Request a quote

Straydog Branding

Unleash your brand

Marketing

WEBSITE RETAINER PROGRAM

by Leave a Comment

Are you in need of some ongoing website piece-of-mind? Is your website out of date and in need of software updates? Don’t delay, out-of-date themes and plug-ins can be a security risk and an open door for hackers. Protect your site and your business with ongoing website updates with Straydog’s thorough and affordable Website Retainer Programs.

WHY CHOOSE A RETAINER?

When you choose a monthly retainer, we put you at the front of the line. Here’s what you’ll get:

  • Our retainer customers get priority in scheduling.
  • Retainer clients are given a higher priority for larger projects as they arise.
  • Discounted prices for design and development services. (our standard rates for digital design is $150/hr and $135 for development and technical support)
  • Piece-of-mind that we’re here when you need the help!
straydogbrand

Driving the brand experience at a car dealership

by 5 Comments

The power of a brand plays a critical role in auto-buying decisions. A brand represents an idea and a set of values that are widely recognizable in the marketplace. The same branding principles that dealerships follow are inherent in popular retail establishments, such as Starbucks, Apple, Best Buy and Shoppers Drug Mart.

In the past two decades, hundreds of new car dealerships have been built or renovated in accordance to the manufacturer’s branding requirements. In each case, every element of architectural design, colour scheme, signage, furniture and building materials has been carefully mandated by the manufacturer.

Today, dealerships representing the same nameplate look similar in appearance and design, in order to distinguish its products and services from the competition and to maintain a consistent brand image and customer experience.

While automakers work hard to distinguish their brands, individual dealers will create distinctive brands of their own, separate from the corporate identity but often tied closely to it.

Branding at the dealership level also involves phone etiquette, relationships with suppliers, e-commerce experience, website design and presence on social media. From the back end to the front end of a dealership’s operations, a chain reaction of experiences establishes the brand.

And this is where a local branding & design agency can work with local car dealerships to help them create their own unique brand image.

Straydog is now working with North Vancouver Mitsubishi which owns the North Vancouver Mitsubishi, Fraser Valley Mitsubishi and now Kamloops Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram. Recently, we have worked on updating the North Vancouver Mitsubishi dealership logo, designed in-store signage, marketing and collateral material, created some digital ads for web, newspapers ads, worked on a number of video’s for online and on-presence promotional purposes, including at BC Lions games and UBC Thunderbird games.

We also worked closely with them on their marketing strategy for their sponsorship of
Primal Quest 2018 in Squamish, BC. For this event, we provided the following services:

    • Graphic design for outdoor signage,
    • Graphic design for vehicle wraps for their Mitsubishi sponsor vehicles,
    • Strategy and design for online ads,
    • Graphic design for print ads
    • Video editing services

If you’re looking for award winning brand strategy and design work for your dealership, give us a call at 604-913-7936 or drop us an email, we’d be happy to help you drive your dealership’s brand forward.

 

straydogbrand

Brand Consistency Defined

by 1 Comment

Next to differentiation, consistency is the second most important principle of branding. Brand consistency is the secret to brand success. With enough repetition, the brand is ingrained in the customer’s mind, preferably linked to things that matter to them.

If you alter or continually make subtle changes to the overall look or messaging of the brand, the important linkages and associations are likely to break down and the brand is at risk of being lost or forgettable.

What is brand consistency?

Brand consistency is where a business attempts to communicate messages in a way which doesn’t detract or wander away from the core brand strategy, values and foundation. This means the brand’s messaging is delivered in the same tone, the logo is always used in a similar way, a single typeface is used for all brand communications and typography and colour are consistent.

Every brand touchpoint and piece of marketing material is like a member of the same family, supporting and even looking similar to all the other members in the family. The brand has its own style which enables the target audience to recognize it and differentiate it from the competition.

Long-term benefits of Brand Consistency

Branding has long-term benefits. Many leading brands have held their position for years. These leaders have pursued a high degree of brand consistency in visual, verbal and tactile communications across the markets they choose to compete in. These brands deliver a largely consistent customer experience, supported by an integrated marketing effort. There is little doubt that the most successful brands historically have communicated and delivered a high level of consistency.

This being said, Branding is not just about applying a logo in a consistent manner and having the right Pantone colours. It is about ensuring that all the messaging of all communications materials are always on brand. Even the way the copy is written should be written in the light of the brand messaging. The way the website is built, the quality of paper used in printed materials and Social Media profiles – all of these points should be consistent because if they’re not, it will cause consumers to lose trust in the brand.

This commitment to consistency can be supported by the notion that the typical consumer requires at least seventeen impressions of a brand before considering a purchase. Brand managers therefore must subscribe to the theory that it’s critical for the brand impressions to be consistent and clear. The risk is that the brand will require more communication investment because prospective consumers may confuse association.

80% of brands believe they deliver a superior customer experience, but only 8% of their customers agree.

Brand Evolution VS. Brand Inconsistency

Each day, your brand is interacted with many times. These interactions gives insight into whether the brand is competitively differentiated, highly relevant, and appropriately consistent. If properly assessed and acted upon, brand owners and managers can continuously ensure growth of the brand for competitive advantage.

Customer preferences, competitive landscapes and market conditions are incredibly dynamic and refreshing your brand is the most strategic of responsibilities. This process is incredibly consuming tactically, given the attention required to manage the numerous details. The professional branding studio must determine what cannot change and what should change. This constant struggle allows for clearer articulation, more creative presentation and delivery of differential value, but never deters from the core brand values. This is the essence of great branding.

Nearly anyone can enforce or create brand guidelines, but only truly strategic and creative professionals drive evolution and innovation.

Brand Guardians

At Straydog we are brand guardians. We are your long-term design partner, who ensures that your branding is kept consistent across all brand communications.

We offer strategic and multi-disciplined design services including branding, graphic design, web design and social media to ensure that your brands values are consistently applied and fit in with the long term strategy of your business. The sooner your brand takes a serious approach to consistency, the sooner you will profit from increased relevance, differentiation, and influence.

Learn More about Straydog’s Branding Services [+]

 

 

straydogbrand

Are you GDPR Compliant?

by 3 Comments

After 4 years of work, the GDPR was approved in April of this year and the regulations came into affect, May 25, 2018. If you don’t know what GDPR is, you should! The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations is designed to harmonize privacy laws across Europe and to protect all EU citizens data privacy and to organize the way organizations across the EU approach data privacy.

So you may be asking, how does an EU regulation affect my business here in North America, and why should I care?

Well, the direction of the regulations is to protect all EU citizens, regardless of where they may live and which websites (worldwide), they may be using.  So the biggest update to these regulations is most definitely the landscape for which these laws apply, as it applies to all companies processing personal data of dta subjects residing in the EU, regardless of the websites owners jurisdiction.

GDPR makes its applicability very clear – it will apply to the processing of personal data by controllers and processors in the EU, regardless of whether the processing takes place in the EU or not. The GDPR will also apply to the processing of personal data of data subjects in the EU by a controller or processor not established in the EU, where the activities relate to: offering goods or services to EU citizens (irrespective of whether payment is required) and the monitoring of behaviour that takes place within the EU. Non-Eu businesses processing the data of EU citizens will also have to appoint a representative in the EU.

So what does this mean to you…well, if you have a website then you need to be GDPR Compliant. Does this scare you if you know nothing about this or don’t now if your site is compliant? At Straydog, we can help. We can assess your site and help you get GDPR compliant, just give us a call or contact us through our webform…remember, the deadline for compliance was May 25, 2018.

The penalties for not being compliant can be stiff, don’t be a target, let us help!

 

straydogbrand