Our work

The US federal government created the 340B drug discount program in 1992 to make prescription medications available to more uninsured or underinsured patients. Procuity's 340BDirect+ platform streamlines the process for covered entities (hospitals) to participate in the program. We helped Procuity articulate a new value proposition for its new product offering: capture more claims, save more money and serve more patients. With this new message in hand, the company is giving the industry a new perspective.

We'd developed a new version of our platform and needed a new story to go with it. Jed helped us build a fresh brand story that elevated our narrative from features to functional and emotional benefits. Now we can connect with the right customers and partners.

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Rich Sprung

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Senior Vice President

The Academy for Creating Enterprise (ACE) is a non-profit organization that teaches faith-driven people in developing countries how to apply the principles of entrepreneurship to pull themselves out of poverty and provide for their families. Conversations with church and community leaders in the US, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and the Philippines informed a new purpose statement, brand promise and brand messages that clarify the ACE brand story. Program graduates are making more money and finding a new sense of pride and hope.

Our non-profit expanded its services to include several new markets in developing countries worldwide. Backstory helped us communicate our value at a high level so more donors and partners could quickly understand the difference we're making.

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Roberty Heyn

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CEO

Simple Finance had developed a wildly successful point-of-sale finance fintech platform, and Aaron Allred, the firm's Founder & CEO, asked us to help him rebrand without losing the company's momentum. We uncovered insights into the emotional aspects of the business and created new brand messaging based on them. Acima went on to serve customers at more than fifteen thousand merchants across forty-six states and sold to Rent-A-Centers for $1.65 billion.

Jed is smart, insightful and incredibly talented in communicating effective on-brand messaging.

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Aaron Allred

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Founder & CEO

Brothers Chris and Kenny Hunsaker grew up in Idaho on a third-generation wheat and sugar beet farm. After running a successful implement manufacturing company internationally, they developed a software platform called Acuitus Ag. Early customers loved the results they got, but sales were slow. Using our iterative Message Market Fit® process, we worked with Chris and Kenny to find words that resonate with growers, pack sheds, processors and OEMs to accelerate traction.

Bringing a new technology platform to the agriculture industry is challenging. We were getting great feedback from early customers who experienced significant ROI for our product, but we struggled to connect with prospective customers. Backstory helped us test and refine our messaging. Now we're getting head nods and setting appointments with significant industry players.

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Chris Hunsaker

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Co-Founder & CEO

As a father-and-son team, Warren and Clark Bell created a new category by applying nanotechnology to plant nutrition and protection. Their breakthrough Nanoliquid® technology delivery system deserved a breakthrough brand story. Talking with internal team members, growers, distributors and wholesalers from every corner of the country informed and inspired a new way of thinking and talking about Aqua-Yield's plant absorption products. As a result, the company is leveraging its messaging to open new markets worldwide.

Of all of the ad agencies, communications and brand companies I have worked with over the past two decades it was the best experience, hands down.

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Clark Bell

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Co-Founder & CEO

Hunter Sebresos pivoted into a new category when his previous company couldn't find product-market fit. Discovering pay dirt in the temp space, Hunter's life experience and passion for helping people inspired a new slogan for Bacon, his temp work app. "Hustle and Shine" encapsulates Bacon's brand philosophy, purpose and culture, and our audience-specific MessagMap™ tailored Bacon's benefits to each audience.

Jed's work on our messaging strategy has been extraordinary and has exceeded my expectations. I believe he's the best in our market. He has honed the craft of discovering messages and values that truly resonate. He can also explain the importance of brand strategy to your team in simple terms that get everyone on board.

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Hunter Sebresos

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Founder & CEO

Ben Peterson and Ryan Sanders are the purpose-driven co-founders of BambooHR. As leaders who walk their talk, Ben and Ryan built a healthy company culture that exemplifies the best of HR. Our founder, Jed Morley, worked with Ben and Ryan to write a brand purpose when the company had just 30 people; today, that purpose continues to guide the business. "We set people free to do great work" is more than a mantra; it's a way of life for over 1,000 employees at BambooHR.

Jed is amazing at asking the key questions and demanding the answers that help drill into core strategy, not many are willing or capable of the effort to make this happen in a complete way. He helped us reframe BambooHR’s business strategy and brand story to accelerate our growth. I recommend him.

