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A Brand and Packaging Design Exercise, that failed!

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A few years ago, Straydog was approached by a private-label food company, to help them create a brand and retail packaging for their new line of granola bars. At the time, the company was successful as a private-label manufacturer of bars for Wal-Mart-USA Costco and a number of other retailers in the USA and Canada. With their years of experiencing developing successful recipes in the nutritional bar category, they felt that they could be equally as successful as a branded manufacturer, so they did the right thing….initially at least! They hired a professional creative agency, Straydog, to help them develop the brand, logo and retail packaging.

But the brand never launched. So what went wrong? Two things…:

  1. Covid hit, and they paused all marketing initiatives for several months, but once they re-focused a few months later and more importantly,
  2. The key decision maker, the CEO and owner of the company, a long in the tooth fellow, chose to dominate the meetings and ignore the opinions of his much younger and capable marketing and production staff.

The key idea that we have seen before, is that a dominant CEO may lead a firm to a deviant strategy. This strategic deviance can yield a strong position for a firm in its markets, or it can drive it to big losses. To control the negative effects of strategic deviance, and balance the power of the CEO, a company needs a strong board of directors. A strong board provides a useful watchdog and a second set of valued opinions to the strategic direction of the company. This oversight by the board can help catch the deviant strategy that could lead to firm failure, before it is implemented by the CEO and the organization’s top management team. Unfortunately, this CEO didn’t involve his Board and he ignored the feedback and input from his marketing team.

The dynamics in this particular company were such that the CEO had surrounded himself with people that he could easily control, his 2 sons and a a daughter in-law. Now, these 3 people (all under 35) were all very capable, bright and progressive young people, and much more in-tune with the latest in design, branding and retail merchandising, but throughout the design project, the CEO was very reluctant to bite on any idea that wasn’t his, despite the enthusiasm and approval on severval of our concepts from the younger team members. The boss preferred to steer the design process such that his new brand and packaging would look just like many of the other boring and out-dated designs currently in the marketplace. He was afraid to take a chance. Our concepts were bold, playful and unique, all things he wasn’t.

The Process:

As any good agency would do, we first went through a detailed Brand Discovery process to fully identify and understand the marketplace, the competitors, and the USP (unique selling proposition) of the clients product. From there, we were able to build a creative brief for the brand, logo and the packaging.

Logo design, identity design and branding all have different roles, that together, form a perceived image for a product, service or company.

A brand can be described as an organization, a service or product with a ‘personality’ that is shaped by the perceptions of the audience. A designer cannot “make” a brand – only the audience can do this. A designer forms the foundation of the brand. Some of the world’s best brands have very simple logos, often they are just a type face with perhaps a symbol added in. A great example of this is Apple. As a company, Apple projects a humanistic corporate culture and a strong corporate ethic, one which is characterized by volunteerism, support of good causes & involvement in the community. These values of the business are evident throughout everything they do, from their innovative and beautifully designed products and great advertising, to their customer service.

The Result:

For the OnTrack brand identity, we re-freshed the logo and created a brand story that was creative, engaging and fun, which would help to separate it from it’s competitors. Our objective was to be BOLD, DIFFERENT and INNOVATIVE, and not to just deliver a safe concept that the CEO would accept. We knew that we had our work cut-out for us, but we didn’t anticipate that the CEO would crush anything that wasn’t “traditional” (read this as BORING, OUTDATED and UNINSPIRING).

The identity of OnTrack was to be made up of:

  • The logo
  • The packaging
  • The products
  • The marketing collateral
  • The story
  • The reputation

All of these elements would help to support the brand as a whole. The logo would be the corporate identity and brand all wrapped up into one identifiable mark. The OnTrack logo would identify the company, and derive it’s meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around – logos are there to identify, not to explain.

But the packaging and the story was the real differentiator! These two pieces would engage and build a following.

The Concept: “What A Day” – Add some OnTrack to your day and things will certainly take a turn for the better.

The Approach: A story-based, conversational take that allows us to talk about product qualities (e.g. keto-friendly, almond/coconut flour) without the clutter of many visual elements.

The Style: Minimal, modern – appeals to people who are active and health-conscious.

The Tagline: On track for a brilliant day.

