Tag: branding

Higher Education: Is Free Coursework Charity or Promotion?

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Higher Education: Is Free Coursework Charity or Promotion?

Advertising

Now you can achieve MBA status for free—well, sort of—it may just be a higher education marketing masterstroke. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will offer a seemingly revolutionary MBA program they call the iMBA. It works like this—UIUC will offer the entirety of its iMBA coursework on Coursera, a free online education platform where students are able to earn specializations such as accounting, business operations and digital marketing. Pretty cool, right?

Well, as the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. While course “certificates” may be earned for free online, legitimate iMBA’s can only be obtained by gaining admission to the University, then paying somewhere in the ballpark of $20,000. That ain’t free.

So what’s UIUC’s angle here? Maybe we can chalk it up to an act of charity—here’s a university providing a solid curriculum to folks who can’t or simply don’t want to pay for a traditional MBA. Could be, but what if UIUC saw free online coursework as an education marketing opportunity?

Perhaps UIUC realized prospective students’ reservation to delve into the all-too-familiar realm of student-loan debt. Maybe prospective students just needed a small taste of MBA coursework, like a sample at Costco, to fork over the $20,000 for the official iMBA. After sampling the coursework and assuring themselves that an MBA is attainable, they’d feel confident investing tens of thousands of dollars.

Charity or genius promotion, free coursework from any university as esteemed as UIUC should be greatly valued in this day and age. Average undergraduate student-loan debt is up to $30,867 per student—the highest it’s ever been. While college costs surge, the value of a degree has remained substantial. According to the Wall Street Journal, workers with only a high school degree earned a median weekly wage of $668 compared to $1,193 for workers with at least a bachelor’s degree.

If all of the knowledge can be found online, I fear it’s become blatantly obvious that we’re paying large sums of money (that we don’t have) for a posh piece of paper. This is neither profound nor a revelation. College has always been about getting the degree, and hey, if you learn something along the way, that’s great too.

We work with a number of education clients to help define their brand and create strategies that drive results. Think your brand could benefit? Contact us today!

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2015 Internet Trends Report – What Stands Out

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

2015 Internet Trends Report – What Stands Out

Advertising

Every year, Mary Meeker from KPCB, a top Silicon Valley firm, releases the Internet Trends Report, which offers a comprehensive look at how the web is changing and evolving.

And at just under 200 slides, it sure is comprehensive. While most of the information makes sense, some of the numbers and trends are simply staggering in terms of pure volume.

Here are some of the trends that stood out in terms of importance as well as sheer entertainment value:

Mobile, mobile, mobile everything

In case you missed it, accessing the Internet from your phone is kind of a big deal these days. In fact, over the past year, mobile grew at three times the speed as Internet usage in general. On top of that, mobile data usage rose by nearly 70 percent in 2015.

So what does this mean? People are consuming media on the go more then ever. The times at which consumers are being presented with information continues to evolve, and as long as they remain glued to their phones, marketers would be wise to find opportunities to meet them there.

It seems like that’s what’s happening, with mobile ad revenue growing by 34 percent while desktop only growing by 11 percent. It’s not surprising on the whole, but the numbers behind really drive the point home.

Facebook Video – An attempt to keep growth going

You’ve probably read 74,393 different articles by now about how Facebook is dying or dead. Which is good for clickbait headlines, but the jury is still out.

On the one hand, Facebook revenue per user growth is slowing down. It grew nearly 60 percent last year and is down to only 30 percent this year. Some people are indeed looking elsewhere for their social networking needs.

On the other head, Facebook video is going through the roof. There are nearly 4 billion video views every day. Unsurprisingly, 75 percent of those views are coming from mobile. Not too shabby.

So while some may think Facebook is on the way down, I tend to believe the platform still has some room to maneuver. While the desktop version is down, there’s still a high ceiling for video, messenger and calling options within the platform that should help the old standard stay relevant.

What a difference a couple of decades make

The tech industry is one of the most disruptive. As such, companies that have been on top in the past might not evolve well enough to stay on top. Early in the presentation, there’s a great example of this.

