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A case study of how to communicate corporate value through graphic design in marketing.
"We will get a huge circus tent , with open sides on both ends to usher in and out the hundreds of guests that will attend. We will put our highest performance vehicles on display so visitors can touch and feel the quality. We will have mounted engines, chassis, cut-a-way models, accessories, performance charts and graphics, racing vehicles, performance tests, resource libraries, driving video games, give-a-ways, and live entertainment as well as high powered presentations and music."
Staging Directions, a corporate and theatrical production services company, wanted to send its clients a holiday greeting card that would also serve as a change of address notice.
Building business with measurable success
STA Tech Marketing provides fractional CMO, brand/marketing strategy, and marketing execution to growth-minded, tech-oriented companies. Our goal is to help small/midsize clients build, sustain, and protect business growth and value.
STA’s approach: See. Transform. Act. We help our clients to SEE the market through the eyes of their customers, TRANSFORM themselves to approach the market, and then ACT to engage the market using sustainable and measurable means.
Founded in 2011, STA has roots that extend back to 1996. Some of the past performance information (case stories, blog posts) available about STA on this website…
ACT means execute. The company uses all of its investigation and transformative (or “readying”) action to move forward aggressively in pursuit of clearly stated goals.
I help clients understand what AJAX does in the real world—without getting bogged down in the technical details.
Forrester’s Tim Harmon recently released a blog post titled “The Who and How of Customers’ Technology Decisions”, which highlights summary data from the nearly identically named Forrester report.
Creating an integrated marketing strategy, with proper budgetary allocations for each channel, is a difficult balancing act. Forrester helps by highlighting how customers look to analysts, vendors, consultants, colleagues, and peers to influence their purchasing decisions. The report sheds some light on which channels are valued by each influencer. Hopefully, this will lead to less error in selecting the right channel(s) through which to deliver the appropriate information for each…
In the rush to the Web over the last dozen years, much attention has been given to the website "user experience". To a certain degree, this extensive dialogue has been reapplied to print marketing pieces as graphic designers strive to combine traditional print design with visual elements familiar to web users.
One of the best ways to advance your sphere of influence in the business world is to invest in relationships. Word of mouth drives a significant portion of growth for many companies in many industries.
Rituals play an important part in business life. They help to create a sense of normalcy, get into a groove, solve problems, stay healthy, etc. But rituals can also be counterproductive and destructive.
We hear a lot about baseball players and their pre-game rituals. Players do certain things in order to get physically and mentally ready for the game. They eat certain foods, listen to particular kinds of music, arrive at the stadium at a particular time, dress at a certain time, and take batting practice at a certain time.
With so many games on the schedule for an MLB…
Are the skills necessary for a good marital relationship similar to that of a good relationship with your customer? Peter Mirus explores the similarities between the two.
There is a good deal of humor surrounding the analogy between sales work and dating, and between customer relationship management and a marriage. The joke that applies immediately after the marriage ceremony is this: “Now, a lifetime of good customer service to ensure retention!”
In both marriage and business, the cost of not having a good relationship can be very high. In a marriage, it costs a lot to get divorced: estimates that I have seen indicate that the average cost of a contested divorce is between $20,000 and $40,000—and that is just considering legal fees.
I once read a book called “Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Black Book of Connections: 6.5 Assets for Networking Your Way to Rich Relationships”. The very first statement in the book, and I mean THE very first (printed in large letters on the inside cover), is this: “All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. All things being not quite so equal, people STILL want to do business with their friends. HINT: To climb the ladder of success, you don’t need more techniques and strategies, you need more friends.”
When spouses don’t pay attention to one another, or communicate productively, they risk losing touch with one another. Imagine this scenario: the girl changes over the course of the marriage; new “customer priorities” emerge. Did the boy recognize those changes as they took place, or two years after the fact? Was he being as attentive as he should have been?
Human nature being what it is, once we have been in a relationship for a while, it is easy to start taking the other person for granted. It is prudent to assume that if you haven’t recently reminded the other person of how great they are (and how great you are!) they might lose track of the value in the relationship.