Would you buy this product? It’s different, it’s fun, and the story options are endless……all adding to the brand’s appeal, intrigue and positioning.

 

 

Sadly, our brilliantly designed brand, packaging and brand story never made it to market. Instead, the client choose to design in-house and this is the result, what we would consider to be somewhat uninspiring. Does this packaging make you say “cool, I like it” or “wow, that’s something different, I think I’ll try it”?

 

Our team at Straydog did everything we could to convince the client to be bold, innovative and to take a chance. The CEO choose the safe route (aka: don’t take a chance).

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OUR BRANDING PROCESS OR TO REQUEST A QUOTE, LEAP OVER TO OUR

BRANDING PAGE

 

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Is a Logo re-design right for your business?

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At Straydog, we’re often contacted by potential clients about designing a new logo for their business. Sometimes, these businesses are start-ups with a small budget, on other occasions, they’re small existing businesses with an existing logo, and other brand assets, and at other times, they’re larger operations that have been in business for years or even decades. So what is the best approach for each of these scenarios?

If an existing business is looking for a “re-brand”  is it appropriate to simply go through a logo re-design effort? In almost ALL cases, the answer to this is a resounding question is NO! Existing businesses, that have been doing business with their current brand identity (logo, colour palette, font, brand positioning, tone, messaging, sales and marketing collateral, website etc). would currently have so much invested in their current brand that making anything more than a slight tweak to their logo, would be more or a re-branding exercise, requiring time, strategy, executive support and a sufficient budget to undertake the full re-branding project.

Imagine if an long-time business simply changed their logo and colour scheme! Was the decision and it’s implications fully understood, would the marketplace and their customers expect or want it or support it without explanation as to the WHY? Many companies do re-brand, but this decision is not taken lightly, it’s done for many reasons: the company has changed focus or services, the marketplace has changed, the competition has changed, the company has been bought or sold, or the existing brand was old and tired. These are all reasons to go through a full branding exercise.

For more information on our branding process and what a brand is, read these resources:

But for some very small business or start-ups, that have a very limited budget and very little marketplace exposure and brand awareness, a more simple, cost-effective logo re-design might just be the best solution. These projects can be completed in a week or two, often for under $1,500. Our logo (re)-design projects can also deliver other “brand” assets, such as:

  • Email signature
  • Envelope
  • Letterhead
  • Other business templates
  • Assets for Social media account profiles
  • Sales and Marketing collateral
  • Trade show material
  • Vehicle Wraps
  • Websites

All of the above would need to be quoted separately.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OUR LOGO DESIGN PROCESS OR TO REQUEST A QUOTE, LEAP OVER TO OUR

LOGO DESIGN PAGE

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What Does Your Website Say About You?

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If you’ve ever been horrified by the design of a business website, you’re not alone. There are many aesthetic travesties out there, and worse, many small businesses still don’t even have a website. What does your website design say about your business and your brand?

Researchers found that the brain makes decisions in just a 20th of a second of viewing a webpage. All too often the impression you think you’re giving is very different to the one you actually are. For this reason, it is important to seek out feedback and professional advice.

Take a moment and think of just three words or traits you want to exude when people see your website — words such as Professional, Clean, Corporate, Fun. With those traits in mind, now take a good look at your website homepage. Is it an adequate reflection of your brand personality, your business acumen and skills?

Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University in Ottawa believes that a users quickly formed first impressions last because of what is known to psychologists as the “halo effect”. If people believe a website looks good, then this positive quality will spread to other areas, such as the website’s content.

Since people like to be right, they will continue to use the website that made a good first impression, as this will further confirm that their initial decision was a good one. As websites increasingly jostle for business, Dr Lindgaard added that companies should take note.

Unless the first impression is favourable, visitors will be off of your site before they even know that you might be offering more than your competitors.

Your homepage is similar to a book’s front cover,  often considered the first impression and should be well considered — albeit unlike a book, many of your site’s visitors do not always see your site’s homepage first. Due to the non-linear nature of the web, and the way search engines work, the very first page for many visitors is not the homepage. Rather, it may be an internal page found through a search, or that was targeted from a link. Not only should you be thinking of the first impression on your homepage, you need to stop and think about any random sub-page and the impression it would give if it were a visitor’s first point of entry. Has the page been well-considered? Does it stand on its own merits? Does it have anything to say for itself?

