In April, we set out to explore the world of apps at Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing (LA2M). Tom Crawford, owner, designer, lead developer at VizNetwork presented The App Revolution: The Who and What of Mobile Marketing where he went over 80 apps and broke them into three categories:

Company (Me, Me, Me):  Relays information about the company from history to products. According to Crawford, this is comparable to more traditional advertising, it usually isn’t very interactive and shows off the “cool” things the company has done. For example...

Mustang Customizer App: Mustang offers an interactive brochure that allows the user to customize their Mustang from the model to the exterior color.

U-M Dividend Alumni: The Alumni magazine published by Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Relationship (You and the customer): Interacts with customers by offering tips and personal account information. For example, the Meijer find-it app helps customers find what they are looking for in their local Meijer grocery store.

Customer (The customer only): This type of app addresses customer “pain points”, promotes causes and offers games. For example...

AT&T: Created an app where customers can indicate a location where they were unable to get signals. As Crawford pointed out, this is customer service oriented.

Manage my life: Features projects users may want to undertake. Plus, users can ask questions to live experts. This app was developed by Sears, but interestingly, the companies’ name is not promoted.

Dominos Pizza Hero App: This allows users to be the chef of their own Domino’s pizza. After you’ve made your pizza, other users will have the chance to rate the quality of your pie and can order it afterwards.

To Sum It Up...
Crawford advised everyone in the audience to go beyond “the obvious” apps. For example, Varsity Auto Group Ann Arbor could have created a brochure-like app that lists their available cars. However, they took it beyond that providing users roadside assistance, as well as a tool for them to schedule service and  find local gas prices.

Ready to create your own app?
Just keep Crawford’s app tips in mind:

• Be unique
• Be Useful (Don’t be like the Coca-Cola history app mentioned during the event that reports the company’s history via a timeline)
• Do it right

 
By: Jade Grammatico
Edited by: Kim Beson

When I was asked to write a blog for MOVE about social media, I “liked” the idea. Since interning at MOVE, I’ve seen firsthand how we are using social media to market our own business, as well as encouraging clients to adopt social media as a marketing tool. I guess you could say social media is trending around the office.

Just like us and our clients, you too may be attracted by all the benefits that social media can bring to your business. Benefits like:

• Expanding your audience

• Building relationships with customers/clients

• Driving traffic to your website

• Creating new business leads

Creating a Social Media Plan
While this all sounds good on paper, don’t expect to experience all the benefits that come with social media just by signing up for a Facebook business page or Twitter account. As John Lichtenberg, Walsh College Vice President and Chief Marketing & Enrollment Management Officer said, “Social media is not a strategy.” Working closely with Kim Beson, MOVE Associate Write/Project Coordinator, on MOVE’s social media, I’ve been well acquainted with the company’s plan of action. Here are some key questions I’ve learned here at MOVE that you can consider when starting your own social media plan:

What Are Your Competitors Doing?
Researching competitor’s websites can set a benchmark for your own goals. Pinpoint what they do well on their sites, and take notice of, who they are talking to and what they are talking about.

What Are Your Goals?
Consider what success would look like in terms of numbers. For example: Having 100 followers on Twitter after six months.

How Much Time Are You Willing to Devote?
Social media is just that, social. It is a two-sided conversation that takes just as much listening as it does posting.

Who Is Your Audience?
By knowing who you are talking to you can see which social media sites they actively belong to. Plus, this helps decipher which social media sites will be best suited for your business.

What Type of Content Are You Sharing?
This goes back to your goals and why you are using social media. For example: To get your name out in the community, generate new business leads or obtain credibility as an “expert” in your industry? Answering this question can help you deliver your message more effectively. Whatever you post, be sure to stay true to your brand.

How Are You Involving Your Team?
It depends on your goals, but for the most part it helps to involve your team to show their personality, as well as to hear about projects and events that you may not have known about before. Consider creating a schedule so everyone can contribute.

There are simple ways as well, such as including social media sites in all e-mail signatures and on business cards.

