Friday, August 22, 2008

What is a brand?

The word "brand" gets thrown around a lot these days. (I know I use it all the time.) But what is a brand?

A brand in a marketing sense is essentially everything that has to do with a company or product. It's not only the visual logo and identity as the term is often used, but it's also how people feel about a product, and all of their experiences with that product, both positive and negative. Companies try to influence brand perception with advertising and marketing...I should know, it's my job...but a brand isn't something physical you can hold in your hand. It's an intangible, ephemeral concept that can determine the success or failure of a company. To put it simply, it's quite a powerful little word influenced by more factors than you can count on your fingers and toes.

I read today in the Brand New blog that the Department of Psychology at Harvard University is currently running a "mind study" that examines how people perceive the 'mental' capacities of corporations. Here's how Harvard explains it:
Every day we buy products from a variety of corporations. Each of them employs marketers to see into your mind - the mind of their consumer. Here is your opportunity to turn the tables and evaluate their minds. Of course, corporations do not have minds in the normal sense, but they do possess certain abilities. We are interested in how people perceive the mental capacities of corporations.

It's essentially an exercise to see how you perceive the brands of the 13 companies they're testing. First you meet the companies, ranging from companies most people like (Google, Whole Foods) to companies most people are ambivalent about (Playtex, TWA) to companies most people despise (Phillip Morris, Enron). Next you're given a series of tests to take — the first one I took was "Harm" and others include Worth, Punishment, Morality, Guilt and Desire — that take between 5 and 10 minutes to complete. You're given a series of match-ups of two of the companies on the list...so in my first quiz, I was asked, "If you were forced to harm one of these corporations, which one would it be more painful for you to harm?" Based on my results, here is how I ranked the 13 companies they were testing.
  1. Google
  2. =Disney
  3. =Apple
  4. Toys 'R' Us
  5. =Ben and Jerry's
  6. Starbucks
  7. Whole Foods Market
  8. Playtex
  9. Walmart
  10. Trans World Airlines
  11. Enron
  12. Exxon
  13. Phillip Morris
Google, Disney and Apple are tied for first because I love them all and couldn't inflict any pain upon any of them, then Toys R Us because it's a happy place, then Starbucks and Ben & Jerry's are tied for 3rd because they're both guilty pleasures. Next comes Whole Foods, which I don't actually patronize, but I think well of, then Playtex, which I don't really feel one way or the other toward, followed by Walmart, which I'm not a big fan of to say the least, then TWA, which doesn't exist anymore so I didn't feel so bad inflicting pain on it, followed by my three least favorite companies on the list, Enron, Exxon and Phillip Morris. I obviously feel stronger about high gas prices and smoking than I do about corporate scandal.

My results didn't surprise me much...given the list of companies, I probably would have ranked them similarly, with just a few changes in the middle perhaps. But it's interesting to see how emotions can be tied to our feelings about a company's brand, especially in the circumstances Harvard is asking us to put them in.

How do you rank the companies? Take the quiz and find out if your perceptions are in line with your actions. And see why even though a company might spend billions on marketing, or "branding" themselves, there are so many other factors that influence consumers' perception.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Eco-Friendly Marketing

I just took the Design Can Change pledge to make Perceptivity Studio a more eco-friendly design studio. There’s nothing particularly strict about the effort, it’s really just a set of guidelines that gets the ball rolling. It's something we've already been moving toward, but today was an official commitment to making it happen. Over the next few months we're going to make an effort to not only make our business more eco-friendly, but also to help our clients produce more eco-friendly marketing as well. Stay tuned for more blog posts on eco-friendly marketing topics you can think about on our next projects together.

We've already started helping our clients be more eco-friendly with their marketing efforts. We've talked a bit in the past about our efforts in green printing for Tanglewood and Accelerated Momentum. While it does cost a bit more to print with a green printer, it's wonderful to see tangible results of the actual difference you're making by spending just a bit more money.