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Ben Peterson

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Co-founder & CEO

The son of a successful dentist, Tom Clark, knew firsthand the importance of helping dentists connect with their patients by being relatable. So he and his co-founders built Social Dental to provide dentists and their teams with the ability to be more consistently active and relevant on social media. When the business expanded to serve doctor offices, the company rebranded to Banyan, and our founder, Jed Morley, developed catchy campaign slogans like "Dentists are people too," along with a brand platform and messaging.

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Some SEO agencies take black hat shortcuts that give their clients a short-term bump in online search results but create big problems later on. Big Leap's founder, Bryan Phelps, hired us to help him and his team set their unique digital marketing brand apart from questionable practices. The brand mantra we came up with clearly and succinctly communicates what Big Leap has been about from the beginning: "Earn Trust Every Day." This anthem helps to codify their culture for long-term success.

Jed Morley led a branding exercise that helped us unearth and craft our official 'Earn Trust Every Day' motto and core values. That motto has been the driver for Big Leap since day one. It was a core piece of our culture that our early team members all unknowingly shared. Earning trust is what we do daily -- with each other, with our clients, and through marketing campaigns for our clients to their potential customers. Having it codified so clearly has helped us scale our brand culture.

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Bryan Phelps

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Founder & CEO

As a serial entrepreneur, investor, community leader and educator, Alan Hall knows how to pick winners and build communities. Alan is building a clean coal technology company called Blue Sky Energy, and we created a brand platform for it in collaboration with Alan's long-time friend and advisor, Mark Hurst. Then we worked with Alan's marketing and sales teams to articulate value propositions for each audience and an overarching brand narrative.

Backstory's in-depth messaging process helped us get on the same page and bring our story to market clearly and consistently.

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Alan Hall

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CEO & Founder

When Brigham Young University (BYU) moved the Recreation Management Department to the Marriott School of Business and renamed it the Experience Design and Management (ExDM) department, we worked with the department chair and his colleagues to create a new narrative for their program. Together we leveraged the success of previous classes and case studies and reframed them in context of the experience economy for students, faculty, employers and alums.

Jed is an insightful leader and consultant who can bring varying viewpoints together into a concise and visionary message.

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Neil Lundberg

,

Professor and Department Chair

Cadence Homes wanted a premium brand for its premium offering. The company's semi-custom homes give buyers many more options than mass-production home builders. We worked with Ryan Bybee, founder and CEO, and his team to articulate what makes Cadence Homes different, including more options for home buyers and more room to spread out. The brand platform, messaging, narrative and copy we created led to a compelling new tagline, "Build What You Want," and an up-market website.

We'd put a lot of work into building a better product, but not all of our customers immediately grasped the difference. Backstory helped us surface a new way to talk about Cadence Homes in a way that sets us apart from the competition and helps us command a premium for our semi-custom homes.

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Ryan Bybee

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General Manager

When Alex Bean exited Divvy, he realized that navigating generational wealth is challenging. We worked with Alex to clarify and articulate his vision and value propositions for the Cathartic investment group, where high-net-worth people learn from the experiences of others to multiply their wealth across different asset classes and increase their happiness by openly talking about the complexities that come with wealth.

We worked with Backstory to brand our new investment group. They helped us craft a brand strategy and story that differentiates our promise and sets us apart.

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Alex Bean

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Founder & CEO

Surrogacy journeys can be challenging. Intended parents seek out reliable surrogates who share their values, and surrogates want to make a difference by helping appreciative parents experience the joys of having a child of their own. Aligning everyone's interests and expectations is a full-time job and then some. We worked with the Center for Surrogate Parenting (CSP) to highlight their forty years of experience and articulate their unique selling proposition in this increasingly crowded and competitive industry.

Backstory helped us update CSP's story in a way that reflected its forty-year history. They did a great job capturing multiple points of view and distilling them into a clear, consistent messaging framework.

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Daniel Madero

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Director

Having already built and sold one software company, Garin Hess knew the value of a strong brand. Garin launched his second company, DemoChimp, with a focus on serving SMBs. When enterprise customers started knocking, Garin knew the business needed a different name. Our founder, Jed Morley, worked with Garin to rebrand the company to Consensus to reflect the software's ability to facilitate agreement among buying groups.

