Case Studies

Client Problem

Since 2006, Wedgewood Group had been designing and producing a wide variety of marketing materials, including posters, book covers, advertisements, and brochures for Home Team Pest Defense (Home Team), one of the largest residential pest control companies in the U.S. In 2008, Home Team created a management-training program known as Leadership Initiative and Fundamentals Training (LIFT) to facilitate career growth and encourage promotion from within for its 1,200 employees across 50 branches.

Since the training program was brand new, promoting the various elements of the program and communicating its benefits to encourage employee participation was key to the program’s ultimate success. The challenge was determining the best way to promote the program internally and give it an identity. Given the creative portfolio of communication materials Wedgewood Group had produced for Home Team in the past, we emerged as the most logical choice to help market the program to its employees.

Our Solution

The purpose of LIFT was to help mentor and train personnel on becoming tomorrow’s leaders. So, it was critical that the brand identity of the program fully communicate the essence of a leader and encourage personnel to follow the program’s path to obtain such a status within the firm. Though we were dealing with a large audience of 1,200 individuals, the communication options were somewhat limited since most of employees’ time was spent in the office. It was important to design a brand with which employees could identify, as well as one that was easy to grasp.

Wedgewood Group’s strategic marketing team started with a strategically designed logo that would be embedded into all materials used to promote the program. We had to ensure that it was memorable, but more importantly, a symbolic representation of the leadership concept. We developed a mix of posters to relate to Home Team’s diverse community. The posters were displayed office-wide throughout the 50 branches to serve as a constant reminder of the program’s purpose and how it could help employees reach their desired leadership level within the company.

Outcome

Through randomly conducted surveys, “graduates have generally said that LIFT provided them an excellent foundation in leadership and Home Team operations, and in some classes provided a very granular knowledge about how to be a leader and manager.” As of November 2010, Home Team has graduated some 150 employees from the LIFT program – 20% of which have gone on to achieve notable promotions within the firm.

Client Testimonial

The marketing poster(s) are legend here at HomeTeam Pest Defense. I still have the ones Wedgewood developed hanging in my offices. I see them in other offices also as I travel around. As a result of Wedgewood Group’s great work, the LIFT program still lives on. “- Manager Home Team