Brand Communication

Disney just opened their new movie, "Alice in Wonderland", in 3D, right on the heels of James Cameron's 3D phenomenon, Avatar. With the advent of high definition hyper-real computer animation, these created, dimensional environments all but have us walking through forests of neon blue floating sea anemones as we fall down a rabbithole in hyperspeed. And these entertainments aren't just intended for the bubblegum set: expect to see adults, teens, seniors, preteens and grade schoolers flocking to these cinematic wonders.

It's early days in 3D yet the trend is clear. We've come to expect not just viewing but experiencing. The use of color, sound, motion and now, dimension, bring us right into the story.

As you move through strategic marketing planning leading to brand communication tactics, consider ways to insert your brand's constituents into the experience rather than just communicating at them. Interactive technology allows a two-way engagement. Holographic images allow us to walk right into a scene. Multi-sensory theaters like those at Disney World allow audiences to feel their seats move in a thunderstorm and feel the moisture of rain on their faces. Many small brands cannot afford these high test luxuries. But are there less expensive ways (scratch and sniff, moving pieces, textural components like cut-outs, pop-ups or imbedded sound chips, to name a few). Well placed, these types of tactics can breathe new life into an otherwise tired piece of brand communication and are well worth considering.

This past week, I was honored with an award for mentoring at a ceremony that included business and community leaders, students, other honorees and even the Lieutenant Governor. I walked in expecting to have fun and enjoy the honor of being a Finalist. Having my name called as one of the award Winners was quite unexpected. Because I had no expectation of winning, I was relaxed and I think I took in the appreciative congratulations completely and in the moment. Believe me, this has not always been my mode of operating in the past: I used to stress out over being competitive, comparing my winnings to others.

In brand communications, I'd compare this to thinking only about making the sale instead of enjoying the actual interaction or the followup. Building customer relationships, enjoying the experience with clients, getting to know what matters most to those you serve and taking the time to find out...these are all actually smart marketing integration tactics. One of the simplest ones is just saying "Thanks" to clients who have been loyal to you or who have just bought from you for the first time. If a customer has been a pleasure to work with, tell them. In the end, goodwill comes back in many forms.

Pepsi decided NOT to run a Super Bowl ad this year. What a great idea! By not running an ad after doing so for more than two decades, they actually got more press than if they had run an ad.

The good news is that Pepsi instead is giving $20 million away in a social media project called Pepsi Refresh. Some of my design students have already entered their project work for not local for profit agencies hoping to receive funding. It's a smart move on Pepsi's part. My students and their generation are among the most involved generation of socially conscious and engaged people in recent memory and they're more likely to align with a brand that actively supports their causes than one that throws big money at television conglomerates.

What have you done through your brand communications lately to make the world a better place AND align with your brand's constituents?

Many talented marketers wonder why the work they get from their design firms and ad agency partners doesn't stack up to their expectations, both creatively and strategically. One place to start if you want to build powerful, focused brand communications, is with your creative brief. At Element Three, we have developed a thorough creative brief format that assures that the fundamental questions of WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW get answered. It's true that most Indianapolis ad agencies have a creative job starter form of some kind. And the form alone won't assure that you get great work. The focus and finesse of the people who work with the form, however, will.

Some tips:

Demand focus in the objective for the communications.

Demand that a specific audience be outlined in the brief. You cannot speak effectively to everyone.

Expect to see specific, salient insights into that audience's lifestyle, values and demographics outlined in the brief.

Insist on a single-minded, unique main message. You cannot make great brand communications without it.

We like to agree on where and how the communications will show up. We also like to assure that there will be a specific call to action for the audience to make sure your brand communications get a real response. Contact Tiffany Sauder at tiffany@discoverelementthree if you'd like us to craft a powerful creative brief for your brand communications! It will make all the difference in the creative you hold in your hand in the end.

I just attended a seminar in which I sat in on a talk by an ex-CIA agent. The agent discussed the espionage stories she recalled in which creativity was at the core of each example's success. Core to the talk was the premise, repeated many times, that, "Of course, creativity cannot be learned. Either your mind works in quirky ways or it doesn't." The presenter went on to put down anyone who made money giving seminars on "how to be more creative, because as we all know, that's a bunch of bullcrap." (Her words, not mine.)

Listening to this discussion of creativity made me squirm in my chair. For over 20 years, I've essentially been teaching professionals and students to be more creative....successfully. In fact, Jonathan Plucker, Educational Psychology professor at IU in Bloomington, teaches and studies creativity. He says that there are many myths about creativity and that there are a number of things we can all do to boost our creativity. In fact, his students DO learn to be more creative. Plucker says, "If you believe that creativity techniques will work for you, they probably will."

