Ok, so I’m joking but I wanted to show you exactly what can be achieved with a few hours and some carefully and expertly applied vinyl. One of our clients, Mountjoy, had a fleet of silver vans which didn’t fit well with the new brand we had recently developed for them. No problem, we just fully wrapped them with their new corporate colours and logo and hey presto! A blue van with the Mountjoy brand clear and bold for all to see.

It is basically inherent to our jobs that we love communication in all its forms, especially brilliant communication which leaves a lasting mark. Day to day, this means copywriting for brochures, advertising and press releases, or designing websites which invite the browser to sample all the pages (not just the first). 

I have always been an avid reader; even now my parents remark on how, when I was a child, they’d buy me a book on our Saturday morning trip to the shops, and I’d have finished it in the car by the time we got home. On holidays, I have to take a massive stack of them lest I run out (not such a problem now I’ve got my beloved Kindle). And then there’s that smell when you walk into a bookshop….is there anything like it??

 As part of my obsession, I applied (and was accepted) to be a giver at the inaugural World Book Night in 2011. The book give-away comprised 40 000 copies of each of the 25 carefully selected titles, and were given away by 20,000 ‘givers’, who each distributed 48 copies of their chosen title to whomever they chose on World Book Night. The remaining books were distributed by World Book Night itself in places that might otherwise be difficult to reach, such as prisons and hospitals. The twenty-five titles were selected by a wide-ranging editorial committee, chaired by James Naughtie.

 The 2012 campaign to find givers is now underway and, if you have a love of books, have a look at their website and think about applying: www.worldbooknight.org  It’s really easy, you get a load of books (hopefully one of your favourites), and most importantly, the opportunity to get more people reading. To whet your appetite, we did a quick straw poll in the office of what we’ve got on our bedside tables:

Katherine
Currently reading….  I’ve just read One Day which was suitable holiday-reading fodder, but thought the ending was a bit weak. Have had a John Grisham number since Christmas but I haven’t got past the first page yet!
Favourite book of all time?  Would it be weird to say the Oxford English Dictionary!? On a lighter note, at the moment I would have to answer that the whole Julia Donaldson range (Room on the Broom stands out) as I love reading it to my daughter. Silly voices at the ready!

Phil
Currently reading….  Nothing, I’m too busy! the nearest I get to any form of reading is a book on typography that I delve into every now and then.
Favourite book of all time?  Nearly nigh on impossible to answer because there are so many brilliant books but, as you’ve put me on the spot, the first that comes into my head is Lord of the Rings. Why? Suggest you read it and find out.

Zoe
Currently reading….  ‘My Last Duchess’ by Daisy Goodwin. Loving it.
Favourite book of all time? ‘Perfume’ by Patrick Suskind. Given to me by my GCSE English teacher, and was totally different to anything I’d ever read before. It’s been a favourite ever since.

Lara
Currently reading…. In between books at the moment. I did start on ‘Sense and Sensibility’ as I love Jane Austin and thought it’s about time I read another book of hers, but I’m afraid I haven’t got very far!
Favourite book of all time? I loved ‘Empress Orchid’ by Anchee Min – it’s a beautiful book to lose yourself in with the level of detail and an intricate love story within the Forbidden City.

Paul
Currently reading…. ‘The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest’ by Stieg Larsson. I’m finding it long……
Favourite book of all time? Probably ‘Silence of the Lambs’ by Thomas Harris just because I couldn’t put it down.  Red Dragon by him wasn’t bad either.

Victoria
Currently reading…. ‘The Best of Everything’ by Rona Jaffe. Thanks to Sali Hughes and Twitter for finding this one. Like Mad Men and Sex & the City rolled into one. I’m totally hooked.
Favourite book of all time? ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ by Audrey Niffenegger. An amazingly thought out story, and one of the few books that has actually made me cry.

Tough economic times demand a tough stance, particularly on keeping your business as buoyant as possible. It’s good to remember that old saying ‘if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got’, which recently, I’m willing to bet, is a reduction in new business.

The only clear way to boost business is to go back to marketing basics, Marketing 101, golden rules if you like, they are:

• Be very clear on who your customers are, it’s not as straight forward as you think.
• Find out what channels meet their needs most effectively. It sounds obvious but if your target market are largely retired then email, text and online viral campaigns are probably not going to be the best choice.
• Maximise your budget, you don’t have to have a huge budget to achieve your objectives, you just have to know how to use it.
• Work out what your proposition is – why should your target market choose you? Are you competing on cost, service, product quality, added value?
• Present you business clearly, concisely and consistently. It can take up to 7 exposures to a brand (through whatever channel) for a consumer to make the decision to investigate further.

