At a time when budgets are being stretched so very thin in marketing departments I was pleasantly surprised to see a business, albeit fairly small, investing in themselves. The re-brand was very nice from a visual standpoint. I started thinking of what kind of paradigm shift had to have taken place for such a dramatic change in the visual voice of this company. And, did the changes affect the balance
sheet of the company in a positive way? I had know more.

I spoke to the owner of the dry cleaners who admitted to seeing and increase in sales after the re-brand. People were coming in and acknowledging they did not know the cleaners was there.
It was not until they saw the new signage on the vans that they became aware. I cannot say
with certainty that the re-brand alone was closing sales but it was clear the efforts were having a positive impact on traffic through the door and it was affecting the ROI of their branding efforts. The owner affirmed my suspicion. Once inside however I did realize there was more than just a facelift. The environment was nice and the staff were nice and helpful. I spent more than an hour at the counter talking to whoever was willing to talk. (I also dropped off some items to be dry cleaned)

The value of a brand hinges on how the brand is delivered, the messages in their materials, the media they choose, the markets they serve, etc. But mostly, I’d say it hinges on how well they execute and deliver — especially in customer interaction.

Through my conversation with the dry cleaner owner it was clear that they understood branding to be a long term investment. And I think that is how, especially in today’s challenging economic landscape, companies of all kinds might want to look at branding.

I would like to add that through our conversation I learned that they also saw it as a way to positively impact the aesthetics in the community in which they do business. That’s a blog entry for another day.

Mary P. Curtis
CEO

3880 So. Bascom Ave., Suite 215
San Jose, CA 95124

Voice: (408) 559-8880
Mobile: (408) 888-7872

email: mcurtis@pacifico.com
Web: http://www.pacifico.com

E-waste Services, a non-profit organization, wanted to build awareness for their free electronics-recycling service for consumers and businesses. With a stagnant website and little media attention, the company relied heavily on the word-of-mouth of a few clients and a small ad in the local community publication to market their services. The founder, Evelyn O’Donnell, wanted to put a friendlier face on the recycling industry as well as position herself in the media as an active, community-focused individual.

Historically, E-Waste Services has offered recycling as a vehicle for giving back to others. O’Donnell’s philanthropic ventures have included raising funds to send volunteers to New Orleans to build homes for Katrina victims; raising money to buy new computer equipment and supplies for local elementary schools; and working with an assisted living facility to raise money for families in need of financial assistance.

After careful analysis (Brand AscertainmentTM), Pacifico concluded the best course of action was to re-launch e-Waste Services with a fresh identity, one that was more endearing to the average viewer, sparked their curiosity, and forged the urge at an emotional level to become active in environmentally friendly activities.

Our team went to work, crafting the expression of a new name for e-Waste Services, one that reflected both the environmental awareness of the company while maintaining roots in the technology aspect of their work. “Green Mouse”
was born. ‘Green’ to maintain the environmental focus of recycling, and ‘Mouse’ as a cute reference to technology, i.e. computer ‘mouse’.

We then developed a round of logo concepts that further communicated this idea, the chosen one being a group of green mice circling each other to form a
classic recycling symbol. The team then focused on revamping a stale, uninteresting website into one that reflected GreenMouse’s new identity as a purpose-driven company, creating jobs and giving back to the community.

This BrandLift effort resulted in a very simple, vibrant Website that featured the new GreenMouse logo and color scheme prominently on the landing page. In addition to a more endearing “Who We Are” section, the creative team installed tabs such as “What We Recycle”, “Events/Fundraisers”,and “Mouse Bits” (fun factoids about recycling), encouraging viewers to participate in environmentally conscious activities.

To further the BrandLift our media outreach team struck gold, landing a TV news segment with CBS 5’s “Green Beat” reporter, Jefferey Schaub. The PR team also made contact with the San Jose Mercury News, the largest print news publication in the area and secured a briefing with personality profile reporter, Patty Fisher. The resulting article was a poignant piece on O’Donnell’s background including her story of forming the company.

After beginning with little public awareness, Pacifico helped transform GreenMouse’s image from a small, grass-roots organization, to a legitimate company in the recycling industry. Today, GreenMouse is experiencing new found success and has partnered with several large corporations to handle their e-waste recycling, including Best Buy, Siemens, North American Title,
and Jenny Craig.