T.L.C. (Tweets, Likes and Comments)
I like to think of social media as growing a bed of flowers—this may seem tacky, but I think it works as an analogy. You wouldn’t go a day without watering your flowers, same goes for tending to your social media sites, except they don’t need water they need T.L.C. The more flowers you grow (i.e. the updates you make) the more attention you’re going to attract from your neighborhood (i.e. your followers).

Edited by: Kim Beson

Three years ago, as I sat in a regional conference of YMCAs, I listened to our national president and CEO explain why we needed to rebrand the Y. He read us a quote from a major publication that described the Y as “first a religious organization on college campuses in the 1800’s, now a leader in the exercise and recreation business.” “I don’t know about you,” he said, “but I didn’t spend all these years of my Y career to have us become known as a ‘gym and swim’.”

Public Image vs. Self Image
Research showed that Y staff knew that they were strengthening communities and changing lives. Members of the public, however, saw the Y primarily as a fitness club, no different from other gyms. And therefore, they said, they were less inclined to donate their time and money to the Y. According to our large Chicago-based brand consultancy, there was a huge gap between how our organization saw itself and the way it was viewed by the public. In terms of size, the Y was the nation’s leading non-profit, but the nation didn’t know it!

Brand Reinforcement
We learned the hard way, as Marty Neumeier says in The Brand Gap, that “A brand isn’t what you say it is…it’s what they say it is.” At the Ann Arbor YMCA, where we were an early adopter of the new brand, we had to consciously adapt the way our organization sounded and looked to the outside world. We also had to reinforce behavior that was consistent with our brand. The brand refresh helped give us clear language and visual cues to explain our purpose: to nurture and develop youth, improve people’s health and give back to our neighbors.

It's a feeling...
Sometimes it takes a slap in the face to really get what it means when you talk about “brand.” It’s not a product, or a logo, or a tagline. It’s truly a feeling that people have about your organization. It’s an eye-opener, that moment when you see your organization through the eyes of others. At the same time, it can be hard to steward that brand and to follow the guidelines you’ve established.

Brand Accomplishment
While working in the for-profit sector several years ago, I was a client of MOVE and their brand consulting services. In 2011, I decided to join the MOVE team. Whether it’s leading a brand audit for a small college or helping a senior care provider align their brand throughout the state, I’m happy to be helping clients find their brands in new and creative ways. 

With a journalism background, in college I was taught to keep the most important information up front. Of course this inverted pyramid structure applies primarily to news stories. But I think us journalists have the right idea:Once people get the information they want, they stop reading.

Image, Insight, Information
At MOVE, we use a different pyramid. Image is at the top, insight in the middle and information at the bottom. If you know Don Hart, MOVE President, and MOVEian John Catlin, you have definitely seen them draw this pyramid on the dry-erase board or at least refer to one of the “I’s,”

Here is a breakdown as explained to me by Catlin himself:

Image (or idea): One persuasive, catchy sentence that tells the audience what your brand, product or service is about. Example:A billboard.

Insight: Benefits that validate the idea and prove that the idea is valuable. Example:A print ad.

Information: From each insight, there is data and statistics that offer further creditability to the idea. Example:A website.

Getting Attention
The point of MOVE’s pyramid is to grab the audience’s attention so that, if they are enticed by the image, they will want to hear more about the insights; and if they are really hooked—no matter how tedious it may be—they will want to get more information. This is not the case with a news story that is intended to inform, but this works for marketing because it relates to the sale. After all, the client/consumer wants to get their money’s worth, especially when it is a big investment.

For example, say you are looking into finding the right marketing communications agency. You want to see what they are all about. Are they more creative, more business-oriented or both? If you like what you see here then you will want to see benefits—such as who is on their team and their client list/work. Then you dig deeper and read through case studies and meet with the team.

Turning Too Much Information into Just Enough
This hierarchy works so well—if I do say so myself—because it not only addresses the age-old dilemma of, “How do I get my audience’s attention?” It also helps break down a business’ marketing message.

Okay, do I still have your attention?

Let’s Say…
To get my point across I’ll try a couple more examples. Say someone asks, “What do you do for work?” You probably get this a lot, so you have your answer down pat; or maybe sometimes you get a curveball because it depends on who is asking.