Jed moved us from a small boxed-in brand to a brand that encompasses our main benefit.

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Garin Hess

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Founder & CEO

Publishing best-selling books like "Crucial Conversations" and delivering effective training programs based on them made VitalSmarts a leader in the learning and development industry, but it was time for a change. The company had licensed content from other authors and sought to clarify a cohesive throughline. We facilitated a successful rebrand to Crucial Learning leveraging the company's legacy and paving the way for future growth. The new brand stands out in the largely me-too learning and development industry.

Backstory was masterful at managing the group dynamics to keep us moving forward while helping everyone feel heard.

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Mary McChesney

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VP of Marketing

When Dakota Pacific engaged STRUCK to refresh its visual brand identity, STRUCK asked us to work alongside them to clarify and articulate Dakota Pacific's brand position and messaging. We dove deep into the business to unpack the value propositions for each of its offerings and audiences. The result was a clear, concise, consistent story that honored their firm's investment heritage and vision for the future.

Jed is a powerful brand strategist with a unique ability to work with complex organizations to hone in on their most unique position in the market. He demonstrated an ability to collaborate with a multitude of stakeholders and harvest key insights that lead to an authentic and differentiated brand position and actionable brand strategy.

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Pauline Ploquin

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President & Partner

Having already built two dental companies together, Tom Clark and Austin McFee wanted Dentive to be different: a dental support organization (DSO) that gives dentists more autonomy, not less. We worked with Tom and Austin to create a brand platform that clarifies and articulates their unique brand of DSO and attracts premium practices that are already successful. Using their new brand story has helped this dynamic duo scale their business.

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Garner Jensen grew his independent insurance company by doing right by clients: answering their calls and questions and finding the right insurance at the right rates. When Garn was ready to retire, his son-in-law bought the business. The new owner set his sights on building a brand that would resonate beyond the company's original footprint. Do Right insurance reflects the firm's founding values and opens up plenty of room to grow.

Garn Jensen built a great insurance agency by treating customers right. Our new brand builds on his legacy and paves the way for future growth.

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Jerris Koplin

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Owner

As experienced entrepreneurs in the home warranty industry, Scott Smith and Ryan Keisel created an innovative approach that combined the best of home warranty with scheduled maintenance services. The result was a new business model and value proposition for homeowners and referral partners, including real estate agents. We helped Scott and Ryan articulate their value to each of their audiences and take their story to market. And our design partner helped them create a new visual brand identity.

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Epcon is a small company that makes a big impact on large infrastructure and energy projects. Our task was to build a brand that lives up to Epcon's hard-won reputation for consistently providing top talent for EPC, engineering, construction management, inspection and steep slope services. Now Epcon can clearly communicate its commitment to exceeding expectations every time it competes for new business. And workers want to be affilaited with a company that looks like a leader throughout the industry.

Backstory has a very unique ability to ask the right questions to understand your position in the market and where to focus your brand and messaging

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James Griffiths

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President

We worked closely with Ike Kavas and his team to codify the culture at Ephesoft and articulate new brand messaging. Our brand discovery work included on-site interviews with leadership team members at Ephesoft's headquarters in Irvine. In addition, we traveled to an industry tradeshow in Detroit to learn firsthand what messages resonate with customers and partners and why. Comparing and contrasting these internal and external perspectives created a new sense of direction for the brand narrative.

Backstory is gifted when it comes to corporate branding and articulating core values.

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Ike Kavas

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Founder & CEO

Wealth managers build a book of business by delivering solid returns and building strong relationships. LJ Cooper Wealth Advisors' managing partners wanted their firm to reflect their focus on purpose-driven investing and tax planning. Rebranding to FirstPurpose Wealth reflected the firm's values and attracted like-minded partners and clients. Now everyone knows that there's more to the firm than making money. And the next generation of leaders is bought into something more than the initials of former founders.

Backstory cut through all the acronyms and sameness of our industry and found the core things that set us apart.

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Ken Bown

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Partner

Having secured a patent on its unique moisture-wicking foam material and after making an appearance on Shark Tank, Fortress Clothing had compelling customer success stories. However, the brand was still looking for a concise way to communicate the value of its products. Through a series of workshops with the founder and in-depth customer interviews, we focused the brand's core messaging on its ability to keep customers 'Warm to the Core' even when wet. This insight made it easier to share a unique story quickly.