Mary P. Curtis
CEO

3880 So. Bascom Ave., Suite 215
San Jose, CA 95124

Voice: (408) 559-8880
Mobile: (408) 888-7872

email: mcurtis@pacifico.com
Web: http://www.pacifico.com

I’m going to step out on my limb to say: both, and I’ll stay there to tell you how I see things.  This was hardly an isolated announcement, making the union angle the lesser motive.  The Philadelphia Inquirer had filed for bankruptcy on the 23rd and the Rocky Mountain News closed on the 27th.  The Chicago Tribune announced it’s bankruptcy filing on December 8 of last year.  The Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury News have made cuts and mandated rolling unpaid furloughs following cuts and one can only expect more cuts along the way.

In short, venerable news organizations are having to do more with less manpower and the barn door is wide open for alternative media to step in.  What are those alternative media?  The immediate answer is always online.  That’s another marker of this era.  But I’d like to suggest that’s not the only answer.

Circulation of daily newspapers has seen a steady decline for years.  The reason?  Likely some combination of the pace of life where no one has the requisite hour or more to give a daily paper its due.  It started as we read only a section, and then a section every other day or once a week.  Television news cut that hour or more down to less than twenty minutes.  Intelligent minds lamented the lack of depth in the coverage, and turned to weekly magazines.  Weekly neighborhood papers carried the very local news in a digestable weekly format.  More and more our favorite portals pushed news headlines to us that we could click on for links to more in depth reporting.  Our cell phones can collect the in-depth reporting for us to select when we have time to plug in to podcasts.  We decide in the car on radio of our choosing.  A whole new digital signage medium can be programmed to local-cast everything from corporate to community messaging – and advertising localized to geographic and neighborhood audiences.

There are lots of conclusions to be drawn from all these trends but the biggest is that we’ve moved beyond the era of one-size-fits-all journalism.  The 11 o’clock news is broadcast at 9 and 10 as well as 11.  24-hour news channels let us opt-in to news on our schedule.  The Internet lets us opt-in to blogs, podcasts, portals and chat.  We become reporters on Twitter and a whole variety of social media, which give new meaning to the tried and true cliché “up to the minute.”  This is the age of the opt-in audience.  There have been no demographic or psychographic studies on that segment.

There’s a new news-game in town and no one knows yet what it is.  The question of how we maintain the value of trained and disciplined journalism teeters under the weight of a broken business model – expenses without revenues to sustain them. National Public Radio has been reporting on this all week and a new study is out from the Pew Charitable Trust. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1133/decline-print-newspapers-increased-online-news

Let me know what you think.

Mcurtis@pacifico.com

Does a logo create value for a company’s product or service? Absolutely, though it does so subtly through repetition and readability. The readability aspect is key. Our minds have a short attention span by nature. When our brains accept or understand an image or visual concept there is a validation and connection made that we remember. When our brains cannot accept or understand, information goes into a cerebral compost heap.

When a logo is clean, understandable, and relevant it speaks volumes about a
company’s integrity and perception of self worth. These are important and valuable messages to convey especially given the current economic challenges facing the world today. Some might say it is a moral imperative or social responsibility to pay extra close attention to the value of a good logo, a precursor to the imperative to deliver a good product or service. We have all heard the term, “wearing your heart on your sleeve.”  A logo is regarded much the same way except I might put it differently; A well thought out and executed logo is a commitment.

If I am going to patronize a company I am going to subconsciously judge the values of that company based on a logo since that is typically my first association with the brand. I want to know I am going to be treated fairly and that engaging with a company is going to be worth the money I am spending. In other words I want to feel that I am going to have a good experience.  Make no mistake that the logo is often the first piece of information about a company just as a face or a voice first creates an impression of a person.

Logos do not need to be expensive to be good. The low cost of the original Nike is legendary yet its value today is in the billions.

Good logos balance many factors: fonts, color, placement, size, pictures and design motifs and relevancy to a target audience. There was a time when companies judged themselves on how much they could spend on a logo.  Now, in humbler times they are proud (and held accountable) for how little they spend. Spending less does not need to compromise the process for developing an aesthetically pleasing logo. On the contrary, many times the smaller the budget the more innovative a designer needs to be.

Getting a good logo begins with getting into a good relationship with a professional brand development partner who will take the time up front to understand your business, your roadmap and your objectives. The right partner knows that they look good when you look good.