Insight Categories: Brand Strategy

June has come and gone, and so has Pride Month–the annual month-long celebration of LGBTQ+ representation and the anniversary of the historic Stonewall Uprising in New York City. This year we saw more brands than ever demonstrate their support of the LGBTQ+ community in the form of pride collections, creative campaigns, and parades. 

These days, showing support for any social cause is popular. But in 2019 it’s not enough to say that you care, you’ve got to prove it. It’s easy to post rainbows all over social media channels, or sell limited-edition Pride-branded swag, but what else are you doing to benefit the community? How is your brand actively trying to make a difference year round?

Over the course of the month, we saw several brands who supported the LGBTQ+ community beyond the use of fancy designs and catchy hashtags. Here are our three favorite brands making a difference. 

Verizon

In partnership with McCann New York and PFLAG, an organization that reunites families and allies with people who identify as LGBTQ+, Verizon created a short film that showcases the hard conversations and tensions between family members surrounding coming out. 

Titled, “Love Calls Back,” the film depicts real parents, brothers, and sisters reconnecting through a phone call facilitated by Verizon. The conversations are raw, emotional, and very real. 

Verizon, “Love Calls Back” from Doug Harrison on Vimeo.

 “When you first called me, I should have told you how much I loved you then,” says a mother to her lesbian daughter. “I never wanted you to feel like I’m not there for you,” says one brother to another. 

The screen fades to white as two lines of text read, “It’s never too late for love to call back. Verizon and PFLAG are committed to connecting and reconnecting families.”

In addition to the film, Verizon has taken big steps towards true allyship with the LGBTQ+ community. For starters, the company vowed to make a monetary donation to PFLAG, as it did last year when it donated $250,000. The company was also the title sponsor of this year’s LA Pride, and hosted the premiere of its documentary 5B, which tells the inspirational stories of everyday heroes who took extraordinary action to care for the patients of the first HIV/AIDS ward unit in the United States at San Francisco General Hospital. Verizon’s LGBTQ employee resource group, Globe, will continue to facilitate volunteer opportunities through chapters as opportunities arise throughout the year.   

LYFT

This year’s Pride was a busy one for Lyft. The ride-sharing app launched a new feature as part of its #TwoIsTooFew campaign to highlight the representation of non-binary, genderqueer and genderfluid identities. Now, passengers and drivers alike can select their preferred pronounces as, “She/Her/Hers,” “He/Him/His,” “They/Them/Theirs,” “Pronoun isn’t listed,” or “Prefer not to say.”  

 

Lyft also partnered with the National Center for Transgender Equality to provide driver assistance with changing the name and gender designation on a driver’s license and provided major support to StoryCorps’ Stonewall OutLoud campaign. 

These recent actions are not the only show of support Lyft has taken towards the LGBTQ+ community. Over the years, the company has also facilitated over $5 million in donations between passengers and organizations such as the ACLU and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) through its “Round Up & Donate” feature. 

Smirnoff

Smirnoff Vodka has been working on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community for decades, and this year enlisted a group of Pride Ambassadors (including Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness, superstar Alyssa Edwards, and Orange Is The New Black actress Laverne Cox) to support its multi-channel campaign, “Welcome Home.” 

Smirnoff: Welcome Home from Ezra Hurwitz on Vimeo.

“Welcome Home” was created on the premise of bringing a sense of “homecoming” to June’s Pride celebrations–cultivating a way in which members of the community can feel safe, secure, and appreciated. The campaign included a digital video series, an immersive pop-up, two limited edition Smirnoff No. 21 Pride bottles (which includes the re-release of its iconic “Love Wins” bottles), a float in the NYC Pride March and a generous ongoing donation to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), estimated to raise over $1.5 million by 2021.  

As a result of their extensive commitment to the equal rights of LGBTQ+ peoples, Smirnoff and its parent company DIAGEO have received a perfect 100% score on the HRC Corporate Equality Index (CEI) for workplace equity, and in February 2018 they were honored with the HRC Corporate Equality Award. 

Audiences know the difference between a genuine sign of support and an empty gesture. Pride month is a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community, and the sooner brands recognize that they are in a position to raise awareness and make a difference, the better. If you really care about Pride, take action every day of the year.

Every marketing team has its strengths and weaknesses. Maybe yours has demand generation down to a science, but struggles to maintain brand consistency. Or perhaps you have brilliant ideas about how to drive brand awareness, but nowhere near enough resources or bandwidth to get it all done. Working with an agency, a freelancer or contractor can help give you a leg up on many different types of projects—but with budgets and timelines always of concern, how do you know when it’s the right time to outsource versus DIY?

Think about it this way: your brand is like a house. No matter how old or new, it’s a structure that’s bound to require upkeep over time. Maybe the front door needs a new paint job, there are a few lightbulbs that need to be replaced, or a faucet is leaking. Many of these are problems you can fix on your own. But bigger projects—rewiring the electric, building an addition, or replacing the floors—almost always require a bigger investment and professional expertise. Skimping on these repairs or attempting to DIY without the right expertise or tools can result in massive consequences, including rework and higher long-term costs.   

