Phire Branding Company

06/7/10

When internal thinking drives external communications.

It’s a common problem.

A company that has been around for decades inevitably creates sophisticated internal processes. Has an increased number of internal meetings. Has more and more layers of internal review. What used to be simple tasks become individuals. And then entire departments. Time moves faster. What used to get solved through customer contact now takes place in conference calls, cross country flights, and the simple need to get things done. People get caught up in their own worlds, their own quotas, their own needs. Mistakes in the past have led to increased internal scrutiny and decreased risk taking.

This necessary and natural process affects all of your external communications. Your marketing efforts may have become infected with this internal thinking, and you may not even realize it. Here are five major symptoms to gauge whether this has happened to you:

1. Your communications are more feature driven than benefit driven.

It’s simple. Features are about you. Benefits are about your audience. Most communications are mistakenly feature driven. Unfortunately, on one cares how the toaster makes toast. They want toast.

2. Your campaigns feel the need to include the kitchen sink.

There are so many ads with so much copy and so many potential customers with so little time. But internally-influenced copy feels the need to include all the facets of everything that we all collectively deemed important. But your customers will care about one thing said well, not a dozen things said haphazardly.

3. What used to be conversational “ad-speak” has been replaced by technical “attorney speak”.

I can spot when copy has been either scrubbed or influenced by attorneys a mile away. They make no claims whatsoever – not even mild ones. They are long-winded, mostly with clarifications. And they deliver emotion about as well effectively as a politician on the campaign trail.

4. You have more than two layers of brand you feel the need to promote.

Brand within a brand within a brand. The classic internally focused issue. Brand the company. Brand the division. Brand the product. Brand the technology. Brand the process. Make nothing connect and nothing sticky, but make all departments feel represented. The most interesting part to me is that these companies can’t even tell you what all this stuff is. “What do we call that technology again?” And you want your customer to give a rat’s hiney?

5. There is not a single engaging reason for being.

More than anything, this is the issue. No one wants to let go of their message. Sales wants an immediate price/value message. Engineering wants a feature message. Marketing wants a new message altogether. Executives want a “see all we’re doing” message. HR wants a “this is a great place to work” message. By even trying to balance all of these messages, you’re missing it. Your customers don’t care about any of the above.

The cure? It’s simple, but can be difficult. It’s about listening to the needs – the true needs – of your customers. Not just that one big customer, but all of them. Understand from their point of view what makes you different/special/meaningful. Then build on it in a simple, concise way over and over. The brands that are commonly known universally as the ones who “get it” have always understood this. But it must always be seen through the eyes of your customer. Always.

02/23/10

Phire Branding wins 19 Awards at this year’s Addy competition

We are proud to announce a very successful night at this year's Addy Awards. Nineteen awards in all, we were lucky enough to win in numerous categories and in a variety of vertical markets. The Addy winners will move on to compete at Districts for further consideration. We'd like to thank everyone who helped put together a wonderful awards celebration this year. But most of all, we'd like to thank our clients for allowing us/helping us/working with us to let us do what we do.

Results for the 2010 Ann Arbor Ad Club Addy Awards competition include:

JUDGES’ CHOICE
Phire Branding Company
Clancy’s Fancy Brand Relaunch

JUDGES’ CHOICE
Phire Branding Company
Ann Arbor Summer Festival Campaign

ADDY
Phire Branding Company
INTERACTIVE MEDIA: Websites, Consumer Flash, Products
Clancy’s Website

ADDY
Phire Branding Company
MIXED/MULTIPLE MEDIA: Consumer, Regional / National
Clancy’s Fancy Brand Relaunch

ADDY
Phire Branding Company
SALES PROMOTION: Packaging, Campaign
Clancy’s Fancy Packaging

ADDY
Phire Branding Company
INTERACTIVE MEDIA: Websites, B-to-B Flash, Services
Pitney Bowes Marketing Solutions

ADDY
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING INDUSTRY SELF-PROMOTION:
Creative Services and Industry Suppliers, Interactive
Phire Branding Company Website

ADDY
Phire Branding Company
OUT-OF-HOME: Campaign, Out-of-Home, Campaign
Flint Journal Outdoor

ADDY
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING FOR THE ARTS & SCIENCES:
Collateral, Brochure / Sales Kit
Ann Arbor Summer Festival Brochure

ADDY
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING FOR THE ARTS & SCIENCES:
Campaign, Mixed / Multiple Media Campaign
Ann Arbor Summer Festival Campaign

Silver
Phire Branding Company
SALES PROMOTION: Product or Service Sales
Presentation, Catalog
Merillat Masterpiece Catalog

