To ensure that leaders’ voices were heard and opinions counted, we hosted a two-hour, guided ideation session. At the completion of the ideation, we knew that we needed to create an identity that was attractive to a younger crowd, while paying respect to and not offending an older audience.

We launched the logo design process. After a number of sketch rounds, we arrived at a logo that was both strongly progressive and rooted in tradition. By combining hand-lettered, modern type with the historic Celtic cross, we were able to create a look that appealed to a wide age spectrum.

Our work, however, was not done. We needed to devise a strategy that incorporated 18 distinct subministries into the at-large identity.

This might sound like a strange analogy, but this church identity needed to become a swimming octopus—I know, bear with me. The church’s many subminstries needed to become the tentacles and the logo the octopus’ head. As the octopus propels forward, the tentacles need to work in conjunction behind the head.

To create this swimming octopus, SG created a consistent format for the subministry names in combination with the logo, allowing the subministries to work with the main organizational identity rather than against it. This created a main-brand focus that allowed the smaller ministries to point back to the church’s main identity.

When building an identity for an organization that is made up of smaller entities, creating a concise, consolidated logo will help you build a sleek, sticky brand—your very own swimming octopus.

The times have rendered us completely impatient. Results can’t come fast enough. Change doesn’t happen quick enough. I remember way back in the late 80s, during the total quality revolution, when we needed “change agents” to overcome inertia and we operated in frozen fear of change. Fast forward 20 years…change is everything…just look at Madonna. In contrast, The Rolling Stones have changed very little (except getting sober, maybe).

Here’s my point in this diatribe of mixed metaphor…I fear the perceived need for change and magic silver bullets has everything to do with our lack of results. We need to commit to do a few, proven things consistently this coming year, like the Stones surely have done for the past 40 plus. I believe the results will follow.

In 2008, patience will still be a virtue. And magic bullets will still be for Lone Rangers.

High-yo Silver!

The heavenly bed points to an important discipline for strategic marketers, brand managers and CEOs: calculating what can go wrong. It’s a marvelous thing to be a person of vision, even better to see the line to the finish. But after the first flush of a new vision passes, it’s time to start the homework—to count the costs, understand the risks, study the competitive environment, jog around the whole vision with a few experts to look for both opportunities and pitfalls, and then, most important, slow to walk a mile in the brand consumer’s shoes. What is the consumer experience? What will the consumer say is great about this new vision of product or service brilliance? What will diminish his experience or worse, cause his confidence in my company to falter?

Several weeks before our not-so-heavenly bed experience, I booked two more room nights at this same hotel for an end-October visit back to South Carolina. It really is a beautiful hotel, but now I’m torn: cancel the reservation or travel with a bottle of Febreeze.

Curiously enough, this particular “pea” in my sleep experience was hinted at as early as 1749. I found this on Wikipedia when I Googled “duvet”:

“In Westphalia, an English travel-writer observed with surprise in 1749,
“There is one thing very particular to them, that they do not cover themselves with bed-cloaths, but lay one feather-bed over, and another under. This is comfortable enough in winter, but how they can bear their feather-beds over them in summer, as is generally practised, I cannot conceive.” —Thomas Nugent, The Grand Tour 1749, vol II. p66 [1]

While Tommy may not define every lifestyle, I believe his is one of the true branding success stories of our time. Read Cigar Aficionado, June 2007. I wish I were a little more like Tommy.

Tommy is an innovator. He had the courage to persevere when others were blind to his vision. Today he has legions of brand loyalists and just as many wannabe imitators.

Tommy knows who he is. He was created to live a very specific life (an attainable yet aspirational life)—and even more than a life, an attitude.

Tommy is true to who he is. He doesn’t try to be more things to more people. Instead he continues to drill into his own life (always asking the question: What would Tommy want?) and take a niche market deeper into his experience.

In my mind Tommy defines “boutique” and has rightfully earned his station in a life “where the weekend never ends.”

