Well obviously the answer is to brand…need I say more?

Yes, of course I do and am happy to, because this is a subject close to my heart (and that of my lovely colleagues as well I know).

We all know that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but in conflict with that little saying is the one about first impressions…confusing huh? Well the truth is that, moral or not, people do make snap judgements based on their first look. So guess what, more often than not potential clients who don’t already know you, will take one look at your logo/brand and make the decision (consciously or sub-consciously) on whether or not to do business with you.

You may well still be thinking, ‘come on Zoë, it really is just a logo’, but consider this, it is estimated that 96% of the value of Coca Cola is attributable solely to its brand. That’s the equivalent of $150bn.

When I talk about brand I’m not just referring to your logo, it’s much more than that. It relates to everything from how your phones are answered to the style of writing you employ right up to you business objectives, values and mission and the stakeholder’s perception of the business. Your brand should reflect your business aspirations, the type of experience you would like your clients/customers to have with you and the relationships you have with your employees. Now take an objective look at your brand, which is essentially your business’s face. What do you see?

Consider some of your favourite brands, how do they express the vision of the company and you’ll see what I mean? You’d never mistake the purpose and function of Waitrose for Asda for example.

A re-brand needn’t be a painful process, in fact it should be liberating and positive. There are several very good reasons to rebrand. They include:

• To stay sharp, competitive and in tune with your market(s)
• To bring the internal and external parts of the company in line with each other for a more cohesive and effective offering
• As a result of mergers or acquisitions
• To accommodate changes within the business
• To accommodate more effective business practices and streamlining
• To allow for effective application and presence across a range of appropriate media including online.

In conclusion, you have a brand for a reason, it should be a summation of everything your company believes and promises, its style and personality. That’s what your customers initially buy into and that’s what they expect, anything else will be a disappointment.

Mostly I think it is a bad thing that I’m rather addicted to my Blackberry, but sometimes is does have its advantages – such as being the first to tweet back to Shona of Easton Design Studio in Cranleigh that I’d love to test and review one of her bags when she did a late-night tweet putting the offer out there!

My new 'man bag' from Easton Design Studio

We had a bit of a miss-start when I chose the Dieppe Handheld in Emerald as I’d failed to check out the dimensions of the bag online (oops!). Whiz back 10 months before our daughter Chloë arrived and this little number would have been great to house my blackberry, wallet, diary and lipstick when I was out and about. But now, with a mountain of baby ‘essentials’ to carry around I had to fess up to Shona that it wasn’t the right bag for me at the moment. Shona actually pre-empted my call and was totally understanding of my need for a change. After some helpful advice from Shona I settled on the Black ‘Man Bag’ which was suitably proportioned for the job at hand.
 
My bag got put through the mill for the week following its arrival that I had designated ‘bag testing week’ including:

• a client meeting in Brighton (with a mountain of paperwork, samples and proofs to transport)
• an impromptu day spent at QA Hospital to visit someone who had been rushed there (he is fine now)
• a couple of busy non-work days with Chloë packed full of a swimming class, shopping and lunches with friends (these were particularly taxing days I’m sure you can imagine)
• a normal ‘work day’ in the office armed with all my usual paperwork
• various outings over the weekend,  some social, some more of the boring ‘errands’ variety, but all involving lugging stuff about in my bag

I have to say that the bag lived up to each and every one of these outings during the course of the week and has continued to since. So, having put the bag through its paces, here are the pros and cons of the Shona Easton Man Bag:

On the plus side:
The customer service experience was without fault – Shona is really knowledgeable about her bags and her customers. She knew before I did that the original bag I’d chosen might be on the small side and said so when I called her (talk about knowing your customers!). You get the impression with Shona that nothing is too much trouble, and as a designer she has a vested interest in marrying the right bag with the person, and clearly takes this task seriously.

The key clip revolutionised my life. Seriously. No scrabbling around the bottom of my bag for keys and the length allows you to open the door without having to take the bag off, or remove the keys from the clip.

