Merry Christmas

2008 has been a great year for 989 Design. The studio started the year as a one-man show and grew to include Laurie Russell. Laurie brought a lot of experience and talent to the table as well as a welcome alternate creative voice to our work. Between the two of us, I think we did a lot of interesting and fun projects and I look forward to growing and challenging ourselves more in 2009.

We've had great luck with our clients this year, too. Not only did we get to work with all of our existing clients, but we were able to land a few new clients. I am really happy with the work we did this year with all of our clients and I am grateful to each and every one of them for giving me the opportunity to do what I love to do. Many thanks to all of 989 Design's clients—past, present and future.

I'd also like to send out season's greetings to the vendors we work with throughout the year, especially the Tri-City Printing Holy Trinity of F.P. Horak, McKay Press and QRP. I appreciate your efforts on our behalf. You really do make us look good and I am really happy to have the chance to work with you.

Even with a harsh economy right now, I really am excited for the opportunities that 2009 presents. We have a few big announcements coming up in the first quarter of the year, so be sure to stay tuned.

To everyone reading this blog I wanted to say Merry Christmas. Enjoy the time you spend with your loved ones and I look forward to talking to you very soon.

Be well.

...shawn...

It's Been a Long (and Snowy) Week

Believe it or not, I really did get a second entry up last week, but I ended up taking it down because it was written when I was feeling a little bit cranky. A vendor of mine did something completely unprofessional and I was so bothered by it that it was the only thing I could focus on enough to write about. I read the entry over the next morning and while I didn't name names, I still didn't like the negative vibes so I deleted it.

To make up for the weeklong absence, I will try to get a few entries up this week. The big news around here for the past few days has been snow. And lots of it. I don't have the exact snow totals, but we've probably seen 14–16 inches in the past five days. And they're saying that we could get 4-8 inches more in the next two days. By far the snowiest week we've had since I moved back to Bay City.

The photo above was taken about five hours into the big storm last Friday morning. I was able to run out of the studio and use the camera for about sixty seconds before I rushed back into the studio to keep the camera from getting too wet. The whole city was halfway shut down on Friday. I sat here in the studio and tried to work, but spent a lot of my time just watching it snow. It was a very relaxing day.

One thing I had to do at the end of last week was fax something to a vendor. That's right...I said 'fax.' How very 1980s. Years ago I had a dedicated fax line and a fax machine and so forth, but that technology has very quickly become little more than an annoyance. There are a few good reasons for still using a fax machine versus using e-mail, but only a few (even hand-written documents are more easily scanned and e-mailed).

In his book Microserfs, Douglas Coupland says that receiving a fax is like getting an e-mail from the 1980s—and that was written in 1996. It's been twelve years since the book was written.

If you are a company who still uses fax as a primary mode of communication, you really need to think about what message this conveys to your clientele. Compared to e-mail fax is low tech, time intensive, less efficient, more costly to operate and less flexible. Do you want your clients to think you are low tech, time intensive, less efficient, more costly and less flexible? Fax machines take up space, use electricity and are totally redundant.

Trust me...it's time to ditch the fax machine.

989 Design Website

This blog was around first, but these days it is just a copy of my site blog.
The site blog is kept at http://www.989Design.com.

Also available is a portfolio of our work, information about 989 Design, and more.

Please stop by and check it out.

Thoughts on Branding the Tri-Cities

I was reading an article about the Tri-Cities earlier today and they were talking—in an elementary way—about branding and efforts to give the Tri-Cities a brand to help propel the region into the future.

You hear more and more about branding these days…it’s not a new term or practice, but it is (once again) the flavor of the week. Personally, I am a big believer in the effectiveness of branding on a product/corporation’s performance. I think that the way consumers view your brand has a great deal to do with how effective the rest of your marketing communication is received.

What bothers me is that very few people have any idea of what branding is really all about. I’ve had clients ask me to create a brand for a product without themselves having any idea of what their comapny is all about. I have literally had someone ask me to create a brand for them without a company name, a product or service to sell, or any thought as to who the brand was supposed to appeal to.

A brand isn’t an Easy Button. You don’t just create a brand and ABRACADABRA! Instant business!

The problem in the Tri-Cities is compounded because in the Tri-Cities there are very few people with any branding experience whatsoever. Don’t get me wrong, there are some local marketing communications firms who can do a good job of it. I'm not saying that the talent isn't available, but they are often an untapped resource.

For example, a few years ago the city of Bay City hired a branding firm to create a new logo for Bay City. Instead of working with a local studio, they put together a committee and worked with an out-of-state firm. What this firm came up with was a tremendously expensive nightmare of a logo. And, from what I can tell, that’s all they delivered. I don’t see a cohesive brand strategy being applied to any of Bay City’s communications. In fact, while some of the publications for the city have been updated, I also see the new logo being slapped on the same, old, ineffective publications/advertisements they’ve been using for years.

I love Bay City, I really do, but there is a real lack of marketing/advertising savvy here. At the same time it’s a very tight circle of people who make many of the decisions that affect the city. If you’re not on the inside of this circle they never even think talk to anyone outside of this circle. In the spirit of candor, I am clearly on the outside of this circle. It’s not even that I want to be on the inside, but I hate seeing Bay City continue down the same path that we’ve been plodding down for so many years.

On the other hand, when the city of Midland wanted to do some branding, they used Bolger+Battle, a Midland marketing communications firm and in my opinion (I’m a fan of Bolger+Battle) B+B really delivered. I have heard a few people who don’t love the new “Million Brilliant Possibilities” brand, but these people are few and far between. Also, they’re wrong. What B+B gave the city of Midland wasn’t just a logo, but a campaign that really says something about Midland. I’ve seen it used in a number of different applications and it just works. Nice work, Bolger+Battle.

