So how can a small business brand itself?  First, it’s important to understand how consumers currently perceive your company.  Do they think you sell cheap products or high-end products?  Do they perceive your business as classy and trendy, or cheap and dingy?  Conducting a short survey with customers will help you better understand how they perceive your business or organization.  If you’re a small retail shop, you can ask customers a couple of questions as they check out and record the answers.  Or, you can supply them with a post card with a few short questions that can be filled out and left at the store, mailed back in or returned at the next visit.  Offering the customer an incentive (say, 10% off their next purchase) is a great way to encourage customers to participate.

Once you have an idea of your customers’ perception of your business or company, then you can determine if you need to make changes or continue with the strategies you have been using.  This also allows you to start incorporating visual, digital and auditory elements into your marketing to help improve or enhance your brand identity.

One of the first things that I feel is important when it comes to branding is the company’s mission statement.  An effective mission statement will be customer centric and explain how the company will meet the needs and wants of the customer.  Oftentimes, companies will use a mission statement that says something to the effect of “We will provide quality products to our customers to increase sales and market share.”  When you stop focusing on the customer, the customer will stop focusing on your business.

Additionally, everyone in the business should know that mission statement.  When I worked for a national nursing home company, we held a meeting with all department heads every morning at 9:00.  The first thing we did was recite the mission statement.  The mission statement not only became the goal of the company, but the goal of the employees as well.  Print your mission statement on the back of business cards, post it in the staff lounge, frame it and put it in your lobby, tape it onto the cash register.  Keep it readily visible for everyone to see and help them keep on track.

Once you get the foundation of your branding started . . . that is, understanding how people perceive your small business and writing a customer-centric mission statement that everyone knows by heart . . . you can begin creating brand awareness and developing a personality with which consumers and stakeholders can relate and will want to interact.  Keep your branding goals in mind as you develop marketing strategies to deliver consistent messages across all media to avoid confusion.  If you want to be classy and trendy, all of your print, radio, TV, online, social and mobile media should resonate with a classy, trendy look, feel and sound.

It may take a little work, but in the long run developing a brand perception for your customers and prospective customers will allow your company to grow and be successful.  Asking for help from a marketing consultant will cost some money, but they can help you get on the right track and will end up being an investment in your small business instead of another bill to paid.   How do people see your business?  Do you want to change their perception to improve your company’s image and ultimately the bottom line?  Sure you do!!

I know what you’re thinking . . . “Why attend a conference on integrated marketing communications?  What makes this conference so great?”  Let me start my sharing a conversation I had with several of my former classmates as we talked about our careers in the marketing field.  I shared the fact with my friends that I love the job that I currently have, however I’m concerned because I don’t have the opportunity to utilize my marketing skills and talents.  You know the old saying . . . “If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it!”  That couldn’t be more true in the marketing industry, and things change so fast a marketer can be left behind for the wolves before they know it. 

The IMC conference is one way that I, and other professionals who may not currently be practicing marketing as much as we would like can catch up on current trends.  Heck, even those who are in the field can learn more about what’s going on and what new trends are peaking around the corner as well.  The best part of the conference is that actual practitioners are the ones conducting the sessions, and they are right there, knee-deep in the marketing mire and muck and can tell you exactly what’s going on, what to expect and recommend which step to take to keep you out of the quicksand.

Over the next few posts, I plan to share some insight from what I gleaned during the conference.  I’ll talk about social media, public relations, branding and more.  I hope you will come back and visit my blog to see what was discussed during the conference, and perhaps learn something new that you can use in your career, your business and your personal life.  I’ll leave you with a video that gives you a little more detail about the Integrate 2011 conference.

I can’t close this chapter of my life without thanking my friends and family.  To all of the folks with whom I’ve worked over the past couple of years that felt pity on me because I “looked so tired” and kept telling me I could do it, thanks so much.  You helped me make it through long days at work just so I could go home and hit the books for another evening.  You were always willing to help and were so patient when I was brain-dead on nearly every Friday.

Finally, and most importantly, thank you to my sweet, loving family.  They have truly been patient with me over the past two years and have been so supportive.  They’ve helped me clean house, fix dinner and clean laundry while I was trying to finish projects by a deadline.  You had faith in me and my abilities when I felt I had bombed every assignment and then would say “I told you so” when I got a good grade.  And you cheered for me when I was hooded at the graduation ceremony.  I love you and am so thankful that God blessed me with each of you. 

My daughters and I all graduate this Spring.  I received the MS IMC from WVU.  Brittany has her BA in Secondary Ed (Math/English) from Glenville State College and Katie will finish high school at Braxton County High School.  She leaves for Navy boot camp in October and will be studying Nuclear Engineering.

