Applying the design lens 'up front'

Partner blog by Mark Maric (of Electric Pixels.)

The development and management of a company’s identity and visual assets can be overwhelming and complex - which is why the designer needs to be involved at every stage of the process to ensure a consistent and successful outcome. 

During the infancy of any project there is a genuine excitement and positive atmosphere with discussions about aspirations, expectations, direction, key outcomes, positioning and strategy amongst other variables. 

Once the project has started, with the task to capture the energy that was felt at the start, inevitably there are suggestions made from outside the core group that can change the plan and cause the project to divert on a completely different course.

By the end, exhaustion and frustration has reared its ugly head and the project looks nothing like the original plan, and a compromise has been made somewhere down the track as time runs out. The ultimate vision and enthusiasm that was felt at the beginning has all but diminished and not been carried through to the end.  

A designated group has a stronger focus and a more powerful outcome than a ‘design by committee’ attitude. The designer can guide that process and maintain the integrity of the design, without any compromise in the standards that have been set, avoiding any unnecessary roadblocks along the way.

The designer has the foresight and understanding of the complexity that goes with developing a company’s identity and how all the elements should combine. A company identity has many subsets and is required to accommodate supportive material across a variety of channels - the designer has the capabilities to provide the cohesion of the identity across websites, merchandise, promotional material and a wide gamut of touch-points where an identity needs to be integrated.

For more about Mark:

cowanandpartners.com.au/who-we-are.aspx?id=4

For more about Electric Pixels:

electricpixels.com.au / mark@electricpixels.com.au

Loyalty, through thick and thin

Meet Robert Coleiro of Computer Help Sydney.  Cowan & Partners has been working with Robert since late 2012 on the CHS profile and newsletter content, set-up of social media channels and website.

You will be hard pressed to find another IT support professional with such an absolute devotion to his client base and home city of Sydney. Throughout the last Christmas and New Year break -when many businesses traditionally wound down - CHS's busy work schedule continued.  Clients sought Robert's dedicated services to optimize their IT systems for work and play. He has been helping them take full advantage of the revolutionary Windows 8 platform, back up their essential data and information and prevent their networks from being targeted for both ransomeware and scareware - to name just a few of the CHS solutions.

Robert's loyalty to his clients is only matched by his die-hard support for his favourite football team Sydney FC. A club member since the team's inception, Robert has attended pretty much all Sydney FC home games. Yes, he witnessed their dreadful start to this season (rock bottom of the table at one stage) but months later is now seeing his team on the cusp of qualifying for the A-League 2013 Finals!

The moral of Robert's story is that when you are genuinely always there, through thick and thin - for clients, a sporting team, a cause - rewarding experiences follow.

www.computerhelpsydney.com.au

Rediscovery

If you are returning to your work this week, I hope you enjoyed a very relaxing Christmas break. 

If you are a business owner still on holidays, what a perfect time to rediscover what initially ignited your passion to pursue your enterprise dreams. Too often business owners can be worn down by day-to-day proceedings and obligations and lose sight of the reason they set out on their path in the first place. While you are taking a well earned breather, why not re-live the excitement you felt when you first started your business.  Reminisce/recall the event/s which led you to take this step.  Reflect on all your achievements to date.  Think about the terrific people who are now a part of what you have created.

Reinforce your original purpose as you get this fresh new year underway.

A genuine smile and a hello makes all the difference.

I visited a real estate agent yesterday to do some investigation into unit prices. The sun was shining outside, I just had my 2nd coffee for the day and I was feeling particularly good about exploring different options with one of their representatives.

I walked into their office and said hello and smiled at the first receptionist I made eye contact with. And she responded with ... nothing! She looked through me and then turned away and continued with her paperwork and talking to the other receptionist. No hello, no smile, no"how can I help you today?" ... nothing. So I turned to the other receptionist who at least said hello and reluctantly asked me how she could be of assistance. I thought for a second - am I on the same planet as these people? Shouldn't these receptionists be the ones making the effort to warmly say hello and smile upon the entrance of a potential client who many be spending money with their establishment in the very near future?? Or is their paperwork and gossiping more important?

My mood changed all of a sudden and I was very tempted to just leave there and then. As it stands, I will never go back there again or recommend them to others. I wondered how these receptionists (and the directors of their office setting the tone for their business) could have lost sight of such an important responsibility in the sales cycle – an initial positive greeting. It’s not really that hard – particularly when people such as myself walking through their front door are the ones paying their wages and the rent for their office building. Fortunately, I had a completely different positive experience with the next real estate agent I visited.

Have you had a similar experience recently with a business you’ve never dealt with before? I don’t think it is out of order that these people are given a gentle reminder ‘to smile and say hello’. It really would make all the difference for the growth of their business.

A show of emotion wins fans (as experienced by Andy Murray).

I wanted Roger Federer to win the 2012 Wimbledon final. I’ve never been a big fan of Andy Murray, thinking of him as a player who didn’t give any value to his audience off the court with bland interviews. 

However, Murray’s gracious runners-up speech last night changed my mind about him. Here was the real Murray – no script, just himself honest and open. With his emotional tribute to Federer, his own inner circle and the British public he certainly won over legions of new supporters (echoed by Channel 7’s commentary team). You could feel how much Wimbledon meant to him as well as his genuine appreciation for the tremendous home support he received.

So do these same laws of appeal apply in business? Of course they do - we are all emotional creatures. If you are a leader of a business be real with your clients and employees. By honestly showing them how much you believe in what you are doing and the great value you place on their contribution you will also win over a legion of new supporters.

Check out: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/tennis/andy-murray-loses-wimbledon-final-but-wins-fans/story-fnbe6xeb-1226421087404

The delivery your audience deserves.

One of my all time favourite hard rock bands Soundgarden toured here in Sydney last month. Having followed this band since my teens, bought all their albums and read countless articles about them, I greatly anticipated their return to Australian shores at the Sydney Entertainment Centre - 15 years since they last toured here. On a Wednesday night prior to the Australia Day public holiday and accompanied by close friends who also love Soundgarden, the scene was set for a brilliant evening.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. For one reason…

The sound engineers for the band’s performance managed to absolutely screw up the audio mix. I’ve been to many concerts in my lifetime and this sound was by far the worst I have ever experienced – absolutely atrocious. As someone at the show described – it was like hearing a “bad bootleg tape live”. Soundgarden were giving it their all with powerful playing and singing, yet it was to no avail because of those irresponsible and unqualified people behind the sound mixing desk on the night.

After I calmed down over the next week or so, I had the realization that – just as Soundgarden did that night with their sound engineers - businesses go through the same frustrations and problems with the people they give responsibility to for delivering their message…

I’ve met many business owners, full of passion and purpose and with compelling back stories which amaze me. Yet, on a number of occasions I’ve visited their web-sites, received their business cards and brochures, checked out their promotional video posted online … and been disappointed by the lack of quality. Why? Because I expect and want a consistent representation of the impressive personality I'd met. But I don’t blame the business owner. I blame the creative and production people employed to communicate their message - including creative writers and directors, brand strategists, graphic designers, website developers, video producers and so on - who’ve failed to care and respect the business owner and their story with the poor execution of message delivery.

Other people shouldn’t be allowed to let down your audience.

(By the way I’m still trying to get a refund for my ticket - that is the % going to the management company, not my beloved Soundgarden!).

Oh, what a (long lasting, memorable) night!

In keeping with memorable nights with NYE upon us, we thought it would be fitting for our final 2011 blog to pay tribute to Jersey Boys, which had it's final show in Sydney earlier this month - after a record 2 years in Australia!

I attended Jersey Boys with my Mum and step-dad in 2010, during their holiday with me in Sydney. When suggested as an evening event by my Mum, I was at first apprehensive, thinking "great, a juke-box night of golden oldies ... not my thing, but I'll go along for the sake of my family".

I couldn't have been further from the truth. I was sucked into the Jersey Boys show immediately...

By now Australian audiences are as familiar as their American counterparts with the rise-and-fall stories of pop sensations. We have had the colour-by-numbers Dusty, the raucously overweening Shout! And, most recently, the lame jukebox re-tread Buddy.

But truly great musicals - which have their audiences coming back for more and spreading the word - have great storytelling. Jersey Boys brought to life the fascinating and largely unknown story of the 1960s pop group Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and in the process connected with myself and thousands of others. A musical tracing three working-class Italian tough guys from Newark, New Jersey (plus one from the Bronx) who became one of the best-selling groups in pop-music history - full of laughs and tears, love and heartache, triumph and disaster.

Scriptwriters Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice dug deep to make Jersey Boys successful (and arguably bigger than the group it is based on!), finding the heart of the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons journey and crafting a well told underdog narrative - something the other aforementioned productions lacked.

As we approach a new year, owners of meaningful businesses everywhere should know they also an authentic, compelling tale of rise and fall, triumph over adversity and ambition fulfilled. It just needs to be recognized, crafted and told with emotional resonance through every possible channel to connect with their audiences on the same level.

http://www.showbiz.com.au/jerseyboys/