When last we posted, we were undergoing a facelift in our office – new paint, furniture re-arranging, new office layout – the works.  Keep your eyes to the digital-skies as we are about to embark on a website facelift as well.

A lot like our previous post, there are times when symbolic gestures are able to breathe new life into your company, bold moves help to create new energy, new excitement, new enthusiasm for your team and your projects.

Therein lies the definition of guerilla marketing and how the ability to make grand gestures helps to inject stagnant ideas with possibilities.

According to dictionary.com (a favorite for inspiration around the office) guerilla marketing is defined as:

            n. any of a number of unconventional methods of marketing with minimal resources for maximum results; any marketing campaign that uses non-mainstream tactics and locations

When was the last time you took a look at your marketing campaign to see what you could do differently to introduce your product to possible customers?  Have you considered a way to tie-in social media with your current traditional media approach?  What about interactive ways to engage new and re-engage current clients?

There are a number of ways with the access we all have to the Internet and social media outlets that businesses can connect with new and existing clients, but how many of us are tapping into those outlets in a memorable way?

At a loss as to how to make all marketing methods sing about your brand?  It’s possible without spending much more than you’re spending now.  Let the Branding Specialists at E2 Marketing help you create excitement about your product again – and how to do it on a budget.  You may not need a full branding overhaul – maybe you just need a shot of digital participation and client connections.

The world has gone interactive…let us show you how to play the game!

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We are creative people…and creative people thrive on change and beauty and excitement, which is why our office is getting a facelift.  If you haven’t seen the pictures on our Facebook page, here’s your chance to like us now and check out the color and rearranging we’ve taken on…so far.

Stay tuned because we are far from finished.  Bringing on E2 Interactive (E2i), specializing each of our components into its best combinations, and adding in the fact that spring fever has hit equated us to design a new look for our home away from home.

And it’s not just marketers that occasionally need a change of scenery.  Take a look around your own office setting.  Could you or your co-workers benefit from new surroundings, it’s amazing what a coat of paint will do for your outlook.

While you may not see it immediately, if your surroundings become too stagnant for too long, it will start affecting the energy around you – whether in your office, in your home, or in your man cave – you name it.  Spring cleaning is aptly named because so many people reap the benefits of shaking things up a bit, gaining a new perspective on the daily routine.

The ability to take the mundane and create something new from it is what empowers us to find new pathways and creative outlets within the everyday schedule.  Maybe it doesn’t have to be a new coat of paint, maybe something as simple as rearranging the furniture and reorganizing the room could set off a new direction.

Maybe you need something more cosmetic, a new marketing campaign, a new website layout, a new business color scheme – whatever it is, E2 Marketing and E2i can help you refocus and find what you’ve been missing.   And keep an eye out on our own marketing campaign, you’re about to see us unwrap a new plan that’s going to invigorate our fans and amaze our clients.

We’re ecstatic for you to come by and be a part of the new look of E2 – maybe make an appointment with us to see how you too can join in our new energy!

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Traditional advertising seems to be on life support these days.  Besides being the most expensive outlet in the branding game, purchasing television, radio, and print ads don’t seem to hit the vast numbers that the social media and electronic outlets can reach these days.

So is it worth it?

Truthfully, yes it is.  The important part of trying to decide how to best represent your company is how to divide your budget and get the most bang for your buck.  Defining your target audience is more critical now than ever, particularly when looking at your bottom line and what your budget will allow for marketing/branding expenses.

When looking at your previous years’ (go back 5-10 years at least) budgets and where you spent your advertising dollars, did you do it methodically or did you determine who had the best deal and go with that?  Be honest with yourself and decide the outlets that empowered the most potential client interest, return on investment (ROI), if you will.

The other key element to traditional advertising is BRANDING CAMPAIGNS.  What is your business definition and does it carry over from traditional ads to digital components or is it lost somewhere in transition?  Are you reaching target audiences that are interested in your product or are you just reaching?

