As brand marketers, we always seek to find businesses and organizations that have solid business models and a true unique quality that makes them better than the competition - and allows them to deliver a great brand experience. This makes our job much, much easier because we believe that a brand cannot survive on great branding alone. If we were in math class, it would look something like this:

Great branding + Great business model = Success
Great branding + Mediocre business model = Fail!

Unfortunately, not every business that seeks professional marketing help is backed by a solid business model. Many businesses simply exist, with no unique, compelling characteristics that consumers crave. I believe that these businesses, even with the help of a slick brand, cannot survive in the long-haul. And to add insult to injury, it’s a difficult fix that most business owners aren’t willing to embrace.

On the other side of the coin are businesses that deliver an amazing brand experience, yet aren’t supported by a healthy branding effort. The problem with this is consumers use a company’s brand image to decide whether or not they want to engage/purchase/patronize/etc (Think about it the next time you’re in the grocery store trying to decide which shampoo to buy). If the brand isn’t up to snuff, many consumers won’t give them the opportunity to deliver a brand experience because they’ll just move on to the next brand…That equation looks like this:

Bad branding + Great brand experience = Fail!

This happens too often. On a local scale, here in Maryland there are countless brands that I have come across that are truly remarkable brands. A couple that come to mind right now are Terracycle, Carols Western Wear, Chevy Chase Bank and Lemongrass (Thai food). Each of these are companies that I feel deliver a PHENOMENAL brand experience, but could use some help with making sure their brand communicates it. Luckily, I know just the right group of people to solve their problem…

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

p.s. Thanks Alchemy for the image.

I just read a great post from a blog I often read called Thought Gadgets and the author, Ben Kunz, was talking about a concept called “sunk costs.” He goes on to explain that this is an economic term that refers to past expenses or decisions that can never be recovered. The common logic of a sunk cost is that once the money’s gone, it’s gone - but folks often continue to perpetuate the same behavior (spend) because they don’t want to admit failure. Ben relates several well-known historical instances of people chasing sunk costs:

The Vietnam War - Many thought we had spent too much, and lost too many lives, to “stop the war now.”

The Concorde Jet - Throwing money into the program even though it was clear it was going to fail.

I’d say in many regards another glaring example of chasing sunk costs today would be energy companies that are continuing to chase oil as their primary source, rather than investing in developing alternative sources and technologies. The bottom line is that it’s regret and bureaucracy which often keeps these things happening.

Ben mentions toward the end of his blog post that marketers often fall victim to chasing sunk costs as well. This really hit home for me, because it touched on something that I often observe first-hand in my position as marketing director. I can’t tell you how many times I come across companies that are spending thousands upon thousands of dollars trying to communicate a brand that is ineffective and off-target. But they continue to do it because it would take too much effort and investment (and admitting they were wrong) to ‘right the ship,’ so to speak.

But how can these companies compete when the foundation of their being - their brand - is a lame-duck? The reality is, they can’t, and they’re just chasing sunk costs. It’s a sobering realization, but the only way to get them back on course for marketing success is to get the brand back in focus. Only then, should any money and effort be put into trying to communicate that brand.

I’ll bet you can think of a number of companies right now that are chasing sunk costs by spending money on an ineffective brand they’ve settled on. I can think of several brands right here in Baltimore that could use some help…

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

Working with a company that redefines and refocuses brands, I have come to love before and afters. I love the idea of taking something old and stale and making something appealing and desirable out of it. I think that’s exactly what the folks at Pentagram just did with the Popeyes brand. Until recently the brand still looked like it was trapped in the 1980’s - it was especially obvious when up against the still competition of Chic-Fil-A, Burger King and McDonalds, each of which has a fresh brand image that fast food diners can easily understand and identify with.

Here’s how the Popeyes identity stood before Pentagram began:

I’ll let the work speak for itself, but here’s a quick description from the Pentagram blog:

The new identity emphasizes the restaurant’s rich Louisiana Gulf Coast culinary heritage and distinguishes itself from the stiff fast-food competition. Stout created an evolved logotype that updates the easily recognizable word-mark originally inspired by the “dancing” letterforms used in old Popeyes comics. A simple icon based on the single dancing “P” of the original letterforms and a new crest featuring the words “Louisiana Kitchen” are designed to be additional components of the flexible identity system. Packaging and other elements feature images of jazz musicians to emphasize the company’s Louisiana heritage.

