While a few large financial institutions recognized early the value of social media, the industry as a whole has been slow to adopt social media policies and build the requisite infrastructure to support them. How do you stay on top of the latest media developments without getting distracted? How do you influence sales without diluting your message? How do you know that you’re spending your marketing budget in the most effective manner possible?

Two timely articles appeared in the December issue of the Harvard Business Review with insights about social media and branding. Writing for the Harvard Business Review, David Edelman explores a new consumer-decision model based on research conducted by his McKinsey colleagues. The model identifies critical touch points in the evaluation phase when consumers are most open to influence. In the same issue, Patrick Barwise, emeritus professor at London Business School, and Seàn Meehan, professor of Marketing and Change Management at Switzerland’s IMD, take a different approach. Social media, they claim, make it more urgent than ever that companies get the basics right. 

Do your social media priorities reflect your consumers’ needs? 

In his article Branding in the Digital Age, David Edelman – co-leader of McKinsey & Company’s Global Digital Marketing Strategy practice – explains that consumers are connecting with brands in new ways. “What has changed is when – at what touch points – [consumers] are most open to influence.”1

The findings have important implications for mutual fund and other financial services organizations as the share of mind and shelf-space – especially those that work with intermediaries and complex distribution channels. The research suggests that marketers should revise outdated strategies, media spending and organizational roles to reflect information-gathering and decision-making trends. 

The funnel vs. a circular decision-making process 

Edelman argues that the old model “fails to capture the shifting nature of consumer engagement.” In the traditional consumer-decision model, the funnel analogy, buyers accumulate impressions about brands from a range of experiences and, through the process of elimination, eventually make their selection. After the sale, consumer loyalty is based on the experience using the product or the service. 

The McKinsey research – based on the purchase decisions of some 20,000 consumers across five industries and three continents – reveals a more circular decision-making process, with greater emphasis on the evaluation phase. 

• Survey participants revealed that media fragmentation and product proliferation actually reduced the number of brands they considered.
• During the decision process, “rather than narrowing their choices, consumers add and subtract brands during an extended evaluation phase.”
• After purchase, “they often enter in an open-ended relationship with the brand, sharing their experience with it online.”2

“The research reinforced our belief in the importance not only of aligning all elements of marketing – strategy, spending, channel management, and message – with the journey that consumers undertake when they make purchasing decisions but also of integrating those elements across the organization.”3

Key takeaways

• Too often marketers stress the consider-and-buy phases, spending more on awareness-building rather than on the evaluate-and-advocate stages in the decision process.
• Develop tactics that help intermediaries and investors navigate the evaluation process and spread the word about the brands they prefer.
• The shift to a consumer-decision model entails three key steps:

1. Understand your clients’ decision journey.
2. Determine which touch points are priorities and how to leverage them.
3. Allocate resources accordingly.

Let your brand’s promise guide your social media presence  

Professors Patrick Barwise and Seán Meehan take a longer-term, more measured approach to the spending decision. In their article, The One Thing You Must Get Right When Building a Brand, they conclude that successful companies “[exploit] the opportunities presented by social media, while keeping an unwavering eye on their brand promise…judiciously revising the marketing playbook rather than trying to rewrite it.”4

Based on the companies they have studied, Barwise and Meehan suggest that great brands share four fundamental qualities:

1. Focus on offering and communicating a clear customer promise.
2. Build trust by delivering on it.
3. Continually improve the promise.
4. Innovate beyond the familiar.

Social media offers powerful ways for companies to engage with consumers, and for consumers to engage with one another. The emergence of the digital consumer and social web technologies means that companies no longer can “control” the message or opinions about their brands, both good and bad, which are shared with lightning-speed. The authors cite several examples of the power of social media, including Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) initial failure to respond to a consumer-created Facebook page that turned into a 7,000-person campaign against one of its products. “The scale and speed of social media can make falling short instantly painful.”5 Rather than shy away from the incident, P&G jumped in with both feet to enhance its social media strategy. The company has created a community of some 600,000 mothers, who help create and advocate P&G products.

Other textbook case studies shed light on their thesis that strategic marketing objectives (and budget allocations) are best achieved by focusing on branding fundamentals. The authors suggest that companies should use social media to gain insights rather than “sell” product. 

Key takeaways

• Don’t throw out your playbook – that is, don’t let the lure of social media distract you from your primary branding goals.
• Use social media primarily for insight – it may help with sales, but don’t make that be your focus
• Strive to go viral, but protect the brand – convey authenticity and relevance with social media
• Engage, but follow the social rules – you should join in on the conversation provided you are “deeply knowledgeable about company products/services, steeped in its brand and values, and fluent in the culture and rules of each social network”

Your Action Plan

• Talk to Asset Communications about your overall communications, social media challenges and opportunities. With social media – as with traditional media – content is still king. We can help you by developing policies, providing the latest Finra PodCast and social media updates, or by offering recommendations for and working with compliance.
• If you need help convincing executives and colleagues, call on us or look for more case studies and insights in Barwise and Meehan’s new book, published by Jossey-Bass in late March: Beyond the Familiar: Long-term Growth Through Customer Focus and Innovation.
• Call us for more information about purchasing a single copy PDF of either of the articles that appear in the December issue of the Harvard Business Review ($6.95 each).

1 Harvard Business Review, December 2010 (Edelman p.64)
2 Edelman
3 McKinsey Quarterly, Court, Elzinga et al, June 2009
4 Harvard Business Review, December 2010 (Barwise and Meehan, p.80)
5 Ibid

There’s the marketing with meaning angle that many of us are engaged in through our employers. Businesses large and small understand the value of integrating their charitable giving activities into their strategic marketing plans. It generates good public relations and boosts employee morale. And research shows that consumers often make purchasing decisions based on these types of activities, and local officials often are influenced by the degree to which a company is involved in a community. Starbucks’ “I’m In” campaign is a great example. It offered customers a free coffee beverage if they pledged five volunteer hours to their local community. The company raised 1.2 million committed hours in less than five days, and countless local charities benefited.

But we thought a brief departure from “business as usual” might make for an interesting segue to the holiday season. For many of us in the marketing communications field, our individual time and talents are every bit as valuable to charitable organizations as our treasure. We offer a sampling of some worthy causes that are meaningful to us at Asset Communications, with the hope of inspiring ways that you can participate on a personal level.

The state of giving

According to a June 2010 report by Giving USA, a publication of Giving USA FoundationTM, researched and written by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, corporate giving has been in decline since 2005, when it stood at $15.8 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars. The organization’s research reveals that giving dropped 3.6% in 2009 — this on the heels of a very challenging 2008 that saw contributions fall nearly 10%.

Giving locally

When the Park City Foundation was established three years ago, Trisha Worthington, Executive Director, notes there were no other community foundations in the state. She’s been educating local residents, other non-profit organizations, and local government and philanthropists about the benefits of community foundations — one of the fastest growing sectors of philanthropy in the United States — ever since.

