Branding Corn Flakes...?

Just when I thought that I had heard it all... the design community is all a buzz with rumors of Kellogg's intention to brand each cornflake. Apparently Kellogg's plans on using high tech laser etching technology to imprint the Kellogg's logo-type on every cornflake! Will Kellogg's Cornflakes become this year's branding success story or brand suicide? I think it was Alice Cooper when discussing urban rock legends, myths and rumors once said... all press is good press... right...?

Whether these rumors turn out to be true or not... what a brilliant concept! Personally I hope it is true. A bold brand move like this has the potential to change the way we think about branding. Advertising and marketing is shameless at times... first we see logos on the bodies of hottie cheerleaders... now they may be staring back at us from our cereal bowls in the morning.

Sometimes branding happens... because we make it happen...

What's next? I don't know about you... but I can't wait to see :)

Sometimes, The Experts Aren't...

I remember the excitement in the spring of 2006 when home building projections for the next two years were off the charts according to local experts! We were all riding the big housing wave and with many clients in the residential construction industry, we thought we had it made. One of our local home builder clients was projecting 500 new home starts per month for the next 3 years and had purchased land to carry them through 2013. Oh how fast everything changed.

By summer July of ’06, this same client’s new projections were down to 300 new starts per month… ouch! But that wasn’t the end of the big slide down hill. In October, the projection dropped to 275 homes, by December it was down to 150. After the first of the year, things were looking up a bit and they sold a record number of homes in February of ’07, the experts predicted a big comeback along with some big numbers. The next month sales turned off like a light switch. Not just for this builder, but for everyone. By May, I was reading a letter projecting new home starts at 35-50 per month, they were closing nearly half of their communities along with massive lay-offs. How could it get any worse? It did… they announced in July that they would not be starting ANY new homes for an indefinite period and we lost our contract with them. Needless to say… they are no longer in business. How could the experts have been so wrong? Why were local builders blindly making huge business decisions based on these largely unfounded projections. Who were these experts anyway?

Sometimes, the so-called experts scare me. If you went to the doctor and said “I don’t feel well… something just isn’t right with me… I need your help.”… and he responded immediately with, “I happen to be a very good doctor with many years of experience, and I’ve seen a lot of sick people. I can tell by looking at you and hearing your voice that you have diabetes and need an appendectomy. We need to schedule you for surgery immediately and start you on insulin injections as soon as you are done.” This is ridiculous… right?

So why do so many so-called branding and business development experts seem to have all the answers before they have really had a chance to diagnose the current situation of their clients? Nobody knows your business like you do. When choosing a graphic design firm or ad agency, to assist you in your branding and marketing efforts, beware if they seem to have all the answers in the first meeting. Any firm worth it’s salt, will take the time to become intimate with your products, sales process and overall culture of your company before they start giving you “expert” opinions.

If you are in business in today’s competitive environment… you are doing something right. You just need to do it better. How can the experts solve your problems before they know what they are? How can they capitalize on the positives and reinforce your companies brand before they really seek to understand what’s working and what’s not?

Remember… a true expert just is… they won’t need to tell you.

The ABC's Of Branding...

The ultimate goal of any brand is to “own” the minds of consumers when it comes to their product or service. When an athlete is thirsty, Gatorade wants to own that moment in this athlete’s mind. Millions of dollars are spent every day in an effort to achieve this level of brand leadership. Some brands literally define their product no matter what their competitors try.

One day I was making a sandwich in the kitchen and could hear the television in the family room where my young children were watching Sesame Street. It was a lesson on the ABC’s. “A is for apple, B is for boy, C is for cat,” the host rehearsed. My ear pricked up as I later heard, “J is for Jello.” Wait a minute, how did Jello get their brand into the ABC lesson on Sesame street, I thought to myself. Wow, could Jello have surpassed Coke as a brand leader in their market? I think they have… they are without peer.

Many brands have owned their product in the past, only to eventually be undermined by a generic term. ALL jeans used to be referred to as Levis… now they’re just jeans. Kleenex still owns their market in a huge way… sometimes, you will hear people ask for a tissue. But when it comes to owning a product, Jello is the winner in my book. I have never heard a child walk up to their mom and ask for a gelatin dessert… ever!

