The Jacob Tyler Rebranding Guide

When & How to Rebrand

How To Take Your Company’s Branding To The Next Level

By The Jacob Tyler Agency

Every successful company needs to have a strong brand. Your brand isn’t just a logo, your brand name, or simply a piece of marketing strategy. It’s all of these things and so much more. It’s your brand’s identity. It’s the story you tell current and potential clients or customers that tells them why they should spend their money with you. It’s a central piece of the puzzle of your success or failure.

What do you do, then, when your brand isn’t strong enough or is out-of-date and out-of-touch? If this is the case, then it is probably time for you to rebrand. Rebranding, however, can be a terrifying proposition for companies to undertake. Change is rarely easy, especially ones as potentially costly and risky as rebranding.

At Jacob Tyler, we’re experts at successfully helping our clients in their rebranding efforts with years of experience and success stories on our side, and we want to share our wealth of knowledge with you! To do that, we’ve put together this helpful (and a bit lengthy) rebranding guide to walk you through the essential components to successfully rebranding.

In this guide, we will cover the essential aspects of successful rebranding strategy and execution, including:

Brand vs. Branding vs. Brand Strategy

What sets your brand apart and tells your story?

Before we dive into the ins and outs of the rebranding process, it’s important to understand what the differences are between a few things. Let’s take a look at the often confused concepts of brand, branding, and brand strategy, what differentiates each of them, and what role they play in the rebranding process.

Brand

A brand is much more than the definitions you’ll find in the top search results of Google. It’s not just a mark or a logo or a name. Branding is everything a business, organization, or entity does.

Your website experience is your brand. How your receptionist answers your phone is your brand. The condition of your bathroom is your brand. A brand is the thread that runs through every piece of your business. This is why a brand is so important.

defiition of a brand

If you want someone to know what you stand for, it should be displayed in everything you do, spoken or unspoken, written or unwritten, explicit or implicit. We love it when we see a 100% effort to get brand right, and we’re over the moon when clients get it.

Branding

This one is a little more cut and dry. Branding is all the ownable, identifiable marks that make an organization stand out in the product landscape.

Good branding has the ability to bring a brand name to mind even when the name isn’t present. It’s a look, a tone, and a feel, and even a sound—everything that is uniquely your brand. For example, that sound when your Macbook starts up? Branding. The way the Apple lights up on the lid? Branding.

definition of branding by jacob tyler

You’ve probably got this one down. Let’s move on.

Brand Strategy

Brand strategy uses the above points and creates a framework that lays out the who, what, when, where, how, and why of your organization’s communication of its identity.

Just as it is with a communication strategy or social strategy, brand strategy is the roadmap that allows you, your employees, and your partners to build equity in the way you want it to be built. It’s an absolutely critical piece of building something meaningful and for the long haul.

jacob tyler rebranding strategy

Creative Processes

Discover. Plan. Build. Launch.

Every brand has a unique story to tell. Your story drives every marketing and creative move for a strong brand and digital strategy. Your story should build your brand from the ground up. For that to happen, there needs to be strong creative processes in place to translate your brand’s story into tangible branding.

For a more customized approach, Jacob Tyler will hand select a team of experts and trusted partners for additional support throughout the process including digital search engine marketing and back-end technical support for a complete and focused campaign strategy.

Our Process

jacob tyler rebranding process

Identify Challenges

We start by exploring the primary challenges for your business or industry. This is key for us to understand where we need to go with the remainder of our process. Only by understanding what challenges your brand faces can we see where our destination lies.

With challenges identified, we can then develop cutting-edge solutions through a strategic process where we will discover, plan, build, and launch a custom-tailored brand experience to grow your business.

Discover

This is the most important stage of our rebranding process here at Jacob Tyler. The most important part of our relationship with a new client is getting to know them. We often tell clients we will never know their business as much as they do, but the closer we get, the better our creative will be. Furthermore, we will be able to deliver creative more efficiently and effectively.

Our research isn’t just academic either. We take the time to get to know our clients and their business in person. We don’t just want to know facts or tidbits about what they do. We want to know how their business feels, and we aren’t afraid to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty to do so. Sometimes literally!


“We spend a lot of time with our clients initially to get to know them. For example, when we did the rebrand for NuVasive, a 2.5 billion dollar medical device company, our team actually did cadaver training in their San Diego corporate headquarters.

We did this to help understand how their innovative spine technology was implanted and how doctors were trained to do so. It was helpful in how we thought about the brand moving forward.”

-Les Kollegian, CEO & Chief Creative Officer

Plan

Every client strategy is custom and the plan is developed: first, based on the specific target market and, second, by the budget. We choose what we feel the most effective strategy will be and then go from there down the line based on the client budget.

Build

With our strategy approved and budgets in line, we bring our cross-departmental team together to kick off the build process. At the ground level, we create a timeline that lays out expectations for progress and when our client can expect deliverables that need approval leading all the way up to launch. Our strategists, creatives, and account executives then get to work with our developers, social media team and digital media team to start the rebranding process as it relates to each form of media.

Launch

As we reach the end of the build stage, our clients have provided comprehensive feedback and we’ve agreed upon our strategy, creative assets, campaigns, as well as key performance indicators and benchmarks for reporting. The launch date we laid out in our timeline marks the official launch of the rebrand. But the work isn’t done when we press “go.” In fact, it’s really just beginning!

Upon launch, we test everything that can be tested to make sure it’s working properly. Whether that’s a website, an interactive trade show booth, digital display ads, social media campaigns or something else entirely, we triple check to make sure every single thing is built properly, working as we promised, and in a way that delivers results for our clients. This process can take anywhere from hours to a couple of weeks depending on the size and scope of the rebranding project.