There are no easy answers when trying to compact everything your business does for its clients into something as short as an “elevator speech” (:10 seconds) but having all your advertising, your employees, and your clients saying the same thing, is priceless (not to borrow a prominent advertising phrase) and can be the strongest asset you have.

If you are struggling to get your branding and marketing components to work together, talk to our team of specialists at E2 Marketing, we will work with you and help you tell the world.

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How often is too often to “rebrand” your business?

Well, it’s not like changing your hair style.  There is a thin line you must toe when thinking about when you need to change the complete image of your business.  You don’t want current clients getting lost in the new idea and you don’t want new clients to misunderstand what you’re doing and who you are.

Creating a new overall look can be as simple as a color change, a logo update, a simple website adjustment, or a social media addition to what you’re currently doing.  Sometimes, your re-branding efforts can be summarized into a new tagline, slogan, or perhaps a more publicized mission statement.

How do you know it’s time to make an update to your look?

Before jumping into the sea of change for the sake of change, take a look around your industry.  What are the up-and-coming businesses doing that’s different, how do they appear different from you, and will your clients relate to the new style?

These questions can take some time to answer.  Know that our experts at E2 Marketing can also work with you to create focus groups or discussion panels to take the temperature of your current target audience and see to what they best respond.

Ultimately, there’s you – do YOU think your business needs a new flair of something?  Color, design, pizzazz, or maybe it’s something you can’t define alone.  That’s why we’re here.  Let the experts at E2 Marketing work with you, within the confines of your budget to give your business a new look, color, design, campaign, etc.

Sometimes the brand doesn’t require a complete overhaul but may need some subtle touches, a tagline, a solid message to bring the company focus into play within industry.  We will work with you to not redo what has made your business what it is but to redefine it for a new age.

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Along with our new division, E2 Interactive (E2i) web design has taken on a new focus around the office recently.

E2 Marketing has always done websites, beginning our award winning trend in 2009, but as with all marketing trends, it’s becoming increasingly tougher to break through with the latest and greatest knock-your-socks-off website.

It’s so massive now it’s almost a “been-there-done-that” realm, you know?

So, how do you create a website for a business that’s new, innovative, easily navigable, and doesn’t look like every other website in your industry?

We typically challenge our clients to do some self-discovery prior to our first design:

1)      What do you like in websites? Give some examples.

Admittedly, you’re on the internet, you know what you like when you see it, although you may not know why you like it – that’s our job.  When you go to a site, what makes you think, “oh, that’s a great site”?  Is it navigation, ease of information gathering, inter-activity?  Try shopping other sites in your industry and see what others are doing and how you might do it better.

2)      How do you use your company logo and tagline?

If your employees don’t have an “elevator speech” (50 words or less) about your company and what you do, you’ve missed the boat with your company tagline and mission statement.  Together we can integrate your business, part of your personality, into the design that will represent you to the rest of the internet.

3)      What does your brick-and-mortar store do?  How will your online presence be different?

Currently you have a product – and whether or not you’re already selling it online – you need to determine your individual business plan for your website.  You can’t launch the site and expect a million in sales overnight, that’s unrealistic.  What do you want it to do, be, and create then design the layout and functionality from there.

Whatever your website needs, interactive, sales, kids, informative, E2 Marketing and our E2i division will work with you to get exactly what you want and how you want it done.  Your website is much like your storefront, it’s the first impression a number of your potential clients have of you so you want to make it the best impression possible!

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So Facebook and Twitter still reign supreme. Google+ is doing what it can. LinkedIn has found its professional niche, much like MySpace (remember them) is trying to do for the music biz. Now what? What’s the “new thing” in social media and how are we supposed to stay on top of everything?

News flash: you’re not.

The next thing in social media will be the segregation of the markets – focusing, if you will, on specialty audience members. Facebook and Twitter are starting to lose numbers, there’s no secret in that. FB lost 6 million users in the last year or so the rumors say – and 60% of Twitter users stop using the platform after one month, according to Nielsen – so how are you supposed to get your company message across anyway?