All gelatin dessert products are Jello… why even try. Could any brand ever equal or surpass this branding achievement? I wonder… at my son’s high school, nearly everyone that has an MP3 player, chooses an iPod. The few that have other brands, Sony, Zune etc., still refer to the device as “their iPod."

I love Apple… they are branding genius in action.

Bad Taste In Your Mouth...?

When a new prospective client comes to our studio for the initial meeting, it is always a bitter-sweet moment for me when I discover how unhappy they are with their current situation. I feel horrible for them as they lament the history of their brand and the wasted time and money over many years and numerous efforts to create a solid image and identity for their business. But at the same time, I am excited to have the opportunity to help breath new life into a struggling brand with new design.

Design value is a hard sell for beginning entrepreneurs and marketing professionals. Until they have experienced the success if a well-designed identity system, it is hard for them to envision the return on their investment. It has always puzzled me why a person can go shopping and fill their cart with name brands… but on the other hand not want to become a name brand themselves in their own business. Generic brands have their place in the world and some savvy shoppers swear by them for certain products. They forget that their prospects will tend to choose recognizable, reputable brands when shopping for their products as well.

Be careful before you trust your brand to a generic design firm at a reduced rate. Remember, you will spend thousands upon thousands of dollars reproducing your logo over the years. It pays to get it right!

Generic design firms come in all shapes and sizes. R & D has always stood for “research and development.” Many discount design firms have relegated their R & D process to more of a “rip-off and duplicate” exercise. So, think hard before you hire that low-ball design firm to create your business image, design your next brochure or write your next ad. I could write something trite here like “you get what you pay for,” but, I have always enjoyed the saying pictured below in this graphic much better. I first saw this hanging on the wall in the front office of a local body shop I was using to repair one of my vehicles. I have never forgotten it…

Black And White...

When it comes to the nuts and bolts of your brand, the actual logo image itself is at the center of attention, or at least it should be. In order to make sure that your logo is always the star-of-the-show, it needs to be designed in a manner that is easily reproduced across a wide variety of media. All too often, we have clients come in with a slick new logo that is hardly usable unless they are uploading to a website or printing in full-color. In most cases these logo designs have all sorts of gradient blends and shading that cannot be reproduced well if at all in a grey scale or line version when necessary. PhotoShop is indeed both a blessing and a curse.

At our design firm, Tactix Creative, we actually made a rule that a designer could not use PhotoShop to create a logo, and that every logo presented to our creative director must be easily rendered as a simple black and white line-art image. Only then was a designer able to start treating the logo with other colors and/or additional embellishments. Sure, you may want to treat your logo in PhotoShop at some point for added pizazz in certain applications. But don’t ever let a designer paint your brand into the “full-color or nothing” corner! It will be nothing but a headache and you will most likely end up redoing it at some point.
Designers need to remember that they are not creating fine art pieces. They are designing for reproduction purposes. Your logo needs to be at home anywhere and everywhere you may need it. Whether on your website, business card, black and white invoice or a low-res fax… your designer owes you a usable version of your logo/brand for any potential environment. This may sound like a no-brainer to everyone… but we deal with these problem images nearly everyday in our firm.

Make sure when your new logo design is done, that you receive electronic files in their native format, and demand vector image files when at all possible. Gradient blends are evil :)

What Goes Around...

“Others are merely reflections of ourselves… you cannot truly love or hate something about another person without loving or hating that same thing about yourself.” Wait… does that mean when a client does something I don’t like… that I don’t like it because they are just like me? I believe it absolutely does.

Graphic design is always about solving problems in the end. Many of the problems sound something like… “It seems like all my customers care about is price, I need to help them understand why doing business with us is more valuable than my competitors.” Invariably, this will be the client that is all about price when it comes to his design project. I mean EVERY time… it’s amazing.