Silver
Phire Branding Company
SALES PROMOTION: Product or Service Sales Presentation,
Sales Kits or Product Information Sheets
Clancy’s Fancy Sales Brochure

Silver
Phire Branding Company
INTERACTIVE MEDIA: Websites, B-to-B HTML/Other, Services
Second To None

Silver
Phire Branding Company
INTERACTIVE MEDIA: Websites, Consumer
HTML/Other, Products
Dale Earnhardt Website

Silver
Phire Branding Company
TELEVISION: Cinema Advertising, In-Theatre Commercials or Slides
Clancy’s Fancy Cinema

Silver
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING FOR THE ARTS & SCIENCES:
Broadcast/Electronic, Interactive
Ann Arbor Summer Festival Website

Silver
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING INDUSTRY SELF-PROMOTION:
Creative Services and Industry Suppliers, Collateral
Phire Branding Company Book

Silver
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING INDUSTRY SELF-PROMOTION:
Campaign, Single Medium Campaign
Phire Branding Company Advertising

Silver
Phire Branding Company
MIXED/MULTIPLE MEDIA: Consumer, Local
Be Saline Campaign

Advertising, Awards, B-to-B, B-to-C, Community, Design, Interactive, News

01/29/10

New website: Dale Earnhardt, Inc.

Phire announces the launch of a comprehensive website for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Working closely with the Earnhardt family and licensing partners, we were able to bring the Dale Earnhardt experience forward into a brand new experience. Starting with a survey of DEI employees, a web survey of 60,000+ fans, this site represents the Dale experience. Complete with CMS, a fully-functioning integrated store, videos, and more, we are helping give #3 a home on the web that's truly worthy. www.daleearnhardt.com. The site officially launched on 12.31.09.

B-to-C, Design, Interactive, New Work, Website Launch

01/22/10

The Intelligent Booth at IBS

At this year's International Builder Show, we helped three brands of the Masco Builder Cabinet Group make a big splash with a clean, interactive, powerful experience that was true to their exciting new offerings. With touch screens everywhere, evolved and cohesive brand messaging throughout, we led the look, feel, messaging, and many of the technical elements within the show. It also included live Social Media, Polls, and analytics throughout. We led collaboration with 3 other agencies and several vendors. The result was one their most successful shows ever - with a dramatic improvement over last year's leads and overall attention.

B-to-B, B-to-C, Design, Interactive, New Work, Sharing

12/11/09

Website launch: Pitney Bowes.

We're proud to announce the launch of a new website for Pitney Bowes Marketing Solutions. The site is complete with a Flash homepage navigation function, and is fully Content Management System driven. We think it does a nice job of showing a corporate B-to-B entity in a clean, fresh light. Click on the image to see the site.

B-to-B, Design, Interactive, New Work, Website Launch

10/28/09

Emergence and marketing.

Marketing seems simple. But in all reality, it’s an extremely complex system of pushing, pulling, experiences, word of mouth, face-to-face, sights, sounds, feelings. Put on top of this the fact that all of these transactions are highly personal, and are multiplied across a large population. To think that you can control this is futile, but these complex systems generally form fairly straightforward and trackable patterns.

In comes the theory of emergence. A simple explanation of emergence is that an emergent behavior or emergent property can appear when a number of simple agents operate in an environment, forming more complex behaviors as a collective. You begin to discern patterns based on the big picture of the complexity. In marketing, human behavior differs greatly individually, but the sum total of activity and movement can become predictable and repeatable.

What can be learned from emergence theory when applied to marketing? You need a few key things to help ensure success:

You need to learn as much as possible from as large a sampling as possible before you begin. The purpose of truly good surveys is to discern trends and patterns through disparate answers. Therefore, individual answers are meaningless, but the sum total is the true guide.
Crafting a communications plan must cover enough venues to create multiple paths to the same conclusion. Since people act individually, you cannot assume that even a successful campaign worked to engage enough people for a sustained effect. Instead, there have to be enough points of contact to create a tapestry of communications in order to connect this complex world of individuals.
There needs to be some heavy-duty analytics available to take in all the information. With so much happening so quickly, emergent systems are hard to predict. But through today’s technology, they can be relatively simple to track. There will be no two success stories that will happen in exactly the same way. However, there will arise patterns that appear as trends, and therefore can be replicated and expanded.

Many organizations fall prey to the “one resounding success” syndrome, where they try to replicate lightning in a bottle by looking at a success sampling of one. This may prove to be disastrous because the overall pattern may differ greatly from the one experience. The next potential success may be out there, ready to capture. But it may look entirely different from the previous. And there may be several in between, somewhere in the complexity of how people live, decide, and purchase.

