Weekly Idea: An Optical Illusion and Brand Development

Posted on November 22nd, 2011 at 2:02 pm in Blog, Blue Ocean Ideas, The Weekly Idea, brand development, ideas, thought provoking by brody

Stare at the center of this image for several seconds. Relax. Keep staring.

Did you see it? The colors vanish.

This is called Troxler’s Fading (click for another visual example).

Here’s the principle: “Unvarying stimulus soon disappears from our awareness.” (Wikipedia) It’s just like how you can’t “feel” your shirt right now in the same way as when you put it on this morning.

The exact same thing is true for your brand. If you don’t move, if you don’t create edges, if you never surprise you will vanish.

Brands are built on consistency. If you’re not consistent, you’re not delivering on a promise. But no one ever said that consistency has to be predictable.

Predictable soon becomes invisible.

All of us are so busy that we are forced to ignore the predictable. What does this mean for your brand?

Take a risk,

brody

P.S. Yes, I can hear you now… “I want my latte to predictably taste the same at every Starbucks I go to.” You’re right. I’m not talking about the quality of your product or service. I’m talking about your advertising and messaging.

Weekly Idea: The Leadership of Erik DeVriendt

Posted on November 2nd, 2011 at 10:43 am in Blog, Blue Ocean Ideas, The Weekly Idea, brand development, ideas by brody

I was on hand for the dedication of the newest Chick-fil-A restaurant in the world. It opens today in Richmond, Virginia.

After a family-style meal at a local restaurant, my good friend and owner of the new Chick-fil-A store, Erik DeVriendt, delivered a simple, caring, and important keynote address to his 70 new employees.

It had everything to do with brand development. But, Erik didn’t use a single phrase like “brand development,” and he hardly talked about “business stuff” at all.

Instead, he talked about people.

He talked about the purpose of his restaurant.

He talked about the story his team would be writing.

He talked about why they are going to do what they do.

Congratulations! You were chosen to be here. I’m here to serve you. Whether you work here for several weeks or the next 40 years, my job is to make sure you feel like you were a part of something meaningful. You’re here to create remarkable experiences for our guests. Delight everyone that comes to our stores: our vendors, our team members, and our guests. Invest in the success of this store and our mission. This requires that you take a long-term view. Pioneer in the way you serve people. Take chances in going over the top to serve people. I’ll protect and correct you when you need it. Do whatever you can to make our restaurant feel like home to our guests. Be yourself, and use this opportunity to become the best version of yourself.

Erik’s entire speech was off the cuff and from the heart. You can’t do that unless you live and breath your vision.

Whoever tells the stories shapes the culture.

Erik told the story well, and he invited everyone there to be a part of it with him. Think they’ll do well?

What’s the culture like where you work? Brands start with how your people create those experiences for your clients. I hope you’re telling a good story to cultivate the results you want.

“Delight, invest, pioneer.”

brody

Behind the Scenes: The Financial Consulate Website

Posted on October 10th, 2011 at 12:44 pm in Blog, Blue Ocean Ideas, brand development, client work, ideas, story by anna grace

In this post I will go into more detail about the process and behind-the-scenes work of the new Financial Consulate website.

The Financial Consulate is a financial firm in Maryland that is “redefining wealth” for those families and individuals who want to have a different perspective of the role of money in their lives. When we first met with Financial Consulate we learned about their vision to use their website to quickly express to their clients a new approach to money: that money has no real power other than that we give it. This was one of a few key themes that we learned from hearing Financial Consulate’s story and we wanted to make it a prominent part of their new site. Financial Consulate felt that their current website did not accurately reflect who they were as a company and the positive values they stood for. Below is a snapshot of Financial Consulate’s old website.

Our goal is always to help our clients tell their story well. We wanted to created a website for Financial Consulate that accurately told their story of helping their clients be relieved from the burden money can bring and give them time to spend with those they love. We took many notes during this initial meeting and used these notes to kickstart our strategic design process. Here are some of the notes from the initial meeting.

We led Financial Consulate through a process we use for our business and our clients to help more clearly define the “why” behind what they do. People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And this is especially true for Financial Consulate. Their “why” is to redefine the role and purpose of a financial advisory by protecting clients and their finances (i.e. acting as a veritable consulate).

The next step was sketching out the website on our glassboards based on the notes from the initial meeting with Financial Consulate. This helps us get our heads around where we’re going with design and development needs.

From this sketch we created a wireframe (more formal document) to present to Financial Consulate that showed our vision for the homepage and other custom page templates. We also created an information architecture (IA) document that presented all of the content, functionality, and requirements for the site in an organized way.

Financial Consulate was very pleased with our organization of information in the IA document and the wireframe. After they signed off on the concept, we started designing in Photoshop. Here is the process of the homepage design from first draft to final design.