Solution

After launch, the work is not over, however. We still need to be sure the project is truly a solution to the challenge we set out to solve. To do that, we find the best metrics to gauge the success of the project, not only right now at the client’s current scale but in the future as the client grows as well.

Once we have tested our creative and solutions, we modify until we hit the right conversion, Cost Per Lead (CPL) and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) for the specific project. Experimenting and adjusting post-launch until you have the answer is essential. No rebranding project should be assessed with the same metrics you have used before just because they worked on previous projects. You need to find the right one for the individual brand and project. Just as every brand is unique, so is every project.

This adaptability needs to continue as your company grows, as well. Continuing to find new solutions as your company grows is key. Ideally, your rebranding project will foster continued company growth, and your solutions and metrics used to gauge success might need to adapt and grow along with it.

Marketing Strategies

Developing successful brands by creating detailed and impactful solutions that reflect the visual soul of your business.

A successful rebrand does not look the same for every company or project. Depending on your specific industry, client base, size, goals, or countless other factors, there are a wide variety of marketing strategies that might be important for you to be truly successful. That is why it is important to understand the entire spectrum of marketing strategies and how they play into your rebranding efforts.

rebranding marketing strategies

At Jacob Tyler, we categorize these strategies into a few distinct categories: Insight & Research, Visual Communications, User Experience, and Design & Development. Let’s take a look at these categories, how they play into your rebranding efforts and the specific strategies that make up each category.

Insight & Research

Successful rebranding requires thoughtful, disciplined, and creative strategies to move them forward. Our extensive analytical and strategic methodologies provide a strong foundation to build a unique brand experience that will drive results for your business.

Insight & Research Services:

  • Brand Architecture
  • Brand Standards Guide
  • Focus Groups
  • Positioning
  • Brand Audit
  • Brand Tone + Voice
  • Messaging
  • Style Guide Design
  • Brand + Product Naming
  • Competitive Analysis
  • Market Research
  • Technical Audit

Visual Communications

Visual communication is paramount to your brand’s success. Be it logos, signage, packaging or digital displays, We craft eye-catching designs across all mediums that engage, excite and ensure your brand’s message is communicated with a single glance.

planck before and after logo by jacob tyler planck before and after logo by jacob tyler[/caption]

Visual Communications Services:

  • Logos + Corporate
  • Identity
  • Environmental Graphics
  • Packaging Systems
  • Marketing Campaigns
  • Printed Collateral
  • Tradeshow Booths
  • Annual Reports
  • Outdoor Advertising
  • Advertising Campaigns
  • Direct Marketing
  • Media Planning
  • Content Writing + Editing
  • Photography Direction
  • Public Relations Services

User Experience

Technology is constantly evolving, and your brand must evolve with it to remain successful. We ensure that your brand anticipates what’s next and remains relevant. We monitor your digital presence and implement a flawless user experience that increases engagement with every click, tap or swipe.

User Experience Services:

  • Wireframes
  • User Interface
  • Site Architecture
  • User Flows
  • User Testing
  • Statistics Analytics
  • Prototyping
  • Customer Journey
  • Information Architecture
  • Content Strategy

Design & Development

With a mobile-first mentality for the front-end and a flawless CMS on the back-end, our award-winning websites put our customers first. We create intuitive, simple, and engaging experiences for all users, on any screen size—and from any device.

Design & Development Services:

  • Web Design
  • Online Marketing
  • Email Marketing
  • SEO
  • Responsive Development
  • CMS
  • Online Advertising
  • eCommerce
  • Mobile Apps
  • Video Direction

Website Management

Stay true to your brand’s story.

The website is quite often a consumer’s (or business’s) first impression of your brand. This is where you have 3 seconds to pull the visitor in with an effective message or brand story. It is a make it or break it moment in many ways because if a user leaves, a very small percent ever return. Thus, it ends up in a loss of sales and brand equity.

tghe role of website management in rebranding


“It is extremely important that brands stay true to their story and continually evolve online to create and deliver messages that resonate to their audience.”

-Les Kollegian, CEO & Chief Creative Officer

Successful Trends

Harnessing trends that are sound and the right direction for our clients.

Harnessing trends can be monumental toward effectively rebranding your company. But how do you know which trends are worth jumping on and which ones are just a flash in the pan? Even once you’re sure a trend is a successful one, how do you use it to your advantage without the whole thing seeming forced?

In Touch With the Right Trends

These are questions that brands will likely struggle with for the rest of time, especially in our world where social media is ubiquitous and more and more importance is placed on how viral something is or what’s trending right in that moment.

However, not all trends are worth the effort, and this is something especially vital for brands undergoing the rebranding process. After all, few things can instantly make a brand seem more out of touch than unsuccessfully trying to jump onto a current trend.

There’s nothing less cool than obviously trying to look cool. Even worse, if you’re not careful this can even lead to serious PR headaches if you’re too eager to ride a trend without fully understanding the full context.

Flexible and Ready To Pivot

That said, successfully harnessing the right trends and technology for your brand and message can be a gamechanger for your rebrand. We are constantly keeping our eyes open and our ears to the ground to identify when it’s time to shift and try something new, and when it’s better to wait and see or hold off entirely. This flexibility combined with our team’s vast experience and expertise makes us the perfect partner.


“We look at trends and technology with an open mind, and we are always ready to pivot if it makes sense for the client and we believe it will create positive brand equity and increase sales.

With that said, we are not the people that line up for the new phone at the Apple store. We like to make sure the platforms and specific trends in any marketing capacity are sound and the right direction for our clients.”

-Les Kollegian, CEO & Chief Creative Officer

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Experience makes all the difference.

Communication is Key.

The biggest common pitfall lies in communication with any agency. This is both external and internal. We use a collaborative project management software tool that helps us maintain great communication with our clients globally and keeps a record of conversations. We are painstakingly over communicative and that always creates better experiences.