Relax.

Pathfinders west store was relocating so it was the perfect time to bring the interior aesthetic in line with the brand. As a purveyor of cool and comfortable shoes, Jill Dunning has a light-hearted personality and a deep love for nature. With her personal style in mind, we began the interior design process.

We set the tone with an earthy color palette using shades of tan, green and a warm, deep red. With the color palette in place, we began to introduce fun textures. Faux paint resembling stone was applied behind the check-out desk. A metallic vinyl swirl pattern representing leaves and foliage was added to the adjacent display walls. Concrete floors were stained to resemble stone and compliment the warm, earth-tone color palette used on the walls.

Jill also expressed the desire to explore original artwork to display in her store. Three large, horizontal murals were concepted, designed and printed on stretched canvas to provoke a sense of journey—the different paths we take in life. And, of course, the need for cool and comfortable shoes to get us where we’re going!

Check out this engaging interior at Pathfinders Birkenstock west Wichita location. Just south of New Market Square on west 21st street. You might even find a pair of cool shoes for your personal journey.

If cold calling leaves you feeling frustrated and beaten down, try baiting the hook with targeted direct mail. When done strategically, direct mail will help establish company name recognition, build interest in who you are and create perceived value of your product or service before you ever have to pick up the phone.

We recently developed a five-piece direct mail program geared toward helping a client catch a few really big fish. Several prospects who received the mailings are actually calling the client before the client calls them! Others are readily agreeing to meet as soon the client contacts them.

The campaign was fun, memorable and, most importantly, broke through the clutter. While this direct mail campaign was more extravagant than most, it succeeded because there was a strategic plan behind it. You have to understand who you are targeting. Uncover what excites them. Make your message memorable. And most importantly, follow through.

If the prospects you’re trying to catch always seem to get away maybe you need a different plan of attack. Fishin’—it’s a thinkin’ man’s game!

Why do some salespeople speak this way? It’s the oldest line in the book and it usually means you have something I’m not interested in. It’s what makes the general population take two steps back, look for the nearest exit, turn the channel or hang up the phone.

If your fast-talking sales pitch sounds like this it means you probably haven’t taken the time to learn anything about the needs of your customer or their business. How can you tell me what I should be buying when you haven’t first qualified my needs?

As an advertising executive I often hear these grandiose sales opportunities from overzealous media sales reps who have nothing strategic to offer my clients. Many people will recognize a too-good-to-be-true offer when it affects their personal pocketbook, but for some reason the same people will become overly anxious when trying to compete in the business world. Without thinking, they jump on the flashiest sales presentation only to be disappointed by the not-so-flashy results.

Slow down and think strategically before you act. Will this latest advertising opportunity reach your target audience effectively? Is it on brand with the image you’ve created? Can you measure the ROI? Will it complement other mediums you’ve already chosen for your marketing plan? Is this simply a sales transaction or is it a business partnership in which we are equally concerned about each other’s success?

An overly bright LED billboard, the hippest text message campaign or even unexpected advertisements on the bathroom stall are all advertising mediums that work, but as with any medium, only if they are used strategically. Some mediums build awareness while others drive traffic. What do you want to accomplish? Have you chosen the right mix for your business plan?

Don’t be afraid to ask sales reps hard-hitting questions. You’ll learn more about their products, you’ll learn if they’re right for you and it’ll actually make taking sales calls fun. A good salesperson will appreciate your attention. A bad sales rep will respond by taking two steps back, hanging up the phone or looking for the nearest exit. Feel familiar?

Congratulations. You just hit a home run!

Jeff wore no mask. He built no walls. He put on no airs. He played no games. He was REAL.

I don’t recall when we met. We didn’t actually spend that much time together. Yet, I knew Jeff on a deeper level than some people I’ve been around my entire life and I find that compelling.

