The atmosphere of a business can be described as the sensory items that a company utilizes to communicate their brand’s physical space. Where is the business located in the community? How do the interior and exterior visual elements – color, lighting, layout, etc – complement the brand? What are you trying to say to the customer by the music playing in the background?

Recently I was in a grocery store and noted that the songs playing, while popular and quite recognizable, were also very dated in a fifties to seventies, overly upbeat sort of way. To me, the communication was simple: Get your groceries and get the heck out of here! The second message was: Always remember your iPod.

Being one entirely obsessed with music, I pride myself in crafting “the perfect” playlist. I’ll regularly spend three hours tossing together themed mixes of fifteen to twenty songs, or the same amount of time attempting to create the seamless set of tunes that blend together flawlessly. (For example, I have the perfect transition from math/noise rockers Battles to glam pop Of Montreal, a highly unlikely combination that would otherwise appear ludicrous.)

When creating a playlist for your company it is important to keep a few things in mind.

1. Remember the artist.

First and foremost, any music you play in your business technically requires you pay some sort of licensing fee to play it. There are a few licensing companies out there, but the most well known is ASCAP. Working hand-in-hand with ASCAP can get you over the major legal hurdles.

2. Remember your audience.

Remember, you are creating something for someone else – your target audience. In Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, Rob doesn’t really “get it” until he realizes that making a mix tape for Laura is really about putting together a compilation of music she would like – the same goes for your company’s playlist. You must ensure the music compliments your audience, in that it would be something they would enjoy. But that’s not all…

3. Remember your company.

No, I’m not talking about the music you like. I’m talking about your brand, your product. What are you communicating to your audience in the music that plays over the speaker system? Not only must this music tailor to the audience, it must also tailor to your brand, as well as the “atmosphere” of your business – the sensory items like visual features and textures and smells. Associating these elements can be difficult, but they’re also very important. This is the exact reason “Great Balls Of Fire” just wasn’t cutting it while picking up cheese and tortillas.

4. Remember your industry.

There is reason behind mentioning industry. I’ve noticed some commonalities between businesses within the same industry, and things that also don’t work for these businesses. Here are some elements to keep in mind, and some industry-ish trends…

Youth fashion retailers are notorious for picking up the latest trends, from the flashy and obscure to the more mainstream, depending on the type of audience that shops at the store. Fashion in general will tend to be a bit more edgy. Fashion also allows a bit more emotion to extend into the playlist, where other industries would play it a bit safer by focusing on simple upbeat background music. Last year, the more youthful retailers would have played “Electric Feel” by MGMT or “Hearts On Fire” by Cut Copy, while the year before it was “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn & John. I have a sneaking suspicion that this year’s hype will (at least partly) surround Empire Of The Sun.

Grocery stores and banks will tend to play it safe and simple, since their audience is very wide and diverse. The music is always non-offensive, generally focused on being something you could easily ignore; something in the background, mostly upbeat. It also tends to be a bit more modern and contemporary. Another reason it felt awkward to shop for groceries while “Great Balls of Fire” played over the speakers – and a bit too loud at that.

Restaurants vary their playlists depending on the type of food served. I was in a Japanese restaurant the other day that had Spanish TV playing while the speakers broadcast modern hip hop (there are always blatant exceptions to what should be done). Those that feature food from other cultures are best when they feature soft, appropriate music from that culture as opposed to something classified as modern native – it makes for a complimentary atmosphere. I wouldn’t mind hearing the latest pop from the top of the charts while eating an American burger, but not while dining on sushi or Italian.

This brings me to another item. Speaking with Matt on this subject, he mentioned hearing the same John Mayer song in five different stores in the period of a single day. Playing recognizable music is good, but sometimes it’s best to use a known artist’s lesser-known work.

These are all merely items to ponder – creating an identity is a large portion of transitioning a company, the other part is ensuring you are communicating the proper message to your audience in everything you do, be it the business papers that represent the brand, the office layout including lighting and colors, or even the background music customers hear as they walk through the door.