Our customers become converted when they experience our products. Getting them to buy and try was our goal. Backstory helped us articulate a 'Warm to the Core, Even When Wet' message that resonated with customers and quickly communicated our difference.

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Dale Lewis

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CEO

As one of the best charter schools in Utah, Freedom Prep Academy wanted its brand messaging and visual brand identity to clearly communicate its unique differentiators. We dug deep to uncover their commitment to personalized education and codified the school's internal brand culture to live up to their promise: "We help students experience success by teaching them to think critically, connect socially, and serve selflessly." Given its expansion into the St. George, Utah, market, the school's newfound clarity came at a good time.

Jed worked closely with our leadership teams throughout the entire process and met with many stakeholders to learn who we were. Jed helped us rediscover our mission and values and aligned our messaging and culture with them. Having a clear brand message and a commitment to our brand promise was a unifying life vest in the ocean of stresses and challenges brought about during the pandemic. It is an absolute pleasure to work with Jed. I am impressed with his vision, commitment, and leadership. I would highly recommend him to any organization.

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Buddy Ivie

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Principal

Gabb serves a market niche that other telecom companies overlooked: kids participating in after-school activities and needing to stay connected to their parents and friends without unlimited access to the Internet beyond their maturity. We unlocked insights into the brand's core audience and differentiators. Now Gabb owns the 'Safe Tech for Kids' space with even greater confidence building beyond phones to include other devices and services like smartwatches and streaming music.

As we expanded our portfolio beyond smartphones to include smartwatches and music streaming, we wanted to update our brand positioning and messaging to reflect a bigger brand story. Backstory helped us articulate our positioning as 'Safe Tech for Kids,' along with insights into who are core customer is. These insights led to our 'Protecting Kids, Connecting Families' brand messaging.

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Lance Black

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Founding Partner & VP of Marketing

From the beginning, Rob Nelson envisioned Grow becoming a leading SaaS BI platform for SMBs. We worked with Rob to update the Grow story as it evolved. With each significant product push, we consulted with Rob on how to refresh the brand's story. Epicor acquired Grow because it lived up to its promise to "empower any user – from the boardroom to the plant floor, warehouse, or store – to make data-driven decisions."

Jed asks the right questions and drills down to the core issues. He helped craft our brand and communication style and strategy.

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Rob Nelson

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Founder & CEO

As a national manufactured home communities owner-operator, Havenpark Communities makes meaningful investments that give residents a sense of pride in where they live. Backstory surfaced a brand purpose that sets the brand apart: "To make caring communities attainable for responsible residents across America." The company seeks to live the golden rule by living up to its promise: 'Belong to a caring community.'

Building a brand in an established industry requires a differentiated brand promise. So we worked with Backstory to articulate our unique story in the market and codify an internal brand culture that lives up to it. As a result, we've built stronger resident relationships and attracted top talent to help manage and further drive our growth.

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Robbie Pratt

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Co-Founder & CEO

Spectra Benefits (now HUB International) was on a roll. A successful employee benefits company, they'd won consecutive awards for outstanding growth and wanted to sustain the momentum. We worked with Spectra's owners and head of marketing to crack the code on what their clients really want. We identified the firm's passion and turned it into a theme and path to tell their story on their terms, allowing them to play to their strengths.

Jed helped our team crack the code on what our clients 'REALLY' want. He took the time to cultivate, teach and really create a learning experience for a member of our team that I believe is priceless. Jed truly taught us how to fish! Jed is a class act and helped us identify our passion, turn it into a theme and led us to a path to tell our story on our terms that allows us to stay in the sandbox of our choice. BRAVO!!!

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Brent Bennett

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Founder & Executive Vice President

iMpact Utah serves manufacturing companies throughout the state of Utah with a focus on growing businesses and creating jobs. The organization's strategic planning, operational excellence and sales and marketing advisory services take its clients to the next level. We worked with iMpact Utah to build a brand that could scale as it built out its statewide services.

iMpact Utah serves multiple organizations, each with unique jobs to be done. Backstory guided us through the process of clarifying our umbrella brand messaging and tailoring supporting messages specific to the key verticals we serve. The result was a clearer, more integrated story we could take to market as a team.

