Awareness: The percentage of population or target market who are aware of the existence of a given brand or company. There are two types of awareness: spontaneous, which measures the percentage of people who spontaneously mention a particular brand when asked to name brands in a certain category; and prompted, which measures the percentage of people who recognize a brand from a particular category when shown a list.
 
B2B, B2C: Business to Business and Business to Consumer. These are category descriptions of one company (the marketer) marketing to their target market.

Brand Architecture: How an organization structures and names the brands within its portfolio. There are three main types of brand architecture system: monolithic, where the corporate name is used on all products and services offered by the company; endorsed, where all sub-brands are linked to the corporate brand by means of either a verbal or visual endorsement; and freestanding, where the corporate brand operates merely as a holding company, and each product or service is individually branded for its target market.

Brand Associations: The feelings, beliefs and knowledge that consumers (customers) have about brands. These associations are derived as a result of experiences and must be consistent with the brand positioning and the basis of differentiation.

Brand Commitment: The degree to which a customer is committed to a given brand in that they are likely to re-purchase/re-use in the future. The level of commitment indicates the degree to which a brand’s customer franchise is protected form competitors.

Brand Earnings: The share of a brand-owning business’s cash flow that can be attributed to the brand alone.

Brand Equity: The sum of all distinguishing qualities of a brand, drawn from all relevant stakeholders, that results in personal commitment to and demand for the brand; these differentiating thoughts and feelings make the brand valued and valuable.

Brand Equity Protection: Is the implementation of strategies to reduce risk and liability from the effects attributable to counterfeiting, diversion, tampering and theft so that the differentiating thoughts and feelings about the brand are maintained and remain valued and valuable.

Brand Essence: The brand’s promise expressed in the simplest, most single-minded terms. For example, Volvo = safety; AAA = For Emergency Road Service. The most powerful brand essences are rooted in a fundamental customer need.

Brand Experience: The means by which a brand is created in the mind of a stakeholder. Some experiences are controlled such as retail environments, advertising, products/services, websites, etc. Some are uncontrolled like journalistic comment and word of mouth. Strong brands arise from consistent experiences which combine to form a clear, differentiated overall brand experience.

Brand Extension: Leveraging the values of the brand to take the brand into new markets/sectors.

Brand Harmonisation: Ensuring that all products in a particular brand range have a consistent name, visual identity and, ideally, positioning across a number of geographic or product/service markets.

Brand Identity: The outward expression of the brand, including its name and visual appearance. The brand’s identity is its fundamental means of consumer recognition and symbolizes the brand’s differentiation from competitors.

Brand Image: The customer’s net “out-take” from the brand. For users this is based on practical experience of the product or service concerned (informed impressions) and how well this meets expectations; for non-users it is based almost entirely upon uninformed impressions, attitudes and beliefs.

Brand Licensing: The leasing by a brand owner of the use of a brand to another company. Usually a licensing fee or royalty rate will be agreed for the use of the brand.

Brand Management: Practically this involves managing the tangible and intangible aspects of the brand. For product brands the tangibles are the product itself, the packaging, the price, etc. For service brands, the tangibles are to do with the customer experience – the retail environment, interface with salespeople, overall satisfaction, etc. For product, service and corporate brands, the intangibles are the same and refer to the emotional connections derived as a result of experience, identity, communication and people. Intangibles are therefore managed via the manipulation of identity, communication and people skills.

Brand Parity: A measure of how similar, or different, different brands in the same category are perceived to be. Brand parity varies widely from one category to another. It is high for petrol, for example: about 80% of respondents (BBDO survey) see no real difference between brands. By contrast, brand parity for cars is low: only about 25% of respondents say that one make is much the same as another.

Brand Personality: The attribution of human personality traits (seriousness, warmth, imagination, etc.) to a brand as a way to achieve differentiation. Usually done through long-term above-the-line advertising and appropriate packaging and graphics. These traits inform brand behavior through both prepared communication/packaging, etc., and through the people who represent the brand – its employees.

Brand Platform: The Brand Platform consists of the following elements:

1. Brand Vision: The brand’s guiding insight into its world.

2. Brand Mission: How the brand will act on its insight.

3. Brand Values: The code by which the brand lives. The brand values act as a benchmark to measure behaviors and performance.

