A Passion for Financial Marketing Performance
Dedicated. Driven. Determined.
- Repositioned the brand to focus on a bold claim of a demonstrable passion for performance
- Created new mission, values, tone of voice, and brand messaging to extend the brand strategy to all communications
- Designed an active, energetic, and meaningful new visual identity reflective of superior performance
- Architected, designed, and created content for a new corporate website
Marquis, an established marketing and compliance solutions provider for the financial services sector, was approaching an inflection point in its growth. Marquis was facing increasingly sophisticated competitors from both established players catering to larger clients and smaller startups focusing on technological innovation.
MBLM worked closely with Marquis leadership to create executive alignment and excitement as we positioned, architected, and designed their new brand and digital presence. Beginning with a comprehensive assessment, we identified competitor overlaps and opportunities, internal misalignments, perceptions, and business strengths that would inform the following phases.
The new brand promise centered on “Passion for Performance,” highlighting Marquis’ proven tools, personalized services, and unmatched expertise, all dedicated to giving clients every winning advantage. Extending the strategic framework with a new mission, updated values, and a redefined brand personality and messaging.
With this powerful and differentiated foundation, a new brand identity was designed to replace Marquis’ outdated visual presence. The new wordmark introduced a playful custom letter Q that speaks to growth, expansion, and performance. The logo also lent itself to a flexible design motif that brought a proprietary and elevated look to the brand and to the typography selection that introduced a friendly yet professional visual approach. An extended color palette introduced vibrant purple, blue, and orange hues that were distinct in the competitive space and were chosen to convey innovation and creativity.
Over many years of ad-hoc additions and unstructured product naming, Marquis’ suite of products now had significant overlaps and lacked clarity from the perspective of the customer. MBLM guided the executive team through the restructuring and renaming of the Marquis suite of products, evaluating and recommending a clearer end-state hierarchy that distinguished each product and clearly defined its role and value.
For the digital platform, MBLM supported Marquis in rethinking a product suite that had grown organically. That effort led to a more focused information architecture that clearly staged the suite of marketing products and compliance solutions. Building on the emotionally resonant design system, our goal for the website was to create a kit of parts that could be used to create a fluid set of pages that transition from dark areas with high contrast color to clean light pages that stage information in a way that can be easily digested. What distinguishes this website is a sense of expansiveness, limited photography, and a vernacular of circular shapes that can hold information. With Marquis leading the in-house development of the website, MBLM collaborated with client teams to provide knowledge transfer sessions, animation samples, and design briefs for a seamless hand-off.