Either way, at one time, I’m sure you had to take a few seconds to distill all the thoughts that come to mind into a concise answer that doesn’t put the other person to sleep—and if you’re that good the answer will even evoke more questions.

Let’s step it up. Say someone—and this is not just anyone—a potential customer asks, “Why should I choose your company, product or service?” Now those thoughts that swarm to mind are probably tripled. There’s the competitive advantages, company background, statistics, etc. But what exactly should go into that sales pitch to create insight so that the potential customer asks for more information?

Easy! Distill those thoughts into the appropriate category of either Image, Insight or Information and make the sale.

Out to lunch at LA2M
I have been an Art Director at MOVE Communications for almost a year now, but this is the first time I was asked to attend a lunch event  and write a corresponding blog.  Fun… right? Well, if you are a visually creative person like myself, the thought of sitting in one spot and paying attention for an hour, or writing something someone else may want to read, is a bit of a brain fry.

WE are our target audience
Not to say that Ross Johnson, of 3.7 Designs, did not give a very interesting and thought-provoking talk, only that my notebook is four pages full of scribbles (or future masterpieces, whichever way you like to look at it). My mind is also swimming with ideas about turning everything I have been doing in marketing upside down.

The Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing (LA2M) talk was titled, “Your Customers Are Crazy...” The room was polite and attentive as Johnson talked through some interesting, yet basic ideas of marketing. For instance, understand your target audience. This one we all know. Right? But, do we really implement it?

After all, WE are our target audience. As Johnson points out, unless we’re marketing to animals, WE are all marketing to humans, WE are the market, and WE are everyone else. So, are WE being realistic with ourselves and using the thoughts that go through OUR heads the moment WE make a purchase, to market another product?

Marketing can be emotional and irrational
If we’re honest about how WE ourselves purchase and buy, it is all based on emotion. We may use logic and reason to explain it afterwards, but that moment you decide to buy something, you say…'I must have it!’ If people buy things to create that small surge of impulse and happiness, then emotions make the decision.  Irrational behavior is our target audience. So how do you grab the attention of irrational behavior? The answer may not be completely clear, but it would be a pretty good guess that anything involving logic and rational thinking will not do the job.

As a creative thinking person and one who does not like to be confined to process and structure, I think… HOORAY! Here is what I was waiting for.They are giving me a way to justify throwing out all of the rational thinking.

There are numerous studies to show that we only notice the abnormal.Things that seem similar and familiar are processed so quickly by our brain that we piece the information together before we are even finished seeing it. The more common something is, the more likely we are to overlook it. We overlook our keys that are sitting in front of our faces as we tear the house apart looking for them, or banner ads that pop up and look just like the banner ad that popped up yesterday.

Be different and connect emotionally
Things that our brain remembers are different from everything else.To be a good marketer, DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! How different? Really different! Our brain unconsciously notices everything and shapes what we create based off of it.

Johnson gave an example that I think illustrates this effect nicely. A room full of people at an auction were asked to bid on a bottle of wine.The bottle was not labeled and nothing alluded to its price. Each person had only a piece of paper and a pencil. Before writing down a bid they were asked to write the last two digits of their social security numbers in the upper right corner of the paper for identification, and nothing else. The people who had high numbers for those digits bid a higher price on the wine. And likewise lower for the low digits. These two little numbers written on the page influenced, at a subconscious level, the price of the bid. Johnson calls these baseline influences “anchors.”

Everything is influenced by these subconscious anchors. Everything we do, from research to process to benchmarking, dictates how we market a product.  Intentionally or not, we will generally market it just like the brand or product before, and we may miss an opportunity to present it as unique, or differentiate it enough to stand out and be bought by the emotional buyer.

Let creative seep into our reason
If we could design and market based on the fact that we are irrational and crazy beings, then maybe marketers wouldn’t fail. It would be so different and out-there, that the response would be consumer attention and ultimately sales.