Here is an example of how the designer can help at a press check. I recently attended the press run of 25,000 4-Color books, which I had designed. After the job was set up on the press, I was called to look at the initial review sheets, and noticed that the registration (the 4 layers of overlapping process colors) was slightly off.
Here are some books that I have found helpful! The most recent additions to this post are on top.
An effective brand strategy is an indispensable asset for the technology company that wants to grow revenue, profit, and value. The marketing strategy builds the blueprint for building brand awareness and generating leads.
Problem: Lack of clarity in brand position and messaging creates unnecessary “friction”. In other words, a poor brand can create confusion as to the purpose of your company and the value of your services. As a result, building relationships contracting officers and program managers can be more difficult.
A poor brand can work against you. Companies that have been inattentive to the development and/or maintenance of their brand may have a liability on their hands rather than an asset.
Here are some points of consideration as to why a poor approach to branding can hurt, or hold back, a government contractor.
Problem: When government contractors think of branding, they often think primarily of the approach to potential customers. However, there are at least six primary audiences that should be considered for strong brand messaging.
Mergers, acquisitions, and expanding product lines can create unique challenges when it comes to designing and producing trade show and retail product displays.
Below are 3 additional sets of preliminary designs created for CONFLUENCE Watersports. These trade show and retail displays explore optional approaches that allow the client to showcase their branded kayaks and kayak accessories.
The Building Society Through Business™ brand was developed by Trinity to emphasize its commitment to strengthening society by promoting ethical, profitable business strategies and by encouraging effective, respectful communication.
We hire and train men and women who are “true consultants” that act in the best interests of the client with intelligence, skill, sound judgment, character and determination.
Moreover, Trinity takes an interest in charitable enterprise and contributes both time and money to worthy causes that seek to build society. We support both national and local organizations that focus on strengthening the underpinnings of our society: God, family, and work.
The…
I recently worked with my friend Chris Pelicano to develop the Building Society Through Business™ brand. The purpose of the brand is to provide a clear visual representation of our commitment to build society through principled and disciplined business action.
Four years ago, an IT consulting firm (that I worked for) collected research from diverse sources about increasing business efficiency through Information Technology. Specifically, we were looking for low-cost solutions that did not require implementation of sophisticated process automation.
As with any relationship, consultant/client relationships can be very complex. Here's an example: If I talk to a mid-level manager in a company about a strategic change of direction, I'm not just talking to that person. Through that person, I'm certainly talking to superiors and subordinates.
I once had a prospective client in which I had invested some time, and for which my company was assembling the scope for a project. Near the end of the scope discussions with the prospect, I said, "Great! We'll put together a Statement of Work for you. If you like what you see, just sign it and we'll start the project."
The proper approach to measuring return on marketing investment (ROMI) needs to include several metrics that paint the full picture. Should “Saves Money” replace “Makes Money” ROMI measurements?
AIA's members include the top 20 Fortune ranked companies in the Aerospace and Defense industry. The goal for this engagement was to renovate the organization’s web properties to better engage with its members, government, and the public. Functions performed included:
The efforts accelerated the organization’s strategic development schedule and created approximately $45,000 in cost savings. The renovated websites received positive feedback from the constituencies.
The client was a successful website dedicated to helping its members stay connected with news and commentary on current events, as well as cultural resources. However, it needed to increase revenue in order to remain a viable entity. The goal of the project was to increase revenue to the organization, primarily through increased donor satisfaction.
For this A/E/C firm focused on government contracting, the goal was to assemble and train a team capable of improving the company’s proposal win rate—at that time on par with the industry average of 20-30%. Functions performed included:
The efforts improved the contractor’s win rate to above 80% and maintained that level over five years, culminating in such results as a $500MM IDIQ prequalification.
This client was a proven C4ISR contractor serving both defense and civilian agencies, most notably performing in a SETA capacity. The company had extremely high rates of award, near 100% contract renewal, and extremely high customer satisfaction.
