Slow to blog these days -perhaps its the cocooning that goes with winter. But we finished a website we’re quite proud of, for a crew of very talented people. Barb Bergeson Studios has established themselves as one of the best photographers in the Treasure Valley. After we completed a car wrap for them, they asked us to build a website. The site that was done previously did a competent job of showing their work, but it lacked scale, and personality. To put it simply, it needed more cowbell.

The project at heart was a portfolio piece. The challenge being to honor the brand but not to overshadow the work. But we also wanted it to reek of personality. So we dug up some dirty laundry and rewrote the script on who these guys really were, and why they like to have fun at their jobs. Barb, Greg, Matt, Carly, and Jean contributed some goofy, interesting, and well…damning things about themselves which made the bio section all the more interesting. Matt in particular, had the Tyler Durden look down pretty well.

Much was left on the cutting room floor. The following are other funny things from the bio section that didn’t make the cut:

• Matt is saving for a bicycle that will cost more than his car. Which begs the question what car is he driving.

• Greg has to smell anything printed. The printing smell is an aphrodisiac to him. We thought this might stretch the bounds of TMI, especially if he’s walking by a newspaper stand.

• Carly (like allot of women) thinks that Steven Tyler is sexy. Which continues to blow my mind. This is like me saying I wanna date one of the Golden Girls because they’re so hot.

• Greg likes to mountain bike but only when the front tire stays on the front fork at high speed. Ouch.

• Jean had her car pulled off the beach by a water buffalo. We think that statement alone, deserves its own website, its own book, and perhaps a movie.

• Barb blows her nose like a trumpet and snowboards because she sucks at skiing. So naturally we tried to do a caricature of Barb skiing with a cold, but we couldn’t make it work.

• Greg almost put his hand in a barracuda’s hole. We’re starting to wonder if Greg has a allot of time on his hands.

• Matt can remember the most random bits of trivia. He can name the 3 radioactive isotopes of hydrogen. We think Matt is still single.

So far, the feedback has been great. The caliber and range of their work is on full display. But surprisingly, the bios appear to be a place where visitors are also congregating. Which reminds me of the old adage: people choose to work with you not because of what you have, but because of the way you make them feel. It is a treat to work with clients like this -people that are professional and passionate about their work, but don’t take themselves too seriously. Clients that work hard, but know when to have fun. I can not recommend this studio enough.

Lastly, and maybe more importantly, you can’t cheat good photography. If you believe this to be true, then these are the guys to call.

Car wrap design is just, well…plain fun. Its almost like a different breed of packaging design. Some of the same considerations apply (messaging, content revelation, branding, container restraints, etc.) but where it contrasts differently is in its context. Cars are on a road, not on a shelf competing with other products or services. They’re are almost like an Outdoor, only the sign is moving, not the viewer. This means having the call to action visible, but not overtake the design because nobody wants to drive an obnoxious moving billboard. The car we drive, is still important to most americans, whether we want to admit it or not.*

Barb Bergeson Studio Gallery (BTW one the best photographers in Boise) asked us to design a car wrap for their new Honda Element. They wanted to launch a new division of services aimed at high school seniors. The car wrap was to reflect the new positioning of BBSG Senior Photography while maintaining Barb Bergeson brand on the backside.

The first issue is getting car specs. Templates found on line aren’t always accurate and you run a huge risk by designing to the wrong dimensions. My experience has been to painstakingly measure by hand to ensure exact specifications. Even then, you will be off a little due to difficulty in accurately assessing curved surfaces.

Then we pitched several ideas. Some played off the camera lens implying expertise, some off the color texture palette, but ultimately they went with with a style that highlighted an urban, graffiti look that appeals to a younger crowd.

During the design process we consulted with the printer (Green Grog Printing) on production issues. I can not stress this maxim enough: always consult with your printer. It saves you allot work and trouble down the road. The process takes a couple of days. Needs another week to cure, which means staying out of the rain.

And voila: we have a super slick car and one heckofa marketing tool. And a happy client. Look for the new website coming soon as well.

* I drive a crusty old Honda CRV which is not exactly style central, but its still one the best cars I’ve ever owned, and I’m loyal to it to a fault.

Interesting report in the Wall Street Journal the other day. It goes back to my old stomping grounds in New Zealand. Rewind: my first job out of college in 92′ was in New Zealand, working for a grocery retail company called Woolworths (or Woolies as we called it). I was a glorified studio grunt working in the in-house ad department doing production, design, promotions and anything under the sun. I had a great boss and it turned out to be a great place to get my teeth cut in design and advertising. I also got the opportunity to rebrand the fresh market stores.

