KISS

No, I’m not talking about Prince’s song or the famous band. I’m talking about a principle that can be applied to a lot of things in life, especially in design.

KISS is the acronym for KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID. It was “first coined by Kelly Johnson, lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works (creators of the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird spy planes, among many others).” (Wikipedia)

This is a phrase that I have to tell myself over and over throughout the entire process of designing a logo, ad, business card, or any other type of media. It's an important aspect of design that many designers forget. All too often the tendency is to “over design” a project by adding and working and adding and working a piece until it’s dead.

I'm not saying that you shouldn’t play around with composition and elements in a design or work hard on a project, but I am saying the solution is simple. The solution is always simple.

A great way to start implementing this principle is to use only the necessary information in a design. Doing so allows the viewer a clear understanding of the piece, which is especially important in most advertising as you only have a second to grab their attention.

-Jake, Emogen designer

The Birds and Bees, Pt. 2

Yesterday we blogged that sales is a lot like dating. We further propose—no pun intended—that customer retention is a lot like marriage.

It’s common sense that a relationship can’t survive if you put in “bare minimum” effort to keep it going. Even after the nuptials, a little wining and dining is still much needed.

So goes customer retention. Do you really expect clients to keep coming back to you time and time again without having to make any effort on your end? Amazingly, some businesses do… or at least they behave as if they do.

How much attention is required then? Unfortunately, the answer depends on the line of work you’re in. The Wal-Mart/shopper relationship is going to be very different than the marketing consultant/client one. But here are a few tips we all can benefit from:

Communicate – We’ve heard it a million times, but communication really is critical. It doesn’t have to be all steak dinners to be meaningful though. Communication is anything from said dinners to client appreciation gifts to newsletters, birthday cards, or the occasional phone call to just say “Hi.”

Ask their opinion – Like spouses, customers appreciate it when you listen to their opinions and suggestions. Even just through general conversation, getting customers’ feedback facilitates a deeper connection between you, especially if you act on their suggestions.

Do your best – Hopefully you’re putting your best foot forward every time you do something for a client, but it’s true we all have the tendency to shift into auto pilot sometimes. Fight the urge! Clients, like spouses, can get frustrated with being treated as second-best; so much so, they could decide to take their business elsewhere.

The Birds and Bees… of Marketing

Sales is a lot like dating.

In the dating game you have to know what kind of person you’re looking for, both who’s right for you as well as who you are right for. You also have to figure out where to find that person, and then make the effort to go there to meet him or her.

If and when you do go there, you will find better luck if you have dressed to impress and have thought through how you will introduce yourself. But beware of not being yourself! Sooner or later the true you will come out.

The same goes when you’re looking for your next customer.

In marketing, you have to know who your prospect is and how best to reach them. You also need to know what message will best speak to them and how to make that message appealing. And, as with dating, you have to be honest. If you can’t deliver on a promise, it will come back to bite you.


Come back tomorrow for The Birds and Bees Pt. 2: Customer retention is like marriage.

NEGATIVE = POSITIVE

(Today's blog comes from our designers' den, courtesy of one Jake Dugard.)

Negative space, as defined by About.com, is "the area of [an] image not occupied by shapes or forms," and so it goes without saying that positive space is the area of the image that is occupied by an object.

Unfortunately, in the advertising world (and in design in general) money is tight and so is space, so clients often demand to fill up every inch.

Although space is limited, negative space must still be created. When a design is packed full, it doesn't allow the viewer the ability to understand information as quick as he/she would in a design where the positive and negative space balance out. Wikipedia puts it nicely: "This basic and often overlooked principle of design gives the eye a 'place to rest,' increasing the appeal of a composition through subtle means."

When text is used in a design, negative space becomes even more crucial. Dong Hyun Lee wrote his thesis on the subject of negative space and typography. He states, “Negative space provides a flexible way to control visual hierarchy (emphasizing and distinguishing primary, secondary and tertiary information). The function of negative space plays a significant role in contributing to the effective readability of text typography.”

Today's tip is this: allow a flow of negative space throughout your composition to create a balanced design and allow for an easier visual hierarchy of elements on the page. Negative must equal positive, and designers must be able to defend this principle to clients who want to cover the page with information.

A Thought on Perspectives

For my 28th birthday I jumped out of a plane. (This is Sarah writing today by the way; Brian would NEVER consider doing such.) It was a tandem parachute jump, meaning I was strapped to a highly-experienced professional; but family and friends still thought I was nuts.

When Brian and I started our own business, though, people weren’t nearly as concerned. In my opinion, the two experiences have been pretty much the same. Both carry a high level of insurmountable risk, but both also carry—for the right kind of person—an indescribable emotional high.

Having been though both experiences, I feel that I have gained a perspective to which the average population isn’t privy. But in truth, because we each have individual, unique experiences, we all have perspectives unlike anyone else.

