Powerplay Retail
THE
SUMMARY
Powerplay Retail is a brand representation firm based in Minneapolis responsible for bringing brands like Beats by Dre and GoPro to market. Through years of growth by incubating start-up organizations and purchasing others, Powerplay Retail eventually came to a crossroads where its current brand confused its audiences. So there was a need to rectify that by reviewing the business unit portfolio and creating a strategy and brand nomenclature that helped communicate an integrated value proposition while still empowering all business units to work independently.
SERVICES PROVIDED
- Business Consulting
- Naming
- Branding
- Web UI/UX Design
- Web Development
- Public Relations
OUR
APPROACH
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
Powerplay Retail is known in its industry as one of the leading retail rep firms in the country. With over 250 years of combined internal retail experience, Powerplay Retail was looking at ways to better serve brands and retailers alike. Its business evolved by incubating a start-up and acquiring another with a goal of serving all aspects of the retail environment. But it needed to approach things in a way that allowed existing brand partners the ability to work with all or just one service offering.
KEY ISSUES
Powerplay Retail was not the first brand in its space to combine brands with retailers and help brands go direct to consumers. It also had developed over-complicated systems and internal companies to try and maneuver sensitivities around retailers; but in the end it made it harder to do business.
The
Solution
We worked with the executive and leadership teams of each business unit to deeply understand its business and how clients – brands and retailers – were served. We also researched the competitive space to understand what Powerplay Retail needed to do to compete and what its core differentiators were. We aligned each business unit by identifying their efficiencies and how they could work collaboratively as well as independently; now they work across business units to better solve problems for their clients. A complete rebrand to align the businesses followed the implementation of the collaborative strategy.
Brand Messaging and Values: We articulated a comprehensive brand document that helped the Powerplay Retail teams understand what each business unit was responsible for and how each was connected. The messaging and positioning drove all touchpoints from website redesign to presentations internally and externally.
Identity Development: We developed a new brand system and identity to represent Powerplay Retail and recent growth/acquisitions. The mark was meant to show strength, with a nod to where things started twenty years ago.
Website Design and Development: We consolidated four websites into one based on the new brand standards and communication hierarchy established.
Sales Tools: We created new presentation templates and landing pages dedicated to helping Powerplay Retail sell brands and retailers on its newly defined flexible service offerings.
Public Relations: Once ready, we managed the press release and media outreach for Powerplay Retail’s announcement of its new acquisition and structure.
Our four separate businesses are now unified under one company name and operate as different divisions. Agency Squid helped us bring key stakeholders on board and handle this complex undertaking. We’re thrilled with their work.
– Ben, COO Powerplay Direct
The
Results
Successes
Powerplay Retail’s new brand hierarchy connected the multiple businesses accounting for more efficient cross selling and standardization internally. The new website averages 4.5 pages per sessions with an average of 8:34 minutes spent learning about Powerplay Retail’s new offerings. The press release saw 134 news sources pick up the story with an estimated 74MM impressions across publishing networks.