Great marketing isn’t complex, but it requires thought, planning, implementation and follow-up. It’s also what we’re here for…

Now, you may be wondering what the big deal is and, yes weed agree that their are often bigger problems to worry about. but consider this, 99% of online business and communication is maneged using the written word. Surprising huh?

Also, when was the last time you received a badly spellt or gramatically incorrect Email or went on to a really terribly wrote website? Remember how it made you feel? Where you prepaired to invest any more time in that peace of communication, let alone spend any money on the back of it? My guess is probly not.

You may have gessed that this is an issue close to all our harts here at Mzuri, after all, it’s what we do! We all spend a great deal of time ensuring that every written word we produce is carefully crafted, proofred and presented to maximise it’s impact.

You might have notced though that I haven’t exactly practized what I’m preaching in this blog! A big round of applause and a tube of Smarties to any of you who can spot all the errors (deliberately) littered in it…

With love and grammar

Zoë

zoe@mzuridesign.co.uk

Having watched the recent programme on BBC2, ‘Made in Britain’, I was intrigued by the extent of the world-wide success of none other than our own, British brand, the Kit Kat. Not only did it swiftly become the UK’s best-selling confectionary brand only two years after its production, but it has remained there ever since. According to Nestlé, every five minutes enough Kit Kats are made to out-stack the Eiffel Tower… and Dubai eats its fair share, with 1 tonne of Kit Kats sold in their airport alone EVERY day… now that’s a lot of Kit Kats!

But what makes that small chocolate finger, wafer bar so successful? Why do we always seem to opt for the more expensive, well-known brand, when the supermarket’s own shelves have a perfectly good selection, probably with almost exactly the same taste and shape, yet for half the price? Is it really that Kit Kats have the far superior qualities for a snack bar, or is it just, simply, the reassurance we get from picking up our foil covered, bright-red-labelled, familiar Kit Kat?

I’m starting to get an inkling that the success of a brand has more of an impact on the success of the product than I first thought…

Evan Davis, the presenter of ‘Made in Britain’ confirmed this, by telling us viewers that about 80% of Kit Kat’s value was entirely in the brand. When Kit Kat was first bought from Rowntree’s by Nestlé for £2.5 billion, an estimated £2 billion of that price was the value of the brand alone! Only 20% of the overall sum paid for ‘Kit Kat’, was for the tangible assets, such as the business factories, machinery etc.

This then made me think; so what is the value of a brand? How can a design so simple, become such a triumph? At first glance, I would never have predicted the Kit Kat would have become such a success story, as its simple logo style is neither flashy, nor artistic, yet here we are, in 2011, with the same Kit Kat it has always been, and it is still the number one, best-selling confectionary brand ever.

I think it bubbles down to the fact that, if I asked my grand-parents what they associated with Kit Kat bars, it would be pretty much entirely the same for me. We all think of packed lunches, or picnics, or family outings, when the Kit Kat has been the perfect snack, as the fingers can be broken off to share (or not!) around for the whole family.

This tells me that the survival and maintenance of its brand, has therefore struck gold causing the red and white Kit Kat logo to become entrenched in our culture, a ‘household name’! Nestlé have continued to stick to their core design, (with the exception of the blue wrapping, introduced during the war, whilst rationing changed the ingredients), and as a result, Kit Kats have become an integral part of the lives of people all around the world, a constant, ensuring its fame and success.

Thanks to this continuity, by choosing a Kit Kat off the shelves we feel reassured once we’ve tucked into that same bar that we all love, and know, so well.

I think if we take the Kit Kat success story as an example to follow, the instalment of a key, memorable, yet simple brand name and logo, plus strictly maintaining its core design components, are the most crucial things for any company hoping for a successful product.

By corroding your brand, you corrode its achievements and fame, so, when trying to promote your own products, keep in mind, that whilst you may have the most brilliant item or business in the world, the value of your brand and maintaining, managing it and protecting its image, are fundamental ingredients in a flourishing business.

So, hats off to Kit Kat- they really do have the whole marketing thing under their belt!