During our 40 years in business, here are some of the key situations where we’ve found it best to work with an agency instead of executing a project in-house:

When you need an objective opinion. Need a pair of fresh eyes? Agencies look at your company through a neutral lens, without any of the historical bias or office politics that often impact internal decision-making. This is particularly important during a rebrand, during which we’ll conduct extensive research about your company through internal/external surveys, first-party data, and reviews of your competitive landscape. Often, agencies have access to digital research and analysis tools that are often too expensive for most in-house teams to justify, yielding larger sample sizes and more meaningful conclusions. A partner that can help you take a step back and ask the hard questions will ensure you address any weak spots within your brand and market only your best, most distinctive assets.

When a project requires seasoned or specialized talent. Whether it’s navigating your first merger/acquisition or adding a new technology to the mix, bringing in a team that’s been through the process many times before can ensure better, more predictable outcomes. Your typical staffing needs may not warrant a logo designer or brand strategist, but creative agencies often bring both specialized skills and a depth of experience to the table that means faster turnaround times and better results. Working with an agency means you get access to exceptional talent without having to navigate the competitive labor market or pay a premium to employ them full time.

When you don’t have bandwidth to execute a major project. Your marketing train can’t grind to a halt just because a major initiative like a rebrand or a website redesign is in progress. Outsourcing special projects to an agency ensures your team can continue to manage its existing workload without too much disruption. That said, managing an agency can require a lot of work and coordination on your part. The right partner will take the time to understand your team’s existing workflow, consider budget and resource constraints, and develop an actionable roadmap that extends beyond the signed work order.

When you’re in a creative rut. When you’re consumed by supporting various stakeholder needs and meeting internal deadlines on a daily basis, it can be difficult to think outside the box. Infusing fresh new thinking into a brand’s identity or coming up with the next big idea for an impactful campaign requires taking risks, experimenting and having broader visibility into what will capture your audience’s attention. Because agencies typically have experience across a diverse range of clients and industries, they often bring new and bold ideas that can differentiate your products and cut through the noise.

When you’ve got big, hairy, audacious goals…but aren’t yet sure how to achieve them. A full-service agency partner is accountable for more than just big ideas and beautiful creative. Once they’ve helped you translate your high-level vision and business goals into measurable marketing objectives, a true partner will help you build and implement a plan that generates tangible results. 

If you’re facing any of the challenges above, consider reaching out to an agency like Grafik to see how we can support your needs.

 

The foundation for a national revitalization boom was laid in 2017. That’s when the Investing In Opportunity Act was passed and developers began to laser focus on some of the country’s most economically distressed communities. Over the past two years, more than 8,700 areas across the country have earned the designation of Opportunity Zone, and Forbes reports that revitalization efforts in these communities could impact as many as 35 million residents.

Designed to generate new investment and drive business into forgotten neighborhoods, Opportunity Zones offer developers and investors significant tax benefits. Work must be well underway before the end of 2020 to take full advantage, though. Locally, we see plans rolling out for several communities — plans for destinations designed to attract a new generation of business owners, shoppers, diners, and residents. The potential is great. But so are the challenges.

At Grafik, we’re seeing how some of the issues developers face can be addressed through a strategic effort focused on defining and clearly communicating their intention for the area. Stakeholders need to understand the vision. As Paige Grzelak, one of our clients at Western Development, notes, “To get a deal done, investors have to see the full potential for a project. They’re already doing their due diligence, but to move forward with underwriting, they have to have a clear picture for how a site will be transformed, how it will stand out from other areas, and how it will attract businesses and residents.”

About 18 months ago, Grafik began work on one of the largest opportunity zones in our region. With capacity for 6200 units and approximately 8 million sq. ft. of buildable density, Buzzard Point is at a size and scale that it will be a tremendous addition to the local market. On completion, it will be a true destination neighborhood with new office space, homes, shops, restaurants, and many new entertainment venues.

 

 

Our work with stakeholders at Buzzard Point, and our conversations with developers at other opportunity zones, has helped us identify a number of key steps for establishing a solid foundation for future success — exercises any group might want to consider as it begins to plan and design a new community.

Step 1: Define A Narrative

There must be a consistent storyline that captures the vision for area. At Buzzard Point, we identified foundational messages, and then created a statement every developer could use in marketing and communications efforts. Audiences see that shared narrative as a sign that everyone is united in their approach to the new neighborhood, and is working collaboratively to make that vision a reality.

Step 2: Develop A Name

Oftentimes there’s a lot of value in an area’s current name, but with opportunity zones, it may be necessary to consider the pros and cons. If it’s determined that a new name is needed for the community, it’s essential for the name to map back to the vision. Optimally, the name should help underscore the community’s uniqueness — its features, or landmarks. If, on the other hand, the current name lives on — as it does at Buzzard Point — then the narrative should refer back to the community’s history or heritage.

