Do you see yourself as others see you?

Do you know your companies brand?

Whether your company is small or large, your brand should answer the question, “What do we want our company to be known for?”  Everyone in the company should have an intimate understanding of the brand – from the receptionist to the president.

• Your brand should be one message and be communicated with one voice.
• It should be easily identified as yours, and at least one benefit of the brand should stay in the mind of your audience.
• To make your brand stamp work, you need to own a piece of real estate in the minds of your clientele.

A strong brand will differentiate your company in a crowded marketplace. There may be hundreds of companies in your area, and nearly all of them will describe themselves in similar ways:  “We’ve been around for more than X amount of years,” or “Our staff works as a team, and we partner with our clients to meet business challenges.” It’s also typical that companies employ similar and overused visuals – photos of the city skyline, the office building, the logo on the lobby wall, or a conference room with employees sitting around the table with laptops. And how many times have we seen architectural columns and stock images of people? When companies use these ideas and images over and over, they are saying that they are not unique or different, and that they don’t have a unique value proposition.

Clancy and Shulman, in Marketing Myths That Are Killing Business: The Cure for Death Wish Marketing, underscore the key benefit of branding: “In a cluttered environment where buyers have little time to ponder product decisions, it is highly advantageous for a marketer to stand for something important, to be remembered for something significant. [Branding] helps a company hold current customers by giving them constant reminders of why they buy, while providing protection from competitive onslaughts.” A unique brand message differentiates you from the competition; it shows what you stand for and clearly demonstrates the value of your services, allowing you to command a premium for the unique advantage you provide.

Sometimes the words branding and marketing are used interchangeably, but they are actually two different concepts. Branding determines what services are offered, who offers them, and how they’re delivered. Marketing is the way those services are made available to the marketplace.

To identify some basic requirements for building a brand strategy, consider some important questions:

• How are we currently perceived?
• Is this an accurate perception?
• What makes our company different?
• If asked, could we articulate our brand positioning?

How are you currently perceived?  If you’re not sure how the market sees you, conducting a quick online client survey is priceless. It’s cost effective and efficient, and can help lay the groundwork on which to build your brand.

Is this an accurate perception?  Once you compile the results of the survey and are able to see yourself through the eyes of your clients, you can determine if the perception is accurate. If that perception fits your company and how you’d like to be seen, you can build your brand on that foundation.  If it doesn’t, what can you do to clarify your brand in the minds of clients?

What makes your company different?  It is important to look at yourself in the context of your market. What do your competitors offer, and is their product different or better than yours? What do you do better than your competitors?  What markets are you targeting, and is your current message delivering?

Can you articulate your brand positioning?  Are you able to say what your brand position is in a 30- or 60-second elevator ride?  Write a brand position statement that explains who you are marketing to,   what you are actually offering, why clients should want to use your services, and how your services are different from those of competitors?

The brand position statement should be two or three sentences at most.  It should encompass all of your areas of practice and should be repeatable by everyone in the company. It should be an internal and external message that everyone understands.

After your brand is established, your marketing efforts should incorporate it into all available communication vehicles:  logo, positioning statement or tagline, marketing materials, public relations, stationery, newsletters, brochures, individual attorney profiles, Web site, email blitz, online connections, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. Once all of the layers are constructed and cohesive, your clients and potential clients will know who you are and what you stand for. It may take a while before you see the business results a brand reaps, but you will see client growth, staff longevity and more external interest in your company. Your brand will help build trust with your clientele.

The clearer you make your brand statement, the greater results you will see and the more business you will win. The award-winning Spangler Design Team helps companies discover their brand voice and recognize their unique position in the marketplace. To discuss how we may assist you and how to position your company in “A Brand New Way”, contact Mark Spangler at 952-927-5425.

I like this quote by Andrew Carnegie because it is true for the way we work. Often, the talents and specialties of many individuals are required to make a project really sing – and sometimes, the job is too big for one designer to complete on their own.

Take, for instance, a catalog. Most of us have no reason to think about the steps involved in its creation. We just want to see the products inside. But the story changes when you find yourself in the midst of creating one. The steps involved could look mighty daunting if you were working on a catalog alone: content selection, design, photography, illustration, writing, production, printing… etc. Then add a deadline. That’s where teamwork saves the day.