Fast forward to today: Woolworths Australia (where my old boss works now) recently went through a rebranding of the company and wanted to create an identity that focused on a fresh food positioning. Ultimately going with a stylized “W” with gradients to imply peeled fruit. Feels a little 80ish (maybe its the overuse of gradients) but overall, I think, a nice job. A definite step up in fostering a “fresh” look to the identity.

Enter Apple Inc. Known for their fierce intellectual property convictions, Apple claims the identity is too similar to their own. They have asked the Australian agency that governs trademarks to reject the retailers application. Wow. Given what has happened to Cisco and the Beatles, it makes you wonder if Apple plans to sue farmers who grow apple orchards.

I mean, they’re apples. A company can’t trademark a fruit. And when you line them up against each other, they really don’t look like one another. Its not like the creative folks at Hulsbosch tried hijack the apple identity -what could they possibly gain other than confusion?

For the most part, creative people like ourselves love the Apple product line to death. I shutter to think what my world would be like without them. But I think the brand authorities at Apple could lighten up a little.

Here’s an interesting parallel: a brand identity project we worked on called Element8. The company works with medical practices to streamline their accounting processes and maximize the financial aspects of their business. Element8 is a play off of the oxygen symbol. Oxygen being mandatory to allow clients to breathe easier in managing a practice. The logo plays of the atomic number 8 as below.

Months later after being finished, Brian King (a co worker at the time) mentioned to me that it reminded him of something he had seen before, but couldn’t place it. The following day he came to work and announced “I got it! THIS is where I’ve seen this before:”

The “e” and “s”  are strangely similar in form. Yet the identities are totally different and the positioning couldn’t be further apart. But I have to admit -I was a Sonics fan. I use to live in Seattle and went to many a game. Did my inner Sonic fandom-ness leap out of my subconsciousness and rear itself into the design? Are people going to show up at Element8 wanting to meet Gary Payton? Am I sitting too close to these toxic design markers?

My point is, intellectual property is a difficult animal to know. Ideas don’t come from nothing -they manifest from other things. Yet at the same time, ideas need to be protected, but not to the point where that protection becomes a tool to unfairly stifle other ideas.

And the circle continues..

A long time ago, I had a client ask me once “So can you whip me out a proposal in the next couple of hours? I need it for a meeting.” He needed to talk intelligently about the ideas we discussed and required a bullet point understanding of what the project could cost. Despite the lack of time or resources to create anything remotely accurate, we killed ourselves to get him at least something, so the idea might at least have a chance to sprout wings in front of the right people. Weeks later when we were finally able to circle back with him, he barely even remembered the meeting, let alone the proposal we did. Thus, the life we create for ourselves.

When people ask me how much does a website cost, I now answer with “How long is a piece of string?” or “How much did your vacation cost?”. After receiving a glazed look on thier face, I try to explain how a website or a branding audit isn’t like purchasing a bike. Every situation is unique requiring different abilities, different skills, different applications. So to give them a specific answer we need to take the time to go over their wants, needs, desires, etc. But I still get: “Okay great. But how much does a website cost?”

So for my rant today, here’s my list of maxims that drive me crazy about design proposals:

• Proposals take much more of time than clients realize.

• People don’t read proposals -at best, they scan to the bottom and find the fees.

• Often proposals do not result in paying work.

• Clients sometimes seek many proposals and compare them side by side, which is usually unfair to creative because you’re not comparing apples to apples.

• If clients are really honest with themselves (I’m taking a leap here) they want to see something, not the potential of something.

Its 2009 and we’re still doing the same proposals, using the same language, taking the same volume of time as we did decades ago. Within the drastically changing landscape of marketing today, I yearn for a new model for proposal writing. One that maximizes everyones time.

With the relaunch of High Dive as a design branding firm, we felt the blog needed to be re-skinned as well. But the real change will be in its dedication to content. The “Goggle” will walk a line between edgy and light, exploratory and historical, funny and serious, and often dumb and dumber. We want to show the cutting room floor: where we screwed up and what we learned. The scribbles. The happy accidents. The scars and the trophies. And how to cook with bacon. Much is coming!