4. Brand Personality: The brand’s personality traits.

5. Brand Tone: of Voice How the brand speaks to its audiences.

Brand Positioning: The distinctive position that a brand adopts in its competitive environment to ensure that individuals in its target market can tell the brand apart from others. Positioning involves the careful manipulation of every element of the marketing mix.

Brand Strategy: A plan for the systematic development of a brand to enable it to meet its agreed objectives. The strategy should be rooted in the brand’s vision and driven by the principles of differentiation and sustained consumer appeal. The brand strategy should influence the total operation of a business to ensure consistent brand behaviors and brand experiences.

Brand Valuation: The process of identifying and measuring the economic benefit – brand value – that derives from brand ownership.

Brand Values: The code by which the brand lives. The brand values act as a benchmark to measure behaviors and performance.

Co-branding: The use of two or more brand names in support of a new product, service or venture.
Consumer Product Goods (consumer goods) or services (consumer services) purchased for private use or for other members of the household.

Core Competencies: Relates to a company’s particular areas of skill and competence that best contribute to its ability to compete.

Corporate Identity: At a minimum, is used to refer to the visual identity of a corporation (its logo, signage, etc.), but usually taken to mean an organization’s presentation to its stakeholders and the means by which it differentiates itself from other organizations.

Customer Characteristics: All distinguishing, distinctive, typical or peculiar characteristics and circumstances or customers that can be used in market segmentation to tell one group of customers from another.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Tracking customer behavior for the purpose of developing marketing and relationship-building processes that bond the consumer to the brand. Developing software or systems to provide one-to-one customer service and personal contact between the company and the customer.

Customer Service: The way in which the brand meets its customers’ needs via its various different channels which might be in person, over the telephone or via the Internet.
 
Demographics: The description of outward traits that characterize a group of people, such as age, sex, nationality, marital status, education, occupation or income. Decisions on market segmentation are often based on demographic data.

Differential Product Advantage: A feature of a product that is valuable to customers and is not found in other products of the same category.

Differentiation: Creation or demonstration of unique characteristics in a company’s products or brands compared to those of its competitors.

Differentiator: Any tangible or intangible characteristic that can be used to distinguish a product or a company from other products and companies.

Diversion: When genuine product is sold to a buyer in one market/channel and then resold by the same buyer into another market/channel, without the consent or authority of the brand owner, to take advantage of a price arbitrage situation. This may also apply to parallel trade, gray market or gray market activities.
 
Endorsed Brand: Generally a product or service brand name that is supported by a masterbrand – either dominantly e.g. Tesco Metro or lightly e.g. Nestle Kit-Kat.
 
FMCG Fast Moving Consumer Goods: An expression used to describe frequently purchased consumer items, such as foods, cleaning products and toiletries.

Focus Group: A qualitative research technique in which a group of about eight people is invited to a neutral venue to discuss a given subject, for example hand-held power tools. The principle is the same as an in-depth interview, except that group dynamics help to make the discussion livelier and more wide-ranging. Qualitative groups enable the researcher to probe deeper into specific areas of interest (for example, the nature of commitment to a brand). The result adds richer texture to the understanding of broader data (for example, quantitative), which may paint general trends or observations. Also known as a group discussion.

Freestanding Brand: A brand name and identity used for a single product or service in a portfolio, which is unrelated to the names and identities of other products in the company’s portfolio.
Functionality What a product does for the buyer and user; the utility it offers the user; what he or she can do with it.
 
Goods: A product consisting predominantly of tangible values. Almost all goods, however, have intangible values to a greater or lesser extent.

High Tech: A term with vague and far-reaching meaning. This covers electronics, data technology, telecommunications, medical technology and bio-chemistry. In order to be classed as a high tech company, one definition is that at least 35 percent of staff should have a technical qualification, and at least 15 percent of sales should be used for R&D. Another definition states that the company must employ twice as many scientists and engineers and invest twice as much in R&D as the average of all manufacturing companies in the country.
 
