She made a physical sitemap or flowchart of their website so she could picture the hierarchy and flow of the website. This sitemap allowed her to move things around easily and make “big picture” changes before touching (pun not intended) the actual website. This also helped her wrap her head around some of the decisions that were made before she was brought on board and to focus on some of the hidden pages on the website that have direct links to them such as their product pages.

This is much easier to visual than normal sitemaps with only boxes & lines. It also helps you ensure your prospective buyers and brand community can easily find things because you’re on the adventure with them.

If you’re making big changes in your company and to your website, this might be a great place to start.

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U-Haul moving trucks – fun or pure marketing genius?

We’ve all seen them, they’re hard to miss on any road trip. You probably even look for them, trying to find the one from your hometown. I’ve even seen U-Haul trucks on Roadtrip Bingo games.

Making people look for these fun, iconic trucks is only part of the U-Haul marketing plan. Look at the trucks closer. U-Haul is explaining to you why their trucks are better. On the back of the truck they refer to the low deck and even show you the height of other truck decks. Closer to the front, you see the term “Gentle Ride” and on the truck door it generally says Automatic and A/C. You may have never thought about it, but those are important qualities to most people. Qualities you may assume are on all trucks until now because U-Haul has raised doubt about their competitors. So now you ask before you rent a truck if it has A/C and an automatic transmission.  Another addition to the subtle sale pitch is the space above the cab known as “Mom’s Attic”. The term “Mom’s Attic” is cute, fun, and makes me think of my mom putting her china and other precious cargo up there away from the heavy furniture.

The entire truck differentiates U-Haul from all of the other competitors. Think of other moving trucks – they’re boring, boxy, and honestly not memorable (except for the series of Budget trucks with the stick figures – memorable, but they don’t differentiate).

Some of U-Haul’s new trucks have a scene showing a truck all packed up making you think about moving. It’s neat and organized – giving the appearance that moving can be easy and it has a little something for everyone including a basketball, lamp, and toolbox. They even use U-Haul boxes to cross-sell that service and get their name out there a few more times.

I promise you won’t look at another U-Haul truck the same way next time you see one driving down the road.

Awesomely terrible yet memorable.

Local advertising is critical for B-to-C companies, but why do so many local companies tend to throw money away with their ads? You can immediately recognize a local commercial by the poor video and sound quality, but here is a list of other giveaways that label commercials as ‘local’ as well:

No Plan – First of all – most local companies advertise because they want new customers. Most companies get this right, but fail by not making a plan of what they want to accomplish, how to measure their success, how they will go about doing it, and who they are trying to attract.

Miss the Mark – Most local companies try to do all aspect of advertising themselves and stretch beyond their knowledge base and end up wasting money because they’re advertising to the wrong people. Many times small business owners advertise on their favorite stations rather than their customers’ favorite stations. Would you rather hear your commercial or have your customer hear your commercial?

Sell Only on Price - Unless you have a streamlined method of manufacturing a product or a better method of providing a service, you should not sell on price alone. Be competitive, but not cheap. People perceive quality by price and if you offer something for $99 and your competitor offers their service for $125, consumers assume their pricier work is better. So you say your product/service has more to offer than your competitors – then tell me!

Don’t Go For the Gold – Local companies usually advertise their entry services and attract transactional customers instead of well-paying, repeat customers that they can build a relationship with over time. For example, Design the Planet does not say, “We design business cards”. Instead, we develop brand identities including logo, icon, stationery, website, brochure, tradeshow displays, advertising campaigns, etc. Can Design the Planet design a business card? Yes, but why lead people to us for a 2 hour project; instead, we look for 50+ hour clients. Look for the “cash cows”.

Being Cheap – I mentioned production value before, but many times local ads are cheap because of their time slot, infrequency of showing, and/or with the channel itself. If you can only afford the late night TV ads on a lesser known channel a few times a night, it’s time to look elsewhere. TV is not for everyone (I’d argue its almost not good for anyone). Use your money wisely and remember people need to see information 3 times to be recalled.

All Your Eggs in One Basket – I am amazed when a company calls and talks to me about taking over their marketing and I’ve never heard of them. They are amazed and when I ask them where they advertise, it’s on a channel I hardly watch or a radio station I never listen to; so how would I know about them? Look for opportunities using different mediums, channels, times, shows, communities, etc. Sometime a small sign at the local park can be just an impactful as the high-dollar TV spot because of it’s placement.

Let 'em have it.

Not Memorable - Have you ever seen a commercial and not remembered it? Yes you have. Commercials should stand out and have a reason to be remembered. This can be hokey or campy too. Do you remember the Special Man? What about 1825 Tulane? If you do, you’re from New Orleans. This ad for the Montgomery Flea Market is a horrible ad, but it’s memorable and we talk about it all the time in the office because it’s humorous.

No Differentiation - This is one of the biggest problems with local advertisers. They do not differentiate themselves from their competitors. Why buy from you and not another company? You should have a list of reasons, but one is all you need to be effective. Differentiation can be location, turnaround, quality, expertise, niche market, custom vs generic, certifications, etc. If you don’t have anything that differentiates your company from your competitors then you shouldn’t be in business.

