Ok, love him or hate him, Ashton Kutcher’s stunt last week probably did more for Twitter than all of their previous marketing efforts combined (I have to imagine their VC’s are suddenly huge fans of “That 70s Show”). That, and Big O’s arrival, have elevated social networking’s profile considerably. But in reality, most people have no idea what social networking is. For all the hype the Kutcher/CNN battle created, only 6% of CNN’s audience use Twitter. 30% had never even heard of it.

In the past year we’ve seen a big increase in our clients asking us for advice on social marketing. Most of them are in the “We’ve heard this social networking thing is a great marketing tool, and we want to do it too.” category. It’s the same state of mind that companies had about websites 10 or 15 years ago. They hear that they need it, but they don’t know why or what to expect. There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about what social networking is, and we often find ourselves in a “managing expectations” situation.

First, here’s what social networking isn’t. It’s not a “cheap” alternative to traditional marketing. It doesn’t serve the same purpose as an ad, and your audience doesn’t react to it like one. When people see an ad, they know the deal. We understand going in that you have an agenda – you’re trying to sell your product. Most of us accept that. But in a social network, there are few quicker ways to alienate yourself than to try the “hard sell” on other members. It’s a different arena. People aren’t there to buy your product. They’re there to express ideas, share information, and interact with other users.

Think of your ads as meeting with clients in a conference room. Now think of social networking as an industry mixer at the local pub. In the meeting, you can pull out all the stops convincing your audience that your widget is the greatest widget ever created. But at the happy hour afterward, they just want to relax. Sure, you can mention what you do for a living – and they may even be interested – but you don’t want to break out the Power Point and sample book at the bar. Same thing with social networking. It’s less formal, more personal, and without the BS.

It’s also not necessarily “cheap.” There’s a considerable time investment to get real value out of social networking. That investment can be paid with your own real-world hours, or outsourced by paying for someone else’s. Either way, there’s a definite cost. In the past few years we’ve seen social networking become more and more granular, and as a result, require more and more time. We’ve gone from posting photos from last weekend, to tweeting about the last thing we ate. Social networking is a full-time commitment. If you don’t provide a reason for people to be interested in you (i.e., a constant stream of useful/intersting information), you won’t get much out of it. If you’re a numbers person, this calculator can help you estimate the cost.

Now, let’s talk about what social networking is. It is a great way to build up your brand’s identity and credibility. Social networking can be an amazing tool to disseminate information to a large group of people instantly. And, counter-intuitively, it’s also a very personal medium. You get the chance to interact with a large audience, instantly, at a one-on-one level (that’s something truly unique to social networks, and a first in humankind’s long history of marketing tools). Because of this direct line of communication, if you give your audience something useful – whether it’s information, entertainment, or just putting a face to a big corporate behemoth – they’ll reward you with ever-elusive credibility (side note: do not abuse this gift. Your audience is savvy, and their BS detectors are finely tuned). The lasting effect is that your brand gets stronger. More people know you, more people hear your “voice,” and more people have the chance to take a genuine interest in your product.

One aspect of social networking that I expect to see grow in a big way over the next few years is B2B marketing. Historically, B2B has always lagged behind consumer marketing in terms of technological adoption. The audience tends to be a little older, a little more conservative, and a little slower to adopt trends. BrightBox is located in Houston, the heart of the energy sector, and we have a fairly large B2B client base. Can our drillpipe client really expect to find their target audience (project engineers, rig operators, purchasing managers, etc.) on Twitter right now? Probably not. But it’s coming. If you are thinking about jumping into the social networking pool, do some research and make sure your audience knows how to swim first.

Here are some things to keep in mind -

Reasons to Get Social:

• Communicate directly with large numbers of people
• Get a personal connection with your audience
• Disseminate information quickly
• Less formal medium

What to Expect:

• Expect your audience to hear what you say. People actually pay attention!
• Expect to get out of it what you put into it. If you don’t put in the effort, no one will notice you.
• Expect feedback/criticism. That’s the beautiful thing about having a direct line of communication with your audience. Embrace it.

