Just finished Martin Lindstrom’s most recent book, Buyology (Doubleday, 2008) and I strongly recommend it.

In summation, it’s an account of why we buy what we do, and how marketing and branding have evolved to accommodate. The entire book is worth reading, but a few particular points that jumped out at me were in regards to color. I, of course, have a minimal (but growing) background in art, so these findings were all new to me.

In one study, Mr. Lindstrom conducted a research project with a group of women that were all presented with a Tiffany-blue box. No logo. Nothing inside. Just a blue box. Their heart rates went up by 20%. Wow – that’s strong branding. The Tiffany-blue was instantly identified as being part of a product that stirred strong emotions.

Takeaway number two: In a study of phone book advertising, research proved that ads in color hold consumers’ interest for two seconds or more. Black-and-white counterparts? Less than one second.

And takeaway three: A study by the Seoul International Color Expo discovered that color can increase brand recognition by 80%. That’s a lot.

So my takeaway? Don’t just excuse brand colors as something that needs to be checked off the list when building your brand – and I’m sure you wouldn’t. Establishing your visual system is an essential element in creating a brand. Give it some thought, have others give it some thought and then give it some more thought. Make sure you’re happy with it because you need to live with it for a long time. That’s an essential ingredient of building a lasting brand – consistency.

Thanks for reading. You are reading aren’t you?

Jon

So this whole Twitter thing – had us befuddled for quite a bit. We couldn’t really figure out why anyone would care when we were eating breakfast, working on layouts, editing copy or burning time on Facebook. But we joined anyway, chalking it up as an exercise in professional development.

We created the account this past fall, but that was about the extent of our involvement. The account sat stagnant for quite some time. We had no profile, no picture, no cool layout and no followers.

With the new year upon us and a renewed dedication to learning the modern communication landscape inside and outside, it was time to befriend Twitter – and so we befriended. Come to find out – it’s pretty cool.

We’ve dedicated our page to brand elevation. We’ll report daily, relevant and interesting findings that relate to what we do. Sure, people who want to know if we are reaching for toast or cereal in the morning might be disappointed. But those looking for new and interesting ways to elevate a brand – well, in theory, they’ll come back to our page again and again.

If you have a minute, check out our feed. If you follow us, we’ll follow you.

Twitter / gorilla76

…and touchdown – ad guys.

And did we need it.

Budgets are getting cut, people are losing jobs, brands are killing their marketing spend in a time when they need it most. It’s not all fun and games on Mad Ave at the moment.

But this year’s spots offered a ray of hope. Generally speaking, they were smart, funny and memorable. Sure the “good taste” meter was tipped to the limit, but that’s expected. No malfunctions.

My favorite spot? The Monster.com moose spot. Why? Well, a few reasons.

Smart: This spot was relevant considering all of the CEO backlash that is currently catching headlines.

Funny: No need to explain – the humor is front and center.

Memorable: I’m writing about it and I’m sure you remember it. Thus, it was memorable.

Ownable: It relates to job searching. So many commercials these days create an obscure narrative taking the viewer all over the conceptual roadmap. But really, the ad should be effective. Creativity is great but only when it serves its purpose. A great professor of mine in college always said, “Good ads sell stuff.”

Stop reading and watch it for yourself. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

As always, thanks for your time.

-thinker & writer

…wouldn’t it be equally intelligent to better market your brand when sales are slow?

Recently, while putting in some professional development hours, I came across a great article in the January/February 2009 issue of INC. magazine. In essence, the article offered tips to fighting a bad economy with smart business practices. The following insight from Jenny Craig(R) jumped off of page 76. It makes a lot of sense.

“Rather than cut staff, we have gone against the conventional  wisdom and advertised to bring in more business. While our competitors were hunkering down, we would spend a bit more than we had planned, which resulted in a huge competitive advantage.”

Just some food for thought.

Yep, it’s true, 2009 has been declared the year of the Gorilla by the UNEP Convention on Migratory Species, the UNEP/UNESCO Great Ape Survival Partnership and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. So in honor of this landmark year for our endangered friend, we’re reinforcing our commitment to our clients to help them elevate their brands.