Intangibles “Intangible”: – incapable of being touched. (1) Intangible assets – trademarks, copyrights, patents, design rights, proprietary expertise, databases, etc. (2) Intangible brand attributes – brand names, logos, graphics, colors, shapes and smells.

Launch: The initial marketing of a new product in a particular market. The way in which the launch is carried out greatly affects the product’s profitability throughout its lifecycle.

Market Leader: A company that has achieved a dominant position – either in scale (e.g., British Airways) or influence (e.g., Virgin) – within its field. This leading position often comes about because the company was the first to market a certain type of product and, with the protection of a patent, has managed to consolidate its position before direct competition was possible. Alternatively, a company may overtake a previous market leader through greater efficiency and skilful positioning.

Market Position: A measure of the position of a company or product on a market. Defined as market share multiplied by share of mind.

Market Segment: A group of customers who (a) share the same needs and values, (b) can be expected to respond in much the same way to a company’s offering, and (c) command enough purchasing power to be of strategic importance to the company.

Market Share: A company’s share of total sales of a given category of product on a given market. Can be expressed either in terms of volume (how many units sold) or value (the worth of units sold).

Masterbrand: A brand name that dominates all products or services in a range or across a business. Sometimes used with sub-brands, sometimes used with alpha or numeric signifiers. (See also Monolithic Brand.) Audi, Durex, Nescafe and Lego, for example, are all used as master brands.

Monolithic Brand: A single brand name that is used to “masterbrand” all products or services in a range. Individual products are nearly always identified by alpha or numeric signifiers. Companies like Mercedes and BMW favor such systems.

Multibrand Strategy: Multiple Branding Marketing of two or more mutually competing products under different brand names by the same company. The motive may be that the company wishes to create internal competition to promote efficiency, or to differentiate its offering to different market segments, or to get maximum mileage out of established brands that it has acquired. When a company has achieved a dominant market share, multibrand strategy may be its only option for increasing sales still further without sacrificing profitability. For example, Lever Brothers sells washing powders under the Persil, Omo and Surf names; Cadbury sells chocolates under the Dairy Milk, Bournville and Fruit & Nut names; Heinz sells canned convenience foods under the Baked Beans, Spaghetti Hoops and Alphabetti Spaghetti names.
 
Niche Marketing: Marketing adapted to the needs, wishes and expectations of small, precisely defined groups of individuals. A form of market segmentation, but aimed at very small segments. Niche marketing characteristically uses selective media.
 
OEM Market: OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturers. The OEM market consists of companies that use another company’s product as a component in their own production. A manufacturer of ball bearings, for example, sells both to OEM customers who build the bearings into machines, and to end users who need the bearings as spare parts for machines that they have bought from the OEMs. Most manufacturing companies thus have an OEM market and a replacement market. The latter is usually called the MRO market or aftermarket.

Offering: What a company offers for sale to customers. An offering includes the product and its design, features, quality, packaging, distribution, etc., together with associated services such as financing, warranties and installation. The name and brand of the product are also part of the offering.
 
Packaging Design: The design of the pack format and graphics for a product brand.

Parent Brand: A brand that acts as an endorsement to one or more sub-brands within a range.

Passing Off: The name given to a legal action brought to protect the “reputation” of a particular trademark/brand/get up. In essence, the action is designed to prevent others from trading on the reputation/goodwill of an existing trademark/brand/get up. The action is only available in those countries that recognize unregistered trademark rights (for example the UK and US). In some countries, it is called “unfair competition action.”

Perceptual Mapping: Graphic Analysis and presentation of where actual and potential customers place a product or supplier in relation to other products and suppliers. Most perceptual maps show only two dimensions at a time, for example price on one axis and quality on the other. There also are methods of graphically analyzing and presenting measurement data in three or more dimensions.

Positioning Statement: A written description of the position that a company wishes itself, its product or its brand to occupy in the minds of a defined target audience.

Power Branding: A strategy in which every product in a company’s range has its own brand name which functions independently, unsupported by either the company’s corporate brand or its other product brands. Power branding is a resource-intensive strategy, since each brand must be commercially promoted and legally protected. This strategy is used mainly by manufacturers of consumer goods. Lever’s and Procter & Gamble’s detergents are good examples of power brands.