It features a child called Hollie, and features actual footage taken by her family over her life so far. The premise is a father setting up an address to email his newborn daughter and then sending her messages over the course of her life. I nearly wept (as, from what I could see from my Facebook newsfeed, did a fair few of my friends)!!??

My daughter is now 20 months old. I bought one of those baby journal type things in my pregnancy ‘must-buy-everything-and-anything-baby-related’ phase.

I filled in a few pages relating to her first couple of months, so I can tell you the first song I sang her (“If You Were the Only Girl in the World”), the car she travelled home from hospital in (Honda CR-V), how much sleep we got in the first few weeks (very little) etc. All vital information, clearly.

 Then it all dried up a bit. And I am seriously regretting it. I can’t clearly remember the things I want to – when did she first sit up on her own? When did she first give that infectious giggle? When did she start pulling the cat’s tail? (ok, not so bothered about that last one). I can only remember when she took her first steps because it was on New Year’s Day!!!!

Anyway, I set up an email address for her in May 2010, just before we held a party for her; I thought it would be nice for guests to RSVP directly to her. The account had lain dormant ever since……..until I saw this ad.

I have started to email my daughter.

Not on a daily basis, but it’s become a ‘notepad’ for all the things I don’t want to forget. And the things I want her to know when she’s old enough to log on and read them. So it might just be “you sang ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ on your own, and I nearly burst with pride”. She’ll probably groan and proclaim I am excruciatingly embarrassing at some point, but given time, I hope she’ll appreciate it, because I know I will.

So although advertising may not always do what you want it to directly (I’m still not using Google Chrome), it might still have an impact on your customers, and make them talk about you – as I say, my Facebook feed was buzzing about this ad after the first showing. And this, as we all know, is half the battle. You can see “Dear Hollie” here: http://www.youtube.com/googlechromeuk

In my mind I was running through routes to market, boosting the general appeal of the house itself to maximise the target audience, trying to establish whether the house is priced appropriately in relation to the current market and the audience we are targeting etc.

All this planning, checking and analysis got me thinking about how many people actually consider these questions when trying to sell their products or services… be honest, do you? Well if not, who can blame you, you’ve got plenty else to think about and, let’s face it, you need to focus on what you’re best at, your business. So with that in mind, perhaps you can help stop me obsessing about selling my house and give me something else to think about, I’ll be waiting for your call!

Zoë

It was held by one of our clients, The Royal School at their Junior School site in Haslemere. The event, entitled ‘Grow for it’, came hot on the heels of a period of intense change at the School and was designed to highlight and promote both the School and the recent extensive additions to its offering, to local parents of eligible children.

The premise of the event, which was open to the public, was an outdoors gardening and wildlife activity day hosted by Charlie Dimmock and Alan Titchmarsh. Children aged up to age 11 were invited to attend one of the two half day sessions to take part in pond dipping with Charlie, decorating flower pots and planting them up with Alan, making mini-beast houses (I am now the proud owner of a ladybird house made out of chicken wire and plastic straws as well as a bee house built from rolled up newspaper and half an old drinks bottle!) and finally, to go on an interactive nature trail around the School grounds.

Now you might be wondering why I thought this was such clever marketing… so here’s why…

1. The event was open to the public and advertised online and in local press to ensure target area coverage.
2. It was a weekend event designed to be enticing to children but also to adults looking to keep their kids entertained with something new. The celebrity aspect was also guaranteed to draw attention and it worked like a dream.
3. It generated a lot of footfall into the school by children and parents of the right age (I’ve already mentioned that the upper age range for the event was 11) handy, considering the Royal School Junior School accepts children from nursery age right up to secondary school age.
4. The event had been designed to be incredibly interactive, keeping people moving and showing off the most attractive areas of the school at the same time. There were also handy, but discreetly placed pieces of collateral giving information about the school and offering the chance to register for more information.
5. The staff and helpers at the school were all amazingly friendly, helpful and engaging. The event really couldn’t have been a better advert for the school and to top it all off the whole thing was free and each child got to take home a Royal School wrist band, their own decorated pot plant plus their own mini-beast house.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I imagine there are an awful lot of young children in Haslemere and surrounding areas right now thinking that the Royal School must be the best school ever and we all know what pester power can achieve!

Overall, a brilliantly planned and executed, clever and effective event that is sure to achieve its objectives…long live clever marketing, we salute you!