I hope to start posting thoughts and ideas about integrated marketing communications more often on this blog now that I have some time.  I plan to continue researching, learning and sharing what I find.  I will stop by other blogs to learn from you and share your ideas as well.  I hope you will leave a link to your blog with me so I can include you on my blog roll.

Thanks for following, and stop by again soon. 

kim c

Texture is another method used to capture the attention of the viewer, aid in organizing the visual into regions, identifying objects, creating the pop effect of visuals, and “providing cues for depth perception.” (Malamed, 2009, p. 58) This 2009 print advertisement created by Voskhod ad agency from Yekaterinburg, Russia  for Brighton Language School effectively utilizes texture to bring their message to life.

        This advert shows the word “Espanol” trimmed out in bushes with part of the leaves missing from the first half of the word.  The sand that surrounds the bushes offers texture in the foreground of the visual and depth perception for the viewer.  At the bottom of the picture, or what is perceived as the foreground, the sand appears grainier and coarser and gradually becomes denser and finer as it moves toward the back of the picture.  This gives the picture a more two-dimensional effect as if one could reach into the picture and touch the bushes or pluck a leaf. 

        In addition to the use of texture, the position of the wording allows the reader to follow through the ad.  By placing the copy at the top left-hand corner of the page, followed by the word “Espanol” in the center, to the bottom right-hand corner to the watering pail, the viewer captures the message of the advertisement and the answer (i.e. Brighton Language School) to the proposed problem (i.e. refresh your forgotten Espanol).

        Using texture aids the brain with segregating sections of a visual.  One is able to distinguish between foreground and background, “perceiving shapes and eventually identifying objects” and is “key to understanding the meaning of a graphic.” (Malamed, 2009, p. 58)  Had the texture of the sand not been used in this visual, it would look as if the bushes were floating in mid air, which may confuse the viewer.  Instead, by grounding the bushes in the sand, this allows the viewers’ long-term memory to assist working memory to recognize the visual as a picture of bushes.  By allowing the viewer to quickly comprehend and understand the visual, the viewer can then place their focus more on the message and less on the graphic.

        The whole of the picture is that, by taking lessons from Brighton Learning school, a student can refresh their latent, dormant foreign language skills.  Brighton claims to accomplish this goal just as the water from a watering can will bring life to the branches of bushes planted in the desert.  By using texture in this graphic, the viewer immediately recognizes these images to give deeper and more precise meaning to the modicum of copy included.

Malamed, C. (2009). Visual language for designers: Principles for creating graphics people understand. Beverly, MA: Rockport.

The image above is one of an older lady looking into her past.  I can imagine she is regretting things she did or didn’t do when she was younger, or wishing she could return to the days of her youth.

The first stanza of T.S. Eliot’s “Burnt Norton” inspired this image: 

“What might have been is an abstraction

Remaining a perpetual possibility

Only in a world of speculation.” (Eliot, 1971, p. 13)

Eliot’s poem revolves around the primary theme of time, with, in my opinion, an insinuation of regret and covetousness woven into the verses.  Additional text which inspires this image for me is:

“Footfalls echo in the memory

Down the passage which we did not take

Towards the door we never opened

Into the rose-garden.” (Eliot, 1971, p. 13)

Furthermore, the reflection in the pool, which is actually empty except for the “water out of sunlight” (Eliot, 1971, p. 14) contributes to the inspiration for the visual. 

Finally, the following line which is repeated through the entire poem is yet another source for the revelation of the visual:

“What might have been and what has been

Point to one end, which is always present.” (Eliot, 1971)

Works Cited

Eliot, T. (1971). Burnt Norton. In T. Eliot, Four Quartets (pp. 13-20). Orlando, FL: Harcourt Books.

This advert uses a solid black background with large white letters which form a triangular shape.  At the very top of the heap of copy is a white silhouette of a child attempting to get as close as possible to a red spider dangling from its web.  In the bottom right-hand corner is the logo of The Economist in the same fire-engine-red as the spider. 

The combination of a person’s natural instinct to move from upper-left to the lower-right (Malamed, 2009, p. 80) and the red spider dangling from the top of the page first captures our attention.  This leads the eye to see the silhouette of the child at the tip of the triangle, and to begin reading the white words down to the base of the triangle.  The final visual seen by the eye is the red-square-with-white-letters logo for the magazine in the lower right-hand corner.  Use of this preconceived path “promotes the efficiency and speed of visual perception, enhances visual information processing, and improves comprehension.” (Malamed, 2009, p. 75)

Bottom-up processing in the brain sends the basic information of the visual (i.e. the spider, the child, etc.) to the brain as the top-down processing is telling the viewer they are seeing a spider and a curious child.  This parallel processing allows the viewer to instantaneously understand the basic visual.  By reading the text and seeing the logo, the viewer uses their working memory to decode the full meaning behind the entire advertisement.  Pertinent information will be stored in long-term memory if the ad had a true influence on the viewer and persuaded him/her to consider purchasing the magazine.