What NOT to Expect:

• Do not expect automatic results. Get involved.
• Do not expect people to seek you out. Again, get involved.
• Do not expect an instant sales increase. Social networks build your brand and your credibility, which eventually leads to sales.
• Do not expect your audience to be on the social network of your choice. Do research. Is it really effective to spend time on something your clients have never heard of?

Social networking is a powerful new tool – for communication in general, and marketing specifically. But, like any tool, it has to be used correctly to be effective.

As always, feel free to comment below.

Since the inception of the Rockets’ logo in 2003/04, I have felt very strongly, that it does not represent the franchise well at all. To me it looks like “blood dripping”. It’s more “Ninja-Katana”, than it is “Space City – Blast-Off!” Also, with a new logo, should come a new uni. The current uniform is just awful. I cringe at the sight of it.

Logos -

Uniform –

As a graphic designer and a Rockets fan, I’m very passionate about my hometown sports teams, and any graphical element that may represent them. I love the “Texans” logo. It’s one of the best in the NFL, along with the Cowboys. (However, the Texans red socks have Got to Go.). The Astros have a great logo, and uniform as well. Nothing too fancy or over the top. Just a perfect balance of greys, burnt red, and black.

I know that I’m not alone on this stance. I still have not met anyone who actually likes the Rockets jerseys or the logo. If I do meet someone who says that they do in fact LIKE the Rockets’ logo, then I’ll have to disregard what they have to say, because I know that they are indeed, lying to me.

My bosses don’t know about what I’m writing about, so they are in no way agreeing with or condoning this next statement… BrightBox, Inc. should design the next Rockets logo. The Icon we’d create would look good and be easy to recognize. I know that we won’t, I’m just saying we should. The Houston Rockets Marketing department is full of a bunch of people, far too proud to listen to what anyone outside of the department has to recommend. Trust me, I’ve talked to and dealt with a couple of these guys before… They’re not budgin’.

In short…
• Astros & Texans – Good logos

• Rockets – Bad logo

• Dynamo – Don’t care

• BrightBox can design a better logo for the Rockets

The right way to approach branding.

Most graphic designers offer logo and corporate identity services. But a logo is not a brand. Letterhead, envelopes, even Web sites are not your brand. And in the absence of strategy, creativity is worthless.

Brightbox is a strategic brand marketing and design firm. We recognize that successful branding starts with listening, learning, and understanding our clients, their businesses, and their industries first. We leave our preconceived notions at the door and work side-by-side with our clients to follow a proprietary brand exploration process that helps unveil the company’s defining culture and character. In branding, your mission, vision, and values pave the way to your brand promise and all of those elements help drive your organization’s ultimate brand identity.

This process has proven its value over and over for companies big and small, corporations and nonprofits. Branding is not just for emerging companies or unknown businesses. In fact, many of our clients are fast-growing, accomplished leaders in their fields but they realize after several years in business that their identity has not kept pace with their image, and that their employees do not share a common brand language. Executives, salespeople, engineers, and receptionists each describe the organization in different ways. So while the company may seem “fine,” we believe “fine” is the enemy of growth, expansion, and true greatness.

Strong brands command a premium. Purpose-driven brands survive tough times. Well-branded organizations stand out from the pack. BrightBox engages professional business, branding, design, copywriting, and marketing specialists in every client branding process. Find out how BrightBox can help you unleash the true power of your brand and connect with your key audiences, both external and internal.

Recent studies have shown that weekday packed lunches are no longer just for the kids. More and more adults are “brown bagging” as a result of the economy.

Although it may be becoming more popular because people want to save money, it also can serve for healthier eating habits. You are able to control the amount of calories you take in, serving size, and the ingredients you use.

Not sure what to pack and think pb&j sounds too boring? Try making dinner portions bigger so you’ll have leftovers for lunch the next day, or even the rest of the week. Just google “leftovers” and the recipes are endless. A great source for making meals that will last throughout the week is FoodNetwork’s Robin Miller. She, among many other people, have great, creative recipes that are both diverse, and much healthier, than choosing different fast food places for lunch ideas.