For instance, today, while partaking in a resolution of my own (that of running on a treadmill which is terribly uneventful), I was perusing the January 09 Wired (another resolution – reading…a lot) and I came across the article “All grown up” by Steve Levy. The piece dealt with the Mac legacy and why the company been so successful (and unsuccessful) during its first 25 years.

Regarding its recent success (now nudging into double digits in market share), Apple COO Tim Cook lists six ingredients of the company’s success: better computers, better software, seamless compatibility, smart marketing, successful retail stores and the bad luck of the arch rival’s latest platform.

Imagine that – marketing listed as one of the six most important factors of the rebirth of the Apple computer. Try to keep that in mind this year. Sure you need to have a great product or service, a competitive edge, etc., but ultimately, people have to know about your offering. Smart marketing is how you tell them. Smart marketing is how you elevate your brand.

Happy Gorilla Year. We hope you find nothing but good fortune in 2009.

Jon

Michael Jordan – in our opinion the greatest athlete ever. Fierce defensively and smooth offensively, it was no wonder why Joe and I both as kids wanted to be like Mike.

Well, now we kind of want to be like his advertising agency. They continue to produce great work – work that has truly elevated his brand. In tribute to yet another great spot that launched earlier this month, here’s one of our all-time favorites. It’s been around for a bit but still a very cool ad.

Cool, but as cool as Elvis? Nope. Not a chance.

Stop and think about it. Would Elvis be as memorable if he had a common name? What would the legacy of the Presley brand be if he were a John, Joe or Steve?  Sure his crooning would still be regarded as remarkable. And sure his style would still be iconic. But the total package – I’m not sure it would be as powerful.

It’s no secret that giving your business a good, solid name is important – it’s a fundamental principle of starting a business. But just how important is it? Well the following article from the December 2008 issue of Inc. magazine seems to sum it up.

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20081201/the-rebranding-game.html

People want something memorable and interesting. People want something that’s easy to spell in a search engine. People want something a bit controversial and unexpected. As the above article suggests, if everyone likes it, it’s probably pretty lame.

And perhaps most important, a name needs to be something that you as a business owner feel confident about. Because ideally this is something that lasts. Changing a business name isn’t the end of the world (again, see aforementioned article), but everything is easier if you do naming right the first time.

-The writerly half

The “a-ha” moment – that rewarding occasion where all of a sudden you just get it. Life’s full of them and so is great marketing.

From smart logos and witty taglines to great television and radio spots, nothing rewards an engaged viewer like a clever reveal. These are the little moments that make a crappy Super Bowl worth watching. These are the little pieces of brilliance that make you rip an ad out of a magazine because you thought it was clever or funny. These are the ideas that inspire – or at least nerdy ad guys like us. The non-traditional, unexpected, “a-ha’ ideas are what drove us into the field of advertising.

So with no further ado, check out this “a-ha” ad we stumbled across. It’s worth the two-minute time investment.

– Jon

“So you like Logo Option B. Perfect. We agree that it will work hard for you and is a very nice selection. What are your thoughts on the taglines we presented?”

“Oh, the taglines. Good. Yeah, they were good.”

“Superb. Which specific directions were you liking?”

“Wait, those are those mottos or whatever? I saw the logos and the business card executions. Then a document with a bunch of phrases that I didn’t really read. Was I supposed to read that?”

The above mirrors conversations I’ve found myself having more and more lately. The above is no knock on clients but instead a knock on us for not selling the importance of a strong tagline. I guess because it just makes sense to us. The tagline is one of those things that we just know is important. So, when challenged with why it’s important, it takes a second to step back and actually explain.