Here’s an example: can you name the top Internet company in 1995? It was Netscape, who rose to prominence in large part with their product Navigator, which was a precursor to Internet Explorer.

Where are they now? Well, AOL owns them now and uses the brand to market a discount Internet service provider.

In fact, while the dot-com bubble burst knocked out a good chunk of the names on that list, there is one notable company who has able to hang around:

That’d be Apple, who finished second on the list in 1995 and is now #1.

Staying on top of trends is a full-time job, and we treat it that way. It keeps our digital offering relevant and our clients benefit immensely. Contact us and lets talk about what’s trending for your brand.

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Trending from G/L: How can FIFA sponsors weather the storm?

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: How can FIFA sponsors weather the storm?

Advertising

(UPDATE: Just as we posted this, FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced his resignation. We feel like there’s a good chance some of the head honchos at the top FIFA sponsors might have played a role in it.)

This won’t come as a shock to those who know me well, but I’m a huge sports fan. Especially soccer. When the United States Women’s National Team was in St. Louis in April, my voice was completely gone the following Monday during our G/L status meeting (oops).

My over-the-top fanaticism aside, being a soccer supporter means having to deal with FIFA, the organization that governs the sport, at a worldwide level. Last week, law enforcement agencies in the United States formally accused the organization and members of the top brass of systematic corruption with regards to the lucrative contracts and events that FIFA is in charge of.

While corruption accusations have whirled around FIFA for decades, these latest allegations have gained traction and created public outrage, not just in the United States, but worldwide. And fans are demanding accountability, not just from the organization, but also from the brands that are aligned with it.

This puts multi-national FIFA sponsors like Adidas, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Hyundai and Visa in a precarious spot. Most of the companies tied to FIFA have made statements to the effect of asking the organization to take firm action to address the charges at hand. But that may not be enough, at least in the short term, according to a recent Ad Age article.

A bold move would be for one of the aforementioned brands to consider pulling their sponsorship of FIFA, including marquee events such as the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 edition in Qatar. This would certainly send a strong message globally.

On the other hand, in the age of the 24-hour news cycle, it’s quite possible that they’re just waiting for another worldwide scandal to take hold and relegate the current crisis to a level of lesser importance. The timing of the scandal, along with the reelection (and subsequent resignation) of FIFA president Sepp Blatter created a perfect storm of calamity. But without any new developments, will the story hold the same level of prominence weeks and months from now?

Or is there a cynical hope that, with soccer being the “World’s game,” that supporters will flock to stadiums regardless of who’s in charge and the allegations at hand?

Consumers do seem to care more about where their products come from and the brands they align with stand for than ever before. While the “safe” move might be to issue a statement and stand pat, if the controversy continues to grow, the brands involved may have no chance but to adapt a more substantive approach…or take John Oliver up on his offer:

Crisis Communications almost always doesn’t involve issues that are black and white. When determining the best way to act in a suddenly explosive scenario, what processes does your brand have in place? We’re always happy to chat.

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Brand Relevance: Innovation and Renovation

Randy Micheletti
VP, Director of Brand Strategy

Brand Relevance: Innovation and Renovation

Branding

We all know that creating consumer demand grows your brands. Product managers live and breathe this every day…but what do you have to do to create this demand? How do you keep your brand relevance and awareness high in the marketplace?

For many years, product managers have relied on innovation and/or renovation…but which one? How do you decide how to proceed, and what’s right for your brand? Innovation can be a major capital investment that might not always provide the ROI you’re looking for. On the other hand, renovation can be seen as the “poor persons” brand refresh.

Here are a few important things to think about as you decide how to move your brand forward – either innovating or renovating:

Innovation

Relative Advantage

Measures how improved an innovation is over a competing option or the previous generation of a product. Show potential customers how an innovation improves their current situation.

Compatibility

Show how your innovation will be compatible with their life and lifestyle. If an innovation requires a huge lifestyle change, or if the user must acquire additional products to make your innovation work, then it is more likely to fail. Innovations meet the greatest success when users are able to seamlessly adopt them — when they replace an existing product or idea, for the better.

