case studies

Queue

Brand Foundation

QUEUE, an IT services and support company, is celebrated by its customers for providing consistently extraordinary service. Such as flawlessly switching out the 2,000 personal computers of a leading consulting firm in a single weekend. And photographing each desk beforehand, such that all is left as it was found. All by technicians that wear suits and ties instead of ponytails.

Nonetheless, QUEUE's leadership is exceptionally humble. As a result, their marketing efforts were ineffective as they searched for a way to feel comfortable talking about their strengths. Our role was to extract the essence of the Brand from research data gathered by one of our key strategic partners, Torque Customer Strategy. The challenge was then to articulate that essence in a way that would be influential to external stakeholders, and of course be comfortable for all QUEUE personnel.

In the course of facilitating QUEUE's Brand Foundation, just the right balance was found with a perfectly true positioning statement derived from the mouths of customers themselves: People call us extraordinary.

QUEUE's CEO, Kyu Lee, has been a true CBO — Chief Brand Officer — by using the Brand Foundation as the primary point of reference for all activities and decisions, including performance reviews — with bonuses being issued based on how closely each employee is living the Brand.

Kyu also encourages storytelling among employees about how they or their colleagues have lived the Brand Foundation — like the story of the technician who, on his own initiative, spent four hours in a cab to spend five minutes fixing the crucial connectivity issue of a grateful customer.