I recently stumbled upon this great little video while trying to sum up a good definition of Web 2.0. It’s a bit old (posted a little over two years ago), but despite amazing progress in this realm, the majority remains prevalent in defining a concept whose meaning is often difficult to grasp.

The impact Web 2.0 has on us, as individuals, is fascinating. And that’s what they demonstrate in the closing moments – what will be the result of “rethinking” all the words he associates with the paraphrase We’ll need to rethink…?

Fonts. There are thousands. And thousands. So as a designer it makes it that much more important to select a font that best represents and differentiates each client. Whether it is an advertising campaign or a typeface for an identity, its important to choose a font that relates to the company, is consistent with the overall marketing efforts of the company, and appeals to the audience.

A font has the ability to instantly evoke an emotion or idea in a reader. This is what makes certain fonts easy to dismiss when faced with a theme. For example, when you hear or see the words bridal or wedding, a script font with lavish flourishes probably comes to mind. On the other side of the spectrum, the words bulldozer and construction bring bold, squared typestyles to the forefront. Using the right font can do a lot to legitimize a brand in the eyes of a potential customer. If it doesn’t seem to match what that person feels a product should be, then chances are it won’t sell to them.

Granted, no two people think exactly alike, but you can at least level the field by using a font that works on several levels and encompasses a range of ideas or thoughts that you are intending to achieve. The process of font selection can become an intensive one and it’s often a process that is overlooked or taken for granted. And there are many font uses that do not make sense. Typically this is because the person who chose the font thought it was cool. They probably didn’t think about the recipient and/or how the font would be interpreted.

So, that’s a little food for thought the next time you’re reading a billboard or browsing over a menu. How does that typeface make you feel?

In the aftermath of last year’s election, and the January 20 inauguration of a new president, one thing became clear: things had changed. As I watched CNN coverage, an interesting segment came on demonstrating just how far we’ve come in the past decade, comparing the WhiteHouse.gov website from 1999 to that of 2009 as a demonstration of the giant leaps in technology over the past decade. Technology continues to morph and change the way we conduct our day-to-day business, how we communicate with each other, and even how we get from point A to point B.

Enter Ubiquity, and now the “Widgets” tool that has become so popular in Social Networking and on 3G phones can easily be applied to your email. Ubiquity uses what they call user-generated mash-ups, which allow you to combine things like email and Google Maps and social networking Widgets easily and all at the same time.

The example they (they being Mozilla, the company that gave us PC and Mac users the wonderful force that is Firefox) use is emailing a friend and requesting a dinner get-together. Ubiquity allows you to easily add a map of the location via Google Maps, drop in reviews of the restaurant, and request a mutual scheduling in your daily planner (I believe they recommend Google Calendar). The basis of its greatness: facilitation.

Facilitation means no more cumbersome web searches for applicable reviews or time spent navigating away from your email to find the address. It’s all there and it’s fairly easy to use. And the best part is that you can actually embed these elements into your email, rather than going the traditional route and including cumbersome links. There is even a Twitter Widget for Ubiquity that allows you to Tweet remotely!

The new product isn’t without its bugs – for example, attempting to Tweet in an earlier version crashed my browser, which was fixed recently but required the installation of Growl, a Mac-based app that alerts users of updates from the various applications you are currently running. At this time, Ubiquity is not even in Beta form – it’s in Alpha version 0.1. To be more specific, they released Ubiquity 0.1.7 the final week of March.

Now, I’ve only used Ubiquity to update my Twitter account and create Tiny URLs (and I added a map to an email once), which is a mere surface scratch. Ubiquity is much, much more as you will see in the following video. It takes User Generation to the next level… from accessing dictionary definitions to translating foreign language websites for you, to even creating your own Ubiquity add-ons/mash-ups. Honestly, I got extremely excited while watching this video – I cannot wait to try some of these features myself!