Step 3: Establish Personas

With narrative set, research helps to identify those who are most likely to be attracted to the new area. In an area the size of Buzzard Point, the initial conversations include civic leaders, commercial brokers, business leaders, and potential residents. Personas were developed according to their current perceptions, communication needs, and digital behaviors — all from research. Additional personas will fuel marketing efforts as construction progresses. For opportunity zones, persona development is critical to ensure clear and consistent communication, PR, and marketing.

Step 4: Create A Consistent Look & Feel

Ultimately, the vision for any opportunity zone must be captured visually. Early on, CGI renderings are de rigueur, but alone, they may not be enough to tell the story. As anticipation builds and interest grows, there’s often a need for additional imagery — photography, illustration, and iconography that can be applied consistently to the new community. At Buzzard Point, we developed a flexible logo system that could be used across a wide variety of materials. From wayfinding and signage to presentations and proposals, developers share a single logo that reflects their shared vision.

Step 5: Roll Out A Digital Presence

A dedicated website and social media presence should be used to centralize information about the community and reflect its evolution in real-time. For Buzzard Point, we developed the web presence, but also set up social listening to monitor mentions of the neighborhood, measure positive and negative sentiment, and identify trending topics.

No doubt, opportunity zones will continue to play a significant role in the redevelopment and revitalization of urban areas around the country. They represent an extraordinary potential for local and national developers alike. The transformation of each area will require investment in thoughtfully communicated vision —  to the people who will work there, play there, and live there.

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Need help developing personas? Our tried-and-true e-book will help you document the right content, channels and tactics needed to reach your ideal customers. Click here for more.

MasterCard recently debuted what it’s calling a sonic brand identity—a “distinct, memorable melody that will serve as a foundation for its sound across the globe,” from point-of-sale chimes to telephone hold music. The announcement (appropriately introduced via audio press release) triggered both interest and eyebrow raises from the brand nerds among us at Grafik. Is the concept of a “sonic identity” really a new one? Or is it just a slicker label for the good ol’ corporate jingle? And during an era in which half the country owns a smart speaker, does every brand need a signature sound?

Let’s start with what distinguishes a sonic brand identity from that of a lowly jingle. In theory, the former is associated with a brand for the long haul (making it as important as the visual logo), while a jingle is just a few notes at the end of a radio or television ad. But through the sustained use of tropes like “I’m Lovin’ It” and “We Are Farmers,” brands like McDonald’s and Farmer’s Insurance have been able to elevate the use of jingles and lodge their tunes deep within the consumer psyche. Whether it’s whistled, tapped out playfully on a keyboard, or crooned by a bunch of Minions, hearing “Ba-da-ba-ba-ba” is sure to conjure a craving for greasy french fries.

The problem with MasterCard’s new sound is that it isn’t all that…memorable. I had to play it over and over again just to write this article because I kept forgetting what it sounded like. There are no accompanying words to commit its meaning to memory. And as some commenters pointed out, the airy string ensemble doesn’t exactly embody MasterCard’s weighty, spherical logo in the way that a more bass-heavy sound could. To be fair, years of aural conditioning could (pardon the pun) change our tune on the matter. MasterCard plans to use this “wherever consumers engage with Mastercard—be it physical, digital or voice environments”—so the true test of success will be whether consumers come to recall/associate the brand with its sound.

Outside the more traditional realm of advertising, digital storefronts, mobile apps and user interfaces all present opportunities for custom audio. Tech products like Facebook, Slack, and Venmo each have distinct sounds, which help users audibly recognize they’ve received a comment, a message or a payment without even having to look at a screen.  Consumer brands are following suit, especially with the rise of smart speaker devices. For example, when I get a push notification from the ESPN app, my device chirps out an abbreviated version of the well-known Sports Center tune. And notifications from Houzz, an app focused on residential architecture and interior design, are announced via a “ding-dong” doorbell sound.

Physical environments have perhaps the most potential to create multi-sensory attachments between consumers and brands. One of our creative directors mentioned the feeling of relief he gets when a United Airlines flight touches down and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” begins to stream over the loudspeakers. Our marketing specialist, who happens to be a musical scholar, pointed out that the oboe and woodwind instruments used in the piece are considered classically American. United’s decades-long licensing of the piece—and the strategic touch points at which they play it—undoubtedly cast a halo effect over how people experience their brand.

If you’re trying to figure out whether your company needs a sonic brand identity or not, think about where you interact with customers. What sounds may enhance that experience, or create more explicit recognition of what makes you special?

In a recent Nielsen study, 66% of respondents were willing to pay more for products and services from companies committed to positive social and environmental impact. As consumers, shareholders, and employees increasingly demand Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from brands, companies are realizing that the way they address the environment, human welfare, trade, and stewardship directly impacts their bottom line, as well as the planet.

