BUSINESS CHALLENGE

Classic Color has a long-standing reputation among clients and industry peers as a leader who brings brands to life by delivering the highest quality pre-media solutions as well as visually stunning graphics materials and print communications. The company’s reputation for excellence and customer service, propelled by hands-on leadership and delivered through its talented employees, has enabled them to excel in any economy.

The company's leadership understands that to sustain and grow in a new era of economic challenge where Web 2.0 tools and platforms are forever changing the way companies use brands to communicate and engage customers, the demand for innovation, risk-taking and change is now greater than ever.

As part of its continual pursuit of excellence, Classic Color partnered with Vocii to advance awareness of its fully optimized, Web-based digital brand asset management and workflow solutions as a critical offering and valuable core competency while also providing a roadmap that would help them: improve internal communication, increase employee engagement, improve quality outputs and customer service, encourage innovation, idea-sharing and risk-taking, build awareness of brand vision, mission and strategy and drive on-brand behaviors internally and externally.

With Vocii's guidance, Classic Color understood the necessity to begin this journey from the inside out. One that included employees in its quest to expand its message externally, engaging customers and prospective clients across the country and around the world.

VOCII'S APPROACH

To gain insight into this privately held organization, Vocii customized its methodology to scale to Classic Color's unique small business environment. Through voice of culture research, discovery and assessment, we focused on key internal drivers that affect quality outputs including: on-brand behavior, organizational pride, credibility, fairness, cultural camaraderie, communication, and opinions about change. This included acquiring a deep understanding of the company's suite of products and solutions, its organizational strengths and weaknesses, cultural health, internal brand awareness, and current communication tactics used to engage employees and customers.

We assisted leadership in communicating to its employees throughout the initiative helping them understand the purpose, desired outcomes and the importance of their participation and involvement. Vocii also customized, managed, delivered, assessed and reported outcomes of employee surveys, interviews with key leaders, managers and line-personnel.

Through voice of customer research we also audited customer feedback channels. This gave Classic Color and Vocii the additional insight necessary to understand where the company is performing at its best and where opportunities to improve customer experience exist, both important elements for the development and execution of a well-planned, long-term brand engagement strategy.

Finally, Vocii and Classic Color conducted an onsite workshop that brought employees and management together to [re]discover their unique brand positioning, vision, values, employee and customer-facing promises including the behaviors employees must live by to excel in delivering on their brand promises each day.

THE ROADMAP

Upon delivering final on-brand messaging and communication architecture, Vocii delivered a long-term brand strategy for Classic Color that would allow them to implement various aspects of the strategy over time. Beginning with internal brand development, communication, leadership and management training, employee training and education for utilization of social tools, Classic Color is working with Vocii to execute their brand strategy from the inside out.

THE CALL TO ACTION

Rekindling faith in mankind one person and one job at a time. What started as a day just like any other day, did not end that way. January 29, 2009 was a day when one person started a human movement calling on all angels in social media to bring hope to job seekers struggling in a cruel economy. This single 122-character tweet was heard by hundreds and today, tens of thousands.

@Mark Stelzner / “Was thinking that if each of us helped just 1 person find a job, we could start making a dent in unemployment. You game?”

It was a message that sounded a call for action through volunteerism and paying it forward. And it was an honor to answer a call to help position JobAngels as an iconic brand and beacon to those in need.

A VIRAL GROUNDSWELL

Within minutes of that single tweet, responses poured in. In less than an hour Mark created a Twitter Page and a hashtag called #JobAngels to help filter the stream of volunteers who were offering their help, expertise, support and generously opening up their networks. Job seekers were sharing their needs with the JobAngels team that quickly assembled on Twitter to help connect seekers to "Angels" taking networking, job searching, social recruiting and connectivity to a whole new level.

The movement spread to LinkedIn and Facebook where groups were created to grow the community and evangelize the message furthering the reach and the call for people to help and be helped. By the end of the day, there were more than 600 people across all JobAngel communities.

On that day, Mark Stelzner founded JobAngels and called on Charee Klimek, Deirdre Maven, Mark Cummuta and many others who would pull together and start a non-profit organization for a community that would be here to stay. As of September, 2009, there are more than 26,000 community members, over 1 million messages have been exchanged and nearly 750 individuals have found work either as a direct or indirect result of JobAngels volunteers.

THE JOBANGELS BRAND

JobAngels was an aggressively moving and dynamically forming cause that received instant recognition, credibility among community members as well as influence through hundreds of blogs and traditional media outlets. The JobAngels leaders knew that if it were to become a formal organization, it would require a meaningful identity and a unique strategy that would enable its management team and community members to successfully give voice to the brand and empower the community that would drive it forward.

Within days of its inception, Vocii set out to articulate and establish JobAngels' inimitable attributes, their functions, rewards and value to the community. We crafted its mission, vision, values, purpose and promises to both Job Seekers and JobAngels. Taking great care to ensure that the integrity of the JobAngels brand would be maintained through a clear focus on the needs of job seekers and that all help would be donated in the form of volunteerism and goodwill.

In collaboration with Gregory Grigoriou, of VanPaul Design in San Diego who had previously partnered with Mark at Inflexion Advisors, Vocii wrote a creative brief that would help outline the distinct goals of the organization and act as the foundation of its new identity.

THE JOURNEY

JobAngels continues its outreach efforts daily in the U.S. and around the world through its dedicated community members, ongoing outreach and a weekly newsletter that includes helpful resources, tips, articles and shared success stories for job seekers and volunteers. JobAngels is currently working to finalize the formal launch of a new community Web site and will depend on its members and leaders to keep the movement alive. Vocii is proud to continue donating its time to JobAngels to help do just that.