Rebranding a State: Oklahoma

I’ve been reading the Skift newsletter lately, which is about the business of travel but also covers travel based marketing campaigns, brand pivots, PR and marketing operations. If you even have a tiny interest in travel, the daily newsletter is a fun read.

This morning I stumbled along Tourist-Hungry Oklahoma Just Rebranded: Did It Get It Wrong?. Besides solid writing, it’s a great anatomy of a branding project with some key take-aways:

• Not everyone is going to agree with your results.

• Right time. Right place is a huge mystery (see: Nebraska).

• Do some research to avoid brand confusion later.

It’s interesting reading about branding successes and missteps. I’m not sure yet which one this is. Do you? My big question is if Oklahoma is where you can pursue your biggest dreams and where entrepreneurship thrives, why did they pick a Canada-based agency over a local one?

Is branding in OK, ok? Let me know in the comments.

Off-Season Resource for Local Businesses

Local media outlet, Buckrail, has compiled dining, wellness and retail deals for the region. Do you have a killer off-season deal at your business? Submit it to Buckrail for inclusion in the guide to earn new business and show the great experience customers can have with your brand.

3 Truths About Networking Events

Maybe you like them. Maybe you hate them. Maybe you’ve never been. Anyway you cut it, there are a few things that always apply to networking events.

1. Networking Events Are Awkward.

Who do I approach first? How do I end this conversation? How can I say hi to Joanie when she is in the middle of that group? Should I have brought a buddy? Why did I bring this person with me? Where do I sit? Where do I stand? Why isn’t anyone here? Why are there so many people here? Did I come overdressed? I don’t have answers to any of these questions. I never will because they come up and loom every time. The good thing is everyone else in the room is going through the same thing.

2. Networking Events Are Not Quick.

I made the mistake of multi-booking on a networking event night, thinking I’d just pop in, see what was going on and duck out.

If that’s the approach, why did I bother anyway? I’m not going to have any meaningful interactions when I’m on a stopwatch. I’m focused on whatever Thing I am doing next, not on being present and meeting a cool entrepreneur, scientist, student, listening and learning. Then after ducking out, I felt guilty at the next Thing, that I should have stayed longer. Rewind and replay track titled “Not Present”.

Events are often not on time or on schedule. Speakers talk longer, guests are late, or the projector’s messed up. Commit to the Networking Event and do that other Thing some other day.

3. Networking Events Work.

If you let it. Be open to who you’ll meet or that person you dread seeing there. Tell your story, but listen to everyone else’s more intently. Have a goal. It can range from “Show up” to “Find a new client.”

So when’s your next one? I plan to enjoy the awkwardness at the next Chance Meeting, coordinated locally by Teton Regional Economic Coalition (TREC) on October 25th.

Logos I love.

I drove to Idaho Falls a few weeks ago to meet with a SCORE mentor . As I cruised down Highway 20, I passed a box truck and noticed its distinctive and simple logo. That’s the inspiration behind my new blog post.

The logo wasn’t particularly creative, or artistic, or inimitable. The company is a disaster restoration and remodeling company. Neither their company nor their logo gives any indication of the type of work they do.

Still, I love this logo.

This logo is all about the relationship between the L & D. I love how it interlocks. The color combination is spot on but not so rigid that it couldn’t change for a brand refresh. It’s clean and bold. It requires no special versions for web, print, banners or other types of materials.

When I got home, I looked up “Davis Restoration Idaho Falls” and it was the #1 result on Google (good job on SEO, gang!) In addition to the logo, Paul Davis Restoration of Idaho also designed some icons to go with their services.

Excuse me while I pass out. I am loving this brand look.

The icons are a great way to tell the damage restoration story. You don’t really know what restoration is until you need it, and since “damage” is one of the top keywords on the site, my guess is that “urgent” and “stress” appear too when the subject comes up. With all that going on, using imagery to explain how the company can help the customer is smart and moves Paul Davis’ prospects along in the buying cycle.

While there are some dramatic images on the site–fire, a roof kissed by a tree, mold damage–these icons serve as a calm, non-judgmental visual reminder of the company’s offering.

What I don’t love.

The company name doesn’t tell me what the company does. It could be an interior design firm (in fact, I thought it was at first glance — due to the look and that it was on a delivery-type box truck), an architecture firm or a real estate agent. The tagline “recover, reconstruct, restore” must always travels with the logo to provide an explanation of the company’s services..

Minor. I’m still drooling over all of it. High-five to the Paul Davis Restoration design team.

Love it or hate it? Logo design is sensitive to people’s individual tastes, preferences and product prejudices. I’d love to hear your take in the comments.

Business Discussion Group- Last Chance Until Spring

Are you stuck on a business project? Have an idea, but don’t know where to start? Looking for feedback? Need accountability for work milestones?

