Our Process
There are brand stories that are like a stroll in the forest – entertaining, but they don’t really get you anywhere. There are stories that tell you everything you need to know but leave you cold. And then there are stories that are both strategic and significant. Those are the stories we write and send out into the world – the ones that build relationships, change perceptions and advance your business. Here’s how we do it.
Search
How well do you really know your customers or communities?
We’re not a research organization, but we’re an organization that does research very well, wading fearlessly into the rivers of information surrounding us. We immerse ourselves in your world, touching it from every angle. And we look for many perspectives. Resonance principal Chris Fair has authored research studies on subjects as diverse as outdoor apparel, youth financial literacy, legal services, vacation homes and affluent travel & leisure. So whether your constituents are consumers or supply chain partners, we can find clues to their makeup and motivations and draw a more vivid profile of their wants and needs. We gather intelligence from everywhere – especially from the people who will be engaging and interacting with your brand or organization.
We know that research can be a blunt weapon if not created and used wisely. We hone questions to find out what really connects people to ideas, places and things – what the emotions are behind their decisions and their positions. The insights that emerge translate into information that effectively frames a story and content creation.
Connect
Of course you know your brand’s story. Don’t you?
It’s often the people who are closest to a business and a brand who have the most difficulty articulating it. Resonance has a process that can help: a workshop with story-seeking exercises and questions that help you get to the heart of the matter: what makes your brand different? What does it stand for? What stories can it tell? We can craft the language that can position your brand clearly so that everyone inside and outside your organization can love your story and tell it with pride.
Communicate
What’s the best way to tell your brand’s story?
There’s no longer any one solution to reaching and resonating with people, but a savvy mix of media old and new can cut through and connect to those who want to hear your brand story, starting a relationship that can lead to business. Here are a few:
Custom Magazines
As journalists, we love magazines. As marketers, we love the way people savor them, diving deeply into their content. In a world of shortened attention spans, magazines are one of the few media in which a brand can express itself fully. Where other media are created to save time, magazines still give people permission to take time – to read a longer story or peruse a series of big, beautiful images. A magazine is an old medium that’s forever new.
Bespoke Collateral
Our content can enhance your current communication initiatives or start new ones. We believe that the time and resources of your constituents are too precious to be wasted on superficialities put to paper. Collateral can be made to go deeper, to mean more, to be indispensable.
Emarketing
We all live and die by our e-mail; we chew up information delivered in bite-sized pieces. We welcome the diversion of well-crafted e-newsletters and email that fills us in on the things we care about. When they’re short, sweet and smart, email programs can add to your brand stories, giving them a privileged place in our collectively short attention spans.
Video
Video doesn’t try to be film any more – it’s a communication art of its own, in the front seat, keeping people with you and driving them to find out more. There are few things more compelling, more catchy, or more central to so much communication than video.
Social Media
Yes, people do want to talk to each other, but often, the conversation has to start somewhere, and it needs to be nourished. You can’t sit on the sidelines of your social media. You need to facilitate, cheerlead and be involved. Blogs are a news source and a gathering place for some; Facebook promotion creates community for others. We fashion social media channels that best communicates your story.
Direct Mail
Time was, you could send a postcard in the mail and accurately predict response. Those days are back there, in the bubble. But a strategic direct mail piece – in exactly the right places to the right people at the right time – can still give people enough detail to feed curiosity, spark interest, and get them to a website, blog or online publication that can tell a deeper story.
The Web
Websites have evolved from being a mirror of print and a showcase for techno-gadgetry – some of it impossibly frustrating to navigate – to being a key communicator and true virtual salesperson. We write websites that deliver the right mix of the essential and the entertaining, allowing people to dig as deeply into your brand as they please.
Mobile
More than mere formatting, mobile smartly puts together print, web and social to access consumers wherever they go, giving them your story in their format.