If you want to make an impact in the place where you work and live, a community foundation may be your best source to turn to for guidance. “Our mission is broader than that of a non-profit organization,” Trisha explains. “We promote philanthropy and partner with the nonprofit community to strengthen the greater Park City region. We look at the community as a whole, bringing together a wide range of diverse resources in an inclusive way.” In addition to making grants that advance charitable activities, they also identify current and emerging issues, channel resources to address community needs, and help the region prepare for the future.

According to the Council on Foundations, community foundations serve tens of thousands of donors, administer more than $31 billion in charitable funds, and address the core concerns of nearly 700 communities. “We are really catalysts,” Trisha says. “We build and strengthen our community by harnessing the resources, interests and priorities of the community and non-profits alike. And we enable those with philanthropic interests to effectively support the issues they care about.” Trisha tells of a family that lost a young son in a skiing accident, for example. Through the foundation, they are able to honor his memory by providing helmets to a local charity to prevent sports-related head injuries.

“By pooling funds,” she says, “our asset development efforts have a greater local impact. Our grant making services help families make appropriate charitable gifts, and through our community leadership programs, our broad mission enables us to build relations and tackle problems effectively.” If you’d like to find a community foundation in your area, go to: http://www.communityfoundations.net/page14122.html and follow the prompts.

Lighting up the holidays with Hospice of the Twin Cities

For anyone who has experienced the compassionate and tireless work of a hospice organization, you know how meaningful and comforting their services can be to families — especially at the end of life. Diane Hallock knows. A long-time friend and client of Asset Communications, Diane, Communications Director for Jeffrey Slocum and Associates — a Minneapolis-based consulting firm serving the institutional investment community — regularly contributes marketing communications skills to the Hospice of the Twin Cities, where her mother spent the last months of her life. But her volunteer work encompasses so much more than that.

“In 2007 as the holidays approached, I wondered what I could possibly buy my mother for Hanukkah,” Diane recalls. “I was stumped; she was well past the stage of needing or wanting material goods. I just wanted to do something to bring her a little joy.” One day, an idea occurred to her. Winter wonderlands and illuminated holiday scenes abound in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. “What if I rented a limousine to take her to see the holiday lights? The nursing home staff could help her in and out of the limo, and it would be her first opportunity in a long time to get out,“ she explains. So, along with her sister and several of her nieces, Diane bundled up her mom against the cold night air and took her for her first limousine ride to see the lights. Diane’s mom died two months later. Her final gift to her mother was a lasting memory for the entire family.

Soon after, Diane realized she wanted to do something positive with her grief to honor her mother’s memory and maybe help her heal. “I kept coming back to the night we saw the lights from a limousine. It was my last and best memory of my mother,” she says. In 2008, Diane founded the Holiday Lights and Limos program. She rallied volunteers and lined up limousine services to serve 125 hospice patients, and their families in their first full year in operation. In 2009, they donated 500 tours. For many medically fragile patients, these outings are the last opportunity to share the joy of the season with family and friends.

“Some people mistakenly think that hospice only serves the elderly,“ Diane observes. “Last year a 50-year-old man receiving hospice services for advanced liver disease joined us. Jaundiced and near the end of his life, we put him in a 26-passenger limo bus with his family and friends to enjoy the holiday lights tour. He asked the driver if the bus could stop at a nearby nursing home where his dad lived. The limo bus stopped there, and the younger man was able to bid his father a final farewell. He passed away three days later.”

The Holiday Lights and Limos program is now in its third year. The combination of Diane’s passion, the tireless efforts of some 100 volunteers, and the generosity of many kind donors, including local limousine and transit companies, keep this beautiful tradition alive for hundreds of hospice patients and their families.

One of our favorite causes: Animals

Established in 1990, Friends of Animals Utah (FOAU), a nonprofit organization based in Park City, Utah, was just a small group of animal lovers lobbying for a new shelter and a way to save animals one at a time. Today, it’s a full-fledged animal rescue and rehabilitation organization with an adoption center, Furburbia, a Rescue and Rehab Ranch, a dedicated staff and an active and tremendously supportive volunteer base.

“We are a no-kill group and are proud to be entering our 20th year. We just opened a great facility and are involved with many wonderful causes beyond adopting out animals,” notes animal lover Christina Shiebler, Managing Director of Asset Communications. FOAU offers a Canines for the Cause program that places trained shelter pets with Vets suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It also offers spay and neuter clinics, community education programs, and an emergency preparedness program, which means that the shelter is in a position to receive pets during any sort of community-wide emergency.

“It’s really hard for me to say no to animals, and good organizations that serve them,” Christina says. A member of the board of trustees for four years, Christina and the Asset team have contributed hundreds of hours of time and talent to further the mission of FOAU. “It’s so rewarding to have a skill set and a passion that together can do so much good. Even though it’s never-ending, it’s not work at all — it’s pure pleasure,” she explains. Whether it’s a poster or an invitation for a special event, help with the organization’s website, or raising money, Christina’s in the middle of it. “From an early age, my parents taught me to be charitable; not just in my words but in my intentions and actions. It was how I was raised and how every member of my family lives. And the truth is, the more we give the more we receive in return. I have had the great pleasure of seeing our contributions make a difference right here in our community,“ she adds.

Like many non-profits, FOAU has been especially burdened with the double challenge of an economic downturn and a struggling job and housing market. “We’ve seen more homeless pets, and donations are harder to come by,” Christina says. “The last few years have been a challenge as many owners can no longer afford to keep their pets, or have abandoned them entirely.” If you have a soft spot in your heart for animals, your local shelter could use your help. Go to www.ASPCA.org to find one in your area. Your time and/or donations are always welcome. There are many ways to give — and gifts of any size are welcome!

Are your charitable leanings more global in nature?

Consider Heifer International

For organizations with a global reach, or individuals with a heightened awareness of worldwide issues, a global giving effort may be appropriate. One such worthy cause is an organization based in the U.S. with a large-scale heart. The story is legendary: A midwestern farmer was ladling out rations of milk to hungry children during the Spanish Civil War when it hit him: “These children don’t need a cup, they need a cow.” Dan West returned home to form Heifers for Relief, dedicated to ending hunger by providing families with livestock and training so that they “could be spared the indignity of depending on others to feed their children.” In 1944, the first shipment of 17 heifers left York, Pennsylvania, for Puerto Rico, going to families whose malnourished children had never tasted milk.

This simple idea of giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief caught on and has continued for more than 65 years operating in more than 125 countries. By giving families a hand-up, not just a hand-out, the non-profit empowers them to turn lives of hunger and poverty into self-reliance and hope.

Gifts of livestock and training help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways. The organization refers to the animals as “living loans” because in exchange for their livestock and training, families agree to give one of its animal’s offspring to another family in need. It’s called Passing on the Gift — a cornerstone of the organization’s mission that creates an ever-expanding network of hope and peace.