Last fall, we completed a catalog for Continental Diamond, a locally owned jewelry store in St. Louis Park. We designed the 24-page catalog the previous year and were excited to work on it again. The project went very well and we made the deadline – all things you plan for when you start. The reason for success was collaboration. Internally, we utilized everyone’s unique skills – from presentation, project management and design to photo direction, scavenging for backgrounds and even artificially rendering shadows on products (bet you can’t guess which ones are fake). External collaboration added another layer of specialties – our fabulous client developed the content, our photographer defied physics with many of his shots and our printer advised us every step of the way. Technology made it possible to art direct the photoshoot remotely (which took place at the store) so we could work one-on-one with the photographer and client every day. The result was a catalog full of beautiful, high-end jewelry which our team is proud to present.

From an art director’s perspective, this is the strength of working for an established agency. You have the advantage of leveraging everyone’s skills and perspectives to create a better product. Plus, the work gets done faster. In a place like Spangler Design Team where people have worked together for years, projects go more smoothly because we know how to let each other’s talents shine. The next time you have a project, consider the benefits a team could bring to your endeavor. Our team offers creativity, organization, and a breadth of technical skill amongst many other attributes.

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” – Henry Ford

Photography: Allen Brown Photography
Printing: Shapco

The Spangler Design Team was asked to redesign the Mastery Series fly-line packaging so that each carton better reflected the intended use of the fly-line it contained, and to improve each cartons appeal to the target market. The Mastery Series, containing almost 30 fly-lines, is 3M Scientific Anglers largest product line. Each Mastery Series fly-line is intended to be used while fishing for a particular species of fish in unique water conditions. The Spangler Design Team utilized the talents of photographers all over the world to assemble a visually-appealing library of textures which would appeal to fly anglers. 3M Scientific Anglers reports increased success in the marketplace thanks to the introduction of this new packaging.

We recently completed a promotional email for NuAire, Inc., a long-time client. This email is being distributed by an online publication primarily to advertise products of interest to the publications readers. But, like every piece of NuAire’s corporate communications, this email has the important purpose of representing NuAire’s brand. The email contains copy explaining NuAire’s products and features, photography, logos, and NuAire’s distinct visual style, all of which occur within NuAire’s brand in a variety of other media.

NuAire also publishes a large number of brochures. The proportion of brochures distributed in print versus those distributed electronically is decreasing. But, regardless of how this information is sent into the marketplace it must have the same visual style as the rest of NuAire’s communications.

NuAire’s brand is extended further by an extensive line of logos. These logos are used to differentiate product lines, highlight features, or note that 2011 is NuAire’s 40th year in business. The logos appear on literature, all forms of electronic communications, or are applied to products as permanent labels or static-clings.

The 40th anniversary logo (above) is also featured in a Web banner (below). NuAire Web Banner

NuAire’s brand is much more extensive than the examples shown here. Each time we design another component we are aware that it must work with the existing brand and lay the groundwork for the future of NuAire’s visual communications.

The winners of the Cites 97 Sampler #23 are:

Jim Machowski | Jay O’Neill | Karissa Johnson | Sharon Lehrman

Courtney Whited | Traci Enger

You can pick up your sampler at the Spangler office at your convenience.

Reminder: The Spangler Design Team invites everyone to our open house.  Join us at our new office and enjoy appetizers and drinks.  We will be showing examples of our recent work including the Cities 97 Sampler #23.  A drawing will be held and a few lucky guests will be taking home the sold out sampler!

When:  Thursday, December 8th from 5-7pm

Where:  Spangler Design | 7900 Excelsior Boulevard, Suite 100 | Hopkins

When: Thursday, December 8th from 5-7pm

Where: Spangler Design | 7900 Excelsior Boulevard, Suite 100 | Hopkins

100% of the proceeds from the Cities 97 Sampler go to Minnesota charities. If it sells out, your purchase will help raise nearly $800,000 for adults, animals, and children in need in our community; organizations that better the lives of the homeless, the hungry, the disabled, the abused, the elderly, families, women and the seriously ill.