Picture a funnel. This is how Jason Carignan and his marketing and design team at Tonic Brand Communications see the sales process of big-time companies providing complex, and at times frustrating, services. At the top of the funnel enter all the potential customers but exiting the bottom is a much smaller number of actual sales. Meanwhile, customers spill over the side frustrated over unreturned phone calls, a lack of follow up, or that the whole process just takes too long. That’s where Tonic steps in. The Westlake Village firm simplifies what Carignan calls the journey a customer takes when buying a service from, say, a large bank or insurance company. “If you can make it easier for consumers to do business with you, you’ll not only get more consumers through that sales process but you will keep them longer,” Carignan said. Carignan and his employees moved into their current offices earlier in the year. Since then, five additional employees came on board bringing the total to 13. Carignan, a Thousand Oaks native who founded Tonic in 2003, predicts the firm will need additional space next year. There are also plans to open a satellite office in Boston to capture a demand on the East Coast for the design and marketing services Tonic provides as large companies shift their focus from serving other companies and instead adopt a business model of serving customers directly. Carignan calls it “an awakening.” For instance, in Boston, Tonic has a client in a major financial institution that Carignan could not reveal. This institution didn’t have a marketing department up until about a year ago because it sold its services through other large banks. Realizing it could sell directly to consumers, the unidentified financial institution hired Tonic to develop an end- to- end consumer experience. “They had been serving other companies clients, now they want to serve their own customers,” Carignan said. In the San Fernando Valley area, Tonic’s clients include WellPoint Inc., Dole Foods, and Cal National Bank. John Allebrand got to know Carignan when they both worked at a Glendale bank that was later absorbed into Cal National. At that bank, the pair cut their teeth on interesting advertising and communications programs, Allebrand said. After Carignan struck out on his own and started his agency, Allebrand, then the marketing directing for Cal National, had an efficient place to go to that could give a quick response. “The challenge we were presented with was what do you do with a bank that was cobbled together and how do you build presence, relevance to the market and get yourself in front of people to bring in consumers and small business,” Allebrand said. Devising a plan The Tonic crew became an extension of Cal National’s marketing team as it designed a marketing and branding plan for the regional bank branching out into consumer services and small business banking. The first campaign Carignan and Allebrand devised was placing tip jars at teller stations where customers could leave suggestions on how banking could be done better. Tonic also created outdoor advertising and radio spots based on the same theme of Cal National taking “tips” from its customers. “It was a very comprehensive communication plan that hung on an interesting and relevant idea,” said Allebrand, who left Cal National at the end of 2005. From day one of founding Tonic, Carignan wanted to have big ideas and creative breakthroughs that the agency could then their help clients implement. Key to the implementation is creating awareness for the client of what it is like to be one of their customers through research techniques, mystery shoppers, and onsite project managers, strategists and consultants. The services provided by Tonic’s clients tend to involve the consumer in a fairly lengthy process such as an application to open an account, or to get a mortgage or health insurance. “Most consumers have no clue,” Carignan said. “Most of the client employees have no clue about what their process is like. Which is why it’s often messed up.” Simplifying the complex processes is just half of what Tonic does. Delivering on promises The other half involves delivering on the brand promise of its clients. For health insurance provider WellPoint, the brand promise is that of improving the lives of the people it serves and the health of the community in general. Where Tonic excels is bringing brand promise to life in the eyes of the customer, said Mike Anzenberger, vice president of direct marketing at WellPoint’s Thousand Oaks offices. For WellPoint, Tonic created the internal communication materials, direct mailers, membership cards, website, Power Point presentations, and human resources training kits for a corporate wellness program promoting healthier living that leads ultimately to lower insurance costs. Tonic’s starting point was to understand what it would be like for employees to sign up for the program, what kind of communications they would receive and the interactive relationship being built. Carignan describes the wellness program brand as “engaging and warm’ and compares it to a friendly angel helping people lead healthier lives. Tonic was “a real partner” in designing the campaign, Anzenberger said. “What Jason and Tonic helped us step away from is the more clinical things that a health insurance company looks at and to focus on the more benefit-oriented things that consumers get interested in that ultimately lead to healthier lifestyles,” Anzenberger said. Tonic Brand Communications Year Founded: 2003 Employees in 2004: 6 Employees in 2006: 13 Revenues in 2004: $1.3 million Revenues in 2006: $2.3 million (projected) Driving Force: To simplify complicated sales processes of its clients and delivering on their brand promise.