And the afters:

Reading about this Popeyes work got me thinking about some of the other brands that I interact with every day that could use this same exercise. There are so many that I walk and drive by each day, and some that I even patronize with brands that are lack luster. The question then is…why? Your brand is the foundation of your being, and arguably one of the most important things to the success of the business (aside from of course having a worthy product or service), so why let it languish?

I think many corporations and organizations are hesitant about investing in their brand, and that might be one of the core hesitations. It’s not a process that comes cheap, and the results are not often immediate. But when you focus on creating a brand that positions your company properly, you make the process of turning a regular person into a brand loyalist infinitely easier. Always remember, without a solid brand no marketing vehicle, regardless of how creative, can deliver the desired result.

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

I’m really proud to show you all some of our latest work. Our team at Orange Element recently helped the great folks at interactive design firm Fastspot redevelop their brand identity to help them better communicate to their target audiences what defines them as a firm.

We’ve known Fastspot for years and are well versed in their work, but folks that didn’t know them as well didn’t understand that Fastspot is equal parts technology and design. They are a process-oriented firm that considers both sides of the equation, producing beautiful designs that deliver the best possible user experience.

To get to the final mark and identity that we settled on, we went through our typical discovery process and were able to get a good sense of what Fastspot was looking for. At that point, we collectively participated in a logo study to settle upon something that they felt achieved their goals. The results of this study were actually turned into a really great poster, which I will write about in a separate post to come…

Our final solution was something that I think communicates perfectly their blend of creative design and process-driven technological savvy (both necessary for extraordinary work, and the tone and personality of the mark we’ve created is a direct match with that of their firm. It’s a strong, beautiful, dramatic mark - just like their designs, which you can check out by visiting their site at www.fastspot.com.

Brand mark:

Lockup:

Business cards:

Mark on the Web site:

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

Our new intern, Kaley Hymiller started at Orange Element today. She is tops in my book already because she sent me a sweet link to blog about. As you know from reading my earlier post about Kaley, she’s way into industrial design. That’s why she loved this Gizmodo story about RFID-driven library chairs.

It doesn’t look real, but it is. You simply swipe your library card in front of the chairs and like a little puppy they follow you around, waiting for you to want to sit. They do this using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, but it can best be explained by checking out the video:

Now THAT would be a fun product to brand and market.

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

Now that the primary race has (finally) settled down and we have ourselves a consensus on the Democratic and Republican nominees for President, it’s time to start the analysis of each candidate’s marketing efforts. Since this subject matter has likely been covered eleven bazillion times already, I promise to keep my thoughts succinct and relatively raw. And, I promise to give you an objective view - truth be told, I am interested in both candidates and what they have to say. I’m one of those undecided folks that needs more time to make an educated decision.

I’m going to start today by giving you my thoughts on their online efforts (and later asking for your thoughts). While both candidates have been lauded by analysts for creating well marketed campaign platforms, it is difficult to give the nod to anyone but Barack Obama for his online efforts. He has been using the internet in ways that no other political candidate in history has and of course has focused on connecting through design more than the other candidate, as covered by Bruce Nussbaum HERE.

In a side-by-side comparison of the two candidate Web sites, Obama clearly has an edge. While McCain’s site is better than many political sites, Obama’s is clean, easy to navigate and even has great use of typography - something that he has been praised for over the many months of the primary race. Every detail appears buttoned up and well thought out, down to the use of icons for navigation. I even really enjoy Obama’s use of a landing page which encourages visitors to sign up to be a part of the campaign. This is something McCain doesn’t do until you get to the homepage, and even then it’s buried amongst many images, many links, and many other points of navigation.

I also recently heard from my friends at Make My Logo Bigger about a micro site the Obama camp has created called http://www.fightthesmears.com. This site is an amazingly important part of his campaign strategy, in my opinion. Essentially it lays out each and every ’smear’ that Obama’s opponents have unleashed to the public and gives targeted answers to these smears. This is great, because as you know, smears are often nothing more than unfounded rumors that tend to multiply from person to person. Obama has effectively greatly diminished the influence that a smear will have over the outcome of the political race. It also puts another tool in the toolbox of Obama brand stewards. I can definitely see someone passing along this link to someone that perpetuates a smear against Obama…

I’m really interested in what you all think about the candidates’ online campaigns. Please leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts and opinions. As a matter of fact, feel free to vote in the new poll question to the right!

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com