Unfortunately, the client’s brand was far from being caught up to its current state of development—which created pain in the areas of business development and talent recruitment. A comprehensive brand strategy was called for. Functions performed in this engagement included:
The result was a clear Brand Strategy…
A solid brand strategy can be very helpful when attempting to create a position shift and influence outside perception of your company. In this case, an enterprise communications and workflow management firm—known primarily as a solution provider—wanted to be also perceived as a services firm with valuable strategic insight.
CMA is a national professional member organization advancing ethical standards in healthcare. The goal was to create a marketing strategy to build a more credible public profile, increase new membership, and improve member retention. Functions performed included:
The stated goals were accomplished: membership growth was sustained over a two-year period (to the current date)—a total membership increase of approximately 30%.
Often thought of only as an international fraternal benefit organization, the Knights of Columbus are also a life insurance company—and at the time of this engagement was listed in the Fortune 1000. The organization needed a significant public website to serve its members, councils, insurance agents, and the Catholic public. Functions performed included:
The newly created website boosted visitation by over 2,000%, and provided critical resources and functions to all of the aforementioned constituencies. New web-based processes development dramatically improved the performance of key functions of the organization (such as shortening the life insurance application…
This client was a national consulting firm providing essential services to drive high profile fundraising campaigns. Already well known for its core area of business, the company had spent the previous two years introducing and fine-tuning several new services (including IT services) that were designed to change how the company was perceived by its market.
The firm had re-positioned its brand, but strategy and tactics were playing catch up. The client needed that “catching up process” to occur quickly; to meet revenue goals, the firm had to begin targeting an audience of 500 non-profit prospects within the year. Functions performed…
This organization was engaged in a multi-year initiative to introduce significant federal legislation. The goal was to successfully bring the legislation to the attention of the American public, while countering strong opposition from those opposed to the legislation. Functions performed included:
Though the legislation ultimately failed to pass, the precisely deployed marketing strategy was successful in building and sustaining both coalition movement and media attention. The legislation was introduced to Congress to the maximum possible effect.
NovusCG was “the world leader in independent enterprise storage consulting and data solutions” focused on serving the needs of the Global 2000. The goal was to build the perceived value of NovusCG to potential acquirers. Functions performed included:
The efforts increased industry recognition for the company and significantly increased qualified leads (by 1,000%). NovusCG was acquired by IBM in 2008.
This client had three practice areas: business process transformation, project management consulting, and organizational change management. The company (offices in Maryland and New York) had an excellent reputation for helping its government clients to solve complex problems within short timeframes.
Though it had achieved great success in the public sector, the client struggled to move that success into the private sector. Initial marketing efforts were unsuccessful, and the client was unsure if it had the right messaging and marketing plan. Functions performed in this engagement included:
Here are some of the branding/marketing pain points that STA Tech Marketing can address.
We have served more than sixty clients in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors, from SMB to the Fortune 1000. Clients have included both service and product focused companies. We have effectively provided B2B, B2G, and B2C branding and marketing consulting.
Tech-related clients have included (many client names protected by confidentiality agreement):
Non-profit and non-tech-related clients have included:
In a previous post I mentioned "color memory" as a quality that many experienced graphic designers and artists possess. I would like to elaborate on what I mean by that.
Job solicitations released by Human Resources are an important part of brand messaging. For this reason, in well-developed companies, Communications often provides some level of support to HR.
A good job solicitation, which employs Communications best practices, has several positive effects. The most obvious effect is that a well-written solicitation increases the likelihood that a technically qualified candidate will be found. The other effects are less obvious, but are important to securing top-flight employees and creating a strong corporate culture. Here are some pertinent thoughts.
Don’t just find a qualified candidate; find a superior candidate.
Good job solicitations go beyond…
I once participated in a client meeting at which approximately eight different departments were represented (not including MIS, Communications, and a C-level executive). We were discussing Web Communications strategy, and there was a lot of talking about the various needs of the departments.