CSR is nothing new. Rock-solid brands built on financial and operational commitments have been held up as models for corporate success for several decades now. Patagonia’s storied history of Corporate Social Responsibility began in the early ‘70s when they advocated for a local surf break at a Los Angeles city council meeting. By 1986, founder Yvon Chouinard had pledged an “earth tax” to commit either ten percent of profits or one percent of sales (whichever was greater), to environmental activism—donations so far have exceeded $89 million dollars.
Yvon Chouinard, Image: Tom Frost, Aurora Photos

From this pledge grew the 1% For The Planet program which, with its nearly 2,000 partner companies, has generated more than $175 million. And when the recent corporate tax cuts were passed, Patagonia announced that its savings would go directly to the program as an additional contribution above their 1% pledge.

“Instead of putting the money back into our business, we’re responding by putting $10 million back into the planet. Our home planet needs it more than we do,” said Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario.

 

But the commitment goes beyond donations— what makes CSR integral and authentic to a brand’s identity is whether it impacts how its business is run. In addition to sizable financial contributions, Patagonia infused its operations with sustainable business practices. It promotes ethical supply chains and material sourcing (which has a knock-on effect for suppliers) and promotes recycling initiatives through its WornWear program. They even launched a venture capitalist arm, Tin Shed Ventures, which has provided funding for environmentally and socially minded companies to the tune of $75 million so far.

More and more companies are partnering on CSR efforts, creating a halo effect that positively impacts both brands. For instance, in addition to working directly with grassroots environmental groups through Action Works, Patagonia partnered with Walmart in 2009 to establish the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, which now provides standards and indexes for their over 200 established brands and their manufacturers.
Patagonia’s Black Friday Ad, The New York Times, 2011

While a commitment to environmental activism is a difficult feat, the perceived risks and negatives —the “unrealistic expectations” of CSR standards, the expense of changing supply chains and updating labor or trade practices, the use of CSR as “risk management,” or a distraction from a businesses’ economic role— are unfounded, as Patagonia reached an estimated $1 billion in sales in 2018. As their social commitments, responsibilities, and investments grow, so does their revenue.

As you build CSR initiatives authentic to your own brand values, take Patagonia’s humble beginnings to heart. While their environmental focus makes sense for an outdoor clothing brand, what choices do companies in other industries make?  Starbucks focuses on recycled and fair-trade food materials, 100% ethically sourced coffee and tea, food bank donations, funding clean water projects in underdeveloped areas through their Ethos bottled waters, and a Global Farmer Fund that has committed over $50 million towards loans and financing for coffee farmers. Tech giants Microsoft, Intel, and Apple all announced initiatives to source 100% renewable energy for their manufacturing and retail processes.

As a mid-size branding and marketing firm, we aren’t a consumer logo. Yet, the work we do for our clients reaches millions of people. We create concrete deliverables (e.g. conference and sales displays), traditional print materials, websites and digital campaigns, and positioning and marketing strategies for client growth—where does that leave us in our CSR efforts? Besides monetary contributions to, and volunteering for, our non-profit clients, we are actively exploring ways to ensure transparency and data security in all our digital efforts; we also seek to ensure that trolls and bots are not skewing our analyses of our social media campaigns. As the internet continues to outrun 20^th century regulations, Grafik feels a responsibility to use the powerful tools we continuously add to our digital toolbox in ways that promote empathy and understanding.

 

On May 25^th, the  General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)  went into effect, providing European Union residents insight into how their personal information is collected, stored, and used by websites. Just being located outside the EU does not relieve your company from having to comply—the regulation protects any user accessing your website from within the EU.

Under GDPR, personal data is defined as information that can be used to identify someone, directly or indirectly. This includes IP and email addresses, cookies, location data, and names. We recommend you take the following four precautionary measures, and, of course, seek legal counsel.

1. Update Google Analytics’ Data Retention settings to 50 months

Google Analytics users are now required to set the length of time user-level and event-level data is stored on its servers before that data is automatically deleted. This update will not affect aggregated data currently used in dashboards, but will affect components such as “Custom Segments” that rely on advertising user IDs, cookies, etc.

2. Update your website’s Privacy Policy to ensure it addresses the collection and use of all website and customer data 

Inform users how the information your company collects is used, who it is shared with, and how they can act on their right to be forgotten. Privacy Policy Generators, such as Iubenda’s, provide helpful tools for getting started. See this example from AdRoll for reference.

3. Add a pop-up to your website that requires user consent

We recommend intercepting new visitors with a message such as, “We use third-party cookies to improve your experience and to analyze the use of our website. If you continue, we assume that you consent to receiving all cookies on our site. For more information, click here [link to privacy policy].” HubSpot and WordPress offer out-of-the-box GDPR and pop-up plugins for this purpose.

 

Example of a user consent pop-up 

4. Add a disclaimer to any lead capture forms that explain the exact use of a user’s email address and contact information.

