Examples

Brand development for Hawaii Pacific University

Situation/Opportunity: In February 2017 the new President of Hawaii Pacific University requested that we conduct a study to better understand our brand.

Action: Led the organization through a comprehensive brand initiative, including discovery audit, competitive analysis, qualitative and quantitative surveys, and analysis. Initiated findings in a final brand report and implemented creative concept testing, guidelines, and brand workshops for the organization. Specific actions include:

1. Meet with key stakeholders and establish a collaborative process to ensure authentic and successful work and generate the buy-in needed to ensure the project can create lasting impact and an enduring brand.
2. Gain an authentic, comprehensive understanding of HPU including strategic planning, academic offerings, enrollment activity, and brand and communications efforts.
3. Assess the current HPU brand and identified competitors, to identify key insights and areas of differentiation
4. Develop initial insights and strategic recommendations for additional in-depth research and analysis during qualitative and quantitative testing.

Result: Effectively led the organization through the brand overhaul over the course of one year, formally launching the new brand in February 2018 at the launch event. Outcomes included:

1. A comprehensive final brand report which detailed key findings, brand architecture, creative concepts, and next steps.
2. A marketing communications audit report which detailed the competitive landscape, HPU’s communication messages and social media, HPU’s marketing themes and hierarchy, HPU’s graphics, website, HPU’s advertising strategy, photography, colors, typography logo use and tagline.
3. A brand guidelines mini book, website, and style guide including visual and verbal identity foundations.
4. Adoption of the new brand identity, logo and language was profound as faculty, students, alumni, and staff began speaking and sharing their stories about HPU in a consistent format. Results are apparent in enrollment increased by 16.7% in the year the new brand was adopted and donor relations increased by one million.

Increasing enrollment for Hawaii Pacific University

Situation/Opportunity: When I joined the institution in June 2015 the president informed me that enrollment had been declining over the last several years and I needed to help our enrollment team turn around the numbers.

Action: Intense focus on enrollment management and began work on a comprehensive communications plan that would bring consistent messaging to potential students and provide integrated touch-points across all media channels, including emails, brochures, social media, digital advertising, recruiter presentation, and letters.

Result: We turn enrollment around growing 10% from 2015 to 2016 and 16.7% from 2016 to 2017. We also increased our local student population by 50% in the 2018 school year.

Quote from Star Advertiser: September 7, 2018 “50 Percent Increase in Local Student Enrollment at Hawai‘i Pacific University. HONOLULU -- Hawai‘i Pacific University (HPU) is seeing results in its commitment to making higher education accessible to Hawai‘i’s youth. Overall, first-year enrollment at HPU is up 16.7 percent from last year.

Product Configurator for National Starch

Situation/Opportunity: In June 1997 National Starch and Chemical Company requested my assistance in developing a way to communicate their engineering configurations to customers. The system they sold have many options which could be setup to best meet the environmental, product, and quantity needs of their customers.

Action: I led a team in the development of an interactive media product configurator allowing National Starch and Chemical customers the ability to drag-and-drop component parts into place and develop a draft configuration of their needs.

Result: We developed the media piece and successfully distributed it to National Starch and Chemical customers where it helped to explain the complicated process and provide a configured product quickly.

Quote from National Starch: “We needed media to help the sales force introduce our systems to their customers and run preliminary engineering. Jeff’s media explained why our product was needed and the cost savings by moving to our systems, The electronic configurator estimated the cost to do the job and provided drawing schematics. The system was designed to meet our specific requirements and has proven itself in saving time and money. Ed Horton - Senior Special Projects Supervisor – National Starch and Chemical Co. 908-575-7215

Web development for U.S. Navy

Situation/Opportunity: In March 2008 the Commander of Navy Installations was seeking a leader to led the development of a comprehensive world-wide Navy website. The website would need to represent Navy commands from Italy, Spain, the U.S., Hawaii, Gaum, and Japan. Consistency in design and architecture was essential as was the individual installation’s ability to manage and update the content. After one failed attempt to construct the website led by the Public Affairs Office, I was asked to lead the effort and start fresh. This was based on my prior knowledge and experience in website development team building.

Action: I started the project by constructing a draft needs assessment for the Commander. Once approved, I began regular telecom meetings with leaders from each of the regions. We worked together to compromise on each installation’s specific wants and worked to best fit their requirements into the approved assessment plan. This process continued to completion on October 2009 when the 17 new Navy Installation websites went live.

Result: I effectively gained an understanding of the strategic need for the Commander of the Navy and developed relationships with Navy leaders worldwide by listening to their specific needs and building compromise through trust. A total of 17 websites were developed in 19 months and are still being used today. In 2011 I was asked again to lead the Navy in another worldwide website development effort in constructing a similar system for the Family Support Division. This was successfully completed in February 2013, and is also still operating today.

Quote from Navy, Warfighter & Family Readiness: Jeff has a tremendous blend of technical, communication, supervisory and organizational skills. His work with web site development, commercial printing hardware/software, remote digital display technology, graphics programming, business systems and more catapulted our services to best-practice level. Jeff’s operation is acknowledged as a leading marketing program by Navy installations around the globe. His ability to communicate with customers, staff, colleagues and the Navy chain of command are exceptional. Through technology and a personal touch, Jeff has molded a staff that is talented, motivated, productive and most importantly responsive to our customer requirements. One of Jeff’s most noteworthy accomplishments was serving as a leader/coordinator of professional colleagues throughout the United States and overseas in developing a universal web page to meet the demands of customers while surviving the close scrutiny of senior management, information technology experts and legal reviews. Tom Jones. Warfighter & Family Readiness Director (JB9). Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. 808-473-0787

Joint Base team building for U.S. Navy

Situation/Opportunity: In 2010 Navy Region Hawaii and Hickam Air Force base were joined to form Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam as a congressional requirement outlined in Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). I was asked to lead the merging of the Navy and Air Force marketing and communications departments. This effectively joined the two teams and increased the staff to 15 people. Responsibilities were extended to cover both the Navy and Air Force personnel needs.

Action: In preparation for the realignment I prepared an implementation analysis focused on adopting best practices from both the Navy and the Air Force operating procedures. Together this would benefit in building a comprehensive approach to supporting both target customers and will benefit the base realignment by building consensus among both constituencies.

Result: My implementation analysis was adopted by the Command and we successfully merged the staff, responsibilities and practices into one cohesive department focused on delivering superior marketing and communications to both the Navy and the Air Force Commands, duty members, and families.

Quote from Air Force Commander: Jeff is our Regional Marketing Manager here in Hawaii. I have had the pleasure of working with Jeff for the past 18 months, and he is absolutely dedicated to producing the highest quality work. Jeff has demonstrated his dedication to our mission by performing his duties with both the Navy and AF service members in mind. He is able to see the big picture and find ways of creatively marketing to synchronize two distinct service groups with often competing and disparate interests. He is always looking for opportunities to reach both sides of our Joint Base and his work here makes him uniquely qualified to manage the marketing communications across all Regions within the CNIC enterprise. David Kirkendall. Colonel U.S. Air Force. Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. 808-473-0801