Pine Gate Renewables
THE SITUATION
Pine Gate Renewables (PGR) was a maturing solar utility startup. It had the operational track record for a credible, distinctive story, but had not yet written it. With huge growth ahead, PGR needed to get the story straight and learn to convey the emotional core of the brand.
OUR CONTRIBUTION
Solar power is still a developing market with wildly diverse competitors. PGR stood apart by both developing and operating its solar farms - which meant many audiences to address. We conducted research interviews with landowners (in different stages of projects), finance partners (across debt and equity), and energy consumers (corporate offtakers, utilities, and brokers). We learned how PGR could earn trust with each, as custodians of the land, dependable business partners, and experts who could see projects through to completion.
THE BENEFITS
A large, inclusive workshop at the start brought everyone into the room and the problem space. We framed the challenges and opportunities together, so each person could see their role in the ecosystem. When we presented our findings, every team understood the rational and emotional needs of its audience, and how its own work fit the whole. They could tell one story with different priorities - internally consistent, adapted to each audience.
Gregory Lombardi Design
THE SITUATION
Like many design firms and creative agencies, Gregory Lombardi Design (GLDI) carried its founder’s name. After 30 years of success, the brand needed to grow beyond the founding principal. New partners and lines of business were taking the company past its original focus on premium New England homes - and when the founder retires, the brand must survive.
OUR CONTRIBUTION
First we had to pin down what set Gregory Lombardi Design apart, so everything we did would reinforce it rather than erode it. We had long conversations with Greg about his origin story and his point of view. We talked with partners and employees about the culture and their growth ambitions. We asked clients and partner companies - architects, builders, interior designers - what it was like to work with GLDI. And we analyzed this rarified segment of the industry to uncover how GLDI did things differently. Together, these perspectives let us map the ecosystem and understand how everyone worked on a project. That revealed the client interactions where GLDI, as the landscape architect on the team, could build stronger connections and develop designs that held deep meaning for the family. It also ranked the success factors for growth beyond New England.
THE BENEFITS
Change is hard for founders when it feels like letting go of something they built. Our recommended name and tagline changes have not been fully adopted. The logotype, though, is now simply “Lombardi” - keeping the heritage, stepping back from the individual, and opening the door to a broader future.
Hikma
THE SITUATION
Hikma, a generic pharmaceutical manufacturer, had grown dramatically through acquisitions around the world, and employee culture had eroded along the way. The expert hired to repair that culture brought us in to uncover the brand, knowing it would be crucial to uniting employees across the globe.
OUR CONTRIBUTION
Finding differentiation in a generic pharmaceutical company sounded like a paradox. We talked with doctors and pharmacists around the world and heard the same underlying problem in different words: pharmaceutical supply chains are fragile. No one company could solve that alone, but the companies that cared mattered. That made Hikma’s origin story a huge asset. Founded by a Palestinian refugee in Jordan, Hikma believed in local investment, and with each international acquisition it invested in local communities instead of merely profiting from them. Hikma cared, and it called out the problems its customers faced. Our rearticulated positioning became part of a new employee culture program that brought the company together, from top leadership to teams around the world.
THE BENEFITS
Today, Hikma’s brand marketing focuses on accessibility to medicines - a direct answer to both the costs and supply chain challenges of the pharmaceutical industry. They have become the leading provider of medicines in the Middle East and North Africa, and their growth in other markets (like the US) are contributing greatly to solving healthcare’s systemic challenges.
Welle
THE SITUATION
A company called NAPPI asked for a website redesign. We insisted on following our process to understand why, and determine how to help them succeed.
OUR CONTRIBUTION
NAPPI trains medical workers to protect themselves and their patients from violence in the healthcare workplace. After a workshop with its leaders, we followed our learning agenda to nurses and administrators at healthcare systems, to NAPPI’s Master Trainers - some of them former nurses - and to an analysis of the competition. Healthcare sees 4x the workplace violence of other industries, and 1 in 8 nurses in the US has been assaulted at work. Competitors taught physical defense, restraints, and intervention. NAPPI taught behavioral awareness, management, and prevention. The system was so respected, and the trainers so well liked, that nurses defended the brand whenever new employees questioned the name - NAPPI sounds like a hair insult or a British diaper. To grow its public image and client base, the company needed a rebrand. The problem ran deeper than the rhymes: NAPPI stood for Non-Abusive Psychological and Physical Intervention, but its trauma-informed program was far more than reactive “intervention”. It was proactive management, and that was what set NAPPI apart. The name had to point that way. We landed on Welle - a healthy, calm-sounding name with a unique spelling drawn from the German word for “wave”. Then we executed the whole rebrand: parking lot signs, trainer uniforms, educational materials online and off. And of course, the website.
THE BENEFITS
Before working with us, NAPPI won business by reputation alone. After the rebrand, they went outbound - email marketing, trade shows, and more. When the pandemic overwhelmed healthcare workers, Welle could turn to new customers, like museums struggling to enforce masking policies. The brand investment let them carry that trust into new markets and adapt as conditions changed. Today, Welle continues to serve hospital systems as their primary clientele.