This disclaimer can be a one-liner that links to your company’s privacy policy. For example, “Opt-in now to get discounts and exclusive offers. For more information, click here [link to privacy policy].”

If you have questions about GDPR, how to ensure you’re compliant, or want help executing the steps above don’t hesitate to reach out.

Bob Dylan wrote “The times they are a changin” more than 50 years ago. People have listened to it on vinyl, cassette, CD, iPod, and streaming—same song, new delivery system—accepting these changes without question. Few consider what’s required to deliver any new convenience, the complexities and complications beyond fabrication that include finding talent that can make this all happen: the underlying tech stack.

For the non-tech-savvy reader, the tech stack is a combination of different technologies designed to work together to accomplish a unified goal. Typically, each technology performs a specific function within the stack. Think of it as division of labor among a team of workers.

While there are different schools of thought on tech stack size and complexity, I’d like to offer my perspective on how and why keeping your tech stack smaller and more manageable produces better results in the long run.

Plan Ahead
More often than not, your project’s key stakeholders are asking for a solution rolled out, like, yesterday. We’ve all been there. That’s why it’s important to clearly communicate that shooting from the hip will cost the company more money in the long run. Choosing the right technology stack can ensure the extensibility of your project and add dollars to your profit margin—but to do so, you must often negotiate extra time to complete the following planning activities up front:

• Discover what end-users expect and how the project owner wants to provide that experience to them. Keep a list of questions that you can standardize and add to with future experience.

• Understand the product owner’s ultimate vision for the project. Creating short term solutions can get the job done, but you’ll incur considerable technical debt in the long run if future requirements aren’t correctly considered.

• During platform selection, thoroughly audit what any proposed new technology can do, how it will benefit the project, and how it will ultimately bring your project owner’s vision to fruition.

• Socialize the requirements, goals, and strategy with everyone on your team to make sure everyone understands their importance. Addressing any confusion up front can help avoid much larger issues moving forward.

Adopt Later
New technology is exciting, however, experienced developers know to give new platforms and languages time to prove themselves in the wild with smaller, more self-contained projects before integrating those elements into their larger projects. These folks know that sometimes projects lose steam and wither on the vine, as so many have in the past. If viability and high adoption happens, these technologies tend to experience fundamental changes, as Angular experienced between its first and second versions.

Reliable documentation, community forums, long-established product roadmaps with a schedule for when new versions will be made available—all hugely contribute to how likely a new technology is to integrate into the project. Without these, the likely longevity of that technology in your stack will be limited to how long your team is willing to work with it. The more difficult pieces in your stack, the more team frustrations will spread, creating a ripple effect that destroys morale.

Consider Talent
The moment you’ve been dreading has arrived: you need to replace or add people to your team. Finding the right person for the right price is always a challenge, for any position. But if you’ve adopted features based on a flavor-of-the-week technology throughout the course of your product life-cycle, finding that right-price person with the incredibly niched skillset to fit in your stack has increased the degree of difficulty tenfold. In the off chance that you find the skills, you’ll pay an arm and a leg to get them in the door (either because they know their value, or you’ve been working with a recruiter, or both).

Because the talent you are looking for must be specialized exactly for your needs, they will come at a premium. And if you can’t find this talent, you will have to hire someone with gaps in their knowledge, and spend money and company time getting them spun up and on the same page with the rest of your team. Those costs are never completely avoidable, but minimizing skill requirements is best.

Be Critical
In the agency space, it’s pretty common to jump from one project to another without taking time to reflect on completed projects. While this is sometimes unavoidable, taking the time to properly analyze the good and the bad experienced on a project is crucial for making internal pivots. Use these opportunities to refine and improve your processes and approaches to creative problem solving.

We take development seriously at Grafik. We have fun doing what we do, but we’re always looking for ways to improve our own processes and ultimately bring greater value to our clients. Remember to take care of your team, because at the end of the day you can rest assured that a well-cared for team will take greater care of your clients, contributing to your bottom line.

In, “The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying Up,” organizational consultant Marie Kondo introduces her KonMari Method™, “a way of life and state of mind that encourages cherishing the things that spark joy in people’s lives.” It is a step-by-step process to never living in clutter again; everything in your home and life will have a purpose.

While reading this book, I couldn’t stop seeing the parallels between The KonMari Method™ and content strategy. And I started to get excited. Really excited.

Why? Because most people don’t fully understand what a content strategy is, let alone its magic.

A content strategy includes planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of user-friendly content in order to meet the needs of a business and its customers. In the context of tidying up, a content strategy is a lot like cleaning your house.

In the same way that KonMari can bring clarity and purpose to material things in your life, a strategy can bring clarity and purpose to your content, helping you meet both your business goals and your customer’s needs.

Here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Visualize your goals

The first step in Kondo’s method is to visualize the life you wish to have with a clutter-free space. What does that look like? When first conducting a content strategy, you must do the same. What are your business goals? What are the needs of your target audience?

