"Branding? But I don't even live on a ranch in west Texas."

What the heck is "Branding?" Branding is what conveys your company's image to the rest of the world. Your "brand" is what the consumer knows about you. That's what Blue Bike lives for, we love having the opportunity to take the conceptual perception, and metaphorical parameters, of you (whatever "you" means, whether it is a company, nonprofit, organization, etc.), and create the culture and story behind your brand. Blue Bike's brand strategy is, as well yours should be, moving forward in the creation of a brand story, the creation of a culture around your brand. There are a lot of factors that play into the creation of your unique brand story, like who you are, what you do, where you are going and who you are trying to reach. Your branding assets are also made manifest in a variety of different ways, like a website specifically designed for you and your brand, built with the with custom applications, or print design for ads and annual reports, all the way down to the logo and unique aspects of your products and services, which are branded specifically for you.

Why is developing a unique and creative brand strategy important? It's not important . . . it's imperative. There is a massive sea of blasé companies out there and the consumer has to see something that sets you apart from every other Joe Blow company. You have to be unique and conveyed in a way that shows authenticity. Talk to us . . . it's time to shift gears.

Having a Web Presence

It shouldn't be shocking to inform you, the reader, that we are currently living in a highly digital age. It should be shocking for you, the reader, and your business to not have a web presence. The way humans communicate has changed so dramatically over the past 20 years that it has entirely altered the ways of commerce. For example, in 1989 (almost 20 years ago) when Saved By the Bell stormed into the living rooms of America to quickly steal the hearts of our youth (I mean, honestly, who can blame them when there are characters like . . . Zack, Kelly Kapowski, Lisa Turtle, Screech, A.C. Slater and Jessie Spano) we thought Zack Morris' twenty pound "cell phone" was cool. It wasn't. Now we have the iPhone, the soon-to-be released Google G1 phone, the Blackberry (a.k.a. crackberry) and an assortment of other little gadgets that keep us in constant contact with the rest of the world. We can buy a new pair of shoes on our coffee breaks for God's sake. 

So my question to you is this; why the hell don't you have a website? 

And now it's time for a shameless plug: Blue Bike Marketing designs and develops custom websites!

Marketing at its Best: Obamarketing.

Sad though it may be to say, I did not coin the term "Obamarketing." I did, however, arrive at that term independent of any outside suggestions. But when I visited my very trusty friend Google to find out if I were really as brilliant as I had hoped, I came to find out that alas - I was not. Dan Goldgeier beat me to the punch with his blog post on www.adpulp.com. 

I am not writing here to discuss my political views, or to endorse a particular candidate. I am here to pay homage to the old adage that says, "advertising works." Obama's (marketing) campaign is the proof in the pudding. 

I have decided to include Dan Goldgeier's article below:

Putting policies and positions aside for this discussion, Barack Obama has created the most sophisticated marketing program I’ve ever seen.

Decades of GM, Coca-Cola, and Proctor & Gamble efforts can’t compare to what this guy’s done in one year.

In the interest of full disclosure, yes, I donated a small amount of money to his campaign. And it gave me a window into a marketing operation that should be a case study in any college marketing textbook or agency account planning handbook.

It’s a marketing program that’s both run from the top down and organized from the bottom up. Sure, he has a team of advisors and full-time campaign managers and staffers. But millions of people have become involved and engaged thanks in large part to sheer marketing savvy.

I’d like to cite a few examples.

Obama’s team created a website that not only links to a dozen social networking websites, it is a social networking website unto itself. Featuring a searchable database of local and regional groups. And where anyone can have their own “my.barackobama.com” web page, with their own personal blog and fundraising goals. A friend of a friend of mine had set one up, and that’s the page through which I made my donation. I’d never met this person—but he contacted me personally to thank me. A new connection made.

After that, I’d get e-mails from the campaign, regularly. Yes, it’s weird to get an e-mail in my in-box that’s marked “From” Barack Obama. But they’re targeted, sophisticated e-mails. Less than 30 minutes after Barack Obama was declared the winner in Georgia’s primary, I got an e-mail thanking me for my support.

When Hillary Clinton decided she’d loan her campaign $5 million, I got an e-mail from the Obama campaign trying to match the amount. The e-mail had a running total of the money raised. And every time I opened up that same e-mail again, the money amount would be changed and updated in real-time. Maybe I’m a bit naïve about rich e-mails, but that was a “holy shit, that’s cool” moment for me that no consumer ad campaign has provided lately.

Then there’s the citizen-generated content. YouTube videos, posters, songs – much of it generated by ordinary citizens, some created by professional musicians, artists, and ad people. This is the kind of marketing that’s being preached by the “let’s have a engaging two-way conversation with our customers-as-friends” crowd. With Barack Obama, it’s become fully realized. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the least impressive portion of the campaign appear to be the official TV ads. They’re good, but hardly different from most political commercials.

