Archives for 2024

National broker-dealer pursues ambitious growth initiative.

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Brand Strategy • Web Content

“Our greatest return on marketing investment in the company’s 53 years.”
Lawrence J. Rybka, President & CEO

> THEIR STORY

Grounded in the Golden Rule

Valmark is a nationwide broker-dealer that provides investment and insurance products. Their independent Member Firm offices serve the financial needs of affluent individuals, families and business owners.

Privately owned for 5 decades, Valmark has grown to consist of five companies. Their stability and longevity is attributed to product innovation while always adhering to the Golden Rule.

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> THEIR GOALS

Ensure Continued Growth

• Launch a new website.
• Communicate a powerful brand identity to target key channels.
• Appeal to their ideal prospects: highly competent advisors who act as entrepreneurs rather than captive agents.
• Uphold the founder’s commitment to integrity and values.

“We were amazed at how quickly you were able to understand Valmark and craft the powerful stories and statements that have become an integral part of our brand identity.

Particularly impressive is your Brand Roadmap which drills down a very concise, compelling layout of the core elements to focus on when promoting our brand.

Through your expert guidance, we now have a strong, articulate brand displayed on a new, beautiful website that our staff and affiliated Member Firms can point to and be proud of!”

Jamie Summerville
Director, Communications

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> KEYS TO SUCCESS

Our Brand Roadmap for Valmark:

• Included interviews with management and 10 Member Firms.
• Revealed the perception that broker-dealers are a necessary evil in a highly-regulated industry, rather than a partner in finding creative solutions.
• Identified the attributes most important to prospective Members:
  • Stability
  • Community
  • Innovation
• Uncovered Valmark’s unique advantage – attracting exceptional advisors allows them to reduce risk and thereby extend more flexibility to their Member Firms – highly appealing when compared to Valmark’s huge competitors.

“By nature, I am a highly skeptical person with even higher expectations. When facing a challenge, I almost always choose to tackle it internally with our world-class team. However, when faced with crafting a new website and telling our story we quickly realized two things. Our business is complicated, and frankly, we were “too close” to talk about it in a clear way. So we hired Tom.

Simply put, Tom is a master communicator!  He exceeded our highest expectations. We were blown away. Tom quickly understood our complex business and then crafted a message that was powerful, yet brilliantly simple. Tom proved what Leonardo da Vinci said is true – ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.’ If you are considering hiring Tom, do it!”

Caleb Calahan, CFP
Executive Vice President
Chief Operating Officer

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> OUR SOLUTION

Convey Strengths Without Boasting

• We presented “Innovative Planning. Traditional Values.” as the central theme of the brand.
• Organized Valmark’s story around Stability, Community and Innovation.
• Advised using Member testimonials, instead of direct claims, to communicate Valmark’s greatest strengths.
• Crafted all testimonials from our one-on-one interviews and obtained approvals.
• We wrote all home page content and edited internal pages.
• Collaborated with Valmark’s marketing team and talented web designer, Monsters Unlimited.

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> THE RESULTS

You helped us articulate our value proposition in a fresh way, that is genuine, distinctive and powerful. Through interviews with our existing firms you identified 3 clear differentiators that help us attract new member firms and pursue our growth initiative.

Your Brand Roadmap truly helped us cut though the clutter of our complex service offering and get to the essential key points that our member firms value most, and then translate that into a completely new website.

I can confidently say this represents our greatest return on marketing investment in the company’s 53 years.”

Lawrence J. Rybka, JD, CFP
President & CEO
Valmark Financial Group

Visit: Valmark Website

Financial services firm renames and uses video to engage prospects.

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Naming • Brand Strategy • Video Scripts • Brochure 

• FDP Wealth Management hired us to help attract high-net-worth business owners.
• Our Brand Roadmap revealed the public perception that financial advisors “disappear” after a new account is established — leaving clients without personal attention.
• We coined the term Chief Prosperity Officer™ to describe their hands-on role.
• We wrote and laid out the website, including half a dozen videos to help visitors envision their new relationship with the firm.
• Then we created a high-quality brochure as an image piece.
• Later we drove the renaming of the company and developed “Securing Your Future Together” as the central theme of the new brand.

It’s quite rare for anyone to exceed my expectations, but everything you created for us surpassed my hopes. Even our nationwide broker-dealer says it’s the best marketing language they’ve seen. Now they want to hire you, too. Thank you!”

Mark Chandik CLU, ChFC, AIF
President

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WEBSITE:

VIDEOS:

Visit: Prosperity Partners

Startup conveys its mission and potential

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Brand Roadmap • Web Content  

• This website needed to communicate the goals and potential of a joint venture between two industry powerhouses: an Alphabet company (Verily Life Sciences) and a leading Japanese ophthalmology firm (Santen Pharmaceutical).
• We helped the stakeholders articulate a Mission in bold, non-technical terms: Breakthroughs that will change eye care forever.
• Our brand interviews with management revealed the company’s Dramatic Difference: We attract the brightest minds and encourage work they love.
• To help attract additional talent, we crafted powerful quotes from our interviews with staff to display throughout the website content we wrote.
• We delivered design-ready content to drive the design by State Creative.

Our team really loved the Brand Roadmap you put together, especially how great their quotes sound!”

Daniel Marginian
Project Manager

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Wealth advisor articulates an integrated approach to complex holdings.

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Brand Strategy • Web Content • Video Scripts

• The Capital Chart Room was struggling to communicate its comprehensive offering so business owners could grasp the firm’s value.
• Our Brand Roadmap revealed that TCCR isn’t a typical financial advisor, but rather experts at guiding a client’s existing team of advisors to work in unison, evaluate new ideas and achieve consensus.
• In keeping with TCCR’s nautical theme, we coined the term Advisory Crew to reference a client’s team of advisors.
• We built the message around a bold promise: Discover a level of control over your wealth most families will never attain.
• We organized the website structure, selected all images and crafted a message relating TCCR’s processes to the same way industry leaders run their own firms.
• Video scripts featuring the founder were written, and we revised the key structural tools used to on-board their new clients.

Sharp Content help us re-imagine our brand, crafting a powerful message for our website and other collateral marketing materials. Tom Bruein and his process were just what we needed to help us navigate the content development and associated decisions. The final products have exceeded our expectations and we continue to receive complements on our website and materials. We have engaged Sharp Content for years now to help us market to our “right fit” prospects. I can, without reservation, highly recommend Sharp Content and Tom Bruein. It is a pleasure to work with such a consummate professional!”

Jeffrey M. Holler, CFP®
President & CEO

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WEBSITE:

Visit: The Capital Chart Room