Of course the "feel good" aspect can only take you so far, and eco-friendly marketing can also be a smart marketing decision, especially in an industry where being "green" is becoming more important, like construction, architecture and engineering. Perceptivity Studio has been helping our clients in these industries explore different ways to promote their LEED (which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a designation by the U.S. Green Building Council to signify sustainable building practices) services.
  • We already mentioned printing Tanglewood's business cards with a green printer, and we just recently printed their letterhead and envelopes with a green printer as well. This development and construction company is part of the USGBC, and spends extra time and money to incorporate green building practices in their historic renovations and new construction. It was important to them to produce eco-friendly marketing materials, and we added a "100% Recycled" symbol to each piece to let their customers know that they'd made the effort to be more responsible.
  • Bacon Group Architecture is also a member of the USGBC, and principal architect Rick Bacon is a LEED Accredited Professional, meaning that he's passed the test to prove he has the knowledge and skills to successfully steward the LEED certification process. Bacon Group has mentioned their sustainable architecture services in their company brochure and on the home page of their website, and we're working on a cut sheet for their brochure to explain the LEED certification process to their customers, since it can be a bit confusing. Bacon Group's eco-friendly identity package was all printed on recycled paper as well.
We're very lucky to have clients who share some of our sustainable philosophies, and we really look forward to helping you all learn more about the small steps you can take to be more eco-friendly with your marketing and business over the next few months.

If you have any specific eco-friendly marketing questions you'd like answered or topics you'd like us to cover, leave a comment or email us. In the meantime, consider visiting the Design Can Change website. Their Resources section has all kinds of good information to get you started being more eco-friendly with your business!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Yummy Menu Brochure for Bonetti's Catering

Bonetti's Catering is a new catering company with much older roots. An offshoot of Gino's NY Style Pizzeria, which has been in the Tampa Bay area for almost 20 years, Bonetti's Catering is now serving the delicious Italian cuisine of Chef Gino Bonetti at events from 20 - 200 people.

I was approached by Leah Bonetti (a referral from a client at Engineering Matrix...thanks Jamie!) to create a menu brochure for the company. Let me tell you, the stunning photography and delicious food descriptions were quite an inspiration (and a distraction to my stomach!), and I'm so happy with the finished product--a gorgeous 12-page booklet that we're printing in full color on coated paper to really showcase the food and project a professional image. The final design features rich textures and "hand-stitched" borders throughout the booklet that complement the family-owned company and their home-style Italian cuisine.

Here is the cover:






























And one of the inside spreads:





















Hungry yet? We wish Bonetti's Catering the best of luck as they launch this new chapter in their family history. I have a rumbling feeling in my stomach that they'll be quite successful!

Want to learn more? Visit the Bonetti's Catering website, call 727-789-6883, or email them at info@bonettiscatering.com.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Ruby Tuesday Demolition: A "Cheeky" Viral Marketing Stunt

I was intrigued when I saw the following Ruby Tuesday commercial on TV on Monday night, and made a mental note to myself to go check out their website at 3pm on Tuesday.



I should learn not to depend on mental notes, because I just now remembered (on Wednesday!) that I was supposed to go watch the live Ruby Tuesday demolition. I went to the Ruby Tuesday website to see if they'd posted the demolition there for those of us with memory problems, but it appears that this was a viral marketing stunt by Ruby Tuesday, and a disappointing one at that.

The premise was that the newly re-branded Ruby Tuesday, which recently adopted a new logo







and more upscale interior design for their restaurants (which is a big improvement, if you haven't been there lately...still not a huge fan of the food though!), was going to demolish their last "old" store live on the internet to symbolize how different they had now become from other casual dining restaurants. Here's a video of the result:



Apparently, the demolition crew "accidentally" blew up Cheeky's Bar & Grill next door instead due to its "sameness," but now, because of the "sweeping changes that have taken place within (the Ruby Tuesday) organization, it's extremely unlikely that a Ruby Tuesday restaurant will ever be confused for another casual dining establishment again." Hardy har har.

They have an apology letter up to Cheeky's Bar and Grill on the Ruby Tuesday website, but of course the whole stunt was just a gimmick. I appreciated the symbolic nature of what Ruby Tuesday was trying to do when I saw the commercial on Monday, but I'm very disappointed with the result, as are others and others to say the least.

Had they actually demolished their last restaurant instead of the fake Cheeky's Bar & Grill (for which they even created a website), I would have had a lot more respect for the marketing stunt, because it really did seem like an interesting idea. I was definitely intrigued after seeing that initial commercial for the Ruby Tuesday demolition, but now I'm just disappointed. To quote the Serious Eats blog, "Ruby Tuesday arguably botched what could have been a complicated, humorous campaign, and this whole debacle shows how talented and clever you need to be to successfully pull off viral marketing stunts." Amen.