STRATEGY + BRAND REDESIGN + COPYWRITING + ART DIRECTION + WEBSITE
Merriman Wealth Management
Merriman Wealth Management, a high touch, socially-conscious, and youthful financial company located in the Pacific Northwest, came to us ready for an updated brand story and a new look and feel that would ultimately feed into a wholly revised presence through their website. Merriman has a compelling origin story and proposition, but it had evolved over the decades, and the company was looking to the future with a new story, a new visual brand, and a new way of talking to its target audience. With its 40th anniversary approaching, Merriman sought to update its positioning in the market.
Merriman knows they are different from their competitors, so they wanted to share their story in a way that was undeniably unique.
In our time managing the Merriman brand, their changing focus has had compelling business results, with the net assets under management growing faster than the number of new clients. This reflects the shift in Merriman’s audience to the higher asset customer.
BRAND GUIDELINES
Services Provided
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We conducted an audit of Merriman’s existing brand position, language, visual brand, social media, marketing and sales collateral.
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Over a series of months and multiple workshops, we defined who Merriman is as a business, as well as who it’s talking to. We delved into the company’s identity, developing its mission, vision and values and helped it to articulate its brand promise and purpose.
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We created quarterly content strategies outlining content across Merriman’s marketing channels and created a content calendar to streamline content creation and approvals. These marketing channels included blogs, email marketing, social media, and additional marketing resources.
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We developed a marketing strategy across all of Merriman's marketing channels to give the company an overall direction and understanding of its customers’ journeys from the moment they encounter Merriman to becoming a loyal client
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We supported the company’s 40th-anniversary celebration by developing a communications campaign and special branding to mark the occasion.
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Based upon the brand strategy and positioning, we explored several underlying themes and concepts to create a framework for the visual brand. We identified the concept that resonated most strongly, and using that direction as the underpinning, we brought it to life through a comprehensive visual brand system.
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The Alkimie team developed the structure and copy and visual assets for the website, before handing everything over to Tall Poppies Design to design and develop the final site.
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In partnership with Tall Poppies Design.
Working with Tall Poppies Design, we created a comprehensive website to stir an emotional connection to communicate what makes Merriman different, and why clients might rely on them for their wealth management rather than alternative financial companies.
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Alkimie provided the art direction and shot lists to guide an on-brand photoshoot, while the images were created by Seattle-based photographer Erin Schedler.
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We took over the creation and management of Merriman’s organic social media presence across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
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Within Merriman, the blogs are written by the subject matter experts – the financial advisors. However, it was felt that they could frame their blogs in a way that worked better for SEO and more closely aligned with the overall content strategy. The Alkimie Collective held a remote blog workshop for advisors to educate them on the function of blogs.
SOCIAL MEDIA FEED
SOCIAL MEDIA ASSETS
SOCIAL MEDIA HEADERS
WEBSITE
40TH ANNIVERSARY LOGO
PRESENTATION DECK
ART DIRECTION + SHOT LIST
PHOTOSHOOT