paying attention to your audience We recently offered to make a referral to a partner company that was declined because of terminology. The client wanted “SEO,” the company didn’t want to sell “SEO,” and the connection wasn’t made.Unfortunately, both sides of the equation were ultimately interested in the same business objective: increasing visibility and search …
approaches for creating value and awareness while dispelling confusion A big part of writing and design is taking complicated messages and making them easy to understand, but also making them interesting and important to the audience. Mark Twain once said: “I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time.” A misconception …
how web design and messaging can strengthen your brand The most valuable piece of property in the world is the seven square inches your prospective client sees when pulling up your website for the first time. This small parcel of real estate has the critical job of connecting with your audience, either by communicating information …
We recently completed an ad campaign for Cedar Male Medical, a clinic specializing in treating men to balance their testosterone levels (usually including erectile dysfunction). Our messaging strategy was based on empathy-based messaging to prompt the audience to feel comfortable talking to the doctor about a difficult subject.
With so much marketing taking place through a multitude of different mediums and applications, the tendency is for messages to become ever more fragmented — and more easily forgotten. start with a vision Don’t think of standards and consistency until you have clear vision about why you are important to your audience and are able to distill …
Framing marketing communications in terms of experience opens up new opportunities for engaging your audience. Our Be in Bellingham campaign is one example of this thinking at work; another is a thank you promotion we recently completed for Shew Design. The purpose of the project was to say thanks to clients and collaborators in a …
A paradox of destination marketing is that while each destination is unique in its own way, the materials and messages people use for different destinations are often indistinguishable from one another. In promoting Bellingham Whatcom County, we wanted to subtly rethink destination marketing to create work that departed from these expectations. We started by making …
While developing a packaging concept for a high end manufacturer, we encountered some feedback from a friend of the client who recommended we take an alternate approach. His advice was, literally, “dumb it down.” The product was a gourmet food item (chocolate) for a discriminating, college-educated audience. The argument was based on a perception of the across-the-board, ever-dwindling intelligence …
Making choices, creating value. I constantly think about why people value the things they do, and how design and messaging fit into that larger picture. We recently had a project that gave me a new perspective about these eternal questions. Without giving away the details, here is the situation: the client is an inventor who …
For over a year now, our company has been working with RE Sources for Sustainable Communities and Climate Solutions to create messaging and graphics about the coal train issue. An overview of the issue can be found here. It has been a challenging project. Challenging in the sheer complexity of the issue: the impacts of …
Thinking about structure in your marketing materials is about how you decide to use visual relationships to reinforce your message. It means thinking beyond what is being said, and exploring the how. As always, the process begins with focusing on your message, ideally your one message. Deciding on a core message is often the biggest …
I had coffee with a friend this week who asked me for my thoughts on a brochure draft. The purpose of the brochure was to encourage people to donate to an organization that protects communities from a mechanical failure that can result in enormous harm and loss of life. The writing was straightforward enough, but …