Attention to Detail From Top to Bottom

The second biggest pitfall is that the big agencies have the Creative Director go to meetings (usually with 15+ years experience) to engage and close contracts. After the deal is signed, the project is handed off to juniors to work on the project. This is a great way to get the most profit, but also a recipe for disaster. We can tell you from experience– which is why we don’t do it.

Keeping Everyone on the Same Page

Here at Jacob Tyler, we have learned from our experiences and mistakes, and use that knowledge to avoid these common pitfalls that brands and agencies fall into during the rebranding process. Simply put, if you want to successfully rebrand, there needs to be great communication and attention to detail from the very top all the way down—between people within your company, at the agency you have hired, and the two sides working together. Everyone needs to be on the same page.

“We have people on our team with over 25 years experience (including me). It makes a difference.”

-Les Kollegian, CEO & Chief Creative Officer

Budget Forecasting

Doing whatever it takes to make sure the client has a great experience and make a return on their investment.

We will do whatever it takes to make sure the client has a great experience and make a return on their investment with us. We aren’t designing for designers or to get awards, but we are designing for the business. Our creative has to work.

Our client’s success is always the number one priority. This attitude drives us to find the right strategy for the client’s budget. We leave our egos at home and, instead, find the right solution. It doesn’t have to be flashy, it just has to be correct.


“From a marketing perspective, if I need to hire a guy to spin an arrow outside of the business, it sounds cheesy and ridiculous. But if it increases the daily revenue of that location 60%, is it worth it? I think so. I guess we won’t win any innovation awards for that specific tactical execution, but we don’t care.”

-Les Kollegian, CEO & Chief Creative Officer

Scalability

Always looking toward the future in order to build the right campaign—one that is solid, engaging, and will stand the test of time.

Everything we do from a marketing and creative execution standpoint always start with us thinking of scale. We spend a lot of time thinking about the future in order to build the right campaign. We don’t just want your rebranding efforts to be successful right now; we want them to be successful for years to come. As your company grows, we want our efforts to grow along with you.

scalability of rebranding

By the same token, we don’t want anything we do to feel dated after just a couple years, and neither should you. This is why we don’t chase concepts that are trendy just for the sake of doing so. We look at concepts that have stood the test of time and apply them to everything we do. We want to help you rebrand in a way that works today, next year, five years from now, and beyond.


“We don’t want our marketing to be “trendy”, we want it to be solid and engaging and, much like a song from AC/DC, stand the test of time.”

-Les Kollegian, CEO & Chief Creative Officer

Branding Guidelines

Consistent and Unique.

Successfully rebranding a company does not only require high-level creative product across multiple processes. It also requires a strategy and a set of cohesive principles. This is where branding guidelines come into play. The right branding guidelines are fundamental not only for rebranding, but for all future brand growth, scalability, marketing strategy, and brand success as well!

rebranding guidelines

The best brand guidelines go beyond a simple set of rules. They are more than color palettes or font choice. They are integral building blocks to a brand’s very identity. They create a full brand experience that customers, clients, and the public at large engage with before, during, and after their direct interaction with the company itself.

Case Studies

We win as a team or we don’t win at all.

Here at Jacob Tyler, we are incredibly proud of the work we do helping our clients successfully rebrand, and we aren’t afraid to show it off. After all, we can talk about our work all we want, but we think it’s better to just let it speak for itself.

rebranding case studies

San Diego YMCA | Invigorating an Online Community

See the full case study.

How Rebranding Can Improve ROI | A Case Study

“When we were chosen to redesign the San Diego YMCA online, we were thrilled for such an amazing and important opportunity. The San Diego County YMCA needed an efficient way to engage its growing and increasingly diverse audience – including online purchasing. We answered the call, building an intuitive cyber experience and eCommerce presence for the YMCA’s 17 San Diego County locations.”

Open for Business

Launching an online store is exciting. Launching 17 online stores simultaneously is downright thrilling. We pulled it off, and the results were eye-opening with online sales doubling almost immediately.

Design Without Boundaries

In the digital age, engaging with customers requires being where – and when – they are. Our device-agnostic design created a seamless online experience across all devices from mobile to desktop that made it simple for the YMCA to stay connected to its members 24/7.

CarnoSyn

See the full case study.

Bigger, Faster, Stronger

CarnoSyn®, a patented beta-alanine supplement that helps athletes reach peak performance, has been a crucial ingredient in sports nutrition formulas for years – but it had never been marketed as a product. The brand’s parent company NAI tapped Jacob Tyler to introduce CarnoSyn® to the world.

Digital Approach

Jacob Tyler serves as an integrated design and marketing partner, working closely with the CarnoSyn® team. Together, we produced multiple digital campaigns that included website landing pages, message development, video production, media buying strategies, and a robust social media campaign. Each campaign was focused on educating the fitness enthusiast and athlete audience on the benefits, uses and proper dosing of CarnoSyn®, and generating leads for retailers that sell the product as part of their sports nutrition formulas. The campaigns were wildly successful, making CarnoSyn® a known name in the fitness world.

Lead Generation

We created landing pages optimized to generate leads and position CarnoSyn® as a leader in the industry.

Advertising and Social Media

With Jacob Tyler’s social, mobile, and web advertising, the initial campaign generated over 39,000,000 ad impressions with an average Click-through rate above 0.60% and an average cost per click of $.19 in phase one. Two more campaigns are currently in motion.

The Gains

71%

Increased average website visits per day from 90 to 2,200 visits per day with 71% of traffic being first-time visits to CarnoSyn.com.

32%

Generated over 1,280,000 video views of educational content with an average View Through Rate of 32% (Average TrueView VTR are between 5% to 10%).

50%

Improved View through rate of TrueView to 50%+ which lowered Cost per View down to an average between $.03 -$.04.