Here’s another one… “Everyone thinks they can do it themselves, they don’t realize that if they hired a professional like us, the would have a better product and actually save money in the end. How do I get my clients to quit micromanaging everything and let us do our job?” Without fail, this will be the client that drives us to drink with endless, inane revisions and relentless micromanagement. They are also the ones that wonder why you can’t read their mind.

So, next time you get frustrated with the party on the other side of the business table… go take a hard look at the culture in your own company. Your frustration may be a simple matter of self-fulfilling prophecy. Tightwads hate tightwads, micromanagers can’t handle micromanagers and do-it-yourselfers are irritated by other do-it-yourselfers.

So, what is the answer? I advise all of my clients to follow a little bit of advice from Ghandi; (I revised it to fit business environment), “You must BE THE CHANGE you wish to see in your clients.” Take the time in your organization to define what you consider to be the “perfect customer,” then go breath that culture into you own company. You will be amazed at what happens.

The culture of your company is a huge part of your brand and can become the cancer or the cure in all of your business relationships. It’s up to you.

When it goes around… don’t be surprised when it comes around.

Creative Failure...

Tolstoy once said “ All happy families resemble each other, but each unhappy family is unhappy in it’s own way.” So, why would I include a touchy-feely quote about happy families when I am supposed to be blogging about branding and marketing? It’s simple… plainly stated, “in many ways, failure tends to be more creative and unique than success.”

When we look at the big brands, we notice some very common templates in the way they advertise and take their products to market. Sure, they get creative with the imagery and the angle, but the overall approach usually fits into one of a few molds. From an administrative standpoint, most successful business ventures share a similar discipline in the way they structure their companies. As a result, most of us look to these successful businesses and brand leaders as a model when we approach a new venture. Why reinvent the wheel… right?

Well, it seems that many business ventures fail for that very reason. They confuse creativity and differentiation with reinventing the wheel. In an effort to be different, their business models and subsequently their brands become distorted to the point of failure. So, like Tolstoy’s quote about successful families… we discover some well very defined models for brand-building and advertising success. But on the other side of the coin… wow, there are a million uniquely creative ways to fail. Learn from the big boys and you’ll save yourself a lot of time and money, and even more aggravation.

Don’t reinvent the wheel! Just make the wheel your own and make it better than the competition.

Remember… “Doing it the right way may not guarantee success, but doing it wrong almost surely guarantees failure.”

You Guys Are Everywhere...!

“How many trucks do you guys have? Like 50? I see you everywhere!” exclaimed the customer. This was the first time my client had ever heard a comment like this. Up until a few months ago he and his brand were suffering from the plain-white-trucks (or in this case, vans) syndrome. He was a local carpet cleaning company with a steady book of regular customers and a great reputation for quality and customer satisfaction. He had the same plain white problem that many businesses do. They are great at what they do, their customers love them, but they really don’t have a brand. Did the own any equity in name or recognition that tied them to their stellar reputation? The answer was no. But wait, they were still successful… so why would the owner come to me for branding advice?

“I just feel like no matter how long I’ve been in business in this town, I still have to fight for recognition. If it isn’t a referral, I feel like I am starting from square one with every potential customer,” he said. “I’ve got to do something.” In this client’s case, he already had a logo, he just wasn’t really using it. We went through the normal laundry list of marketing materials that he wanted to roll out over the next few months and decided that the quickest way to jump start his brand was to “logo-up” his work vans. We wrapped his vans with HUGE logos and a phone number. You could see these things coming from over a mile away!

What did it do for him? In a matter of six months customers were asking how many trucks he had because they were seeing them and I quote, “everywhere.” He went from nobody ever having seen or heard of him unless it was a referral to, “you guys are everywhere, you must be huge!” So how many work trucks did his company have on the road in the Phoenix and surrounding area? 40? 50? No… the answer was six. How in the world do six branded vehicles make a noticeable, memorable impact on a valley with three million residents? Visual images, once noticed, tend to multiply in our minds. A great example of this is when you buy a new car. You see a variety of vehicles on the road everyday and give them little thought. But now that you are driving a silver Honda minivan… you seem to see them everywhere! You never noticed them before, where did they all come from?