The quality. I was impressed with the quality of the material and workmanship of the bag. It stood up well against the barrage of activity I dragged it through (chucking it on the floor when I get home, possibly overloading it a bit with (milk) bottles and paperwork, plonking it in the foot well of the car when I’m out and about etc).

The design. You can see that Shona has really considered the design of this bag very much with the user in mind. Plus the size was spot on and the funky pink lining was not only attractive but also had the added bonus of making it very easy to see everything that was in the bag. There are also loads of pockets to keep you organised. The strap length is adjustable which is really useful, plus the strap is exactly the right width so that it sits really comfortably on the shoulder without cutting in.

If I had to be picky:
There isn’t really much I can criticise about this bag, but if I was being picky I would say that the bag had a tendency to ‘bulk out’ at the front when I put stuff in the pocket on the front of the bag – so I tended to leave that empty, but it did work well as my ‘phone’ pocket.

Also, at the beginning of my use of the bag I started to wonder if there is there such thing as too many pockets, but as the week progressed I realised that the rule of thumb has to be that you have to have a system of what goes where, otherwise you can find yourself scrabbling around the many pockets looking for your lip-gloss. So, designate pockets for specific use and then it works beautifully. Not really a criticism of the bag, more a suggestion for optimum use!

I swap my bag usually about once a week as I am a bit of a collector and like a change. But it is testament to the design of Shona’s Man Bag that it has quite had a number of airings since the bag testing week and is now my staple bag of choice for days out with the little one because it houses everything I need for her at this stage, and because the strap crosses my body, it is practical and stays put when I’m out and about.

Thanks Shona for my new bag – I love it!

We love a good social here at Mzuri and on Saturday held our first Mzuri Family BBQ. We all (all 24 of us!) turned up at Alice Holt outside Farnham armed with BBQ food, drinks, picnic blankets and most importantly….games! 

I’m pleased to say the “Mzuri Team versus Husbands, Wives and Partners” Rounders Match saw Mzuri bat an impressive amount of rounders and sail to victory (that’s our story and we’re sticking to it!).  The bean bag race was less well supported, but Victoria, Emma and India were determined and so went ahead regardless.

We were really lucky with the weather - having woken up to drizzle, we were treated to warm, but not scorching weather with slight cloud cover all day – perfect for whiling away the afternoon in the gorgeous surrounding of Alice Holt. It was great to get the team together and have some fun. No doubt it will become an annual fixture…and next year I’m keen to add ‘Go Ape’ to the proceedings but I’m not sure if that will get everyone’s vote.

We thought you might like to see this picture of the motley crew…

p.s. Kevin – sorry you couldn’t make it, but thanks for keeping London safe! Kate, Guy, Ben and Lily – we missed you….but hope you’re enjoying your holiday!

Mzuri Design BBQ Fun at Alice Holt, Farnham

The past weeks have seen an increase in coverage of the renewed concerns about the depth of the global financial crisis – this makes for concerning viewing and it can all be a bit overwhelming. But then I sat down and read View From The Hill, the Magazine of Kingston Business School and Kingston Law School where I completed my postgraduate studies, and it made me feel a little brighter.

Dr Tom Wainwright and Dr John Kitching of the University’s Small Business Research Centre have investigated how small and medium-sized enterprises have responded to the recession and have come up with some interesting findings:

• 20% of SMEs are planning to take on a recent graduate in 2011
• 66 % are planning to maintain spending on product and innovation
• 24% are planning to increase spending as a way to drive innovation and growth and
• 43% of firms are planning to increase marketing spend

It would seem that a large proportion of SMEs are taking positive, proactive steps to innovate, re-think, push forward and fight hard! They are planning to channel money in to the most worthwhile areas to bring real change and growth to their businesses.

The survey also highlighted the opportunities that exist for SMEs in a recession:

• Recessions motivate business owners to adapt products and processes in order to improve performance or to survive.
• Purchasers often switch to new suppliers for cost or quality reasons.
• Recessions impart downward pressure on prices, enabling small firms to access cheaper inputs.
• Recessions often increase the rate of market exit, enabling surviving firms to compete for the ‘vacant’ market share.