The Importance of Choosing an Agency

We don’t just want to be your agency. We want to be part of your team.

Before going through the rebranding process, one of the most important steps you need to take is choosing an agency to partner with. This is vital to the process for a variety of reasons. Choosing the right agency to partner with is a relationship that not only steers the entire rebranding process, for better or worse, but can make all the difference between success or frustration.

This is not a place where you want to make a bad choice of trusting the wrong person. It would be similar to building a house without a floor plan.

The agency should be experienced. Not just in the specific business vertical, but in general. Everyone at Jacob Tyler, from full-time employees, to freelancers, and vendors, have 10+ years of experience as a requirement. This ensures not only the best strategic thinking for our clients but also a great experience.


“We pay more for the staff, our clients pay a little more for the work, but the outcomes are worth it.”

-Les Kollegian, CEO & Chief Creative Officer of Jacob Tyler

Don’t Just Take It From Us

Listen, we’re proud of our work at Jacob Tyler, and we aren’t afraid to say so. We understand, though, that compliments mean more when they come from someone else. Fortunately, we have a track record to back up what we have to say about our work!

Clutch, a leading platform for unbiased reviews of B2B service providers, lists Jacob Tyler not only as one of the top branding agencies in San Diego, but among the best branding agencies in the nation as well! We take this as a huge honor and are proud to be included on this list by Clutch, especially considering the process they use.


“We really respect the vetting process Clutch requires for authentic reviews and it saves a lot of time for our clients who don’t always have the time to get on the phone with our prospects.”

-Les Kollegian, CEO & Chief Creative Officer of Jacob Tyler

So don’t just take it from us. Here’s what people we have worked with have to say about their experience partnering with Jacob Tyler for their rebranding efforts.


“Before we engaged Jacob Tyler, our image had undergone so many revisions that the brand became diluted. Jacob Tyler helped us create a uniform brand identity that our company can rally behind. A few subtle changes by Jacob Tyler have boosted team morale and cooperation dramatically. We’re now proud to put the company name on the side of our office building.”

-Brendan Smith, CEO of Motive Interactive

“Jacob Tyler’s rebrand has contributed to a significant growth in business year over year.”

-Erik Mueller, President & CEO of Grasp Technologies, Inc.

“I was very impressed with their level of creativity and communication. I don’t have very much technical experience, so Jacob Tyler effectively discussed the project on my level, which I really appreciated. Additionally, they were extremely receptive to feedback and made changes with minimal pushback. The added layer of visibility we get from our website has generated an estimated $4 million in top-line revenue for our company.”

-G.A. Bartick, President & COO of R3 Consultants

 

We promise we didn’t just cherry-pick the reviews we wanted you to see. We invite you to go take a look at the rest of them over on our Clutch profile and see what our clients think of our work for yourself.

Professional Ghosting: The Disrespectful Art of Prospects & Clients Going Dark.

Recently I was sent an email from Robert Glazer, Founder & CEO, Acceleration Partners (included below) that is something I have been thinking about writing about for a while now. He beat me to it and frankly did a good job. This year alone… and yes, it’s only March, I have submitted three proposals that were requested by prospects with no response. As well, I have submitted four others to clients and prospects that I had to follow up several times before getting a response. In every case, I had a good conversation and was told how the project was a priority for the organization. It is really unprofessional and disrespectful… do they not realize it? It’s not like these were quick emails. These were comprehensive proposals that took multiple conversations with my team and hours to put together. Please just let me know your not interested if that’s the case and value my time. Also, please take the time to let me know why. I HAVE had many clients and prospects do this and it is extremely valuable feedback.

Robert also mentions an article by Adam Grant that I disagree with. Adam says “ignoring someone’s email is an act of incivility and how none of us are really too busy to respond”. I think there are cases where this does not apply. For example, I get approximately 150-200 “sales” emails each week asking to partner with Jacob Tyler Branding Agency . If I were to take time to acknowledge and respond to everyone of these, it would take at least an hour per day… which is frankly wasted time. I would rather be supporting my team and clients than responding to unsolicited requests.

Anyway, here’s the article from Robert below as reference.

As a professional services firm, prospective clients often ask members of our team to provide detailed proposals, estimates and supporting materials as part of their evaluation process. While there’s no guarantee we will get the work, fulfilling these requests takes time, energy and resources, something that most prospects value and appreciate. However, over the past few years, I’ve noticed a rise in professional “ghosting.”

Ghosting has become part of the dating nomenclature. Apparently, it’s the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by abruptly – and without explanation—withdrawing from all communication with them. People with avoidant personality types seem to think this approach is faultless. But in reality, it’s just rude and disrespectful.

The fact that ghosting seems to be on the rise within professional interactions is disappointing. As mentioned above, we have seen our fair share of prospective clients suddenly stop all communication after we submit proposal information to them. Ironically, but maybe not coincidently, it is often been the ones who asked us to do the most work on the shortest notice who don’t have the decency to follow-up or reply.

I have also read a number of articles about the growing practice of ghosting in recruiting, whereby candidates who take the time to come in for an in-person interview never hear from the company again. Not only is this tremendously unprofessional, it may be psychologically damaging as it leaves the candidate to wonder if they did something wrong or offensive rather than it being because the hiring team just decided to go in a different direction.

If you have been practicing ghosting in any part of your life, it’s time to stop. Here’s why:

Ghosting is disrespectful; disrespect creates ill will and distrust that is often irreparable. It also provides fodder for others to say negative things about you or your company via a public forum.

It’s a small world out there. You never know when your ghosting may come back to haunt you. We’ve even had people apply for a job at our company and forget that they ghosted us in some way years before. Similarly, candidates who have been ghosted are highly unlikely to say good things about you or your organization out in the marketplace or on review sites. And they will never be a customer.

