REFRESH

your brand

RENEW

your potential

REDEFINE

success

DEFINE, BUILD, & COMMUNICATE BRANDS

ESTABLISHED IN 1991

SO. WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT US?

  • Help to better understand your customer and what motivates them
  • Positioning around your strengths and what the customer wants
  • Messaging that sells benefits — that benefit your customers
  • Higher customer loyalty — Increasing sales

The SDM Brand Refresh™ Process

The customer’s needs have changed, the competitors have changed, have you changed? Let SDM objectively review and energize your brand for today’s market. Our Brand Refresh™ process accomplishes it all – one vital step at a time.

  • DISCOVER your internal and market realities
  • ANALYZE your strengths, weaknesses, and real customer benefits
  • CUSTOMIZE your brand identity and positioning
  • DEVELOP the ideal strategy and marketing plan
  • CREATE your brand elements and marketing tools
  • LAUNCH your expertly-designed brand and messaging

SDM will refine your communications plan and put it into action. Our six-tiered Brand Refresh Process™ guides us in objectively reviewing and energizing your brand image and messaging to prosper in today’s market.

Contact us today to learn more.

We're SDM Marketing

Based in Seattle since 1991, we’re an independent, award-winning, branding, marketing, and design firm focused on an end-to-end solution. We blend our passion, expertise, and insight to build and strengthen your brand. We provide an unbiased perspective, from the outside looking in. We focus on clearly defining your business, creating targeted communications that separate you from the competition.

EXPERIENCED.

Our group of strategists and creative professionals have years of success at refining brand images and strategies. We’ll work closely with you to define who you are today and build your brand. We then can design a campaign to communicate the “refreshed” you. We harness the latest thinking and technologies to refocus your business for an increasingly demanding marketplace and customers.

PASSIONATE.

We’re obsessive about defining and delivering the kind of marketing solutions that reinvigorate your brand. We’re committed to you and your success, whether that means a simple brand upgrade or a total reinvention of what makes your company special.

RESPONSIVE.

We’re a small, agile firm that works closely with you to anticipate and respond to your needs. Being resourceful, we provide quick and practical marketing and brand solutions. Moreover, we’re always receptive to your input, integrating your thoughts with our expertise.

Services

MARKETING

MARKETING

With our new knowledge, we develop your SDM 1-Page Marketing Action Plan™. It serves as a roadmap to your success, outlining objectives, strategies, and tactics. We plan the year in this simple 1-Page format, that can be reviewed quickly to check progress.

NAMING

NAMING

There are times when the name no longer reflects the essence of the business. For companies as well as products, the name is the first touch point with your audience. It creates the initial impression, image, tone, and unique emotion. The ideal name can be literal or custom created. Then we go a step further, confirming a new URL, prescreening your trademark and creating a tailored tagline as needed.

BRAND
IDENTIFICATION & STRATEGY

BRAND
IDENTIFICATION & STRATEGY

Our starting point. We learn about you and your marketplace. What your customers want and what’s important to them. We’ll learn about your competitors and what makes them different and how they’re positioned in the marketplace. Our defining moment. We hone in on your brand’s emotional appeal. What makes you different and the tone we speak. Our strategic insights provide the foundation for everything you do moving forward.

CONTENT
MARKETING

CONTENT
MARKETING

Marketing copy is only as good as the input given. We pride ourselves in digging deep to discover your unique story and messages right up front. We connect with your audience through words and insights that are already part of their vocabulary and lifestyle. We’re experts at keeping your messages simple and on point.

DIGITAL
BRANDING

DIGITAL
BRANDING

Creating an outstanding website isn’t as simple as just putting up pages on the web. It’s about the visitor having a positive experience no matter where they’re viewing, be it on a desktop, tablet or smartphone. We understand the complexities; we design and develop for the best experience on all the latest technologies.

VISUAL
BRANDING

VISUAL
BRANDING

Communicating your brand to customers comes in many forms. It may require updating your logo, colors, and fonts. We then incorporate that creativity in your business cards, brochures, POS materials, trade show displays, catalogs, product packaging, and Social Media. The key to success is consistency in portraying your brand and message.

OUR CLIENTS

For over 20 years, we’ve partnered successfully with clients across a multitude of industries and business sectors. We’ve supported Fortune 500 clients as well as burgeoning start-ups. Here’s a short list of our clients past and present.

* Taproot Projects – Taproot is a non-profit organization that recruits, organizes and teams up marketing professionals to work with organizations working to improve society. They envision a day when Taproot services will enable all organizations with promising solutions to successfully take on urgent social challenges.