Expect miracles

Financial services industry rallies against cancer

Mike Hecklinger, Vice President, Senior Account Executive for Asset Communications, had never heard of Mutual Funds Against Cancer (MFAC) two years ago. That’s when he was invited by one of the organization’s trustees to get involved in the Denver area. Now, the self-appointed ambassador is doing all he can to help raise awareness — particularly in the West — for this worthy cause.

Now in its 16th year, MFAC’s Wine & Spirits Extravaganza in November and Expect Miracles Golf Classic in June are blossoming beyond the Boston area. The Foundation also underwent a name change to reflect its broader mission. As of November 5, 2010, it is known as the Expect Miracles Foundation – Financial Services Against Cancer (FSAC).

The Expect Miracles Foundation was co-founded by Frank Strauss, of the Beacon Consulting Group in Boston, and the late Steve Katzin in 1995, with a golf tournament benefitting The Jimmy Fund. Mike explains that Frank’s involvement with The Jimmy Fund began in May 1995 when his mother was diagnosed with leukemia. Co-founder Steve Katzin lost his battle to cancer in 2005.

Today FSAC is the leading advocate in the fight against cancer within the financial services industry. All proceeds benefit the Center for Applied Cancer Science (CACS), part of the Belfer Institute for Innovative Cancer Science at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “The Center brings together the medical and academic fields with the pharmaceutical and business communities to provide an integrated approach to discovering new cancer drugs and better, earlier detection methods,” Mike points out.

“It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We hosted our inaugural Expect Miracles Denver Wine Event at urban chic Mad Greens Restaurant on November 10,” Mike notes. “I’ve really enjoyed being part of the fundraising for this event, which included gathering industry executives to attend a top-notch wine tasting,” he explains. “After six months of planning, it was a thrill to see it all come together so successfully. Our generous event partners, Oppenheimer Funds and ALPS Funds Services, helped us to raise more than $15,000 for the Foundation,” he said.

Mike says one of the great benefits of being associated with the organization is its personal connection to the financial services industry. “Many professionals struggle with personal giving goals; but our industry can take leadership as ones that plan for individual and corporate giving,” Mike adds. “I’ve been touched by the stories of hope and tragedy you hear from colleagues and associates. It’s been an enriching experience for me. It’s an opportunity to make business more personal through charitable involvement.”

Questions to ask before giving

GuideStar USA, Inc., a Virginia based 501-C(3) (www.guidestar.org), connects people and organizations virtually with information on the programs and finances of more than 1.8 million IRS-recognized nonprofits. Following are questions they suggest you ask before investing in a nonprofit organization. Your answers also can help you determine which charities to give to or evaluate the performance of the philanthropies you already support.

1. How are you collaborating with similar organizations on a local, regional or national level?
2. What are the main obstacles that inhibit the fulfillment of your mission? How are you planning to overcome them?
3. What are your annual goals, needs and results? How do they compare to similar organizations in your community?
4. How much turnover have you experienced of employees and board members in the last two years?
5. To what degree have you attracted new people and new ideas to your organization and board?
6. How well have you utilized your funding? Describe how efficiently you have fulfilled your goals of recent years in relationship to the amount of funds you have raised.
7. Most for-profit organizations have restructured themselves in recent years to become more efficient and productive. How, if at all, are you considering (or have you implemented) some version of this approach?
8. How efficiently is your organization run? To what degree have you assigned day-to-day management responsibilities to a tightly run executive committee instead of relying upon your full board?
9. Who are your main competitors and how do your results in recent years compare to theirs?

Remember the last time you went to your mailbox — not the virtual one on your computer, the other one — and discovered a letter from a friend or a loved one? After flipping mindlessly through impersonal mailers and supermarket circulars, you pause. You recognize the penmanship on the envelope, hand-addressed with a real ink-pen, and a genuine stamp. What a sense of joy and anticipation, right?

Who has time anymore for handwritten notes?

We have so many cool gadgets that make keeping in touch with colleagues and clients both immediate and expedient. We love our instant communication devices — our iPhones, Blackberrys and Droids with access to Facebook, Twitter and countless MIM tools. But do our quick texts and e-notes lose something in translation? Do we think enough about our messages to make them meaningful forms of communication?

“Our indulgence in the pleasures of informality and immediacy has led to a narrowing of expressiveness and a loss of eloquence,” writes Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains (p. 108, W.W. Norton & Company, 2010). While Carr acknowledges concerns about abbreviation and the emoticons that have flourished in the digital era of texting and instant messaging, he contemplates the larger effects on the range and expressiveness of language. He wonders if our vocabularies are shrinking and becoming more hackneyed, if our syntax is becoming less flexible and more formulaic. How quickly we fall prey to the slapdash habits of impersonal email communication. We’re so out of practice writing full sentences that even the thought of sitting down with paper and pen seems daunting to some.

Keystrokes replacing pen strokes?

Remember the days of cursive and hours spent each week in grammar school perfecting your p’s and q’s? It seems that letter writing and handwriting itself are fast becoming arts of the past.

Tom Breen’s article, “Some fear technology is erasing need for students to learn cursive,” Buffalo News, Sept. 21, 2009, explains that the decline of cursive is related to the demand for greater computer skills. Breen reports that beginning next year “the writing test of the National Assessment of Educational Progress will require 8th and 11th graders to compose on computers, with 4th graders following in 2019.”

In his interview with Cheryl Jeffers, a professor at Marshall University’s College of Education and Human Services, she confides that she worries handwriting will eventually become obsolete. “I am not sure students have a sense of any reason why they should vest their time and effort in writing a message out manually when it can be sent electronically in seconds.” Jeffers values cursive writing as a lifelong skill “one she fears could become lost to the culture, making many historic records hard to decipher and robbing people of a gift.”

Stand out amidst the clutter

So, when was the last time you sent a client or associate a personal, handwritten note? Occasionally, out of a sense of duty or obligation, we might send a sympathy card or a holiday greeting — but even those increasingly have taken the form of an e-greeting. Aside from the simple grocery list or occasional phone message, text messaging, e-mail, and word processing have virtually replaced handwriting. Yet none of these provokes the personal connection as effectively or endures like the simple, handwritten note. When you take the time to send a handwritten note, it will stand out for all the right reasons.

In his February 2010 presentation at the TED Conference (TED, Technology, Entertainment, Design, is a U.S. private nonprofit foundation devoted to what it calls “ideas worth spreading”), Omar Ahmad, an Internet infrastructure maven and member of the San Carlos, CA City Council, spoke of the “power of the pen” with respect to influencing elected officials and the political process. He claims that no other medium — not email, telephone calls, contributions, or even one-on-one meetings, is as effective as a personal, handwritten letter campaign. “Letters actually work,” he says. “Even President Obama reads 10 letters every day,” he says, covering a range of issues from Americans across the country that are chosen for him by his staff.

