Imprinting Nature and Personality
I have known David Meyer for over a decade. He approached me to help with a BD strategy when I shared that we needed to update messaging to be successful. Our collaboration was swift, with David and his then-partner Nicole collaboratively writing with me. Plucking phrases from our conversation and how they view their work led me to write three different firm profile texts and help them think about how personal phrases establish a graphic language—potent, revelatory, and presence. You don't see those words every day.
New To Los Angeles? I've got you covered.
I worked with Jerde's newly relocated Vice President and Director of Project Development, Curtis Scharfenaker, to develop his Los Angeles-centric business strategy. To bolster Curtis' command of the players and market landscape shaping a new LA, I compiled a report of projects under design and construction and identified future commission potentials. The study analyzed five key development clusters around the Southland and the factors driving them (industry, transit, policy). From this, Curtis and I finalized his business, narrative, and contact strategy. I simplified how to log client interactions, and he began making firm introductions and winning work! Jerde is re-envisioning the grounds around Pasadena's iconic Rose Bowl.
Celebrating Food and Family
CEO Mike Ungaro engaged me to study how San Pedro Fish Market's messaging needed to evolve as they were opening up a second waterfront location in Long Beach, improving upon the success of their fast-casual grille locations, and, importantly, transitioning the restaurant to a fourth generation in the family. My analysis spanned well beyond narrative, investigating how they could champion the contemporary fishing industry in their storylines, celebrate their staff who have worked for them for decades, and directly engage with their customer base to develop new flavor profiles. That spirit of improvisation is what led to the founding of SPFM.
A Cultural Legacy, Not Solely A Family Business
Listening to the leadership of SPFM describe how they grew up in San Pedro—the home of Van Camp and Starkist canneries—and what it was like growing up around the fishing industry with other immigrant families of Japanese, Italian, and Croatian descent was visceral and instantly proved an authentic differentiator to their brand.
Mike and I explored ways to leverage that idea of community and cultural legacy to expand SPFM's tagline, 'celebrating food and family' vis-a-vis festivals, digital marketing, pop-ups, and catering options.