So, some thoughts on the importance of a strong tagline and elements of an effective one…

• Whether a call to action, a slogan approach or just a simple, clean descriptor, framing your brand within a smart tagline is pertinent to long-term consistency in building a brand. It helps establish your voice, position you in the mind of your consumer and helps build a more memorable bit.
• A tagline should portray a truth – something ownable to the brand. Ideally, your brand can make the claim and no one else can.
• Your tagline should convey your established visual identity – the tagline should reflect the look and feel of your brand.
• A tagline should portray a benefit – whether emotional or tangible. You have to give the consumer something to relate to and need to frame your brand in a way that is appealing.
• The line should be built to endure. A good tagline lasts – think of Nike’s little nugget of brilliance – Just do it. It’s had quite a run.

So, the next time you’re thinking about using a new “phrase” for your “slogan”, think of the ingredients to baking a strong “tagline”. Hopefully, the above will help.

Thanks for reading,

Jon

A while back, we had the opportunity to tackle a branding job for a dentist in Granite City, Illinois. Dr. Mark Hewlett was just starting his own practice, a young dentist 29 years old at the time who wanted to set himself apart from the crowd.

So the brainstorm began…

Dentist offices…

+ toothbrushes

+ toothpaste

+ happy hygienists

+ shiny teeth

+ smiles everywhere

But more realistically, aren’t these places typically defined by…

+ a waiting room with pink and olive green wallpaper from the 70s

+ three-month-old issues of Better Homes and Gardens

+ a leather dentist chair covered in that crinkly clear plastic wrap

+ the possibility of having to come back next week to get that cavity drilled on

+ and the little plastic bag with a hard toothbrush you’ll toss into the closet for when your friend from Minnesota comes to visit and the airline lost his luggage.

So really, where do you go with a logo for a dentist? The happy dancing toothbrush has been done. You’ve seen it before – probably a number of times. Same goes for the extra shiny smile and glistening front tooth.

Well what about Dr. Hewlett? He’s a young guy, energetic, excited about his practice, is sporting a cool, high-tech, brand new office. How do you match that personality while creating a unique logo in a saturated market?

Our answer came in the form of flipping around a negative. We took some insight from the dentist chair and its typically negative connotations. In a sense, it’s an icon that many of us feared when we were five years old and one we still don’t look forward to seeing. We can relate to the experience of a dentist chair. So we took a less expected approach, literally painting that chair in a warm, welcoming light -and Dr. Hewlett’s personality is brought to life.

The result – an unexpected dentist logo that distinguishes itself from the majority of what’s out there. It’s a graphic that can be associated with Dr. Mark Hewlett, and him alone – something that can build equity in his company, be applied to a storefront sign, as well as his appointment cards and reminder mailers.

The idea is to create something unique and memorable that sets your business (whatever that might be) apart from the crowd. Tell your audience what your business is about and what makes it better from the shop down the street. Now you’ve got the foundation for building a strong brand image.

– Joe

thinker & designer (attempting to be a writer for the last half hour)

Yep, you guessed it – another film-related post. I can’t help it. I see something I like and I immediately want to tell everyone about it, encouraging them to hurry out and see whatever caught my fancy. In this case, it’s the new Batman (The Dark Knight). So…go see it. It’s terrific. The effects are great, storyline solid, villains eerie and new gadgets, well to sound like a teenager, awesome.

With that said, like any business owner, I couldn’t help but think about business while I was sitting in my seat trying to get away for a bit. In my case, it was discovering the strength of the Batman (the actual superhero, not the overall comic) brand. It’s all stuff that’s been in place since the POW! and BOOM! days of old, I just simply failed to realize until recently.

My realization came in the fact that Batman (again – the actual superhero, not the comic) is the perfect metaphor for a strong brand and strong marketing. He’s a culmination of so many important factors: a strong name, a strong logo, always has a finger on pulse of new technology, attentive to PR but not dedicated to it, etc.

But really, I think what should be most noted, is the attention to the Batman brand experience. He’s more than what’s mentioned in the paragraph above. Put simply, Batman’s cool, and he’s such by a perfect orchestration of intrinsic characteristics. Anything Batman puts his name on or uses is easily identified as being part of his brand. I guess the easiest comparison would be the classic Apple computer example. Everything from in-store experience to the actual use of their product feels the same – same with Batman.