We’ve all experienced this phenomenon. Now get out there and do it with your brand. Get noticed and let the public start to multiply images of your brand in their minds. There’s no sweeter sound when meeting a new client than these words… “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of you guys.”

Brand multiplication happens…

Help Wanted...

A picture really is worth a thousand words so I will let this image of a “help wanted” listing in a local newspaper do the talking for me in this post.As you may have already guessed, this is not a real ad. Anyone who reads this realizes almost immediately that it is absolutely ridiculous to think that any company would presume they could hire a top-quality, fiercely loyal key salesperson for a single $8,900 paycheck. And $24.95 per month… sheesh… that wouldn’t even cover their gas bill for a week!

So, if this I such a ludicrous scenario… why do I hear this request literally every single week from prospective clients? It’s true! The story usually goes some thing like this...

“I want to focus my marketing efforts to the web. I want my website to become my best salesman, I want everyone to go there first. I want to be able to take orders on my website and take credit cards and everything. I want all other marketing materials to direct traffic tour website. I think we are missing out on a lot of revenue don’t you? I mean… look at what Brand X is doing across town… I heard they are making money hand-over-fist on their website. We need to really get going on this!” This all sounds great until you get to the one-time paycheck part. Can you design build a small website with a few products and an online store for nine grand? Sure you can… but that’s only the beginning, and bare bones at that.

If you want your website to be your best salesperson… you better treat it like one. A website is absolutely a work in progress. If you are doing it right, it never ends… I promise. But it’s worth it… worth every last penny! Let’s take another look at most client’s criteria for their website, it’s a TALL order to say the least. Let’s see…

It must become my leading sales generator
It will eventually be the first place my customers go to find me
It will become the customer’s main contact with my company
It needs to become the main source of product information for our customers
It must take some of the work load from other staff by answering question
It will take most of the orders from my customers
It will also handle the invoicing and paperwork
It will handle many of our financial transactions
It should begin to generate additional revenue maintaining steady growth
And my favorite ones of all:

• I want to rank at the top of the search engines

• How to you get to be one of those little ads at the top of Google… or the ones over on the right?

I’ve noticed that when a client decides to put an effort into creating a web presence, there are usually two different motives that bring them to that point. We tend to categorize our web clients into two distinct groups. The first group is mainly interested in getting general company information up on the web for two reasons; to gain credibility and have an easily accessible contact point for consumers. The type of site they want is really more of an online brochure that they can send customers to for more information.

The second group wants action. They want websites that transform their business and literally take it online. They want the site to WORK for them. Not just to work for them, but potentially become their hardest working employee. Once again and I quote, “If you want your website to become your best salesman or employee, treat it like one!”

This means a steady salary and commitment to providing it with the training and tools necessary for the site to do it’s job effectively. If you wan to be able to hold your website accountable for it’s performance, make sure you invest in it the same way you would your star employee or salesperson. Yes… that means a monthly salary… and not just for a few months. Websites take time to gain momentum, just like that new salesperson.

Before jumping in with both feet I recommend learning all you can about how the web really works. Learn about organic growth in search engine ranking, learn about paid online ads, learn about search engine optimization and how the various online media works together. When you're ready to make the commitment and you stick with it consistently, you’ll be amazed at what your website can become over time.

Our Best Work...

Once in awhile, I find myself wishing I’d never taken on a certain design project. After a few years, I discovered that most of these projects a had one common denominator… “the client wanted to play designer and thought they were better at it than we were.” These projects always start off great. The client sees some of the other work we have done and schedules a meeting with us where they proclaim, “we love what you did for Brand X, we want you to something like that for us… we need help, so we’ve come to the professionals. We know our products, you guys know design, we want you to make us look good.”

How flattering… they love our work… right?! So we put our heads together and present our best work a couple of weeks later. “Hmmm…” they say… “what if we did this? Yeah… or how about this…” Uh, oh… and so it begins.

