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3 Replies Last post: Aug 23, 2008 6:48 PM by BRMcHenry

Maintaining your Brand

Aug 18, 2008 2:44 PM

Click to view F3_Design's profile Professional F3_Design 5 posts since
Mar 16, 2008
First off, I wanted to share some great news. (No, I didn't save a lot money on my car insurance - darn!) My company and I are being featured in the OC Metro Business magazine. Check it out, http://www.ocmetrobusiness.com/t-Entrepreneur_Nic_Fierro_8_14_08.aspx

F3 Design Studios helps small businesses, of all kinds, with their creative design, marketing and printing. As you might have read, my company name comes from the theory that "form follows function," hense "F3." We feel that all of our design concepts (in visual "form") should serve a central purpose (or "function"), which is to effectively engage your target audience. Our clients might pay a little extra for the time involved in developing such solutions, but they understand how effective marketing can be when it consistently represents their brand.

My questions to the forum is as follows;
How does your company maintain it's brand? And how far have you gone to show that your company is different or better than your competition?


Nic @ F3 Design Studios
sales@f3designstudios.com
562.291.8876

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Click to view BRMcHenry's profile Mogul BRMcHenry 39 posts since
Aug 20, 2008
1. Re: Maintaining your Brand Aug 20, 2008 8:36 PM
Obviously Baskin Robbins, my franchise parent, does a lot to maintain their brand and that is what we pay royalties for. I do have a 2nd business that is not part of BR and it is suffering and has little or no brand awareness. The only things I could do to help it were be consistent with logo's on all printed materials, signs and use the same term \ slogan on all audio presentations (we got some good radio in exchange for product). Still - to be honest its not enough.
Click to view F3_Design's profile Professional F3_Design 5 posts since
Mar 16, 2008
2. Re: Maintaining your Brand Aug 23, 2008 6:00 PM
in response to: BRMcHenry
BRM,
Yes, Baskin Robbins recently changed their logo and have been really trying to change things up a bit. I haven't been the 31 Flavors in so long, but I doubt their new logo alone will be enough to keep them competitive with all the new ice cream and froyo places nowadays. Maybe you know... have they changes much else other than their logo?

What kind of business do you have, outside of BR? Good things you're at least consistent with the logo and tagline. I run across so many businesses who stretch and even re-create their logo using differnt fonts and colors all the time... it's a mess. Hopefully you're using the same (limited) color scheme on your marketing material as well. It's helps to have one dominant color and one or two accent colors in all your marketing material. Like McDonald's yellow and red, Starbuck's green and black, or VISA's blue with yellow accent.

Even more importat than graphics is the message and the customer experience. You can do more than just stay consistent with your logo on each printed marketing piece. You can actively promote your brand by non-print means as well. Let me know what industry you're in (i.e. American casual food, kids clothing, etc.) and maybe I can suggest something. Thanks.

Nic Fierro
F3 Design Studios
www.f3designstudios.com
Click to view BRMcHenry's profile Mogul BRMcHenry 39 posts since
Aug 20, 2008
3. Re: Maintaining your Brand Aug 23, 2008 6:48 PM
in response to: F3_Design
Before buying our Baskin Robbins we started a drive thru espresso business. Our red and white logo has never changed in 4 years nor our slogan of Fast and Friendly Service. As a drive thru with 2 lanes we've always been known as fast for our customers - people don't wait 5 minutes like they do at the corporate coffee house (thats what I call them). Being a single operation in a city of 200,000 though never allowed us to really develop the brand name, we have bartered coffee to a radio station and get 2 prime spots a day during the live morning drive show, and done plenty of door to door, business to business, and related marketing efforts - sadly with the economy of sorts the business is down literally 50% over its high 2.5 years ago.

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