Join The Biz Posse! We meet on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at the Driggs Library (79 N. Main St.). This group is open to business owners, entrepreneurs and everyone in between- even students looking to explore the world of business ownership and management.

This is an open, casual format with a fun, creative, motivating group. This will be the LAST meeting of the The Biz Posse until later in the spring, unless the group decides they want to continue the session in March. Erica is teaching Marketing Jump Start again for Eastern Idaho Technical College and won’t be able to facilitate on 3/21.

Co-working space in Teton Valley?

Are you interested in using a co-working space in Teton Valley? Local entrepreneurs are conducting research on feasibility and user preferences. Take the survey here:

tinyurl.com/coworkteton

Please pass on the survey link or a link to this post to friends or business associates who want to stay in the loop.

Want more info about co-working spaces? Read more:

Why People Thrive in Coworking Spaces

As Coworking Spaces Scale, Can They Keep Their Communal Vibe

Co-Working Spaces = Higher Success for your Startup

5 Ways the World Will Tell You It's Time to Call a Professional Writer

Happy New Year from The Brandstalk!

Have you resolved to give your business a kick this year?

One way to do that is to hire a professional writer. But how do you know if you need one? I asked Bridget Lyons, who is the Interpretive Sorceress behind Spiralglyph Media, to help me give you guys an idea on when it might be time to pass the pen. Take it away, Lyons…

5. You’ve noticed that your sentences often go on for three, four, or even (gasp!) five lines.

You might ask your employees to multi-task, but you shouldn’t ask your sentences to do the same. In the ideal world, each of your sentences should be carrying the weight of one – and only one – concept.  But your brain is so familiar with your thoughts, your business, and your stories that it thinks a convoluted multi-clausal sentence dotted with and’s, but’s, and semi-colons is presenting only one idea when in fact it’s packed to the gills with information (see what I mean?  That sentence was too long!)  It often takes an unbiased third party to hunt these Tetris-like rascals down and break them up.  That third party is a professional writer.

4. You’re repeating the same words, over and over and over…

Let’s face it, we’ve all got our own vocabulary.  We use certain words so often that they identify us.  (Ask your friends – they’ll tell you what your favorites are!)  In person, these words give us personality.  In writing, they make us look boring, milk-toasty, and even – god forbid – dumb. Great marketing text is spicy, sparkly, scintillating.  What creates flavorful copy?  Juicy words.  These gems are the currency of the professional writer.

3. For your “elevator speech” to work, you’d have to be in a 200-story building.

Seriously, you know you’ve got to be able to articulate your unique offering in under a minute.  These oft-touted “elevator speeches” do not sprout up spontaneously in the backyard of your consciousness.  They are earned through a long process of thinking, brainstorming, and wordsmithing.  A professional marketing writer knows the questions that get this process going as well as what to do with the answers you provide.  Imagine being handed a perfect three-sentence encapsulation of your service or product that reflects your voice and style.  You can commit it to memory, shout it from the rooftops, and plaster it all over your marketing materials. With some professional assistance, this could be your reality.

2. You think you have a story to tell, but you’re not sure where to start.

“It’s all about your story,” everyone says.  And for a good reason – your company’s story is a big part of what draws your customers to you.  It’s an even bigger part of what keeps them around.  Compelling stories are key, and so is the telling of them.  How do you get your tale on paper (or on screen, as is more likely the case these days) in clear and engaging language?  It’s not an easy task – that is why professional writers exist.  This is what we DO.  Like, all the time.  We listen.  We ask questions.  We write.  And then we add and delete and spin and spit and polish until we are blue in the face and your copy gives us goose bumps.

1. You don’t know the rules of comma usage, and quite frankly my dear, you don’t give a damn.

Fair enough.  We writers know them all, and we think they’re fascinating, but we’re verbal dorks.  If you didn’t think grammar was interesting back in high school, you’re probably not going to now.  Sure, you could hit the books and learn all the rules.  And you could also teach yourself website design, bookkeeping, stock trading, head-shrinking, and all the other services you hire people to do for you.  Or you could contact a writing professional and use your free time to do something YOU find fascinating.

About Bridget

Bridget Lyons likes to call herself an Interpretive Sorceress, which really just means that she’s a word geek and a design dork.  Through her company, Spiralglyph Media, she helps businesses and individuals craft timeless visual and verbal expressions for web and print.  She also edits fiction and non-fiction texts for budding authors and is currently working on her own second novel.  Bridget and Erica play well together in the creative sandbox and enjoy collaborating on a variety of branding and marketing projects.

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Thanks Bridget! We love comments and tweets about when you realized it was time to bring in the big guns. Or maybe it just happened while you were reading?