To be ubiquitous is to be everywhere and the online world is making that a reality. As we migrate more and more of our daily activities into the web to manage our lives daily, tools like Ubiquity will become more and more an integrated part of our life. It goes to show that not only having a solid online presence, but enhancing that presence to be as open, modern, and accessible as possible is becoming more important than ever.

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Last week the entire BrandQuery office attended Northwest Business Monthly’s Business Person of the Year Banquet. We were nominated “Best Small Business of the Year for 2008.” I am not sure who nominated us, but if you are reading, thank you – what an honor! As a business owner, I always hope we are providing a service and product our clients are proud enough to talk about with others. That may have been the case in this instance, although I am not sure we will ever know.

Anyway, that is not the point of this post. The point relates to something the magazine publisher and a couple of the presenters mentioned. With what we are reading and seeing in the news these days it seems pretty bleak out there, business wise. Every day companies are laying off staff, engaged in Ponzi schemes, companies that are receiving our tax dollars doling out bonuses to their executives, and the list goes on. What we are not reading about are the good people, primarily small businesses going about their workday. They are still working to satisfy their clients, being good community stewards and ethically practicing their line of work. There are many of us out here, only a few of which were recognized last week. There are countless others that should be recognized but probably never will be. It’s just the way it is.

Recently I read about a couple of large corporations and their CEO’s (sorry, you know them but I cannot remember their names) that chose not to focus entirely on profits for their shareholders. They instead elected to continue their focus on the customer, their products and their services. Since choosing this path, these companies have continued to perform well and are actually profitable in this economy.

How admirable - focusing on the customer, product and service – maybe this is what Countrywide, WaMu, AIG and others should have been doing rather than prioritizing their wallets and the wallets of the shareholder. Also, have we forgotten Enron and the debacle of the Savings and Loan crisis of the 80’s? I have to say, it really bothers me when history repeats itself – is anyone paying attention?

Back to the banquet. There were kind words for the nominated companies doing business in Skagit County and how we all work together in this region. In addition to understanding our paths and how we got there that evening, it was expressed how many of us engage in our community, participating on boards, providing goods and services to non-profits and many other good deeds. I think you will find a common thread amongst all of the nominees - we all want our community to succeed both economically and socially.

So now, to share in our nomination: I asked Don Wick, Director of the Economic Development Association of Skagit County (EDASC) to introduce myself and BrandQuery to the crowd. To do so, Don wore the most colorful shoes I think I have ever laid eyes on! He said he did so as we are a creative company and that was how he would convey it. Don is a long time friend and client, thank you Don for doing such an eloquent job!

Our two tables consisted of family, friends and long-time clients Nancy and Kendall Gentry. My award winning speech went something like this:
I want to thank my Mother and Father for teaching me a strong work ethic and the importance of building relationships. They also taught me that a balanced life is important. Value family and friends and know that work is not the be all and end all, but when you work, do your best.

Thank you to my longtime mentor, Joann Ossewarde, who has provided her knowledge, experience and great advice to me since I was in college.

And of course, there would be no business if there were not great clients. I value the opportunities provided to us and the trust instilled in us to do good work for you. Some of our clients are here this evening: Nancy and Kendall Gentry, CPI Plumbing and Heating, and Employee Benefits Planning.

Thank you to our vendors for your working relationships and the products you provide.

Thank you to the team here at BrandQuery: Designer Derek Bryson, Designer Matt Fisher, Project Manager Andrew Fenstermaker and Office Manager Hilary Friedrich. These folks come to work every day with professionalism, experience, creativity, patience, humor, and good nature. The office is a fun place to be because of them.

As the evening ended, we found that we didn’t win Best Small Business of the Year in Skagit County. The next day we went back to work, doing what we do and trying to do it very well.

By the way, congratulations to our fellow nominees, Axthelm Construction, Truckvault and the evening’s Best Small Business award recipient, Skagit Valley Gardens.

Typography. Typefaces. Fonts. Type styles. These days, we practically take our countless choices for granted. It wasn’t long ago when creating a typeface (especially one completely original) involved thousands of hours of pencil to paper research and concepting, followed by more time spent creating the actual letterforms in metal.