Most information technology product and service companies claim to know who their competitors are. In some cases this perception matches reality—but not in many instances. Throughout 15 years of marketing information technology, I have often encountered significant inability to identify competitors.
Graphic Design is the ordering and arrangement of informational and decorative elements (content) according to a rational concept and theme, in order to communicate the theme/information to a specific audience and move them to a desired response.
Many people like to listen to music while they work, and I am no exception. I have very eclectic tastes when it comes to music, and listen with pleasure in a great number of musical genres and sub-genres. So I have a very wide selection to draw from when picking music for the various work-related projects that I have in hand.
Throughout my career, I have encountered business principals who view marketing as a “mystical” or “mysterious” process. Some marketers, over the history of the profession, have encouraged this perception because it can lead to big paydays with little accountability. “If you really want to grow, hand over your checkbook and then wait while Marketing delivers the results. (Don’t look behind the curtain.)”
Art Director Chris Pelicano talks about "thumbnail" concept sketches and their value in the design process.
A good graphic design process focuses intently on the client's need to communicate its message, mission, and unique benefits to its target audience.
The poor economy has prompted many companies to reevaluate their customer focus. In some cases, companies have had to reassess what customer service means to both themselves and to their customers.
The first rule of effectively marketing a professional services firm is to hire the right people to provide those services. Hiring the right people will significantly minimize your marketing expense and hiring the wrong people can scuttle your ship before she sails.
Quality of coworkers, tools, and environment are three aspects of employee satisfaction that will occasionally often be neglected (to one degree or another) by employers. Yet, each has a major impact on staff retention.
Here’s what executive coaching provides: principled guidance that helps you to identify personal and career goals/priorities/values while at the same time assessing benefit and costs associated with those items. Ultimately, the goal is to discover the right path for your executive career within the context of your personal development, and then to help you follow the path successfully while maintaining a good work/life balance.
Today’s small technology companies need sound brand and marketing strategies, consistent marketing management, and a wide variety of marketing skillsets. Hiring a full-time marketing manager often results in little budget left over for projects—and an inadequate skillset for the projects you can afford. So how do technology companies avoid marketing mediocrity?
I recently became acquainted with the work of Sector Three Services (S3S), which provides “sustainable nonprofit IT solutions.” S3S has only been around for about a year, but in that short time is gaining momentum both in number of clients served and in the benefit it provides to those clients.
Many small business owners, or organizational leaders working on a tight budget, wonder how they can economically get the "outsider's viewpoint" of their company without spending any money.
One of the proven tenets of life: establish goals for yourself and you are more likely to be successful. However, many people set goals and then come up way short (including myself, from time to time).
Google continues to make news (and associated commentary). Many are concerned about the vast amount of user-related data collected by Google, what Google does with the data, and how it plans to use that data to manipulate user behavior and interests. Will the comments made by Google CEO Eric Schmidt increase the groundswell of demand for regulation?
In the last few months Eric Schmidt, the gaffe-prone CEO of Google, has made public statements that make us question whether the company's slogan still is "Don't be evil." In interview after interview, Schmidt has made tactless comments on especially sensitive and controversial…
The graphic design process is really a process of refinement from rough concepts to finished deliverables (printed pieces, logos, web sites, electronic documents, packaging, etc.). Refinement means change, revision, alteration. Large changes should be confined to early stages of the process which gradually give way to smaller revisions as the process reaches the finished deliverable form.
If you are a company that utilizes graphic design in any way to speak to your customers, you need to know who they are so that you can produce design pieces that speak to that constituency, or the individual segments within that constituency, personally.
No, you didn’t read that headline wrong. Someone actually has been doing a good job of keeping me informed on the healthcare landscape: my insurance broker.
ABSI comes through where it counts most—keeping us informed so that we can make prudent decisions. General Manager Sim Pace provides us with personal email bulletins outlining legislation and drawing our attention to summaries, timelines, and business articles. President Patrick McEnerney provides great insights, answers questions, and explains options.
