The Sponge Blog: Evolve – embrace brand evolution. - Insights and ideas about design and marketing from The Sponge Sydney

(I say) It is People, it is People, it is People.

[NOTE: This post is about people... ...or recruitment actually]

Working on the copy of our book, I was reminded of a well known Maori proverb that translates to the headline and opening line in this post. For us it has significance on many levels, but in this instance it prompts me to blog about recruitment. Ask anyone managing a business to list their biggest challenges and you will find somewhere at the top words to the effect of ‘finding and keeping good people’. It is not only a time consuming process, considering all the interviewing and reviewing of CVs. It can also be a significant investment to use a recruitment agency and when, after a role has been advertised for months, the best applicant fails the probation period, how can the agency expect their policy of replacing that person to even look like a reality, or an immediate solution.

This post is part about our own recruitment and part about recruitment branding, one way in which we assist our clients. In “Built to last”  by Jim Collins and Jerry L.Porras they found four common themes that visionary companies display (greater that their competition) which makes them more able to find and keep the right people. They are: fervently held core company ideology; indoctrination; tightness of fit; and elitism. To work for your business these themes must be authentic and implemented throughout your entire company culture, no easy feat if it does not exist yet.

A client of ours recently engaged us to create a new recruitment brand for them. Our objective was to take their well known industry brand and evolve it to communicate their core ideology and strong culture to new entrants to their market, specifically university graduates and interns. These bright young people have not yet been exposed to their reputation in the market, so in the brief exposure they get at uni, there needs to be a clear conveyance of these aspects – succinctly and engaging!

This particular client has a genuine culture that resonates loudly and is fervently held by its people. Focus groups and interviews revealed commonalities that we explored to create a powerful and engaging campaign. I have to admit that the first concept we presented missed the mark completely, and we learned that with a resounding “no”, it was the common approach that could work for any of their competition. When we approached this project with it’s people and culture in mind, we not only a created a concept that we liked and could really dig our teeth into, but on every level the people whose culture it is we were selling bought in.

In short, what we found was three major benefits of joining our client are: Experience, Diversity and Reward: Experience – being able to work directly alongside industry elite; Diversity – the wide array of service areas covered;  and Reward – monetary and acquisition of global skills. Because this elite financial industry values intellect, we created the headline: “We are growing and looking for great minds” and to support this we have illustrated a section of the unique open office floor plan to identify some of the great minds of the organisation and to illustrate exactly where a new hire might be positioned in relation to these minds.

Another way of defining it is: It’s about alignment. By identifying the company’s ideology and ambitions clearly in all recruitment efforts, the majority of respondents are ‘the right people”, and the pretenders are quickly found out in the interviewing stage. As for The Sponge, we too are growing and have added our new internship program and three new roles to our holding pattern site.

Heading these roles is a newly expanded upon set of Core Values. In them we have done our best to identify our company’s core ideology and ambitions. While we love to meet new and talented people, we are only looking for people who are the perfect fit for our company. We don’t want to waste anyone’s time trying to fit a square peg into a droplet shaped hole. We are always looking for more people with big hearts and minds and ambitions in sync with our own. When we find that person, we are more than happy to explore with them how we can create a role to suit them if one has not been advertised. In other words we understand the value of having the right people on the bus.

I’d love to hear your thoughts…

After thought: Seth Godin wrote that recruiting is most often not treated as the important marketing it is considering you are betting the future of your company on it. It only takes 10% as much effort to hire someone in the bottom 90% of the class. And it takes the other 90% to find and cajole and retain the top 10%. Isn’t it worth the extra effort?

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I was recently invited to speak to some talented design students at Australia’s best design school [ Enmore SIT in Sydney ]. Here is the introductory video I used to set the tone and demonstrate what it is that we do at The Sponge, that is we make brands.

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I was speaking to a gentleman that I respect last week about branding. During this discussion we touched on many critical things, but none more than the importance of a brand culture within a company. If it is not there, then it is near impossible to create a brand identity.