If you check out my new website, www.hinsonneely.com, you’ll see an “about” section which shows my three big aspirations at the age of 12 (yes, this is really true; I was more mature at age 12 than at age 22):

• Be valedictorian of my high school graduating class
• Run a marathon
• Write a book

Though the latter of the three took me the longest, at last, I have accomplished this feat (and yes, I also have to revise a website that become inaccurate 2 days after it launched).

I found out last week that my book was accepted by publication by Morgan James Publishing. Feel Fabulous, Straight Up: Fitting food, fitness, and fun into your crazy, busy life, without turning life upside down is the name of the book I wrote.

When I took a book writing class by Peggy Jordan back in January/February, I though the wise choice might be to write about marketing. After all, I am a career marketer and might have some light to shed on the subject. Not to mention, it might boost my career in some fashion to write books in my area of subject matter expertise. Make sense?

Well, I decided to throw all this out the window and write about the thing in life about which I feel so passionate – health and well-being.

And because I chose a topic from the heart, the words flowed effortlessly. I got the first draft finished in 3 months, and 3 months after that, edited, proofed and accepted for publication. I can honestly say it was the most fun work/mind engagement of my life.

And though this labor of love might not result in the financial engagement of a topic more closely aligned with my career, I’m also hoping it opens the door to pursue my passion on a more formal basis, professionally.

In the meantime, here’s the elevator pitch I just wrote, in case you are interested:

For individuals who lead crazy, busy lives, Feel Fabulous, Straight Up is motivation to develop healthy habits, without turning life upside down. Light and humorous, the book advocates a more comprehensive approach to wellness, including good food, fitness and fun. Written by a real person for a real person, Feel Fabulous advocates small changes that make a big difference in how a person looks and feels.

Cheers to that drink, straight up!

Fact or Myth: If you have managed to build one of the world’s most powerful brands, don’t hide it. Read on and decide for yourself.

Did Starbucks get a little too buzzed on its latest beans?

Certainly, Starbucks stirred up a new brew last week by announcing a café concept to launch in Seattle. Though it will have some new items on the menu, namely booze, it will be losing a key ingredient – the Starbucks name.

By now you have probably heard or even blogged about it. But do you think it’s a smart move? If you had spent billions to earn brand equity that many companies would die for, would you dump it (so folks won’t perceive you as the Walmart of the coffee industry)?

Yes, I suppose the new name, 15^th Ave. Coffee & Tea, provides the café with a neighborhood feel. The concept is a line extension, in essence, and they will (hopefully) attract customers after hours, when the traditional coffee shop is closed. (But for those of you have lived in Seattle, the U District and Queen Anne locations are buzzing at nighttime, literally, without any inducement of alcohol).

But haven’t we learned, over the years, that consistency is key in building powerful brands? Creating a new concept with a completely different look and feel doesn’t exactly exude consistency.

More importantly, as a segment on NPR suggested, does Starbucks really think us consumers are idiots? Especially with all the press the new café has gotten, everyone knows this is a Starbucks entity. Why wrap it in new gift paper and ribbons?

And even though the company’s stock price is down, Starbucks has loyal followers. Why not take advantage of them? (Unless the compan is less popular in its home town than they’d like).

I’m not sure if you were aware of Starbuck’s Circadia. Launched in 1999 in San Francisco, Circadia featured cocktails, food, a small sound stage and Internet access as well as coffee specialties. When I worked for the company during this time, I actually visited Circadia and thought it was pretty cool (and that’s when I was actually young enough to consider myself pretty cool as well). According to a 1999 Entrepreneur article:

“This cross between a neighborhood coffeehouse, a restaurant and a bar caters to a hip, urban crowd, many of whom have shunned Starbucks in the past. It’s also a place where customers can sink into a comfy couch, sip a mocha or martini, and stay awhile.”

[Around this time, the company also launched three Café Starbucks in Seattle. I went to the one in Madison Park several times and didn’t find it held any truly distinguishing characteristics from the usual coffee shop (the food was still lame, despite attempts to prove otherwise)].

Circadia, as well as all the Café Starbucks, are now shut down. I’m not sure why Circadia didn’t catch on. I’m also not sure how/why this new 15^th Ave concept is deemed to have greater success than these concepts – ones with and without the brand name. But I suppose they are sticking by the mantra: If at first you don’t succeed, then try again.

If it were my decision, I’d keep the Starbucks name and downplay it, much like Starwood has done with Aloft, with a tagline that reads, “A vision of W hotels.”