Being avoidant and indifferent in your communication is a bad look. It conveys cowardice and disregard.

Adam Grant recently wrote a great article on why he believes ignoring someone’s email is an act of incivility and how none of us are really “too busy” to respond.

If you care about someone or have used their time, have the courtesy to get back to them, even if it’s uncomfortable because the response isn’t positive. I’ve always found that people can handle the truth when it’s given respectfully.

The point is, be excellent in everything you do, even in how you learn to turn people down or say no. Taking this a step further, I’d suggest you actually go out of your way to respond to anyone who reaches out to you.

Years ago, I made the decision to try and respond to anyone who writes a personal note to me, even though my response is often a polite “no” to most requests for my time. Simply taking the time to reply and show respect for their time reflects my personal brand and our company’s values. Often, the person is both thankful and surprised to hear from me, meaning that I have exceeded their expectations.

If you ask for or use someone’s time or energy, respond back to them. Don’t burn your bridges by ghosting.

San Diego Web Design by Jacob Tyler

For Best Results on Social Media, Use This Messaging Framework Immediately.

For Best Results on Social Media, Use This Messaging Framework Immediately.

Today, we’re dropping some social media knowledge that you can put into play immediately. We all know that smart messaging plays a critical role in reaching audiences effectively and this tried-and-true method has served us well for years. We recommend rolling out all three in a non-repeating cadence each week. Give it a try.

Knowledge Messaging
The crux of social media marketing is offering value, right? Why else would anyone follow your brand? They wouldn’t. The cool part about sharing knowledge is that it can work for every brand because making people smarter is always in style. Here’s a couple examples to illustrate what we mean and to get your creative juices flowing.

1. This blog that you’re reading right now, shared to social media. It’s something that you and other marketers need and it’s knowledge that we have. So we share it in a way that they can be used immediately.
2. Any famous guitar brand. Yes, of course share great photos of your guitars. But also, make your community experts on everything from materials sourcing through final production. No detail is too small to share. You’re not sharing features, your sharing the brand in all its nitty-gritty glory. “See that fretboard? Brazilian rosewood. One of the most durable woods on the planet and perfect for a rocker who puts a ton of miles on his guitar. It’s the best.”

Emotive Messaging
This one’s so easy it’s actually kind of hard. When you’ve done the work to truly understand your target consumer you find out what makes them tick. And you find out that little insight that makes your product work in the context of their lives. From here you can create messages that tap into that to make them think, react, or buy. Why did we say it’s hard? Because the emotional execution of that message has to be spot on without pandering, without being cheesy, or feeling overtly “marketing-y”. Don’t let that stop you, though. You have to break a couple eggs to make an omelet. (Or if you want our help, let us know. It’s what we’ve done for 18 year and it’s what we live for.)

Trust Messaging
How do you build trust on social media? With reviews, testimonials, positive comments, and good ratings. Once you have those you can start showing them off in fun pieces of creative and pushing them out on your social channels. Pop a great customer quote into an image or a short video, talk about why you have a 4.9 star review on Facebook, or repost a review that a great blogger did about your product. Brands live and die on word of mouth. When you give your consumers a trust signal through the experience of others you help fortify that word of mouth in amazing ways.

Do this all make sense? Good. Get to work. And don’t forget to tag us to show us how things are going.

Bistalk Radio Interview on ESPN 1700 with Les Kollegian and Richard Truss

Les Kollegian and Richard Truss interviewed by Bob Ryan on ESPN 1700 and had a fun and insightful conversation on small business and branding. Check out the podcast below to listen to the whole show.

Emotional Spending: Why Experience Trumps Product

There’s a common saying among marketers and copywriters: “Sell the benefits, not the features.” In essence, this means that consumers are more interested in what the result of your product or service will have on their experience as a consumer than how the product works or what it’s made of. People who purchase facial cream are more interested in eliminating wrinkles than knowing the cream contains vitamins A, D and E. As much as we human beings like to think we operate strictly on logic when choosing products and services, there is an undeniable emotional component to our actions (why do you think Mr. Spock was always so perplexed at Kirk’s decisions?) These truths are mostly self-evident, but the allure of experience can be much stronger than we might anticipate – and brands should keep experience at top of mind when crafting a marketing plan.

In their book Happy Money, psychology professor Elizabeth Dunn and marketing professor Michael Norton explore the “science of happier spending” through research and vignettes demonstrating spending habits that often defy what most would consider “logical” financial choices. In one example, young married couple Marcia and John, both nuclear engineers, shared a dream of being astronauts. When they first heard about Virgin Galactic’s $200,000, six-minute flight to space, the couple agreed to save enough in retirement to take the flight. A few years later, John died unexpectedly. When Marcia received the money from John’s life insurance policy, she decided to spend it on a ticket for the flight – which doesn’t yet technically exist. Illogical? Maybe, but Marcia felt it was more important to honor her husband’s memory, and in some way, share the experience with him. Maybe she would have been better off shoring up her financial future. But that’s the purchasing power of emotion.

This type of choice, however, doesn’t always win the day. Dunn and Norton offer another example of children at the restaurant/fun emporium Chuck E. Cheese. At birthday parties, children are given a set amount of tokens which they can choose to use on experiential games – like laser tag – or cash those tokens in for tickets, which can be redeemed for prizes like plastic frogs and teddy bears. More often than not – according to Dunn and Norton’s anecdotes – the children prefer the instant gratification of the tickets and corresponding prizes. These results though, still speak to the power of prioritizing experience when spending. The children didn’t choose the tickets because of the perceived value prize, but for the way it made them feel at the moment of purchase.

Human emotion is a powerful thing. We’re all looking for experiences that elicit positive feelings – be it a lifetime of memories earned from a backpacking trip through china, a feeling of trust from an auto mechanic, or a swelling of pride from owning the latest greatest tech gadget.