We designed the main focus of the homepage to be the header images that had short, powerful statements that represented Financial Consulate’s purpose and approach. Another main focus was having Financial Consulate’s vision next to the photo slider. We also designed a tabbed page element that describes Financial Consulate’s services and process.

For the interior pages we wanted the sidebar to have Financial Consulate’s vision to be at the top of the sidebar and their list of services as the rest of the sidebar to give easy access to this primary content. We added social media sharing capability on the top of every page as well as a large header image to help describe the content of the page.

The final piece in the puzzle was to design a specific template for the team page and each individual staff person’s page. We wanted to highlight each staff member so their clients would be able to learn about each person, read about their specialties, and have the ability to connect with them.

We are very proud of this website and Financial Consulate couldn’t be happier. You can check out Financial Consulate’s re-designed website for yourself and explore the new design! Feel free to leave a comment below about your thoughts on the new website or our process.

Anna Grace

Weekly Idea: True in Life, Sports, Religion, & the Bedroom

Posted on August 22nd, 2011 at 8:43 pm in Blog, Blue Ocean Ideas, The Weekly Idea, brand development, ideas, thought provoking by brody

Our bodies can do remarkable things.

With even a small amount of training and practice, you can throw a baseball right to someone’s chest from a distance of 30 yards or more.

Even more remarkably, it’s possible to take a bat measuring less than three inches in diameter and hit a tiny baseball moving at great speed.

If we didn’t know better, this would seem impossible. That is, until you keep your eye on the ball. And when we do, remarkable things seem to just happen.

This message could be about how you and I need to keep our eye on the ball so we can achieve what we want.

It’s not.

Here’s the simple point: Humans can only do what they first imagine themselves doing.

Until you can imagine yourself hitting a baseball, you won’t do it. Until you imagine yourself riding the roller coaster, you won’t do it. Until you imagine yourself eating sushi, you won’t do it.

What about your customers, clients, or donors? Can they imagine themselves taking the actions you want them to take? It takes some skill to get them to do that. It’s why Blue Ocean Ideas exists – to help you tell the stories that allow your audience to see themselves in your story.

Can you imagine your audience imagining themselves in your story?

brody

p.s. For a personal life example of the value of imagination check out Greg’s recent post about dropping Caleb off at college.

Behind the Scenes: HopeSprings Website

Posted on August 16th, 2011 at 3:08 pm in Blog, Blue Ocean Ideas, brand development, client work, ideas, story by anna grace

Have You Ever Thought About a Logo This Way?

Posted on August 9th, 2011 at 3:26 pm in Blog, Blue Ocean Ideas, The Weekly Idea, brand development, ideas by brody

We recently partnered with a national online trade magazine to offer a free logo re-design to one of their readers’ companies. It was part of a contest sponsored by Daily5Remodel.

There was no set criteria for choosing the winner. But, do you want to see why we chose to work with Forest Glen Construction out of Illinois? It might give you a new way of looking at logo, tagline, and identity work. Read our announcement below:

It’s obvious that Forest Glen does great work. More importantly, it seems like the experience their customers have working with Forest Glen is fantastic.

Brands start in the customers’ experience. There is a promise that a company makes to their buyers that they have to execute on, and we feel confident that Forest Glen is delivering a solid promise and client experience.

We also got the sense that Forest Glen understands the power of story. While the technical implementation can be much improved, the way the company is using video and stories on their website is appealing to us.

Because of these factors and more, we feel that Forest Glen has a brand — in that the company delivers an experience and tells a story.

They just need more help telling that story well. And often times this starts with a strong logo.

Our first step in the logo design process will be to understand why Tom Reidy and his team do what they do. We believe that people don’t just buy what you do; they buy why you do it. If we can know what motivates this company, we can do our best to express these beliefs by way of a logo. That might sound a little bit far-fetched, but it’s our job to make meaning in everything we touch.

We’ll also want to understand how Forest Glen does what they do. Of course, the process of construction is probably fairly similar among most companies. Nonetheless, we’ll want to know what the company’s fundamental selling proposition looks like.

Another element we like to understand is why Forest Glen’s customers buy from them. In the end, what is it that made their best customers choose them? There’s a story to uncover. And that story needs to be reflected in their logo.

Do you see any logos that tell a story? What about your organization; is your logo meaningful? Click the button below to let us know what you think.

Brody

The Secret of Special Sauce

Posted on June 21st, 2011 at 4:22 pm in Blog, Blue Ocean Ideas, The Weekly Idea, brand development by greg

People love special sauce.

I know I do. I’m always looking for the next big thing that will solve all of life’s problems and project me towards my goals.

