fresh dirt marketing branding congruency dig

“Bite the wax tadpole!” And other Branding Blunders: The importance of research.

Clairol introduced the “Mist Stick”, a curling iron, into German only to find out that “mist” is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the “manure stick”.

Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.

In Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan “finger-lickin’ good” came out as “eat your fingers off”.

The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, “Salem-Feeling Free”, was translated into the Japanese market as “When smoking Salem, you will feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty”.

When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the beautiful Caucasian baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label of whatís inside, since most people canít read English.

An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope’s visit. Instead of “I saw the Pope” (el Papa), the shirts read “I saw the potato” (la papa).

In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into “Schweppes Toilet Water”.

Pepsi’s “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” translated into “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave”, in Chinese.

We all know about GM’s Chevy Nova meaning “it won’t go” in Spanish markets.

When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, “it won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you”. Instead, the company thought that the word “embarazar” (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: “It wonít leak in your pocket and make you pregnant”.

The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as “Ke-kou-ke-la”, meaning “Bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax”, depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent “ko-kou-ko-le”, translating into “happiness in the mouth”.

Fresh Dirt Marketing 2003 Blair Blvd, Suite 200, Nashville, TN 37212 615.279.1502 www.freshdirtmarketing.com

MARKETING STRATEGY

Getting results from your organization’s marketing has everything to do with choosing meaningful

marketing tactics based on sound strategy and a strong brand. That’s not a new idea, but

knowing how to evaluate the status of your organization, set achievable goals, choose tactics to

employ and determine how they should be executed isn’t always obvious.

A good foundation should be based on exploring the purpose, mission and values of your

organization. Goals should be set from this research and paired with an analysis of your

organization’s business situation. From this process, a plan should be created to deliver the

outcome that you desire.

I. RESEARCH

Core Values:

1. What business are you in?

2. What is your mission? What are your three most important goals?

3. Why was the company created?

4. Describe your products or services.

5. Who is your target market?

6. Prioritize your stakeholders in order of importance. How do you want to be

perceived by each audience?

Competition: (complete competitive analysis)

1. What is your competitive advantage? Why do your customers choose your product

or service? What do you do better than anyone else?

2. Who is your competition? Is there a competitor that you admire most? If so, why?

Marketing Inventory: (complete marketing inventory)

1. How do you market your products and services?

Trends:


1. What are trends and changes that affect your industry?

2. Where will you be in five years? Ten years?

Success:

1. How do you measure success?

2. What values and beliefs unify your employees and drive their performance?

3. What are the potential barriers to the success of your product or service?

4. Place yourself in the future. If your company could do anything or be anything, what

would it be?

Messaging:

1. If you could communicate a single message about your company, what would it be?

SWOT: Use the information above to complete a SWOT evaluation

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats (Challenges)

II. BRAND EVALUATION

Definition of a brand.

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol

or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller

or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.

Branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but it is

about getting your prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their

problem.

Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects. It is the

sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some

that you cannot. A brand is not always a company, it can be a person (i.e. Oprah)


Brand Objectives.

• Delivers the message clearly

• Confirms your credibility

• Connects your target prospects emotionally

• Motivates the buyer

• Concretes User Loyalty

Brand architecture.

This refers to the hierarchy of brands within a single company. In BMI’s case this could

be the artists as sub-brands. Sub brands should mirror the parent’s strategy and support

company growth. Examples are:

iPod and Apple Computer

Polo and Ralph Lauren

Oreo and Nabisco

Sesame Street and PBS

What are BMI’s sub brands and how do they support the parent brand?

Building a Brand. A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day

by day. It’s important to spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your

brand. After all your brand is the source of a promise to your consumer. It’s a

foundational piece in your marketing communication and one you do not want to be

without.

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PROFI LE

Lyric Financial’s mission is simple, to create and offer meaningful financial products that nurture the growth and development of the independent music community. Lyric Financial is run by music people for music people. They understand what it’s like to worry about tour support, or if the next royalty check is going to be enough to cover the bills. They’ve been there and they’re here to lend a hand. At Lyric Financial, we have the ability and understanding to create a deal that’s right for the clients in the music community.

PROJECT GOALS

Lyric Financial came to FDM as First Entertainment Financial. The first order of business was to come up with a new name. We needed to come up with something that fit our client’s company’s personality. Since the company was still very small – without multiple locations and employees - we had to draw inspiration from the owner’s vision, his own style, and that of his centers of influence. We had to balance his desire for a name that was different, and our needs to find something that was not-too-serious but not-too-risky, understandable to his target, and most importantly, not already service marked. It was quite a task. Two weeks and a half-dozen “almost” company names later, Lyric Financial was born.

Lyric Financial

Let s be honest. Do you really like the idea

of selling your songs,

your life s work?

...didn t think so.

We ve been there. We re music guys (

turned financial guys)

who understand the ups

, downs and arounds

of a career in the music busines

s- and we are

committed to helping you h

old on to your catalog.

