About the project
Common Ground Development is a community focused urban development company that helps locally owned and operated businesses and nonprofits obtain commercial space in high traffic urban areas. Many of the projects the company has undertaken have been located in the San Francisco Bay Area and include revitalizing a historic property. I worked on Common Ground's expansion into the Reno - Tahoe market; specifically on the acquisition and redevelopment of downtown motels. The Common Ground team is transforming short stay hotel rooms into live-work-play community spaces for young professionals staying in the area for medium to long term stays. It's a great way to adapt to modern lifestyle choices and revitalize downtown spaces for a new generation.
The work.
For me, this work was about positioning a brand appropriately in an emerging category of business while keeping the doors open and the lights on with a more traditional customer base. I was brought in as a growth marketing manager, but took on tasks that might fall under operations and business development as well. My goal was to present an interesting and attractive alternative to 'stay in community' to our target audience while staying consistent to our traditional audiences.
The breakdown.
Brand development is a process that includes the entire founding team and involves creative work and iteration in several focus areas. For Common Ground, it included:
- Developing a logo, color ways, and visual elements that captured the innovative nature of the business.
- Producing a series of events that encouraged collaboration between neighboring businesses and interest from the surrounding community.
- Updating management systems and processes for efficiency and ease of use for young professionals.
- Production of an investment presentation deck for the acquisition of new properties.
The results.
Over a period of 18 months, through the pandemic shutdown, we were able to produce:
- An optimized process set for booking and staying at our hotels that took advantage of the best digital tools for ease of use and a better customer experience across the board.
- A construction and redesign schedule that included revenue benchmarks and investment triggers as well as old and new pricing models and projections for occupancy throughout 2023.
- The creation of fundamental brand assets and outreach strategy including social, event, and email content.
- A complete overhaul of sales strategy and reporting processes. Training of the on the ground staff on software, processes, and best practices.
If you want more detail about the strategy and approach at Common Ground, shoot me a message. I love to talk about my community building projects!
Project gallery
The most fundamental marketing project is designing the foundational brand elements including an origin story, values, voice, visuals and written language.
Jessica is a talented marketer. Not only does she have a broad range of technical skills across the marketing stack, most impressive is Jessica's ability to take complicated, technical language and communicate it to target audiences in an understandable and clear way. She's an extremely hard worker; direct and pragmatic in her approach. This makes her suited to early stage but she also has the polish and broader skill set to be able to scale.
Alex Calder, Co-Founder and CEO, Village Labs
Jessica consulted with Space Frontier Foundation during lead-up to our annual conference. She jumped in and schooled us all on what professional marketing looked like in this modern age. We all were extremely impressed. She suggested an entirely new social strategy (which we quickly adopted), suggested appropriate tasks for each of our staff positions based on their availability, provided a "plug and play" instruction manual that was easy to follow. We achieved the sales we wanted, and got the impact that we were hoping for (and more). I highly endorse Jessica's work and suggest hiring her without a second thought. You won't be sorry!
James Pura, President and Director, Space Frontier Foundation
Jessica is a keen visionary with an impeccable ability to strategize and execute a vision from beginning to final stages. She is extremely organized and able to stay on task and keep her teams on task to ensure deliverables are finalized on time and on budget. As a project manager, she ensured our goals were met on time despite having multiple contractors to manage and a tight deadline for opening. Her ongoing assistance in the marketing and events components of our business helped establish a solid foundation that has allowed us to grow and succeed as a top business in our region.
Bryce Berryessa, Co-Founder and President, Treehouse
Jessica is inspiring to work with and her perspectives are insightful and informed. Jessica sets extremely high standards for her own work and is always making steady progress toward organizational goals. She is excellent at offering consistent support, mentorship, and encouragement. Jessica has the ability to create a master plan and lay out a strategy with detailed action items customized for everyone to accomplish efficiently and prevent the team from becoming overwhelmed.
Wendy Christensen, General Manager, Ten15 Inc.
I've been thoroughly impressed with Jessica and have enjoyed working with her immensely. She has wide knowledge of the digital space, and can advise, plan and execute on strategies quickly and effectively. She's shown huge initiative and enthusiasm working with CitizenShipper and is continually adding value to our product. She has excellent management skills, and is highly creative. I highly recommend her without reservation.