As a traditional type designer, it seems to me you had to be part artist, part blacksmith, and part mad for wanting to even set out on such a grueling & creative journey. It’s hard to imagine the work that went into making a font that was unique, unlike any others at the time. But the payoff for such an achievement can be huge. There are several great fonts that have been around for a long time and that has to be a truly satisfying feeling for a typographer.

For a non-designer, it’s probably easy to write off the importance of a typographer’s work, but when you think about how many fonts you have at your disposal in a mouse click, it’s hard to deny. Sure, many of them are merely subtle makeovers of existing typefaces, but everything needs an update eventually. Perhaps one of the signs of absolute greatness in a font is its lack of mutations. It’s hard to improve on perfection, as the saying goes. Of course it’s easier to find fast, cheap makeovers which do little to improve the core design of the typeface and its appeal.

One of the more recent examples of this (50ish years ago) is Helvetica. Its simple, almost generic personality is brilliant. It’s everywhere and yet goes nearly unnoticed, even to some of us designers. It’s even the subject of an eponymous feature-length documentary. Many would argue Helvetica is the end of the line in typographic evolution.

I’m not sure I’m buying it, however. As long as there are creative minds out there, always thinking, always wondering, always experimenting with type, it will always evolve. We wouldn’t be so fortunate to have as many typefaces as we do now if everyone believed in a perfect font. And we’d probably still be molding our letters & words from lead.

Image by tonystl

Lately, a growing number of businesses are reaching their audiences via an exciting new method: microblogs. The growing presence of sites like Twitter and Yammer allow companies to disseminate information to their constituents and customers quickly. While some companies, like Whole Foods, take a nontraditional approach (their Twitter site is filled with everything from recipes to the texture of baked versus boiled potatoes). It all depends on who your audience is, how they tend to interact in the online world, and what they might see as beneficial.

Here are a few microblog strategies to achieve more traditional goals and examples from the companies that utilize them:

1. Customer Service:

As marketers we know the importance customer service plays on developing and retaining loyal customers, and the damaging power negative word-of-mouth can have. One of the best opportunities to provide great customer service is to communicate with your customer on their level, in their atmosphere, and in new and exciting ways. These days, one such location is Twitter.

If a customer needs assistance, allowing them to contact you via Twitter allows you to meet them on their level. Yet, the key is still follow-up, ensuring the issue or problem is solved and, above all, ensuring a satisfied customer. If this is the route you take, don’t forget to respond to the customer with a “Glad we helped you figure this out” or a “Happy it worked. Let us know if there’s anything else we can do.” Something short, to the point, and positive; Twitter makes it easy – they require you to be short and to the point!

One company utilizing Twitter for customer service is Comcast with comcastcares. Everything is a response to someone else’s comment, question, or concern. And, once the account is contacted, the customer and representative connect via Twitters DM (direct message) option, allowing them to communicate privately and securely.

2. Promotions (Incentives, Coupons, etc.):

If your business regularly offers incentives, coupons or other enticements, supplement these with microblog posts. The key here is to include a little description of the promotion, such as “Large 2 Topping Pizza for $10” followed by a tiny URL – a compressed URL that allows your link to appear in a minimal number of characters. Subscribers to your microblog’s feed will see your posts and, if they’re so intrigued, they’ll visit the link to read more about the promotion, print off a JPG of the coupon and use it in the store. This, like everything else on the web, is measurable.

It’s important to show restraint. You don’t want to Tweet (the clever name of a single Twitter post) too many incentives and/or promotions, or you may disengage your “followers” (those who subscribe to your Twitter feed). The important thing to remember here is quality over quantity.

Dell Computers excels at this form of promotion. They have a Twitter account for pretty much everything, including two promotional-based ones. DellHomeOffers focuses on the consumer, while DellSmBizOffers does the same for small businesses.

