HOW BBQ FLAVORS A BRAND EXPERIENCE

To truly stand out in today’s marketplace, you must do more than offer a product or service. You must create an experience, one that will resonate with customers. Don’t just serve, impress. Don’t just deliver, elevate. Make their time interacting with you something they cannot forget. What can your brand do to craft an experience… Continue reading HOW BBQ FLAVORS A BRAND EXPERIENCE

J.Schmid Introduces Bonfire5: A New Branding Agency

We’re excited to announce the creation of a sister agency that will focus exclusively on branding. We’re calling this new group Bonfire5. Essentially, we’re taking everything that clients loved about our proprietary BrandQuest process and serving it up to companies outside of our usual direct marketing and catalog sandbox. This specialty branding group will be… Continue reading J.Schmid Introduces Bonfire5: A New Branding Agency

You can fake news but you can’t fake culture.

I often get asked if there is ONE thing that a company can do to improve their brand, what would it be? That’s easy. Improve your culture. I’ve had the opportunity to walk into hundreds of companies over the years, peek behind the curtain and see what makes them tick. What I notice right away… Continue reading You can fake news but you can’t fake culture.

5 Basic Truths for Marketing

Well, the secret is out. For decades, creative types working at agencies across the country knew instinctively a few secrets they could rely on to create brand stories, campaigns and messaging that would resonate with consumers. The Don Drapers of the world knew these little secrets could help sell more products. We knew if we… Continue reading 5 Basic Truths for Marketing

You Can’t Make a Viral Video

Whew. Glad I got that off my chest. You see, it’s 2016. By now, almost every brand is aware of viral videos, and like so many other things, marketers are trying to ruin them. In short, there is no formula for creating “viral” content. Are there certain elements that a lot of viral content contains?… Continue reading You Can’t Make a Viral Video

“A joke is a very serious thing”

-Sir Winston Churchill Marketers are always looking for an edge – something that will grab and hold their customers’ attention, help their brand stand out from the competition and most importantly, drive the customer to purchase. So how does a marketer break through the clutter of the estimated 3,000+ ad exposures consumers receive every day?… Continue reading “A joke is a very serious thing”

Simplify Everything

Human beings have an attention span of 8 seconds. We don’t read anymore. We scan. Brands usually say too much. Cut your copy. Make your point. Quickly. Make things more visual. Get rid of anything unnecessary. Edit again. My 8 seconds are up. You get my point. The end.   Having trouble trimming your message?… Continue reading Simplify Everything

Whose Tagline Is It Anyway?

By Chris Hayes, EVP Brand Strategy We recently completed a brand “refresh” for a catalog client that involved redefining the brand’s position and updating its visual identity. At the end of the process, the client asked us an important question: should they keep their tagline as part of their new identity? Ask five branding experts… Continue reading Whose Tagline Is It Anyway?

You Say You Want a Revolution?

Then you must embrace change. As many of you know, I’m a HUGE Beatles fan. It’s an obsession, really. A sickness. I admit it. When I first heard “Paperback Writer” at the age of 8, I was hooked. The fact that their music is still as relevant today (to multiple generations) as it was six… Continue reading You Say You Want a Revolution?