Challenge
When an international travel company needed to refresh their branding and marketing, they turned to Sutter Group for a complete brand audit, and a rebuild of their visual identity system. We also conducted a competitor analysis to get a better understanding of their industry’s current landscape. The branding efforts and research informed the marketing messaging and vice versa. It all led to a beautiful and thorough relaunch of their logo, tagline and marketing materials. We also took over their Google Adwords account and doubled their click through rates. Today their emails are seeing an increase in open rates of more than 13% on an ongoing basis and their mailers are being submitted for design awards.
Solution
Marketing their vacation packages both to travel groups and directly to consumers is a constant challenge for this mid-sized travel company. We found that certain marketing pieces were missing the native American dialect that reinforced a trust factor when booking overseas travel. Ironically, it was that same European knowledge base that lent itself to the unique selling proposition. By conducting internal and external research, Sutter Group was able to outline the best way for Keytours Vacations to position its packages and products uniquely every time. Our 25-page strategic marketing plan helped them increase sell-through rates by 8% within the first month of use. Additionally, our research informed the redesign of their email and landing page templates, which have also seen an increase in conversions. Keytours Vacations provides personalized travel experiences to more than 130 cities across the world. By allowing Sutter Group to conduct a brand audit and marketing strategy plan, management was able to see an improvement in the productivity of their sales and marketing teams.
Insights
When the landscape appears to be crowded with similar competitors, the branding and unique selling proposition become incredibly important. There were several factors that influenced the choices of this rebranding effort, including a rich 15-year company history. Knowing what the brand does best, how it has been received by customers in the past, and knowing what will make it unique in the future, helped Sutter Group define an elegant visual identity perfectly matched for a specific target audience. The client contracted with Sutter Group for multiple services, such as a marketing strategy plan, email and landing page templates, and more. The designs and Adwords campaigns were more insightful, having been informed by the marketing research.
– Director of Marketing, Keytours Vacations
