Raincastle Named a Top B2B Web Design Company in Boston

March 28, 2019/by Garrett Dandreo

What it Means to Be a Brand Agency in Boston

Earlier in my career, I was part of a national organization of creative firms that met in different parts of the country. I recall sitting at bar in the French quarter of New Orleans, a few cocktails in, when a colleague from New Orleans said, “You know the difference between branding firms in Boston and those down here?” He paused, “Y’all live above the neck… we live…below the neck!”

As well as being highly amused, I recognized the depth of his colorful statement and it caused me to reflect upon the top ten attributes to look for in a Boston based branding agency:

February 25, 2016/by Garrett Dandreo

Six Steps to Simplifying Naming Companies and Branding

Faced with naming companies, you may conjure visions of silly corporate naming competitions over cold pizza or the endless search for the elusive, available url, which often results in a substandard name by default. While happy accidents can happen, most naming exercises fail because they are purely subjective, not based on any brand strategy.

RainCastle is your source for branding and marketing services. We work with clients to help them promote their message and create a memorable brand identity in their industry. Part of that work starts with a name that represents them. Contact us if you find that you can’t pinpoint the right name for your brand! In the meantime, let’s go over why a company name is so important:

A name is the most visible manifestation of your brand, whether it is a corporate, product or service brand, or if you’re trying to name a startup, it needs to be built on a solid foundation. Having lead quite a few naming processes, I’ve found success by breaking down the process into six steps.

December 3, 2015/by Garrett Dandreo

Start With Target Buyer Personas to Build Your Online Brand

If you’re in the marketing field, you’ve probably heard of “Buyer Personas,” but what are they exactly, and why do you need them?

For fans of the Showtime series, Homeland, you may have seen super sleuth antihero, Carrie Mathison, sitting cross-legged, surrounded by an array of suspect’s photos, including bios, histories and known associations. These are personas. In the case of “Homeland,” these are Terrorist Personas. Fortunately, we live in the less perilous, yet often elusive world of marketing, but share Carrie’s need for a deeper understanding of our targets; what they look like, what they like and dislike, where they congregate, what they read and who they associate with on a regular basis.

October 21, 2015/by Garrett Dandreo

Five Reasons You Need an Agency & Five Reasons You Don’t

agency_or_not I’ve spent considerable time as an agency owner putting myself in the shoes of our clients and prospects to better understand when an agency like ours, or any agency — creative, brand, web, inbound marketing, etc.— is the right investment and when it isn’t; here are my insights.

September 1, 2015/by Garrett Dandreo

How a Concise Brand Strategy Will Save Your Website Project

You are in charge of Marketing. Your competitor just launched a new site. And it’s good. They have case studies, testimonials, video and interactive diagrams. What’s even more disconcerting is that they are telling a compelling story with a point of view. Their copy is solid, design is modern; They got their branding right.

Your CEO is not happy, wants to see something done about it and wants results fast… but within a budget. How do you get it done?

August 18, 2015/by Garrett Dandreo

How Working on Your Website Improves Your Brand & Business

The other day, I saw a website for an agency that uses the tagline, “We Work on Your Business, Not Just Your Website.” I related to the line’s strategic positioning and have to admit to being disappointed that I hadn’t come up with it myself.

July 22, 2015/by Garrett Dandreo

How Your Rebranding Strategy Leads to More Sales

Our staff has marveled at just how frequently the companies for whom we have provided brand strategy, visual branding and website redesign, have been purchased by larger companies not long afterward.

Soon after we provided branding and web design for our client, Predilytics, a predictive analytics company, they successfully sold their company to Welltok, Inc.

Again, shortly after creating a comprehensive rebrand and launching a new identity for Unica Corporation, they successfully sold to IBM. At about the same time, our client, Netezza, was also sold to IBM. There was also Coley Pharmaceuticals and Targanta Therapeutics; these are but a few client transactions that have happened not long after our collaborations were completed.

June 23, 2015/by Garrett Dandreo

Do I Need a Brand or a Visual Identity?

Sometimes when people come to us for “branding,” I quickly ascertain that what they really mean is an updated “visual identity.”

“So, you’re looking for help integrating your vision, competitive positioning, audience messaging, market perception and corporate culture,” I might ask. Just as often they respond, “I just need an update to our logo, collateral templates, PowerPoint, web design, etc.” For many, the visual manifestations of a brand are “The Brand.”

February 16, 2015/by Garrett Dandreo

Brand personality: who really cares?

In our data and analytics driven marketing world, why would something so touchy feely, so ethereal and hard to quantify as brand personality be something you care about?

Everyone wants to be Apple. Everyone wants to, “Think Different.”

January 28, 2015/by Garrett Dandreo

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