This equals a benefit to HR managers—at least, for those who take advantage of the information that is being offered. ABSI might not…
In my last music for working post, I featured three albums of the contemplative/classical genre. This time, I'm going to write a little bit about jazz and feature three very different albums. I have listened a good deal to all three of them while working through the years. Like old friends, they are with me as I move through the different challenges and moods of life.
The strength of your brand is easily measured by determining your market visibility and your market reputation as tied to your sales and profitability. Those figures are used to create a brand strength index. Some research is necessary to ascertain visibility and reputation.
Obviously, business owners and executives are supposed to make the rules. One of the hallmarks of a bad manager is a lack of knowledge of how to effectively make and apply rules. Here are some rules for making effective rules!
Written Communications, when produced and stored properly, creates a “permanent” and readily available record of the important company dialogue.
One of the characteristics of a strong corporate culture is a thriving internal communication through which vision, values, principles, goals, ideas, data, etc. are discussed. In such a culture, when these important discussions take place, they occur in a clear, consistent, timely, and persuasive manner.
Strong companies with forward-thinking corporate cultures properly utilize technology to create advantage. As a Communications expert with a background in Information Technology, I’ve viewed with interest the try/fail/try/fail/try/succeed efforts to introduce new technology in business environments.
Today, at least by my observation, the average office worker is more embracing of technological advancements at the office than was the case ten years ago. However, resistance to the introduction of new systems can still be a struggle. This is often due to a general disconnect between IT staff, executive leadership, and the end-users.
A Case In Point: Office 2007
I saw this…
Most companies use presentations in some way. If you have a two-person landscaping business, you need to be able to make design concept presentation to the customer. If you are large a technology firm, you might need to be able to present research findings to an executive committee.
An acquaintance (and former client), Dr. Andrew Abela, has developed the Extreme Presentation™ method to designing presentations. It “integrates the five essential elements of an effective presentation: logic, rhetoric, graphics, politics, and metrics”. The related book is recommended reading.
However, some people have the tools to follow this blueprint, and…
In order to engage your market, you must know yourself as your market knows you. In other words, you must see yourself through the eyes of your customer! This is the fundamental principle of marketing, but it is often ignored (or not fully executed) in marketing and business development endeavors.
Peter Mirus Chief Executive Officer
Peter creates solutions to help organizations that are trying to grow. He has provided branding, marketing, and technology solutions to a wide range of clients—from start-ups to the Fortune 1000. He has experience serving technology clients in multiple fields, including enterprise storage solutions, network architecture, enterprise communications and workflow solutions, C4ISR systems engineering, software product development, IT managed…
Art Director Chris Pelicano discusses part of the design process in the creation of the Supplier Management Council logo for the Aerospace Industries Association.
In marketing execution, consistency and expertise are the keys to success.
Many technology service firms think primarily of customers when they consider making changes to their brand and marketing strategies. This makes sense: revenue comes directly from customers—therefore marketing ROI is most clearly demonstrated through success in the customer approach.
However, successful (high value, high profit) professional services firms place the hiring and retention of quality talent near the top of their list of challenges/priorities.
Your people are the product you sell. Keep the supply lines strong!
The employees of your firm provide the “product” that is sold to your customers. So in order to field a competitive…
Arguably, the first rule of marketing technology consulting (such as IT consulting) services is: "Hire great consultants." Following this rule doesn't guarantee marketing success, but it sure does make everything easier. The better your product, the easier time you will have selling it.
I typically see technology companies measuring marketing cost as: dedicated in-house marketing staff + outsourced services + material (and similar) expenses.
This measurement does not reveal the true cost of marketing because it does not fully measure the allocation of resources necessary to drive business growth through the marketing process.
In order to understand the true cost of technology marketing you need to build one or more scenarios that consider how marketing will be implemented within your company. Putting the scenario(s) together need not take a lot of time.
When doing so, there are four helpful considerations, often overlooked, that…
Virtually the only thing Netflix did right was the last thing: promote increased selection for streaming content. Pretty much everything else was a disaster.