Rebrand: When a brand owner revisits the brand with the purpose of updating or revising based on internal or external circumstances. Rebranding is often necessary after an M&A or if the brand has outgrown its identity/marketplace.

Relative Market Share: Your own company’s market share compared to those of your competitors. A large share confers advantages of scale in product development, manufacturing and marketing. It also puts you in a stronger position in the minds of customers, which has a positive influence on pricing.

Relaunch: Reintroducing a product into a specific market. The term implies that the company has previously marketed the product but stopped marketing it. A relaunched product has usually undergone one or more changes. It may, for example, be technically modified, rebranded, distributed through different channels or repositioned. The best known “relaunch” was the reintroduction of original formula Coke as “Coke Classic” on July 10th, 1985.

Repositioning: Communications activities to give an existing product a new position in customers’ minds and so expanding or otherwise altering its potential market. Many potentially valuable products lead an obscure existence because they were launched or positioned in an inadequate manner. It is almost always possible to enhance the value of such products by repositioning them.

Rollout: The process by which a company introduces a new product or service to different geographical markets or consumer segments.
 
Selective Media: Media that, unlike mass media, reach only small and identifiable groups of people, for example, members of a particular profession or industry or other groups defined by geographic, demographic or psychographic data (otherwise known as targeted media).

Share of Mind: There are many definitions of share of mind. At its most precise, share of mind measures how often consumers think about a particular brand as a percentage of all the times they think about all the brands in its category. More loosely, share of mind can be defined simply as positive perceptions of the brand obtained by market research. Whereas market share measures the width of a company’s market position, share of mind can be said to measure its depth.

Share of Voice: The media spending of a particular brand when compared to others in its category.
Sub-brand A product or service brand that had its own name and visual identity to differentiate it from the parent brand.

Tangibles “Tangible”: – capable of being touched. (1) Tangible assets – manufacturing plant, bricks and mortar, cash, investments, etc. (2) Tangible brand attributes – the product and its packaging. (3) Tangible brand values – useful qualities of the brand known to exist through experience and knowledge.
Target Market The market segment or group of customers that a company has decided to serve, and at which it consequently aims its marketing activities.

Top-of-Mind: What is present in the uppermost level of consciousness; the manufacturer or brand that people in market surveys name first when asked to list products in a specific category. Top-of-mind is the highest degree of share of mind. To attain that position, a company normally needs to have a large share of voice in its category.

Trademark: “Any sign capable of being represented graphically which is capable of distinguishing goods or services of one undertaking from those of another undertaking” (UK Trade Marks Act 1994).

Trademark Infringement: A trademark registration is infringed by the unauthorized use of the registered trademark, or of one that is confusingly similar to it, on the registered goods or services, or in certain circumstances on similar or dissimilar goods and services.

Trendsetter: Someone or thing that breaks a traditional mold or routine and gains a following because of it. iMac was an example of trendsetting in design as now office supplies come in the familiar colors and translucent packaging of an iMac.
 
USP, Unique Selling Proposition (a.k.a. Unique Selling Point): USP is a marketing concept that was first proposed as a theory to understand a pattern among successful advertising campaigns of the early 1940s. It states that such campaigns made unique propositions to the customer and that this convinced them to switch brands. The term was invented by Rosser Reeves of Ted Bates & Company. Today the term is used in other fields or just casually to refer to any aspect of an object that differentiates it from similar objects.

User Segmentation: Division of potential customers into market segments according to how and for what purpose they use a product. Do they use it for cleaning their teeth or for making cakes (baking powder)? For oiling their hair or for frying food? (True story concerning use of Brylcreem in Nigeria). As a decongestant chest rub or as an aphrodisiac? (True story concerning Ribby Rub in Caribbean).
 
Visual Identity: What a brand looks like – including, among other things, its logo, typography, packaging and literature systems.

Walking Dead: Products or companies that are going to be put out of business by the introduction of new technology that complete changes consumer buying habits, e.g., plasma TV’s to tube TV’s, CD’s to cassette tapes.

