About Us > Newsletter

Summer 2007 Newsletter

INTRODUCING THINKOLOGY

A note from Erin Mills, President of Think Marketing

When most people think of marketing, they think of advertising – magazine ads, TV commercials, billboards. At Think, we think of marketing as anything that grows your business. Certainly multimilliondollar ad campaigns don’t hurt! But the reality is that great marketing is closer than you think - it’s in your customer calls, website copy and even your business cards.

We’ve created Thinkology, the Think Marketing Newsletter, to share insights with you about the ways in which marketing can grow your business. We hope you gain value from our thoughts and we look forward to hearing your feedback! Please contact me anytime at erin@thinkmktg.com.

 

 

---

 

Corporate identity plays a significant role in attracting new business. Is your corporate identity helping or hurting you?

What is your corporate identity saying about you?

By: Emi Harnden

Corporate identity is the "persona" of a company or organization. It’s a reflection of business culture and ideally helps support business goals. Generally, customers look to partner with businesses whose corporate identity matches their mental image of what a company in that line of business should be. Additionally, people tend to look for companies that seem “stable”, “proven” and “well regarded.” At a minimum, your corporate identity should strive to reflect these fundamental attributes. Corporate identity is most redolently expressed through a company’s name, logo and tagline. However, beyond these common visual cues, corporate idenity is more fully understood to comprise:

• Corporate Design
• Corporate Communication
• Corporate Behavior

Meaning that corporate identity goes far beyond your company name and logo. In beyond your company name and logo. In truth, your corporate identity is reflected in every point of contact a customer has with you. This is important to understand because most customers begin judging your company well before you know it.

Some things to consider:

Company and Product Names: Names must project an image of stability, competency and value. They should also be simple and easy to remember. For example, “Microsoft” is vastly more powerful than “Bill Gates and Associates.”

Company and Product Logos: Logos should be crisp and professional looking. Look to the Fortune 500 companies for simple logo design ideas. Make sure that every marketing piece you create uses your logo.

Company Brochures: Collateral should quickly and effectively show the value of your products and services while reinforcing your overall brand. Creating a Style Guide and Master Messaging Document will help to ensure that all of your communication materials support your corporate identity.

Phone System: If you use voicemail, make sure it sounds professional. Better yet, consider using a qualified answering service. Always return customer calls promptly. Demonstrating responsiveness here will assure your clients that you are responsive in other areas as well.

Web Site: Your website is the front door to your business. Today, not having a website or having a poorly designed wesbite is definitely detrimental to your business, regardless of what industry you’re in. Even a small but professional looking website will help to validate you as an established business.

Corporate identity expresses the values and ambitions of an organization, its business and its characteristics, and plays a substantial role in corporate reputation. Be sure that every point of contact you have with your customers reflects well on your company and that it matches what they expect to see.

Emi Harnden has been Think Marketing’s Senior Strategy
Consultant since 2004.

 

---

Client Spotlight: DuPont Displays

By: Lucy Zee

Think Marketing helped DuPont Displays focus its message
to achieve an outstanding showing at industry’s leading event.

The Society for Information Display’s (SID) Display Week is the leading marketing event for the fast-growing electronic-display industry. For the past four years, Think Marketing has worked with DuPont Displays to produce and manage their presence at this global event.

When it comes to planning for a tradeshow, crafting a focused message that uniquely positions your product or service and enables it to stand out is vital to a good event showing. This is no less true for our client, DuPont Displays. However, because DuPont Displays is comprised of seven distinct business units, each with its own products, management personnel, and business objectives, the task of weaving together a single cohesive message is a huge challenge.

Over the years, we’ve worked to establish solid relationships with each of the businesses to garner an understanding of their individual products and to develop their own unique selling propositions (USPs). This, combined with in-depth industry research, and tight collaboration with the DuPont corporate offices, enabled us to develop an overall positioning for the various businesses to present together, as one, to the marketplace. Think Marketing was able to help DuPont Displays successfully showcase each unique technology, as well as position DuPont as a technological leader for the industry as a whole.

The result? The DuPont Displays booth successfully attracted a heavy flow of sales leads for each product offering, as well as captured the attention of the all-important trade media. In producing their exhibit for the fourth straight year, DuPont Displays has clearly signed on to Think Marketing’s approach of the importance of messaging. We look forward to working on SID 2008!

Lucy Zee has been the Account Director for
DuPont Displays at Think Marketing since
2006.

 

---

DARREN’S DESIGN TIPS

I’m often asked what‘s the most important thing to keep in mind when starting a new print project. The answer is to begin with the end in mind. Some questions to ask upfront are:

• What budget does the end use justify?
• What file formats does the printer accept?
• What are the color requirements and what are the differences in cost?
• CMYK 4-color or spot colors?
• What paper or substrate is ideal for the project and its end use?
• Does the production and shipping time meet the needs of the project?

Understanding what the final design needs are at the start of a project will save you time and effort.

Darren Frale has been working as Think Marketing’s graphic designer since 2005.
His work is featured across many of Think Marketing’s client projects.