There are two ways to improve the outlook of a company: (1) improve the way it performs; (2) improve outside awareness of its performance levels. Everything else is fluff: if your business actions don’t specifically assist one area or the other, you are either wasting time or recreating.
Correspondingly, there are two kinds of companies that I (and my colleagues) can help: companies that underperform and companies that perform well but too few people know about it. Communication plays a key role in addressing both concerns—and we excel at improving business communication.
Wise business leaders know that there is always room…
After using OpenX’s hosted ad server solution (now called “OpenX OnRamp”)—my recommendation? Don’t use it. During my team's approximately three-month trial, we encountered multiple system failures (experienced not just by us, but also by many members of the OpenX hosted product community). We have never experienced such severe and persistent malfunctions with a hosted software solution.
Though the OpenX product presented an easier learning curve than other free hosted options (such as DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business by Google), the stability of the Google product is by far superior. The market needs a free hosted ad server with a relatively low learning curve,…
In common "business speak" we talk about people as assets all the time. "The company's most important asset is its staff." "Leverage early adopters for promotion." "A great manager is a great asset."
Art Director Chris Pelicano works with Michelin to help perpetuate a versatile corporate mascot.
In today’s market, being on the web is imperative for most businesses. The degree to which each business needs a web presence is determined by the expectations of the market: you need to respond to the needs of your potential/current customers and keep your competitive advantage. These are the primary considerations when exploring the necessary scope of building a new web presence.
Small businesses often wonder at what point, if any, they should seek an outside consultant to provide objective marketing advice or run their marketing functions. There is no clear-cut answer to this question. However, I do offer a few words of advice to small business owners (or managers).
When I was trying to get my first business off the ground, I would work really long hours to make sure that everything got done. For several years, I worked 60-70 hour weeks on average—some weeks more. Thank goodness, since the first year of my marriage I have never had a commute longer than 25 minutes (now I live near my office, and have a 5-10 minute commute).
I have spent the last five years trying to convince some clients, in ways both direct and indirect, that they are going about staff recruitment backwards. Companies should never hire people who do not possess qualities that the company does not plan on teaching to them.
STA’s current work includes brand strategy development for two information technology firms. The firms have different areas of expertise and are at different stages of development. However, there are some notable similarities. First, both firms are talented, focused, and determined. Second, they both face the challenge of identifying, honing, and messaging a strong differentiator that will help take them to the next level.
Some symbols (or logos) are created by history. When the tragic attacks occurred on September 11, 2001 a new brand was born.
Commercial graphic design is a coordinated process of mutual responsibilities between the client/employer and the graphic designer. This post is intended to be orienting, not comprehensive. However, if the following general principles are observed within projects, you increase the likelihood of getting a superlative design solution in the final product.
Beyond actually having the tools of the trade (or, the ability to produce excellent graphic design), being a good producer of graphic design solutions is about pursuing a true consultative approach.
Have you completely saturated your market? No? Good. Because that means even if your market is shrinking, you still have room for growth.
In the course of performing some client research, I recently examined the websites of approximately 20 competitors performing work in the areas of Project Management, Business Process Transformation, and Organizational Transformation (or similar service labels). The size of the consulting firms ranged greatly in size and had many permutations in disciplines, methodologies, solutions, audiences, etc.
What I learned is that many of the competitors in this space do not message themselves well, at least online. There’s a lot of cloudiness in terms of who each firm claims to be, what audiences they are talking to, and how the firm delivers…
Rough sketches (roughs) explore illustrative concepts and compositions in much the same way that thumbnails explore logo designs and layout concepts.
Since I have performed a good amount of work in both the for-profit non-profit sectors, I occasionally serve as a sounding board for individuals who are contemplating the career leap from for-profit to non-profit.
Graphic Design involves the organization, prioritization, and presentation of ideas, concepts, and information at the service of a defined purpose. If the ideas are many, the concepts are complex, the information is vast, and the purpose is multi-phased—then the scope of the Graphic Design services could be enormous. The cost would be commensurate with the demand.