First of all, an advertisement is defined as a notice designed to attract public attention, patronage or promote the availability of your services and/or products. An ad can be a radio or television spot, an outdoor banner or newspaper print ad to point out the obvious. Some not so obvious can be a bank’s logo on a shirt or baseball hat. If you put a marketing message on your periodic statement, it becomes an advertisement. If you are putting your bank’s name on something and it is costing the bank money to do that, it is by definition a paid advertisement.

The first rule of the FDIC’s advertising statement was that the “Member FDIC” had to be on every bank advertisement other than advertisements that was exclusively for a product or service that was not a deposit product. Any advertisement that mentioned a deposit product or just advertised the existence of the bank in general must have had “Member FDIC” on it. The best practice was to put the FDIC advertising statement on all bank advertising other than advertisements for non-deposit products such as mutual funds, insurance or annuities. There were limited dispensations from the requirement, primarily for situations where it is impractical to put the statement. Examples are radio and television spots of 30 seconds or less as well as promotional items on which the statement would not fit.

Regulation DD contained the rules for advertising consumer deposit accounts. If the account that you were advertising was a commercial account these rules did not apply. For advertising commercial accounts, the only requirement was that what you said was accurate and not misleading and that the Member FDIC advertising statement was on the advertisement.

For the advertisement of consumer deposit accounts, there were several more rules.

First, an advertisement for a consumer deposit account could not refer to the account as “free” or “no-cost” or contain any similar term if a maintenance or activity fee was imposed on the account under any circumstance. Generally that meant that a fee would not be imposed on the account unless the customer violated some term of the account or requested some special service.

1. Non-sufficient funds and overdraft fees did not count because the customer violated the terms of the account.
2. Balance-inquiry fees, stop payment fees, account reconciliation fees and other similar fees did not count because the customer requested a special service.
3. Check-printing fees were also excluded as a special service.
4. Fees for electronic access to an account, such as ATM fees or home banking service fees were also excluded as special services if the electronic access was not required to obtain the account.
5. Fees that were included as monthly maintenance charges, which may or may not be conditional, such as a fee that was imposed if a minimum monthly balance was not maintained.
6. Also included were service charges or transaction charges such as a $.10 charge per check or a $.25 charge per withdrawal in excess of three per month.

A bank could advertise a specific account service as free provided that the ad did not imply that the account was free. For example, a bank could advertise “Free internet banking with premium checking account.” If an account was free for a limited time, it could be advertised as such provided that the time period was stated. Finally, a bank could advertise an account as free if the “free” was conditioned on something not related to the account. For example, a bank could advertise an account as free for persons over 55 years old. The fact that a person was or was not 55 years old had nothing to do with the account.

An advertisement could not use the word “profit” in referring to interest earned or paid on the account. A deposit advertisement could contain any information about an account that a bank wished to include and could ignore any information that a bank wished to exclude provided that the advertisement did not state a rate of return, that was an interest rate or an annual percentage yield, or a bonus.

If an advertisement stated a rate of return, it had to state it was the “annual percentage yield” and had to sue that term. The advertisement could use the acronym “APY” next to the rate, provided that at least once in the ad the words annual percentage yield were used. If an advertisement stated the APY it could also state the interest rate provided that the interest rate was not more prominent in the advertisement than the APY. If the account was a tiered-rate account, that was an account where the interest rate and annual percentage yield were different for different balances, if an annual percentage yield was stated for any tier, the advertisement had to state the annual percentage yield and the corresponding minimum balance requirements for every tier in the account in conjunction with the tier.

The statement of the annual percentage yield in an advertisement was called a triggering term. That meant its use “triggerd” the disclosure of other terms of the account.

1. First, if the account was a variable rate account there had to be a statement that the rate may change after the account is opened.
2. There had to be a statement that the advertised rate was effective as of a certain date or will be effective until a specified date.
3. If a maintenance or service fee could be imposed on the account then there had to be a statement, “Fees may reduce the earnings on the account.”
4. If there was a minimum balance requirement to earn the annual percentage yield it had to be stated, and if there was a minimum deposit required to open the account, and it was higher than the minimum balance requirement to earn the annual percentage yield, then it had to be stated also.
5. If the account was a time deposit, the term of the deposit had to be stated and there had to be a statement that a penalty may be imposed for early withdrawal.
6. All of these disclosures, could be put in the “legal or mouse print” at the bottom of the ad. There was no requirement for their relative prominence; however they had to be in a type size that was legible. Print no smaller that 6.5 points in magazines and 7.5 point in newspapers was a good rule to follow.