Keep in mind that there are large chunks of this lunch meeting when I scribbled pears on paper and played with my straw and lime to make a boat in my ranch sauce. Just in case someone at the meeting is saying, “That’s not what the presentation was about!”

Now, I do think that as companies and places of business, we can’t just throw out all reason and logic. I am not expecting my boss to end all meetings and toss the process book out the window. But the idea of it is exciting!

If we could incorporate just 1% of this thinking into all of our scheduled and systematic days, maybe we can start creating new ideas, not just regurgitate the old ones. If we could all zone out in the meeting and scribble on our notepads, go to the place where you get out of your own way, and the creative brain seeps in and says, ‘Hey! I know something fun we can do!’ then maybe we could start producing new and exciting brands and marketing that would grab the emotional buyer’s attention.  

And this is probably why you should be careful when you send your company creative to marketing meetings!

A Spin on the Traditional
“Wheels when you want them” is their motto, and they have a creative concept to back it up. Cut the hassle, trim the paperwork and toss the keys! What are you left with? A modernized spin on rental car service brought to you by Zipcar.

To show off what I have been learning about marketing and branding as MOVE’s newest intern, I thought I’d highlight a big-name company that caters to college students like myself. 

Introduced to Massachusetts in 2000, Zipcar saw their brand appealing to a different audience, a niche that would set them apart from competitors. They targeted universities and offered college students, some of whom may not have cars on campus, a new mode of transportation. Promoting hassle-free service and affordable rates with a fresh, trendy look and feel to boot, Zipcar quickly caught college students’ attention. 

Marketing with the Millennials in Mind
These students are among the Millennial generation who span the ages of 18 to 34. According to ZipCar’s annual study, 53 percent of Millennials said they would engage in a car-sharing service (like Zipcar), as well as make an effort to drive less and reduce their carbon footprint. Knowing their customer, Zipcar coins oh-so-irresistible names like “Zipsters,” offers the opportunity to car-pool and provides energy-efficient vehicles—making them the cool kid, er, service on campus.

Reaching the Audience
So how does one reach a college student? Easy, take to the social networking sites. In collaboration with Ford’s social media team they engulfed themselves in Twitter and Facebook. But tweeting and updating their company’s Facebook wasn’t enough. They also had to offer incentives like student discounts and prize giveaways on their social media sites.

Forget about waiting in long lines, or filling out tedious stacks of paperwork.Simply download the app and reserve a vehicle at your convenience.  According to Keith Bourne,Mobile Monday Michigan, Co-founder,to expand your business nowadays you have to go mobile. By doing just that, Zipcar has made their company virtually accessible to anyone, anywhere.

The Success of Strategy
Zipcar is now in the fast lane with over 650,000 members and 9,000 vehicles. Targeting a specific market they were able to build a brand that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional rental services and offers a service that represents the values of their audience.

Edited by: Kim Beson, Associate Writer/Project Coordinator
Design by: Nikki Paffi, Art Director

Love of the Automobile Endures
Our relationship with cars may not be the same as that of our grandfather or great-grandfather, but that emotional connection continues to be passed down—especially when you live in Michigan.

As a Michigander you not only have a connection to your car—which, of course, is none other than American-made—but more than likely your job, company or your sister-in-law’s cousin has some connection to the auto industry. Don Hart, President of MOVE Communications, can attest to this. In January he attended Autoweek’s annual Design Forum at the College for Creative Studies to hear about the three subjects that affect our company: Cars, design and marketing.

The forum brought together some of the best brains in the business to discuss what it is like to design for today’s consumer. One of the speakers included was the “Father of the iPod,” Tony Fadell, who used to serve as Senior Vice President of Apple's iPod division, where he developed the first 18 generations of the iPod.

Staying Connected Through Technology
Fadell came out of retirement to found Nest and create an energy-efficient thermostat that is Wi-Fi enabled so you can adjust your temperate settings via iPhone app from anywhere around the world.

He brought this concept of “staying connected no matter where you are" to the forum. Sure, technology has entered our cars. For example, our conversations no longer need to end on the way out the door; we can simply enable our Bluetooth headset and drive handsfree. Then there are the latest innovations, like Ford’s new feature that will read your texts out loud and respond with pre-selected messages. But, Fadell wants to see electronics blend more seamlessly with cars for an enhanced consumer experience.