Brands must combine a valuable experience with their product to compete in a world of choices. They must identify not only who their audience is, but what drives their decisions in order to create a successful brand experience that keeps customers emotionally fulfilled – and coming back for more.

Want to learn more about driving buying behaviors? Fill out the form to the right, let’s talk.

Consider the Right Color for Your Brand

At Jacob Tyler, we are responsible for building brands. In the beginning, we take a lot of time to research and determine our client’s brand story, position, values, differentiation, identity, and you guessed it… colors. If you’ve recently started a new company, created a new product or are rebranding an existing entity, chances are you’ve been thinking a lot about what your new or invigorated brand will look like – and what it will feel like. Depending on your situation, naming and other brand components may come first, but the color of your brand is never far behind.

When deciding on colors for your logo, there are a few things to consider:

Consider The Psychology of Color: There have been extensive studies on the effect of the human subconscious – and even more written about how brands can utilize color to attract customers and drive consumer decision-making. Though not an exact science, there is certainly validity to the effect of color on mood and emotion. “Color Theory” has been around since the days of da Vinci. It’s why interior designers favor certain hues (“warm” and “cool” colors) for certain living spaces.

In a very general sense, certain colors are thought to portray certain virtues – yellow for optimism and warmth; orange for cheerfulness and confidence (also used subliminally to make people hungry); red for excitement, energy and boldness; green for growth and tranquility; purple for wisdom and creativity; blue for trust and stability; white for innocence and godliness; and black for elegance and power. Think about how you experience color in your own life. When you are surrounded by a certain color, how do you feel? At Jacob Tyler, our offices are awash in red. You can feel the energy and intensity right away. It’s a great color for a creative space – but probably wouldn’t work too well for a relaxing day spa.

Obviously, there is some validity to the psychology of color. I’m not a doctor or psychologist by any means, but in my opinion… OUR opinions of color are formed by individual experience, exposure, and preference. Thus I feel color favors nurture over nature. I will admit that creating a brand color scheme based on color psychology is a good baseline, but it shouldn’t be your only consideration.

Consider Your Audience: Before choosing your brand’s color scheme, you must define you brand’s audience. Who are they? What are their preferences? What are they looking for, and how will they find it in your brand? You might boast the most “creative” financial investment products in the industry, but your audience most likely prefers the byproduct of that creativity – stability. In this case, you’re better off choosing a blue or green as opposed to a “creative” purple or red.

Consider Your Product: In some cases, you may be selling a product that is widely known to be a certain color – like a basketball. In this case, you may not want to brand everything lime green. When it comes to color, sometimes the product speaks for itself and inate color association from you customers is important.

Consider Your Competition: What are others in your industry doing? Is there a successful standard that you should stay within? Can you potentially differentiate yourself by going way outside of the mainstream, or would that be self-defeating?

There are certainly cases where thinking too far “outside the box” would be detrimental to your brand. But there are also examples of industries where wildly different brands successfully offer similar services. Take the car service industry, particularly Uber and Lyft. Both offer a similar service – rides on demand through mobile apps – but have wildly different brands. Uber has a sleek black and silver logo and offers black and silver cars. Lyft’s logo is pink, and each Lyft car has a giant pink mustache on its grill. Both have significant shares of the same market but each brand is very different from tone, to goals, to mission.

Consider Mixing it Up: There’s no rule that says you have to use only one or two colors for your brand. Of course, using multiple colors is the exception and not the rule, but there are instances in which multiple colors make sense – and make a bigger impact than a traditional two-color scheme. There are also very good reasons to have different color palettes.

In 2014, Jacob Tyler rebranded and designed the San Diego International Airport’s new website, www.san.org, featuring nearly the entire color spectrum. This is NOT something we usually do, but the use of these colors were strategically developed to match the airport’s brick and mortar color scheme, which uses those colors to guide travelers through the airport by topic – red/orange for flight information, orange/yellow for dining and shopping, green/blue for parking and transportation, and purple for public and travel information. The website is part of the airport’s ecosystem, creating a four-dimensional experience for the traveler. The site is a good example of how using non-traditional color schemes can be effective for certain unique brands.

Consider the Whole: Great brands are greater than the sum of their parts. Great brands are an experience. Brand colors should be carefully selected to communicate this experience to your defined audience and achieve your branding goals.

If you’re obsessed with color and learning more, or you are a design professional looking to create color palettes for your project, a really simple site to use for a crash course is Canva. Their “Colors Design Wiki” teaches you everything you need to know about colors, their meanings, and the many color combinations that will hopefully give inspiration to your next design. For more information, you can visit https://www.canva.com/colors/ or if you want to talk to me… you know how to find me.

User Experience Case Study: JBS International

Your website is more than an information depot. Your website is the first engagement visitors have with your brand. First impressions – and experiences – will ultimately determine how potential customers receive your brand.

The manner in which visitors experience your website – called “user experience – is an integral part of the website building process. According to user experience best practices, information on a website should be

  • Useful: Your content should be original and fulfill a need
  • Usable: Site must be easy to use
  • Desirable: Image, identity, brand, and other design elements are used to evoke emotion and appreciation
  • Findable: Content needs to be navigable and locatable onsite and offsite
  • Accessible: Content needs to be accessible to people with disabilities
  • Credible: Users must trust and believe what you tell them

At Jacob Tyler, we create user experiences that drive traffic and get results for our clients. We begin by employing a collaborative, tailored discovery phase to determine the best approach for user experience. Some projects are based on months of research and user testing to generate clicks, others are designed to establish brand awareness and tell an engaging online story. All interactive projects are designed to provide an intuitive, simple and engaging experience for all users, on any screen size – and from any device.