Keep it brief

Handwritten notes aren’t letters. They’re just simple but personal ways to convey to someone that you care about them, that they are special and worthy of your extra effort. Don’t worry so much about what you say — just a few words or a couple of sentences are all you need to make your point. If your mind goes blank when you sit down to write, try speaking your thoughts out, first. The best approach is to keep your message simple — but warm and professional. Here’s a guide to get you started:

• Tell the recipient why you’re writing [e.g., Dear Jane, just wanted to send you a quick note of thanks for joining me for lunch yesterday].
• Acknowledge what it means to you — reference something about your meeting or experience incorporating specifics, as appropriate; [e.g., I really enjoyed our conversation and appreciate what you’re trying to accomplish with your new five-person team].
• Close with a warm gesture, an invitation or next steps, as appropriate [e.g., I look forward to seeing you at the conference in October. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to call if I can be of further assistance. Regards, ].

Other ideas to motivate your personal communications:

• Invest in quality stationery: Visit your favorite local stationery store and buy the highest quality paper and envelopes you can afford; you don’t have to have personally printed stationery, but that’s a nice touch.
• Don’t worry if your cursive isn’t what it used to be: It’s okay to print — so long as your penmanship is neat and legible.
• Make it a habit: The more you write letters, the easier they are to write. Keep a supply of notecards and stamps with you at all times — you’ll be more likely to use them if you don’t have to search for supplies every time you think about sending a personal note.
• Make it timely: Your note will carry more punch if it’s received within a week of your contact (a sales meeting, a conference, lunch) or the event you shared.
• Appropriate occasions to send a note: The most effective notes are the unexpected ones. Of course you’ll want to acknowledge milestones (job moves, promotions, births, weddings, gifts, completion of a project) but don’t hesitate to send a note when you think of that person, or have an experience you believe that individual might appreciate (an article you read, a colleague that might share a common goal).
• Ping your database: Develop a correspondence schedule to ensure that you reach out to your prospects, your best customers and your professional network several times each year.

The fact is we’ve come to rely on all the latest technologies — and need them to succeed in today’s digitally connected world. But don’t forget one of the most basic forms of communication: the old fashioned, handwritten note. Handwritten correspondence imparts a special feeling and seems to carry greater significance than printed messages. Successful professionals are always looking for ways to strengthen relationships — and the personal note remains one of the most effective sales and marketing tools available.

Want to explore the subject further?

• Business Notes: Writing Personal Notes that build Professional Relationships by Florence Isaacs (Clarkson Potter Publishers; March 1998)
• Hear Omar Ahmad’s brief presentations about political change with pen and paper at: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/omar_ahmad_political_change_with_pen_and_paper.html
• The Art of the Handwritten Note: A Guide to Reclaiming Civilized Communication, by Margaret Shepherd [Broadway, January 2002]
• Hire a professional: Handwritten Notes is a small business that will write your notes for you on a routine basis; http://www.handwrittennotes.com/home
• What He’s Poised to Do: Stories, by Ben Greenman (Harper Perennial, June 2010). Each of the 14 fictional short stories by this New Yorker magazine editor involves letter writing.
• Explore these sites for extraordinary papers, stationery and writing instruments:
  – www.crane.com
  – http://delphinepress.com/
• Listen to National Public Radio’s host Liane Hansen as she speaks to Kitty Burns Florey about her book, Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting, and the state of penmanship in the digital age: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t =1&islist=false&id=100731603&m=100732937.

For more information, contact your Asset Communications account executive, or email us at cshiebler@assetcommunications.com.

At the intersection of art and science, graphic designers must implement visual solutions to illustrate complex data. Despite versatile software and the use of templates, this task remains a challenge.

 
A good sketch is better than a long speech That phrase, attributed to Napoleon, is akin to our own cliché, a picture is worth a thousand words.
The idea behind the American adage is thought to have originated from a translation of a Chinese proverb.

How good design helps rather than hinders understanding

In his seminal work on the subject, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (Graphics Press, 1983), Edward R. Tufte writes about the origins and use of graphs and data graphics.

Among his legacies, Tufte uses the colorful term “chartjunk”, which he describes as “conventional graphical paraphernalia … over-busy grid lines and excess ticks, redundant representation of the simplest data, the debris of computer plotting and many of the devices generating design variation.”

Here are four simple illustrations; charts our colleagues create every day for PowerPoint presentations, websites, sales literature, you name it. Edward Tufte would say that only one of these would pass muster. Can you guess which one?

Tufte’s fundamental rule of good graphical design is to minimize the ratio of ink to data. Based on his ink-to-data ratio, the classic bar chart would be chosen as the simplest way to portray the information. Further, Tufte would suggest that all extraneous lines and ink serve no purpose and, worse, make it more difficult to read and understand. He would admonish those wanting to dabble with doughnuts and shadows, colors and cones, bubble charts and all the other distortions offered by various software programs. The point is that graphic design is both art and science. When executed well, graphical information can communicate with greater efficiency, clarity and meaning than text alone.

“Graphic design is like art, in that all the elements need to flow together
to create a unified and cohesive piece — each balancing out the other and becoming a “trail” for the eye to follow. It is like science, in that these elements (copy, photography, charts, white space) are arranged in such a way as to truly facilitate understanding.”

Deb Hommer, Senior Designer — Asset Communications

What do the experts think?

To get a perspective on how design can transform data into understanding, we spent some time with Priscilla Blanchot, Creative Director; and Deb Hommer, Senior Designer, for Asset Communications, Inc. Priscilla and Deb are veteran designers, each having nearly two decades of design experience.

What tools does a professional designer have that “weekend warriors” lack?

A professional designer brings a trained eye and comprehensive experience, Priscilla explains. “Many young designers can think creatively, and this is important, but what matters most is to be able to think critically with an understanding of the client’s goals.” When working on an assignment, Priscilla wants to know as much information as possible: Who is the audience? How is the piece going to be used? What is our budget? What objectives are we trying to meet? She asks to review all current branding guidelines in order to gain an understanding of that firm’s visual personality. After all that knowledge is understood, expertise comes from knowing how to maximize the use of current technology and emphasize key messages with visual elements.

Priscilla and Deb offer the following observations:

• Our knowledge of how color impacts the viewer along with an understanding of what colors work best together are learned skills, acquired over many years.
• The software tools we use distinguish our work from that of the amateur. We can take a simple, flat chart and expand on it to create a visually dynamic piece, using features not available in most applications.
• Sometimes technology can work to the detriment of design. Just because you can press a button and render your image in 3-D doesn’t mean it will increase meaning and impact. Experienced designers have a sixth-sense for minimizing distraction in order to promote a powerful message.
• Perhaps our greatest contribution is a highly developed sense and passion for the visual arts. It’s not something that can be learned in school, rather, it is a gift. This unique trait gives us the ability to think beyond the predictable to solve visual problems. So, for example, when creating a chart, the introduction of photography or an illustration may convey a concept that will provide more interest and draw the reader into the piece.
• The computer is simply a tool; it cannot design for you. You need a plan before you get started on the computer — technology simply helps you execute that plan and bring the idea to life.