Millenial Point of View
Clay Dean, Director of General Motors North America’s Advanced Design, suggested that the Millennial generation of 80 million strong, who his company is targeting, isn’t asking for the glitz and glam of high-tech features; but instead they desire a vehicle that reflects their culture, triggers emotion and reassures their commitment to the brand. 

Peter Schreyer, Chief Design Officer at Kia, is dedicated to pulling on the heartstrings of consumers, because he too sees a strong emotional connection between people and their cars. “Our fascination for cars is not a matter of age,” said Schreyer. “In our business brand building starts very early. Each of us remembers certain times of our lives and the car we had.”

Designing and the Environment
Max Wolff, Design Director for Lincoln, focused on the designs saying, “Our design must differentiate us.” Comparatively, Peter Horbury, Senior Vice President of Design at Geely Group, who designs for Volvo, shared a perspective from oversees. According to Horbury, car buyers from Sweden and Scandinavia are looking for vehicles that are more environmentally savvy.

A Valuable Relationship
Whether you believe today’s consumer is looking for technology, an emotional connection or design, or all of the above, we can’t deny that the auto industry has devoted itself to keeping up these relationships and inspiring new ones.

Blog Post By: Jade Grammatico, MOVE Winter/Spring Intern and Kim Beson, Associate Writer/Project Coordinator.

Johnson Controls Presidential Event
Emerging from behind a 40-foot tall American flag with his sleeves rolled up, President Obama walked onto the stage at the Johnson Controls’ Lithium-Ion Plant in Holland, Michigan and delivered an engaging speech  on the importance of new technology and its role in creating jobs, not only in Michigan, but throughout the United States.  

One Week to Plan
Little did the audience know that the day before, the White House Communications team was transforming the manufacturing facility into an auditorium complete with ample seating, staging, lighting and audio. Nor did they know that Rebecca Fitzgerald External Communications Director, Johnson Controls’ Power Solutions, and her team had seven days to plan the Presidential tour of the facility and set the overall strategy and tone.  Within that same timeline, MOVE and its partner, Jessica Westra of Jessica Westra Media Relations, helped facilitate the logistics. For example, once the 400 guests arrived, which included Johnson Controls Executives, dignitaries from across the nation and the media, they would need to be checked through security, and have a place to meet and greet and enjoy refreshments while they waited for President Obama’s arrival. 

Air Force One Touches Down
Having landed in Grand Rapids, the President and his team arrived in Holland via helicopter—actually five heliships for security, then greeted the VIPs before taking a tour of the plant. Alex Molinarolli, President of Johnson controls’ Power Solutions, led the tour with the first stop at a display case MOVE had finished installing the day before. The contents told the story of Johnson Controls' battery history and its lithium-ion advancements. With this introduction, the President set out on the tour and then made his entrance. 

“At a time when Americans are rightly focused on our economy, when Americans are asking  about what’s our path forward, all of you here at Johnson Controls are providing a powerful answer. This is one of the most advanced factories in the world. You’re helping America lead in a growing new industry. You’re showing us how we can come back from the worst recession that we’ve had in generations and start making things here in America that are sold all around the world. And that’s why I’m here today. I’ve said it before; I will say it again: You cannot bet against the American worker. Don’t bet against American ingenuity,” President Obama said. 

Within twenty minutes his presentation was complete. He moved out from behind the Presidential seal on the podium, shook many hands and was back on his way to Washington, D.C. 

Event Went Like Clockwork
After the facility had emptied out, Fitzgerald gathered the team and commented how the event had gone flawlessly and was executed exactly the way a world-class organization should host the President of the United States. Not bad for an event that, because of security purposes, didn’t have a finalized schedule until two days earlier.  Fortunately, though, the brand and strategic messaging had already been established months in advance. 

Watch for event planning tip’s next week.

