Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the co-owner of Lunzer Wine, a small boutique wine company specializing in high-end corporate events. We also have a curated online shop, and my business partner focuses on wine investment.
What challenge were you trying to address with Our Own Brand?
Our company was going through a restructuring process, so we needed help with a complete rebranding.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Our Own Brand has helped us go through a complete rebranding, which has included creating a new website for us from scratch based on the new branding. In addition to that, their team has offered consultancy, so they've provided us with their expert opinion regarding our branding and marketing. As for the technologies used, the site uses Shopify to work as an online store.Initially, we had a very open conversation about what we wanted the company to be and what was changing. Before focusing on wine events, it was purely an events company. However, we started with the wine investment and established a wine shop on the side. Therefore, our main objective was to create a company umbrella for all those different business pillars.Given that we know our target market, we already had an idea of what was attractive to that market. Our brand had to be a bit understated but very elegant, exclusive, and traditional. Our concept was built around my business partner; he's the one with the amazing talent and knowledge about wine. Therefore, our objective was to balance who he was with the branding look and feel. Since assessing our brief, Our Own Brand has guided us throughout the whole process step by step.Now, Our Own Brand provides ongoing support as well. A great thing about using Shopify is that we can handle a lot of things on our website ourselves. However, if there's something we can't do ourselves, they help us out. Recently, they've helped us capture a lot of data, launch different types of newsletters, and figure out how to automate evergreen campaigns. Basically, they hold our hands in the marketing space.
What is the team composition?
The two main teammates from Our Own Brand we communicate with are Sara and Richard (Co-Founders). Still, we've also worked with a designer who created our logo. However, whenever someone else works on the project, Richard is still our intermediary. Richard focuses more on the data and technology side, whereas Sara focuses more on the account management and business side.
How did you come to work with Our Own Brand?
We did some research before finding Our Own Brand. The research process was very interesting. While going through this process, my business partner found out that their website was amazing. Moreover, Our Own Brand had some past clients who had a very similar look and feel to the one we wanted. Then, we realized that they were based 100 meters from our house, so we thought it was meant to happen.Choosing them felt right due to their approach. They were very open, accommodating, and interested in our project; they had a really good energy. We also liked the work they had done.
How much have you invested with them?
We've spent around £130,000–£150,000 (approximately $167,000–$193,000 USD), although I'm not completely sure.
What is the status of this engagement?
We began looking for agencies in September 2021. To date, our engagement with Our Own Brand is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
It's difficult to measure the impact of Our Own Brand's work. They've helped us create the brand for a completely new company. Of course, we've seen that we're reaching more people and that our database is growing, but I don't have quantitative results.As for qualitative feedback, we've received a lot of positive comments on Our Own Brand's work. This process was done in several steps. I wasn't very involved in the first phase of the project, and our project manager asked them to do something very generic because he hadn't truly identified our brand identity; he didn't have the passion I had for what I wanted.Therefore, for the second phase, I jumped in and requested to redo the work. We worked very hard internally on defining our purpose and philosophy. Our Own Brand was great at understanding our ideas, and they managed to create a very personal website. They even went above and beyond to bring a photographer and a videographer. Now, our whole website conveys the personality of my business partner, and a lot of visitors have commented on that.Moreover, Our Own Brand's consultancy service has been amazing. Given that branding isn't our expertise, we sometimes don't have the right words for what we want. However, Our Own Brand has been great at guiding us and coming up with cost-effective ideas. Our collaboration is quite intuitive, and our personalities and values match. They intuitively know what we're after, and they listen well.
How did Our Own Brand perform from a project management standpoint?
Our Own Brand has delivered on budget. As for the timelines, we've sometimes had to chase them. However, based on my experience, that's common for agencies. Some things have taken a little bit longer than expected, but maybe our expectations have been a bit too high. Overall, Our Own Brand has worked really well.We have very open and almost informal communication with Our Own Brand, which is lovely. We communicate a lot via emails, text messages, and Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings. Given that we're a very small company, there hasn't been the need to use bigger project management tools.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?
Both Sara and Richard are accommodating, welcoming, and brilliant to work with. Richard, in particular, has been very helpful to me. I can always ask him silly questions, and he always guides me whenever I don't know what I'm doing. I appreciate his hand-holding and the fact that he's always open to sharing his ideas. Throughout our engagement, we've become very good friends of theirs. They're dynamic and forward-thinking.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Overall, they're very decent people with not a lot of ego. They listen to us and try to accommodate what we want. I worked with other agencies in the past, and they sometimes acted as if they were above us because they were the experts. However, that doesn't happen with Our Own Brand.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I can't think of anything Our Own Brand could improve on. We're very happy with their work.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
As mentioned earlier, the project manager from our side, who was supposed to handle the rebranding process, did not put in the time and effort to create very clear directions and a clear briefing. Therefore, Our Own Brand simply followed the brief, which was quite generic. They even told me that what we had requested was very generic, so I had to step in.Therefore, here's my advice: You have to be very clear about who you are as a company, what your purpose is, and what feeling you want to convey in the market. Moreover, you need to know your target audience. Thus, do your own homework and be very clear in your brief before bringing an agency into the project. Not being clear confuses the agency, creates delays, and results in a product you weren't expecting.
