Team Up Mentoring | Case Study
After developing a polished Brand Strategy with Anna, founder of Team Up, we started a Brand Support partnership to free up some time for her director of marketing. For two years and counting, we’ve supported Team Up with on-going brand management including strategy, graphic design, event branding, social and email campaigns, and more.
What is Brand Support?
Often after a Brand Strategy session, business owners find themselves wanting more the best for their brand. They understand the need for consistent design and an on-brand voice but they don’t have the team or time to implement what was uncovered during their strategy session.
Enter: Brand Support.
Using custom, monthly commitments to help businesses continue to build strong brands and drive supporter engagement, we are able to help you steward and strengthen your brand by working as if we were your in-house design team — just without the full-time payroll price tag.
Who is Team Up Mentoring?
Based in Monroe, Georgia, Team Up Mentoring distinguishes itself through a holistic, relationship-centered approach that fosters mentoring, wellness, education, and empowerment, ultimately driving positive generational change.
In 2022, Team Up had their eyes set on a nationwide franchise model, but they were starting to feel the weight of the lack of brand consistency. They had bootstrapped their brand to this point, and while it had served them well, they knew it wasn’t ready to take them to the nationwide market, so they reached out to our team to help understand, simplify, and strengthen what they already had.
Caring.
Warm.
Courageous.
Reassuring.
Brave.
Honest.
Legacy.
Caring. Warm. Courageous. Reassuring. Brave. Honest. Legacy.
Simplifying an Already-Memorable Brand
Through our research, we uncovered the secret Team Up was searching for: Stay local. Even if a nation-wide franchise model was still on the vision board, they would need to replicate a similar community-based, locally rooted brand in any area they would launch.
What Strategy helped them see was that their neighbors (who already knew and loved Team Up) wanted to get more involved, but were often confused when it came to knowing exactly what Team Up did and didn’t do. Team Up was feeling this tension, too, since sometimes it felt like throwing email blasts into the void when it came to promoting events or giving campaigns.
We challenged Team Up to start thinking small and local — to speak directly to their Monroe and Northeast Georgia audience (not a nationwide audience) — in order to drive the idea that this is Monroe’s nonprofit, creating a sense of camaraderie among all neighbors, not just a few who know them now.
We suggested Team Up simplify their core messaging. While their community engagement and network of supporters were strong, the sheer volume of information they presented was creating confusion and, therefore, hindering trust and momentum.
“All of our competitors are very different from us, but the message gets muddled so people think that we are like those competitors. It's easy to understand afterschool programs or drop out prevention programs. It's not easy to understand the holistic work TUM does - so people end up thinking we are the same… As it relates to branding, the biggest challenge is getting a clear message to our community about who we are and what we do.”
— Anna, Founder
Team Up is helping build resilience in kids and families living in Northeast Georgia. They are a local community of educators, case managers, and volunteer mentors, working together to foster growth and success in those affected by significant childhood trauma.
The Start of a Partnership
After simplifying and providing clarity around the Team Up Mentoring brand, we proposed a year-long Brand Support program starting at the beginning of 2023 in order to implement a few of the action items discussed in the Strategy session. Recognizing the founder and her team's current workload, this proposal offered support to launch initiatives aimed at elevating Team Up. The first year of Brand Support was such a huge success that Team Up has continued to use this partnership year after year.
Completed Brand Support Projects:
Strategy, design, and email & social media marketing for 6 events/fundraising campaigns
Annual Report design
Swag design
Monthly strategy calls
Website revamp
Consistent email marketing
Weekly social media posts
Blog design
Strategy & design for smaller fundraising initiatives
“We love this team because they provide excellent work and do so with great intention and thoughtfulness. Fleecher is truly doing the work that small to medium businesses (and nonprofits) would benefit greatly from.”
— Amy H, Team Up Mentoring