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Archive for: Marketing
Hard Work > Greatness
I have to admit… I obsess about greatness. Not my own greatness mind you, I understand enough about life and myself to not worry about that. Other people’s greatness. What makes someone in any category great? Why is one ordinary person better than another? I suppose...
Client Interaction Continuum
While helping out at this past week’s Social Media Breakfast Red Deer (SMBRD) I was talking with a client and rambled out the "client interaction continuum", with a laugh. I felt kind of smart, so I thought I'd pen out a quick illustration of what I was saying....
Why Websites are Expensive
Thinking back, it’s funny to reminisce about those long-lost conversations back in 2000 … “meh – you don’t really need a website”. Funny how things change.
Meaningful Work
We all want to do something meaningful with our lives, and these days, we would prefer if our work brought that meaning to it. Whether it’s just being a part of something greater, philanthropic, or just “cool” - the feeling is the same. Work should matter. Really, I’m...
Social Media Mashup
Well, here we are starting off 2012. Hopefully with a bang. I’ve read a few reviews of 2011, and it was a good year for a lot of businesses. But what is coming up now? What about us mere mortals in central Alberta?
2012 will clearly be the year of the mobile device, that much is clear. From apps, to having a mobile version of your website – the amount of internet bandwidth now being served to mobile devices is growing (I’ve seen it might be 7% in the US). More than that though, social media is the soup de jour, the buzziest buzzword we’ve had in a long time, and everyone wants to know how to, what to and when to.
Are Business Cards Dead?
In this age of social media, interactive media, click ads and online networks, a once immovable bulwark of business is slowly dying. the business card. In the “olden days” the mighty rolodex would sit on the office manager or salesperson’s desk – the mighty gatekeeper to leads, key contacts and everything to keep the greasy wheels of a post war boom running (but they date back to the 17th century).
Now that we have online maps, business profiles and SEO aren’t business cards obsolete? Yes… sort of. Designers have a short time to re-define the business card to make them efficient and relevant to newer, younger industries defying convention.
Mistakes. They happen.
Yes. Mistakes happen. Yes. We make them. Mistakes teach designers what they’ve missed, and what they don’t know. Mistakes also give us the opportunity to show integrity, and to make things right. I think mistakes are the single greatest opportunity to show you care about clients. Will you abandon them or make it right? Will you take your lumps or be indignant? Heroes don’t often rise when nothing is wrong.
I think mistakes are the single greatest opportunity to show you care about clients. You rise and fall on your reaction to errors.
We had a stationery project go bad this month. It was a collection of small things that culminated in a botched print run.
Now, in this case it has turned into a lot of extra work for us. But how can you know if you’ve gotten it right?
Rebranding McDonald’s
Today I went to McDonald’s in Red Deer for the first time since an emergency stop on the I15 in Salt Lake in 2003, which was arguably one of the most terrifying experiences of my life – an American McDonald’s – I shudder at the thought even now. It was pretty scary almost hitting a herd of Elk or Moose or something near Delburne in 2005, but Salt Lake was life changing terror.
But I digress… It has been nearly 7 years since my last mono et mono with Ronald. A birthday party drew us today. I was utterly shocked. The restaurant, Red Deer’s first, looked more like Earl’s than McD’s – wood trim on everything, new booths, even easy chairs and a fireplace! This place has gone uptown! New menu boards tout a myriad of new healthy products – photos of grilled chicken and salad have replaced the Quarter Pounder and the Big Mac.
Then we had the birthday party, and we even had a personal server! Super fun – terrific Playland! Wow! This is clearly not the McDonald’s I remember. Is it? Then the food came for the kids: same happy meal (with milk and apples for an option, mind you). Same branded toys trying to imprint on the kids. In the end the children all ate the same high calorie, high sodium fat bombs I enjoyed as a child, and they’ll hopefully be saved by their blazing metabolisms the same as I once was. Truthfully, this doesn’t bug me too much, we hardly go for hamburgers, and is it was terrific to get out with friends.
Building Community – Olympic Style
The recent Vancouver 2010 Olympics was quite a ride for just about anyone Canadian. We've seen an Olympic result that is record setting and hard not to be proud of. We indeed owned the podium. Canadians banded together in a way I've seldom experienced - The most...
A Word on Branding and Identity Standards
In the end, you may get something printed beautifully that is a close, but not exact match. An interesting thing has been coming up lately: how to deal with identity standards. Specifically, colour in relation to identity standards. Many of our clients are now in...
Say it like you mean it.
It was hot in Alberta this weekend. Really hot. Likely the most important weekend in the entire year for Tim Horton’s to have Ice Capps for the world. We, like the rest of Alberta, wanted and Ice Capp on Sunday afternoon. But the first Timmies we went to offered only...
Subliminal Influences
Some look at designers as being psychologists… able to weave a complex web of messages to promote a behavior in viewers. Sure there’s a bit of that, but I’d like to believe that communicating well will get the point across well enough without being tricky. So if...