There are a number of methods you can use to be found in the madness, but the latest trend is the one that should have companies on the edges of their seats. Social Media sites are becoming more specialized. Rather than trying to sell your brand to 600 million of your closest “friends,” “twerps,” and “likes,” you’ll be able to do more targeted branding to the audiences truly interested in your business.

Take a look at how each site is separating themselves from the pack – finding their own way in the social web portion of the internet. Google+ helps users categorize their online social lives within circles, LinkedIn helps connect you with people who can recommend you for jobs, and MySpace will get your name out into the music industry. Wikipedia even has a page completely dedicated to sites and their focus – giving hundreds of sites and the types of people and topics that frequent the pages.

Everything from music and book lovers to scientific researchers and video games, there really is a social networking site for everyone. Don’t feel pressured to join the largest networks available, sometimes it’s better to target a specific audience and grab their attention, become the expert in your business field and then branch out into other realms. If any of this seems overwhelming, let the experts at E2 Marketing work with you to create a marketing plan for social media, sometimes mapping it out is all you need to find your treasure in the end.

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One of the biggest mistakes a new brand or business makes is expansion. The most successful brands are those that chose to focus on one specific product, concept, or service and then became the best at it, the leader in their category.

What do you think sounds better: generalist or specialist? Consumers like the word ‘specialist’. It gives the perception that you know more about a service or product than a brand that also offers that service or product, but along with a wide range of others. You’re service or product must be better because you specialize in that category.

When you focus down on one thing, you have a better chance at becoming the leader in that category or market. And the best thing a brand can be is the leader in its category.

Example:

• Before Toys R’ Us was what it is today, before it even had that name, it was a local store that sold children’s toys AND furniture. Then the owner decided to focus on one thing, TOYS. He moved out all the furniture and replaced it with more toys, then renamed his store Toys R’ Us and grew to become the largest toy retailer in the U.S. 

When you focus on one thing, not only are you more likely to become leader in that category, or possible create a category (best scenario), but also your brand name becomes associated with a specific word or service in the mind of the consumer.

• A good example would be Scion cars. They chose to focus their branding efforts on selling Scions as the super customizable car. Now, that is the word most consumers associate with the Scion brand.

To sum things up, when you narrow down your brand to a single idea, product, or service, you are more likely to be successful in that category or market. Don’t try to reach multiple markets or all consumers. No brand can do that, and in the meantime you will destroy any chances of building and growing a successful business.

So if you need help building or maintaining your brand or business, or are just searching for tips, E2 Marketing knows what it takes to mold a concept into a prosperous business and to position your brand as a leader in its category.

*Some examples and information gathered from The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al and Laura Ries.

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It’s an exciting week here at E2 Marketing as we launch the much anticipated E2 Interactive website, or E2i (as we like to say). E2i is the latest endeavor for E2 Marketing’s portfolio, and in keeping up with today’s digital world, we found it was high time for our interactive work to be shared amongst the web’s many wonders. Get ready for a whole new domain of digital marketing, Savannah.

These days marketing and interactive design go hand in hand. If you want to produce successful marketing, you need to include digital, interactive components. That’s why we launched E2i. Interactive marketing has always been part of our branding strategy, but as the most fundamental element to reaching today’s consumers, we feel it deserves its own site, its own focus.

E2i will renovate your brand identity and message through digital, interactive reach that will generate awareness, interest, communication, and in turn, more business for you.

Interactive tools and strategies we use:

Website design/development

Personal Blog:

Your blog (which we will create and maintain) will promote your business and expertise while building an identity and brand personality.

Social Media/Networking:

Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Maintain communication and engagement with customers.

Viral Videos:

Creating, sharing, and uploading videos are effective ways to reach the web community and potentially its millions of users.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization):

The organic, or free way search engines find your web page.