The point I'm trying to make is this: be it marketing related or otherwise, take care not to assume the rest of the world thinks, reacts, and “does” like you do. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with your target. By making the effort to “walk in their shoes,” your communication with them will be all the more effectual.

Awards are nice, but…

Last night Emogen picked up our first-ever advertising awards. Twelve of them to be exact.

We’ve floated around the office this morning on cloud nine reveling in our accomplishments, but as the day has progressed we’ve forced ourselves to focus on a simple reality: awards don’t mean squat. Well, not exactly squat, but they aren’t the best measure of success.

It’s certainly nice to have your work recognized by peers—they’re in the same industry so they should know a thing or two about what makes your work good—but the ultimate measure of success is when a client mails you a check and then picks up the phone to do another round of business with you. Get that happening regularly with a good base of clients and then you can be assured you’re in the right line of work.

So, how do you do that, you ask? First step: hire a good marketing firm ;)

Fighting Inertia

Who’s your biggest competitor? Maybe it’s that other company in town that offers the exact same service you do. Maybe it’s a business in a neighboring city that has a schnazzier facility than you. And then there’s that on-line retailer that can slap your prices three ways to Texas.

What about your customer?

Yeah, Big Bill kicked back in his recliner… did you know that he—or more specifically his personality and habits—is also a source of competition? Oftentimes, prospects know that you are a nicer, faster, cheaper, all around better place to do business, and they STILL choose to stay where they are. The reason: inertia.

Inertia is a physical object’s resistance to change its state of motion. As a personality trait we might call this procrastination. It’s just easier and more comfortable to keep on with the usual, the status quo, instead of making the effort or taking the time required to make a change.

The implication is that you have to work hard to motivate that prospect to choose to resist inertia. Make the offer too good to turn down, consider a cut off time so that they have to “act now!”, and always, always make the transition as easy as possible.

Failing to measure up

A friend and I recently discussed the emotions that result when the outcome in a scenario doesn’t meet expectations. We’ve all been there… your meal isn’t as delicious as you hoped, your oil change took longer than expected, or the plumber’s charge was substantially higher than you planned. Regardless of the scenario, you’re usually left disappointed or, worse, angry.

Nerdy marketing people (like Sarah of the e-team) like to dig in and quantify the difference—or gap—between a person’s expectations and the perceived level of what was actually received (sometimes called the Gap Model of Service Quality or Gap Theory). There is such a thing as a positive gap (when expectations are exceeded), but all too often you only hear about the negative gaps.

In general, any negative gaps between what clients expect to get and what they perceived they actually got usually boil down to a failure in communication. Maybe they failed to ask the right questions or you failed to provide enough information. Or maybe another company in your industry communicated something wrong or incorrectly to your clients—without you even being aware—that helped to misshape their expectations.

The takeaway here is to simply take a moment to study up on what’s influencing your customers’ expectations and ensure that you and your employees are doing all you can to establish accurate expectations before you find yourself caught in a situation where you failed to measure up.

Ethical Marketing

A recent AP bulletin highlighted several of the nation’s school districts that have resorted to placing ads on school buses (much like you’d see on other public transportation options) in an effort to offset budget cuts brought on by the economic downturn.

While this may at first glance appear to be a case of creative problem solving, it raises the question of ethics in marketing. Opponents of the move say the problem is that “children are being forced to travel to school on moving media kiosks.” They also cite distracted drivers and the potential for accidents as another downside.

We aren’t likely to jump in line with opponents of school bus advertising (heck, we’re in the business of thinking this type of stuff up!), but we do recognize that every good idea is bound to have its problems. The trick is forcing yourself to brainstorm every possible good and bad reaction that an ad, campaign or tactic might elicit.

The Power of Color

Believe it or not colors say a lot. People draw subconscious conclusions about your organization and its offerings simply by seeing your color scheme. Let’s take a look at what some colors represent according to Color Communication Inc.

White – Implies sophistication and formality as well as a high-end price point.

Black – Conveys a strong sense of power, promise. Add sheen or matte to black and it becomes more powerful.

Blue – Connotes confidence and safety, making it a great choice for financial and medical institutions.

Green – Conveys possibility and hope.

Orange – plays up affordability.

Blue based Reds – Are associated with more expensive products.

Yellow based Reds – Is imagined as less expensive.

There should be a lot of consideration given to the colors your organization is using. Do your research before jumping on a color that just “looks good” to you.

“One Stop Shop”

Are you really? Stop and think about what it would take to legitimately make this claim.

Not only would you have to be skilled at every possible customer request dealing with your industry, but you also have to have the means (money, equipment, manpower, time etc…) to fulfill their request. Can that be done? Sure, but just imagine what it would take to make that happen in your field. Can you pull it off? If so… great!

Instead of trying to be a “one stop shop” and diluting your time and resources with secondary products and services, what if you focused all of your efforts on the one thing that is the most profitable, or that you’re best at (which in the long run will be most profitable), and aligned all of your resources behind that offering.