So, when you re ready to talk about how we can help you

get the money you need (without sellin

g your songs), or if

you just need some advice from

someone who truly cares,

call us (me, the big guy, Eli Ball) 615-739-6515

or email: [email protected]

A Fresh Dirt Marketing Case StudyWWW.FRESHD IRTMARKET ING.COM



your life s work?

...didn t think so.




, downs and arounds


s- and we are












your life s work?

...didn t think so.




, downs and arounds


s- and we are










PROCESS & STRATEGY

What we learned from our client while helping create his company’s name and build their strategy gave us the tools we needed to take that company name and make it a brand. We now understood his company’s culture, values and core beliefs. First of all, we learned that at Lyric, it’s all about tak-ing the way things are normally done and turning them up side down. There were no rules - this had everything to do with Lyric’s brand. Lyric is a finance company that serves musicians, so the culture is loose – no suits allowed. The products would have cool names like FastForwardMyRoyalties. Traditional banking terminology would be turned on its head because the founder of Lyric Financial is a music guy turned banker. Not the other way around, which is much more common on Nash-ville’s famous Row. Lyric isn’t a bank per se, but understands the financial needs of the music industry, and that alone makes them different and ap-pealing. We had our core competency.

CREAT IVE SOLUTION

The logo mark for Lyric isn’t a mark at all. In this case, we knew that the products would tell the story of the company, so each of them would have their own marks. The Lyric Financial mark is a laid-back typestyle in silver on a black background that can be replicated in a number of branded colors. We let these core values drive the tag line penned as “Words. Music. Money.” Again, the Lyric Financial feel is about as simple as you can get because banking often doesn’t seem simple and Lyric is the “anti-bank.” “Words. Music. Money.” describes what Lyric does – they lend money to the people that write the words that are made into music. Their market gets it, and it requires little to no copy support.

The decision was made to use images of real artists and clients on the Lyric website and in their advertising design. We let the irreverent tone drive font se-lection and advertising and web copy. We played on the idea that many songs are written on scrap paper and the backs of napkins whenever the inspiration hits. We developed a postcard campaign that played on the “back of the napkin” idea and all the while, we kept it clean and simple. The design stays congruent and we often promote the product while keeping the Lyric Financial message secondary. It isn’t about the company; it is about what they bring to the music com-munity.

RESULTS

Lyric’s branding efforts along with strategic alliances including the Fast-Forward My Royalties program offered exclusively to BMI Members have launched Lyric Financial to Success even in tough financial times.


PROFI LE

Fresh Dirt Marketing, LLC (FDM) is a boutique marketing consulting firm in Nashville, Tenn., created to serve small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking strategic marketing direction and marketing implementation services.

It is FDM’s philosophy that marketing is a discipline based on a toolbox. Sometimes as marketers we need the advertising “hammer,” the public relations “wrench” or the social media “screwdriver.” The tools work fine alone, but together; they build a strong platform on which to build a solid brand. That leads to growth in sales and revenues – and that is what they want to achieve for our clients.

PROJECT GOALS

When Holly began planning to open a marketing consulting business in early 2007, she knew that the brand had to be “right on point.” After all, if you own a marketing company that claims to be able to brand and market other’s, you better be able to brand and market yourself!

The process began by stating the obvious...

1. The company would be challenged to use Holly’s last name - GRENVICZ - in the title. It is hard to spell, and pronounce!

2. The name needed to be memorable and different.

3. The brand needed to be reflective of the company’s core business - market-ing strategy.

Fresh Dirt Marketing A Fresh Dirt Marketing Case StudyWWW.FRESHD IRTMARKET ING.COM

PROCESS & STRATEGY

The process began by brainstorming words that Holly liked. This yielded a document with more than 100 words and word combinations. Holly kept coming back to the words that dealt with “digging” since this described the strategic development process quite literally. Her family tree ties back to a farm in Northern Alabama that Holly’s family still runs and she visits often. “Dirt” is no stranger, and became an obvious option for depicting organic business growth.

Final inspiration came when the tag line jumped off the page - “We Dig In. You Grow.” said it all. By pairing the literal tag with the more creative - even “fun” company name made it all gel and created a platform for great design and creative execution.

CREAT IVE SOLUTION

The ideas of digging, dirt and growth were the jumping off point for the FDM brand. The colors green and brown were chosen to communicate and sup-port the name and tagline. A bright green was the focus to create a “fresh” and recognizable look to illustrate that FDM is truely a different and fresh alternative. A leaf was chosen as a symbol of growth.

The bright green has been carried into everything from collateral materials to the color of the office environment, promo items and the office door.

The concept of growing and “digging in” has been applied to everything FDM does including holding monthly educational “DIGs”.

RESULTS

A striking first impression that is always a conversation starter.

A unique and layered brand percep-tion that illustrates a shining example of how FDM works with their own clients in developing brand strategy.


fresh dirt marketing branding congruency dig

Business

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