I have friends who work for Bay Future and Saginaw Future and I believe that these organizations are really important to the future of the region. My friends are hard-working and really want what is best for the city, but the final decisions aren’t solely up to them. My hope is that the people working on the Tri-County regionalism group take a lot of their lead from the Midland people because Midland really is doing a lot of things right.

Lasso the Moon

One of my favorite clients that I work with throughout the year is the State Theatre in downtown Bay City. I can remember going to see movies there when I was a little kid (for whatever reason, Disney's The Rescuers is the one that keeps coming to mind) and I always really loved the State.

After moving home a few years ago, I was lucky enough to meet Mike Baciagalupo who is the executive director of the State Theatre. Mike has asked me to take photos at the State about four or five times over the past few years. I've seen (and shot) a few fun shows there, but I hadn't seen a movie there for many years.

So when I saw that the State was playing It's a Wonderful Life as part of Bay City's Sundays in the City series, I couldn't wait for my chance to see one of my all-time favorite films on the big screen for the first time.

Last Sunday afternoon Michelle and I bundled up and headed over to the State and we had a really great time. First off (and maybe it goes without saying) the movie was fantastic. To see it on a screen larger than a television screen was a real treat. I think the best thing about the day wasn't the movie, though. It was the crowd. The movie wasn't packed, but there were a lot more people than I would have expedted. It was just a great day to spend a couple of hours stocking up on the holiday spirit and enjoying a classic film

Events like this help make Bay City what it is. I was really happy to see so many people out supporting the work that Mike is doing. I'd like to see the State show more classic films, but there are quite a few events coming up in the next year that you should check out. I linked to their site above, so if you get the chance please take the time to visit their site and check out the schedule of upcoming events.

I hope everyone reading this is having a great week. Check back later this week for another new blog post.

Greetings from Beautiful Bay City

I received an e-mail the other day from a woman named Kathee. Kathee was irked because without realizing it, when we updated the site a few months ago we inadvertently left off what city the studio is located in. I still can't believe I made such a rookie mistake. I am genuinely grateful to Kathee for taking the time to let me know. I think most everybody who reads the blog regularly knows it, but I'll state it again for the record: 989 Design is located in Bay City, Michigan. We are located at 701 E. Midland Street, in the heart of Bay City's historic Midland Street business district.

I think what really bugs me about the omission is that sites who leave out that sort of information is a real pet peeve of mine. There are a lot of business sites which deliberately leave out location information. I really don't understand the rationale behind it, but I suppose they think it makes them seem like a bigger business than they really are.

For example, somebody mentioned a business in Saginaw (whose name I will not divulge, I'm not trying to be nasty I'm just using them to illustrate my point) and I had never heard of them before, so I looked them up online. If you go to the site and read through it, you would think that it's this giant business employing scores of people. Everything is written in this really silly, puffed-up style. "Our team of experts" and stuff like that. In reality, it is one person operating out of their home.

For years people have been saying that the internet is a great equalizer and that it levels the playing field for small business. I suppose that is true, to a certain extent, but I can't help but wonder why people think it's so important to look big. Personally, I think that being a small business gives you a big advantage, especially given the current economic climate. I like the idea of being more nimble and better able to respond to client needs because I don't have the same overhead as a big studio.

Granted, there are times when being a small studio excludes you from certain jobs and clients. For certain projects, size really does matter. You need the manpower to keep up with the demands of a big client. These clients are few and far between, though. For every client like Hulu.com, who recently awarded their $50 million account to a new agency, there are hundreds of clients with much smaller budgets, but the demands of these accounts are easier to keep up with as a small studio. I think that one of the most important things you can do with your website is to be sure that it accurately reflects what your business is all about.

Also, remember to put what city you are located in.

Network Without Leaving the Office

I remember having a conversation with my cousin Jamey a year or two ago. Jamey is a senior in college now and we were talking about Facebook. She was saying that she didn't like non-students on Facebook. Jamey isn't an agist or anything, but I took her to mean that she felt like the newcomers were kind of ruining a good thing. I guess it's like when your favorite band starts to make it big and suddenly everybody loves them. It sort of ruins it because they were your band.

It wasn't until Facebook first began allowing non-students to join (much to Jamey's chagrin), though, that the true power of this networking juggernaut became apparent. What was once solely a social tool opened itself up to allow people to use the network to promote themselves or their businesses in a friendly and comfortable manner.

I will admit that I am a very reluctant networker. I go to the Chamber of Commerce events and I talk to people, but I'm not one of those folks who enjoys making the rounds and introducing myself to everyone. I enjoy meeting new people, I really do, but going around and handing out business cards to strangers feels awkward to me...it's outside my comfort zone. Networking is not about closing sales, it's about getting your name out there and letting people know what you do—Facebook is a great venue for doing just that.

A lot of businesses steer clear of networking sites because they write it off as something for kids. Facebook is definitely not the right venue for every business, but that's okay because there are a lot of different networking sites. So it's important to think about who your core customers and clients are. Once you have an idea of who you want to target, you can figure out what networking sites work best for you. Maybe it's myspace (event planners, for example) or maybe it's linkedin (great business site with a wide variety of individuals and professions represented). Maybe what you really need to to is to set up a blog to let potential customers about your business.

Take the time to look into networking sites and decide if there is one that makes sense for you and your business. The best thing about these sites is that most of them don't cost a dime. The only investment to be made is the time it takes to put the page together, so what do you have to lose?

If you think you would like to look into this further, but would like some help putting everything together, give us a call. We're pretty comfortable with new media and would love to help you out in any way we can. We can make recommendations on which sites work best for you, create the pages you need, write the blog or anything else you need help with.