In the face of all this hype, adulation and fast success, Obama supporters have been called a cult. That’s OK. So are Apple fans and Harley-Davidson owners. If you think this is bad for America and politics, remember: This is the world advertising created, one where a name or a product can be made to stand for more than its functionality.

But product performance is still the key. Let’s say Obama gets elected President on the strength of this brand he created. He still has to give good customer service for 4 years. And people will be disappointed if the product doesn’t reflect the hype.

I wish more agencies and clients would learn from the Barack Obama campaign. Yes, it’s an expensive, unique campaign – but it’s also well-staffed. There are lots of people doing the work, both at headquarters and in the field. It’s a fast-responding organization despite its size.

Plus, it appears quite a few of Obama’s people, particularly the web staff, are empowered to react. They know how to move fast in a way that advertising agencies and clients don’t. Some of my clients sit on little jobs like brochures or emails for days or weeks before they approve or reject them. Some have taken a year or more to refine their brand identity. And we can’t convince them to quicken the pace for their own good. Is it any wonder people think ad agencies are out of sync with the pace of today’s world?

Perhaps someone will create an advertising model that’s built on this type of campaign—one where a large, fast, intensive, results-oriented team takes a major marketer’s $75 or $100+ million annual budget and creates a national integrated campaign. Then that team disperses and reforms as needed for other major efforts. No, it’s not the most stable of organizational models, but that’s how political marketing works, and Barack Obama showed how it can be done to generate awareness and results far above and beyond what many ad agencies accomplish today.

Too many advertising people hold their noses up at political marketing, and for good reason. For too long it’s been condescending, nasty and pedestrian, and perhaps we should get rid of it altogether. But it’s here, it’s being done well, and the advertising industry should examine the success of the Obama campaign for ideas and tactics.

Maybe then we’d get some change we can believe in.

-Shift Gears

The Land of Milk and Honey

I think Texas is one of the greatest places on the face of this green earth. More importantly, I believe this to be most assuredly true about the great city of Waco. Waco is in fact located in the Heart of Texas, and as the heart, Waco is one of Texas' most vital organs. And it only makes sense that Texans are viewed as being overly prideful, or ethnocentric. Judge not, for it is not the Texan's fault, we just happen to be enlightened by the truth of Texas' greatness. And enlightened we should be. To quote the ever-so-famous bumper sticker, which has adorned a multitude of pickup-trucks, Suburbans, Tahoes, Jeeps, horse's rear-ends and just about any other form of transportation dreamt of by humans, "Southern by Birth, Texan by the Grace of God." (Nothing short of bumper-sticker-profundity!) Another bumper sticker that particularly illustrates the draw Texas can have upon the human heart reads, "I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could." What, the reader might ask, is so 'profound' about these particular bumper sticker statements? The significance lies in the truth found in the subtext. I think it is sufficient to say that a divine light of blessing has shed it's beautiful beam upon The Republic of Texas. Perfectly summarized in the words Little Texas, it's  "Cause God blessed Texas with his own hand."

 

Disclaimer: The views presented herein are the sole responsibility of the blogger and do not necessarily express the views of Blue Bike Marketing + Design or its affiliates. 

Kick your shoes off . . . We'll be here a while.

I suppose this is Blue Bike's first dive into the deep end of the blogosphere pool. It only seems appropriate for me to introduce the Bike Gang. We are a group of four, incredibly talented (if I may say so myself), young professionals who are taking a ride on the wild side of business. The four partners that make up Blue Bike are all Baylor Alumni (thus, well educated) with broadly spanning areas of study. 

One might ask, "Alright then . . . what does Blue Bike do?" To answer: we do a lot. We are an entirely in-house all inclusive marketing and design firm. Some of the things we "do," a.k.a. services we provide, are web design and development. Blue Bike is one of the few, and busy, marketing and design firms that actually does both the design and development of a website in-house. We couldn't very well call ourselves a "marketing firm" if we didn't address the identity of our client's companies. That is why a lot of what we do falls into the category of "Branding," which encompasses a brand strategy that can range from logo design (or redesign), all the way to the visual presentation of a company's interior, with everything in between. However, the "do" doesn't stop there. Blue Bike is a company that takes design seriously, that's why we provide our clients with superior designs that are applied to the appropriate media. That means, your new logo, the redesign of your website, the perfect business card (please see: American Psycho, 2000), your next ad campaign in GQ or Texas Monthly (or both), or an entirely new, creative and fresh way of strategically presenting your company. That's what we do.