Complexity vs. Simplicity

Complexity or simplicity refers to how difficult it is for adopters to learn to use an innovation. The more complex an innovation, the more difficult it will be for potential adopters to incorporate it into their lives. As we all know, potential adopters do not usually budget much time for learning

Trialability

Trialability describes how easily potential adopters can explore your innovation. Trialability is critical to facilitating the adoption of an innovation. Potential users want to see what your innovation can do and give it a test run before committing.

Read more: Five Characteristics of an Innovation

Renovation

Alienating Current Customers

Often changing packaging or the product’s formulation can lead to alienation. Ensure whatever you do is well tested and does not cause a loss in your current customer base.

Gaining New Customers

A refresh can often boost the relevancy of your brand and can make you a category leader. If you go down the path of re-positioning your brand you have the chance of creating a new and excited customer base.

Limit Confusion During Switchover

As you update your product in market, especially at shelf, ensure there’s thought behind how you’ll roll the product out. It can take only one missed opportunity with a current customer for them to switch to another product. Remember, consumers aren’t always loyal, and if you give them a reason to switch – they will.

Read more: Innovation or renovation: What really fuels growth?

So when you’re faced with a choice – we say pick both. As reported in Nielson, Innovation can help attract new customers and new usage occasions, and renovation can periodically help you protect your core and build platforms for future renovation and growth. Be sure to look at both options upfront in an unbiased fashion rather than repeating what you’ve done in the past. These decisions will likely be some of the most important decisions you make.

Do you need help deciding which is right for you? Do you know which is right for you but you aren’t sure how to plan and execute? Let’s chat. Fill out the form below and we will contact you to talk about what’s best for your brand.

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Consumer Engagement: Branding Your Memories

Luke Smith
Senior Account Executive

Consumer Engagement: Branding Your Memories

Branding

The broad term “experiential marketing” can translate to a million different tactics and strategies, but the core goal remains the same–create consumer engagement and experiences that aid in the evolution of your brand.

Consumers are bombarded with anywhere from 3,000-5,000 passive messages a day. While the exact number is not known, we know that it’s overwhelming, and we know that it’s easy to get lost in the clutter unless we plan accordingly and support marketing efforts with outstanding creative.

Sensory Memory

While traditional advertising certainly serves an important role through reach, frequency and precision (and it’s easier on the budget), marketing through experiences with a brand will not only generate a personal interaction with a consumer, but also implant a sensory memory as well.

Sensory memory refers to how we remember the way things look, feel, smell, or taste. Typically, our brain stores this type of information as if it were taking a snapshot of the event using your senses as the camera. These are the sorts of memories that generate the building blocks for brand relationships.

Every marketer should strive for their brand to create a personal relationship with consumers.

Think about this–do you have a brand or product that you still buy today because your parents or grandparents raised you with this brand/product? You’re not just buying this because you like it; you’re subconsciously committed to the brand because of the experiences you’ve had and the relationship you’ve built with it.

Unforgettable Experiences

Let’s take a look at some recent, inspirational examples of brands that set the standard for experiential marketing.

While I’m sure that there were some strict rules and detailed planning, the execution and strategy is something to be admired. The positioning of this experience was clever. Not only did Carlsberg capture the interest of an already busy, vibrant street, but it was also strategically placed just around the corner from a popular craft beer bar, where the taste for local beers is taking dominance over more mainstream brews.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfPbyG42iGE#t=18

At the 2015 Ted conference Delta Air Lines created an installation called “Stillness in Motion,” based on the book The Art of Stillness. This was part of a suite of different products designed to make a more productive use of your time. Approximately 800 visitors tweeted about it, resulting in 9.3 million Twitter impressions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_VWKEt2e3w

Creating Your Experience

Experiential marketing is another great tool to use in our marketing arsenal. If executed correctly, it’s a tactic that breaches traditional and emerges as a branded memory. It truly creates a powerful opportunity for your brand to build a relationship with consumers.

Would you like to learn more about how experiential marketing can help your brand? Fill out the form below or email us at [email protected] and we can talk more.