…is your website projecting the image and personality you want it to?

Learn More about our website design services.

By Rob Barnett

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Personal Branding, Part 2

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Why Personal Branding?

To have a prosperous business, you must understand the power of branding. Your personal brand is made up of the qualities and unique traits you relay about yourself, and it represents the way you want other people to think about you.

Personal Branding has become more talked about these days as individuals seek to differentiate themselves by developing a unique brand that will propel career and job opportunities. Many people think that personal branding is just for celebrities such as Lady Gaga or Lance Armstrong, but every individual is in fact, a brand.

There are millions of other people offering the same service as you, now ask yourself; “how do I currently stand out in the crowd?”

“Without branding, you’re simply part of the many,
and not part of the few.”

Personal Branding is about really digging deep and spending time developing a unique Brand Statement, Brand Position, Name (that speak to what you’re doing), Brand Promise, USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and Graphic imagery. Think of your Brand as a stage, it allows you to rise above the rest and show consumers with confidence why they should choose you versus your competitor.

Personal Branding, by definition, is the process in which people and their careers are marked as brands. If you’re looking for a way to fast track your career, Personal Branding is the answer.

Discover Your Brand

As a brand, you can leverage the same strategies that make celebrities or corporate brands appeal to your consumer. Personal Branding involves four basic traits: unique capabilities, positioning, values, and a brand promise. Just like a corporate brand, you must establish and project what makes you unique and why people should come to you rather than the next guy.

Do you have a specialized certification or superior quality? Do you work exceptionally well with a certain demographic, Do you have an irresistible personality? Talk about this with your family, co-workers, friends, as they all provide great sources when it comes to identifying your strongest and most unique qualities. Remember, a degree alone won’t set you apart, but a toolbox full of unique items will.

The single biggest mistake people make is that they either brand themselves just for the sake of doing it, or they fail to see the value from investing in building a strong brand foundation, before rushing into marketing and advertising. By investing the time and resources on properly and effectively branding yourself, you will attract the right opportunities.

Position Yourself

Brilliant Brand positioning takes into account the oversights, shortcomings and mundane attributes of your competition. An example could be – if other Massage Therapist’s seem unable to talk ‘the body’ without loads of technical jargon, that’s an opportunity to position yourself as practical, friendly, and unassuming.

If you gravitate towards athletes, kids, or the elderly, your positioning will start to reflect that. If your demeanor, your tone and your output contradict the way you’re trying to position yourself, your Brand positioning will falter. Make sure you are consistent and true to your position or you’ll end up miles away from where you want to be.

To Specialize or not to Specialize?

You may think specialization is the answer, particularly if we acknowledge the importance of being unique, albeit, you don’t necessarily need to specialize to be unique and extraordinary. Generalists are favoured if you are multi-talented, or accomplished in a few different fields.
An example would be; Suzy is a Massage Therapist that speaks 5 languages. This will immediately differentiate Suzy from her competitors, even if it doesn’t strictly relate to the work that Suzy does.

On the other hand, you are best suited as a Specialist if there’s a target audience that’s looking for your unique service. However, it’s worth noting that as a specialist, your target market is smaller. So, in order to sustain your business in spite of the smaller target market, you will need to capture a larger share of the targeted audience. To do that, you need to be among the best at what you specialize in — if not the best.

Whether or not you choose to specialize should depend on an honest assessment of your skills and the kind of goals you’re working towards. If you’re seriously considering specializing, do some research and check out the “Google AdWords Keyword Tool” to check whether people are actually trying to find the service or product you’re thinking of offering.

Be Transparent

Find the balance between being transparent, yet protecting your professional reputation and marketability. Avoid coming off as fake, insincere, or simply out for your own personal gain.

You also have to be open. In today’s world, marketing is a two-way conversation, so you must be open to feedback, open to criticism, but most importantly, open with your content.

While being transparent is important, be aware of the effect of anything that you put out there about yourself, and consider the potential cost to your brand. Being transparent doesn’t necessarily have to mean letting it all hang out.

Get your name out there

Once you have established your Brand Identity and feel confident in who you are and why you’re unique, it’s time to showcase you to the world!

