The Quirk Collection was a Lisbon-based company dedicated to creating high quality cork purses and bags that were sustainably sourced and produced. We connected with founder, Devika, in early 2021 and learned that Quirk was in an exciting period of transition. They had been in contact with graphic designers for an all new look and feel of the brand and they were looking for a content marketing strategy and social post guidelines for their new vision.
This story isn’t easy to share and we’re still not one hundred percent sure where things went wrong. We never got the chance to talk it through or fix the misunderstanding we had along the way. Because of that, we stand by what we created. (click here to see it for yourself)
We also always tell our clients: give us as much feedback as you can.
A Cautionary Tale: Always Give Feedback
This Holistic Marketing Strategy project started out like any other one. We were shared on the conversations with the designers, had several calls about the Quirk look and feel. We learned that they felt embracing the Lisbon culture was important, so Aub went to Lisbon. She spent a couple of days walking the city and meeting with the founder. Everything made sense and we felt very connected to the direction the brand was moving.
But we were wrong.
Our Holistic Marketing Strategies have always been built around brand goals and audiences. And this was no different. We followed our process and held our initial presentation to ensure we’re all on the same page, before we built the social post index and finalized strategy documents. Though feedback was requested, we didn’t receive any, we also didn’t push for it and carried on with our project timeline.
We took no news as good news.
Detailed feedback helps all parties to improve and get better results. We assumed that our client would work in collaboration with us, alert us to active changes in their business, and let us know when we’re off base with our deliverables.
This project taught us that we can’t hold assumptions.
It turned out that there was more behind the scenes that we weren’t aware of. We didn’t fully understand the direction all stakeholders wanted to go in – and we never got the opportunity to learn. Although we asked the right questions and offered follow up calls to remedy our missteps, this story has a very quiet ending. We just never heard back.
Now, before we start working on a strategy, we make sure to let our clients know about the importance of feedback. And we make sure that our clients are actively involved during the ‘same page’ presentation. We treat moving forward with a strategy as a consent – it’s either an explicit ‘hell yes’ or we need to talk about it more.
When it’s all said and done, we are still super proud of the work we did. Especially with the most actionable piece of the strategy, the Social Post Index. We are confident that if this brand had implemented our recommendations, it would have grown to be a profitable, sustainable business.
What is a Social Post Index?
Before we give you a sneak peek at the Social Post Index, we want to take a moment to tell you what it is. A Social Post Index is an index of inspiration for a brand’s social media presence. It’s one of last pieces (and everyone’s favorite) of our Holistic Marketing Strategies and one of the most actionable.
In each Social Post Index we define several bespoke “post types” that can easily be dropped into a content calendar. Each post type comes with a recommended frequency, inspiration for the imagery, the voice and content for the caption, the goal (and CTA) of the post, the brand audience the post relates to, and which platforms the brand should tailor them for.
We use these daily for our own social posts and for our clients because it helps with planning and creating a container for creativity to thrive when executing a social media marketing plan.
