About Tenato Strategy

A Marketing Agency that Digs Deep into Market Research and Strategy

We offer market research, strategy and marketing agency support services under one roof. Yes, it’s a lot. But we’ve found that as long as we work with a well-chosen roster of wonderful clients, it’s entirely do-able… and very rewarding.

What pulled us in this direction? When we began in 1996, we assisted mainly small, startup businesses, who often needed us to build full business plans. This gave us an excellent foundation in business strategy.

Today, we support a mixture of startups and well-established business looking to reach the next level. We also enjoy research-only projects, because we understand the growth decisions that need to be made from the research, and what the research needs to clarify. We avoid starting with execution-only projects such as building websites, because it inevitably puts the cart before the horse, causing issues later.

Why offer research, strategy and creative execution all together? Because we know that when any single aspect of the strategy is neglected, it can thwart the success of the entire plan. While we don’t always scope every aspect of our clients’ marketing (e.g. you may have already chosen your sales team, or don’t want to adjust your pricing), we do work with you to fine-tune the whole strategy as thoroughly as we can, and are able to address any issues that might be limiting growth. That’s all part of Tenato’s philosophy of tenacity. We want you to succeed, and we will do everything in our power to support that.

We’ll admit, getting here was not easy. It’s taken over twenty-five years to build reliable resources across the whole team. From research to strategy to execution, we employ a mixture of seasoned, business-minded experts and talented creative technicians, choosing people with reliable characters and amazing track records. We also work closely with our clients to get their teams involved, providing training or guidance to coordinate the entire program.

MISSION

Too often, good companies fail because there are underlying strategic issues that are not resolved first, resulting in weak or inefficient marketing execution.

At Tenato, we help great companies succeed with the tenacity to dig deeper.

HONESTY VS. MARKETING

Here are some key points to ponder about the way we think:

We are diligent investigators. We refuse to step into your organization to blindly make recommendations without first studying your situation and market. In addition to preventing poor decisions, doing our research first ensures that we market your strengths truthfully. It is also part of helping you uncover key strengths you may not realize you have.
Commitment is more important than budget. Certainly having a realistic budget is necessary, but it is even more crucial to have a serious, long-term commitment to execute a strategy. We look for clients with honesty, energy, autonomy, determination and good potential. When these elements are in place, we can have a very successful business relationship.
We encourage you to be self-sufficient. Some clients have in-house resources, and we are happy to work with them. We aim to complement your team, and provide mentorship to encourage self-sufficiency in the long run.
Honesty is always necessary. We do not help our clients grow simply by finding any creative message that sounds cool, or will sell. On the contrary, we find your truth (true strength) through first-hand research, and then define the target markets who will most likely connect to that truth. If your truth is not realistically competitive, we find out what needs to be improved and fine-tune it. While honesty may sometimes be difficult to face, we are exceptionally empathetic in appreciating a client’s situation and are always ready with possibilities, encouragement, and concrete ideas for achieving change.
We seek clients with strong ethics. We carefully select new clients by using specific questions, informal reference checking, or purchasing services or products from them to verify their ethics and quality. This is because we find it extremely difficult to support something in which we do not wholeheartedly believe. In fact, if we uncover ethical shortcomings, we would rather release the client or turn down the opportunity.
We like healthy ambition. We expect your organization to aim for being the best in its class, with at least moderate growth. That said, we know that it is important to determine the kinds of business you do not want as well as the kinds that are an ideal fit. Our clients know that there is a constant need to move forward; otherwise, they risk slipping backward. At the same time, we won’t recommend light-speed growth, as it can implode if you’re not prepared for it.
We invite your scrutiny. Google us. Study our resources. Call us to have a lively discussion, and ask us every question you may have. We hope that by the time you engage our services, you are certain you have hired an honest and competent firm, and will be prepared to give us your trust. If the trust is there, there’s nothing we can’t help you accomplish!