3. Events:

Like promotions and incentives, this is an easy one to implement. If you hold regular events, Tweeting is a good way to update your followers on event happenings, invites, etc. In fact, it was an event that drew everyone’s attention to Twitter and microblogging to begin with – South by Southwest (SXSW), an annual music, film and interactive conference in Austin, TX. Thus, it’s not surprising that SXSW has their own Twitter account.

4. News and PR:

HP and Apple disseminate news to their followers through Twitter. It is also an excellent supplement to sending out press releases to papers, a PR Web account, and news-based email campaigns. Another clever example using Twitter is from a small net-based record label called Aaahh Records – they drop in Tiny URLs linking to reviews about their artists.

With the growing presence of microblogs and the increase of data phones (allowing users to access the web remotely via their phone), utilizing new ways to reach your audience is becoming more and more important. Did you know that you can even update your Twitter account via text messaging? The same goes with accessing Tweets from those you follow - it doesn’t necessarily require a data phone. Incorporating these elements into marketing strategies is what will make today’s company succeed tomorrow.

I recently attended the Economic Forecast Dinner, hosted by EDASC. This event has been brought to the business community for many years and it is highly attended and anticipated. With all that has been going on of late, economically, this year’s attendance was impressive at just over 560.

We developed the logo for the Economic Forecast Dinner (among all other EDASC event logos) and it is definitely one of my favorites. I like the playfulness of it given the event’s serious nature.

This year, given our name change, we decided to become one of the sponsors. Don Wick, in his usual fashion, gave us great recognition. He is one of the best, if not the best, business promoter in Skagit County and is an asset to us all. The keynote speaker was Jim Paulsen, Ph.D., chief investment strategist for Wells Capital Management and a regular on CNBC and Bloomberg Television.

I very much enjoyed his talk as it had a light tone mixed in with powerful facts. He stated that we are not seeing anything different economically than we have historically. What we are seeing however is unprecedented fear. He said “yes, we are in a nasty recession, we are not near a depression,” and I paraphrase… but because of this fear people/businesses are essentially frozen. We are not feeling confident enough to make decisions to purchase and/or moving forward with our business plans.

Much of this fear issue was created by the news media. Everyday for months they have been telling us how bad it is. We just went through a political campaign where each candidate told us how bad we have it. We are seeing huge layoffs in our largest industries. Banks and large financial institutions are failing and we are seeing unprecedented fraud. OK, that all does sound bad, but the other point he made is every decade financial institutions fail – what about the savings and loan failures of the 1980’s. The other point was that 93% of us are still working and we need to pay attention to the 93%, to help them feel confident as well.

When he made that point, something clicked in me - as much as we need to take care of our employees, we need to take care of our customers. This is a point that I always try to make with our clients. Take care of the customer first. They are the reason you are in business and probably the reason you are able to stay in business. This could be just touching base with them to know that you are still here to serve them. If you disappear (visually) in these kinds of times, they might think you have disappeared like the companies that are being displayed as failures through the media.

So I do have one regret for the evening. I really thought to stand up and ask him, “Are you saying that, in order to get this country back, what we need is a great marketing program to get people confident again?” but it seemed a little self-serving.

We see and talk to our customers every day. We are all tentative yet we keep moving forward. Don’t fall into to the fear factor trap. Innovation is always strongest following times of recession. After all, recession and necessity breed innovation and invention. And that’s nothing to be scared about.

Well, the game was the most exciting in recent memory, possibly of all time. Last minute heroics led to a come from behind win for my beloved Steelers, so I was a happy man. The commercials were another mixed bag, as is usually the case. There were, however some funnier and more interesting spots this year than I remember in recent Super Bowls. Of course this is debatable since humor and creative tastes are subjective.

I have to say, considering the doom and gloom of the ever darkening economy, it’s surprising to see so many new ads being made for the most expensive timeslots available. Of course it makes sense that if you’re going to throw down the money on a Super Bowl ad, you’d better make sure it’s worth it. It was a bit odd to see ads offering cash for your gold jewelry (a kind of mail order pawn shop) alongside commercials for pre-paid private jet hours. Both sides of the economic coin were well represented for sure.

