{"id":5772,"date":"2018-08-28T08:26:10","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T15:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.murraysmith.us\/?p=5772"},"modified":"2018-08-28T08:26:10","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T15:26:10","slug":"murraysmith-receives-three-national-smps-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3lectrik.com\/murraysmith\/murraysmith-receives-three-national-smps-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Murraysmith Receives Three National SMPS Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Murraysmith and consultant LecoursDesign<\/a> were recently presented with\u00a0three marketing communications awards at the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) 2018 Build Business Conference<\/a>!\u00a0 Janie Berg<\/a> and Emily Weiglin\u00a0<\/a>represented our marketing team at the conference, receiving the\u00a0top honor for three categories: Corporate Identity \u2013 Re-branding, Website \u2013 External, and Recruitment and Retention Communications \u2013 Print.<\/p>\n

Check out the winning entries. . .<\/p>\n

Corporate Identity \u2013 Re-branding<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Our firm was founded in 1980. At times, outward appearances indicated that we were stuck there. Like a bad pair of neon leg warmers.<\/p>\n

Internal\/external feedback revealed a brand identity gone stale. Three elements compounded the problem: name confusion (Murray, Smith & Associates\/MSA), inconsistent logo use, and an outdated website.<\/p>\n

However, we didn\u2019t FEEL like a bad pair of leg warmers. With a tight job market, finding great people was challenging. We needed to present an accurate picture of the energy and forward-thinking mentality of our team to attract and retain talent.\u00a0 It was time to rebrand.<\/p>\n

As strategy is the foundation for a strong brand, we went back to our roots to articulate our Vision, Core Values, and Positioning. Through workshops led by LecoursDesign, we defined our brand personality, refined logo ideas, and explored naming. We retired MSA and Murray, Smith\u00a0&\u00a0Associates, Inc. in favor of Mur\u00adray\u00adsmith. The name honors our founders, while the -smith suffix suggests expertise in our craft. Much like the hon\u00adored tra\u00addi\u00adtion of a Black\u00adsmith, we are now Murraysmith. From our strategy came a logo and wordmark connoting forward movement. Brand touchpoints from stationery to a new website reflect our new identity.<\/p>\n

Through a process nearly 20 years overdue, our brand now accurately represents who we are, inviting like-minded people to \u2018Join Us\u2019.\u00a0 Twelve months after the launch, we\u2019ve grown our staff by over 40% and maintained a retention rate of 92%, contributing to our primary rebranding objective and the success of our firm.<\/p>\n

Website – External <\/strong><\/h4>\n

With a primary goal of attracting talent, Murraysmith\u2019s new website has done exactly that.<\/p>\n

We wanted potential hires to see themselves as part of our team. With the bold move to give all 170-plus\u00a0employees their own page, visitors form an emotional connection with their new teammates. Each employee has a professional headshot, a \u201cfun\u201d photo, and professional and personal information.<\/p>\n

Stock photos? Not on our site. We hired a professional photographer KlikConcepts<\/a> to shoot headshots and candids in our offices to document our culture. Generic copy? Nope. We wrote every word ourselves.<\/p>\n

Twenty years overdue, this website took immense effort from Marketing to gain executive buy-in. Now, instead of updating the site every 20 years, we do it every day. Instead of spending thousands of dollars to find an engineering student, the student comes to us. It\u2019s not just a website, but an integrated campaign that involved an entire rebranding effort, resulting in one of our most important recruiting tools.<\/p>\n

Recruitment and Retention Communications \u2013 Print<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The war for talent is real! With a tight job market, finding great people is challenging. To grow the firm, we had to do a better job recruiting\/retaining great talent. To communicate the culture of Murraysmith to potential employees and build internal morale, we needed to go back to our roots and identify our core values.<\/p>\n

Our core values give prospective hires a sense of what it\u2019s like to work at Murraysmith. The goal wasn\u2019t to produce a generic output that resonates with everyone. We want people who fit our culture.<\/p>\n

Through a workshop led by LecoursDesign, we worked to define who we are and what we believe. After much discussion, refinement, and voting, we agreed on\u00a0seven core values. Internal copywriting helped achieve a true reflection of our beliefs and identity. We then transformed our values into a tangible artifact to share with both employees and candidates.<\/p>\n

Drawing from our medium-sized firm, commitment to quality, and focus on communities we live in, someone said, \u201cwe sound like a craft brewery!\u201d This evolved into referring to ourselves as \u201ccraft engineers.\u201d \u00a0We designed a faux craft beer coaster for each core val\u00adue. Each coaster is let\u00adter\u00adpress print\u00aded (a craft tech\u00adnique) with the value on the front and its mean\u00ading on the back.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just a coaster. It\u2019s one of our most powerful recruiting\/retention tools, contributing to 40% growth in staff and a 92% retention rate. And you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find a single desk without a coaster flaunting Murraysmith\u2019s craft ingredients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Murraysmith and consultant LecoursDesign were recently presented with\u00a0three marketing communications awards at the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) 2018 Build Business Conference!\u00a0 Janie Berg and Emily Weiglin\u00a0represented our marketing team at the conference, receiving the\u00a0top honor for three categories: Corporate Identity \u2013 Re-branding, Website \u2013 External, and Recruitment and Retention Communications \u2013 Print. Check…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,28,32],"tags":[],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-5772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards","category-news","category-people","post_format-post-format-gallery","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3lectrik.com\/murraysmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3lectrik.com\/murraysmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3lectrik.com\/murraysmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3lectrik.com\/murraysmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3lectrik.com\/murraysmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5772"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/3lectrik.com\/murraysmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5838,"href":"https:\/\/3lectrik.com\/murraysmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5772\/revisions\/5838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3lectrik.com\/murraysmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3lectrik.com\/murraysmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3lectrik.com\/murraysmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3lectrik.com\/murraysmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5772"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3lectrik.com\/murraysmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=5772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}