Element Three

Yesterday, a group from our Indianapolis marketing firm, Element Three, was at a client in northern Indiana. On their conference room wall was the following quote:

"You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures"

First of all, I'm a sucker for a good quote, but I liked this one for other reasons. I like it for what it told about what was valued and important in their organization.

1. I learned they value long-range planning. Long range planning takes discipline, foresight and communication to maintain and implement. Clients with those attributes are successful in marketing.
2. I learned this organization values risk. Any company that acknowledges there will be failure, is a company that embraces calculated risk. Successful marketing and brand development requires companies take on calculated risk.
3. I learned this company understands there is not a straight line to success. Marketing is based on testing, testing, testing - and measuring response. There is not a straight line to lead generation, but rather a process of hypothesis, execution, evaluation, adjustment, execution, evaluation, and on and on. 

I'm excited to work with this client. With these attributes so front and center in their culture - we're set up for a successful partnership.

Are these characteristics present in your organization?

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?

I wanted to share this new award being brought to the Indianapolis area, the inaugural year of Inspire: The Power of Mentoring Awards. College Mentors for Kids is accepting nominations in seven industry categories for this new award. 

The goal is to increase visibility of mentoring in the community and recognize its impact on individuals and organizations. Please see the attached document and visit www.collegementors.org to learn more about the award and nominate a mentor. The nominees will be honored at a lunch on Wednesday, February 24.  Feel free to share this widely with your personal and professional networks.

Nomination form is available by clicking here.

Deadline to nominate a mentor in your life is January 31st.

I've been noticing all the press lately about how unique it is that Avatar, the recent electronically created film, was actually an original creation. It wasn't based on a book, an earlier movie or an existing story or legend. In a way, this is a sad comment on the film industry and on the state of the creative arts in our culture. The spread of interactive technology has made copycat creativity easy and inexpensive in our field and other creative fields. Conglomerating existing works does not make for a fresh concept.

Logo creation services for $1.50 abound on the Web. So do easy Web site creation sites. It's not automatic – but coming up with concepts that are especially relevant to your brand's unique point of difference, your changing market and to your audience's needs is a must in today's competitive marketplace. The new new thing: original ideas, created for the first time just for your brand.

As our company gathered for our holiday party, we toasted the season. We also toasted the end of 2009...and it can't come too soon. It's been a tough year for so many in and out of our industry. Indianapolis ad agencies larger and more established than ours threw in the towel this past year. We've seen an unprecedented number of resumes making their rounds and many friends contacting us asking if we have work. We've felt the tight budgets our clients must live by as a result of the uber recession. We feel very fortunate to still be in business, working with a wonderful, diverse mix of clients. Our team is strong and we enjoy working together.

So here's to a better year for all in 2010. May it leave us all more prosperous and able to support ourselves and our families.

After spending two days this past week driving through sleet, rain and snow to visit my family two states away, I am convinced that there must be better ways for us to travel in these wintery conditions. This is a short rant.

We've put men on the moon.
We've cured cancers.
Car designers, if you're reading, please tackle winter driving...beyond antilock brakes, all wheel drive and snow tires.

This white knuckle stuff has got to stop!

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.

Really? Air quality?

This headline/ article below was featured in Inside Indiana Business' daily e-newsletter.


How about the fact that Indiana ranks high in obesity? Or the fact that we have an incredibly high rate of our population that smokes and the unemployment rate in some of our counties is the highest in the nation? And, to add to our grumpy state, our inner-city public school system graduates <50% of high-school Seniors.

How about we focus on things we can change to improve our 'Happiness' level instead of pointing to things like congestion and air quality.

Why am I so bugged that someone spent time researching why we're unhappy? I tell you what makes this Hoosier grumpy - is when people point to random, external factors that contributed to their current state of affairs.

We all know it's coming - coupons and special offers coming to our cell phones via SMS and MMS messaging. I thought this article was interesting. Especially interesting to see the numbers around our social dependency on cell phones. My husband and I are in the category of 'household with no landline' - and we love it. Why spend the money when we're almost always gone and with cell phones, we have more than one line.

Here is a link to the entire article.

• 89 percent of adults in the United States have a mobile phone
• In 2009, 17.5 percent households, or approximately one in six in the United States are purely mobile phone dependent and have no landlines
  • Oklahoma and Utah have at least 26 percent
  • Nebraska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, New Mexico, Texas, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington DC have at least 20 percent
• 58 percent of Americans have a mobile phone with Web connectivity
• An average of 54,922,000 of Americans received an SMS ad between Sept – Nov 2008
• 81 percent of young adults report use text messaging
• 66 percent adults aged 30-49 report use of text messaging

... was the title in an article today on Adage.com by local Ad Agency president, Tom Denari.

His focus was on the importance of getting past the rational feedback target audiences give you when conducting research and getting to a place where they are giving you their emotional reasons for making (or not making) a product or service selection.