All food for thought! It’s been interesting to reflect on how we have adapted to the recession at Mzuri and how we have helped other businesses really focus their marketing spend on those areas that generate the best return. As we work with lots of start-ups, it is always fascinating to see new businesses in the making and we take great pride in helping businesses build the best foundation they can when it comes to marketing their business – from an impactful brand, to an effective website and online marketing strategy, we really do get a buzz out of helping businesses succeed.

So, while the news might be full of doom and gloom, take heart from these interesting findings and stay positive and passionate about your business. I’m feeling inspired to see what opportunities are out there for Mzuri and hope you’ll be inspired for your business too.

Source: Recovery Britain, The brave new world of small business. Dr Tom Wainwright and Dr John Kitching, View From The Hill, Spring 2011.

While the majority of the projects we work on at Mzuri Design are for businesses, we do also have the privilege of working with private clients on a wealth of design projects with a more personal feel.

Having a think of some of our most recent briefs, they have included:

• Wedding stationery: save the date, invitation, order of service, place names, table plan and thank you cards for a wedding in Eton.

• Surprise 50th birthday party invitation: partly in Welsh and with a quirky pictorial take on the hobbies and passions of the birthday boy.

• 30th birthday party invitation: with a Mexican theme, to be sent by email.

• Baby announcement cards: featuring all the usual details and gorgeous baby pics.

• Black and white themed party stationery: invitations (sent in a black bubble wrap envelope with matching label), table names, place cards and table plan with a black and white theme with each table showing a different picture of the birthday boy.

It’s not always event stationery that we produce. We also take on the odd personal commission for other items, such as graphical displays of favourite poems and extracts from literature, and wedding vows or readings. And when it comes to our own projects, we can’t resist giving them a design twist: Phil recently had to create a design piece for a surprise birthday present for a friend of his. The brief: to send in a photo of us, somehow including the message ‘happy birthday steve’. Not content with a handwritten message held up in front of the camera, Phil set about creating a personalised take on a famous film poster (picture shown above left: name that film!)

So, if you have a special event coming up and would like the stationery to be as memorable as the party, then challenge us! We love flexing our creative muscles and we make sure we pay attention to all the details.

(p.s. the film was… Trainspotting ! )

My name is Ellie Richards and I have just finished doing my GCSEs at Guildford High School. For my week’s work experience, I chose to come to Mzuri and spend a week in their office and get involved with the things they do. I had heard tons of positive comments about the company, so I felt lucky to be accepted for the week, and excited for what lay ahead.

I turned up at Mzuri’s office on Monday morning with little knowledge of what I was letting myself into, but when I arrived, I was immediately overwhelmed by the welcoming and buzzing atmosphere I had just encountered. I was introduced to the smiling, enthusiastic team, shown my way around the building and after a refreshing cup of tea, got straight to work on my first task involving a mailshot database. After a few hours, I had become very competent at using the software and the data was well on its way to being completed. After a well-earned lunch break, I began my next task with Victoria, who outlined the requirements for a promotional postcard for a company based in London. Having been given some useful information, I began writing the blurb part on the back, doing my best to advertise the company and hone in on the requirements for its specific audience. I was pleased I could help out and when I was happy with my final result, I emailed it over for some final tweaking. Finally, I discussed with Clare some possibilities for a mail chimp and did some research for that, which was a great task and added variety to my day. After a long, fun and informative first day, I reluctantly left for home, reflecting on my first day with Mzuri. So far, so good!

By Tuesday, I had learnt the ropes and felt at ease in the friendly work-place at Mzuri Design. I continued with the mailshot, and just before lunch, had ended up with a complete set of data for Clare to use- a job well done! I was then given a challenging task, to fill in a 6 page, DL leaflet for a company, by condensing information from their website etc. and adding a few ideas of my own. Whilst doing that, I learnt how to summarise and advertise information and understand the basic layout for a small hand-out leaflet. Just before I finished for the day, I was given a task Katherine had come up with the night before; a blog, about Kit Kats! It was time to test my writing skills. Slightly apprehensive about writing my first ever blog, I gathered together some information and researched facts and figures to help me decide where to begin the next day… .