To help answer these questions, I recommend conducting a card sorting workshop. This exercise helps you visualize who you want to be in relation to your audience needs. You’ll need to prepare a deck of about 120-200 cards, each bearing an adjective or succinct phrase that describes how your brand–and other brands–relate to, and are seen by, your industry.

Source: Appropriate, Inc.

To conduct the workshop, sort your cards into the following categories:

Who do you want to be?
Who are you today?
Who are you not?

Once this first sort is complete, discard all the cards that fell into the “who are you not” pile. Now look at the cards in “who you are today” and discard all the ones that don’t align with the vision of your brand moving forward. Then combine “who do you want to be” with what remains in “who are you today.” From that single pile, select only the adjectives that best meet the needs of your customers and your business goals moving forward. Finally, prioritize these in order of importance.

At the end of this exercise, you will have prioritized your brand’s communication goals and outlined a message architecture. This will guide your content planning, design, and delivery process.

Step 2: Only keep content that sparks joy

Marie Kondo asserts, “To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose.” The same goes for your content. To do this, you will need to conduct a content audit. Start by using a web crawler to view all the content on your website. Then start sifting.

If content fails to map back to your message architecture, let it go. Only keep content that will bring your users joy.

More importantly, fight the urge to put content in archives. Most likely, it no longer serves a purpose.

Step 3: Audit one category at a time

Auditing all your content at once can be overwhelming, especially if it has become disorganized (most does over time). I recommend culling content, starting one primary navigation menu category at a time, and creating excel tabs for each bucket.

Step 4: Review content in the right order

Moving left to right, address quantitative factors first, then qualitative. Quantitative factors can include page URLs, Google Analytics metrics, content types by page, character counts, etc. Qualitative factors can include voice and tone, messaging, audiences, and calls-to-action. Only keep content that is current, relevant, and appropriate. Once you’re done, you can start translating this into an information architecture for your website. Your IA will become an outline of where you will put your content.

Step 5: Put back content in a way that makes sense

The strategy you developed in your message architecture and the gaps revealed in your content audit, will help you identify what content to create and by priority. But before you embark on content creation, you must first identify a clear internal workflow for migration and governance. I also recommend creating editorial style guidelines for your staff. If you’re using a content management system, identify who will be reviewing content, who will be editing it, and who will be publishing it. Train all involved stakeholders. Once completed, there will be no frustrations creating content, because you and your team will have clear guidelines on how to move forward.

Creating new forms of content that bring your customers joy spark deeper relationships with your brand that may have never existed in your previous customer journey. When we decide what should and should not be on our website, we are allowing other forms of action to exist. The KonMari Method™ to content strategy is not just a process, but a mind-set. Once you create a comprehensive content strategy, you will never go back to your old ways of content chaos.

Super Bowl commercial water cooler talk is the natural order of business, especially at marketing agencies, in FEBRUARY! But who knew it would follow me to March—the end of March mind you, during Spring Break. Seriously.

There I was yesterday, minding my own business, enjoying a spring training game in Florida with my son and our beloved Washington Nationals, when from the top of the aisle I hear the beer vendor bellow, “Peanuts, water, ice cold Dilly Dilly!” Again, “Dilly Dilly, ice cold!”

It’s no secret that Wieden+Kennedy’s advertising for Bud Light launched last year, ran during pretty much every football game, went viral and is now a “love it or hate it” campaign and Urban Dictionary catch phrase that just won’t go away. And then, to hear this affirmed, nay proclaimed long after the end of football season, beckoning the beginning of baseball wasn’t entirely unexpected. But it was surprising—pleasantly, even joyously surprising.

And, dammit, instructive.

What got me was the reaction of the crowd. Our beer vendor’s town crier “Ice cold Dilly Dilly!” chant sparked a wave of infectious smiles and chuckles in the sea of parents, grandparents, and kids in section 116. Good will and camaraderie drifted happily through the crowd, followed by an echo of “Dilly Dilly!” from fans in row K, responding with resolve to our vendor’s battle cry for beer, “Yes, I’ll have a Bud Light—thank you, Kind Sir—Dilly Dilly!” The chuckles grew louder and spread to section 115 next door, right behind the Nats dugout. I think Bryce Harper heard the call as well, but alas could not reply as he was next up to bat.

So, crap, I’m not supposed to be thinking about work on Spring Break. Yet, here I am, sipping coffee at 6 AM, thinking about marketing and strategy implications for Grafik and our clients. And there are several:

First of all—Strategy? C’mon. It’s not like Anheuser-Busch crafted a strategy to spew “Game of Thrones” inspired nonsense and fun in their Bud Light marketing? Well, actually, they did: in a Business Insider interview last month, Miguel Patricio, Chief Marketing Officer of Anheuser-Busch InBev, shared, “‘Dilly Dilly’ doesn’t mean anything. That’s the beauty of it. I think that we all need our moments of nonsense and fun. And I think that ‘Dilly Dilly,’ in a way, represents that.”