But I guess the bigger issue than the name is whether or not the company can create a new vision, or extension, that doesn’t lose its froth.

One great feature of a capitalist society is the ability to seize an opportunity to make a buck. I was reminded of this when I signed up on the ccr.gov site (which took a while by the way), so that High Dive can be eligible for federal contracts. Immediately, I was barraged with vendors who wanted to help set up the company for a GSA schedule. In their words, “I better do this now, because lots of other companies will be signing up and I need to get there first, while government spending is picking up!” Oh, and by the way, it costs $6500, a small price to pay for revenues I stand to gain.

The same scenario is true with social media and network marketing. Suddenly, right before our eyes, we have a myriad of social media experts – ranging from individual consultants to full-blown agencies – ready to transform our business if we only spend thousands of dollars to do so (or maybe more, if you are a really big company).

Here’s a link I got from someone’s facebook entry yesterday. This is a beautiful slideshow full of stats on why social media is a phenomenon we simply can’t ignore. Now I’m not saying we should ignore it, but I am also suggesting we should look at who created the slideshow – a company called Brand Infiltration, who likely wants to tell their expertise at digital marketing. Being a researcher, I can certainly tell you that data can be used to tell a persuasive story, just like a news release or blog entry (like I am doing right now, because I am expressing my opinion on the topic).

The thing that puzzles me: How can there be so many experts on a topic which is so new?

Many experts promise to raise your profile and boost your profits by leveraging social media tools like twitter and Facebook, but how many of you have heard stories  about how companies are really getting a bang for the buck on the social marketing dollars they are spending?

Take ths study carried out by Deloitte’s Ed Moran. As covered in a Wall Street Journal report, his study showed that “Thirty-five percent of the [corporate] online communities studied have less than 100 members; less than 25% have more than 1,000 members – despite the fact that close to 60% of these businesses have spent over $1 million on their community projects.”

Well, the “experts” will tell you, if you are not increasing your profits through social media channels, then your brand who just doesn’t “get it,” much like a teenager thinks his/her parent is the most clueless individual on the planet. You have misread your customer, your channel, or sent the wrong message. Don’t you know anything?

Adam Sarner, an analyst with Gartner, projects that over 75 percent of Fortune 1000 companies with Web sites will have undertaken some kind of online social-networking initiative for marketing or customer relations purposes. But, he added in an interview with CNET News, 50 percent of those campaigns will be classified as failures. One thing he suggests, and I agree, is that using social marketing to “get people talking” isn’t enough. You need a clear reason for instituting the campaign in the first place (read yesterday’s blog article about Second Life for more on this one). Otherwise, you might have people talking in a way you wish they weren’t.

In fact, if you want to read ZDNet’s take on the 9 worst social media failures of 2009, companies like Quizo’s, Motrin, Denny’s, Jack in the Box and others got people talking alright, but not in a way they highly desired.

Like any marketing tactic, you need to determine what you want your end result to be, before spending the big bucks to implement it. You need to think through what your brand stands for, what you want people to think, feel and say about it. And make sure you have thought through what could go wrong with a marketing campaign (in other words, make sure you have a back-up plan)- whether it’s social marketing, public relations or promotions.

Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting with the CMO of Drugstore.com, David Lonczak. I actually worked for David over ten years ago when we were both at Starbucks. One thing I found particularly interesting, aside from catching up on years of life’s happenings, was the degree of precision to which he understood his business and customers. Under David’s leadership, the company has experienced consistent top-line growth, outperforming the overall e-commerce sector and brick and mortar industry.

Drugstore.com, and one of its brands beauty.com, transact sales online, lending the opportunity for a more analytical, less subjective style of marketing. Much to David’s credit, the company has a keen knowledge of the lifetime value of its customers. According to Chain Drug Review, the company has won over customers through free and paid search engines, comparison shopping sites, affiliate marketing and online advertising. In addition, retention marketing, in the form of its cash-back drugstore.com dollars loyalty program, keeps its customers coming back for more. Believe me, David can quote the numbers for any and all of these digital marketing success stories.

Another interesting subject we discussed was the popularity and hubbub of social marketing. David’s perspective is a great one because he knows his customers so intimately, as well as some of the best and most cost-effective ways of reaching them digitally. He doesn’t have to jump on board a social marketing campaign to build brand loyalty or drive sales, just because it might look cool to do so. When I asked him his opinion about social marketing, he said, “I have two words for you…..Second Life.”

