Brands who act more human—who are relatable and have a personality that people genuinely like—are the ones who are winning today. How human is your brand? Does it act and behave like a person would, or does it come across as a cold and boring company? There’s a trick that we use when defining a […]
Imagine if John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote great songs, with story, melody and the right words. Then imagine that they went into the studio, recorded an “okay” take, called it a day and went to the pub. The point is, if your marketing efforts aren’t delivering the results you’re looking for, maybe you should […]
We’re a direct marketing and creative agency located in Kansas City, right here in the heart of the country. We consider ourselves a ‘hybrid’ agency. We combine the data-driven science of catalogs and direct marketing, and mesh that with the seductive storytelling of advertising and branding. It’s the best of both worlds.
Recent studies in neuroscience have proven that all human beings have certain things in common. Our brains are hardwired to react to certain stimuli in the same way. These “Basic Human Truths” have implications on how to market to people. We’ve compiled a list of FIVE that I’d like to share with you.
Take a quick look at a video clip from a session at the recent NEMOA conference in Boston. I was asked to weigh in on my thoughts on print. This was my response…
Once upon a time, in the land of Catalog Design, there lived a monster named “Templates.” This beast sucked the creativity out of the village of designers and wiped out an entire generation of innovative spreads. Its goal was to make all catalog pages look the same and remove any sign of brand uniqueness or […]
People don’t like to be sold to. Too many brands only sell; they only try to convince people to buy, buy, buy. But that’s not what customers want to hear. If you want to connect to people on a more emotional level, tell them your story. Tell them what you stand for, where you came […]
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 […]
J.Schmid President and Chief Creative Officer, Brent Niemuth, shows us that even while on vacation there’s always a branding lesson to be learned – How do brands that sell a commodity product or service separate themselves from their competitors (assuming the price is the same)? Need help making your brand stand out in a commodity […]
