Echo Technology Solutions is a technology consulting company or technology service provider focusing primarily on small and medium-sized businesses. I am the CEO.

We've been working with them for quite some time but, initially, when I engaged with them the first time, we just launched a new company that resulted as a split from a previous entity. We needed a new name, new logo, new brand – a whole new identity. We needed the whole corporate identity to be designed from scratch – we had nothing. That's where we engaged with them initially.

We went through the naming exercise first. That took us awhile. I think then that the rest of it was the branding identity for the company. This included creating the logo, creating the colors, determining what it is, determining what we want to present, how we want to represent it, and who we are. Then, they went into designing and creating our new website. We also helped them with the content.

I don't remember how I found them, but I did at that time like these guys. I liked their flexibility, I'd like to say that they're creative. There were no, "This is how it's done." We went through a lot of brainstorming sessions. It was very collaborative, and it was very creative, especially with a bunch of engineers. I'm, in a sense, not very creative.

I also appreciated their assistance when it came to generating content for the website. This is something that engineers are pretty bad at. We just gave them a lot of raw content, and they did an amazing job of taking something that I wouldn't call even content –just a bunch of stuff – and turning it into something usable. It started out as something like, "Hey, this is what we do, this is who we are, and this is who we want to see," which was very unrefined. They actually managed to put it into a pretty good message.

It's been a little while, but I think the initial project, including the naming, branding, and website, was probably $25,000 to $30,000. We're still working with them on other certain things [as of September 2016]. I have been disengaged from the relationship, or with directly doing the work with them, for the last two years.

I don't believe I have any metrics because we needed stuff. I think what we got out of them is fantastic, much more than we ever hoped for. I still get many compliments on a daily basis on the logo, website, and business cards. I think that's still working almost 4 years later, that it just stands there. We didn't have to adjust anything since they've created it a few years back.

They were excellent –much better than I expected. They're creative people – not very good on project management – but everything was done on time and tracked properly. There was absolutely no frustration on our side that I can link back to their performance being delayed or just being distorted.

I would say that what I personally liked is that they're small and nimble. A little bit later in the process, I tried to engage a marketing consultant.

Generally, when I started talking to marketing consultants. I found that they learned one or two tricks, and they've been applying the same trick for 20 years. Simply put, they can't go beyond what they know. It's creative and they were willing to listen. There wasn't a set pattern like, "Hey, this is how we do it," or "Look. This is how it's done." It was more like "Tell us what you want, and then we're going to find the right solution for you." That's probably the best part that I think. I would reiterate that they are small, nimble, smart, creative, flexible, and they know their stuff.

I would have to think a little bit more about it. I'll tell you very simply that, when we engaged in this, I didn't even know what we were doing. It took me from 0 to 100 very gently. I didn't have any expectations. I just needed it to be done. I think the result was fantastic. If I would go through the same process, I would just go with Unit partners.

I'm the CEO and founder of a digital marketing B2B SaaS startup. We specialize in data analytics and process development.

We needed help with establishing our brand, both conceptual (personality and messaging) and visual identity (logo and colors).

We wanted to establish brand guidelines that could guide and support all of our customer-facing assets at launch (e.g., app, website, and business cards).

We asked 10 vendors to participate in our RFP. We hosted an introductory meeting to outline our requirements, gave the vendors time to ask questions, then hosted a second Q&A session and gave them time to submit proposals. Based on our initial selection criteria, we requested meetings with four vendors to present their proposals. We selected UNIT partners LLC through a second round of selection criteria.

UNIT partners LLC began by giving us an outline of deliverables and tentative project schedule. They provided specific milestones, including points that would require our input before moving forward. They also sent a discovery document with an overview of our current state. For each objective, they hosted working sessions to dive deeper into specific topics, using their process and prompts to help guide discussions. At the end of each session, the project manager provided a tentative timeline based on the deliverable and feedback/revision rounds.

We primarily worked with Ann (principal, UNIT partners LLC) and Julie (project manager, UNIT partners LLC).

We haven't launched, but we've had very positive feedback from our internal team. We've also already started using the visual assets on PowerPoint decks and our website.

Communication was effective at every step of the way. They were available to schedule meetings as needed. They checked in via email and phone within the cadence prescribed for each milestone. They regularly alerted us to when our feedback could impact our agreed schedule. They also made sure to validate our receipt of the deliverables.

Their ability to provide structure and language for the conceptual parts of this project helped focus our thinking for each milestone. While we caused a lot of project delays, UNIT partners LLC was flexible and accommodating about all of the schedule changes. They also were extremely supportive throughout the entire process.

Our brand story feels a little unfinished. We probably needed to go through a few more rounds of revisions to have it fully realized and polished. Not having done this exercise in the past, we may have had unrealistic expectations about the time and effort required.

Sr. Vice President of Programs at Operation HOPE and Chief Marketing and Development Officer at After-School All-Stars

with social and web integrations.

We hired Unit to design an online and print curriculum offering as well as collateral for a youth financial education program at Operation HOPE.

At After-School All-Stars, we hired Unit to design and implement two different brand refresh projects for the organization, five years apart as well as 5 different email marketing campaigns and two new websites.

The first set of projects with Operation HOPE was to educate youth and more deeply engage our existing donor groups.

For After-School All-Stars, the second organization, it was marketing, branding and messaging for the ultimate purpose of bringing new funders to the table to raise critical funds to operate the organization.

We vetted Unit against other similar vendors at both organizations. The beat out their competition in quality, responsiveness, customer service and often pricing.

All of the projects we hired Unit for included print and email materials with social and web integrations.

We hired Unit to design an online and print curriculum offering as well as collateral for a youth financial education program at Operation HOPE.

At After-School All-Stars, we hired Unit to design and implement two different brand refresh projects for the organization, five years apart as well as 5 different email marketing campaigns and two new websites.

One of the two principals of the design firm was always strategically engaged with the project to ensure we were all on the same page and guided in the right direction.

In addition, Unit always had a more junior level project manager assigned to our account who provided excellent, thorough and timely communication on all project details, steps and outcomes.

At Operation HOPE, we engaged far more youth, volunteers and donors as a result of the materials they helped us create.

We went from serving a little over 10,000 students a year with 300 volunteers when we first began working with Unit to serving almost 100,000 students with 11,000 volunteers at the end of a 5 year period.

At After-School All-Stars we raised the funds we intended to raise and many times exceed goals and much more deeply engaged existing supporters and brought many new ones into the organization as a result of the beautiful, compelling and polished design and messaging they helped us create.

The workflow with Unit was always highly effective. We even adopted some of the project management practices that we learned from working with them internally. They always provided excellent, thorough and timely communication on all project details, steps and outcomes over the many years we worked together and in both settings.

Their consistency and at the same time their ability to adapt and evolve.

Not that I know of.