Quirky creativity? That's one way of looking at it. But for those of us who make our living being creative on budget, on time and on strategy, it's anything but quirky. The creative problem solving process can be tracked (and has been: see Min Basadur's Simplex creative problem solving process chart).

Our brains, in this age of information, must be kept flexible, just like our bodies. Tom Monahan, founder of Before and After, is a brain trainer. He regularly teaches methods for stretching your brain to be more flexible and creative. I teach some of his techniques to my students at Herron School of Art and Design and I see many wonderful results from students – who often amaze even themselves.

So no matter what you do, whether it involves creating brand communications or doing tax consulting, you CAN learn to be more creative!

I recently developed a talk about advertising great Bill Bernbach, one of the founders of DDB (Doyle Dane Bernbach). According to Branding Strategy Insider, Bernbach said, "You say something better if you have something to say (about your product)." And we always look for something to say. Now, whereas at the time we started (DDB) most agencies felt that once they'd found something to say they'd done their job, our point of difference was the belief that at this stage your work was only beginning."

Bernbach went on to develop advertising that started what became known as the Creative Revolution of the 60's and 70's by using insights into human nature, emotions that created the desire to purchase. His was not a scientific method but rather one based in artistry, creativity and brutal honesty. Brand communications that were developed as a result included the famous Volkswagen campaign in which the car was shown alone on a white background with headlines like, "Lemon" and "Think small." For 40 years, DDB built the brand with myriad simple, compelling messages. Other groundbreaking campaigns include those for Avis ("We try harder."), Alka Seltzer ("Thatsa spicy meatball.") and Levy's ("You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's.").

When I was a kid, I know that seeing these TV spots inspired me to later choose to work in advertising. My career started in Minneapolis during its creative heyday in the 80's (see Fallon McElligott, Carmichael Lynch) and I can attest to the legacy of Bernbach's creative approach there. It lives on still in work done in New York, London, LA, Minneapolis, Chicago and Indianapolis.

Element Three's Brand Chemistry Process, our unique deep dive discovery of the emotional core of your brand, is firmly based in the belief that, before we can create powerful brand communications, we must not only fully understand your brand's unique offering, we must also know your customer's intrinsic reasons to buy. Once we have this knowledge, we can develop advertising that I hope even Bill Bernbach would approve.

This week, President Obama gave his State of the Union message to a joint session of Congress. No matter what your political leanings, it was easy to see that one side of the chamber reacted to his message with raucous clapping and cheers. The other, silence. [Unlike his last visit to Congress, when one member on the silent side chose to shout, "You lie!" in response.] This year, during one especially pointed comment toward the Supreme Court, one of the justices could be seen to mouth, "That's not true." Not the most effective exchange.

Just a few days later, the president took part in a gathering of Republican House members Friday in Baltimore that brought some conciliatory words from both sides, but also some pointed complaints and accusations. See more about this by clicking here.

According to Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, this was the most meaningful exchange yet between the two parties and it was what could be the first real step in having Democrats and Republicans working together for the good of the nation.

What's the point in all of this? Communication is so much more meaningful when it's two way. Let's translate this discussion to your brand communications. Are you allowing your brand's constitutents to respond to your products and services? Social media allows dialogs to develop that can inform your product or service development, even your brand itself. Knowing where and when to have this two way conversation is key. As part of our and marketing and brand positioning strategy, we can recommend the most fruitful places for your brand's two way conversations to take place. So you get as much out of them as your customers.

I watched Governor Mitch Daniels State of the State Address this week.  I was interested in hearing how he would chose to address the highs and the lows of Indiana's performance over the past year.  While acknowledging the challenges faced by our state and the residents who live here, he also took some time to put those challenges into perspective. Indiana has successes that are worth noting and celebrating.

It got me thinking about Indiana and even Hoosiers as a brand.  States definitely need to clearly articulate their unique selling points when pitching themselves as a place to do business to the outside world.  I imagine the average Hoosier, if asked, would describe Hoosiers as hard-working, value-centered, and relatively conservative.  While that may or may not be an accurate description, those are not the unique selling points that differentiate our great state.  At least not in terms that matter when pitching Indiana to newcomers.

From an economic development standpoint, what I heard about Indiana is:

• Affordable housing

• Fiscally sound

•  Progressive posture on taxes

 

I'm a Mac person. So let me be completely transparent about that right off the bat. But I know plenty of PCers. So I thought I'd just throw this question out into cyberspace. Are you a Mac? Or a PC? Why?

My answer: I've worked in advertising and brand communication since before computers existed. The Mac interface is frankly more fun, more visual and more intuitive and as a creative thinker, I'd rather be looking at it all day than at the other choice. Mac also seems to be the common platform for those like me who work in brand development and marketing creativity so using this platform lets me speak the same language as my colleagues.

What are you and why?