Bringing your lunch to work saves you more money than you might think. Even if you only spend $5 a day, that is $25 a week,  $100 a month and $1200 a year! And most any sit down restaurant is going to cost you more than $5 – meal prices at fast food restaurants average $5-8 a meal.

So if you’re looking to save a few bucks, get creative with bringing your lunch to work. It’s one of the easiest ways to start cutting personal costs and save money.

A FEW MORE REASONS TO PACK YOUR LUNCH

Be green—think of all the fast-food packaging that gets used and thrown away ever day.

Old school—pack your favs from when you were a kid – brings back memories from the lunchroom.

Nutritional value—packing your own lunch allows you to control what you’re taking in

Saving money—lets face it, in this economy we could all benefit from saving a few dollars here and there

Here’s a scenario we run into pretty often. A company starts out with no marketing budget. They just want to get the business rolling, so they have a friend’s son whip up a logo, some business cards, maybe build a quick website, and they’re ready to go. Fast forward a few years. The business has done well. They’ve got a steady stream of clients and good relationships. They’re ready to take the next step. They want to jump into the pool with the big boys, and decide to throw down some money on marketing.

This is where BrightBox comes in, and honestly, it’s my favorite type of client. They’re a young company, they’re feeling confident and ambitious, and the whole staff is jazzed about getting some nice materials to represent them. At this point we’ll sit down to talk about what direction they want to go in, and often one of the first questions we’ll ask is, “Have you considered updating your logo?”

The inevitable response is “Oh, we can’t change that. We’ve got too much brand equity in it.”

And that’s an understandable response. After all, this is the logo that got them where they are. This is the logo all of their current customers know and love. This logo IS their brand.

This is a big misconception that a lot of companies make, not just the young ones. Here’s a secret though.

Your logo is not your brand.

Say it with me now – “My logo is not my brand!”

Here’s Wikipedia’s definition of a brand: “A brand is a collection of experiences and associations connected with a service, a person or any other entity.”

That’s a lot more than a logo. And how much “logo-equity” do you think you have? Let me pose this question. What would cause more stress to your customers – changing your logo, or getting rid of their favorite sales person? In the B2B world, where relationships are king, the logo means very little to a client compared to the comfort of knowing who’s taking their phone calls. That’s part of the “experiences and associations” connected with your service.

Here’s another example. Years ago, before BrightBox even existed, I was asked to do a website for a a guy who was starting a catering company. He gave me a business card he’d done himself with one of the worst logos I’d ever seen. It wasn’t even a logo. It was a photo he’d taken with his camera phone. When I offered to include some logo updating for him, he declined, giving me the “too much brand equity” excuse – meaning he’d handed out his card to about 20 people. And do you think a single one of those clients remembered him because of his logo? No. They loved his food, his personality, and his service. That was his brand. Those were the experiences and associations his business carried.

A lot of companies do understand this, and those companies aren’t afraid to update their logo when the time is right – even long established companies. Recently Wal Mart – one of the most well known brands in the country – changed their logo, and no one had trouble finding the stores (Drive 10 minutes in any direction. You’re there).

It doesn’t have to be drastic. Sometimes just an update will give some spark to your marketing efforts. We recently had a client come to us for  rebranding, and were open to the idea of revamping their logo. They’d been around for 40 years, and although the logo had all the right elements (unique, communicated their business’s core message/value, etc.), it looked tired and dated. We were able to come up with a new logo design that retained all of those elements, but looked fresh and current. A win/win for everybody. Yellow Book (of “Let your fingers do the walking” fame) took a similar path with their recent logo update.

Not to say that you should change your logo willy-nilly every 6 months. Sometimes NOT changing your logo can be the smart move (ask Pepsi how that new “Smile” logo is working for them). The overriding thought should always be “Does this represent our company accurately. Does this tell the story we want to tell.”  Most successful companies are in a constant state of evaluation, looking for ways improve themselves. When that company gets to the point where their logo doesn’t accurately reflect who they are – whether it’s because they’re no longer scraping by, doing the marketing themselves out of their garage, or because the company has changed direction so much that the old logo no longer applies – it’s time to let go of the past and consider something new.