Brands are about relationship building…
build it and grow customer loyalty”

-SCOTT MICHELSON – PRINCIPAL, SDM MARKETING

Testimonials

Our Team

OUR EXPERIENCE = YOUR SUCCESS

Since 1991, SDM Marketing’s strategic and creative thinkers have built great brands, executed smart marketing plans, and cultivated loyal followers.

When you work with us, you connect with a team of strategists, graphic and web designers, writers, and developers, each with over 20 years of experience at major ad agencies and design firms. We’re all passionate about marketing, brand building and supporting you with a personalized, hands-on approach. We take great pride in finding new ways to drive your business.

Scott D. Michelson

Principal & Chief Branding Strategist

Our Founder and Principal, Scott’s career covers several decades as a consummate advertising pro, brand strategist, adjunct professor, and business leader.

Scott thrives on projects that benefit both established and new industries, using the latest marketing principals to find results-based solutions. When he’s not collaborating with clients and colleagues, he’s obsessed with coaching his son’s baseball and soccer teams as well as traveling with the family via plane, train, automobile, and bicycle. As an enthusiast photographer, he’s never without his camera gear during his diverse activities and getaways.

MARY LAFLEUR

Branding and Design Director

Mary is a multi-talented lead designer, and creative director, experienced in such diverse industries as entertainment, automotive, education, and non-profits. She also has an extensive medical marketing background, encompassing banking, pharmaceutical, biotech, medical devices, hospitals, health systems, and advocacy groups.

She approaches each project with a strategic and creative mindset, crafting brand tactics that are consistently on target. When not on the clock creatively, Mary finds joy in nature, whether it’s hiking in the backcountry or fly-casting in hip waders on the Columbia River.

PAUL WILCOX

Director of Content

As a senior writer and creative director, Paul has more than 20 years of experience working for the likes of FCB, McCann-Erickson, Y&R and other agencies. He has made his mark on such brands as Bausch + Lomb, Botox, Hilton, Lockheed, SkinMedica, Sunkist, Suzuki, Toyota/Lexus, and Westin. Paul gets to the heart of a problem and inspires others to deliver consistently creative solutions.

In his rare off hours, Paul enjoys classic motorcycle restoration, photography and going on hikes with his wife Valerie and Golden Retriever, Macey.

JAMES FREDERICK

Director of Development

James is an experienced website developer and graphic designer, specializing in building custom websites in WordPress.

For building sites, he is fluent in HTML5/CSS3 and PHP, jQuery and basic web development. He’s a big fan of clean, functional interfaces. On one of his latest creations, designing and building the Florida Catholic Website, he stretches WordPress capabilities to create a custom advertising system, multiple different news feeds and integrating a payment processor. He keeps up to date on the latest development programs, expanding his knowledge of JavaScript to prepare for its increased importance in the development field.

For design, he has extensively used the Adobe Creative Suite, specifically Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and InDesign. He is a true believer it’s important to have a site look visually appealing while easy to read and browse.

In his spare time, he’s an avid gamer and enjoys watching Star Wars with his family.

SOCIAL MEDIA LEADERSHIP

Cascade e-Commerce Solutions, Inc. (CeSI)

ELIZABETH PAULSEN

President

Elizabeth has over 25 years of experience coordinating complex projects in the fields of education, healthcare, finance, tourism, retail and service.

In 1983 she received her BA in Education/Music from Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA and has maintained her skills and knowledge through continuing education.

She uses her excellent communication skills to build strong working relationships with individuals and teams who have accountability for web development.  She spends approximately six hours a week testing theories and communicating with colleagues on an international level to keep current with changes in the search engine optimization industry.

She is an active volunteer in the community and has served on the board of the Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce.

GLYNN H. PAULSEN

Vice President, Information Technology Director

Glynn has over 20 years of systems engineering experience. As Information Technology Director he oversees company systems, infrastructure, and information security.  On complex projects he serves as technical advisor.  His common sense approach to business processes aids in the development of efficient, cost-effective solutions.

He received his BS in Industrial Technology from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale in 1977 and continues his education through conferences, seminars and extensive reading.

He serves as head usher of his church and enjoys his reputation as a “behind the scenes” support person.

ARTICLES

Some Fun Facts

Years in Business
Original Hockey Teams - Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, New York, Toronto
Double stitches on a baseball - 88 inches of waxed red thread
Creative Awards

Brands must evolve to keep pace –
not just with the marketplace and customer trends, but the world.”

Scott Michelson – Principal, SDM Marketing

DISCOVER OUR BRAND REFRESH™ PROCESS

Contact Info