We build brands that make the world a better place.

Cartis Group builds leading brands through sound brand strategy, precise message development and inspirational design. We work with organizations that have a positive impact on the world and humanity.

New York Life Case Study

Whole Foods Case Study

USAA Case Study

Portfolio
The most brilliant brand strategy and flawless marketing plans are only theoretical abstractions until they are given life through exceptional design.

Brand Identity - Logos

Brand Collateral - Paper Systems

Brand Collateral - Print and Interactive

Whole Foods Market - Brand Strategy and Design

USAA - Brand Strategy and Design

United Heritage Credit Union - Brand Strategy and Design

Streetman Homes - Brand Strategy and Design

Commemorative Brands Inc. - Artcarved, Balfour and Taylor Publishing

Pearson Education - Brand Strategy and Design

Clients
Our process produces a unified executive brand vision specific to your organization and infuses that vision into the entire team.

Not only do our clients end up with beautifully designed brand collateral, they also have a unified belief system that motivates the entire organization to start thinking like their brand.

API - American Physicians Insurance

ArtCarved
Asure Software

Balfour
Bank of America
CCSSO—Council of Chief State School Officers

Carus Dental

City of Hillsboro
Commemorative Brands
Compass Bank
Dell

EdSteps
First American Corporation

Harcourt Assessment

IBM Credit Union
Keep Austin Beautiful
Keep Texas Beautiful
Legerity
Motorola

New York Life
NetQoS
Onramp Access

Pearson Education
Progressive Insurance
Sara Hickman
Schlumberger
Schwinn Cycling & Fitness

Seminary of the Southwest

Silicon Laboratories

Streetman Homes
TCEQ—Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality
Texas Department of Health

Texas Lottery
United Heritage Credit Union
University of Texas at Austin
USAA

Wayport
Whole Foods Market

Knowledge
To build a meaningful and relevant, we must start with a common belief system. That common belief system starts with a common language.

The following information helps us develop that common language. It is offered as an introduction into the world of branding and a guide to working with us.

BrandSmart Definitions

Brand — A set of beliefs, values and images held by your various stakeholders about your company, products and offerings.

Branding — The process of instilling a defined set of beliefs, values and images into every communication touchpoint.

Brand Architecture — The architectural configuration upon which current and future branding endeavors and extensions will be built.

* Independent Brand — Brands may share ownership and resources but are marketed independently (Brinker International owns Chili’s and Macaroni Grill)
* Parent Brand aka “over brand” — All brand offspring share the parent brand’s name (Microsoft, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Word)
* Central Brand aka “master brand” — All products are marketed under the central brand name (Sears sells Sears brand hammers, dishwashers and clothing)
* Large brands with complex product/service offering may operate several architectures simultaneously. For instance, Sears sells and owns Sears Tools and Craftsman Tools.

Brand Audit — An assessment of all communication touch-point materials, ensuring they harmoniously support the core brand strategy.

Brand Platform — The Brand Platform is the foundation upon which a brand strategy is built. It typically consists of the following elements: Brand Positioning Statement, Brand Architecture, Brand Personality, Brand Promise and Brand Essence.

Brand Culturalization — The process of building a strong brand culture within your organization, centered on delivering a defined brand promise.

Brand Equity — The monetary value of the brand as a corporate asset above and beyond the balance sheet.

Brand Essence — The distillation of the intrinsic brand characteristics into a succinct core concept.

Brand Extension — A new product or service that is related to an existing brand through its defined brand architecture.

Brand Identity — The outward manifestation of the brand.

Brand Messaging Propositions — Defines the three or four key “messages” most relevant to your customer, based on both rational and emotional variables. The Brand Messaging Propositions are the building blocks for all organizational messaging.

Brand Personality — The human characteristics and attributes describing the brand.

Brand Positioning Statement — The conceptual “space” occupied in the mind of the customer — rooted in competitive advantage and resonating with broad audiences yet motivating and influencing individuals on their own terms. The Position Statement answers: what do we do, who do we do it for, why do we matter?

Brand Premium — The difference between the value of the brand to the consumer and the cost of the product/service without the brand attached…the premium the brand brings.

Brand Promise — A formal pledge, made by every employee to every customer, which is delivered through every aspect of business.

Brand Strategy — The formal plan for the systematic development of a brand to enable it to meet its business objectives. The strategy is rooted in fundamental research; the brand's vision is driven by the principles of differentiation and sustained consumer appeal. The brand strategy will influence the total operation of a business to ensure consistent brand behaviors and brand experiences.

Branding Taskforce – The taskforce typically includes 8-15 members, representing every aspect of the business. These individuals will be guided through several workshops to ensure the brand represents the entire organization. Along with participating in brand strategy development, the taskforce members will the primary brand advocates during implementation. To ensure success and brand adoption, the branding taskforce should include executive leadership (CEO, President, CFO), Sales, HR, Product/Service Management, Facilities, Technology and Marketing.

Brand Touchpoint Map/Flowchart — The road map showing all brand touch points from the customer’s viewpoint and how the organization will live the brand promise at each opportunity.

Brand Value Pyramid — The messaging propositions specific to your organization placed in a pyramid structure based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This construct allows us to produce contextualized brand messaging based upon the items most important to your Ideal Customer Model.

Ideal Customer Model — Your customers’ behavioral and attitudinal attributes that go beyond traditional marketing segmentation.