"Isn't it common knowledge that consumers are motivated more by emotion than reason? Isn't that why brands exist? And, if we can agree that brands work on an emotional level, then why are we asking consumers to make rational judgments in testing scenarios? As soon as we ask consumers what they think of something, they stop being consumers and start becoming evaluators. They are now put in a position to think, to give rational feedback to something that is largely trying to affect their emotional or -- more accurately -- their irrational instincts. We've effectively made my mom the marketing director.

Even if a research methodology is trying to measure an emotional response, attempting to glean a valid, accurate response is almost impossible. The vast majority of this research requires consumers to use language to describe emotional responses. Unfortunately, humans have a very difficult time doing this. And even when they do, verbalizing emotion actually brings that emotion to a cognitive level. If it's cognitive, it's now rational and no longer emotional."

At our Indianapolis marketing firm, Element Three, we have long subscribed to this line of thinking. That customers use rational reasons to justify their emotional impulse.  Our Creative Advisor, Marcia Stone has created a proprietary research methodology, the Deep Dive or Brand Chemistry process, that gets to the emotional drivers behind a purchase decision.

The Deep Dive process is our most comprehensive approach to gathering customer feedback. Based on the work of Harvard Professor; Dr. Gerald Zaltman, Element Three has customized his approach to make the methodology available to small and mid-sized companies. This proprietary process captures the customer’s gut-level response to why they have chosen a specific product or service. This process can also be used to gather feedback to campaigns and creative approaches.

Through an experiential focus group, customers go through exercises and creative outlets to express their reasons for selecting a company's product or service. Coming out of this session, organizations will better understand how to focus their brand message towards the customer’s needs and how to quickly connect what you have to what they get.

For more information on our Deep Dive process, click here.

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.

Recently I've been watching a new show, "Mary, Queen of Shops" in which a retail consultant comes into slightly tired, unsuccessful clothing boutiques and advises them on new strategies to turn their businesses around. In a very real sense, what she is doing is all about Brand Chemistry. Often, the shop has lost touch with those they serve and what is important to them. Their clothing offerings aren't as relevant as they once were though their locations are still viable.

Does this sound a little familiar? If your return on your marketing investment isn't what you'd like it to be, it may be time for an outside assessment. Let us advise you on the most effective ways to bring your brand back to its rightful place in the market. Contact Tiffany at tiffany@discoverelementthree.com to take the first step: a quick meeting to hear about your brand and its current situation.

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.

If you haven't tried using them yet, Google Docs are a collaboration tool worth investigating. Simply Google "Google Docs" and go to the site. Create an identity and you can create presentations, word documents or spreadsheets online. Why would you do this? Because you can invite co-workers to also view and edit the documents online. And instead of having to save a variety of confusing versions, the Google Docs site automatically keeps track of every single edit. You can view any of them at any time so you never lose information. You and your co-workers can all be working on the documents at the same time.

I just finished creating a presentation in which a number of designers worked late at night from their homes, just in time for a morning presentation. This would have required an all-nighter at the office in the past. This is one of those times when I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!

Today in Adage, they published an article entitled: Ten Signs the Worst of 2009 is Behind Us... and 10 Reasons to Remain Worried about 2010.

So which is it?

Truth is, none of us know for sure.

I encourage you to read the article in its entirety, but a couple of macro themes stuck out to me.

1) Consumer confidence remains low. Until people are certain their jobs are not going to go away and they become certain they are not going to need to support additional family members or friends - people are going to do without and pull back on discretionary spending.

2) The available housing inventory is decreasing as a result of the 'first time home buyer' tax credit and crazy low interest rates - but whether or not we can continue to outpace the number of foreclosures and defaults coming into the market has yet to be seen.

3) Ad spending is down for what could be the third consecutive decline, unprecedented since the Depression. People are certainly consuming less, but they are also becoming more focused in their spending. At our marketing firm in Indianapolis, Element Three, we have encouraged our clients to spend less building general awareness (these would be ad dollars) and shift that spend towards client retention, penetration and creating brand awareness in target markets. This is a time when companies should become more focused in the products they offer and the customers they service.

What are steps your company is taking to become more focused in their marketing efforts in this economic period?

It's here again. December. The month when companies make an effort to thank and acknowledge their customers, clients, vendors and employees.

Unfortunately, the 'to-do' of getting a Christmas card out the door or a small gift of appreciation is thrown in among the other million things that must be accomplished at year end.

Here are a couple of points to remember when sending out your company card

• Make it personal. Keep the correspondence as personal as you can. If you are sending out a card via mail, have the person who works most often with that client add a personal note. It doesn't have to be long, just relevant. If you choose to send out an email, use personalization strings to individualize the mass communication and add a video element from your CEO. This can be done very inexpensively with a Flip video or partnering with a company like Cantaloupe.

• Keep it on Brand. Your holiday card is part of your brand image and should reflect the personality, values and essence of your organization. It is important that this touch-point build upon the visual and verbal branding of your company as well.