The totality of the core message behind this advertisement is satisfying curiosity by getting close to the unknown, which brings out personal meaning of some of the visual cues found in the ad.  One can see a child balancing himself on top of something he has piled up, perhaps boxes or small pieces of furniture, to get close enough to the spider to examine it, to see how it can seemingly dangle in mid-air.  Because the letters form a triangle, an “action shape” (Pitzer, 2010), this gives the sense of tension or excitement.  The use of white on black makes the visual eye-catching, and the red not only pops out immediately, but is an intense emotional color (Johnson, 2007) which may have connotations of passion and desire.  With all the visuals combined, the viewer can believe that their curiosity about the world around them can be subsided by reading the articles found between the covers of The Economist.

Works Cited

AMV BBDO. (2010). Campaigns: The Economist- Curiosity. Retrieved November 6, 2010, from AMV BBDO: http://www.amvbbdo.com/work/campaigns/the-economist/

Johnson, D. (2007). Color psychology — Do different colors affect your mood? Retrieved November 6, 2010, from Information Please Database by Pearson Education: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/colors1.html

Malamed, C. (2009). Visual language for designers: Principles for creating graphics people understand. Beverly, MA: Rockport.

Pitzer, W. (2010). Assignment 2: Building blocks: Breaking down visual elements. Retrieved November 6, 2010, from eCampus: http://ecampus.wvu.edu

Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think.

The short-film, Lost and Found, has been posted on the following websites:

• Personal Blog: http://kimconrad.wordpress.com
• Personal YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34PwPAMJ38g
• Personal Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/k.a.conrad
• FBC of Burnsville Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/#!/pages/Burnsville-WV/First-Baptist-Church-of-Burnsville/117016325021715
• Personal LinkedIn page: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kimconrad
• Personal Twitter page: http://twitter.com/ktcmarketing
• Portfolio page of Company website: http://www.ktc-marketing.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73&Itemid=62
• Company Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home%23!/k.a.conrad#!/KTCmarketing

According to a report by CBS, “for many teens, checking MySpace or Facebook is the first and last thing they do each day.” (McNamara, 2006)  Additionally, according to a Pew Internet Study, 93% of teens ages 12‐17 go online. (Pew Research Center, 2010)  Pew’s research also found that by September 2009, “73% of online American teens ages 12 to 17 used an online social network.”  (Pew Research Center, 2010)

The short-film, “Lost and Found” is a digital story about temptations that today’s teenagers face, and support that can be found to help those teens deal with these temptations.  Therefore, the target audience for this video is teenagers and young adults, and the distribution outlets need to be where the target audience is most likely to see the video. 

Another advantage of using personal and the church’s social media sites is that local people will have ready access to these sites.  Because the objective of the short-film is to draw young people into the church, using friends on these sites will help create buzz in the community and county.

As a result, the following outlets were identified and will be used for distribution:

• Personal Blog: http://kimconrad.wordpress.com
• Personal YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34PwPAMJ38g
• Personal Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/k.a.conrad
• FBC of Burnsville Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/#!/pages/Burnsville-WV/First-Baptist-Church-of-Burnsville/117016325021715
• 14-year-old Son’s MySpace page:  http://www.myspace.com/curlylocks3
• Personal LinkedIn page: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kimconrad
• Personal Twitter page: http://twitter.com/ktcmarketing
• Future FBC of Burnsville website: http://www.fbcburnsville.org??

Works Cited

McNamara, M. P. (2006, June 13). Teens are wired . . . and, yes, it’s OK. Retrieved October 18, 2010, from CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/09/gentech/main1698246.shtml

Pew Research Center. (2010). Retrieved October 18, 2010, from Pew Internet & American Life Project: http://pewresearch.org/millennials/teen-internet-use-graphic.php

Pew Research Center. (2010). Teens and online social networks. Retrieved October 18, 2010, from Pew Internet & American Life Project: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults/Part-3/1-Teens-and-online-social-networks.aspx?r=1

Progress Report

Lost and Found Video Short

Produced by Kim Conrad

For Digital Storytelling, IMC 693G

Timeline of completed work:

Timeline of uncompleted work:

*This portion of the filming was scheduled for Monday, October 11^th.  However, two of the actors had something come up un-expectantly so it had to be rescheduled for the next available night, Thursday, October 14^th.