Advertising & marketing is about education. You must educate your prospective customers how you are different, why you’re worth their time, and why you charge more (or why you’re cheaper). I recently hired a company to install new windows in my house because they told me why they were better than their competitors and trained me how to tell the difference in their products/services. Without this education, I would have only been able to choose based on price. Do you sell price or quality?

If you would like to review any of these suggestions or if you’d like help planning your next campaign, please drop us a line at 504-391-1550 or info@designtheplanet.com.

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What are your thoughts on The Bulldog logo? Do you think it is fitting or do you think they should have done something else?

The Saints logo the iconic fleur-de-leis design that is evident just about every where in New Orleans, especially after the city rallied back from Hurricane Katrina. This centuries old icon now symbolizes the faith and love for the city of New Orleans and many New Orleans area business have a fleur-de-leis incorporated into their company logos as well as the City of New Orleans’s logo. Although nearly everyone uses the fleur-de-leis design, the Saints have a unique version of the design that makes it their own. Do a simple Google image search for fleur-de-leis and you’ll find hundred, if not thousands, of different designs. You should be able to spot the Saints logo as being unique.

1967-1999 logo design

The Saints changed the logo in 2000 (according to SportsLogo.net) to incorporate the gold and fine tuned the design to make it more unique. Besides that color and slight design change, not much has changed since the team was founded on All Saints Day in 1967 [shown to the right].

When thinking of a logo or even a mascot for a football team called the Saints, not much comes to mind actually that is not sacrilegious with a fighting angel. Although not a fierce name like the bears, lions, and tigers, the Saints name is unique and fitting for New Orleans. The city is very Catholic throughout history and as mentioned previously, the iconic fleur-de-leis is found throughout the city. Also, what other football stadiums can say they have fans dressed as Moses and the Pope at their games?

Current Logo Design

New Rebranded Look for 2010

The Holiday Inn rebrand shown below was genius and it went far beyond the company’s logo. Many times people confuse a new logo for a rebrand. A rebrand is a new look across the board and that is exactly what Holiday Inn did. Holiday Inn required all of their franchises to update their properties to the new look or leave the company. As the recession was really developing, Holiday Inn had little mercy for the franchise owners dragging their feet and the company cut ties. I have seen many former Holiday Inns and I see why the company cut ties. Holiday Inn upscaled their company image to be a preferred place for families to stay for vacations as well as frugal business travelers. The former Holiday Inns can mostly been summed up as “hell holes”. [I can not account for every one of them since I'm obviously not seen all of them, but the ones I've driven by or the few I've stayed at as a last resort where just horrid.]

Classic Holiday Inn logo

Revamped Holiday Inn Rebrand in 2007

Just remember a rebrand is not just a new logo, but a new company attitude, a position change in the market, or a rebirth of a very historic logo. Also, many small companies fail to inform their brand community that they made the change so they look like they were bought out or worse, a different company altogether. Obviously a small company is not going to international news like Gap, DoubleTree or Holiday Inn, but a simple email, letter, or small advertising campaign will go a long way.

As a designer & marketer, I love seeing rebrands. Some are very successful and others are not so much. At least Gap listened to their fans and brand community via social media and public mockery on TV, radio & print. Some advertising experts say this may have been a stunt to get media attention. Just this morning, the Today Show on NBC mentioned the brand going back to the classic logo then immediately asked why that was considered news.

Do you have a favorite brand that did a great rebrand or maybe another brand horror story? Do tell.

One thing was obvious to me – some companies get branding and others do not. Case in point, the M&M Store is a 3-story behemoth of a store that sells clothing, jewelry, magnets, kitchen wear, custom M&M colors, more clothes, purses made of wrappers, coin banks, etc. (You get the point hopefully.) The entire store was colorful, entertaining, branded, and even smelled a bit like chocolate. One thing that particularly impressed me was how the store carried out the brand consistently throughout the store. Even the freight elevator was marked with a cute M&M character with a witty saying [look right] instead of just a sign. Very clever and it keeps you in the brand experience. The yellow M&M even holds the box upside personifying his dimwitted nature.

Across the street is the Hershey store with an elaborately designed exterior that is even more inviting than the M&Ms store. Walking into the store, my wife & I both had visions of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory in our minds. We were sadly disappointed. The store is unique for a typical mall store, but for Times Square, the inside fell flat. We walked along the crowded aisles and found our favorite candy and bought a shirt for my brother-in-law (he loves Reeses) and stood in line to check out.

After leaving the Hershey store, something stood out to me. You can not buy a bag of M&Ms at the M&M store. They had M&Ms, but they were all in tins, mugs, creative packaging, and the like. Most of the items in the Hershey store, I could buy at any drugstore or grocery store. Also, I noticed the noise, lines, and chaos at the Hershey store even know the M&M store was much louder, had more people, and had more going on. This is because the Hershey store was an store that sold candy not a place to experience a brand.

This was an eye opening experience for me that showed my money does not make the brand experience. Although, the brand experience makes money. We spent 3 times as much at the M&Ms store and went back numerous times throughout our short vacation.

If you’re in NYC, check out these two stores and the new Pop Tart World. Pop Tart Word just opened the week before we visited Times Square and they’re doing a lot of great things. It is not quite M&Ms yet, but you can make your own Pop Tart t-shirt, create a custom box of the pastries, and enjoy their Pop Tart cuisine. I think was a little too old for Pop Tart World’s impact, but I’m glad we found it (new means not on maps.)