He’s modern and edgy yet still leans to the conservative side. Anything he does is going to be strategic and smart. He’s effective and efficient in all of his efforts. He always utilizes the sleekest, most current technologies. All of these things build to create the perception of what we know as Batman.

Your brand is no different. You have a logo, tagline and website – great. But what kind of promotions do you have running? Do they line up with your brand platform? What about your ads? Do they have the same look and feel as other marketing pieces? It’s this idea of consistency and cohesion that makes for a strong and memorable brand – hence a classic “brand” like Batman.

Thanks for reading. And go see The Dark Knight.

Jon

“If the headline is big enough, it makes the news big enough” – a memorable line delivered by the fictitious newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane in the cinematic masterpiece Citizen Kane. It’s a bold sentiment that can be applied across life’s many platforms. However, I find it’s truth to be particularly relevant when thinking about the role a strong website can play in the small business landscape.

It’s that idea of making your brand look bigger than what it actually is that I find so interesting. It’s a thought that’s always kind of been in the back of my head, but it took a film from 1941 to make it really jump to the front. It’s something that small business owners often face in everyday marketing – you of course know you’re legit; you just have to convince your audience that you’re legit as well.

The way of doing that in today’s digital-centric landscape: a well-designed, well-written, easy-to-use website.

As pointed out by Nicholas Carr in his recent book The Big Switch (which I strongly recommend), companies such as Craigslist and PlentyOfFish serve thousands upon thousands of people on a daily basis. And that makes sense because they’re big companies, right? Not so much.

At the time of Carr’s publication, the companies were 22 employees and 1 employee, respectively speaking. I thought this was pretty amazing considering these are two very well-known, web-based companies. While their sites are not design-focused, their structures were built for usability, making them popular choices for their intended markets. What started small has now evolved into two significant players. I’m sure that’s something you wouldn’t mind as a small business owner.

I guess the takeaway is fairly simple: a strong web presence is getting more and more essential. The web is allowing for a bigger, more impressive “storefront”, giving the smallest companies an equal voice on a national, even global scale.

Thanks for reading (and sorry for the delay in the first post).

The writerly half,

Jon

Mitch Meyers – a name once on the Rolodex of marketers nationwide. One of the well-known beer executives of the 80s and 90s, Mitch is former CEO of Zipatoni in St. Louis where she retired in 2003. She is now a proprietor of Maison de Chanticleer, a French-country interior design boutique in Edwardsville, Illinois and current client of Gorilla 76. We think Mitch is one of the smartest people we’ve ever met.

Introducing Gorilla 76

by Mitch Meyers

former CEO of Zipatoni / current proprietor of Maison de Chanticleer

Before setting out on a small business venture in my retirement, I worked in the wacky world of marketing myself. I started in the field right out of college, working around town in a variety of settings for an array of clients – both good and bad.

In my years in marketing, I’ve been fortunate with great experience. I’ve worked on great brands with great people, learning collectively the importance and true impact of intelligent marketing. It’s more than just good creative and it’s more than just smart thinking – it’s a marriage of both, resulting in brilliant, beautiful work that will help build a well-constructed brand.

These same principles carry over to the realm of small business. The brand may be in its infancy, but the importance of the well-packaged brand is not diminished. In this challenging business environment, that is the first step in creating the foundation for the future.

With that said, I’m excited to announce the official launch of a local, small business brand-building group – Gorilla 76.

I’ve been working with Joe and Jon since the opening of my retail store in 2006. These guys were eager to understand what we were about, and quickly developed a “voice” for our communication materials. Within weeks, we had a framework for the website, a site that really brought the in-store experience to life. They’ve also assisted us with additional marketing materials since our launch.

Don’t be fooled by their youthful looks and exuberance, they bring serious thinking to your project and business. As we finish our second year, I find them suggesting thinking that keeps us re-evaluating our marketing programs.

These guys are definitely a breath of fresh air.