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Win Jeanfreau

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Executive Director

As a stellar career as a chief nurse officer (CNO) for large nursing organizations nationwide, Lori Armstrong was ready to go out on her own. At the recommendation of a friend, Lori partnered with Backstory to clarify her vision and values, along with clarifying and articulating her brand story and bringing it to life. After building out her new brand platform and messaging framework, we created her website and helped her package her offerings.

Backstory took me through a systematic process that helped me bring my experience, ideas and passion to life. I knew how to take care of patients; I didn’t know how to build my brand. Their ability to organize my thoughts and words and turn them into a story for my new company -- its vision, mission, and pillars -- was amazing. I couldn’t be happier.

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Lori Armstrong

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Founder & CEO

Instagram's built-in cropping feature initially cut off photos in unexpected ways. Instasize remedied this problem by creating an app that gives users control over how their images appeared on the wildly popular platform. We worked with the founding team at Instasize to understand users' different needs and values to explore potential growth areas. Using a psychographic approach, we uncovered insights into other ways of looking at the app's benefits in accomplishing different goals.

Backstory taught us the importance of branding. They helped us identify our true target customers, shape our messaging, and establish our long-term values.

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Hector Lopez

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Co-Founder & CEO

Differentiating yourself as a mortgage company can be difficult, given the many regulations the industry follows. But that hasn't stopped Integrity First Lending (IFL) from doing things differently. For example, the company pays loan officers a salary and incentivizes them to help customers on nights and weekends. Our brand narrative for IFL highlights its customer-driven 'You Win' approach and the peace of mind the company creates for everyone in its circle. The new story even includes value props for hard-to-recruit loan officers.

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Three sisters had an idea for an affordable alternative to expensive salon nail treatments. Keri Evans, Lyndsey Ekstrom and Christy Hepworth joined forces with Christy's husband, Adam, to form Jamberry. As one of the first companies to leverage social selling in the direct selling industry, Jamberry wanted to keep the momentum building. Working with the founders and C-Suite, our brand strategy clearly communicated the company's values.

Jed helped Jamberry put together a brand strategy around core values.

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Jared Richards

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President

Solution Stream earned a solid reputation as a custom software development shop that helped clients think through the strategy for building the right thing. Then it develops that thing the right way giving clients a tremendous ROI. To more fully communicate the strategic aspect of its work, we facilitated a rebrand for the company to Kahoa to signal its ability to cast a vision and enlist others in bringing it to life. The brand's new 'We Move Mountains' mantra, captured its ability to leverage technology to move obstacles.

Backstory clarified our marketing messages, captured the spirit of our firm and helped us define our internal brand culture.

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Chad Atkinson

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Partner

The founding members of the Kasby Real Estate team have always taken extra steps to guide the home buying and selling process. Kasby's caring culture revealed that taking care of clients means different things throughout different phases of life. We leaned into this phase-based approach in creating and activating a differentiated brand promise.

Backstory has the ability to listen to our insights and articulate the core values of our team and our brand so we can amplify our value proposition.

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Leslie Jones

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Founder

Forty years ago, Wayne Brown, a technologist and entrepreneur, formed a non-profit to make funding more accessible to entrepreneurs in Utah. The Wayne Brown Institute eventually changed its name to VentureCapital.Org, confusing its non-profit status. Working closely with the organization's leaders, Backstory renamed the organization to reflect the spirit of kinship and connection it facilitates for founders, investors, mentors and sponsors.

Backstory led us through a thought-provoking brand positioning and messaging process for a 40-year-old non-profit. They reframed our purpose and promise and made our story new and relevant. In partnership with his design colleague, our rebrand to Kinect Capital and new visual brand identity are a hit! Our community really appreciates this departure.

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Tara Spalding

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Interim CEO

Having worked in the AML industry, CEO and Founder Joseph Martin knew that no one had built an enterprise compliance technology platform for the gaming industry. The solution Joseph built was so compelling that he often sold internal customer champions on the first call. However, they couldn't recommend Kinectify to decision-makers because its website was terrible. So Joseph hired us to get his company's story straight, so prospects feel confident referring colleagues. Game on!

Backstory has an excellent methodology for telling your company’s backstory and developing your brand messaging.

