2. My Career
BFA Design + Visual
Communications, SAIC
Worked in Chicago as a
Graphic Designer
Internet Born
Changed Focus to
Web Design
Opened Brown Dog 2002
7. The Sum of Every Piece
of Your Organization
All the intentional and unintentional interactions
your customers have with your company
8. Brand =
Collection of deliberate + accidental ways your
company portrays itself
Process of managing how facets of your brand
come together
Unified whole built around a well
defined core
10. Clarify the core of
your brand
“...is not an advertising slogan nor a description
which will change with every communication.
Essence should be a long term positioning which
changes rarely and is more like a mission
statement for a brand.”
Helena Rubinstein
Managing Director and founder of the lab, a strategy company that focuses on branding
and other related intangible issues
12. Essence
Defined as: The distillation of a brand’s promise
into the simplest possible terms
Example #1 - IKEA: cheap modular furniture
Example #2 - Porsche: performance sports cars
13. Brown Dog’s Essence:
“Harmony”
Like the single song of many instruments, Brown Dog Creative
delivers websites that work in harmony with your brand. Cutting
through the clutter like a best friend’s whistle that calls you to
dinner, Brown Dog’s brilliantly-designed websites also get
attention. That’s because Brown Dog is a technology dynamo
creating more than just award-winning websites. With Brown
Dog, you’ll get a loyal partner who listens and delivers
interactive technology that helps your brand stand out from the
pack. Brown Dog is well trained in marketing, design, message
strategy and brand development. So you’ll get a web-based
design that is not only an extension of your brand, but one that
extends your brand with an interactive presence that makes your
product or service look more desirable. And that’s the kind of
music that’ll make anyone sit, stay, and surf.
14. Polished Brand Essence
Should be maintained in such a way that
it has 100% recall amongst the whole
business team
TIP: Consider an internal presentation to
your entire organization.
22. Do it Yourself or
Engage Experts?
Outsiders avoid branding in a mirror
Keep objective perspective
Avoid internal battles and make decisions clear
23. Positioning:
Strategy for the whole brand
Positioning statement that’s narrow enough to be
specific to only you but broad enough to include
who you’ll be;
It tells insiders how the brand should act
Brand voice that will anchor the visual and
written tone of every brand communication;
It tells insiders how the brand should look, feel
and speak
24. Brown Dog’s
Positioning Statement
For those to realize the potential of
interactive technology, Brown Dog Creative is
a web boutique that delivers beautifully-
designed websites that work.
28. Take Control
If you don’t control your brand others will
You may not like the results
TIP: Use Google Alerts to see what other’s
are saying
(google.com/alerts)
33. Promotion
Tools Available
If you aren't 2.0, then use and integrate what is
available while you are developing 2.0 site. Many
are Free.
Remember, if you aren't talking about your
organization online, then someone else is -
be the voice!
TOOLS: WordPress, Technorati, Digg, Online press
release submissions, article repositories, SEO tools,
our old pal, Google (Adwords, Webmaster Tools,
Alerts, etc.)
34. My Top 10 Blog Posts
Problem - Solution
Book review
Events before
during and after
Interview -
5 questions
Presentation
Personal experience
Breaking News
(Press Release)
Link-rich Resource
Testimonial
How To
35. Any post can be a video
1-2 minutes is best
Create your organization's YouTube Channel,
then upload your videos and embed them
into your website.
Or link to it from your other touchpoints:
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
36. Finding the Time
Retooling offline content - use your website
as your main communication tool and reuse
its content
Streamline your productivity
Find 30-45 minutes each day
Post ahead, publish and tweet later
Use hashtags (#) to research trending topics
37. Revisit, Evaluate Often
A reflective process
Engage an advisory committee -
volunteer professionals, board or organization
representation, constituents, and those you
are trying to reach
(NOTE: You’re not asking this committee to come up with new
communication, but assessing what your current communication
is saying.)
40. Books
“Crush It”
Gary Vaynerchuk
“Guerrilla Social Media Marketing”
Jay Conrad Levinson
“Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog”
Thord Daniel Hedengren
“Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion
and Captivation”
Sally Hogshead