AdWeek has a great feature on Samsung's pursuit of simple connections with their consumers.
A New Logo For The Met
Before and After…An excellent review of the new logo for the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Mark Kingsley on the blog, Brand New.
Opening the Gates on Investment
We designed the latest edition of the Ohio Venture Report. We were able to elevate the design and introduce an overarching narrative to the story of Ohio's entrepreneurial ecosystem. The report featuring data from 2014 was published at the end of 2015. Many thanks to our friends at Venture Ohio!
Crabby, but good.
New label for the Shore Happy Brewing Co. craft brew brand.
Our Patented Process is Always WRITE, Right?
Many agencies tout a special process or formula for building and defining brands. Many of these secret sauce recipes are valid approaches for the simple fact that they provide a roadmap for the process. For years I personally advocated a process I called "W.R.I.T.E." (See what I did there? Novella? Write? Genius.) a clever acronym which stood for the following:
WHITEBOARD - We listen, we concept, we collaborate and identify clear objectives.
RESEARCH - We investigate your industry and learn how to speak authentically to your defined target audience.
INITIATE - We begin written and visual explorations designed to establish the unified brand narrative including your value proposition and positioning.
TACTICS - Based on the goals and brand narrative we determine the best ways to reach your audience where they are. We also set benchmarks to evaluate the effectiveness of each tactic.
EXPRESSION - The combination of project deliverables enables YOU to tell your brand’s story in a consistent and compelling manner.
Sounds familiar if not pretty good, right? Most do. The decision to invest in a branding project is not one to be taken lightly. Any branding process you consider should do these five things:
• Engage key stakeholders in your organization for insight and collaboration
• Identify obtainable and specific goals
• Unify your messaging into a consistent voice
• Target your audience and choose appropriate tactics
• Provide a means for evaluating the effectiveness of your narrative
A complete storytelling approach matches strategy with creative to promote a brand relationship experience that resonates with your audience and inspires them to become advocates.
Your audience. Your brand. Your story.
The Guy On The Radio Says I Can Get A Logo For $49
Can you find someone willing to produce a piece of graphic design for you for $49?
Yes, but you won't have a brand.
There are many talented graphic designers who are capable of providing a nice looking piece of design. The problem is said piece of design does nothing to position your organization or product to claim space in the minds of your audience. Nor does it visually represent a compelling and meaningful brand story.
Branding is not your logo or the name on the box. It isn’t what's in the box, either. A brand is all the feelings, ideas, images, history, and possibilities existing in the marketplace about your organization. Your brand is the singular idea or concept you own inside the mind of your audience.
Simply put, it’s what people think of when they think of you.
Your logo is but one component of your overall brand. Branding provides a narrative platform for you to describe what makes your product, organization, or service unique and what you offer that no one else has. In the globalized network of today’s world, every product or service has to compete for its share of consumers. Entities with the strongest brands find their consumers easier.
A solid brand story unifies messaging to create a singular impression in the minds of your consumers. This is then reinforced through each touchpoint from your logo, marketing collateral, website, social media interactions, and more.
There are a host of clichés that can be used here:
"Buy cheap, buy twice."
"You get what you pay for."
If we're "comparing apples to apples," I often tell my clients that my rates are more expensive than a graphic designer or your nephew, but I do bring a focused and experienced approach to discovering (or rediscovering) your brand story. I also come equipped with big agency knowledge, capabilities, and resources without the huge costs and associated trials. I may not take you out for drinks at expensive restaurants, but I will devote my time, talent, and passion to delivering a world-class brand for your organization.
Or you can buy that logo for $49.
DeviantArt Misses Its Mark?
Recently online artist community, DeviantArt unveiled their new branding along with plans for greater integration and the launch of their own app. The response from their 32 million registered members has been mixed. The comments range from the usual accusations of "corporatization" to plagiarism. Creativebloq.com has a summary of the initial reactions here.
What I think is most telling about these responses is that the community feels they missed the mark. It's much deeper than the logo or graphics – the story doesn't resonate with the audience.
This perfectly highlights the potential dangers of focusing on surface rather than the core of branding, which is a good story. The new DeviantArt messaging is not striking many of the artists as authentic. It doesn't represent the place they know and love, or look like somewhere they want to go. Often times organizations can operate in a marketing bubble and fall prey to how they see themselves versus how they are seen by their audience.
"Isn't branding supposed to control that?"
A good brand story doesn't just control perceptions, it informs your audience with details and authenticity to allow them to build their own connections. Your story must represent your values, your capabilities, and your truth. It should be simple and not require mental or verbal gymnastics to convey. Your audience is way too savvy and will spot phoney-baloney sloganeering a mile away.
Engaging key stakeholders is a vital component of the branding process. Thoughtful research and meaningful levels of audience interaction enable you to listen to thoughts and opinions so you can identify where your brand currently resides. Combined with well-defined goals for growth we determine where you want to go and how you want to be perceived. Establishing that fixed point of aspiration provides a roadmap for defining positioning and telling your story.
Know who you are and tell everyone about it.
Welcome Back
After a prolonged development period, the new website is finally up and running! I have more great brand stories to share along with the usual insights and curiosities. You'll notice a few gaps in the blog. There were a few bumps in the road to getting the site live and one of them was importing the blog archive.
So, for those of you following along, we've lost a few things (years!) here and there including the great contributions by content marketing guru and frequent Novella Creative contributor, Devin Meister.
I'll continue to try to resurrect some of the old content while focusing on the new. Someone asked me recently if I was still in the game or if I'd reached a point in my career where I'm looking to be the "duck floating on the surface." Let's see, I just completed design builds on three websites, launched two brand projects and I'm working to roll-out a large municipal brand while engaging in a proposal to do another one.
I'd say at this point, I'm just getting started. Welcome back? I never left.