Three months later… revisions round 23…

Our work has been watered down to the point that any of our work is camouflaged behind the numerous fingerprints of the client and their grim, left-brained committee. The answer is always the same for us… smile, and deliver the finished product. Then, mock-up the original design and photograph it for our portfolio.

Bottom line… “you just CAN’T DO GOOD WORK for some clients.” We came across the quote below a few years ago. Truly inspired if you ask me…

Free Teeth Cleaning...

I had seen this direct mail piece before. Actually I had seen in several times in the last few months. Who was this guy? How was he so successful at talking every dentist in town into doing the same direct mail campaign? “I wonder if he knows how upset all of his clients are,” I thought to myself.

These direct mail pieces all looked so much alike. I mean you had to really look close to even find a difference in the logos. They shared the same color palette, the same photos of a desert scene with a saguaro cactus on the front, (a real novelty for Arizona… not). They even all had the same product offerings. FREE INITIAL EXAM, FREE TEETH CLEANING, HALF PRICE TEETH WHITENING… they were virtually identical. The sad news was that local dental practice were dropping these mailings to tens of thousands of Phoenix area residents at significant expense with little to no return on their advertising investment.

It is not my intention to go direct mail bashing here. For certain products, direct mail campaigns are still very effective if they are well executed. Here’s the strange common denominator with all the doctors that were involved in these mailings. When I asked them what set their practice apart from competitors, they all mentioned office amenities, friendly staff, attention to detail, pleasant experience, “we care,” great stuff. I went on to ask each of them, “when you run into an old friend or new neighbor who might be a potential patient or family of patients for your practice, what do you tell them?” The answers were all very similar. “I tell them that we take the fear stigma out of dentistry,” or “I tell them that we treat all of our patients like family.” This is good stuff, I thought but where was it? Would anyone read hear these statements in any of the practice’s advertising?

So I asked each doctor, “that’s great stuff, it makes me want to consider your practice, why doesn’t it show up anywhere in your advertising. What did you want this mail piece to specifically do for you.” This time the answers were exactly the same in all four cases. “We want to gain more steady patients, we want entire families to make us their regular family dentist and then go tell their friends.” I then asked the hard question, “what were the actual results of this mailer, did you track them?” In each case, it was really hard for the dentist to admit just how ineffective these campaigns had been, and I don’t blame them.

The practice that experienced the best result stated the following. “We sent out 50,000 mail pieces over five months and only received seven phone calls.” I then asked, “what were the callers most interested in when they called?” “Five wanted the free teeth cleaning, one wanted the half-price whitening and one wanted the free exam.” I wondered if any of these callers became regular patients, so I asked. “No… none of them… they just wanted the free stuff!” Still holding a sample of the mailer in my hand I reluctantly say, “so, you pretty much got exactly what you asked for in this mailer, right? People who were interested in the offers for free teeth cleanings and such.” This is when their eyes get big and that little light bulb goes on. As ineffective as those mailers were, the few prospects that did call, were interested in exactly what the practice had to offer. Can you blame them… from the mailer, how would they know any different?.

If you have a reputation for treating your patients like family and want to become the prospects regular family dentist because you care about them… TELL THEM!

In advertising, be careful what you ask for… you just might get it!

Gru Ram Bim...

“But we know what we want” I kept explaining to the architect. The problem with being a designer AND a client is quite enlightening. When we were in the design phase of creating our new office space in Mesa Arizona a few years ago we ended up in a real communication funk with the architect we hired. He had a thick Russian accent that was very difficult to understand at times. But the one thing I did understand was that he was adamant above adding a big gru ram bim to our office in a very prominent location. No matter how hard we tried to communicate our design ideas to him, he always brought up the gru ram bim and what an important element of the overall design it was. My business partners, Paul Howalt and Ivan Jones and I would just smile and nod our heads every time he brought it up.

