So, you’ve decided to have a … company. One of the first (of many) decisions is what to name it, right? This is an important, and often emotional, decision that is no less crucial than naming a baby. The big difference is that there can be more than one Brittany or Jennifer in a group… More »
ThinkResults Marketing Named One of the Top Agencies in Silicon Valley
The results are in — we are honored to announce that we have been listed as a top marketing agency in Silicon Valley for the fourth year in a row by the Silicon Valley Business Journal! This last year has been filled with dynamic and challenging projects, and great results for our clients which is driving our growth…. More »
Join Jenn LeBlanc at QuickBooks Connect Panel: How to Build Your Brand Without Blowing Your Budget
Jenn LeBlanc is excited to have been chosen as panelist on How to Build Your Brand Without Blowing Your Budget at QuickBooks Connect on October 26. The panel of experts will discuss the value of a brand, the importance of brand in the context of the digital age, what the first steps are in branding or… More »
How to Launch Anything: Guy Kawasaki’s Art of the Start 2.0
Guy Kawasaki is speaking in Mountain View on August 20, so I am reading his latest book, Art of the Start 2.0. It’s a fantastic and practical book for anyone starting anything whether it s a new company product or service, or generating a change internally within a larger organization. Since this describes so much… More »
Your Brain on Logos: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Logo Design
Our brains are very interesting places. Neuroscience is finding more and more fascinating information on how we process and store information based on MRI research. Design is no stranger to the world of influencing human behaviour and in a recent article on how your brain “sees” logos, I found some very interesting findings. First, here is… More »
The Dangerous World of Rebranding: The New Airbnb Launch
While there has been a ton of controversy about the new Airbnb logo design (it’s too sexual, it looks too much like another logo launched at nearly the same time), dubbed Bélo, I want to speak out in its defense, and in defense of their overall launch strategy. On the day of the launch of the… More »
Logo Designs: From Elegant to Weird
Getting stuck in San Francisco traffic means I get to look around at what’s happening in the city. I always enjoy the colorful pole flag banners lining the streets around the city advertising various cultural exhibits. Last week when I was on my way to Sausalito for a meeting, I spied the California Academy of… More »
The Tale of Two Products: Why Knowing Your Customers is Job #1
During my recent family summer vacation, I ran across two very different consumer packaged goods (CPG) summer promotions, one a very effective marketing strategy and execution and one I’m quite sure will not drive significant results. As a tech marketer, I have deep respect for my CPG colleagues because they have access to huge amounts of… More »
April Fool’s Day Fun: A Spoof on Advertising Videos
Happy April Fool’s Day! In honor of today’s silliness, we’ll share a fantastic spoof on the now classic advertising video. Oh, it hurts to say that we’ve been guilty of pulling many of these stock images to represent certain ideas, concepts or evoke certain feelings. But we have, and I know every marketer has at… More »
Using Logo Design as a Strategic Communication Tool to Drive Results
Logo design needs to drive results. The logo is an integral part of the brand. It is the public face of the brand every minute of every day. It needs to be working hard every minute to support your overall communication objectives and support the message you want in the marketplace. There are tons of… More »
Six Essential Questions to Ask When Naming a New Initiative
One of the first steps toward launching a new initiative is to figure out a name. This can be a daunting task as there are many horror stories of naming or renaming initiatives gone wrong. In June 2011, for example, Overstock.com renamed itself as O.co. According to www.ragan.com, “Only three months later the company returned… More »
How to Launch a Logo Design Right: Take a Cue from Cadillac
Cadillac launched its new logo design at the 2014 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), the first new logo in 14 years. They dropped the “crest” as it had “become dated.” The new logo is describe by Cadillac as having a “jewel-like” quality to it and a sleeker, more modern edge to it. Not only… More »
Target Data Breach: A Lesson in Crisis Communication
The recent data breach by Target, the second largest in retail history, offers some very important lessons in how to do and how not to do crisis communication. Let’s review the message that was issued December 20, 2013, a day after the massive data breach that affected 40 million consumers between Nov. 27 and December… More »
Why Content Marketing Is Like an Oatmeal Cookie Recipe, Part II
The Silicon Valley Brand Forum (led by our very own Kevin Heney) was held October 22, 2013 at the Google campus in Mountain View, CA. The theme of this Forum was Aligning Content Strategy with Brand Strategy, a very hot topic right now. In the prior post, I talked about how Quaker oats and other consumer… More »
Tips from the Trenches: Trae Vasallo on Launching Well
Last week I shared some of the details of my interview Trae Vasallo, General Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). As I mentioned, I wanted to get her perspective both on coaching women (and btw, the tips are applicable to men as well!) and launching great technology companies. We talked for a while… More »
4 Tips for Picking the Right Color for Your Brand
I’m back from a brief commercial break while I recovered from ACL (knee) surgery to talk about color theory and how it applies to your brand. This question came up during our webinar last month on strategic branding. One of the attendees was in the process of developing her brand for the first time and… More »
Know Your Users: Simple Features Make the Difference
In web design, as in life, sometimes the smallest gesture can make the biggest impact. I was recently asked by a Board member of the nonprofit, Center for Domestic Peace to help them with their brand strategy. So first thing I did was look up their website (like 90% of people). What struck me the… More »
Facebook Content Strategy: Why Being Smart Is Better than Being Big
In contrast to the truly uninspired Pepsi Facebook strategy we reviewed last week, a small nonprofit here in the Bay Area, is doing something very interesting and increasing fan engagement at the same time. Probably not a coincidence! In the spirit of transparency, this nonprofit is a ThinkResults client but we did not come up… More »