encompassing the "brand book" capturing all visual standards with deliverable being a style guide document for ongoing reference and all associated files including fonts.

Phase 5: Packaging design for launch products inclusive of front panels for vessels and boxes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Colorjar's task was especially challenging given that Sofanya is a start-up and therefore everything is being built from the ground-up. The Colorjar team really went above and beyond in the discovery phase especially to ensure that they received enough information to inform the brand strategy driving the brand design. They really hit it out of the park with the logo design almost at the first pass, which is phenomenal considering what they had to work from. They delivered all aspects of the scope of work as promised and really set the tone for the brand moving forward. They were receptive and responsive to feedback at every stage which helped ensure that projects kept moving in the right direction, with momentum.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The company founder ultimately would up running point on this account which was helpful in terms of getting what we needed at every stage of the project. They delivered on time and as promised and replied to all email inquiries in between meetings.

What was your primary form of communication with ColorJar?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Truly they are a team of talented individuals and that starts with the leadership. They bring so much combined wisdom from the marketing, brand and design worlds which finds its way into the quality of deliverables. Ultimately though it was their ability to listen, and listen deeply, that really set them apart from other agencies.

Are there any areas for improvement or something ColorJar could have done differently?

There are always areas for improvement on projects like these, however it was clear that ColorJar always acted with integrity and ultimately cared very deeply about their work and its impact.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a hairstyling products manufacturing company. Our organization was involved in launching the world’s first cordless hairdryer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ColorJar?

We were a startup company, so we needed a branding and marketing agency to help us with graphic design, social media marketing (SMM), branding, and content development. Basically, we needed comprehensive guidance through creating, launching, and marketing our new brand and product, so we hired ColorJar.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, ColorJar helped us with market research, identifying our target market and audience and looking at the brands already in it. From there, they helped us develop a branding strategy to enter that market and address our target audience.

On the branding side, ColorJar has helped us put together our brand guidelines, which include logos, color palettes, and other branding elements. As for graphic design, their scope has included product photography, packaging design, retail display design, flyer design, and branding collateral design, such as business cards. 

Using all those graphic and digital elements, ColorJar has helped us create our marketing and advertising campaigns. Their efforts include SMM on Facebook and Instagram, paid advertising, email marketing, SEO, and content marketing.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 5–10 people from ColorJar, including the creative director, a graphic designer, and some social media content developers.

How did you come to work with ColorJar?

We were referred to them. Ultimately, we chose them because they’re run by a very strong CEO who has assembled a very good team. Additionally, we saw that their work was top-notch.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019, and our relationship is ongoing. However, we’re not actively working on projects as much as before because our company had to pivot in a different direction.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

ColorJar has helped us develop the brand we now have, and we’ve received a lot of compliments on our packaging design and social media advertising. We even won an award for innovation at a trade show, and ColorJar was instrumental in helping us get that award.

How did ColorJar perform from a project management standpoint?

ColorJar’s project management is phenomenal; they deliver on time, stay on budget, and respond well to our needs. We communicate in many ways, including Zoom meetings, in-person meetings, Slack messages, and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

From the CEO down, ColorJar’s personal touch is impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m satisfied with the project overall.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Call them right away!