How often have you been making a list of potential ideas or solutions to a problem and been stuck? Why does this happen? Most likely, you are saying to yourself, "Wow, that last idea was great! I don't need to keep going," or "Gee, these ideas are lousy. I'm no good at this. I better stop."

Generating ideas is a key skill for developing brand communications. So here's a simple tip: don't stop and judge too fast. Come up with lots of ideas first. Work fast. Let yourself come up with as many ideas as possible. Think quantity, not quality. Later, go back over your ideas and judge them. Most of your ideas may not work but you'll have more good ones to choose from, too.

Our country has been in the throes of a hot financial mess for 18 months now. And the bankers and Wall Street mavens who caused it all are living under the same rule set they were when they made the risky decisions that led to our current troubles. So how do we expect a different outcome?

I see the same thing in organizations. A marketing director may come to the table expressing great enthusiasm for doing something really different in the marketplace to gain awareness and to drive the market and the brand forward. This is music to any brand consulting group's ears. Typically, creative teams thrive on this sort of directive and will deliver their very best work. Yet if the brand organization doesn't make any internal changes in how it approves or accepts creative work or marketing thinking, the same old comments get made and the work, in the end, can be more of what the market already has.

What's at risk if your brand communications are truly 'stand out' in your market? What's at risk if you create an internal process that allows for new ideas to be tried, even if only in some test markets? What's at risk if you don't?

After the rough and tumble year of 2009, I am still receiving holiday greetings from unemployed colleagues who used to be full up with national and international work in advertising. My friends range from advertising agency broadcast producers and creative directors in the car industry (yikes!) to international agency HR directors to agency account executives. Notice the common word "agency" as in "advertising agency". There will always be the need for persuasive brand communication...yet I wonder if the classic advertising agency is the model for the future. Most smart marketers we work with at Element Three are looking for integrated marketing across all their brand communications, whether that is advertising, social networking, events marketing, product or package design or service delivery. When you define yourself as being able to deliver only one-way messages rather than an entire brand experience, it's no doubt that things have dried up. On the other hand, folks who can deliver integrated marketing seem to be on the recovery side of the recession–and rightly so.

What's your experience?

At Element Three, we often work with mid-size organizations to help them develop their brand create and implement marketing strategy and develop creative brand communications. Sometimes, our clients are new to these processes or to working with an Indianapolis marketing firm. Often, moving through the creative process is the most challenging part for those who are new to working with an outside creative resource.

To make things easy, we take a step-by-step approach. Once the key differentiators of the brand are identified, we create a series of potential brand boards that show how your brand might look and sound in type, copy, image and color. Once a directional board is chosen for the brand, everyone feels more confident as we develop brand identity. Next, for instance, many Indianapolis marketing firms may jump right to tight, comprehensive layouts to show creative concepts. We prefer to show several rough sketches so that the client has an early chance to give feedback. Once a rough sketch is selected and feedback is given, the entire team has a plan of attack agreed upon before moving into a tighter executional stage.

Checkpoints are good because they offer a chance for communication and clarity for the marketing partner and for the client. They also make for great creative executions.

In the past, I worked as a Creative Director...the person who hires designers and other creative folk. What I learned in this role is that HOW a creative person works with others is just as important as WHAT their work looks and sounds like. Reviewing the portfolio is only half the battle. The more important area to review is chemistry. Is this a person with whom you'd like to spend time in meetings, working late, and being under stress? Can you trust this person to deliver the goods on time, as needed?

It's the same when you're thinking of hiring a creative resource company. Make sure the work is quality. Then make sure the people are quality, too. You'll change agencies less often, build a long term relationship – and get better brand communications.

If you, like I, tend to get overwhelmed at this time of year, you know how much there is to get done. As a brand communicator, you may feel the same at work. There are the obvious seasonal greetings to get out, all in keeping with the brand positioning strategy yet bringing a bit of cheer to those who have been good to you all year long. Then there are the corporate gifts and the celebrations, as well. This can all become quite an expense – and a time sucker.

Here's another idea: instead of saving up the cheer for the holiday season, find ways to bring cheer to your brand's fans all year long, a little bit at a time. If you spend, say $5,000 at the holiday season (a small amount for most brands), you might create a number of meaningful events during the year in which you bring experts in to speak on a relevant topic Or you might spend the money creating content on your Web site and inviting special guests in with a password. Because content, to many, is more important than a box of flavored popcorn or a slightly drunken party. And in the long run, it brings more value to your brand.

Often, clients come to us asking for a specific piece of brand communication. They may say, "We need a web site," or "We need a brochure," for instance. Often the need to get brand communication out into the marketplace is indeed urgent. And we want to serve our clients' needs. So we will most likely take what I call the dual track.

Track One: Take care of the urgent brand communication need. If the market is moving fast, often marketers must move with the market. So we get out the needed messages.