TENATO TEAM

Jacqueline Drew

CEO & Principal Consultant

Samantha Boone

Art Director

Gary Drew

Operations Strategist

Lynda Greuel

Special Projects & Events

Ginny Holtby

Tourism Strategist

Joanne O’Connell

Metrics & Reporting Strategist

HISTORY

Jacqueline Drew founded the company in 1996, shortly after she became a new mother. She knew starting a company would be difficult; to inspire her and others to jump in and make things happen, she originally called the business “START Marketing” intending to focus on helping startup companies.

Having already conquered her fear of cold calling through previous roles in sales and marketing, she networked old and new connections to build a small client base. The company added services as the industry evolved, from websites to online marketing to social media. She hired her first employee when her daughter was born (2000) and the business grew modestly over those years, as she balanced career and motherhood.

The company found its beautiful current location in Inglewood in 2005, giving great street exposure and new opportunities to work with businesses in the surrounding area.

Growth was steady until around the year 2010. Jacqueline noticed the 2008-09 recession had really taken its toll in Calgary; companies were cutting back, and much of the marketing work in demand was going strictly to online marketing and web companies. Leads were smaller and budgets were tighter. It was time to make some changes.

Seeking out some new skill sets resulted in a chain reaction that truly changed the company. One key colleague recommended rebranding to get the company into new territory, away from the impression (given by the name START) that we might only work with startup companies. Given that our strength was strategy development, we also wanted to move away from being branded as just another marketing company. We realized that after 15 years in business, it wasn’t so much about starting as it was about sticking with it, i.e. tenacity!

So, in 2011, the company rebranded to Tenato Strategy Inc., and we went seeking skill sets to build a team of the industry’s most experienced brains in marketing and communications. Our team has greatly improved Tenato’s capability to deliver efficiently and consistently to our clients, and achieve lasting growth results. Since 2011, growth has rapidly accelerated. We have been honoured to work with an enormous range of clients, from award-winning tech start-ups to Fortune 100 companies, and non-profits such as universities, government organizations and charitable causes. And yes, we still enjoy our small business clients as much as we always have; as Jacqueline says, “Anybody who is easy-going enough laugh at my ridiculous jokes generally makes a great client.”

The Name “Tenato”

In addition to tenacity, Tenato has one other hidden meaning. With our founder’s background as a trained musician, she was aware that tenuto is a musical term that means to hold a note for its full value, and give it emphasis to be heard. At Tenato, we help our clients ensure they sell at their full value, and are emphasized to be heard. So the name really is a combination… tenacity + tenuto = Tenato!

For the musically minded, a tenuto symbol looks like this:

ONE MORE THING…

How is it pronounced? Well, we suppose you could say Ten-AY-toh, but we actually say Ten-AH-toh. Hmm, now that reminds us of a song… ah, let’s call the whole thing off!

CAREERS

We are seeking new talent! If you have something unique to bring to the table, don’t hesitate to inquire, whether you’d prefer contract work or employment.

Keep in mind that we may be insanely busy, so if you really want to get in touch, write a specific introductory email, and include a few samples of your work, (our career inquiry form allows you to include attachments) especially if it’s relevant to the job at hand.

MARKETING STRATEGY APPRENTICE (April 2024)

Are you a highly-experienced sales or marketing executive who is looking to make a transition to consulting? Tenato has exceptionally strong processes, support and guidance to help you profitably build and develop a consulting practice under our banner.

We are seeking candidates with minimum 5 years experience, preferably including:

1 – 2 years in full-time B2B relationship selling, with a strong track record of revenue growth, and past accounts who can be references
Experience in developing and executing marketing research and strategies
Avid readership of the latest books/blogs/podcasts on marketing/sales
Adept use of social media on at least 4 major platforms
Strong written skills – for copywriting, but also research reports

A degree in marketing, communications or business is required. We will expect you to be an avid follower of marketing trends as well. Location and hours are flexible; we are seeking talent in major markets across Canada.

Inquire here.