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Joseph Martin

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Founder & CEO

KLAS is in a class all its own when it comes to maintaining its objectivity about which healthcare software platforms perform. Withstanding pressure from the most prominent industry players has given KLAS inscrutable authority to advise clients on which systems to buy and why. Backstory's deep dive into internal and external perceptions helped the business see new ways to communicate its core value proposition as it brought new offerings, models and frameworks to market.

Backstory helped us understand how to position ourselves to make it clear to the marketplace how we can meet customer needs.

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Jared Jeffery

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VP of Marketing

Lucidchart had 10 million customers when Dave Grow asked us to help his team learn why customers buy their software. Working with Lucid's UX team, we interviewed dozens of customers and discovered their jobs to be done. The result was audience-specific messaging that resonated with enterprise buyers and aligned Lucid's marketing, sales and client success teams' messaging. Today the company has over 30 million customers.

Jed articulated the value proposition of our product more succinctly and clearly in a few weeks than we had done in a few years.

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Dave Grow

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President

People can feel the spirit of community when they move to Mapleton, Utah. More than a plate of cookies when someone new moves in, neighbors plow snow for one another, take out trash cans and come together to celebrate community traditions large and small. Previously known for having big lots, we reframed the brand narrative to focus on Mapleton's big heart and small footprint with a new mantra: 'Small Town. Big Hearts.'

We hired Backstory to build a brand for Mapleton that is true to our heritage and guides our future growth in a purposeful way. He captured the essence of our town in just four words and inspired a new sense of shared identity and community. We couldn't be happier with the results.

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Dallas Hakes

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Mayor

Having demonstrated the real opportunity to make good money responsibly and ethically, Brandon Andra has inspired hundreds of sales reps to do the same. But unlike other players in solar that cultivate a culture of consumption, Brandon shines a light on saving and investing in getting his reps financially free. Leveraging this insight, Backstory recognized that MPWR intends to set salespeople free so they can become sovereign. Our expression of this insight became their brand mantra: 'Own Your Future.'

MPWR's philosophy and values differ from any other company in our space. Backstory gave voice to our vision and differentiators in a way that is memorable and easy to activate.

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Brandon Andra

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Founder & CEO

Payson, Utah, had become synonymous with onions even though the community hadn't grown onions for decades. City leaders wanted a new identity to communicate their actual values. Talking with new and long-time residents, we discovered they love the outdoors. The city's new slogan, 'Home to Adventure,' reflects its residents' love of dirt biking, mountain biking, horseback riding and hunting -- and has attracted like-minded businesses to the area.

The population of Utah Valley will double in the coming years. Our city wants to guide the growth in our area to hold onto the essence of our community. Backstory helped us create a city motto and logo that is true to our values. Our 'Home to Adventure' brand attracts like-minded residents, businesses and educational opportunities.

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Bill Wright

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Mayor

Side sleepers have a problem that Jay Davis and the Pillow Cube team translated into a rocketship business: thick, cub-shaped pillows that comfortably fill the gap between your head and shoulder. Expanding the company's product line beyond its initial offering raised questions about product naming conventions. We worked with Jay and his creative director to build a flexible brand architecture that makes sense to current and future customers.

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Levinsohn Textiles built on the success of its household linens and weighted blanket businesses to create a new apparel category: weighted vests. We uncovered insights into the neurodivergent and wellness consumer communities to understand their needs and how the new product could help. In-depth interviews informed the brand strategy and new band name: Pyvot. In addition, our insights informed the product design process, and go-to-market messaging and copy.

We designed an innovative new weighted clothing collection based on our success in the weighted blanket category. Backstory helped us understand, unpack and articulate the unique value of our new Pyvot product to the different audiences it serves, including neurodivergent and wellness-minded individuals.

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Adam Levinsohn

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President

The Invisalign® system opened a new market for straightening teeth, but traditional in-office visits still cost too much. Other direct-to-consumer (DTC) smile services use after-market products, but QuickSmiles delivers an Invisalign experience at more affordable rates. We worked with Josh Simonton and co-founder Jade Koyle to quickly communicate the QuickSmiles story so more people can smile with confidence.

Backstory created the messaging framework, which became the foundation of our marketing and communications strategy.