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Brands on Social Media: Keys to finding “Insta” Success

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Brands on Social Media: Keys to finding “Insta” Success

Branding

Social media channels are a great way to stay connected. At the same time, there can be such an over-saturation of content on various platforms that it can be difficult to sort through it all. Even on a site like Twitter, with it’s feed platform, is experiencing some growing pains in figuring out the best way to insert sponsored content.

While it’s true that Instagram has evolved dramatically since being initially released in 2010, at least one main value holds true: strong visual content compels people.

As brands look to grow their Instagram following, a handful seem to be doing it right, according to this recent Contently article. Here are some of the reasons why they’re resonating:

Natural

National Geographic has been around for generations in it’s print form. While some longstanding publications have had trouble adapting to a digital and mobile landscape, @NatGeo has kept ahead of the times. They’re able to leverage the top-notch photography they produce and use it well on Instagram without coming off as overly promotional. When you know how to properly use awesome content, you’re in good shape.

Photo @ladzinski / Let’s face it, the desire to explore and see new places is something that burns inside of just about everyone of us. We’re nothing short of blessed to live in a world so big and abundant with beauty. My long time friend @sashadigiulian is a true born adventurer, always looking for that next great experience, new place to discover and how she can interact within it. She’s also one of the top rock climbers in the world, which is pretty handy when you see a climb as stunning and hard as this one seen here in South Africa’s #WatervalBoven. If you’re a fan of adventure then good news, @natgeoadventure just dropped on Instagram and it’s already charging. It’s an ever growing repository of photos and experiences from some of the top adventure photographers and athletes out there, it’s sure to be hot, check it out!

A photo posted by National Geographic (@natgeo) on

Candid

Vogue Magazine knows their audience well and they know how to provide content that their audience wants. By using their credibility, access and partnerships with top influencers to deliver info and images that no one else can, they’re able to offer a unique experience. @VogueMagazine is also really good at using Instagram to direct their followers onto their owned platforms, such as their website.

 

How @beyonce and @officials_c_ arrive at the #MetGala. Photo by @kevintachman. A photo posted by Vogue (@voguemagazine) on

Community

Many followers throughout social media want to feel a connection to the brands they follow. By regramming content from users and giving appropriate credit, @Mashable is really banking on digital word-of-mouth marketing to give them a personal touch. By making their feed more about their followers than about them, they’re able to build community that has an impact on everything they’re doing.

 

Irreverence

@ESPN has become a surprisingly polarizing force in the sports media landscape during the past decade. Some adore the network while others bemoan their focus on top teams and athletes. On social media however, their accounts have a consistently conversational sports fan feel about them, which is fairly in line with their SportsNation branding. Their Instagram presence is no different, highlighting the lighter side of the games we love.

 

Consistently Cool

New York Magazine has a sophisticated voice that showcases their influence in one of the world’s biggest hubs. Their Instagram, @NYMag, is promotional, but it is so in a way that compels readers to stick with them. Again, when you mix good content with good promotional hooks, you’re going to have a good combo on hand.

Need help figuring out the digital marketing mix for your brand? Contact us and we’ll get the ball rolling! (We’re admittedly not as good as the Pope at it, but we’re not bad!)

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Read the full article and see different examples on Contently here. 

 

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Trending Now from G/L: Industry Support, Quirky Brands, New Apps and more

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending Now from G/L: Industry Support, Quirky Brands, New Apps and more

Advertising

TRENDING NOW FROM G/L

Every Monday morning, the G/L office starts our week by meeting together and updating everyone on new business, old business, this week’s needs, last week’s successes – all the good stuff. We always take time at the end of these meetings to discuss what is trending now in our marketing and design world. We decided that what we talk about isn’t only beneficial to us, but to our clients and followers – so every Monday morning we share our favorite trends with you.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THIS WEEK

Last week, we talked about companies moving ads onto Instagram, a designers project The Urban Type and more. This week, we are talking about grabbing a beer with Anheuser-Busch InBev, Joe Boxer’s support for binge-watching shows, Samsung embracing the unboxing video trends, breaking up with IE8, Facebook taking on the video space and an app that reads your facial expressions to save pages for you.