When Henry Ford first started producing the automobile he didn’t say “We are your One Stop Shop for everything you ever wanted in a vehicle”; he said “You can have any color you want, as long as it’s black”.

Mr. Ford found that he could focus each assembly line on specific part or jobs, thus producing a consistent finished product, at speeds never imagined before. This theory changed manufacturing forever; why, because it’s more profitable!

Why would Mr. Ford have a line of people that only assembled the X-part”? Because those people became so efficient at assembling the X-part that he was able to produce them at a tremendously discounted rate.

What would happen if he had told the group from X-part assembly to trade places with Y-part assembly? The learning curve would have caused a slow in production and cost Ford time and money.

In short – If you are starting a business, try not to be too broad in your offering, narrow and focus just a bit. But be careful not to mop yourself into a corner, because one day you may be able to offer it in blue.

Good. Fast. Cheap... Pick Two.

So most everyone has heard of this "project triangle" from the engineering world… right? Well… if not, it’s pretty self explanatory. But I will give you a quick run through just to make sure we are on the same page.

Here we go…

1. You contract X-Company for a project - you want it to be GOOD but you need it FAST – This means they have to put all of their other projects on hold and spend every waking hour on yours – Ok, they will, but it will not be CHEAP.

2. Same Project - This time you don’t care if they are SLOW but you want it to be CHEAP - so now they can work on it when they have available time, this allows them time to focus on it, so it will be GOOD.

3. Yet again; Same Project – This time you need it FAST and CHEAP – They have other customers that are paying a premium for their time so they can’t afford to put them on the back burner to focus on your project, so they will do yours as fast as possible without much regard for GOOD in order to get back to their higher paying jobs.

I’m not saying that you should only take care of your premium paying customers. I’m merely pointing out that...

In order to meet the needs of all your customers (and stay in business), your organization will need to communicate very clearly that they (the customer) must be willing to give up ONE of the following three in return for their demands… Good. Fast or Cheap.

Getting their ATTENTION!!

When developing an advertising campaign consider one of these three “moment of recognition” techniques.

1. A consistent theme that is repeated throughout
2. A character (AFLAC Duck, Guico Gecko etc…)
3. A word hook (“Got Milk”)

When a set of visual images and phrases come together to convey a single mental image and is presented to an audience time and time again you will create recognition.

The average American encounters from 1000 to over 4000 (depending on the study you read) advertising impressions per day. That means you have merely moments to get the attention of your target. When your audience sees your website, print ad, TV ad, brochure, direct mail piece, or hears your radio spot, if there isn’t that moment of recognition you will not get their attention.

What do we do when we see ads? We look for a reference to mentally process the information. Without a reference, we are most likely going to reject the information or classify it as “spam” and move on.

The campaign types mentioned above function as recognition points that allow us to processed the information quickly.

The hard part is deciding which of these three techniques to use. Once you have gotten to this point you should have already firmly established the brand identity you would like to establish. Keeping that in mind, do your homework and find out how your target audience is best communicated with.

Before the logo...

Most people would consider their logo to be their brand identity and adding to that misconception are the multitude of design firms advertising identity and branding “packages”. Typically these packages include a logo, stationary design and maybe signage. These items are important and they do play a role in the branding process…


However, you can not construct a visual representation of a brand that doesn’t exist? Defining your brand should take place well before the first design work has started. To begin the process, you must first understand what a “Brand” is:


David Ogilvy (founder of Ogilvy & Mather) defines a brand as; “The intangible sum of a product's attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history, its reputation, and the way it's advertised.”


Brand, in the simplest form, is the feeling or the perception that an audience has of your product or service.


Your organizations brand begins with the quality of products and services that you offer; it is reflected in the events that your organization participates in, the way you interact with clients on the phone and in person, the way you and your employees dress, the layout and design of your physical location, the look, the feel and the message of all client contact, advertising or otherwise. Your brand is reinforced or degraded with every single contact between your organization and its audience.

Finally Emogen is blogging!

But first I guess I need to introduce our company, and then I’ll lay out what you can expect from us through our hopefully daily blogs.

Our company name is Emogen Marketing Group (as I’m sure you can see by the huge logo above!). We consider ourselves a creative marketing firm, and our specialties include branding consultation to sales strategies and everything in between. We help businesses have quality, meaningful communication with their customers and prospects, which can materialize in a variety of ways.

The most important thing you should know about Emogen is also one of our basic philosophies: “Marketing is not one single activity.” Advertising alone won't sell your product or service, and neither will sales people. Customers come to you -and keep coming back- through the combined affects of your advertising, salespeople, promotions, value, quality, service, and so on. Emogen's role is to help you think through and enhance all of your sales and marketing activities.

So, what to expect here on out? I/we intend to post something everyday (note the word intend)… such as marketing and sales tips, discussions of current (and past) national ad campaigns, and the like. And from time to time we may even ask for some feedback on projects we are working on.

Well, that’s all for our first post. Thanks for taking time from your busy day to join us and I look forward to sharing more thoughts from Emogen tomorrow!