Brand names: A conversation with Kevin Brooks, principal of Forge
Photo/Courtesy Forge
Kevin Brooks, right, with Sean Wilkinson and Arielle Walrath
Forge
Founded: March 2010
Employees: 3 principals
Startup costs: $5,000
Projected revenue, year one: $250,000
Projected revenue, year two: $500,000
Contact: 370-7298
28 Maple St., Portland
www.forgebrands.com
What is Forge?
Forge is an integrated brand marketing agency located here in Portland. Among our three principals — myself, Sean Wilkinson and Arielle Walrath — we have the continuum of core services covered, which enables us to offer our clients exceptionally well-coordinated marketing packages across a variety of media in- house. This keeps our overhead low, our engagement high and our costs competitive with agencies in the Portland and greater New England markets.
We work closely with our clients to not only understand their goals, but what their customers and clients want and expect to create goal-oriented and user-centered solutions. We research, we strategize, we design, we develop, we communicate, we review and we think about branding all day, every day.
Why did you start the company?
Collectively, we have worked in the marketing industry for over 30 years, as contractors, as agency employees and as full-time staff at global brands. From those 30-plus years, we have seen what works and what doesn’t from both the agency and client perspectives. Arielle, Sean and I collaborated on a number of projects as contractors with clients and for some of Maine’s best-known agencies. We all agreed that Maine could use some new energy in the space — a group of designers who focused on the holistic nature of branding, from identity design to print material, especially being aware of how integral the online component is in marketing today. A group that was young enough to truly understand how to execute organic online campaigns. All too often, I’ve seen agencies in Maine tack on and phone in online strategies for their clients. I thought, ‘Man, that could be done so much better.’ We started Forge to be the agency that offers the whole package and just gets it.
How do you market the company?
Our launch and initial marketing relied almost solely on leveraging the online personas and design reputations the three of us crafted over the years. Our blog, Twitter and Facebook feeds provide the deepest insights into our work. That has allowed us to become incredibly connected to some pretty outstanding clients during our first year. As we structure our own growth, we’re working on ways to bring our style and message to each of our prospective clients.
How do you finance the company?
Everything thus far has been self-financed. We’re very cautious about racking up large amounts of debt as we all know what a burden this can put on a business. This has forced us to grow in a very measured, calculated way. Some would see this as a drawback, but we’re cautious of growing too fast. We want to make sure that the level of service we offer our current clients is sustainable, and financing things the way we have allows us to keep our focus on doing great work for our clients and not on how we’re going to make that next loan payment.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Our biggest challenge has also been our biggest asset: our collective youth. I’m 29, Sean is 32 and Arielle is 33. I think some potential clients have been initially put off that we are three relatively young creatives in a relatively young business. We don’t have the gray-haired advertising patriarch most Maine agencies have. Our most valuable clients are the ones who understand that our relative youth is an asset as we have all grown up in the Internet age, watching brands emerge, develop and evolve faster than any other time in history.
What has been successful about your business strategy?
In our first year, we’ve been able to work with some stellar local, regional and national brands. Our message is getting out there and potential clients are beginning to understand the level of services we can offer, and the level of services we’ll offer in the future.
What are your goals for Forge?
Ultimately, we’d like to grow into an agency that is known not only in Maine, but nationally, as a leader in intelligent brand design and execution across all media.
Interview by Carol Coultas
New Ventures profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.
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