“GRAB A BEER”

If you weren’t thirsting for a beer before, you may be after seeing this site. Anheuser-Busch InBev recently launched a digital campaign entitled “Let’s Grab a Beer”. The site is aimed at promoting the beer industry as a whole. In fact, if you weren’t looking for who made the site, you may never know it’s from A-B InBev. The site includes infographics, photographs and memes in a Pinterst-esque look and feel. This is a good example to show that your audience wants to hear about the industry, not just about your brand – and ultimately, if the industry benefits then the company does too.

Screen Shot 2015-04-20 at 10.57.37 AM
See the website here.
Read the full article from AdAge here.

INACTIVITY MOTIVATION

Joe Boxer is known for its wacky yet clever ads, specifically around holiday seasons. The brand mentions that in a slow time of year, they came up with something to put them back on the radar – it is known as their Inactivity Tracker. A spoof on exercise trackers, this band rewards users for doing nothing. The brand says it encourages slowing down and spending time in pajamas in this crazy world – but does so while showing the quirky personality of the brand. The product is accompanied by a video, a content hub and a PR push.

Screen Shot 2015-04-20 at 11.07.35 AMRead more about the product, and how to get it, in the article from AdAge here.

SAMSUNG EMBRACING THE TRENDS

“Unboxing” videos have become wildly popular in the tech world. Consumers record themselves taking their phone out of the box for the first time and reviewing the look, feel and features on camera. Samsung acknowledged that this is a steady trend in the tech world and made new ads out of their own professional unboxing videos. The brand uses each unboxing video to introduce the product and (at least) one specific feature to the viewer. These ads show that Samsung is in-tune to what their tech world is consuming and committed enough to tailor their style of reach to what the audience will already be looking for. Though action packed and filled with drama, the message the ads convey is the same message a tech reviewer at home would post.

Watch the videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll0iK6fIsI8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=40&v=NEhhIM6K_2o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efjaZeGFWis

Read the full article from AdWeek here.

IT’S OVER, IE8

I think most of us at G/L broke up with Internet Explorer long ago, but because of a influx of new users and the six year anniversary of IE8, a website to help you realize your worth and relationship needs out of a browser has launched. This is the break-up with your IE8 browser site…and it is harsh. The website walks you through the break up, it tells you why you’re ready to let it go or encourages you that your choice to leave is the right one. Once you make your decision, this website has you tell IE8 in 100 characters why it just isn’t working out and then these reasons get displayed on the website for everyone to relate to.

Check out some of our favorite break-up statements:

Screen Shot 2015-04-20 at 11.25.41 AM

See the website for yourself here.

FACEBOOK IN THE RUNNING

Brands (such as Popsugar, BuzzFeed, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and more) are creating video specifically for use on Facebook, leading to Facebook’s transition as a leader in video streaming. This appears to still be unfolding, as there are many thoughts to pre-roll ads, user experience and insights – but marketers are interested in learning more. Facebook targets by age, gender and location among other benefits, so it would be no surprise that brands start investing more in videos tailored to Facebook instead of (or in addition to) YouTube. Facebook has been approaching this from a small and medium size business perspective as well by encouraging them to learn more about the benefits of video uploaded to Facebook and how that performs compared to photos and text posts. In addition to Facebook’s push to keep more content within their platform, we’ll be keeping an eye out to watch this shift continue to unfold.

Read the full article from AdWeek here.

SMILE SUGGEST: SMILE FOR YOUR FRONT FACING CAMERA

Smile Suggest is an app for your browser that (when turned on) uses your front-facing webcam to detect when a website makes you smile. Once it detects a smile, it saves the page for you that you can revisit later or share with friends. It’s a little bit of creepy and awesome at the same time – who knows, it could be the first step to never needing to navigate manually again, like the Xbox Kinect.

Watch the video.

See the website here.

Want to talk these trends with us? Did you see an interesting trend we haven’t talked about? Let’s chat. Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook.

