“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” – Oscar Wilde

One of the great things about attending SxSW (this is our last mention, promise!) is that there’s always at least ONE panel that totally turns your ideologies on their pointy little heads. There were many instances like this for our diverse group of attendees, but a specific branding session seemed particularly relevant to us and our clients.

The title was “Brand Consistency is Killing Digital Advertising,” and if you think there’s a typo in this sentence you’re wrong. Consistency, as it turns out is the culprit in ineffective online (and perhaps even offline) campaigns, and it’s turning all of us into weak marketers.

Bummer, I know. We’ve been preaching for years that making everything look the same across platforms is THE right way to execute a campaign, too. But, progressive people don’t take advice like this and brush it off easily – we forge ahead and at least consider the alternative methods. And we think this rabble-rouser may have a few points.

1. Your brand is not necessarily about look – it’s about FEEL. We usually begin our branding process by asking a series of questions about the company’s existing personality, and we sort of strong-arm the client into engaging in the creative process so they feel comfortable with the end product. For instance, we may ask something like “If your company were a movie, what would it be?” or “If you were a dog, what breed would you be?” But, usually after the brand has been created, we forget about this list of admittedly weird questions. Now, we think it’s more important than ever to revisit that EVERY time we start a new micro campaign to make sure we’re not just copying and pasting an existing look to a new medium but really developing the entire concept into something bigger and more involved.

You don’t have to connect everything. If you think of a great billboard campaign or a great Twitter campaign that would never work elsewhere, go for it. A campaign that isn’t good for a specific platform isn’t necessarily a bad one. It’s great if it is, but don’t stifle your creativity by forcing the issue. The panelist suggested Red Bull as a great example, citing their (terrible) TV ads, flying object stunts and YouTube campaigns. They don’t revolve around one idea per se, but they all FEEL like Red Bull. HINT: If you can line up every marketing piece and it all looks the same, you are behind the times.

Your brand can have more than one message.We think this is really the thesis statement of the panel. As a service or product, your company probably has more than one statement to make and more than one quality worth discussing. If you’re lucky you even have more than one distinguishing feature. So why jam-pack every campaign or marketing piece with a singular message? Split it up! As long as the net impact of the multifarious approach is cohesive, your brand will remain intact.
Following these steps won’t be as easy as we’re making it sound. Clients who are used to the one-size-fits-all mentality will scoff at this sort of nonsense. But the clients who don’t will see resounding success, especially as you cross into the digital realm. It’s scary, and it’s mind-blowing, but it’s the future of marketing, so try it out! We dare you!
And please, let us know if you’ve had any experiences – good or bad – with this progressive approach.

How marketers can have a brand that isn't boring

Branding with creativity

Regular

Be you food truck, home brewer or charcuterie maker, everyone seems to be trying to make their product relevant to a local audience. By now, most of us have seen the exaggeration of the “go local” movement epitomized on Portlandia but for many businesses, acknowledging and even downright bragging about where a product comes from has given old dogs some new tricks. In Houston this concept has manifested in a group of forward-thinking purveyors and farmers who are busy providing conscientious eaters around town the opportunity to get to know their food on a more personal level and in turn, distribute a bankable product, one step at a time.

Meet your public. Tafia’s farmers market has long been a platform to meet-and-greet the people behind the food, face-to-face. Strengthening the relationship between pasture to plate, Monica Pope’s restaurant features produce and products –in small, well-managed quantities that not only give participants a chance to shake the hand of the grower, packager, inventor but also support local infrastructure. On a larger scale, rotating farmer's markets around Houston offer a similar experience including Rice University farmer’s market, the City Hall Market and of course, the Urban Harvest market.

Invite them in. Pioneers like Utility Research Garden and Wood Duck Farm are no strangers to making a visit with livestock or produce both a learning experience and a beautiful day out. By orchestrating picnics or chef-driven dinners, families, couples and individuals interested in seeing, touching and witnessing where their food is coming from are given the opportunity to become both valuable customers and storytellers. Creating a narrative for people to repeat and think about when they are purchasing food makes selling monumentally easier, and what better way than giving them a delicious meal in a wonderful setting?

Let them buy the milk and the cow. Springtime in Houston means heat waves and openings. This month we not only saw Revival Market in the Heights open, but also mumblings of a storefront for Underbelly. More and more, restaurateurs are realizing that partnering with distributors and local farmers to introduce new and locally grown food not only allows them to draw new customers but represents a way to commodify product-prepared foods – on a whole new level.

The moral of this story? See it, learn it, love it. Products sell, look and are more meaningful to an audience when they have a personal point of orientation. In Houston, this is definitely visible in the food scene, but imagine the spiral effect as more businesses jump on the bandwagon. Fashion, art, theatre, furniture stores, law firms and innovators in technology – the possibilities are endless. Sourcing internationally is so 2010. This year rediscover what’s across the street, over the fence or down the road.

Marketing to customers in a more personal way

Taking the Product to the People