Our client JBS International – a women-owned firm offering a broad and diverse set of management and information technology consulting services to public and private-sector clients – was recently awarded an Interactive Media Award for “Best in Class” in the professional services category for their website. We’re incredibly proud to have worked with the JBS team to create this award-winning user experience and website. The following case study brief on our work with JBS is a peek into the Jacob Tyler process for creating user experiences that educate, engage and excite.

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Step 1: Discovery, Research and Architecture

Successful projects are based on solid foundations. We led JBS through a guided discovery session with client stakeholders to discuss service offerings, products and expertise areas in detail. After presenting in-depth brand and competitive audit research, we defined key findings and strategic recommendations to use as a basis for the user experience strategy.

To guide the hierarchy of information on the website, we collaborated with JBS to develop a brand architecture that visualized the organization of products and service offerings. The resulting architecture told the brand story and clearly differentiates JBS from other consulting companies.

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Step 2: Wireframe, Prototype and Functional Specifications

Not all projects employ a basic, top-down hierarchy. With JBS, we implemented client stories to drive the flow of information. All relevant information was one click away and no more than three levels deep to prevent “dead ends.” We introduced a color-coding system in the wireframe stage to clearly show where pages linked together. An interactive prototype – with detailed functional notes – allowed stakeholders to experience the website structure and test user stories.

JBS-WF

Step 3: Concept and Responsive Design

With JBS, we employed a mobile-first design mentality, but understood that stakeholders required desktop layouts for approval. In order to show how our concepts would translate for various devices, we designed responsive header and footer elements to present with each concept. The initial presentation also included various interactive states – such as rollovers, menus and other animation techniques – to demonstrate how each design concept would come to life once developed.

JBS-mobile

Employing a user-tested strategy allowed us to create an effective, intuitive and engaging website where visitors would enjoy a positive experience online and with the JBS brand overall. The finished result is a well-organized and inviting online experience that allows JBS to easily integrate user feedback and new features along with company growth.

If you would like to learn more about our process for creating engaging user experiences, drop us a line!

Web Design by Jacob Tyler

What Not To Do When Growing Your Company, From A CEO Who’s Done Just That

Your company’s growth can feel like a complex equation. Add a consultant here, subtract a client there, divide up this budget and hope for the best. The numbing reality is that the choices we make, more often than not, lead us to unanticipated outcomes.

At Jacob Tyler Brand Agency, we’ve been down the rabbit hole and been forced to choose between the proverbial “red and green pill.” We know what it’s like to be a small business craving a growth spurt. Now that we’ve experienced the growth, through our success and failures, we’ve stumbled upon fundamental lessons on what not to do. These lessons, as luck would have it, have played a crucial role in building our company. Avoid these five pitfalls for stress-free, steady, and successful growth.

1. DO NOT RUSH THE HIRING PROCESS.

Small businesses often suffer from the “chicken/egg” syndrome. You don’t have the money to hire until you have the project set and when you finally have the project and money, you don’t have the staff to support the client. What do you do?

You may consider making a quick hiring decision. I won’t say this never works out, but many times, the person you hire, because you’re in a rush, isn’t the right fit for the position you’re trying to fill. Then you’ll spend extra time nurturing this employee to “fit” the required position. Save yourself the headache and repeat after me: slow to hire, fast to fire.

Simply put, your people are your brand. You wouldn’t want to devalue your brand, so don’t skimp on the quality of the employees you hire.

Instead of solving your problem with a quick hire, develop a hiring process that builds your pipeline of qualified applicants. Keep position descriptions up on your website and have a system in place for when you’re ready to push for new applicants. Then follow a vetting process. Know what you’re looking for, interview and interview again.

Taking this time upfront will save you time later. When you’re looking for that next hire, look for the qualities the previous employee (that quick hire we all regret) was lacking and be patient for the right person to come through your door.

2. DO NOT SURROUND YOURSELF WITH JUNIORS.

The common denominator with most small businesses is lack of cash flow. Sometimes this can be a recipe for a hiring disaster because your inclination is to bring on a junior level person with little experience because you can get them at the perfect price. Well, you get what you pay for.

At Jacob Tyler, we’ve found that a senior level employee who makes roughly $75,000 a year can do almost six to eight times the work of a junior level employee making $20,000 a year and with less supervision. It’s important to consider the cost savings not only for the cost of work, but the cost of time from management, revisions, and mistakes. In order to grow your business, you need to be doing what you do best and that does not mean spending the majority of the day teaching or fixing unnecessary issues.

Instead, invest in your talent. Why? Because investing in your talent is an investment in your brand. As a brand communications agency, we know the value of a brand and advise our clients to think of their brand positioning as the key element to ongoing success and growth. Your people not only represent your company, but they produce for your company. Simply put, your people are your brand. You wouldn’t want to devalue your brand, so don’t skimp on the quality of the employees you hire.

3. DO NOT ROB PETER TO PAY PAUL.

Handling and allocating expenses is really tough for small business owners. It’s very easy to lose track of where your money is going. Why? Clients don’t always deliver according to your cash flow plans.

As a result, sometimes funds are moved from where they should be allocated to perhaps your credit card debt. Over time, this can spiral out of control making it difficult to recover. As time goes by, you realize you’ve potentially racked up more debt and the money you’re making never seems to make it to the right place including your pocket. Instead of falling into this vicious cycle, focus your attention on developing a budget.

In order to budget properly, ensure a controller has an eye on your bottom line and prepares monthly financial reports for your review. This type of administrative and financial work won’t necessarily improve your bottom line, but it will help you anticipate financial bottlenecks and pinches ahead of time.