Okay, then the research numbers must have strongly supported the campaign? Actually, they didn’t. Mr. Patricio continued, “A lot of people asked me, ‘How did you approve that?’ To tell you the truth, we never expected this to be so successful. We did that ad, actually, because of the new season of “Game of Thrones” coming, but when we tested, it didn’t test that well. We said, ‘Consumers will get it.’ And especially with repetition. We have a chance here for this to become big. So, we went against the research and we gave a chance to ‘Dilly Dilly’ and we are so happy!”

Happy, indeed.

The lesson here is central to brand strategy—something we discussed just last week in two different branding workshops with our clients: “Don’t forget the right brain. The essence of your brand isn’t just what you say about it, it’s also how it makes people feel.” Yes, the words are important—critical in fact, but make sure they do more than just explain the “debate points” of your selling proposition. They have to articulate the idea of your brand and the feeling it conveys. This is true for all companies working through brand and marketing strategies—including Grafik’s Fortune 100, technology, startup, and Government agency clients who are all solving this right now.

The second lesson comes not only from our “Dilly Dilly” town crier beer vendor, but also from a short video segment from the seat screen on my JetBlue flight down to Florida. In an interview, a prominent CEO was asked, “What was the best piece of business advice you ever received?” She said, “Trust your gut.”

Trust it, indeed.

AB focused on how Bud Light makes you feel, trusted their gut, and launched a very successful advertising campaign. It’s not their only marketing and messaging, of course. We all know the “debate points” about why we should choose Bud Light over other light beers. But these facts, mixed with a ballpark full of fans sharing a feeling of delight and attaching it to the Bud Light brand, completes the picture.

“Dilly, Dilly!” indeed.

In a previous blog, I mentioned website personalization as a key to engaging audiences and improving mobile experiences. What, precisely, is website personalization, and how can it help your business?

Rather than following a broad one-size-fits-all approach, website personalization creates and delivers customized content to meet user needs. This is not a new approach. Shop keepers get to know their regular customers, call them by names and know their likes and preferences—it’s what keeps them coming back. For companies to achieve the equivalent on their websites, they need to use digital technology and perform regular user research to deliver personalized experiences.

Persona Development

Creating personalization starts with getting to know your customers. You can’t generalize your audience’s needs and still provide a truly relevant user experience. User research needs to be conducted on a regular basis to segment your users into key groups sharing similar needs and backgrounds, known as personas. The purpose of creating these personas is to have reliable and realistic representations of your key audience segments for reference. According to usability.gov, effective personas:

• Represent a major user group for your website
• Express and focus on the major needs and expectations of the most important user groups
• Give a clear picture of the user’s expectations and how they’re likely to use the site
• Aid in uncovering universal features and functionality
• Describe real people with backgrounds, goals, and values
• Help formulate decisions surrounding site components by adding a layer of real-world consideration to the conversation
• Offer a quick and inexpensive way to test and prioritize features throughout the development process

Buyer’s Journey

Modern marketers coined the term Buyer’s Journey referring to the progression of consumers, from research to final decision, that culminates in a purchase.

It’s a three-stage process:

1. Awareness Stage: The buyer realizes they have a problem.
2. Consideration Stage: The buyer defines their problem and researches options.
3. Decision Stage: The buyer chooses a solution.

The graphic below from HubSpot, illustrates a sample buyer’s journey for the simple purchasing decision of a doctor visit during an illness.

Personalized Experiences

After personas and their buyer’s journey have been determined, a company can tailor site architecture, landing pages, and on-site navigational cues that deliver relevant content and rich on-site experiences specific to each stage of that journey. An important part of your digital marketing strategy is to be omni-channel, allowing prospects to choose the right channel for them at the right time; a website alone will not sell product or drive leads.

Monetate’s 2017 Personalization Development Study reports that organizations across all levels of maturity use an array of different data sources to personalize communications. Few are fully integrating offline and online data insights today, a reflection of the challenges that still exist when integrating data sources.

(Source: Monetate’s 2017 Personalization Development Study)

Personas and buyer’s journeys help set the framework, but companies need to continue to mine analytics and digital tools to help deliver real time relevance. Retailers can provide targeted offers to online shoppers based on browsing behavior. Travel websites can offer promotions based on the current weather or season. Restaurant and coffee shops can highlight stores near a user based on their location.

Implementation Challenges

Despite the tremendous value it can bring, personalization is complicated—gathering buyer insights, data integration, and connecting systems is indeed hard work. Again, Monetate’s 2017 Personalization Development Study shows how companies can take a phased approach in their personalization strategy, making it less daunting to implement.

