KMG Featured in INNOVATE Saint Louis
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When invited to participate in the INNOVATE St. Louis edition, we were glad to jump on board. The book features 100 companies, highlighting the organizations and people moving our great city forward. We are pleased to be in such wonderful company.
The mission of the INNOVATE® publishing series is to feature the top 100 innovation success stories from the most exciting cities around the world.
Please find our feature below.
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Cabanne Howard did not want to create just another marketing firm. She had seen a myriad of marketing firms over the course of a career that has taken her to Paris, New York, and Los Angeles before returning to her hometown of St. Louis. And all these firms seemed to operate with a similar formula—using cookie-cutter methods to crank out stock results for clients.
Howard set out to do things differently. She had a vision to create a business-to-business strategic marketing firm that would focus on building long-lasting relationships. One that would take the time to understand each client’s unique needs and challenges in order to help them fly further, faster, and higher. In other words, she wanted to help her clients bring the complex into focus.
The result was the launch of Kaleidoscope Management Group in 2015. Howard wanted KMG to be the firm she wished existed while on the client side, where she’d held roles such as senior manager of global advocacy communications for Peabody, the St. Louis–based $5 billion energy company, and as director of sales and marketing for S. King Collection, a consumer luxury goods company.
Howard brought Peabody with her as her founding clients when she launched KMG and has since added clients in industries ranging from healthcare to real estate to technology. She has been focused on thoughtful growth rather than fast growth, expanding KMG’s staff and its client base in a mindful manner.
The firm’s clients now include three of St. Louis’ top 10 largest public companies, as well as large private firms, national clients, and cutting-edge startups. Howard says she has grown the firm with lots of hard work and a little bit of being in the right place at the right time.
The KMG team works hard every day to exceed clients’ expectations, and to help them make the decisions that matter and considers themselves complex problem solvers at heart. And along the way, the firm has been noticed by other high performing companies who have decided to team up with KMG and also become clients.
Cabanne Howard and the KMG team look forward to expanding their St. Louis footprint and growing strategic relationships with members of the Innovate St. Louis community. While growing the firm, the KMG team also has grown its influence in the community. Howard has always been passionate about giving back and likes to find unique ways to work with her clients to support the community.
To this end, KMG led strategic marketing efforts for Women Who Whisky, a philanthropy initiative designed by Major Brands, a key KMG client. In this act of creative philanthropy, Sue McCollum, Chair and CEO of Major Brands, brought together seven female leaders to create a unique blend of Private Select Maker’s Mark bourbon, bottles of which were then sold to benefit four local nonprofits.
The Women Who Whisky effort initiative raised $250,000+ to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Forest Park Forever, and the Saint Louis Fashion Fund.
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