Day 3 and the team continued to be extremely encouraging and after we discussed some ideas, I got stuck in to writing my Kit Kat blog. Once I got in to the ‘blog writing zone’ I managed to get into the flow of it, and soon enough I had my first draft completed. Clare kindly read through and gave me some useful tips on how I could improve it. With my final draft ready, I was shown how to log on and input my first blog onto their site. I even designed a small photo time-line to go alongside the text to add interest, and when at last it was published I was very pleased with my end result and got some really positive feedback from all the Mzuri team, so thank you to them for that opportunity!

In the afternoon, I was shown a programme called ‘Cision Point’ where by you can search under different categories to get together a list of places appropriate for your client to advertise in. Once I had got to grips with the software, I ended up with 2 full lists of possible magazines ready for the client, so another useful software I’d learnt about.

Thursday began with sorting through a selection of returned postcards and eliminating any duplicates, so Mzuri could identify certain clients that had moved or were no longer in business. Then came a long, yet essential task involving MailChimp designed for sending out email marketing campaigns to subscribers and members. This continued to Friday, but I was done by lunch. On my last day, I was assigned the task of filling 40 Press Packs for a company doing a garden at Hampton Court Flower Show. Whilst doing this, I saw that variety of things Mzuri do, and how good the quality was. In each pack were two, beautifully designed and well written A4 information sheets, along with the sleek company postcard. They had even designed small CD roms in each pack containing a selection of photos, which I think was a brilliant way of advertising.

All in all, my week at Mzuri has been a brilliant experience, and I would like to thank everyone there for being such great people to be with and really adding all they could to give me the best week of experience.

By Ellie

I would never have anticipated that the demolition of a building opposite our office would be the inspiration for a blog post, but hey, stranger things have happened!

For two weeks now, a group of builders have taken residence on the site of a beautiful Victorian building over the road from our office. We watched with interest and excitement when the scaffolding went up thinking that someone was finally going to restore the beautiful house (which has stood empty since we moved in to our offices 4 years ago) to its former glory. Our fascination turned to disappointment when we saw them starting to strip the roof tiles off. And so they continued to demolish the building layer by layer, brick by brick.

Marketing inspiration can come from anywhere...even from a half-demolished building!

It’s hard to imagine that the labour costs of this method make it a profitable endeavour, especially as there have been 4 – 6 builders on site for two weeks to get to the stage shown in the picture, but there must be good enough margin in selling on the bricks, cornices and other Victorian features or they wouldn’t be doing it.

Where’s the idea for marketing campaigns without the outlay I hear you say…. I promise, I’m getting to that….

So, with my mind on the subject of ‘salvage’ as I walked from the car park next to this building, to our office, I began to ponder what marketing materials we might have stocked in our cupboards at Mzuri which are still bang up to date and useable, but are languishing sadly waiting to spring in to life.

The team were quick to respond to my caffeine-fuelled enthusiasm when I announced that we are to embark on a renewed business development and marketing drive. We all agreed that it made sense to make sure that we have squeezed every last bit of use out of marketing materials that we have already invested in.

The list of things we have already incorporated into our campaign plans this week include: coloured envelopes (various sizes!), marketing leaflets, direct mail postcards, letterhead, email sign up postcards, A4 folders and large format printer marketing materials. (We have also consigned some things to the recycling bin having determined that they are no longer relevant – it’s important to be practical and impartial when taking this course of action!)

We’ll be usefully (and with any luck effectively) using all of these items in the near future as the campaigns get signed off and sent out, and we are all feeling very chuffed with ourselves that we have made full use of our existing materials. They worked really well for us last time we used them, and we’re confident they will again this time. 

So, maybe now is the time for a bit of house-keeping in your office to see if there are marketing materials you have in the office that could be put to good use. You never know what could come from it!