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Jade Koyle

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Co-Founder & CMO

Racore Lights' ruggedized LED lights outperformed every competitor in the most demanding industrial work environments, from underground mining to gravel pits. But when it came to telling their story, Raycore was in the dark. Backstory clarified and articulated Raycore's core value proposition for each audience to resonate with customers and partners. Now Raycore has a tagline and a brand story that shines a light on what they do better than anyone else: 'Hardcore Lights for Hardcore People.'

Jed and the Backstory team introduced us to their proven brand discovery process. They dove in headfirst to understand our products, customers and target markets. Their in-depth interviews yielded tremendous insights, which Backstory then synthesized into our Message Maps. Before we partnered with Backstory, our company had never felt comfortable turning over the copywriting reins to anyone. Jed says it better and more concisely than we ever have!

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Ryan Thomsen

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General Manager

Thomas Hatch wrote an open-source software platform called Salt (later SaltStack) that became the standard for intelligent, event-driven automation for IT operations and DevOps. Before VMWare acquired it, we worked with SaltStack to refresh its brand story. Interviewing Thomas inspired a brand purpose statement that humanizes this deeply technical product: "to amplify the intelligent and impact of every IT professional."

Jed derived a marketing identity that not only captures what our customers love about us, but also creates a driving force for the future.

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Thomas Hatch

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Founder & CTO

When his small business got hacked, Brad Caldwell couldn't find a quality security company, so he built one: SecurityMetrics. Over time, the company's story became complex. Working with Brad and his marketing and sales teams, we created a brand platform, FAB-driven messaging framework and narrative that quickly conveys the company's brand promise -- "Never Have a False Sense of Security," along with audience-specific messaging.

The cybersecurity landscape constantly changes, and our products and services have expanded too. Backstory brought our sales and marketing teams together to create a new story that sets us apart and reflects our full value. As a result, we're winning more deals and seeing more success.

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Brad Caldwell

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CEO

With a focus on serving secondary markets, Skyline Solar wanted to understand the purchase drivers behind the residential solar customer journey, including factors like financing, warranties, government incentives, etc. We conducted a customer survey and a series of customer focus groups online to uncover actionable insights to inform the company's pricing, go-to-market strategy, and add-ons that influence the buying decision. As a result, Skyline has a much better idea of who their ideal customers are and why they buy.

Backstory worked with us to better understand who our customers are and why they buy. In collaboration with Ron Gailey, Jed helped us uncover actionable insights into the purchase drivers that matter most and how to differentiate our customer experience further.

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Kyle Larsen

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Co-Founder

Sportsman's Warehouse asked us to help them better understand their customer segments. With this goal in mind, we facilitated customer focus groups in three states and built customer personas based on the insights we surfaced in those sessions. From there, we mapped out areas of the US with the highest concentrations of customers who are a good fit for Sportsman's Warehouse to inform the company's marketing and growth strategies.

Creating customer personas requires unique insights into who your customers are and why they buy. We worked with Backstory to help us develop a deeper understanding of our customers to created target communications that resonate.

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Jared Tanner

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VP of Marketing & E-Commerce

The founders of STACK Real Estate, Nathan Ricks and Andrew Bybee, envisioned bringing Class A office space to the Thanksgiving Park business park in Lehi, Utah. In addition, they took the initiative to drive new infrastructure for new growth. In preparation for the next growth phase, STACK Real Estate is leading the way again, and they hired us to help them articulate their vision for what's next.

Jed was thorough, inquisitive, creative, demanding, and complete in his work. He learns all about your business.

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Andrew Bybee

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Owner

Not only are Greg and Matt Lloyd brothers, but they're also co-founders of a SaaS company that helps client success managers win at every stage, from onboarding and adoption to engagement and renewals. The company had a unique philosophy and approach that wasn't coming across in its messaging. Our brand discovery process highlighted unique differentiators that led to the company rebranding from Affinity Canvas to Stagebase.

Backstory helped us reframe our value prop in a way that sets us apart and rebrand our company to better align with our vision.

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Greg Lloyd

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Co-Founder & CEO

As a customer-driven organization, TAB Bank has a clear focus. From placing ATMs for over-the-road truckers at Flying-J truck stops in the beginning to delivering high-touch digital-only banking services today, TAB's purpose and promise of making people upwardly mobile by giving them access to financial opportunities have remained the same. Articulating these messages for TAB helped to clarify the bank's unique value propositions and set the stage for future growth.