There were other design issues that we were able to get him to listen to us about… but he was so persistent about the gru ram bim! It was very puzzling to me…? I was really getting frustrated when the light bulb finally went on for me. He brought in a photo of another space with a big gru ram bim in it… I was so excited to finally figure out what the heck he was talking about. As hard as I looked at this picture… I couldn’t find it! The time had come for me to swallow my pride and admit that I had no idea what a gru ram bim was? But whew… he saved me from the embarrassment when he pointed it out and said, “see this is big gru ram bim is just like the one in your space.” I tried to hold back chuckling as I said… “Oh, you mean glue lam beam.” All this time he had been referring to the huge beam in our building that was manufactured by laminating many smaller pieces of lumber together. The really sad part of the story is that I know exactly what a glue lam beam is, and I still didn’t put two and two together!

This experience made me stop and think how important communication really is. How often am I really being understood by my clients or are they just nodding their heads and smiling as I wax philosophical about branding or design? I think us so-called communication experts need to take a page out of our own books sometimes and make sure we are talking to our clients and not ourselves.

Something to think about…

The Laundry List...

“I want to take my business to the next level,” an anxious client proclaims, “I want to get serious about branding, I have always hated my logo.” We stare at each other for a moment across the conference table… I know what’s coming next… it’s “the list.” The list names all of the items, business forms, stationery, marketing collateral, website ideas, signage applications and display concepts that the client envisions carrying the new “image” that he wants to create for his business. Following the list comes the sample collection of competitor’s materials.
This is how the majority of initial client meeting start out for me.

This is exactly where I started some years ago when working with a local contractor.
We’ll call him Gary. As soon as Gary felt that I had digested the overall scope of the work he wanted done, he wanted a ballpark price and timeline right off the bat. His laundry list was HUGE!

* A new logo design and corporate identity
* New letterhead, business cards and envelopes
* A nice corporate brochure
* A presentation folder with inserts for salespeople
* Three smaller, tri-fold product brochures
* A fairly extensive website
* Signs for his building and project locations
* Branded equipment labels
* Vehicle graphics
* Uniform shirts
* All internal office forms
* Invoices
* Work orders
* A trade show booth backdrop
* Etc. etc.

How do you answer a question like that? First of all, a project like this is important and it takes time. Re-branding your business is one of the most important decisions an owner will ever make. So… I looked over the list and estimated that the design and production of everything he wanted could easily run between $50k and $100k. His eyes bulged a bit as they always do at this point in the meeting. “Whoa” he said, “can you give me an idea of what some of these pieces run individually?” So we proceeded to break down some of the individual costs in order to help him make a decision. Almost immediately we were up over the $50k mark and he realized what it would really take to create an image that would compete with his competitors in the local Phoenix market.

Now there was less urgency, and he was half glad that the timeline I came up with was longer than he had once hoped. We decided that we would implement his new materials over a 12-24 month period and began to prioritize our plan. I was a little shocked when he came back and told me that he had decided to NOT do a new logo?? “I just want to use the existing logo and have you guys design some great materials around it.” “But wait, I thought you hated your logo,” I said out loud. “Yeah,” he said, “I really need all of the other stuff and I just don’t want to spend the money on a logo right now.” This made no sense to me and I pled the case for the logo to no avail. “Maybe we’ll do a new logo down the road sometime, but not now.” Wow, I couldn’t believe my ears… but hey, he’s the client right?

We went on to design and produce most of the materials that he needed and he indicated that he was experiencing success with the new pieces in his marketing arsenal. So when he walked in my office door about 18 months later I was completely unprepared for what he was about to say. I couldn’t tell if he was angry or sad when he reluctantly admitted, “you guys have done some really great design for me, but I blew it… I have regretted not doing a new logo ever since you delivered the first brochures… now every time I see one of our trucks, a business card or anything I regret it.” I didn’t know to respond… he actually had tears welling up in his eyes when he went on to say, “We have spent over 50 thousand dollars reproducing a logo that I have never liked… all to save the $3,500 you were going to charge me to do it right… I am sick,” he said. “What do I do now… I can’ tafford to re-do everything.?

I wish I could say that Gary was the only client I have that had to go through a similar discovery process when creating their corporate image. This conversation had such an impact on me that I tell it to every client I meet with if they are unsure whether or not they want to “spend the money on a new logo.”