What’s wrong with this picture?

When asked about some of the biggest chart/graph eyesores she has had to work with in the financial sector, Priscilla doesn’t hesitate to say, “The problem is today’s computers are equipped with all sorts of fun tools that give amateurs the illusion that they are designing something creative. That is not always the case.”

According to Deb and Priscilla, here are some of the biggest design blunders that make quantitative information hard to digest:

• The most common elements that distract readers are heavy graph and plot lines; colors that are either too bold or that don’t combine well with others; poor font choices; and too much text.
• A lot of what we see in pitch books, sales presentations and even printed collateral is very mainstream; poor imitations based on mediocre templates. More thought should be given to how these illustrations reflect (or don’t) on a company’s brand. Remember: A visual statement is a powerful way to express who/what you are.
• Another mistake with charts is the lack of key information or a clear point. As a viewer, it’s easy to forget data that may come as second nature to the author. You (the author), know the returns are in percentages or that the numbers presented are in millions of dollars; but if the information isn’t spelled out, your meaning is lost.
• The best chart designs are those that can stand alone visually without lengthy explanations. For the professional designer, it’s critical he or she understand the data, but also the key point of the chart and how best to convey and simplify the information.

“Designers are the intermediaries between information and understanding,” Priscilla says. “In school we were taught to think about a project conceptually and to sketch it out before we were ever allowed to get on the computer.
I still follow that discipline.”

Priscilla Blanchot, Creative Director — Asset Communications

Design fundamentals

So what makes a good chart?

Once again, Deb and Priscilla offer the following guidelines:

• An effective quantitative chart should draw you into the content and, very quickly, give an understanding of what is being conveyed.
• Information should be laid out simply and attractively, and should never be over-designed.
• Graphs are meant to be understood at a glance. If the content is complex, we may recommend it be broken into smaller bits. There’s nothing wrong with letting pictures tell more of a story. Overlaying too much information can become confusing. Mixing styles can further complicate things for the viewer beyond his or her interest to investigate.

Think outside the chart: Tackling quantitative content

Priscilla says she often thinks of herself as a visual psychologist. “Our clients come to us with visual problems to solve. I spend most of my time listening, asking questions and processing the client’s feedback. That’s the way I work. Of course there is the whole issue of subjectivity; a good designer has to adapt to the client’s style and solve the problem for him or her within that context.” Deb agrees that good client communications make all the difference. “I think effectual design takes and organizes complex information into an easy-to-understand piece. I also have to understand my audience. I like to form a mental picture of the end user. For example, is the reader new to the product or idea? If so, then simplicity and a visually pleasing design is the goal. If the audience is using the piece to sell, then a design that organizes the facts quickly is best.”

Creating effective information graphics

Graphics that help viewers think about substance should follow Tufte’s principles:

• Show the data
• Maximize the data/ink ratio (remove non-data information and reduce redundant data information)
• Avoid perceptual junk (moiré patterns, grids, outlines)
• Make elements multi-functioning (e.g., labels and grid lines should be data-dependent)
• Maximize data shown (show more data)
• Increase data density by shrinking the area used for the graphic
• Use multiple instances of graphics to facilitate visual comparisons
• Use words, numbers and graphics together
• Provide a narrative quality
• Use words in full with standard orientation
• Avoid legends by placing labels directly on graphic
• Use color carefully (to highlight most important information and separate different classes; also, avoid common color blindness combinations)
• Separate different classes of information into layers (e.g., figure-ground: data foreground against structural background)

A special offer for Asset Communications clients and friends

If you have a chart or graph that needs a makeover, why not hand it off to Asset Communications? We’re offering a special summer discount on updates of all charts and graphs — even if we didn’t design the original.

But wait! There’s more. Be the first person to engage our designers in a chart makeover, and we’ll send you a copy of The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics: The Dos and Don’ts of Presenting Data, Facts, and Figures, by Dona M. Wong (W. W. Norton & Company, 2010). The author is the former graphics director for The Wall Street Journal, where she established the graphics standard for the newspaper, making visual sense of complex data for readers. She completed an MFA degree at Yale University, where, coincidentally, she studied under Edward Tufte.

For more information, contact your Asset Communications account executive, or email us at cshiebler@assetcommunications.com.

Want to learn more about the subject?

Check out these links for more insights about information design:

• www.informationisbeautiful.net
• www.edwardtufte.com 
• www.junkcharts.typepad.com
• www.wmueller.com/design/graphic1.html

1 http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words.html
2 Tuft, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (p. 107)
3 Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White, The Elements of Style, 3rd Edition (MacMillan publishing, 1979), p. 23.

Outsourcing: From battlefields to boiler rooms

The term outsource1 wasn’t officially accepted into the Oxford English Dictionary until 1979. But the idea of outsourcing is as old as civilization. Egyptian King Ramses II hired foreign mercenaries in the 13th century BC to fortify his own armies. And Julius Caesar outsourced cavalry services to Gaul and German tribes. For as long as there has been work to be done, we’ve hired out, farmed out, contracted out … or outsourced a variety of jobs to specialists.

In more recent times, globalization brought new outsourcing and “offshoring” opportunities — with 24/7 call centers, telemarketing boiler rooms and “follow-the-sun” business models that offered round-the-clock workdays. These applications enable businesses to shift work from one center to another, minimizing production and delivery times.
 

Outsourcing is a big … and growing business

The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), established in 2005, is one such organization that has benefited from increased outsourcing. It boasts more than 100,000 members globally, and estimates the size of the outsourcing industry in the U.S. at $4 trillion annually, and at $6 trillion annually on a global scale. According to its year-end predictions, IAOP foresees companies returning to outsourcing as a means to recapture innovation and increase flexibility in 2010 vs. merely saving money.2

Time is an increasingly valuable asset

Having more time to concentrate on your core business is a huge advantage afforded by outsourcing. Accelerating delivery times for your marketing communications is another benefit. Whether it’s launching a new product, meeting a sales deadline, or just getting ahead of the competition, Asset can help you save valuable time. How? For one thing, we know the financial services industry inside and out. With virtually no learning curve, our marketing content experts can get to work quickly and effectively on your assignment.

Our network of more than 40 financial writers, strategists and communications experts can write speeches, brochures and white papers for any audience imaginable — from board members to shareholders. You can effectively achieve your marketing communications objectives through outsourcing without adding staff. And, because many of our experienced marketing professionals previously served in influential positions with investment management firms, insurance and banking organizations, they often can do a better job in less time, thereby reducing costs and maximizing results.