Did you miss the last trends we shared? See them here.

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Trending Now from G/L: The Driverless Car, Seamless Computing, Mobile-Friendly SEO Rates and more

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending Now from G/L: The Driverless Car, Seamless Computing, Mobile-Friendly SEO Rates and more

Creative

TRENDING NOW FROM G/L

Every Monday the G/L office starts our week by meeting together and updating everyone on new business, old business, this week’s needs, last week’s successes, all the good stuff. We always take time at the end of these meetings to discuss what is trending now in our marketing and design world. We decided that what we talk about isn’t only beneficial to us, but to our clients and followers – so every other Monday morning we share our favorite trends with you.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THIS WEEK

We had a lot to talk about including: #RaceTogether issue (an opposing side of last week’s topic about marketing happiness), reflective spray paint, the Neptune Hub, the driverless car, bucket boards and Google algorithms. Normally we talk about our top three favorite trends that were shared, but today there were just too many good ones to not share all of them.

#RACETOGETHER

Last week we discussed how brands are marketing happiness to millennials, this week we talked about a theory showing that some brands, specifically Starbucks in this case, have lost sight of their identity as a brand and have started thinking about their identity as a persona. Is this a problem? Well, considering the #RaceTogether campaign caused a significant amount of controversy, it could be seen as a problem.

Read more from the opinionated piece here.

REFLECTIVE SPRAY PAINT

Volvo is paying attention to bicyclist safety on the roads; they partnered with design firm Grey London and Albedo100 to create a reflective spray paint that is only visible at night when light hits it. Volvo committed itself to safer roads for drivers and bicyclists and one of the solutions is this temporary spray paint. This is a good example of a brand working to support a relevant cause.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfWzeGlaFvI

Read the full article here.

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY

The upcoming technological trends are incredibly exciting. First we have the Neptune Hub. This would be a dream for the business world. The Neptune Hub has a wearable technology that is the center for all data, and all the other pieces such as a phone, computer or tablet are just “peripherals” meaning that they don’t actually store the data but they just display the data you have on your hub on a different screen. This is huge for data security but also cost. Screens that are meant only for display are much cheaper because they wouldn’t be programmed with all the data and security. This is referred to as seamless computing, and Neptune isn’t the only one working on the technology, Microsoft, Intel and others have protocols created or in the works too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml4isk_YgPo

Read the full analysis here.

The second trend we had to talk about is the Mercedes F 015 – the driverless car. We watched in awe at the sneak peak of this driverless concept car where Mercedes turns a vehicle into a shares social space.

“It’s every bit of every future movie you’ve ever seen.” – Dave Geile

Read the full article here.

BUCKET BOARDS

Here at G/L we are all about the #MIMS (Make It Mean Something), so when we see design with a purpose, its hard NOT to brag about it. Last week we saw web design to help save animals on the verge of extinction, today we looked at workmanship that can help reduce landfill waste AND provide people in need with an item at no cost – this is The Bucket Board, made from trash.

Read about The Bucket Board and see a video featuring the artists behind the creation here.

GOOGLE ALGORITHMS

As a branding and design agency, we deal a lot with websites. We work on wireframes, web design, brand awareness and search engine optimization. Google’s mobile-friendly algorithm impacts all of those aspects behind our client work. Google will label your website mobile-friendly and will then use that label to determine your site rank in search results. We also learned there is a way to test your website to see just how mobile-friendly you are, you can find the tool here. This is huge for search engine optimization and visibility of businesses. We will be encouraging all of our clients to create mobile-friendly sites (if they haven’t already) because there will be a significant impact in visibility and ultimately business.

Read the full article here.

Want to talk trends with us? Let’s chat. Shoot us an email or connect with us on Twitter orFacebook.

Did you miss the last trends we shared? See them here.

 

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Can You Afford Not to Have a Crisis Management Plan?

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Can You Afford Not to Have a Crisis Management Plan?

Branding

Crisis Management Plan

Property insurance, product liability insurance, business interruption insurance… you probably have policies in place to help with those risks, but what about protecting your brand during and after a crisis?