Why is it critical that you stand for something? Because your brand is not your logo, unless you are a faceless, voiceless, automated commodity , then it is your people and your company culture. Your customers, clients, suppliers, distributors and even your people are immersed in your company culture every day. If you have a misaligned company vision (or no vision at all), or a similarly misaligned, or meaningless set of core values (or no core values at all), then what can you honestly expect the attitude toward your company to be?

An inspiring example of an empowering Vision and Values set comes from Southwest Airlines. It is one of many examples from “The Art of Business – in the footsteps of Giants” by Raymond T.Yeh and Stephanie H.Yeh

Vision: “To provide the best service and lowest fares to the short haul, frequent-flying, point-to-point, non-interlining traveler.”

Which Yeh translate the Tao as: “Liberating people to fly – democratizing the skies”

And the Values as lifted from http://www.southwest.com/careers/culture.html

Warrior Spirit
Work Hard
Desire to be the best
Be courageous
Display a sense of urgency
Persevere
Innovate

Servant’s Heart
Follow The Golden Rule
Adhere to the Basic Principles
Treat others with respect
Put others first
Be egalitarian
Demonstrate proactive Customer Service
Embrace the SWA Family

Fun-LUVing Attitude
Have FUN
Don’t take yourself too seriously
Maintain perspective (balance)
Celebrate successes
Enjoy your work
Be a passionate Teamplayer

These values and the commonly held company vision empower every member of the Southwest Airlines to act for the good of the company within a clear set of guides. This is the culture from top down and they insist on hiring only those people with the right attitude that fit the vision. This ensures that the dream lives in every employee. In fact Southwest Airlines has created an entire committee to nurture the culture called the Culture Committee.

It is this kind of company culture which enables a design team the ideal platform to create a Corporate Identity that is substantial and tells an authentic story. It is this kind of company that is our ideal client. If your Company is lacking in these areas, fear not, it is something that you can develop with the right direction. And the difference in productivity and profitability as a result can be astounding!

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Your consultant needs to be an exceptional listener. You need to be able to trust him with one of your company’s most valuable assets.

Some of the key aspects you should look for in a design firm are:

The hunger to completely understand your business. A holistic understanding that is, including your business direction, culture, process, goals (short and long term), target market, industry and your competition. This understanding must be sound, well before any ideas are generated. A skilled consultant will help you share the information with him by asking you and the key members your team a series of structured questions. This is where all the information and inspiration is contained.

Timeless Approach to Identity Design. Powerful brands will stand the test of time. Consider that when you choose your design team because they need to believe what they will create will be around long after you have left this earth and that it will be standing strong. This makes understanding your long term goals critical, otherwise it is next to impossible to create anything meaningful that will last.

Powerful Design Skills and Ability in many mediums. It is invaluable to find a design and marketing firm that has the ability to implement the new brand through your entire collateral material, whether it is print, live or online. A firm with equally talented staff in all areas of design can offer you commanding branding at every client touch point. A touch point is any element of your business that your client touches, whether it is a business card, a sign, your website or even your voicemail.

By doing so you can eliminate the weak links created when using multiple independent firms. The weak links will occur when the creative direction has to be translated again by a new creative team and is misunderstood. It can often be purposely modified with new “creative direction” because of a “was not done here” mentality. This intentional misdirection weakens your message and dilutes your brands story.

In summary, you need a firm with a hunger to understand your business and a desire to create you a timeless brand with the ability and team to implement it powerfully across throughout your company. Simple!

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For many the turning point when your brand starts failing to accurately represent the business passes by unnoticed (to those in charge) like a cloud in the night sky. The sad thing is that these failings contribute to irreparable poor first impressions, gross misunderstanding of your offerings and less and less new business of the type you want.

There are many reasons your brand can become misaligned with your business. From the experience of The Sponge, here are the top 10 signs that it is time to rebrand your business.