Backstory deep dives into the customers and really pulls out the messaging that is going to resonate with them.

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John Huntinghouse

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VP of Marketing

Tanner Co built a strong reputation over its 75-year history. But with big four accounting firms and local accountancies competing for clients, it was time for Tanner Co to refresh its brand and assert its leadership. Based on insights from our brand discovery process, we elevated Tanner's profile by positioning the firm as a strategic advisor. In addition, the visual brand identity we created for Tanner is unlike any other in its space. As a result, the new brand is winning new business and recruiting like never before.

Jed was an amazing resource in building a brand story for our firm. His whole process from beginning to end was absolutely remarkable and the ultimate work product we ended up with far exceeded my expectations.

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Jeff Bickel

,

Managing Partner

Snow College had received funding from the Utah State Legislature to form an entrepreneurship center that would teach students, start businesses and create jobs in Central Utah. Collaborating with a team of school, legislative and community leaders, we created a new "rural entrepreneurship" category that sets Snow College's entrepreneurship program apart from tech-focused programs. We also gave the new program a name -- The GRIT Center -- that reflects its participants' resourcefulness and passionate persistence.

Jed is gifted at distilling the essence of the brand message. He's not afraid to tell clients what works and what doesn't. I was very impressed at his wordsmithing after meaningful discussions with the team.

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Stacee Yardley McIff

,

Interim President

With more than 28,000 members, Utah Power Credit Union (UPCU) has created a multi-generational connection with Utah Power employees. Time and again, grandparents, children and grandchildren from the same families expressed appreciation for the credit union and felt a meaningful relationship with those working there. To build on this strong sense of customer loyalty, we worked closely with the organization's leadership team to understand and codify the beliefs and behaviors that make UPCU unique. In addition, we helped the organization clarify its mission, vision and values under the direction of Ryan Pollick, president and CEO.

Jed’s experience, passion, impeccable communication skills and his ability to collect and disseminate information both internally and externally sets him apart.

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Ryan Pollick

,

President & CEO

Engineering a messaging framework to connect with each audience. Visionary Products Inc. (VPI) guides clients through the entire product design and development process as a full-service product development firm. However, with so many different disciplines and capabilities, the firm struggled to articulate its value at a high level and to specific audiences. We interviewed internal team members and different customer segments to learn how to communicate the company's value specific to each group.

Backstory helped us refresh our brand story to reflect our current mix of services and pave the way for future growth. Building out an audience-specific messaging framework has helped us articulate our value to the different audiences we serve.

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Jeremy Williams

,

Managing Director

Wildhorn Outfitters creates innovative products that make it easier for people to enjoy outdoor adventures together. Early on, this direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand needed a story to set it apart on Amazon and its website. So we worked with the founders and brothers, Scott and Mark Thomas, to create a brand message that was true to them and different from the expected go-it-alone outdoor ethos. The business and brand have built a fan base and following by finding simple solutions to pernicious problems, like snorkels you can use without swallowing saltwater and snowshoes that are easy in and out. It's been exciting to see them grow.

Jed did a fantastic job creating a concise branding platform upon which we could build and activate our brand.

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Mark Thomas

,

Founder

Xyngular hired us to guide them through the process of applying design-thinking principles to create an amazing customer experience. We conducted onsite observations and interviews in distributors' and customers' homes to uncover actionable insights that informed product and business decisions. Takeaways from our work provided new inspiration and ideas to enhance Xyngular's customer journey and gave the company a clear roadmap for improvement.

The results of Jed’s work have guided decisions that have changed the design of our organization and given us a clear roadmap on how we can improve.

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Steve Elder

,

COO

As a serial entrepreneur, Jason Fairbourne leveraged all he'd learned in building micro-franchise businesses in developing countries and formed Yoodlize as a new way to rent anything. We facilitated a series of focus groups for Jason to uncover early insights into what the brand meant to renters and customers. Today, the Yoodlize brand and app empower people to put their tools, toys and trailers to work when they're not using them. So now you can try out a neighbor's kayak instead of having to buy one yourself.

High-quality service from a high-quality individual. Jed is an exceptional person that you will not forget.

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Jason Fairbourne

,

Founder & CEO