Keys to consider in successfully managing outsourcing relationships
Marketing managers need to nurture ongoing relationships with outside suppliers. The best outsourcing arrangements are partnerships. Suppliers should not be regarded as mere contractors, since contractors do not always perceive a long-term stake in the project’s success. The value created should be seen as shared value. Managing suppliers in this way requires a great deal of skill and competencies that are not always resident within a firm.

Source: Harvard Business School, Working Knowledge; excerpts from an interview by Poping Lin with Gail J. McGovern. Prior to joining the HBS faculty, she was president of the Fidelity Personal Investments unit of Fidelity Investments.
 

Business benefits of outsourcing

Mike Hecklinger, vice president and senior account executive at Asset Communications, offers his Top 10 ways outsourcing can boost your marketing power:

1. Access top talent and seasoned professionals — from strategists to technical writers — to complement in-house resources.
2. Enjoy the advantage of variable costs (project based) vs. fixed and long-term expenses, and potentially lower department budget instead of hiring additional in-house staff.
3. You can obtain knowledge, creative concepts and competitive intelligence beyond in-house talent.
4. Marketing communications specialists bring fresh ideas that encompass current trends, market intelligence and best practices.
5. Without the need to quickly hire and train staff, outsourcing provides instant marketing department expansion.
6. You can start new projects quickly; a quality marketing firm has the resources to start a project right away, affording you valuable time savings.
7. Adaptability: Unlike the constraints of an in-house-only effort, your marketing partner can swiftly alter a project team based upon any number of circumstances.
8. You have the ability to focus exclusively on your assignment without other distractions, accelerating your time to market.
9. Your marketing partner can be a catalyst for change.
10. Longer days: Leveraging time zones and virtual resources that work throughout the country can mean reduced time to market and accelerated delivery schedules.

Boost your marketing power with outsourcing

In tough economic periods — not unlike the one we’ve been in for the past two years — marketing budgets often are among the first to get trimmed. It seems there is more work to be done with fewer people than ever before. But that doesn’t mean your marketing efforts should suffer. Doing more with less is the new reality. More than likely it means changing up your media mix and distributing resources to your most valuable channels. It also means forging strategic alliances with proven partners who can fill creative and content voids. In essence, it means working smarter, and making the most out of what you have to work with, which implies prioritizing, and cutting out the superfluous from both your budget and your workday. Outsourcing with Asset can help you achieve these five essential principles:

These are challenging times, indeed. But these simple principles offer clarity, focus and a straightforward framework to help you do more with less.

Outsourcing: A win-win proposition

At Asset Communications, creative marketing — and all the ancillary services linked to it, like design, photography, fulfillment, printing, web development, etc. — is all we do. In a way, clients see us as their humble tugboat; small but mighty, and extremely nimble. We guide our partners in and out of harbors and ports, maneuvering through the challenging waters of a competitive marketplace.

You can tap into our vast network of talent and knowledge capital. That enables you to align marketing content with sales objectives and help you effectively reach your most valuable prospects and clients. In today’s competitive marketplace, you gain a broad perspective, fresh ideas and deep product expertise — all from a single source. With Asset Communications, you get the traditional benefits of outsourcing, such as cost savings and variable, rather than fixed expenses, increased efficiencies, access to specialized talent and the time to concentrate on your core business priorities.

“Our goal is to help our clients realize high-quality, cost-effective solutions that secure their market position, enhance their competitive advantage, and make a measurable contribution to business results.”
— Christina Shiebler, Managing Director, Asset Communications

Leverage our resources and boost your competitive advantage

Companies of all sizes have come to recognize the value in concentrating on their core businesses and competencies, while outsourcing an ever broader range of tasks — from information technology and human resources to finance and marketing communications specialists.

If you need a few foot soldiers or a whole army to support your marketing communications in the ongoing battle to gain or maintain market share, look to Asset Communications for help. Whether it’s planning, market research or creative execution, we’re problem solvers — and we’re easy to work with. For more than 20 years, we have enjoyed a proud reputation for infusing creativity, innovation and knowledge capital into every assignment we undertake — from full branding efforts to single-product sales support — regardless of scope or budget.

1 “outsource, v.”,OED Online. June 2003. Oxford University Press. Dec. 2007. http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00299371
2 Source: International Association of Outsourcing Professionals
3 Ibid

How creative leverage can help you market more effectively

Did you know that most oranges have 10 sections? To honor the orange, we’ve gleaned 10 succulent lessons from Pat Fallon and Fred Senn, marketing pioneers who changed the ad business, to get your juices flowing.

Established in 1981 on the premise it “would rather outsmart the competition than outspend them,” Minneapolis-based Fallon Worldwide made its mark in the ad world turning creativity into a competitive advantage.

Agency founders Pat Fallon and Fred Senn stretch the meaning of creativity in their book, Juicing the Orange, (Harvard Business School Press, July 2006). In passionate prose, the book serves up a healthy dose of real-life examples that examine the creative process. The authors share the keys to their successes — and failures — marking 25 years in the business. They describe how they’ve applied “creative leverage” as opposed to “media leverage” (read: media buying power) to marketing and branding problems for, among others, Citi, Holiday Inn, BMW and United Airlines. Perhaps one of the most poignant sections of the book is how Fallon helped its client, United Airlines, respond to the 9/11 crisis that involved two of its flights.

For marketers concerned about the commoditization of their brand, choosing the right media for their message, or even reenergizing a mature brand, their insights are both inspirational and educational.

I. The seven principles of creative leverage

1. Always start from scratch.
2. Demand a ruthlessly simple definition of the business problem.
3. Discover a proprietary emotion.
4. Focus on the size of the idea, not the size of the budget.
5. Seek out strategic risks.
6. Collaborate or perish.
7. Listen hard to your customers (then listen some more).

Fallon and Senn suggest putting these principles to work and you’ll be on your way to understanding how to juice the orange.1

 II. Accountable creativity

Being creative isn’t just coming up with a punchy headline or a great design — although it may result in both. It’s being able to see things in new ways — from a fresh perspective.The authors contend that the only way to generate measurable results is through good old-fashioned hard work. Their approach entails rigorous research, not taking anything for granted; and combining the thoroughness of the left brain with the artistry of the right. The term they’ve coined, “creative leverage,” is about making creativity actionable and accountable for changing consumer behavior.

Whether the objective is to increase revenues, enhance awareness or raise assets, good marketing and creative leverage should be actionable and measurable.

Asset idea! Maybe it’s time to review your creative process. Do you have one? When was the last time you updated your marketing communications creative process? Would you like some help? Asset Communications would be happy to assist you in developing a disciplined process or enhance existing methods you employ for marketing strategy and campaign development — including steps that quantify and make accountable the initiatives that are most meaningful to achieve your business objectives.