1. You are embarrassed by your current brand
2. Your business has moved in a new direction
3. Management or ownership has changed.
4. The logo was designed by an inexperienced staff member or designer
5. Potential customers/clients cannot distinguish you from your competitors
6. Potential customers/clients cannot see you as compatible to their needs.
7. Your employees are not proud of the brand they work for. Simple test: If you print your brand boldly on a t-shirt, would they wear it? (Without threat of firing)
8. Your brand was designed using a typeface or a design style that was a fleeting trend and now appears dated.
9. You have bought another company and have inherited new elements that should be represented in your brand.
10. You have developed a new Company Vision, Mission and/or Core Values that change the way your business works.

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All purchasing decisions are emotionally driven. Rationalizations are all made after that moment of decision and are usually only to justify that decision. Ultimately it comes down to how you feel about it. This is why an emotionally driven message, or story, is the most important element in your print material, apart from the initial attention seeking headline or graphical alternative. Your story must address your target audiences world view, engage them and create a burning desire to want to do what you ask. Remember, the only way to get anyone to do anything is to make them WANT to do it, if you don’t achieve this, they won’t!

So the 3 keys are 1. get attention, 2. make an emotional connection with your audience with a story they identify with and creates a desire, and 3. then finally you give them ONE easy to follow instruction to carry out. This can be a direction to “Call this number now”, “Visit an outlet”, “Visit our website – www” or “Send in this coupon”, or anything else that drives them to take immediate action. Keep it simple and don’t leave it to them to work it out.

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If you are still here then you are one of the smart people. You understand that your branding and marketing material needs to be unique and creative so it can stand out from the daily clutter that comes before your target market and vies for a moment of their precious time. Then equally as important, it must be highly appealing and emotionally stimulating to these citizens so that your message is received and acted on directly.Understanding all the ins and outs of your business and fine points of your products, or services is what we thirst for and so should you. Only once you are armed with this information can anyone create highly alluring designs, a holistic marketing strategy, and specific micro strategies to convey an emotionally charged message directly to your target market. An emotionally charged message can strike a chord with your target market, increasing their understanding of the benefits you provide them and elicit a direct response, ultimately generating you more profit.

You’ve made it this far so we believe that you can be the best and brightest in your industry. Developing powerful designs and a focused marketing strategy will help you get the results you crave. Strive to create the most creative, intuitive and remarkable designs for your specific needs. Your ultimate goal should be to significantly increase your profit and add value to your life and business. Ours is!

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Have you got a goal you want to achieve? It is your job as the entrepreneur, go getter, or rising star to have the great ideas – create the goal. However, there is nothing more frustrating that having a fantastic idea and not knowing the quickest and most direct route to its fruition and successful application. This is where the assistance of a great design and marketing team comes in handy.

Working with a skilled and experienced team will enable you to evolve your idea into one which is profitable and achievable. Essentially taking your goal, or idea and creating the most direct and effective plan to achieve it. This plan includes a time line for the short and long term milestones.

Two critical strategies to employ in bringing any great idea to reality are your Design Strategy – development on all the beautiful, awe inspiring printed or electronic material to market your idea. And your Marketing Strategy – how you plan to make a big profitable splash in the market place with this exquisitely designed material. Neither of these plans should be taken lightly, they can mean the difference between a brand new Porsche or finding a new job. Your design and marketing team should be one in the same or otherwise have some kind of uncommon synergy and no expense should be spared here.

I find the following comparison enlightening. Your ideal potential customer is waiting to be picked up down the road. Imagine you can choose any car in the world to pick this customer up in that best matches your idea, what car would it be? Then budget accordingly.

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Have you out grown your current logo? Do you think you need a new corporate logo or corporate identity?

You may find that your corporate identity has been outdated due to a market, or company shift, or perhaps you are experiencing the aftermath of choosing to use a design fad, which may have seemed like a good idea at the time.

Your logo is the centrepiece of your entire corporate identity; it is the public “face” of your business. It not only reflects on the company, it reflects on you. Your logo and collateral material should convey a succinct message of who you are and what you stand for, creating an ideal first impression when presented to a potential client.

There are many reasons that your corporate identity may not be right for right now. Whatever reason you find for why yours isn’t working, it means that it is time for you to rebrand.

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