Title of Case Study: Dario Associates

Website: http://www.darioassociates.com/

Background
Dario Associates is a nationally recognized interior design firm. However, they were not seeing website traffic that they deserved. Dario Associates felt that based on experience, talent and recognition, more companies should be aware of their services.

Dario Associates is a design firm with a focus on hospitality, corporate and country clubs. Clients include Heritage Hunt Golf & Country Club, Crowne Plaza, Marriott New York Marquis, Hotel the Mansion on Delaware Ave and the Congressional Country Club. They were also mentioned on the Travel Channel. Dario Associates knew that to continue to be successful, they needed to update their website and marketing efforts.  

Dario Associates brought their concerns to Noodlehead Marketing, a Division of Noodlehead Studios. There are times when clients are not necessarily aware of successful marketing campaigns. This was not the case with Dario Associates. They  understood the marketing process and how it could be beneficial.

The process for identifying the need for traffic included a thorough examination of the past site, an analysis into the current market and a look at the immediate competitors. This also included discussions as to the general target market audience.

Steps Undertaken to Address the Problem
There were four phases in addressing the problem of traffic. The process involved, sensitization, integration, outreach and M&E, (Monitoring & Evaluation).

Sensitization
Understanding how repeat visitors were using the site, making sure there were no fundamental objections to the structure and flow of the site, engaging Dario Associates in a thoughtful and approachable manner, meeting internally with group leaders and providing an explanation behind the design.  

Integration
Taking website development and implementation best practices and putting them to use, understanding and implementing the best assessment for practices, conducting staff updates, making physical changes to the website.

Outreach
Identification of audience, identification of key website peers and supervisor, training of any platforms including Joomla! and Basecamp, providing guidance throughout the process.

M&E
Monitoring  and evaluation of the project dictated reassessing the website for overall design, usability, navigation, assessing the website based on tiered growth, monitoring and immediately addressing of website concerns.

The Results
The results of the Noodlehead Marketing website include a newly achieved Google Page Rank of 4, an increase in viewers by an average of 300% and much cleaner online presence.

Challenges
Some websites by their very nature may demand more attention on the coding aspect. Here, for Dario Associates there were some challenges though these were overcome with foresight and executing. The challenges include specific coding that was necessary for the slider, execution of the number of images within a specific frame and writing content for a specific industry. There were also challenges of time, budget and number of technicians.

These challenges were overcome by research of potential challenges and framing a solution if the situation warranted it. Research was also conducted on coding elements that would be most suited for the Joomla! site.  

Beyond Results
The results here are sustainable given the program integration. Key words have been chosen carefully with trends in mind. The policy that was adopted included proven sustainable keywords.

Lessons Learned
There were several lessons that were learned. They are as follows:

• Programmatic: adhering to the program in place proved vital due to the new system structure implemented by Noodlehead Marketing. This meant that issues of accessing specific data were no longer a threat. This also serves as a notice that the workings of the current SWOT analysis is effective provided there are controllable measures in place.
• Technical: Understanding that not all technical procedures require the same guidelines are important for success. Coding concerns that were at the forefront were no longer present by the midway point. As well, the graphic design department had to be sure that the backend was fully prepared and operational before uploading their renderings.
• Process: This process was mentioned briefly with the SWOT analysis. As with any analysis the internal processes will dictate change of the external processes. The terms of the change were important to understand along with the relevance of the change.

Conclusion:
The Dario Associates website showed that having a process in place, taking into consideration how users and bots navigate the website and being aware of potential technical concerns can dramatically shape the overall experience and outcome for all involved. There was a freedom to expand design beyond the initial scope. As well there was the freedom to create an effective SEO campaign. That the client was willing and reliant upon Noodlehead Studios proved valuable in the analysis as well.

Behavioral requirements included understanding of the internal and external audience and the integration of past work throughout. That is no easy task as design by its very nature is predicated on change. While there were some restrictions in terms of time, budget and the number of technicians, the overall success was not hindered. Redundant quality control processes were in place and also proved their own worth by allowing for exploration and providing alternate approaches.

Johann Lohrmann
Director of Research & Development
www.noodleheadmarketing.com
September 2010
www.johannlohrmann.com