The key thing to remember is that your logo is only one aspect of who your company is. It’s the stamp you put on your stuff so that people won’t confuse it with other people’s stuff. It’s one tool in your branding arsenal. The truth is, having a bad logo isn’t going to break your company anymore than having a great one will guarantee success. But, just like you want your sales literature and advertising to accurately represent your company’s values and message, your logo should do the same. Having a great “stamp” to put on your stuff shows confidence in your product, and a level of professionalism in your industry.

Ideally, your logo change would coincide with a new branding effort. As exciting as a new logo can be, changing it without any other visibility can be confusing. You want to make sure that when it’s updated, you’re not telling people with a whisper – you’re shouting it out. Show some excitement and enthusiasm! Show some confidence! If you’re really rebranding, don’t just give your audience a new logo. Give them a new experience. Give them new associations. That’s what they’ll remember.

That’s what your brand really is.

For some examples of long-established companies who have updated their logo this past year, check out this link.

We just launched the new BrightBox website! New look, new focus, new ideas.

One big change is in our examples section. We decided to do away with the standard design portfolio, and instead, used case studies to show off our work.

Every time I meet someone in the marketing industry and tell them I’m the creative Director for BrightBox, they always ask the same question – “Did you say bread box?” After I correct them, and explain that we’re a marketing firm, the second most common questions is “What’s your specialty?”

It seems like people expect you to be a specialist in print design, or web development, our online viral marketing, but we’ve always prided ourselves in being able to do it all. The real answer to the question is “We specialize in branding.” Because we develop all the tools in-house, we can take a top-down view of the situation, and plan out the whole package. Since that’s what we feel our core strength is, we thought we’d show it off.

We’ve put up some examples of clients that ordered “the works.” I really feel that this is where we shine – giving a client a facelift (or entirely new face), that helps to refocus and reenergize the company, and put their brand on the right track.

Check out the new site. We’re all really proud of it.

www.brightboxonline.com

Came across this interesting article about branding on Facebook. http://tinyurl.com/dlc788

April 8, 2009 (HOUSTON, TX)…Sterling Income Management, LLC recently retained its contract with Houston-based brand marketing and design firm, BrightBox, Inc. (www.brightboxonline.com) to help the company define its mission, vision, and values in creating a corporate identity.

Click here to download. Sterling Press Release

Earth day, which was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in, was first celebrated on April 22 1970. This has been celebrated in many countries around the world since, where people demonstrate the importance of a healthy, sustainable environment. The year 2007 marks the largest to date, estimates show over a billion people around the world participated in doing their part. So what will you be doing this April 22^nd?

Instead of limiting it to just one day, we should all be participating and be aware of keeping our earth green on a daily basis. There are tons of simple things we can all start with that makes a world of a difference for the environment.

How about starting with something simple in the “digital age” we now live in, and try to use less amounts of mashed up, bleached tree pulp, better known as paper. Try to keep things digital and dematerialized whenever possible especially around the office.

The more documents you save online and on your desktop, the less paper you will need to try to keep track of lost and forgotten in a filing cabinet, shoved in desk drawers or scattered in piles all over you desk which are usually too unorganized to go through anyways. Using less paper is helpful towards the environment and it will save you time and money spent on paper products and trying to keep it organized.

Review paperwork on the computer rather then printing them out every time, send newsletters and memos via email, make reports and datasheets available online, use PowerPoint instead of paper handouts and when paper is absolutely necessary try to reuse, recycle and use less by printing on both sides.

            There are so many ways to keep the environment healthier such as using less paper, recycling, using less electricity when possible, using products made from recycled materials and so much more. So remember to start this April 22 to do you part, every little bit counts to keep Mother Earth beautiful.

Did you know?

-The average office worker throws away 4lbs of high-grade paper every week that   doesn’t get recycled

-Texans alone dump enough trash every two weeks to fill the Astrodome

-Recycling one aluminum can saves enough electricity to power a TV for 3 hours

-High-grade paper is the largest single component in a landfill

-Every day American businesses generate enough paper to circle the earth 20 times.

(Facts found at www.buyrecycled.com)