The Challenge

Dave Wike had an idea for a product—a quarterly subscription box for pastors. He decided to slap together a Wix website over a weekend and pay a developer to add shopping cart functionality.

Then, he emailed his list of pastors. Did any of them want to give this new box thing a try? The experiment took on a life of its own, and before long, Dave had a couple hundred subscribers!

As testimonials rolled in, Pastor Box’s true value came into focus. Pastors need to prioritize their own spiritual formation, and they also need new fodder for teaching and counseling. Yet, when it comes time to pick new books, they often fall prey to analysis paralysis. A highly curated box of resources and surprises brings refreshment, inspiration, and fun—and at an incredible 60% off retail.

Dave had stumbled across a solid, scalable business, but as months passed and organic growth tapered off, he realized that the Pastor Box brand was all over the place. He couldn’t reasonably expect Instagram followers, website visitors, and email subscribers to look past the weak messaging (“Get cool stuff before everybody else does”) and Frankenstein website. 

The messaging needed to speak to what matters most to pastors. The web presence needed to remove friction from the buying process. Most importantly, the brand needed to capture Dave’s genuine desire to encourage and serve pastors.

The Journey

Our team at Balernum invited Dave to our Knoxville office and guided him through our brand workshop. We spent several days answering important questions: Why does Pastor Box exist? Beyond the product’s functional benefits, what does the brand stand for? How does it improve the lives of hard-working pastors who spend so much time caring for others?

Like so many founders, Dave launched Pastor Box because he had a burning desire to make something better. The goal with brand development was never to spin up new ideas and language like paper cones of cotton candy but to draw out and define what was already true.

It’s often difficult for a founder like Dave to separate his personal beliefs, values, and ethics from the brand. Where does Dave end and Pastor Box begin? How do we make scale possible by relying on the brand strategy, not Dave’s constant vigilance and oversight?

The brand strategy would take the brand integrity monkey off Dave’s back. The strategy—not Dave’s best guess—would define what was authentic and “on brand” and what was not. Meanwhile, simple tools like Balernum’s Cheat Sheet would make it easy for other team members to make on-brand decisions.

The Destination

We gathered up the key insights and clarified Pastor Box’s mission, vision, brand personality, core values, goals, audience, high-level positioning, value proposition, and messaging. We loved watching Dave respond as we articulated what had been in his heart all along. His passion was contagious.

With the codified brand strategy in hand, we also gave Dave two beautiful options for the visual identity. One incorporated more Christian symbolism, albeit with a fresh, surprising twist, and the other paid homage to Dave’s background in publishing—an instantly iconic book shape with uppercase PB and a sturdy custom wordmark to go with it. We also hand-picked typography and developed two different color systems to support the many aspects of the visual identity: web, social, email, and print.

Dave’s problem was not finding something to like but choosing between the two. We twisted his arm—just kidding—and he chose the book over the Christian symbols.

Once we buttoned up the visual identity, we redesigned the entire website and used the new verbal identity to craft copywriting. The website uses negative space and subtle animations to put the focus on the value proposition and testimonials and explain what a Pastor Box is and how to get one. 

Being a solo founder isn’t easy. Investing significant cash in a real brand isn’t easy either. However, we could not be more pleased with the outcome of our collaboration. Dave finally got the brand that matched Pastor Box’s value to customers. 

Thank you, Dave, for entrusting this project to Balernum. 

Voice & Tone:
Pastor Box is... 
warm and friendly.
mature, yet enthusiastic. 
accessible, not elitist. 
thoughtful and sympathetic. 
sincere.

Vision:
A guest book containing stories and testimonials from 10,000 pastors who have received refreshment, encouragement, and inspiration.

Mission:
To delight, inspire, educate, and care for pastors. 

Examples of Web Copy

We serve pastors, ministry leaders, and bibliophilic Christians with a quarterly collection of books, resources, and goodies.

Meet Pastor Box 

We call it Pastoral Care for Pastors. We’ve spent the last decade caring for pastors, so we founded Pastor Box so that we could bring the best resources right to your door. Our dream is to see churches and ministries experience holistic growth through our subscribers.

We see great sermons in your future. We serve pastors, ministry leaders, and bibliophilic Christians with a quarterly collection of books, resources, and goodies.

For the Love of Pastors.

We see great sermons in your future. We serve pastors, ministry leaders, and bibliophilic Christians with a quarterly collection of books, resources, and goodies.

Fill your cup. To be a pastor is to be on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We want to give back to pastors and ministry leaders who live out their callings day in and day out. Find rest and encouragement in every box. Pastor Box wants to give you that giddy, Christmas morning feeling every time you open our box.

Pastors need care, too. Many pastors today face anxiety, depression, and burnout because they constantly pour out to their churches, and too often, they are forgotten. Pastor Box seeks to care for pastors by delivering high quality resources in a fun package that will delight, inspire, and encourage them.

"I’m so thrilled with the rebrand. I'm walking around smiling."

– Dave Wike, Founder, Pastor Box