If the advertisement was made through a broadcast media such as television or radio, or if the advertisement was on a billboard or a telephone response machine then the only required additional statements, if the annual percentage yield was stated, was the fact that the rate was a variable rate (if that was the case), the minimum balance required to obtain the annual percentage yield, and if the deposit was a time deposit and the term of the deposit.

The final advertising rule regarded bonuses. For Regulation DD purposes a bonus was anything given to a customer for opening, maintaining, renewing or increasing an account that had a value greater than $10 and was not a bank service and did not require the recipient to spend money to take advantage of the bonus. If a bank offerd a free safe deposit box or free checks or a reduced interest rate on loans or waived fees for cashier’s checks, those were all bank services and did not constitute a bonus regardless of their value. Also, a discount coupon at a merchant that required the customer to purchase something from the merchant to take advantage of the discount did not constitute a bonus. On the other hand, when a customer opened an account, if he or she will received merchandise valued at more than $10 or cash or a deposit to his or her account in an amount of more than $10 then that was a bonus. If a bonus was merchandise, its value was what the bank paid for it (including taxes, shipping and handling.) If an advertisement stated a bonus then the advertisement had to also state what the bonus was (i.e., merchandise valued at $15), what the customer must do to earn the bonus and when the bonus would be paid. Also if a bonus was advertised the annual percentage yield had to also be stated, and that required the disclosures triggered by the statement of the annual percentage yield.

Just using the word “bonus” in an advertisement in and of itself did not trigger anything unless what you are advertising really was a bonus under the Regulation DD definition. So if an advertisement stated, “Open an account and get a bonus” and what the customer got was a $5 t-shirt, that would not trigger any of the bonus triggered terms. Likewise an advertisement that offered “bonus rates” was not an advertisement of a bonus.

We’d get the bank’s compliance person involved early in the advertising and marketing creative process before an advertisement to avoid compliance problems.

This first group of print ads were double-page spreads that were developed for adidas. I found them looking for inspiration for a series of ads I was developing for a new business pitch. I just like how simple they are and the fact they turn the magazine into an actual product demo. Very cool!

This next series was something I came across for Faber-Castell colored pencils. By the way they spelled color with a “u”, I’m think these probably ran in Europe. But once again, cool concept and very clean art direction.

The next series I happen to come across while looking for cool uses of type. This series was developed for the Kent State Folk Festival. I really like the headlines and the great use of typography and muted colors.

This small group of ads was actually designed by Euro RSCG, Chicago for Brigid’s Bags which recycles, refurbishes and re-imagines bags. The ads are simple, clean, with gorgeous type. The ads are almost as cool as the bags and the website is a perfect reflection of the print work. Great job

This series for Shiner beer is also very cool. It uses nice headlines, great type and colors, and wonderful illustrations of people.

This next series is all about being a Cubs fan. Sports advertising can be great to work on…, if the creative team is allowed to do something cool for the sports team.

I found this spread on the web while I was looking for promotional inspiration. I think it was created for a bubble gum company, but the logo is so small I can’t tell. Anyways, very cool use of space.

This next series was created by MindsEye working with the ad ad agency for the Red Sox. Mindseye is without a doubt the coolest place to take a creative idea to the next level when it comes to fit and finish. The work just gets better when they touch it.

From the Foothills to the river canyons to the hills and mountains, Mariposa County is full of outdoor adventures, activities, culture, restaurants, and much more! And with half of Mariposa County being Federal Reservation, and another 25% devoted to agriculture the county is likely to remain a historic-based tourist destination for generations to come.

Hey there’s a great double entendre headline, “The perfect destination for generations to come.”

One of the things I love about this account is the majestic photos we have access to to create these wonderful, full-page, full-color newspaper ads. Plus, the majority of larger ads had to incorporate “special offers” for lodging and we were able to create a section that was harmonious with the overall look and feel.
 