There is one unavoidable fact that we all need to remember… YOU WILL SPEND MONEY REPRODUCING YOUR LOGO! The laundry list is always long, so make sure you get right. Your logo is the foundation that your entire corporate image rests upon. Morale of the story… don’t invest tons of money, time and effort over the years reproducing an image that you don’t even like just to save a few thousand dollars… it will forever haunt you… I promise.

Famous Last Words...

“We can increase your revenues by 30% in the first year” or better yet “Your revenues will increase dramatically once you hire us.” Stupid statements like this are what give marketing professionals a bad name. (Notice how I didn’t use the term ‘consultant’… people run from consultants… and rightly so) The art of over-promising and under-delivering made popular by politicians is now manifesting itself in the business world amongst many self-proclaimed marketing consultants.

If any advertising, design or marketing person ever makes one of these bold statements to you… RUN! The truth is, nobody is going to increase your revenue but YOU… the business owner. Even the best laid marketing plan will wither and die if the captain of the ship isn’t all-in. Your marketing firm cannot make your people implement and follow the plan. They cannot go out prospecting and generating leads for you and then turn around and close the deal too! You and your team are responsible for your own success. Great designers and marketers can craft beautifully targeted marketing tools but it is up to you to put them to work for your company and drive the overall success.

I can’t count the times I have interviewed with a potential client who was still seething and feeling burned by an ad agency or marketing firm that promised them the moon, took their money and left them wanting. Don’t ever get caught in marketing’s “big-lie.” It takes a lot of commitment and effort to launch and sustain an effective marketing plan. If you aren’t ready to do your part, accept your responsibility and work… then you better think twice before spending a dime on marketing. Believing the big-lie is like buying a home gym, doing nothing to implement exercise into your life and being mad at the equipment because you don’t lose weight and aren’t in any better shape.

Maybe pick up a few lottery tickets on your way home if you want effortless “magic” results.

Plain White Trucks...

His voice was almost shaking when he said it… “ You were right, I should have listened! Nobody knows who I am… they love our work but they don’t even know the name of my company. I don’t have a brand… you warned me.” I was a bit overwhelmed and didn’t know quite how to respond?

Eighteen months earlier this client had come to me with a familiar request. “I’m expanding, we just moved into our new location and I would really like to upgrade my image and take my business to the next level.” Not an uncommon statement, in fact, most of my client meetings start with a similar request. Another common statement with local entrepreneurs is “I want you to help make us look bigger than we are.”

After reviewing all of his business forms, and existing marketing materials (or lack thereof), he decided that he “really didn’t need a logo” or any “fancy signs” on his trucks. After all, he had run a successful plumbing business in this town for 12 years without all that stuff. He didn’t want to go to the expense of designing a new logo or put any real effort into building his brand. So, we printed all of his business forms and a laundry list of other materials with the new address, he put up a generic sign and purchased several more new trucks and continued to do business as usual. He decided that his new trucks didn’t even need signs!

I thought it was very strange that he spent several million dollars on a new facility and expanded workforce, but didn’t find it important to invest in his image and public perception? But just as my clients continue to teach me new lessons every day… he came to learn something very important from some of his customers. “The reason he was standing in my office” he went on to say, “is that I decided to get our and call on some of our customers because things were stating to slow down and in a one week period, I heard several disturbing comments.”

The first came when he visited one of his oldest and most loyal customers who in turn wanted to introduce him to his staff. When he turned to his general manager and said, “this is John from Acme Plumbing” she looked confused and shook her head. He went on to say “this is the owner of our plumbing company… you know?” Still nothing… Then he said, “you know, the guys with the big white trucks… they’re here several times each month?” Ah, now she remembered… the big white trucks… yes.

Then, on another visit to another long-time customer, he received a very similar response during his introduction. This time the comment was, “are you the guys with the plain white trucks with no logo on them?” he admitted that he half stammered in shame as he answered, “yeah, that’s us.”