Most of our clients are longing for the same thing when building their brand. A few years ago it was social media, then video strategy, then motion graphics, then blogging, then “content is king”, then earned media, then paid media; the list could go on forever.

Not to be the party pooper, but there is no special sauce. There is no one brand building strategy that will build your brand or fix your current communications problems.

Don’t get me wrong: we’ve recommended every one of the strategies, ideas, or solutions listed above. They can all be good things. But they aren’t special sauce.

What they are is ingredients. Ingredients make special sauce. But not just any ingredients. The right ingredients in the right proportions and cooked the right way make special sauce.

The same is true for your brand. It’s the right strategies, executed the right way that produce great results. It’s not one thing. It’s 20 of the right things.

If you need help figuring out the right ingredients for your sauce call Brody or me today. We’d love to help.

Never trust a skinny chef. Don’t trust your brand to anyone that doesn’t understand the difference between ingredients and sauce.

Keep moving forward,

Greg

p.s. I love to cook. Here’s the recipe for my favorite pasta sauce which I use in lasagna, parmagian chicken or just over some fettuccine. I make 5 gallons of it every few months. It tastes great fresh and it also freezes well.

Brand Development as a Love Story

Posted on June 14th, 2011 at 1:59 pm in Blog, Blue Ocean Ideas, The Weekly Idea, brand development, must read, story by brody

Two weeks ago, we introduced you to one of our sages, Simon Sinek. He’s an author who writes on the broad topic of inspiration. And many of his daily emails contain axioms that inform the way we think at Blue Ocean Ideas.

Here are a few more of his recent truisms with a brief comment as to why they are so relevant for the work we do.

“Good marketing promotes values. Bad marketing values promotions.”

-Brands are built around loyalty. Not “repeat business,” but real loyalty. The things any of us are loyal to are built around a story, a cause, or a belief. Marketing dollars that are not spent communicating what you value are a waste.

“Communication is not about saying what you think. It’s about ensuring others hear what you mean.”

-This starts to walk a fine line. Sometimes people think marketing is saying whatever you need to say to appeal to the right demographic to get them to buy something you’re selling. Not so. It is about telling the truth about who you are, faster. Still, this messaging is not about you. It’s about helping other people make the right decision for themselves. The art is finding the surprising and simple ways to communicate meaning.

“True love is when both people think they have the better half of the deal.”

-Is your customer falling in love with you? Are you falling in love with them? Tell a great story. Align your values. Pursue meaning.

Brand development is really just writing a love story.

xoxo,
brody

We Remember What We Hear (Over and Over)

Posted on May 24th, 2011 at 1:14 pm in Blog, The Weekly Idea, brand development, ideas by brody

Last week we talked about the McGurk Effect and how we believe what we see. If you want to prove something, show it.

Here’s the trouble: people can always close their eyes. Despite your best efforts, images can always be ignored.

What are we left with? Words and sounds. Sounds cannot be ignored.

And the good news is that sounds are more memorable than images.

You can recite the words to a theme song or advertising jingle in your sleep. You can also repeat what someone just said, even if you weren’t paying attention.

This is called echoic retention, and it’s a critical part of any brand or messaging strategy.

Roy H. Williams writes, “It takes 29 percent longer to understand written words than spoken words. This is because the brain must translate the written word into the spoken word before it can be understood. When we memorize the written word, it is the sound of the words we remember, not their appearance on the page. This is true even when we have been reading silently. We hear the words on in our page.”

You can close your eyes, but you can’t close your ears.

If you want to create something memorable, you’re better off playing with words than playing with images.

Words are worth 1,000 pictures.
brody

P.S. Want an even more fascinating look at what our brains do with sounds and expectations? Watch this audience-interactive musical demonstration by Bobby McFerrin.

Weekly Idea: The Importance of the McGurk Effect

Posted on May 17th, 2011 at 2:27 pm in Blog, The Weekly Idea, brand development, ideas by brody

The McGurk effect is fascinating. Click the video above to see a brief demonstration.

Short version: people belive what they see.

You’ve heard our mantra a million times. “Brand development is telling the truth about who you are, faster.”

Another way to say it is that brand development is about aligning expectations. We all judge efficacy, success, interestingness, fun, and, most of all, value based on our expectations of an experience.

There is simply no marketing message, ad campaign, or branding effort that’s worth squat if someone’s experience doesn’t align with the expectations you set.

There’s also a feedback loop that can occur. Not only can your marketing improve someone’s experience with you by helping them imagine it first, but the experience people have with your brand can improve the way they digest your marketing… and the cycle continues.

But there has to be alignment.

Just like the McGurk effect, if you say one thing but do another, people will believe only what they see.

Take great care,

brody

P.S. This week’s Idea was about vision. Next week will be about audition, a.k.a hearing.