 
As part of the media buy, we also created fractional space ads. These were usually two columns wide by full-page in height. This is an assortment of those fractional designs that were season-driven or based on unique circumstances like; no snow in December 2011 – January, 2012 and then only getting it part way into February. Those ads were the two to the left and also had a very cute radio campaign I wrote that ran in the Bay Area that was based on the song “Let it snow.” rewritten to, “There’s no snow. There’s no snow. There’s no snow.” and then changed to “We got snow. We got snow. We got snow.” once the snow fell.
 
 

Below are good cross section of the additional print advertising I was the Creative Director/writer on for Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau.
 
 
We also had to repurpose a few of our ads for specific offers. These are two examples featuring one the beautiful Fall photos of a Yosemite meadow.
 
 

Credits:

Agency:  Catalyst Marketing Company

Creative Director/Writer:  Michael Pitzer

Art Directors:  Crystal Cotter, Ardyson Ajoste

These companies and products have included work for; ClickArray, HP, Intransa, Meridian Data, Network Appliance, SyQuest, TEAC Data Storage and the actual name development and change of Tera Central to Swarm Networks, Zforce to Attune Systems, as well as product name development for every division and new product introduction at Seagate from the beginning of 2006 through early 2007.

In each case, and for each client, the following process has been utilized to produce a successful name and logo. This process, also helped to generated a naming architecture for internal development of products and service names as well as expediting the trademark and registration of the developed name and to springboard the design process.

A Few Samples:

Naming Process Secret:

You will never have success in naming any product or company, if the key decision makers are not an active part of the process and understand the evolution of the name, how it relates to their company, and contribute toward the development of that name. If they do not participate, what will be developed will be looked at as just being “a word” that can be dismissed as quickly and easily as it can be read out loud.

Now, before you read about the process steps, please note that if it’s not possible to do Step 1 of Phase 1 with your key people, PA&D will have to withdraw from the naming assignment consideration.

PHASE 1: Naming Process

1. Input Session

a. 3 hour, off-site, no cell phones, Blackberries or computer contact with the outside world! Hosted by PA&D at a local retreat.
b. First generation naming session with key client personnel

2. Naming Plan

a. Competitive research (Identify top-level competitors and existing naming structures)
b. Competitive graphic research (Visual reconnaissance of existing designs, logos, color schemes)

3. Extended Naming Session (External PA&D)

a. Organize generated selections
b. Preliminary availability search
c. Develop graphic suggestions

4. The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.

a. External with client, walk through organized content and graphic possibilities/enhancements
b. Develop modifications & short-list determination
c. Establish basis for “Naming Architecture”

5. Comprehensive Searches & Market Research Evaluation

6. Final

a. Name Decision
b. Legal risk
c. Evaluation
d. Beging trademark process

PHASE 2: Graphic Process

1. Begin Graphic Recommendations & Refinements

The technologies to implement social media services include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing and voice over IP and are currently being integrated via social network aggregation platforms. Through the integration of these technologies organizations and businesses, like-minded communities, and individuals have changed the ability and speed to communicate.

Currently, there are six different types of social media:
  - Collaborative Projects (e.g., Wikipedia)
  - Blogs and Microblogs (e.g., Twitter)
  - Content Communities (e.g., YouTube)
  - Social Networking Sites (e.g., Facebook)
  - Virtual Game Worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft)
  - Virtual Social Worlds (e.g. Second Life)

The current problem facing businesses and marketing companies alike, is how does one create an environment in which positive dialogue (or any dialogue) can be established? Once created, how does one turn this dialogue into profits?

I think the bigger question should be, does one really truly need to engage in social media to survive?

The immediate answer is “NO”. If you remember the argument of some marketers regarding “clicks and mortar” of the dot com era, the web going to put “bricks and mortar” out of business if they didn’t implement an ecommerce approach to their businesses today. I think the exact quote was, “If you’re not an online business, you’ll be out of business.” That lead to everyone and their brother building a website, but in reality all they were creating were electronic brochures. A decade later, those electronic brochures are still prevalent on the web. Just as decade from now, Facebook businesses pages will still be prevalent as an attempt to integrate social media into a company’s marketing program.

