CASE STUDY: Andersen Construction Magazine

The Challenge: This large construction management company had been in business for nearly 50 years, but did not have a logo or other professionally prepared marketing collateral material. They wanted to bid on larger and larger projects ($50+ million) but could not compete because of their unprofessional image. The president wanted to begin with a company quarterly magazine rather than creating the corporate ID as the foundation.

The problem: This company had never invested in having their corporate ID (logos, style guides, etc.) created professionally so what material they had was very inconsistent and disjointed. However, the company president had his heart set on having a quarterly company magazine. As a standard course, Newsletter Associates tries to council our clients to begin with the first things first and build a strong identity and move from there. Sometimes that is not possible. An added, complication was the very tight production schedule set to get the first issue out.

The solution: Since credibility was the major issue that this company faced because of their fractured corporate image, we decided to create an identity (complete with logo and style guides) as we created the magazine. These style guides would then be used to create subsequent collateral material such as brochures, fact sheets, and eventually, the web site. The logo was kept simple and bold and we arranged some project photography to replace the 'snapshots' that were of very poor quality and unsuitable for a professional image. Another time saver was to create features within the magazine that could be used as stand-alone pieces. For example, the two major feature stories could also be printed separately as brochures and many of the project profiles could be printed alone as fact sheets. As the magazine moved forward, collateral material was also created with profiles of company executives and team members. So that with each issue, their collection of collateral material also increased. This was a great time saver and helped cut down on design costs. The addition of some well-designed presentation folders completed their package.

The result:

• This 32-page full-color high-end magazine has become the company's main marketing tool
• The company is now able to compete with other similarly sized construction management firms on a more even footing because their communication and marketing material convey their professionalism clearly and quickly
• The style guides give some structure to the creation of on-going material to avoid the fractured image of the past

A look inside: