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BCBlog
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The Best Branding Campaigns Need Talented Production Managers to Execute It
by: Mickey M
September 10, 2007
So, you’ve invested in a branding campaign for your corporation. Now it comes down to executing the campaign. Your in-house Graphic Designer, Art Director, or Creative Director is expected to launch the campaign using stunning ads, talented radio production, tight video production, targeted internet production, and cutting-edge website production.
But, what happens if that employee doesn’t know how to create documents, videos, radio, websites, or email broadcasts?
The branding campaign you’d hope would paint you as a professional within your industry, suddenly ends up with a rough and inexperienced look to it.
The print jobs you pay good money for are rough with poor color quality, and full of bitmap images. Your videos have poor audio and video. Your radio spots have awkward copy executed by the wrong on-air talent. Your website is less than intuitive, looks unprofessional, and does not capture your viewers’ information. Your broadcast emails are just plain annoying to your readers and do not disperse your information.
And that’s bad . . .
Poor production management can kill the best branding campaign.
A talented Production Manager knows how to execute artwork, video, online offerings, outdoor advertising, and websites.
Sound like that’s something you need a jack-of-all-trades to produce?
It is.
And if you place the execution of your branding campaign in the hands of one person, it’s likely to fail . . . and fail hard. That Creative may be the jack-of-all-trades but the master of none.
Let’s look at what you’re expecting one person to achieve.
Printing
• Design and create different artwork (following the branding campaign) required by each individual printer. Artwork is different for a sheet-fed press as it is for a web press. One type of art is needed for a screen printer that would not be acceptable for a screen printer. One color press requires artwork that might differ from a large sheet-fed press. Outdoor advertising artwork is different than press printing.
• Find the best paper for the job. Thousands of different papers are available and, from one to the next, they act differently when ink is placed on the paper.
• Oversee the printing, varnishing, paper, and film production for each project and for each differing press.
• Deal with print vendors and request bids to meet the project schedules and budget.
• Create and manage production schedules and print specifications
• A familiarity with a variety of the concepts, practices, and procedures in the field
• Attend press checks to confirm flawless execution
Ad Execution
• Design artwork that ties closely to the branding campaign
• Create artwork in a manner acceptable to various publications
• Deal with publications to negotiate cost, frequency, and placement in the magazine
• Create and manage production schedules and print specifications for that publication
• A familiarity with a variety of concepts, practices, and procedures in the publishing field
Video Production
• Create storyboards for the video
• Create a script for the video
• Deal with television stations to negotiate cost, frequency, and placement
• Hire on-air talent for the production
• Able to shooT the video or direct other videographers
• Able to use the correct microphone for the job, positions, lighting, etc.
• Able to edit the video once shooting is complete
Radio
• Able to write a script for the radio spot
• Deal with radio stations to negotiate cost, frequency, and placement
• Hire on-air talent for the radio spot
• Able to direct the production of the spot
Website
• Able to design the look of the site
• Able to either execute the coding or instruct coders in order to make the site dynamic
• Able to create abilities to capture email addresses
• Able to insure the website is easily navigable
• Able to create keywords, meta-tags, and titles to increase ranking ability
Email Broadcasts
• Design and develop an email that will address all email clients
• Either able to code or direct coders in the production of an email
• Know the substance of what will upset readers versus inform readers
Believe it or not, this is only a summary of the duties of a Production Manager. If you don’t have a staffer with all of these abilities, then you’re risking the viability of a branding campaign. It’s best to have a branding agency that has different people with different skill sets executing your production.
Call BrainChild Branding for help in your production. You’ll be glad you did.
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Injecting Humor into Your Brand
by: Mickey M
July 19, 2007
Recently I was in an Apple Store, salivating over the new iPhone. In close proximity was a 7-year old little girl. She was looking at the screen of a G4 laptop. All of a sudden, she proclaimed to her mother, “Look, Mom, it’s PC and Mac.” She was, of course, talking about Apple’s successful ad campaign. Click here to see all 25 spots Apple created for the campaign.
The Apple branding campaign begs the question, ‘who should adopt a better sense of humor about themselves.’ It depends on the brand and the space they operate in. Some categories, like healthcare, pharmacology, finance, and safety products and services, deal with pretty serious issues. Injecting humor may downgrade the brand's equity in trust, security, and authoritative positioning.
Examining on a case by case is the rule. However, there are many companies that are just plain afraid and too uptight. A little self-deprecation would actually strengthen the connection to the market by appearing like real live humans instead of big corporate monsters.
A good sense of humor as a marketing and branding device, to paraphrase its likeness to pornography, may just be more know-it-when-we-use-it. Or put more simply, anyone can script and plan a single joke, but nobody can put "sense of humor" in a marketing plan. Humor is highly subjective and has significant risk associated with its use in corporate environments. However, if done well, it can make a brand stand out in very crowded marketplaces. Many people are responding well to the Mac ads that have creatively communicated the differences in personalities between Macs and PCs. This works because it fits the Apple brand overall and being slightly irreverent and innovative in all that it does. A great brand communicates what consistently makes it different.
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Levi Goes Green with its Ecobrand
by: Mickey M
May 14, 2007
Levi's has a heritage of tough, durable denim appropriate for both the working man and the teen rebel. Last fall the 150-something-year-old denim purveyor announced a new line of its red tab–emblazoned jeans. The launch of a new jean style isn't all that extraordinary, but it is newsworthy to learn that Levi's "Eco" denim are made of 100 percent organic cotton and, in the case of its handmade Capital E line, carry a triple-digit price tag.
As consumers become more aware of modern consumption's effect on the environment, organic practices are increasing, boosting the niche organic-clothing industry. In essence, the same organic farming practices used to produce clean food are used to produce natural, insecticide-free fibers.
Organic Exchange, a non-profit organization focused on organic farming—particularly cotton—says it expects organic cotton apparel sales to hit US$ 2.6 billion in 2008. Levi Strauss & Co. is banking on an expectation that there are enough people around the world who care about where the cotton covering their backside came from and how it was treated along the way.
As of this year, Levi's Eco organic treatment will be applied to its Red Tab lines—including classic 501s—and its high-end Capital E denim line, as well as potentially other lines in the future. In addition to the use of organic cotton, buttons and zippers are formed from recycled metal and natural dyes color the jeans. External packaging is made from recycled paper using soy-based inks.
To identify Eco within the Levi's lines, an embroidered lowercase "e" is featured inside the front pocket or at the bottom of the right leg of each jean and a natural-colored canvas "Levi's" tab and "Two-Horse Patch" are featured. Just as the previous sentence indicates, the branding relationship of Eco to other product lines from Levi's and what to call it (a line? A treatment? Just another gratuitous trademark?) is, sadly, rather confusing even to write about.
Del Forte, RawGanique.com , howies, and Kuyichi are among its organic-denim competitors. Of these, Kuyichi offers the most styles and finishes while RawGanique.com offers just two styles of unisex organic jeans for a retail price under $100. None has the global presence—nor the Americana heritage—of Levi's. In addition, organic cotton as the main fiber competes with organic hemp, bamboo, Oro Blanco (Peruvian cotton), and a combination of natural fibers in this new, eco-conscious denim.
While the concept is clearly innovative, what isn't clear is to whom these jeans are marketed other than Prius-driving celebrities (and celebrity wannabes) trying to make a statement. The target age and even gender are ambiguous. The typical environmentally conscious person may very well pay an extra premium for a pair of modestly priced organic 501s, but up to $350 for one pair of skinny jeans? Requests to clarify its target consumer were unanswered by the Levi's publicity department.
This isn't the company's first attempt at organic-cotton apparel. A line called Levi's Naturals was introduced in 1991 (a couple of years prior to outdoor-apparel company Patagonia's foray into organic cotton) with sales results that reportedly bombed.
Capital E à la Eco aren't the only recent Levi's line to carry a hefty price tag. The company's RedWire DLX jeans, designed to carry an Apple iPod, retails for $250. (Since the DLX launch in late summer 2006, the jeans are already marked down 50 percent on the Levi's website.)
High-concept, high-premium products seem to be the latest strategy the company has employed to help boost its profitability. After nearly a decade of lagging sales, the Bay Area-based company begun in 1873 by a Bavarian immigrant reduced its advertising and promotion costs throughout 2006 and took advantage of restructured loan payments and lower interest rates to boost its profitability and cash flow. (Levi's profits increased 29 percent for its 3Q 2006 figures, the latest available figures as of early January 2007.) This comes after much job cutting and plant closures as part of its executive plan to revive the legendary brand over the last several years.
Unfortunately for the privately held company, overall sales continue to slip with the latest lack attributed by the company to weak Japanese as well as Wal-Mart demand for its low-cost Signature series. Only time will tell whether "going green" will mean more green for the Levi's bottom line.
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