Key Impact Triggers — The key 5-15 subjects crucial to success, specific to your brand.

Case Studies
City of Hillsboro Case Study

New York Life Case Study

Pearson Education Case Study

Schlumberger Case Study

Seminary of the Southwest Case Study

United Heritage Credit Union Case Study

USAA Case Study

Whole Baby Case Study

Whole Foods Market Case Study

Capabilities
We establish and grow brands through sound strategy using all forms of integrated media and marketing programs.

Our process (BrandSmart) is successful because it produces a unified executive brand vision specific to your organization, a vision that all stakeholders will understand, believe-in and deliver.

Research
Brand Equity Research

Naming Research

Segmentation/Target Audience Profiling

Customer Identification

Brand Competitive Analysis

Brand Visual Audit

Touchpoint Analysis

Strategy

Ideal Customer Model(s)

Brand Architecture

Naming Strategy

Brand Alignment

Brand Protection

Brand Metrics

Merger and Acquisition Brand Transition

Messaging Architecture
Culturalization

Thinking Like a Brand

Brand Communications

Brand Evangelism

Brand Touchpoint Map

Digital Brand Asset Management

Merger and Acquisition Brand Training

Brand Creative

Naming

Logo/Visual Identity

Collateral

Packaging
Interactive

BrandSmart Process

Using our proprietary branding process, BrandSmart, we have helped build leading brands such as Whole Foods Market, New York Life and USAA. BrandSmart produces tangible results by guiding an internal representative group to a unified brand vision for your organization and translating that vision into meaningful brand messaging.

Before we start our brand development process, we identify a branding task force from within your organization. This group represents your organization during brand development and acts as brand ambassadors as we roll out your new Brand Platform. Our in-house strategy professionals guide the task force through several workshops to deliver strategic insights such as brand positioning, brand promise and brand personality— the building blocks for all brand messaging. The task force also participates in all brand messaging workshops to ensure understanding, message consistency and complete transfer of knowledge.

BrandSmart consists of five stages: Learn, Analyze, Imagine, Act and Evaluate.

Learn. We learn and absorb everything we can about your company, your industry, the current state of the economy and other variables that affect your company’s brand. We ensure all stakeholders are heard, using several collaborative tools such as our brand value pyramid, our ideal customer exercise and our brand positioning exercise.

Analyze. We take all the information gathered and assess where your company (or product) sits on the branding ladder and how we can help you best reach your goals. The result of this stage is brand executive summary.

Imagine. This is the Big Idea stage … the stage where your brand is brought to life. You will see brilliant ideas, design comps, copy reviews and all the vehicles we will use to position your brand.

Act. We bring the imagine stage to fruition, harmoniously launching all communications to accomplish all short-and long-term goals. This process also includes evaluation criteria so we can manage and adjust the plan during implementation to maximize results.

Evaluate. We help you study the qualitative and quantitative results of your campaign. Every aspect of the campaign is examined to ensure the effectiveness of the process. We then critique the plan and brand as a whole to determine the overall success and how to improve it.

About Us
Cartis Group builds leading brands through sound brand strategy and brilliant design for companies such as Whole Foods Market, Balfour, USAA and Wayport.

There is no magic bullet, secret formula or marketing gimmick. Our process takes research, commitment, hard work and dedication. The end result will unite your entire organization in a common belief system, turn your employees into brand activists and build your organization into a superior brand.

Overview

Cartis Group is all about building strong brands. We are experts at positioning our clients for unprecedented success using our anthropological branding process (BrandSmart). More importantly, we are experts at building superior brands that speak directly to your Ideal Customer Model and motivate your entire team to deliver a defined brand experience.

What Makes Us Better

We are different (by different, we mean better) than other advertising and/or design agencies because our branding process is anthropological and often leads to cultural and operational efficiencies within our clients’ organizations. Our process is successful because it produces a unified executive brand vision specific to your organization. Not only do our clients end up with beautifully designed brands that speak to a defined target audience, they also have a unified belief system that motivates the entire organization to start thinking like a brand.

Philosophy — Life. Business. Art.
Our philosophy is inherent in our name and in how we build value for our clients. The name Cartis is a word created from three Latin words meaning life, business and art. Life always comes first — quality of life for our clients, vendors, our team members and our families. We are in the business of driving revenue, creating loyalty and inspiring emotion for our clients. Art is the inspiration and passion of our business.

History
Cartis Group was built from the ground up to build brands. Our humble beginnings start in 1992, when Shannon Carter formed mc2 Creative, which quickly became a highly acclaimed design agency. Over the years, we perfected our branding process (BrandSmart). In 2001, we changed our name to Cartis Group to better communicate our metamorphosis into a full-service national branding agency. In 2008, Cartis Group became a completely virtual company, meaning we are not bound by traditional office space or outdated norms of business practices. We work with the most talented teams in the creative industry, brought together specifically for their particular strengths. We are left-brain planners and strategists and right-brain creative directors and designers — it’s this unique mix that creates success  for our clients.

Contact Us
Call us, email us or, better yet, come see us. We’ll talk branding and marketing and how great design adds value to your business. We’ll even take you out for some live music and the best Mexican food north of the border.

Corporate Headquarters

3011 North Lamar
Austin, Texas 78705

512.476.2600

800.479.2616 (toll free)

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News

07.10.09 - Cartis Group Helps to Launch New Healthcare Brand in Arizona - Bodhi Body Signals Nationwide Change in Healthcare