The third time was the last straw, a nearly identical situation AGAIN! This time, he introduced himself to an office manager that he had never met before and she responded with the same puzzled look. Then she looked at his shirt and said, “oh, you are the guys that don’t even have a logo on your shirt or your truck… yeah… I was really nervous the first time you guys showed up… I didn’t know what to think. Somebody shows up in a plain white truck, it could be anybody, you know?”

My client looked me square in the eye after relating these stories to me and said. “You were right, branding does happen. I realized at that moment that my brand was the guys with the plain with trucks with no logo.” He had just visited three loyal customers who didn’t know what to call him or how to find him. They even admitted that most of the time they had to go to accounting department to find out whom to call when there was plumbing issues in the complex.

Your brand will happen whether choose to manage it or not. Your customer’s perception will ultimately define who you are to them… and that will become your brand… like it or not.

Branding Happens...

Get involved in any conversation about marketing or advertising and it wont be long before everyone starts to throw the word “branding” around like they know what they are talking about. Rarely will these conversations end in a consensus of what branding really is. We all agree on the importance of branding, but have our own ideas of how to implement a strategic branding platform and where each piece of the branding puzzle fits into place… Did I just use the word branding five times in three sentences?

All cows look the same… right? Many years ago ranchers realized that they needed a way to identify their livestock when mixed with a neighboring herd. Each ranch developed a mark or symbol that identified the name of their ranch and began “branding” their cattle. It wasn’t long before buyers started associating these brands with the livestock’s quality or lack thereof. So… what sets your company or product apart from the herd? What makes a prospect choose you?

I have been involved in graphic design and marketing my entire life… I literally grew up in the industry. I have witnessed the success and failure of hundreds of start-up companies on both a local and national level. You can take classes and read books… but nothing beats getting into the trenches and experiencing that hand-to-hand brand combat!

It is easy to get de-railed in your branding efforts and the best way to stay on track is to avoid costly mistakes. My continuing years in the trenches lead me to my own conclusions and I hope the pages on this blog help make your brand building efforts more effective. Let’s start by addressing branding definition points that I think most of us can agree on.

Solid branding will achieve the following results:

• Identify your product or service

• Communicate your message clearly

• Establish and/or confirm your credibility

• Connect emotionally with target prospects

• Motivate the buyer/user

• Solidifies customer loyalty

Now for the “Branding Happens” story… I believe that your brand will happen in the hearts and minds of your customers, clients and prospects and your “perceived” brand will occur whether you try to control it or not. In fact, you can’t hide from your brand even if you try! Everything your people do or say is as much a part of your brand as your logo and marketing materials.

Be careful that you don’t become “the place with the rude receptionist” or “the guys with the plain white trucks.” Left unmanaged, your brand may become all about the things you DON’T DO instead of the ones you DO.

Your brand WILL happen… you can choose to manage the way it happens or not… it’s up to you.

Only Perceptions...

“There is no reality… only perceptions.”

Referring to this little phrase has served me well over the years in the design business. We must never forget who composes our final jury. It’s not about what we the designers think, or even what the business owner think… it’s all about what “they” think. And “they” are the end- users, the consumers of the products we are branding. After 25 years of working with ad agencies and entrepreneurs, we have simply decided to share some of our experiences from the design battlefields. Yes… battlefield.

We don’t presume to for a minute to be know-it-all bloggers, standing on the virtual podium, telling the industry what’s up. This is not a “we’re right and everyone else is wrong” editorial. It is simply our sincere attempt to share our career experiences as designers specializing in business identity and marketing collateral. We simply feel compelled to share some of our thoughts, stories and yes… the occasional rant about “what works for us” in the design business. We have been lucky enough to work with some of the greatest clients in the world… we owe all of our success to these brave souls courageous enough to trust us with their most prized professional possession… their brand. We would not be here without them.

Some times we laugh, sometimes we cry, maybe even get a little angry… uh.. I mean passionate… about what we do. But every once in awhile… we feel like Rocky Balboa did when he conquered that long flight of stairs. If you’ve never thrown a triumphant fist high in the air and done a little dance after a design victory… you haven’t lived.

Man I love my job…