Specific words and/or phrases.

Whether your business is lacking digital and interactive components, or if you’re just starting out, E2 Interactive along with E2 Marketing can get your brand in shape. Building public relations and increasing your online visibility, E2 will work with you to generate positive results through professional, interesting, and fresh strategies.

Visit the site: E2 Interactive

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OK – so forget for a minute that it really was a great game (yes, Patriots fans – even though you lost, it was a GREAT game), it’s now time to talk commercials.

Talk around our office led to:

1)                  Here Wego – Budweiser – cute commercial, something for everyone, well written, had a great community tie-in – doesn’t get much better in our book

2)                  M&Ms “chocolate” – Mars Company – you can’t beat an M&M stripping and dancing to “I’m Sexy and I Know it”

3)                  Faster than the Rest – Sketchers – dog doing the moonwalk, enough said

4)                  Halftime in America – Chrysler – Clint Eastwood, we don’t care about the politics of it all, it was a well-written, heart-warming ad that WORKED!

5)                  Matthew’s Day Off – Honda – it worked for all of us thirty-somethings that wanted to take a day off with Ferris Bueller, even if it meant we were Cameron

6)                  Greek Yogurt – Dannon – very funny, very unexpected – John Stamos getting a head butt to the nose is almost as good as chocolate covered strawberries…almost

7)                  Everyone’s Right – MetLife – this one worked, again, for us 30-somethings that are having to think more about where we’re going to be in 5 years than we ever had to before, and used cartoon characters we all remember growing up with

8)                  Polar Bears are BACK – Coca-Cola – VERY good, bringing them back with true football themes – this is also poignant because of Coke’s drive to help save the polar bears with their “white cans”

9)                  Vader vs. Dog – Volkswagen – OK so we ruined the surprise for you, but we still like this commercial very much – it ties in last year’s favorite ad with a new campaign idea, nicely completing the circle

10)              End of the World, 2012 – Chevrolet – it wanted to be a great commercial and could have been, with ONE simple line change – “Fred didn’t make it, he wasn’t driving a Chevy” – that would have been plenty without downing the competition – we’re all trying to make it back, don’t beat one another down

All in all, the vote is in – not a bad year for Super Bowl Ads.  We do predict that 2012 will now bring a number of advertisements using dogs as a major theme.  We are once again psyched about the new commercial season and hope you’ll let us know if you’re looking for a new campaign idea.

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Facebook files for IPO – Volkswagen sneakily lets out its new campaign – where do we begin talking about what’s going on in industry this week?

First – to Facebook.  The latest social media site to try to sell stock – Facebook has two things going for it that LinkedIn and Groupon didn’t have this past Spring/Summer. 

1)      It’s Facebook – the name recognition is there, people know and understand that it’s been around and isn’t going anywhere

2)      BUZZ – although other social media sites were excited about going public, but Facebook has the advantage of being who they are, doing what they are doing, and the “traditional” media is all over it.

Will Facebook do better with their IPO in March than their predecessors?  Only time will tell what stock sales will do – but as consumers, how do you think stockholder desires will now reflect on services available from the social outlet?  Again…it’s the time thing.

Second – Super Bowl Ads.  Volkswagen has done it again – and while some have said they don’t like it as much as last year’s “Little Vader” ad, our office is all giddy about it and can’t wait for the others.

It’s interesting that VW has chosen to go with the Star Wars theme, although “Little Vader” did them proud last year, there was discussion on whether extending that theme was a good idea.  Because we LOVE this ad so much, we’re going with the fact that it works, and that they’ve transitioned using the dog chasing the bug as the start – just tying it in at the end.

Kudos on ya’ VW for making it happen – we even liked the viral video of the barking dogs in synch with the Imperial March…classic for our office members that geek on that sort of thing.

Keep up with us next time when we give you the scoop on all the ads 2012 Super Bowl can throw at us!

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