Building the Clarus Hall brand

Before Clarus Hall had a name or any other trappings of a brand, we met with its founders, the management team of a brokerage agency named Producer Resources. They asked us to help them create a breakout brand that would make a splash in the industry.

Producer Resources had already garnered considerable success providing comprehensive back office support to independent advisors across the country. The new company would be an elite group: a nationwide network of smart, motivated professionals with high aspirations, an appetite for collaboration, and a shared commitment to principles of honesty and integrity. Our job was to develop the brand from the ground up: positioning, messaging, naming, visual identity, website, and collateral—the works.

Rather than offering support services to a broad network of advisors, the new brand would be very selective. It would invite only the most ambitious advisors to join their elite group—a collaborative, nationwide network of smart, motivated professionals with high aspirations and a shared commitment to principles of honesty and integrity.

We began by conducting internal workshops with the leadership team to clearly differentiate the new brand from the old, as well as from their most established competitors. We then executed a brand audit, including qualitative research with their target audience: ambitious independent financial advisors focused on serving high net worth individuals (HNWIs) and businesses owners.

Our insights report identified the new brand’s greatest opportunity (a yearning for business growth) and most significant challenge (over-identification with the existing brand as a service provider rather than as a thought leader).

It quickly became clear that the new venture would distinguish itself by providing a creative, methodical, and proactive approach to growth—a roadmap for collaboration between the best and brightest. The brand we were developing together was therefore something of a private club, invitation only, that celebrated the achievements, ambitions, and shared values of its members.

We named the new venture “Clarus Hall” to evoke this collegial sense of exclusivity—a place where the best and the brightest congregate and collaborate.

To drive home their mission, we provided the tagline “Envision success. Grow brightly.”

The logo acted as a bright beacon for prospective partners, with a supporting color palette and an extended visual language that wove together cherished traditional values with timeless styles.

We developed Clarus Hall’s identity system, digital presence, collateral, and a brand standards guide. Our client hit the ground running as a leader in its field. A globally distributed industry publication, Finance Monthly, quickly took note, publishing an interview with the founder about the brand launch.