Case Studies
See how CBD drives success for our clients

Penford's Integrated Success

Client: Penford Food Ingredients

Situation: Penford Food Ingredients is a premier carbohydrate company providing the processed food and nutraceutical industries with specialty starches and dextrins. Key business priorities and objectives for Penford were to: become better known in the industry with target prospects and customer for their innovative products, groundbreaking science and outstanding customer service; and provide measurable ROI-driven support for key business initiatives.

Read more


Making a splash at NeoCon

Client: KI

Situation: When KI (Krueger International), the 5th-largest U.S. manufacturer of commercial furniture, needed to make a big splash at NeoCon, they tapped Colman Brohan Davis.

Read more


Transforming from commodity selling to a values-based Brand

Client: CF Industries

Situation: A leading producer of agro-chemicals, CF Industries hired Colman Brohan Davis to help reposition the company in their transition from a co-op to a competitive business model. CF Industries had little awareness in the industry and was viewed purely as a commodity.

Read more


New Positioning Breathes New Life into Colonial Candle

Client: Colonial Candle

Situation: A 100-year-old leading manufacturer of quality candles, Colonial Candles expressed a desire to differentiate its brand in a way that would enable closer and more meaningful relationships with customers. After conducting initial primary research, Colonial Candle turned to CBD to provide a brand refresh, and ultimately, identify a new go-to-market platform that would accomplish its business objectives.

Read more


Rebrand to Expand

Client: Alliance for the Great Lakes

Situation: After nearly thirty years as the Lake Michigan Federation, the organization elected to refresh and rebrand in order to serve a broader constituency throughout the Great Lakes basin.

Read more


Old classic gets a brand makeover

Client: George Washington Savings Bank

Situation: George Washington Savings Bank realized that they needed brand recognition and distinction in order to compete in their overly-crowded banking footprint.

Read more


Launching a unified, global food ingredients Brand

Client: Sensory Effects

Situation: Loders Croklaan purchased a portfolio of food ingredients from multiple companies, sold under multiple names. The ingredients impart flavor, aroma, color and texture to baked goods…and were sold as commodities to large food manufacturing companies. Sales were flat – and falling.

Read more


A differentiating experience in lead generation

Client: Keller Graduate School of Management

Situation: Keller Graduate School of Management needed a differentiating way to engage more qualified prospects for their online graduate degree programs.

Read more


PR helps drive enrollment gains

Client: Kendall College

Situation: A Chicago institution since the 1930s, Kendall College faced declining enrollment during a period when the school changed its organizational structure, executive leadership and location from a suburban to an urban setting. Positive awareness needed to be re-built in a way that would directly impact enrollment goals.

Read more


Lead Generation: Creating buzz in the energy market

Client: Constellation Energy

Situation: Constellation Energy faced several challenging issues impeding their goal of acquiring more small and mid-sized business customers. First, few small businesses in competitive energy markets were aware that they had a choice when it came to their provider and most of them were not experienced energy managers. Second, fast-rising energy prices were creating “analysis paralysis” in the market. And finally, before the benefit of switching could be addressed, CE had to appropriately identify whether a prospect met the region’s regulatory minimum usage requirement.

Read more


Equipping the sales force to overcome price objections

Client: Siemens

Situation: Siemens Building Technologies needed to help their US sales force sell their sensor product line based on superior value - rather than to continue to commoditize their brand via price discounting.

Read more


Differentiation in the aisles catapults a new brand

Client: Beanpod Candles

Situation: When Soy Basics was looking to position its Beanpod Candles™ brand, they turned to CBD. Made from 100% stabilized soy wax, the brand’s primary attribute is healthfulness. The challenge was to educate the marketplace on the product’s environmentally friendly benefits, and get star treatment from retailers carrying multiple candle lines.

Read more


Incremental sales through strategic relationship management

Client: Eddie Bauer

Situation: To drive incremental sales from its most loyal customers, Eddie Bauer mailed a monthly mini-catalog featuring sale items. Even though the response rate was a decent 2.4%, the renowned outdoors apparel outfitter recognized that they were training their best customers to shop based on price. The average value of Eddie Bauer’s best customers was actually decreasing, and they looked to CBD for help.

Read more


Unknown brand requires an unexpected approach

Client: Biz360

Situation: The relatively unknown technology company Biz360 was launching a new product called Opinion Insights™ - a breakthrough consumer opinion research tool unlike anything in the marketplace. The product was so innovative that a great deal of education would be needed to condition the market. Biz360 chose CBD to help them get noticed by executives in Marketing, Product Development, and Marketing Research. With the product at beta stage, the debut needed to be hard-hitting, yet surgically deployed to a handful of vertical markets.

Read more


Striking the right chord with the public sector

Client: Constellation Energy

Situation: Constellation Energy identified the Public Sector, which includes schools and government entities, as a high potential vertical opportunity. To establish deeper knowledge of target audiences and methods to engage them, Texas was selected as the test market. CE further hoped to warm these leads in preparation for additional outreach.

Read more


More eyes on the prize

Client: The Wine Experience

Situation: An informational website for the everyday wine enthusiast, The Wine Experience (winexperience.com), needed to drive maximum traffic over a short launch window to a newly re-designed site. Media interest for ongoing stories and publicity also had to be established.

Read more


Delivering awareness to a digital audience

Client: National Safe Place

Situation: National Safe Place recognized that they needed to let over two million teens know that they were there for them…in a big way.

Read more


Strategic Branding with Results

Client: Constellation Energy

Situation: Constellation Energy is a leading competitive supplier of electricity, natural gas and energy-related services to business customers throughout North America. Late in 2009, Constellation planned to enter Pennsylvania, a newly competitive energy market. To do so, they needed a hard hitting way to increase brand awareness and drive inquiries fast. With direct competition already established in this market, their goal would take a strategic media and messaging approach.

Read more


Cause Marketing

Client: Alliance for the Great Lakes

Situation: To truly impact the health of the Great Lakes, the The Alliance for the Great Lakes knew that greater public awareness was critical. They sought a way to engage citizens’ response to the threats to the health of the Great Lakes and our shorelines. Concurrently, to raise the profile of the Alliance and enable the means to gain new members, volunteers and business partners.

Read more


Thought leadership PR

Client: Lake Forest Corporate Education

Situation: Lake Forest Corporate Education (LFCE), a unit of Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, wanted deeper exposure for their programs with two specific audiences: Scientists and Information Technology professionals. The goal was to first influence opinions and attitudes about the program amongst relevant groups and individuals with little or no exposure to LFCE, positioning LFCE as thought leaders and the go-to source for corporate and executive education. Ultimately, the effort was to provide leads for additional enrollments.

Read more