“Social Bleedia” Explained

In short, “Social Bleedia” can be thought of as any lemming approach to implementing a social media initiative by creating; a Facebook business skin that looks like their website, or by adding a “Like Us on Facebook” button to their ads, or opening a Twitter account to Tweete discounts, or creating the infamous viral video thinking millions will see it within days.

Three words — save your money.

Advertising and marketing people will tell you to use social media icons on all your promotional material, including business cards, brochures, in your email signature and newsletters. That you, (or more specifically they need to) add hyperlinked social icons to all your pages so visitors can click for more information at any of your social media destinations. Connect to your Facebook page with the “Like” button. Add “share” widgets to your web pages so visitors can spread the word for you, or you can add “share” links to PDFs, videos and other attachments. Add a Twitter feed so visitors can see the latest breaking news as it happens or discounts as they happen. The problem with this is that most companies have no idea what they USP (Unique Selling Point) is but they know they have to be part of the lemming world of social media marketers.

Two more words — wake up.

Successful social media begins with the self-realization of complete and total self-resignation. You need to come to terms with the fact that “you” (or your marketing firm) can not control everyone or everything that is said about your business in any digital environment — period! Adding social buttons doesn’t make you social. It just lowers the digital fence you have around your business a foot or two.

Think of it this way, if you can not engage in conversation with your neighbor because your fence is to high for either of you to see you’re out in your yards, how will either of you ever know to say hello? You initially put lattuce work on your fence when you added a “contact us” form on your website — which seldom has been or is ever used, but someone in marketing convinced you needed it! By lowering your fence a little, you can start to see that there is no one on the other side, or worse, there is someone there and they are pissed at you.

It was my feeling that the font, Futura Extra Bold and Extra Bold Condensed needed to be updated and at the same time softened slightly which might also allow for the type to be kerned extremely close. My solution was to recut, by hand, and create this modern version with slightly rounded corners and beveled back angeles on certain letter strokes.

Once I finished drawing and refining the font, Andresen Typographics agreed to carry it as an exclusive for Kawasaki Motorcycles for a year. The two ads below were the first official use of the font I created. Pitzer Rounded first appeared on the ATV print advertising for Kawasaki over the next couple of years.

Once the exclusive period was up, I wanted to drive usage and sales of the Pitzer Rounded font so I developed these ads which I then placed in awards books to reach other art directors and designers. At that time, most art directors hated all type ads, but hell, when the product is “type”, what better way to show how it stacks, kerns, etc.

This first design was what I considered to be the safe way to go but still using an upscale approach to wrought iron of normal specced bars on top with double spaced bars on the bottom. For me though, this design had the feeling of being an entry gate to an East Coast horse farm.

The above design was what many of the gated properties in the Phoenix market were doing. I want to create something that hadn’t been done before in the Phoenix home development market. A free form approach using wrought iron and laser-cut steel seemed like a beautiful and unique approach.

After looking at my designs and seeing that they could be produced within budget, and have the added benefit of creating a unique and unforgettable entry impression to the project, Brad and Joe of Quantum Developers went with this design.

Because Brad and Joe loved how the Montaña Vista Estates gates turned out and because they also really liked this design, they asked me to modify this version for their Carver Mountain Estates development.

The PANTONE Matching System (PMS) was created by Lawrence Herbet in 1963 in order to solve the problems associated with producing accurate and consistent colors by creating standardized colors of ink through detailed measurements and ink mixing. The charts below are intended as a digital reference guide only. PANTONE Computer Video simulations displayed may not exactly match PANTONE – identified color standards. For most accurate color, use current PANTONE Color Publications.

For me, this was a really fun assignment because I not only got to create the naming structure for these model homes, I was also allowed to create the color refinements to the elevations which immediately broke the standard combination of colors offered in similar developments creating a more artistic color palette.

This was a group of floor plans and elevation sheets we created back in ’99 for a spec builder with a 6-lot development called Shadow Brook in the foothills of Morgan Hill, California.

PA&D also created a number of service flyers for builders to promote some of their areas of expertise to stimulate business during the down-market of 2009. Because we didn’t have a lot of money to do these sheets, I created a two color approach printed on a tinted paper stock.