A while back, we had the opportunity to tackle a branding job for a dentist in Granite City, Illinois. Dr. Mark Hewlett was just starting his own practice, a young dentist 29 years old at the time who wanted to set himself apart from the crowd.
So the brainstorm began…
Dentist offices…
+ toothbrushes
+ toothpaste
+ happy hygienists
+ shiny teeth
+ smiles everywhere
But more realistically, aren’t these places typically defined by…
+ a waiting room with pink and olive green wallpaper from the 70s
+ three-month-old issues of Better Homes and Gardens
+ a leather dentist chair covered in that crinkly clear plastic wrap
+ the possibility of having to come back next week to get that cavity drilled on
+ and the little plastic bag with a hard toothbrush you’ll toss into the closet for when your friend from Minnesota comes to visit and the airline lost his luggage.
So really, where do you go with a logo for a dentist? The happy dancing toothbrush has been done. You’ve seen it before – probably a number of times. Same goes for the extra shiny smile and glistening front tooth.
Well what about Dr. Hewlett? He’s a young guy, energetic, excited about his practice, is sporting a cool, high-tech, brand new office. How do you match that personality while creating a unique logo in a saturated market?
Our answer came in the form of flipping around a negative. We took some insight from the dentist chair and its typically negative connotations. In a sense, it’s an icon that many of us feared when we were five years old and one we still don’t look forward to seeing. We can relate to the experience of a dentist chair. So we took a less expected approach, literally painting that chair in a warm, welcoming light –and Dr. Hewlett’s personality is brought to life.
The result – an unexpected dentist logo that distinguishes itself from the majority of what’s out there. It’s a graphic that can be associated with Dr. Mark Hewlett, and him alone – something that can build equity in his company, be applied to a storefront sign, as well as his appointment cards and reminder mailers.
The idea is to create something unique and memorable that sets your business (whatever that might be) apart from the crowd. Tell your audience what your business is about and what makes it better from the shop down the street. Now you’ve got the foundation for building a strong brand image.
- Joe
thinker & designer (attempting to be a writer for the last half hour)
Yep, you guessed it – another film-related post. I can’t help it. I see something I like and I immediately want to tell everyone about it, encouraging them to hurry out and see whatever caught my fancy. In this case, it’s the new Batman (The Dark Knight). So…go see it. It’s terrific. The effects are great, storyline solid, villains eerie and new gadgets, well to sound like a teenager, awesome.
With that said, like any business owner, I couldn’t help but think about business while I was sitting in my seat trying to get away for a bit. In my case, it was discovering the strength of the Batman (the actual superhero, not the overall comic) brand. It’s all stuff that’s been in place since the POW! and BOOM! days of old, I just simply failed to realize until recently.
My realization came in the fact that Batman (again – the actual superhero, not the comic) is the perfect metaphor for a strong brand and strong marketing. He’s a culmination of so many important factors: a strong name, a strong logo, always has a finger on pulse of new technology, attentive to PR but not dedicated to it, etc.
But really, I think what should be most noted, is the attention to the Batman brand experience. He’s more than what’s mentioned in the paragraph above. Put simply, Batman’s cool, and he’s such by a perfect orchestration of intrinsic characteristics. Anything Batman puts his name on or uses is easily identified as being part of his brand. I guess the easiest comparison would be the classic Apple computer example. Everything from in-store experience to the actual use of their product feels the same – same with Batman.
He’s modern and edgy yet still leans to the conservative side. Anything he does is going to be strategic and smart. He’s effective and efficient in all of his efforts. He always utilizes the sleekest, most current technologies. All of these things build to create the perception of what we know as Batman.
Your brand is no different. You have a logo, tagline and website – great. But what kind of promotions do you have running? Do they line up with your brand platform? What about your ads? Do they have the same look and feel as other marketing pieces? It’s this idea of consistency and cohesion that makes for a strong and memorable brand – hence a classic “brand” like Batman.
Thanks for reading. And go see The Dark Knight.
Jon
I am writing this post aboard a decommissioned Harrier jet, streaking high above the Sierra Nevadas on the first moonless night of July. Hours ago I careened across the Bay Area and parachuted deep inside the Googleplex. I infiltrated Google’s headquarters (dumpsters, actually) and uncovered the secrets of a strong web presence. What follows is a full transcription:
Hey there,
Post something people want.
Cheers,
Larry & Sergey
Yep, that’s it. Let me explain.
The old days
Not long ago, getting noticed online meant loading your site with meta data — arbitrary code that only search engines cared about. Meta data didn’t have to relate to what was actually on the page, and many sites took advantage of that. As a result, search engines lost track of the most relevant sites and instead found the most cunning. Then Google came along and said, “We’re more interested in what’s actually on the page, and how many other sites link to it.” Realizing Google’s success, the remaining search engines followed suit.
So what matters now?
There are still ways to tweak your site for better ranking. But the honest, future-proof approach is to post something people want — something they can only get online; not in a phone book or brochure. Instantly impressed, visitors will make note of your site. They’ll send the link to colleagues. They’ll post it on their blogs. They’ll add it to their profiles. And Google will treat all these links like currency. The more you earn, the higher your site will rank.
Freshness
But no one will keep coming back to a site left to rot. Maintaining current content is crucial, not only for retaining visitors, but for attracting search engines as well. All other things being equal, a more recently updated page will rank better.
Design matters here too. Let’s face it, a web layout from 1999 isn’t hard to spot. When it comes to visitors’ impressions, a fresh look is just as important as fresh content. Sometimes that means going all the way back to branding. After all, a contemporary layout with an ancient logo doesn’t do much good.
Execution
As meta data loses traction, page titles and even URLs have grown more important. The more naturally they’re written, the more likely they are to match someone’s search. Search engines also examine navigation hierarchies, how headlines are used, and where information appears in the page. This is where writing, design and code come together to ensure an intuitive, well-indexed, highly visible site.
Empathy
Ultimately, a successful site starts with learning what people want. Sometimes you already know; sometimes you have to hire a company (like Gorilla 76) to help figure it out. Then comes the small matter of making it happen. So far it’s meant tracking volunteer events, surveying impractically large swaths of land, or showcasing dozens of pieces of print work without paying for paper.
I suppose giving people what they want is the essence of marketing, on the web or anywhere else. And it just so happens you’ve found a couple marketing guys who can figure it out and make it happen.
Guest contributor,
Dan Rashid