 *Photography taken by Morgan Anderson, http://www.morgan-anderson.com/ 

Celebrating Your Brand
A party, gathering or social event is considered a success when lots of guests attend, stay and have fun. But, with corporate events the stakes are higher. They’re all about publicity, attracting high-profile guests, like President Obama, (more on that in a moment) and promoting the brand in hopes of increasing future sales.

MOVE Sets Clients’ Business in Motion
When MOVE received a call from Rebecca Fitzgerald, External Communications Director, Johnson Controls’ Power Solutions, to support the Grand Opening of their new Lithium-Ion Plant in Holland, Michigan, we were delighted. Why? Because we helped them with their strategic messaging and the creative to tell their lithium-ion battery story.

Plus, we love doing events. Take the North American Auto Show, as well as contributing to the Auto Shows in Frankfurt and Shanghai to name a few.  So, to help plan the event, handle media, and organize vendors in the local Holland area, we called on Jessica Westra of Jessica Westra Media Relations as a strategic partner.

Working as a team, the plan was put in place for the Grand Opening, but everything changed  when Fitzgerald received notice from the White House that President Obama would be visiting the facility the following week. Suddenly, the deadline went from a Grand Opening in one month to a Presidential Event in one week. Yikes. Get your security clearances and get to work!

Corporate Event vs. Political Event
Fitzgerald’s goal was to make this a world-class corporate event. To complement the main event—President Obama’s speech—every other element had to be clearly articulated, agreed to by security and the White House and then put into place.

The path that guests would take was identified—pass through security at the parking lot, and be received at a Johnson Controls event outside while guests were awaiting the President’s arrival, enter the facility, be seated and wait in anticipation of the President’s entrance.

“You want your event to meet guests’ needs, and more importantly, you want them to leave as Brand Ambassadors,” Westra said. “Your guests will tell people that day and even months after the event about the facility, why it is important to the community and its larger role in the economy.”

With that in mind, the Johnson Controls team and Westra made sure that information about the plant and company was readily available during the pre-event.  We developed fact sheets and created posters explaining Johnson Controls technology and the jobs the Meadowbrook plant would create.

Now all that was needed was the guest of honor.

Watch for next week’s post chronicling President Obama’s visit to Michigan.

*Photography taken by Morgan Anderson, http://www.morgan-anderson.com/

Well to start, how about the first introduction, the first impression and brand recognition? And hopefully it will be around for a long time, although changing a business name is not unheard of. Take Foresee Results, a local Ann Arbor customer experience analytics company that recently shortened its name to ForeSee. They did so to reflect their growth and image in the marketplace, according to their Press Release.

Choosing a Name

•  Relate to your company: The name should express the expertise, service or product(s) offered. Some people may advise to keep it simple so it is easy to understand what the company offers; others may recommend getting more creative. Either route works as long as it aligns with the brand.

• Make it memorable: It should be easy to spell and pronounce so potential customers and/or clients can easily remember it and refer you to others.

• Stand out from competitors: Make sure it’s not similar to competitors or larger brand names.

• Check out search engines: Consider what results will turn up on your search engine page when you type in your company name. For example, Biggby Coffee was called Beaners. However, the CEO and Co-Founder Bob Fish changed the name in an effort to not be grouped with derogatory sites, which could negatively reflect on the brand.

• Consider a verb or a word that can work as a verb: This is one I recently heard. A good example of this is Google. You never hear people say, “I’m going to search this on Google.” Instead it’s, “I’m going to Google it.”

Case Study: MOVE

In 2003, Don and Carol Hart, principals at MOVE, decided it was time to change the name of their business from Hart Media Group to MOVE Communications. The business had begun in the mid-eighties and was primarily creating compelling, creative, award-winning client videos. As time went on, the economy, clients and project scope changed and their storytelling began to trickle into other mediums and industries.

A friend of the Harts’ advised that the name “go past the personality of the founders.” With that and the company brand in mind, the list was narrowed down to MOVE Communications. “We wanted to be known as a company who will stir people emotionally, moving hearts and minds,” Don said.

A Name is Only as Good as the Marketing Plan

The name is the first step to creating a business, but the marketing plan is what helps to sustain the business.