We spend a significant amount of time talking to our clients about building authentic (REAL) brands and yet we can often neglect our own personal brand.

In honor of our friend, be REAL. Time is fleeting.

Youth Horizons is an organization devoted to serving at-risk kids in and around Wichita. The Strategy Group made the decision in 1997 to come alongside this compelling organization by donating strategic and creative services. Check out their website here.

If business success was as simple as getting our personal leadership act together, we’d all be running powerhouses. But the truth is, our businesses get reckless too. Why? Because you and I don’t always lead from our organizational core. We take our eyes off what our business uniquely is, where we’re uniquely going and the best, right tactics for getting there. We read too much, talk too much, gather too much intelligence on some other company’s DNA and lose our strategic center.

Successful companies find and leverage their core. They understand that the building blocks of strategic, directed, effective leadership are core essentials:

• Core vision
• Core values
• Core politics
• Core decisionmaking body
• Core competencies
• Core strengths → core opportunities
• Core identity platform
• Core constituencies (primary/secondary/tertiary targets)
• Core messages
• Core (unique) selling points
• Core team
• Core partners
• Core collateral
• Core-directed planning and execution

There are lots of reasons we quit leading from our core. We grow tired. Economic pressure, the principal assassin of core energy, increases. Competitive pressures rail. The team we count on changes or becomes ineffective, moving us from gatekeeper role to the trenches. A new genre of industry thinking causes us to rethink how we do business.

The truth is, if we lead companies we will remain in constant flux. People and processes and trajectories change. A lot about our company’s core, however, is fixed. And when we lead from that core and make decisions from that core, we create core differentiation in the marketplace we serve. Core differentiation—or core separation—wins the attention of our publics. Core differentiation is the principle ingredient for success.

When I was young and in a new leadership position that was likely over my head at the time, another agency principal said this to me: the speed of the gang is the speed of the lead. Those sharp words were an admonition to get my act together and lead from a controlled core.

How are you leading?

A common stumbling block in many advertising endeavors is the desire to focus too heavily on the design of one particular project without consideration for other projects that will directly correlate to the campaign or promotion. While it is common for one project to work as a springboard for others in a campaign this can create havoc down the road. A clear understanding at the outset of the vehicles or mediums the campaign will use to accomplish desired marketing goals is critical.

For instance, it would be one dimensional to focus time and energy on the creation of a visual concept for direct mail only to find out after it has been printed that a TV spot, full-page magazine ad and outdoor board need to follow that visual style. This type of scenario makes it difficult to preserve the design integrity of the campaign.

From a layout point of view there is now a kind of handcuffing that occurs, restricting all of the new projects to a design format that may not translate well to a different medium. Let’s say that the visual selected for use on the direct mail piece is an extremely horizontal photograph that uses the far left and far right areas of the image as necessary focal points for the visual concept. While this image may transform splendidly to the horizontal physical attributes of the outdoor board and a simple pan will accommodate the photo in the production of the TV spot, the vertical magazine ad suffers tremendously. The image has to be scaled down so small to fit the narrow page width. Consequently, it no longer has the visual power to intrigue the viewer. A decision must be made to either take the ad to a two-page spread or reduce the ad to a half-page or smaller ad. Either way results in costs to the client—from production design or lost impact and, therefore, lost revenue.

To avoid potentially aggravating and costly issues like the previous example it is important to always look toward the future, considering how a visual idea will translate to any medium. An effective way to accomplish this is to build a key image.

A key image consists of all of the driving visual elements (photographs, illustrations, typefaces, color palette, etc.) necessary to fulfill the visual concept in any given medium and also sets the overall design style for the campaign. No particular size or format is given to the key image to restrict it. This forces the designer and client to envision how the visual concept could be applied to other vehicles. It stages the most important question: Does this visual concept have legs? If the answer is yes, then there should be no problem in the translation of the visual concept to any medium. You end up with a versatile, “elastic” design platform capable of achieving success.