A crisis is defined as a time of intense trouble or difficulty. Every company can have a crisis any day of the week, no matter its size or industry. In other words, bad stuff happens in a blink of an eye.

Internal operations related to product recall or plant injuries can cause a crisis. So can external factors such as misinformation being distributed about your company or a disruption caused by a natural disaster.

How you handle a crisis or emergency will define your brand for a very long time.

Rumors, customer requests, social and traditional media reports… they come so rapidly that it can be overwhelming.

Are you prepared? How will you respond? What kind of actions will you need to take? How do you fight back when inaccuracies are being reported? Who do you talk to first? And who does the talking? How much do you tell the media and when? It seems like so much to think about when you’re in the line of fire – but you can do most of this critical thinking ahead of time to be most efficient in a crisis.

Manage and Communicate

Some PR firms call for a crisis communication plan, but it is really a crisis management plan. It is not only about communication but also about prevention, strategic planning, evaluation, honesty, media, etc.

Every moment that is wasted will have far-reaching implications as judgments about your brand, organization and leadership are made without your comments or actions. And yet, the absolute worst thing you can do is to respond without thinking through the consequences.

With so much at stake with your employees, your customers and the public, can you afford not to have a plan of action?

You need a plan to relay accurate information, relieve tensions and direct activities that can mitigate damages and continue or restore business operations.

Whether you are writing a crisis management plan internally from scratch or evaluating a current crisis communications plan already in tact, be sure you are committing the appropriate time and resources necessary. Your plan should be honest and realistic. Establish weaknesses or potential pitfalls ahead of time. It will be much easier to deal with address troublesome issues and critics if you are prepared for and acknowledge the worst scenarios.

We can help.

Geile/Leon’s experienced PR team helps companies to design and executive crisis management plans, and can answer additional questions that you have. The best defense for any crisis is to have a plan that hopefully you will never need. If and when you do, it will be invaluable.

Download our crisis management plan checklist to evaluate your current plan or to assist you in building a new one. Building or improving a plan takes time and resources, allow us to help. Let’s talk about your potential risks and crises scenarios and build your plan now to save you time and resources later.

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It’s Brandolicious

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

It’s Brandolicious

Branding

I read an interesting article in the New York Times recently on the growing trend of marketers making up words of their own in place of real words. They’re disregarding all those great “real” words from the Webster College Dictionary (all 988,968 of them) and generating new, more interesting and memorable invented words in order to create some ownership and branded terminology. But why?

While there’s nothing new in the marketing world about making up words that describe your brand or brand identity, it’s interesting why there has been such resurgence. Sprint’s solution to a “friends and family” calling plan is simply called, ‘Framily.’ TJ Maxx coined the word ‘Maxxinista’ to describe their fashion-forward, value conscious customer. I’m one of them!

There are a couple techniques to creating a brilliant made up word and using it to build your brand. First, take two common words and smash them together. Take the word turkey and vegetarian, and you have the famous Butterball “turketarian” campaign. Easy. Or take a portion of the brand name and use it as a verb, like in the case of Mountain Dew – “This is How we Dew.” How about “Lets Go Krogering” or “Google it.” It’s fun and memorable. And many times, it’s an effective strategy to strongly tying in the brand promise or key brand messaging

There seems to be a strong digital advantage to these made up words, which could contribute to this resurgence. The New York Times article quotesMick McCabe, Chief Strategy Officer at Leo Burnett USA in Chicago, who said, “What’s different is the speed and velocity of the cultural uptake of language. Social and digital platforms provide the ability for something to become a widespread cultural phenomenon very quickly. It’s a feeding frenzy for material that the world of technology provides.”

So start thinking about a new word to describe your brand or brand experience. It may not make the Webster Dictionary, but you may create a valuable asset that helps give your brand a much-needed “lift.

As far as that Butterball “Turketarian” campaign, according to Bill Klump, Senior VP of Marketing at Butterball, the campaign — in print, radio and social media — “is working so well that we’re expanding into TV spots, starting next month.”

That is brandolicious in my book.

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