There were a few regulars missing from the line-up this year. FedEx was absent for the first time in over 10 years. They’re usually among the most memorable ads to run during the big game, so it was a noticeable void. I think there were more local ads in place this year, possibly filling in for unsold spots.

Another big surprise (or little in this case) was Miller Brewing’s one-second-long commercial. If you missed it, you may have been blinking at the time. In what was the shortest commercial to ever run during the Super Bowl, the Miller High Life delivery man seen in several previous spots associated with this campaign had only enough time to boldly blurt out “HIGH LIFE!” before the second was up. Simple. Effective. Not quite epic, but it did more for me than equine love stories. Again… it’s all subjective. I’m sure people exist who’ve always wanted a pony and the Budweiser Clydesdale spots probably speak to them on a level I’ll never get.

There were some well executed cross-media ads which beckoned for your participation beyond the TV screen. An ad for Monsters vs. Aliens was broadcast in 3D, and in order to fully enjoy it, you needed a pair of 3D glasses found at display cases in stores across the country. And while you’re there, you may as well grab a refreshing soft drink… I think you see the point here. Getting potential consumers more involved, giving them more to experience, and thereby enhancing the brand is becoming more and more valuable. Another series of ads from GoDaddy.com were just as provocative as ever. Only this year, they left viewers wondering what happened AFTER the commercial ended. The audience was then directed to visit a website to find out how each scene ended. While the concept is great, leaving viewers hanging in suspense as to what happens next, GoDaddy’s execution lacks in true creativity. Relying on sexism and lowest common denominator humor is hardly the best way to expand your market. With a TRULY creative approach, this cliffhanger concept is a great way of generating interest in a product.

So, you see how having the most colorful packaging and depending on shelf presence alone is no longer enough to sell your product–you now need an entire brand experience. Companies sell their products using a broad spectrum of ideas, emotions, and tools. For me, the bizarre and funny usually work best. Like my favorites from this year:

And for more of our favorites, check the comments…

Its that time of year once again. The biggest day of television advertising, also known as the Super Bowl. This is probably the one time each year people turn on their sets and tune in, actually looking forward to watching commercials. Many don’t even know the difference between a field goal and a safety.

Being in the advertising/marketing field, I too enjoy the spectacle of commercial creativity that the big game brings. As designers and advertising professionals, we look at these ads a bit differently than the average viewer. While there is always an assortment of interesting approaches to ad content, it rarely relates directly to the product being sold. And that’s ok. In fact, the commercials that create the most buzz are usually the weirdest and most irrelevant. If it’s enough to create a memorable experience that people will be talking about for days and weeks following the broadcast, then it may be considered a success.

The creativity and uniqueness of an ad can directly affect the success of a product and even a company itself. It obviously boosts awareness and sways a percentage of people to try a brand they might normally overlook. Entire annual advertising budgets have been spent on a single 30-second spot during the Super Bowl resulting in historic sales for some companies.

So, is it worth spending massive amounts of money to air an ad during the big game? It definitely can be, especially if the product is properly supported beyond the broadcast.

The truly great campaigns may start with a Super Bowl ad, but it will need more. Marketing materials placed in stores, online, and out among the public help to keep the message fresh in minds. In-store displays featuring visuals from the commercial will help to solidify the campaign and generate sales prior to and after the ad airs. Shorter commercials creating a bit of mystery or suspense in the weeks leading up to the game can also increase the effectiveness of the big ad. So it shouldn’t be limited to an interesting 30 or 60 seconds, it should have consistency, carrying over multiple mediums such as print and web. Otherwise, the message is momentary, coming and going almost as quickly as the game itself…

Here are a few of the greatest ads from Super Bowls past. And one final thing… GO STEELERS! (Not an easy thing, being a Pittsburgh fan here in the Pacific Northwest following Super Bowl XL.)

Mean Joe Greene Coca Cola Ad

Talking Stain Tide Ad

1984 Apple Ad