III. Reason vs. emotion

Research from Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman about how our emotions help us code and retrieve memories — and form the foundation of decision-making — supports the authors’ thesis. They warn marketers’ reason-based messages are too soon forgotten. Their remedy is to strive for what they call a proprietary emotion. They suggest looking for “any thread of emotion that the competition has underleveraged or overlooked” … one that connects your brand to “how people live their lives.” By the time competition catches up to the insight, they report, you’ll already own the territory.

Find an appropriate emotional link to your audience that your competition has overlooked, and craft your message to connect your brand emotionally to your target market.

Asset idea! Get your sales and marketing team involved. Plan an afternoon creative session to explore the emotional ways your brand connects — or could connect — with clients. Ask participants to develop a list of emotions that could be further leveraged. Then test your ideas (in a controlled market research environment) with the kinds of clients you really want to reach — former, prospective or even existing clients that meet your target profile. The exercise may offer new insights and ways to experience your brand.

Creativity: the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.2

IV. Connecting to clients

Increased media spending may make your voice louder in the marketplace, but it can’t force people to listen. The authors suggest that only a campaign that makes a genuine human connection with its intended audience can engage the consumer to participate. To strengthen the message, the “Stay Smart” platform Fallon created for Holiday Inn Express, for example, was integrated beyond advertising to every point of customer contact: in-hotel marketing posters, in-room postcards and sales tools, services and systems — even the coffee is branded Smart Roast.

When an influential market segment is being ignored, you have an opportunity for effective marketing communication.

Asset idea! You remember the Pareto Principle, right? It’s also known as the 80/20 rule or the law of the vital few. It suggests that 20% of your clients likely generate 80% of your business. Why not audit the special programs that your company has developed for your special clients that represent the most significant proportion of your profits? Are they working? How can you tell? As a further step, ask your team to assess whether company-wide events and communication tools raise awareness, understanding and commitment to delivering on that customer experience promise.

If you would like to learn more or see advertising referenced here, go to www.juicingtheorange.com and click on “See The Work”.

V. The art of collaboration

Examples abound throughout Juicing the Orange underscoring the importance of collaboration. Whether between departments that have a stake in the results, partners that are working to solve a business problem, or the client/agency relationship itself, teamwork and cooperation are essential to extraordinary creativity. Fallon and Senn report that collaboration not only makes “tasks logistically manageable, but also raise[d] the level of the individual team members’ performance.”

Sharing both the risks and rewards of creativity through open communication and collaboration can produce meaningful and measurable results.

Asset idea! Encourage team participation with an incentive program. Ask members of your team to schedule 30-minute brainstorming sessions around your specific project, with someone they don’t know or have never collaborated. Have them submit a mind-map of sorts to show what ideas were shared and what new solutions were generated. Offer a prize for the best result such as a restaurant gift card, a half-day of paid time off, or a problem-solving feature in your employee newsletter.

VI. Losing your voice in the marketplace … and getting it back

Through its experience with Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Fallon and Senn observed that business-to-business enterprises are more at risk of losing their voice in the marketplace than consumer enterprises. With a willing client, Fallon was able to re-position and re-energize a mature brand that was being overlooked by clever high-tech startups. Their Super Bowl “herding cats” advertising spot became an instant classic. Beyond an ad, the effort became a metaphor for what Fast Company described later as “EDS getting its groove back.” While Fallon gets kudos for the creative execution, EDS took creative leverage to a whole new level by engaging management, the sales force and the PR department to make the most of its new-found position. Website traffic shattered all previous records and sales force productivity doubled six months after the new image launched.

In the business-to-business segment, if you don’t position yourself, your competition will do it for you.

Asset idea! Is your brand getting tired, outdated or overshadowed by market newcomers? Don’t give up on it yet. Perhaps there are ways to breathe new life into your brand by updating a tagline, sharpening the image or making even the smallest adjustment to your media mix. Our strategists would be happy to take a deeper dive to help you maximize your most valuable asset.

VII. The connection planner

Fallon introduced a new role at its agency in 1999 called the connection planner. Its purpose was to explore the connections between brands and their customers. In examples that range from Virgin Mobile and Nordstrom to BMW, they show how the connection planner “seeks out places where brands and people meet in the real world [connecting the two in ways that are often] more credible and engaging than conventional advertising.” Their experience rang true for a new generation of BMW enthusiasts with the introduction of high action films, directed by some of Hollywood’s most recognizable talent, accessible only on the internet. The campaign generated millions of views and, most importantly, BMW sales rose 12%.

How people experience your brand should be part of your marketing communications plan.

Asset idea! Do you have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system or customer database in place? When was the last time you took a fresh look at the information? What kind of information do you have? What’s missing? These databases are rich sources of underutilized intelligence that just might offer a fresh perspective on ways to explore the connections your clients have to your brand. And sometimes an outsider can help you get more “juice” from content that’s already there. We have plenty of creative ideas to help you out — so what are you waiting for?

Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.
— William Plomer, African-born English Writer, 1903-1973

VIII. Perception vs. reality

At one time or another, many of us have had to deal with brand perception problems. Examples in Juicing the Orange that Fallon and Senn tackle include a campaign for Rolling Stone magazine and a more complex problem dealing with a network of entities under a single brand for the Islands of the Bahamas. By identifying the business problem, and crafting excellent creative, Fallon helped Rolling Stone change its image among prospective advertisers by artfully presenting the facts. The results were remarkable: Without a single change in product, distribution, pricing or promotional budget, Rolling Stone’s revenues from ad sales increased by 47%. “If you can address the fundamental misconceptions about a brand,” Fallon and Senn explain, “then you can better figure out how to craft the right marketing message to close the gap between perception and reality.”

When an irrational prejudice to your brand exists, Fallon and Senn recommend confronting it.

IX. Outsmart not outspend

Throughout Juicing the Orange, Fallon and Senn serve up a variety of anecdotes that point to the fact that the assignments they have undertaken were always bigger than their clients’ budgets. “Necessity forces marketers to be more creative,” they explain. As the lines of conventional promotion and advertising continue to blur and new methods, tools and channels for communicating with stakeholders emerge, the emphasis will shift to an even greater focus on the quality of ideas.

Share of market no longer depends on share of voice.

X. The future of creative leverage

Fallon and Senn conclude with three predictions looking out over the next 25 years.

• First, they believe that creativity will be an increasingly essential business tool. And, as they say, “the last remaining legal means to get an edge on the competition.”
• Second, they conclude that you can’t buy creativity. Rather than hire more creative people, they advise, “first unleash the creativity in the people you already have.”
• And finally, creativity is not an easy path to walk but the rewards are worth it, the authors concur. “The survival of the fittest doesn’t mean the survival of the strongest,” they explain. “It means the survival of those who are most capable of adapting to change.”
    

Communicating more … but reaching your intended audience less?

Sure, we’re on Facebook and Twitter and we’ve got blogs on our websites. But as marketing professionals are we really reaching our clients more effectively with all these new media? Are we listening to our various and multi-faceted constituents? Communications technology has never been so ubiquitous or time sensitive. Sometimes you need to get out of the weeds to get a fresh perspective.