Be cognizant of your personal brand, both offline and online, develop a Social Media Strategy, set goals, and be dedicated — Don’t be fooled by the myth that if you build it, they will come. Unless you’re extremely lucky, you’ll have to actually spend time communicating your Brand
to others.

To be successful at Marketing your Brand today,
you should think about the 4 C’s:

  • Content – the creation of a steady stream of engaging content.
  • Connection – connecting with the audience you wish to attract.
  • Communication– communicating with them in an ongoing conversation.
  • Conversion– and then converting them at the illusive moment of need.

There’s nothing wrong with self-promotion to build your brand/reputation, but that’s not the primary focus of Social Media today. If you really want people to listen to you and care about what you’re saying or the service you offer, be someone who focuses more on providing useful information, and featuring others in your industry or community. People will pre-qualify you before they take the next step, and to do that they need more information than just your “sweet deal” or contact information.

The Social online world is the same as in person, so you need to follow the same rules of engagement: Learn to listen (start a discussion) and earn the right to be heard (share your expertise and tools).

Social Media impressions are very important so be invariable in your messaging, and always be transparent, it creates authenticity. Create a succinct tone for your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook profiles, your email signature, blog and promotional materials — your messaging can have a huge impact on your professional image.

You can also monitor your personal brand name across the web with Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts), a free tool which sends e-mail updates about a topic or phrase that you choose.

Conclusion:

With focus, and a well developed Brand Strategy, you will have set the foundation and mapped out the path to becoming a successful personal Brand. There’s no better time than the present to get started!

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OUR BRANDING PROCESS OR TO REQUEST A QUOTE, LEAP OVER TO OUR

BRANDING PAGE

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Personal Branding, Part 1

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Successful brands have always understood the power of branding. Spending a significant amount of time developing their Brand Statements, Brand Promise, and Graphic imagery so consumers will feel confident in what they are buying and why they choose it versus the competitor. [Read more…] about Personal Branding, Part 1

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Are you a terrible client?

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So, you’ve hired an agency to design you a new website, build your brand, or bring leads in the door.

I can tell you from firsthand experience that both clients and agencies have common complaints about working together. And let me be clear that agencies are not always perfect angels either – they need to take responsibility for their actions.

But most clients will often bring their own baggage, misunderstandings, and lack of experience into the agency relationship and it ends up being very counterproductive.

In short, clients, even those with good intentions, can get in the way of great work and valuable results.

How do you know if you’re a shitty client? Read on and see if any of these practices sound familiar to you:

Hiring an agency the wrong way

Don’t put out a public RFP and invite every agency under the sun to submit.

Most good agencies, the agencies that you want to work with, won’t respond to random RFP’s. The RFP process is usually being evaluated on price alone and they’re not going to waste days of their time putting together a proposal when you’re only interested in a bargain basement price. You’ll just end up getting what you pay for….a cheap-ass project at a bottom-basement price by an inferior agency.

Research a handful of agencies, ask for referrals, and then invite a few agencies to  meet to discuss your needs.

Good agencies, the kind that you want to work with, know that a successful business relationship is based on a good fit.
They want to make sure that they can provide the right solution to your challenge, deliver results, and provide good ROI. They also want to know that you’ll all get along in the process.

You should have the same criteria when choosing an agency, but you can’t determine any of those things by emailing out a an 80-page RFP. You need to meet in person, or at the very least, have a phone call.

Don’t hire the cheapest agency.

Yes, hire the agency you can afford, but don’t attempt a bidding war or try to get the best deal in town. Again, you’ll only end up filtering out the best agencies who don’t want to deal with that cheap-ass bullshit.

Don’t ask them to submit speculative work. EVER.

If you haven’t hired an agency, don’t ask them for mockups for websites, logos or some other creative piece. That’s what they get PAID to do. You wouldn’t ask an architect to design you a house, and then based on whether you like the design, decide whether you’re going to pay them for their work.

If you want a sense of the quality of their work, ask to see their portfolio, or case studies and references from other clients.

Do ask for a formal pitch and proposal process.

While RFP’s and speculative work are no-nos, it is appropriate to ask for a proposal and pitch meeting. If the potential agency wants your business, they will happily prepare a proposal, and they’ll want to pitch it to you in person or via zoom.