(Source: Monetate’s 2017 Personalization Development Study)

The findings are unanimous: personalization is important

Consumer expectations have shifted: they now expect a personal digital experience to be comparable to offline experiences. Many business and technology leaders name personalization as a top commerce technology investment priority. Personalization increases loyalty, drives higher conversions, and grows revenue. Google reports that eighty-nine percent of U.S. marketers reported that personalization on their websites or apps resulted in an increase in revenue. According to BCG, “brands that create personalized experiences by integrating advanced digital technologies and proprietary data for customers are seeing revenue increase by 6% to 10%—two to three times faster than those that don’t. As a result, personalization leaders stand to capture a disproportionate share of category profits in the new age of individualized brands while slow movers will lose customers, share, and profits.”

Personalization offers companies the ability to engage with consumers individually and to build lasting relationships. Advances in data and technology are already making this possible, and will only improve over time. Take advantage of personalizing your online branded experience to better engage with your customers, so that when they are ready to purchase, you are top of mind. Learn more about personas and content strategy. 

Grafik, a Washington, DC metro area-based branding and digital marketing agency, and Merritt Clubs, an affiliate of Merritt Companies, today announced its joint receipt of the prestigious REBRAND 100® Global Award for their collaborative efforts in successfully positioning and rebranding the Baltimore-based fitness club. This highly respected biennial competition, judged by a panel of international business, marketing and design executives, showcases the world’s most effective brand transformations through its evaluation of design and measurable results.

Merritt Companies engaged Grafik in 2017 to align its three distinct organizations—Merritt Clubs, Merritt Properties and Merritt Construction Services—under a singular vision of delivering uncompromising service. The rebrand of Merritt Clubs focused on better expressing and distinguishing its bold and vibrant connection to the Baltimore, MD community. A strategic transition from the name “Merritt Athletic Clubs” to the more inclusive “Merritt Clubs”—followed by a reimagined logo, a new mantra, visual identity, and website—have helped underscore the company’s value to both prospective and existing members and employees.

“We chose to work with Grafik because of its unparalleled creative eye and strategic, business-driven approach to branding,” said Donyel Cerceo, Marketing Director of Merritt Clubs. “We have always been focused on the well-being of our members, and Grafik captured the spirit of our clubs. The rebrand and new website are allowing us to create a stronger, more personal experience for them.”

Health clubs have come a long way since the days of a warehouse space with rows of machines. They have matured in their settings—and their marketing. For the Merritt Clubs rebrand, Grafik leveraged member surveys, market research, and online analytics to inform user experience personas that cover the entire gamut of potential members, both in the city of Baltimore and surrounding counties. The new identity underscores Merritt Clubs’ brand personality and family-friendly clubs and the new website experience makes it easy to quickly surface relevant classes and activities for each persona, and targeted offers are tested continually to achieve the best response from visitors.

“Merritt Clubs is a great example of what a true rebrand looks like. When work is grounded in research and strategy, the final product is an authentic, timeless, and effective foundation that supports business and drives tangible results,” said Lance Wain, President and CEO of Grafik. “We are a proud partner of the Merritt Companies and are elated to share in this award with Merritt Clubs.”

New Merritt Clubs Brand Driving Record Results
The new Merritt Clubs brand debuted January 2017 and year-over-year lead growth is up 39%; website visitors up 37%; page views up 28%. With this increased engagement, the average cost per lead and per sale have decreased dramatically, and marketing has gone from influencing just 13% of overall sales to 41% of overall sales. With member engagement and club visits up as well, the future looks bright for record renewals, as utilization is an indicator of likely membership renewal.

Rebrand Part of a Larger Strategic Branding Initiative for Merritt Companies
The rebranding of Merritt Clubs was part of a broader strategic branding initiative for Merritt Companies which included Merritt Properties and Merritt Construction Services. From customer service and ethics, to empowering employees to make decisions in the best interest of customers, Merritt Construction Services, Merritt Properties, and Merritt Clubs share a singular vision to build long term relationships with their customers, delivering beyond what they expect, or the industry demands.

While the three companies have a clear connection in terms of services, the overall look and feel didn’t adequately communicate that singular vision. To address this challenge, Grafik established a framework and brand architecture for a more consistent marketing of their three individual companies. This created a cohesive corporate identity, including a bold new logo system tying all the brands together.

About Merritt Clubs:
Merritt Clubs currently has more than 37,000 members who enjoy 24-hour access to locations in downtown Baltimore and the surrounding suburbs. Each location offers individual and group fitness programs including personal trainers, world-class Les Mills programs, weight facilities as well as specific amenities designed to meet the needs of the local community. Three locations feature state-of-the-art swimming facilities, and offer classes through the Michael Phelps Swim School.

About REBRAND 100®:
REBRAND recognizes the impact of strategy and creative efforts by noting standout improvements to website performance, return on marketing investment, and sales attribution. The REBRAND 100 Global awards are juried by a multidisciplinary panel of prominent, international experts. Other notable REBRAND 100 Global award winners include national and global brands such as Seimens, SAP, McAfee, Grant Thornton, Hawaiian Airlines, and AT&T. For more information, click here.

Check out the full story of our successful partnership with Merritt Clubs here!