Track Two (happening concurrently with Track One): With the client's permission, do due diligence to strategic marketing and brand understanding. If the organization hasn't yet done it, we begin with our Brand Chemistry deep dive process to completely identify the brand's unique assets and promises. We also get a clear understanding of the key audiences with whom the brand interacts. If these steps are completed already or once they are done, we find out through a variety of research processes, what the position of the brand is in its marketplace and what forces are at work that may affect the brand. From this data, we develop a complete strategic marketing plan. The marketing plan outlines goals, objectives and strategies to assure that all of our brand communications efforts are directed in the right place. The plan also includes a prioritized list of tactical recommendations (should we be creating a Web site at all or should we start with events, for instance).

Dual tracking. It works. And it puts your brand on the right track for the long run as well as the short run.

At Element Three, we offer logo creation services, along with all of our strategic marketing and brand development work. We also create whatever brand communications your organization may need to create and sustain successful relationships with your brand constituents. I believe that successful business logo creation is a very important thing. Your logo is like your name. A good one can help to build recognition through everything you do.

A cautionary note, though. Your logo is just the tip of the brand communications iceberg. Literally. It's the first thing most marketers ask for because if your logo isn't serving you well, it's like having a horribly ugly name. Or a face that's badly in need of several reconstructive surgeries. So it's fine to come in and say right off the bat, we need a new logo. Or we need to update/revise/overhaul our logo.

Because it's like your graphic 'name', your logo mark gives a signal about how your brand will likely look and feel in other brand communications. Is it modern, relaxed, classic, soft, regimented? All the communications that come later help to build upon that beginning, from brochures to Web sites to events to product design to packaging. And all of that is built upon the foundational structure of your brand (who you are). If you haven't done due diligence to discovery of your own brand's assets, let us help you with our Brand Chemistry process. See my earlier blog postings on Brand Chemistry to learn more about Element Three's unique deep dive branding process.

I teach at Herron School of Art and Design in the Visual Communication Program. As well as teaching student designers how to be create great brand communications, we also have classes that focus on the creative problem solving process or what we call 'design thinking'. The idea is that there are many ways to use the creative process. Some of them end up with tangible designed objects or artifacts like brand identity, advertising, or other design outcomes. But other problems may not necessarily lead to the creation of brand communications. They may lead to a new process, a new product idea, a new organization, a new system or concept. Innovation, a highly prized possession in corporate America, doesn't happen automatically. So if you have a problem in your organization, your marketing or your process that you'd like to have us address in an innovative way, let us employ design thinking on your behalf...and with you as an active participant. E-mail Tiffany at tiffany@discoverelementthree.com to learn more.

I hope this doesn't make me sound like a curmudgeon. But sometimes I do feel like one. I love technology. It lets me get so much more work done, consider so many options, and communicate effortlessly with people around the country and the world. Today, I spent the day working on brand communications on my laptop –  from bed with a cold. Working in an ad agency or a  brand consulting group can be very time sensitive. So hooray! I can still be productive, even when I'm sick. And boo... I can still be productive when I'm sick.

My husband works every evening and weekend on his laptop. I can check my e-mail, voicemail and text messages from my iPhone...and so can he. All this constant communication can be a life saver. It can also cut into, well, life. This Thanksgiving weekend, I plan to cut off that constant communication and work for at least one day so that I can give thanks for all the other things I have in my life. So join me in taking a low tech holiday!

Maybe you've noticed the trend toward purchasing stock logos, stationery designs, brochures and Web sites online. And I see why it has happened...the technology to make and share imagery has become readily available. If you're a tiny organization with no resources, these quick and cheap resources fill a need. They can help you communicate and make you look bigger than you are, fast. So why shouldn't everyone use these brand communication resources?

Here are a few of reasons.

1. It's important that your organization and what it has to offer stands apart. It's very hard to do that if you're buying off the shelf communications, along with your competitor down the street. How will your customer tell you apart?

2. Great brands create relationships with their customers by speaking their language and showing that they understand their specific needs. (see my earlier blog posts about Brand Chemistry). These types of brand communications must be created in response to ongoing customer needs and values, not a pre-existing template.

3. Great brands create a portfolio of communications that have a consistent look and feel. That's tough to do if you're shopping around on the Web for a logo here, stationery there, a Web site over here. And your customers will be confused by the cacophony of different personalities your brand is displaying.

4. Smart marketers are strategic in how, when and where they communicate, based on their brand, their customer and the market situation. And their strategic marketing partner sits alongside them as they navigate this territory so that the smartest efforts are completed, not the easiest or quickest.

5. A better use of interactive technology, if your organization can afford it, is to offer your customers ways to create their own artifacts that represent your brand using interactive technologies. You create the framework; they make it their own.

No doubt about it, interactive technology creates a completely new marketplace for us all. Using it wisely is where the real money is.