Partners in the Journey

At the end of 2016, Dan was planning a trip to Valparaiso, In. to reconnect with an old friend over dinner. In the weeks leading up to their meeting, Dan mentioned the thinking he’d been doing about rebranding his company, and his need for an outside resource in making it happen. As so often happens, Dan’s friend knew someone who might be able to help, and invited him along to their dinner.

That connection point was Dave Grout, President of Timberline Team, a creative and strategy group in Seymour, In. As luck would have it, their mutual friend ended up being late to the dinner, giving Dan and Dave opportunity to get to know each other.

Dave made an impression on Dan and began to talk about the rebranding steps needed to accomplish Dan’s goals of taking KDG to the next level and creating a foundation for its next 20 years. It would start with Dan and his team reacquainting themselves with the brand from the inside out.

As they talked, Dan saw that the brand strategy wouldn’t be a quick fix, but a serious investment. The payoff would be clarity not only on who they were as a company, but also in what clients they were pursuing and how they went about it.

Dan recognized that Timberline Team was the partnership he’d been looking for.

“Dave’s professionalism and knowledge made the choice to choose Timberline very natural and easy.”

The Timberline team blocked out three days to spend in Columbus. They took hundreds of pages of notes in meetings with KDG staff as well as their clients. “It was an intense few days,” Dan recalls, “but it was very enjoyable and fun.”

Following this intensive multi-day meeting, the Timberline team went home and got to work. A month later, they returned to show Dan their findings on who KDG was and what the company represented.

Some business owners might balk at the idea of inviting an outsider to tell them who they are. Those who have the courage to try it, however, reap valuable intel about how they are perceived within their market, and what they can do to achieve their objectives.

In the end, Timberline’s findings didn’t reveal a radical difference in internal versus external perceptions around KDG. Rather, Timberline was able to provide clarity in what KDG stood for as a company and how they could best use their strengths to their advantage.

Timberline identified the specific brand of KDG by distilling three areas where Dan and his team place primary value: relationships, expertise and integrity. For the first time in 20 years, Dan had the means to accurately align his company’s values with new partners and clients.