Advertising, Opinion

10/8/09

New website launched for Second To None

We proudly announce the launch of a new website for Second To None, a leading mystery shopping organization. The website has some very cool new features, including a robust situational analysis with many opportunities to capture data.

The site is now available at www.second-to-none.com.

B-to-B, Design, Interactive, New Work, Website Launch

09/24/09

The ultimate marketing trend.

There is a single word that describes where marketing has been going for decades.

Personalization.

Advertising, at its peak, was all about mass. Buy a spot on one of the three networks, and you’re talking to everyone – for better or worse. You had a captive audience. People would even have to stand up to change the channel, so they didn’t bother.

Then along came cable. Then more channels. And more channels. Each more specific than the last. A channel for home improvement. A channel for arts. A channel for pets. An arts channel for pets. Etc. Then Tivo. And on demand. Etc. Each more fragmenting then the last.

Print has gone the same way. There is a magazine about literally anything. Don’t believe me? Check this list out.

Then came the internet, 1.0. A way to instantly break down interests into specific pages. There were hundreds of thousands. It got as specific as you needed it to get. Whenever and wherever.

Then came the internet, 2.0. A way to claim your own homes and requests on the web, allowing advertisers to speak to you directly by interests. You can contact the advertisers and request things directly and ignore everything else.

Now, comes mobile. The ability to communicate with you based on your interests, your preferences, and your exact location. It all comes to you, as you wish to receive it.

Advertising is moving from mass to groups to sub-groups to the ultimate sub-group: you. Who wins? Both consumer and advertiser. You are sharing the information without putting up with the noise or the extra costs.

If you’ve seen Minority Report, you've more or less seen where we’re ultimately headed. Your environment literally changing and speaking to you directly. You’ll still be inundated with everything, but now it will be things specific to your likes, taste level, and selected preferences. It was an average movie, but that part was spot on.

Personally, I’m excited about the shift. I’ve always been uncomfortable with the idea of “bothering” people. “Interrupting” their life. “Getting in the way” of what they enjoy. In the future, we can have real, meaningful conversations with only the people who may actually care. Creating the ultimate in advertising accountability and efficiency.

09/14/09

Marketing paralysis.

There’s too much.

As a part of several marketing groups, both in real life and online, I feel for anyone out there who is trying to understand what is going on out here. Just today, I’ve been invited to an AdWord optimization presentation, a website strategy presentation, a how-to on video on the web, a how-to successfully use Twitter seminar. And oh, by the way, I’m writing this at 10am. On a Sunday.

It’s enough to overwhelm and confuse me, and I’ve been doing this for quite some time and consider myself pretty darn savvy on this stuff. I occasionally go to some of these presentations, mostly to make sure I’m not missing out on the next big thing. Guess what? 99% of the time, I end up wasting my time.

Why? Although things are moving and changing quickly, the basics have always remained the same. The means and the reporting tools are vastly improved, but there are always too many people out there who are trying to say that the means is the message. That has not, is not, and will never be the case. Some of it is helpful. The vast majority is snake oil.

I’ve spoken with several prospects recently who are literally doing nothing to market because they don’t know what to do. They believe they should be doing so many things that they don’t know where to begin. They are trapped by paralysis of choice and too many people moving around telling them what to do.

My advice? First figure out who you are and who you’re trying to reach. Then create a magnetic brand that will resonate with that specific market. Understand their world and how they (and only they) consume media. Then formulate a plan around what’s best for them. This focused simplicity is counter to what many are saying, but it is in line with the way things have always been.

You will be inundated with hundreds of new ways to reach your audience. Over the next many years, there will be new tools and new specialists and industries created. These are just distractions, not strategies. It is just sound, not clear, concise brand resonance.

In my opinion, groups talking about the next big thing aren’t really doing much except running around yelling trying to exploit a moment in time. And brands that react to all of the things they could be doing are missing out on the few focused things they should be doing very well. My favorite question in any one of these seminars? “Tell me a success story that you’ve been involved with personally”. Usually its crickets, followed by stuttering, followed by how they increased sales in a local vacuum store (or the equivalent) by 3%. Hey, good stuff.

Beware of the empty promise(s) of the next big thing(s). Keep focused on a comprehensive strategy, and stay true to it. And don’t let anyone with a soapbox interrupt that path.

08/24/09

Newspapers, advertising.

It's no secret that newspapers are having a tough time. But smaller, more focused local papers are finding that their readership loyalty is stronger than ever.

We helped Booth Mid-Michigan create an outdoor campaign for each of their cities: Flint, Bay City, and Saginaw. These will help assuage fears and rumors in the community that the papers are disappearing. In fact, they are becoming stronger than ever.