Don’t just ask for the costs to be emailed to you; it doesn’t work like that. They want to wow you, so let them do that. It’s good for you to get a feel for the people you’ll be working with and be able to ask questions.

Make sure to invite other team members to the pitch

Make sure that you invite key people on your team to the pitch; people who will either end up working with the agency once the project kicks off, or who will be affected by the results.

That way they can ask questions about the agency’s process and expertise, plus they’ll get a feel for what the working relationship might be like. Your co-workers may also be able to provide valuable information to the agency that will help with the project.

After the pitch, thank the agency and tell them when to expect a decision. Make sure you follow through with the date, or at least keep them posted on any delays.

If the agency is in high demand, they may tell YOU when they need to hear a yes or no. Don’t be offended by this; they want to be sure that they can schedule the time to do your work amongst the other client projects they have on the go. It may be they can do your project in the next 4-6 weeks, but they’re booked for three months after that.

Discuss the pitch and proposal with your team members to decide if the agency can deliver what you need and that there’s a cultural fit – you want to enjoy working together. Price is important but not the most important thing — just make sure they articulate your return on investment in a way that makes sense.

Ghosting your agency when they need you

If you expected that once you hired an agency, you could go off on vacation or lose yourself in another project and the work would magically get done without you, you’re sadly mistaken. You’re also going to frustrate the hell out of your agency.

Just like any relationship, both sides need to contribute. They need you, and you need them. You’re in this project together.

To complete the work successfully, your agency may need you to answer questions to shape the direction, give feedback at certain milestones, and provide information for deliverables like copy.

Make yourself available for meetings and phone calls. When your agency sends you work to review, approve it or request changes in a timely fashion.

Here at Straydog, we find that 90% of the time our projects are delayed because the clients are late in providing feedback, approvals, or other resources, like website copy.

You don’t want the project delayed now, do you? Neither does your agency. And you certainly don’t want to be the one responsible for delaying the project.

If you’re too busy to talk to your agency every week or two, or get them what they need to complete the project, then appoint someone in your company to be the main point of contact and give them the autonomy to make decisions.

BUT: if you do choose a co-worker to take the lead as the agency point of contact, don’t come in at the end of the project and change everything, that’s the “Parachuting CEO” scenario. Make sure you’re staying up to date on the progress of the project. Otherwise, you’ll quickly end up on the Top Ten Clients to Hate list. You’ll also incur more expenses for changing the scope or delaying the project.

You’re either in, or you’re out.

Having unrealistic expectations

We often find that clients so often have unrealistic expectations when working with us.

What kinds of expectations are unrealistic, you ask?

You aren’t their only client

Like most good agencies, Straydog has multiple projects on the go at once. We’re not sitting idly by the phone waiting to hear from you. You also haven’t paid us enough to be the ONLY project we’re working on.

Clients often want work turned around in very short, and unrealistic schedules – expecting months of work to be launched in a week. But we have other deadlines to meet, other work to do. It’s an agency’s objective to meet deadlines they’ve committed to you, but you can’t expect us or any other agency to drop everything to only work on your project. There’s a reality to how long it takes to complete certain deliverables, and if you want quality results, that takes time.

Don’t make your agency a scapegoat

Clients are notorious for blaming their agency when bad things happen, things beyond the agency’s control.

Your website got hacked? Sales are down after a market crash? Software the agency recommended had a bug or experienced some downtime? It’s not their fault. That’s like if a flood happened at the hotel you booked for a corporate event ends up ruining your product launch, and then you blamed the person who booked the venue.

Shit happens, and sometimes that shit is outside of your agency’s control. Stay calm, ask them to do whatever is in their power to fix it, but don’t blame them.

Thinking you can do their work for them

Having an agency is like having a dance partner. If you want to get the best work from them, you need to let them lead. Don’t step on their toes.

Remember why you hired them – you needed help. You need outside expertise and resources and even if you think you can do better, you don’t have the time. If you know better, why did you hire an agency to start with?

