Living in the Foam

One thing I have noticed lately is that we are all very caught up in the here and now. I remember the days when I could relax and think about the future. Whether planning for my own life or my clients’ brands, I remember having the time and inclination to look toward the future and envision more.

I’m missing that today.

I have found that companies are spending more time focused on immediate issues than planning for the future. Grocery stores are focused on period numbers, companies on quarterly earnings, and my kids are obsessed with how many “likes” they get on each Instagram post.

There is something to be said about living in the moment, but don’t we also need to look to the future both for inspiration as well as for precaution?

From a branding perspective, this can be critical. Here are three reasons why focusing on a long-term vision or strategy will help you grow and succeed.

1. Control Your Brand

Who really controls your brand message? As companies, we used to be able to control the message of the brand through how we spoke about it, the advertising we used, our claims and our brand position. Today, our brand is often shaped by our customers through reviews, tweets, comments and more.

As a company, it’s easy to fall into the trap of reacting to customer comments rather than proactively leading your brand where you want it to go. By only living in the moment, companies may find that they are chasing their tails and losing track of what their true goals are.

Public opinion can occasionally prove to be insightful and help you learn and grow, but don’t allow it to be the rudder that’s directing your company strategy. Stay focused on your long-term goals and stay true to your brand promise, no matter what today’s Yelp review says.

2. Chart Your Own Path

Product development, especially in retail and on a large scale, needs to be planned years in advance. It takes the right partnership between functional experts to make products come to life.

While you are planning for growth, new items will inevitably pop up that you may have never imagined. They may give you new ideas, make you second-guess your choices, or even change the dynamic of your category.

In the face of these challenges, trust in your brand and stay your course. Keep an eye on trends and what’s new, but don’t lose sight of the product mix you have created and are committed to. Dollars go fast and mistakes are costly.

3. Slow and Steady Can Still Win the Race

Ask yourself and your team: “Are we in this for the long haul or will we want out in two years?” Either answer is valid and completely dependent on your own situation and desires, but an honest answer will help you choose your path moving forward.

Going for a quick win does occasionally pay off. Pop-up brands, one-hit wonders and fads are always going to be there. Remember the Chia Pet? Or the Furby?

However, when you look at the brands that have stood the test of time, they are brands that have remained committed to their core pillars but have been flexible enough to grow and expand appropriately over time. An established brand like Coca Cola may stumble by chasing a trend, like when they introduced New Coke in the 80s, but their company has remained successful by remaining true to their brand identity and keeping an eye on long-term strategy.

Our world is superficial and our trending topics change in a moment’s notice. Take some time to drive deep into what is meaningful to you in your life and your business.

Try living below the foam for a while. It is richer!

7 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Working with Design Firm

At Strategia Design, we work with a lot of clients who are launching their first product. This is an incredibly exciting process, especially for a designer, because we have the privilege of helping to define the brand and bring it to life.

Whether you simply need a logo or a complete package design, however, there are a few key questions that you should consider before any designer puts pencil to paper.

1.    What makes your brand special?

Understanding what makes your product or service special can be very illuminating for both you and a design team. You’d be surprised at how many companies have not focused enough on their point of difference and cannot articulate it. A brand’s unique point of difference, the benefits or traits you might want to emphasize, or what kinds of feelings you want the design to evoke will ultimately determine your brand identity and who you connect with.

This can be a tricky question, but it’s well worth the effort. Consider the answer carefully. Defining your unique value can help guide all of your branding and marketing efforts, and even your business development decisions, for years to come.

2.    Who is your target audience?

Many entrepreneurs feel compelled to say: “My product will be useful to anyone!” But let’s face it, that just isn’t true. Identifying your target audience, as well as their likes and dislikes, is crucial to connecting with them through design and marketing.

For example, the look and feel of a product for kids will be very different than one intended for adults. Some designs or color schemes may make a consumer think of it as a woman’s product or as a man’s product. If it’s a product for high-income families, we may want to aim for a more premium look. Even knowing your customer’s hobbies or interests can help inspire a more custom look for your brand.

3.    What are your style preferences?

Brands must connect with your consumers but they also have to feel right for you, the owners of the brand. If your brand is already established, you may have a style guide, color palette, and fonts that we can use in our designs. If not, it can be very useful for us to have some sense of what you like and what you don’t like from a visual perspective.

Often an audit is helpful in helping you define what you like or don’t like. What do your competitors look like? What other brands or products do you feel drawn toward? What websites do you think are striking? Using Pinterest can be an easy way to collect images that designers can draw inspiration from.

From there, we can understand how you see your brand and marry that with how your target customer sees the brand and create the right look and feel.

4.    What is the scope of what you need accomplished?

Start-up budgets are small, and we understand that. Perhaps all you need right now is a logo, and that’s OK. It is still helpful for us to know specifically what you need done now, what you might need done next, and your long-term goals.

You want to be able to grow into your brand and not have to retro fit as you grow.

We also ask a lot of questions. If we know that your new logo needs to work well on a 1-color print package, or if it needs to fit within a horizontal website header, we can design logo options with that in mind. Our team has experience in all aspects of branding, design, and marketing, and we’re happy to discuss big picture challenges with you.

5.    What are the limits that a design team needs to keep in mind?

To stand out, you have to know who you are standing out from. Perhaps your competitors all use the color blue and you want to stand out, so we’ll eliminate blue from our designs. Perhaps you’ve had past challenges with coming across as too feminine, so we need to stick to a gender-neutral style. Perhaps we need to incorporate certain elements from legacy designs in the updated work.

Limitations or parameters can go beyond the visual and be very much a part of the brand mission, point of difference, and the benefit you offer. Whatever your limitations are, it’s important for us to know about them from Day 1. This helps to reduce revisions, so we can create a design you love faster.

6.    Who are the decision-makers for your brand?

Even if you’re the CEO, there may be other people that you want to include on final design decisions. Identifying who those people are at the start of a project can help keep everyone on the same page throughout the whole process. Don’t forget that customers are also decision makers for your brand. What they say about it, tweet about it or how they react to it will shape its meaning over time. Be sure your team is on board, but make sure your customer is included in that research.

Keep the internal list of VIPs to only 1-3 individuals. Limiting this group will lead to less confusion and quicker decisions, making the design process easier for everyone. And remember that survey sites like Survey Monkey are your friend for customer research.

7.    What is your timeline?

Everything takes longer than you think. Have you ever made a 4-course meal and served it 2 hours late? Well that can happen in design as well, but we don’t want it to.

Share your timeline early in the project and back into it. Make sure your design firm asks questions like, “Do we need to meet a deadline for a tradeshow or a retailer presentation?” Some activities, like printing or shipping, can add time constraints that will be important for a design team to consider.

Even if you don’t have a hard deadline, we recommend that you decide on an estimated timeline. This will result in a more focused project that will help you achieve your goals.

Don’t know the answers yet? Don’t worry. We can help!

Some of these questions can benefit from an expert’s eye. If you don’t yet know the answers to any of these questions, our team would be happy to schedule an introductory call, a brand consulting session, or conduct a brand audit that will guide you to a clear and actionable plan.

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