A Strategic Retreat + Efficient Project
(Think: a speed-date for you + your brand)
Longing for a soul-searching, in-depth immersion into your brand, marketing and messaging? After some pre-work, spend one day with me (by Zoom or live) and together we’ll source + shine your story, position, value + mission. We’ll also slice straight to the juiciest, most salient points to attract the right clients + customers.
My superpowers are crafting compelling brand stories and deftly wrangling …ahem…boisterous management teams that want to align on strategy, articulate a unique story, and accelerate growth.
- Source + shine your story, position, value + mission. We’ll slice straight to the juiciest, most salient points to attract the right clients + customers (it’s all about clarity, my friend)
- (Re)assemble and clarify your messages and marketing to prioritize the ‘next steps’ that make sense, and slash the ones that…don’t.
- Get pointed to all the right places, products + people, so you can curate a pro-team that’ll serve + support your rapidly growing business.
- Learn how to build an irresistible brand, from day zero.
How much juice can you squeeze out of a single day, with Red Slice?
(You’ll be surprised, delighted — and seriously inspired.)
HOW IT WORKS:
- Prior to your SLICE retreat, your attendees will each complete a SLICE Playbook — full of prompts, prods and probing questions, designed to drill into the unique core elixir that informs how your company looks, talks and acts. This Playbook anchors our research and audits, so we can show up swinging, with info that’s relevant for you. It also serves to get your minds fully synchronized for the strategic workshop.
- We also do our own discovery of your brand and industry and interview targeted ideal customers to capture challenges they face and benefits they seek – in their own words.
- On the day of your SLICE workshop, we’ll stride into action with a quick Branding 101 primer— high-speed circuit-training for your branding muscles. Your team will (finally!) grasp the difference between brand and marketing. No more terminology-tension or communication potholes.We want everyone speaking the same language today to be most productive.
- After that, we’ll shift into a few hours of facilitated group discussion — we’ll spiral closer to the soul of your business, and decide how to make it shine, in a way that resonates with your audience. We’ll dive into cultural findings, mission, market position, authentic messaging, and package-able proof points. We’ll work towards profiling your ideal customers with precision, so you can focus your efforts, without boiling the ocean. We’ll also lead a discussion about key benefits, competition and differentiators, enabling everyone to see the ‘white space’ that you can swiftly claim to break away from the pack. Throughout the workshop, idea-generation and a-ha moments are the goal. After all, teams that stand together, brand together.
- There are optional creative opportunities, if desired: fun exercises, juicy prompts to play with, or a series of online (and offline) Scavenger Hunt tasks to complete, maybe Brand Vision Boards if your team is in to that sort of thing…the entire workshop is custom tailored to fit your needs. It’s all about getting your creative juices flowing in fresh directions to consider the emotional reasons behind a seemingly rational sale.
- Then, we’ll go away, put our thinking caps on and work our magic — this is the part where we get technical, logistical, and tactical. We’ll craft compelling brand language and outline high-priority marketing initiatives. We adhere to the 80/20 rule of decision-making, identifying the efforts that’ll deliver the biggest bang for your branding buck.
- Within two weeks: you’ll receive a shiny new SLICE Brandscape Report, all synthesized + spelled out in (delightfully) plain English, which includes:
- Session Recap and Discussion Points
- Brand Story/Positioning Recommendations
- Ideal Customer Personas
- Internal Messaging Platform:
- Core Value Statement
- Key Benefits
- Differentiators
- Core Value Statement
- Clarified, Ready-to-Use Brand Copy (you can choose which is applicable):
- Company Descriptor/About page
- Elevator Pitch
- Mission and or Vision Statement Ideas
- Values/Philosophy/How We Work page
- Tagline Ideas
- Company Descriptor/About page
- Marketing Recommendations + Next Steps, including Content Marketing Tips + Ideas
- Personalized Referrals to Take Action! Road-tested freelancers + contractors (from graphic designers to social media resources to copywriters, and beyond, whatever you need) to support your upward trajectory.
You get 2 rounds of revisions total, plus our support in presenting a polished Summary Deck back to the workshop group for feedback.
I’ll also check in with you 30-60 days out to see how things are progressing and provide any further support.
And then…you take the juice, and keep it flowing. Together, you’ll know what to do.
If committing to a painstakingly slow, year-long brand development process makes your heart sink, The SLICE is a swift + high-impact alternative.
Education. Inspiration. Clarity. Consensus. All the right questions. No wasted efforts.
Investment starts at $30,000, depending on your unique needs.
Think this might be right for you? Contact me.
Let’s be really efficient and find out right away – this is not a sales call, but a chance to see if this fits your goals and needs. If I’m not right for you right now, I’ll offer direct guidance.
Maria is simply the best Brand and Messaging strategist I’ve ever worked with. She and her Red Slice team are a literal strike force to come in, move fast, and create a solid story foundation. At Spire, Maria adapted to our fast pace, working with a cross-functional group of sales, marketing, demand generation, and executive leaders to help quickly establish GTM story, messaging and pillars. I cannot more highly recommend Maria’s proprietary formula for helping multiple stakeholders get on the same page, with a unified, consistent message and story. She set me and my team up to succeed, to win, and laid the foundation we needed to head to market with a plan to reach customers, talk to investors, press and analysts. Plus, Maria is simply a joy to work with. Our team loved working with her. Her mark will be felt for years to come as Spire goes to market with the best story in the business. Hire Maria. If you don’t, you will be behind the curve.
— Andy Jordan, Head of Brand Creative and Communication, Spire
We brought Maria in to our team offsite to inspire us to think about our brand in a fresh new way. We want to keep the brand personality that makes us special as we scale and grow – no small task. Her insights, exercises and engaging style got everyone fired up about how we can better live out our brand and values in every area of the organization. Maria is a great facilitator and she deftly got our diverse group talking and contributing.
— Sherry Lowe, formerly CMO, Expanse and VP Marketing, Splunk now CMO, Exabeam
Maria managed our global brand project brilliantly against a tight timeline by tailoring her workshop process for our team/situation. She listened well and shaped the project to obtain a maximum amount of quality input from across our team of international exec stakeholders and customers, synthesize the findings, and moderate the key topics up for Debate during a 1-day in person workshop. The brandscape output has served as the base of our refreshed brand strategy and a full brand guidelines book.
— Aimee Stone Munsell, Chief Marketing Officer, ContentSquare
We had a critical need to build a strong message around a new cloud service targeting Neo4j’s global developer community. Maria’s process allowed us to get input from a wide range of stakeholders in a really efficient way, and Maria was able to synthesize it into key messages and content elements which we leaned on heavily in our launch. Her personality and expertise make her a great facilitator and she was able to get the best inputs from our team, spotlight and work through areas of misalignment, etc.
— Lance Walter, Chief Marketing Office, Neo4j