That doesn’t mean you don’t have valuable ideas or opinions to contribute to the project, but you need to respect the agency’s expertise enough to let them do what they’re good at. Let them do their job. You wouldn’t tell a plumber how to plumb your house, or a mechanic how to fix your car. So don’t tell a designer how to design a website, or there will be a murder.

Design is not just an end result. It’s a process that involves discussing problems, coming up with ideas for solutions, talking to end users and testing prototypes. That’s how they get to the beautiful result, your project.

There’s nothing creative people hate more than being handed a paint-by-numbers worksheet. They want to find the solution, not have it handed to them. And frankly, that’s what you’re paying them for!

Accept that you aren’t going to have all the answers at the beginning, and that’s OK. Don’t come to your agency with solutions — come with challenges. Your agency won’t think you’re dumb. That’s what they’re here for. That’s their business.

The only other time you get to sit around and complain about your problems is with a therapist, so just enjoy this.

Having crappy taste and offering subjective feedback

Part of hiring a creative agency usually involves a creative deliverable, and guess what? You’re not always going to like what you see.

That doesn’t mean they suck. It doesn’t mean you hired the wrong agency and need to find a new one. It means you don’t like it.

Great design doesn’t happen in one go – it usually takes feedback, further dicussions and iterations to really knock it out of the park. So don’t flip out if you don’t like the first version.

Here’s a mental process you should follow to review and critique creative. Ask yourself:

Does this align with the strategy you’ve already approved?

If the strategy was to highlight a particular feature of your product or facet of your brand and the creative does just that, then it’s on strategy.

So if the work is true to the creative brief you approved, but you now realize you screwed up and approved the wrong strategy, then say so. Your agency will have to redo the work, which means it’s going to cost more and take longer. But that’s your fault not having your shit together, not theirs.

Is your personal taste interfering with good work?

The fact you don’t like the red doesn’t make the creative off strategy; it just means you don’t like red. This isn’t a car you’re going to be driving around everyday, it’s a creative solution designed to get you business results. It’s targeted at your customers, not you.

Don’t ask your mother or the next-door neighbour for their feedback on the agency’s work. These people are not experts, they don’t know anything about your project and probably even know less about good design. Trust the process, TRUST YOUR AGENCY.

Feel free to ask the designer why they made certain choices, but listen to their rationale as objectively as possible. If you don’t agree with their decisions on an objective level, tell them.

Does the work make you slightly uncomfortable?

If so, then it’s probably going in exactly the right direction. Do you know why the majority of ads suck and aren’t memorable? Because the agency gave the client what made them feel comfortable. Safe. Passive. Forgettable.

The market doesn’t care how you feel.

Work that stands out is raw, funny, authentic, transparent, and sometimes pushes the envelope. It takes a stand for something. It says something not everyone agrees with. It alienates some people.

So if you feel a tightness in your chest about the work, that’s you feeling something. And if YOU feel something, your target audience just might feel something too. When you can elicit a positive emotional response from your target audience, then it’s time to hand your agency a bottle of champagne because they did their fucking job.

I’m not saying this doesn’t backfire sometimes. When you make yourself stand out, you can offend certain people and this can cause a public relations issue. Use good judgement, but don’t let yourself become such a slave to pleasing everyone that in the end, you please no one, not even your own bottom line.

Being an unforgiving asshole

Before you go above your account person’s head to complain to the owners or decide to fire the agency altogether, give them time to correct the situation.

Agencies want to do good work, and you should expect good work. But you should also expect that shit happens sometimes. It’s not necessarily the end of the world, or the end of your project.

Not paying invoices on time

There’s almost nothing worse than a client who doesn’t pay their invoices on time.

Agencies run businesses with narrow margins, long sales cycles, and a lot of clients who wait until as long as possible to pay. Yes, that’s the nature of the business, but contributing to the problem won’t help you either. In lots of agencies, clients who are consistently slow to pay their invoices are dropped way down the priority line when it comes to completing work.

Just pay your damn bills on time.

Conclusion

I’m really not trying to paint all clients with the same asshole paint brush. But if you ask 1,000 agencies about their biggest frustrations with clients, I guarantee all of of these points will come up almost 100% of the time.

I don’t think you were born an asshole client. You just have no idea what you’re doing. And by not knowing what you’re doing, you’re ruining your chances of getting awesome work that will deliver awesome results.

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