How many of you are familiar with Second Life? Essentially, it’s a 3D, virtual world imagined and created by its residents. In 2007, a number of big brands quickly jumped on board the Second Life scene as a means to connect with customers. American Apparel was the first to jump on board by creating a virtual business that sold virtual clothing to be worn by avatars. Westin then premiered its new Aloft Hotel brand as an attempt to gain early customer insights. Pontiac launched Motorati Island and Coke launched a virtual thirst pavilion. The list goes on and on. Sound interesting? Maybe it’s intriguing on paper – first to market, a cool and mysterious social marketing tool, a great way to build community and connect to customers. Right? Well, maybe if customers – or avatars – showed up. Despite the site’s 8 million residents, the branded locations were devoid of visitors. And the brands suffered from pranks and vandalism, too. Big blunder? Well, that’s for you to decide.

The issue for me, at least, is that companies often lose sight of the big picture in today’s environment of social media. It sounds great, it’s what everyone’s talking about, so I should do it, too, at all costs. Does this philosophy trump my own? Who’s my target audience? What’s the best way to reach them? What am I trying to accomplish from a business and brand perspective? If you forget these, you might be throwing lots of dollars down the drain like the aforementioned companies appear to have done.

O.k. So maybe Second Life is an unfair example. After all, Time has labeled Second Life one of the five worst websites because of its user-unfriendliness, and has called Fortune 500 companies’ forays into the Second Life world ‘a case of some chief executives trying too hard to be hip’.

But hindsight is 20/20. Will we look back in 2011 and wonder why the hell we spent so much time on twitter? Only time will tell.

Stay tuned for more social media blunders at the Foggy Goggle.

I recently wrote about the glazed looks I get from people when I tell them I provide marketing strategy services to client. Today, I was reminded of another term frequently used to describe strategic marketing work – upstream marketing. Have you ever heard of this? I am not sure how common this term is among marketers; certainly professional services folks with little/no marketing experience might be somewhat unfamiliar with the term.

A quick definition is as follows:

Upstream marketing refers to the strategic process of identifying and fulfilling consumer needs. It is done very early in the product development cycle (hence the term), and it requires the marketer to embrace the end-user and develop not only products but also the accompanying marketing approaches that can be customized to these strategic segments.

Now if I spouted off this definition on my next sales call, I’m not if sure the looks would be any less glazed than if I just used the term “marketing strategy,” so I think I’ll try to simplify the message by using an analogy to cooking dinner. At least this is something most folks can understand (unless you don’t cook at all).

Below are the upstream activities involved with cooking dinner:

Your family and their preferences – What they like and don’t like; who’s going to be at home eating

What food you have in the cabinet and frig – Unless you are planning to go to the grocery store, you’ll probably use what you have on hand. So you can either cook a staple, flip through a cookbook to find a recipe that requires the ingredients you have on hand, or do a reverse recipe lookup on sites like www.myrecipe.com or countless others. (Yes, you can type in chicken, vegetables and pasta, and it will churn out recipes of a variety of ethnicities).

What you tell them – Suppose you try something new for your family one night, and your five year old needs a little convincing to try those sweet potato fries. If I tell him they’re sweet, like sugar, he’ll taste anything.

Now here’s how the kitchen upstream activities translate to the marketing ones:

Your target audience and their preferences– You need to know who your audience is and what they like or need. Even with the greatest product or service in the universe, you be hosed if all you do is provide steamed broccoli every night.

The skills you have in “the cabinet” – As a marketer, I pride myself on listening well, wisely disseminating information and offering practical solutions to build untapped revenue streams. Though I package these skills as research and strategic services, someone else with similar attributes might be a business consultant for Booz Allen. My skills and key attributes might be mixed and matched to produce a range of services, but I cannot create one with no basis in raw talent (e.g., I’m simply NOT a graphic designer, no matter how many software packages you put in front of me). After all, who can make good lasagna if there’s no cheese?

Your message – Wrap it in the language of sugar, and you’ve got the attention of any five-year-old! Tell him 1 cup of potatoes is comprised of 1 cup, cubes has 114.38 calories, 5.55 g sugar, alpha carotene, beta carotene, vitamin a (377.37% DV), manganese (17% DV), 3.99 g dietary fiber (15.96% DV), and vitamin b6 (13.5% DV) won’t convince him of a thing. You have to know who your audience is and what they want to hear. Regurgitating the raw ingredients may not sell a darn thing.