Our job here has two elements; to create a brand story film for Sienna, and to present a strong and relevant ‘buying idea’ by which
they can make their case for bid contact in advance, or in the absence of, direct sales contact.
Their Brand Story
After considerable research and careful assessment, I believe their brand story is straightforward: The same focus, passion and
drive for quality that made Susanne Kelly outstanding and committed to her field work when she began in the field, informs
the entire company’s DNA, now and into the future. She is what they are, and nobody else can offer you that. That’s it!
We will tell her story briefly, and we will highlight and reflect those values in how the company builds relationships and does
the work today. To boost credibility, we will not rely upon her to say these things herself, but we will use her staff, business
relationships, and mentors to tell it through direct interview.
The ‘Buying Idea’
It is not enough to just position the brand here. That isn’t going to get them to their aggressive growth projections. We need
to include a focused buying idea, some key point that prospective clients will understand and value enough to grant Sienna
consideration in the bidding process.
Again, pretty straightforward stuff. Market research tells us that the biggest reason why they get the job isn’t due to bid pricing- it
is because Sienna comes with a track record of ‘no problems’ and/or ‘quick addressing of problems’. To my mind, there are many
value propositions related to the idea of having no problems, given the nature of their highly problematic business. ‘No problems’
means something to the end user of the building, ‘no problems’ means something to the state agencies that oversee this work. ‘No
problems’ means a lot to the purchaser of their services.
We can’t sell a negative though, so we need to add to it to make the proposition positive. To that end, I feel like the big idea here
runs along the lines of ‘No problems: What’s that worth?’ There are many value message possibilities in that question, a lot of
opportunities to drive the brand story and the sales conversation.
