2014-2020
role
Marketing Director
DELIVERABLES
Corporate Rebrand
Digital Media
Product Design
Ecomm Development
PROJECT URL
musiccitycanada.com
Longstanding. Well-recognized. Highly respected. These were all characteristic traits of the two-decade-old PA Shop when I joined the AV equipment retailer as digital marketing specialist. But as we made the bold move to streamline our brand identity and become Music City Canada, I stepped up to the plate to not only maintain that reputation but further strengthen it by reaching new customers. Not only did I amplify the brand through content creation, email marketing, and other digital outreach, I mobilized my research and design philosophy to create a user experience that made online shopping more straightforward, more accessible, and efficient.
Rebrand
The renowned PA Shop brand was grandfathered in from its parent company. Still, as the business focus pivoted from AV professionals to the general public, it was decided this name wasn't consumer-friendly, nor did it capture our actual product line. A new identity was needed to reach our target audiences; thus, we became Music City Canada. As we transitioned, I contributed significantly to the new brand strategy, even developing a new set of formal brand guidelines and setting the stage to migrate our outdated e-commerce platform. The positive response was immediate, with new customer acquisition rising from the get-go.
E-Commerce
Platform
Music City led the way in e-commerce when they developed their own platform, but they fell behind as the Amazon boom took off and their in-house software started to become dated. Identifying the pain points facing our users, I undertook a complete renovation of the platform. My team migrated 50,000+ SKUs to a newly branded Shopify platform with a limited budget and timeframe. On top of improving how the site looked and operated, I also designed innovative tools that augmented the overall user experience, such as an interactive cable search tool that helped users track down their desired item based on specific, customizable criteria.
Home Page
Product Page
Results Page
Cart
Results
Launching on Black Friday in 2019, our new e-commerce platform was designed and implemented with the end-user front of mind and incorporated sound technical foundations that ensured everything worked as it should. This unique, easy-to-use platform contributed to a year-over-year increase in traffic and sales that has continued even to this day, with total revenue growing by 58% since launch. And instead of just letting the numbers speak for themselves, our customers used their voices to share their praise for our rebrand and the e-commerce platform through countless positive online reviews.
"When it comes to user experience, my philosophy rests on the idea that empathy with the user is paramount and that design can mean the difference between a lacklustre experience and a stellar one. The latter is precisely what I achieved during my tenure with Music City Canada. Through my unmatched approach to UX design, combined with my day-to-day digital marketing efforts, I had a significantly positive impact on the business's bottom line while strengthening our overall reputation with customers – demonstrating the vital role I played in Music City's continued growth as an industry leader."
Dylan Gray
Sales Marketing Manager,
Music CIty Canada
"Jake was an integral part of this rebrand, from concept to execution. He was heavily involved in developing the new Music City Canada... He also played a critical role in developing the checkout process, which significantly boosted our customer acquisition rate."
"In 2019, we were faced with a branding issue. We had developed 5 different brands selling on 3 separate websites pulling from 1 inventory management system. With no feasible omnichannel at our disposal, the decision was made to essentially amalgamate these brands under one parent company. This would be achieved by creating a single website that still featured each individual brand; however, the inventory set would be discoverable across all 5 branded sections of the website.
Jake was an integral part of this rebrand, from concept to execution. He was heavily involved in developing the new parent brand of Music City Canada. He created the brand's style, specifically the logo, colour schemes, and overall design concept. He also played a critical role in developing the checkout process, which significantly boosted our customer acquisition rate. We also benefited from Jake's retail background as he was involved in our online product merchandising strategies. He contributed to the structure of our search and category page product filters and played an influential role in the overall design of the product page structure. Not only was Jake an essential part of the backend setup, but he was also able to help us out with information data entry and product tagging.
We continue to work with Jake on a freelance basis, and he consistently delivers on content and marketing campaign projects. Recently he played a large part in creating our branded content for BFCM 2020. He also developed our email marketing campaigns, which were directly responsible for over 20% of our overall sales. Jake is a quality asset for any e-commerce project!"
Jake was an integral part of this rebrand, from concept to execution. He was heavily involved in developing the new parent brand of Music City Canada. He created the brand's style, specifically the logo, colour schemes, and overall design concept. He also played a critical role in developing the checkout process, which significantly boosted our customer acquisition rate. We also benefited from Jake's retail background as he was involved in our online product merchandising strategies. He contributed to the structure of our search and category page product filters and played an influential role in the overall design of the product page structure. Not only was Jake an essential part of the backend setup, but he was also able to help us out with information data entry and product tagging.
We continue to work with Jake on a freelance basis, and he consistently delivers on content and marketing campaign projects. Recently he played a large part in creating our branded content for BFCM 2020. He also developed our email marketing campaigns, which were directly responsible for over 20% of our overall sales. Jake is a quality asset for any e-commerce project!"