4. DO NOT TAKE A PROJECT JUST TO MAKE A PAYCHECK.

Oftentimes, as small business owners, whether you work alone or have employees, we stress about payroll, vendor payments, bills, and more. Then, the perfect client prospect walks through the door. Why perfect? Because he has money. I can tell you from firsthand experience that just because he can pay, does not mean the business will be profitable. In fact, the wrong client can cost you much more time than money. When meeting with new clients, it’s important to look for the warning signs such as:

  • Do they appear high maintenance or require a lot of handholding?
  • Do they really understand your business or need too much education?
  • Did they have issues with another vendor that is making them switch to you?
  • Are they asking for something beyond your core competencies?

While taking on a client will get you the quick pay day, it may cost you far more in time and in the long run, a major loss in profits. Not to mention, this client can waste your valuable time that you should be spending on searching for ideal clients.

Take the time to interview your potential clients in depth and make sure they know what it will be like to work with you. Once they understand, make sure your contracts are iron clad complete with expectations for rounds of revisions, changes in scope and additional requests. Otherwise, these issues will lead to unnecessary additional meetings that distract you from your daily goals.

5. DO NOT LOSE SIGHT OF YOUR CORE STRENGTHS.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting to be everything to everyone. It makes sense, right? The more services you offer, the more money you can make. The problem is that you better be good at everything you do. The saying about being a “jack of all trades, master of none” is not a compliment.

Whether you’re a web designer or a tax attorney, make sure you’re the master of your core strength. This will enable you to be recognized as an expert in your field and help you to build your business brand. Be the best at a few concentrated activities and stay focused on investing in those strengths.

Furthermore, a core strength of your company can and should be innovation. How are you providing your clients with new value? How are you pursuing the next big thing? Stay connected with your clients and continue to listen to what they want and learn how to better serve them through innovation. Discover a blue ocean and you will make the competition irrelevant.

While these five lessons are great examples of lessons that we’ve learned at Jacob Tyler that have allowed us to get to where we are today, part two (coming soon) will provide five additional lessons for CEOs to keep in mind as they strive to grow their businesses.

That year-end marketing budget is worth more than you think.

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‘Use it or lose it’ is the mantra of many organizations when it comes to year-end budgets. If you’re in charge of the budget, it should be more than just a mantra, it should be your battle cry.

For starters, not spending allocated funds this year could mean you won’t receive those dollars next year. It’s no secret that budget planning is rooted in what departments spent the previous year to achieve their goals. To avoid being shortchanged in 2017, come up with a plan to do something your marketing team may not have tried before – a new tactic that could generate leads, drive revenue or build greater brand awareness.

You may be thinking, “Okay, cool. So, what should we do?” When considering what to spend those clams on, think in terms of the objectives you didn’t get to do this year. Some examples to kick start the ideas include the following:

  • End-of-Year email campaign – Creating an end-of-year email campaign can drum up business fast for the New Year. Consider a 3 email “drip campaign” with a landing page featuring content that addresses common consumer problems. To gain access to the content, the recipient will need to provide a name and email – giving you the contact information of a potential lead. As far as content, provide some thought leadership in your market by offering a whitepaper, video or E-book that provides value about the solving the issues your customers face. As an additional option, use the email campaign to generate buzz around a New Year special offer if your business has a product or service that could benefit customers as they start the year with fresh new purchasing or technology budgets.
  • Blog Posts – Speaking of content, investing in some fresh content for your website is an affordable and smart thing to do with year-end dollars. Hire a writer or agency that specializes in targeted content that can position your company as an industry thought leader. This is a fast, low cost option that can happen BEFORE the ball drops on 2016.
  • SEO Audit – Are the keywords on your website hitting the mark? Work with a strategic agency partner that can help your business identify keywords that are relevant to your product or service. An SEO-focused writer can make sure those SEO keyword opportunities are woven through your website in a logical, cohesive way.
  • Social Media Advertising Campaign – There’s an art to doing a social media campaign the right way. Social media advertising has grown to the point that sponsoring ads is having a powerful effect on driving awareness and conversions. Post one of your best performing offer ads and then sponsor the ad on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter depending on where your customers engage the most. Follow this up by considering an ad re-targeting strategy. Have an experienced firm set up a targeted ad campaign for people who have visited your website. Your ad will show up in their social media feeds, ensuring your product or service is always top of mind. Statistics are showing that retargeting is the most successful form of social advertising right now and social media engagement continues to grow at a voracious rate.
  • Get your info out there – Everyone’s talking about infographics. Easy to share through social media channels, on your website or in a presentation, infographics are a powerful “at-a-glance” tool for describing how your business can solve customer challenges. Find a partner or designer who is not only skilled at creating a visually appealing campaign but also developing a concept or theme for the graphic. Your customers love infographics. Trust me!

When it comes to year-end budgets, the bottom line is don’t lose it! Find new, affordable and creative ways to raise awareness, generate leads and ultimately, close deals. If you’d like to learn more about the tactics listed above or discover other ways to get the most out of your marketing budget, reach out.

We love talking about this stuff.

Marketing in San Diego | Jacob Tyler

Going Beyond the Pink Ribbon – Clever Ways Businesses Can Help.

barakribbon-copyThe pink ribbons are showing up again. Look around and you’ll see them on the doors of businesses, the lapels of bankers and the back windows of minivans. Jacob Tyler Brand + Digital Agency has one on the front page of our website right now. Yes, it’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and thankfully, people and businesses are showing their support.

Breast Cancer is downright ruthless. According to Breastcancer.org,

“About 1 in 8 U.S. women (about 12%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. In 2016, an estimated 246,660 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 61,000 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer.”

Those are some sobering statistics and unfortunately many of us have known someone – spouse, sister, mother, friend, or partner – who has either survived or lost the fight to this non-discriminant foe. Several Jacob Tyler team members have family or friends who have been touched by this disease as well, including the mother of our founder, Les Kollegian, so this month is important to us on a personal level. (more…)