Asset Communications can help elevate your brand, your marketing and your message and show you how creative leverage can help you market effectively.
 

Getting the most from your creative partners

So, what are the keys to a successful partnership to ensure that you get the best work from your creative partners?

 
1 Human Motivation, 3rd ed., by Robert E. Franken, p. 11
2 Human Motivation, 3rd ed., by Robert E. Franken, p. 396

Asset Communications partner Diane Roggow, a color psychologist and branding expert, says color has a strong psychological — and even a physical — impact on people. “Studies show that color is the first thing people register,” she says. “It has a powerful impact on our memory and our decisions to buy everything from cars to apparel,” she adds. Echoing observations made by Blink author Malcolm Gladwell — that we’re heavily influenced by first impressions and make critical judgments in a matter of seconds — Roggow suggests color is one of the visual information elements that register in those first few moments.

Today, in addition to running her own firm, she is a member of the international Color Marketing Group (CMG) — the leading organization of color design professionals whose mission is to forecast color trends. Their work influences color choices across the consumer and commercial spectrum.

So, what is color?

For our answer, we searched out a logical choice: the Crayola Company — the inventors of colored crayons with U.S. roots dating back to 1864. They define color as the aspect of things that is caused by differing qualities of light being reflected or emitted by them.1 Even though ancient scientists wrote about the nature of light and color, it was not until the late 1600s when Isaac Newton discovered that light was the source of color. He was the first to understand the rainbow and the one who gave us the framework for what we now refer to as the color wheel. But color is so much more than that. Like words and imagery, color is an additional source of information.
 

The art and science of color

Intuitively, we know that color makes our communications more attractive; and, when paired with good graphic design and layout, can make the difference between mediocre and extraordinary communication. But what’s behind that intuition? It turns out that color affects human beings on a variety of levels, even changes in our very body chemistry, Roggow explains. “Colors engage, and sometimes repel; they stimulate curiosity and can enflame passions,” she says. Psychological tests have shown that the color yellow, for example, is the first color processed by the brain and research shows that it improves comprehension. Remember those yellow highlighters from your college days?

In comparison to the rest of the world, American marketers don’t spend nearly enough time or market research considering the implications of color, Roggow says. “Asian and other international markets are far more advanced in their strategic purposing of color choice. The American auto and fashion industries are exceptions, she explains. “Ford Motor Company won’t put a new car color out unless 80% of women participating in focus groups express a positive reaction,” she says.

As a teachers coach Susan Fitzell, M.Ed. tells educators homework on blue paper comes back more often, and the color green on dry-erase boards supports recall up to 60-70%.2 Apparently our emotional reactions associated with color are spontaneous. The reaction, often due to the perception of a color rather than to the color itself, may be positive or negative. Our response to color is not just emotional; it’s physiological, too. Roggow explains, “color cones in the human eye send signals along the optic neurons to the brain that are transmitted to the pituitary gland.” The color red, for example, stimulates the adrenal medulla, she says, which then secretes adrenaline, causing a state of arousal that can be measured in increased heart rates.

Ask any interior designer about the impact paint color can have on the mood of a room. He or she will tell you that a considerable amount of thought should be given to the color scheme to achieve the effect you’re after.

While new research is uncovering significant findings, part of the problem is that color psychology has been viewed as a soft science, at best. But that, too, is changing. Marketing research indicates over 80% of visual information is related to color. In his often-cited treatise, The Persuasive Properties of Color, Ronald Green states color can have a dramatic impact on memory and attention. Other studies suggest approximately 83% of human learning occurs visually, and the remaining 17% through the other senses — 11% through hearing, 3.5% through smell, 1% through taste, and 1.5% through touch.3

The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the mystic realm of color. Our entire being is nourished by it. This mystic quality of color should likewise find expression in a work of art. — Hans Hofmann, German-born American Abstract Expressionist Painter, 1880-1966

Cultural and gender overtones

Roggow reminds us “our reaction to color can be different depending on our age, gender and nationality.” Red stimulates the strongest reaction with more cultures than many other colors because of its intensity, passion and ability to evoke a physiological response. In China, for example, red is the color of celebration and good luck; in India, it symbolizes purity and integrity, whereas in South Africa, red is the color of mourning. Roggow advises marketers to be mindful of their target market when selecting colors for marketing communications initiatives. “Marketers should match the attributes of the colors they use with the qualities of their intended message and audience,” she adds.

Her advice is confirmed by the research findings of Satyendra Singh, Associate Professor at the University of Winnipeg, Canada. “… Research relating to choice of colors should be conducted and concluded before launching a product, as the wrong color choice can have a negative impact on the image of the product and the company. Global managers need to recognize that the different meanings associated with specific colors may facilitate multi-segment marketing opportunities.”4
 

Color and brand identity

When you think about the intentionality of color, you might think about those delightful, robin-egg-blue gift boxes from Tiffany. Indeed, the company itself describes the power of its image as “no longer merely a color, the shade has made the Tiffany Blue Box® an international icon signifying the excellence of all Tiffany & Co. designs.5” Tiffany takes great care to protect this valuable asset; the blue, designated by Pantone as number 1837 — the year Tiffany was founded — is a registered trademark of the company.

Not surprisingly, academic research by the University of Loyola, Maryland, suggests that color increases brand recognition by up to 80%. Perhaps that’s why consumer goods giants like Coca Cola, with its trademark red, or Starbuck’s and its distinctive kelly green, treat their colors with such reverence.

Color printing experts Xerox, Ricoh and Hewlett-Packard spend a lot of research resources trying to understand and get the upper hand on the power of color. After all, they’re in the business of manufacturing and selling color print technology. Geoffrey Woolfe, principal scientist in the Xerox Innovation Group, has developed new methods to manipulate color using simple language rather than a set of complex mathematical coordinates. “You shouldn’t have to be a color expert to make the sky a deeper blue or add a bit of yellow to a sunset,” Woolfe says.6 His discovery could have far-reaching implications for experts and amateurs alike. In a published case study, office automation company Ricoh Americas Corp. found that, in addition to enhancing aesthetics, highlight color will eliminate the expense of pre-printed forms and can indirectly improve cash flow. Citing InfoTrends, they found that emphasizing important data on an invoice or statement with highlight color can accelerate speed of payment up to 30%.7
 

A special offer for friends of Asset Communications

Asset Communications’ creative director, Priscilla Blanchot, agrees that color knowledge is essential to good design and effective communications. She says that color is influential at every level from brand identity systems — including a logo, signage and stationery — to websites, displays, packaging and collateral. If it’s not intentional and well-thought-out, it won’t work. Too often people don’t put enough consideration into the colors that they use. Whether it’s a newsletter or a logo, color can significantly enhance your intended audience’s experience.
 

Are your marketing communications signaling the right message?

For a limited time, Asset Communications clients can save 15% on any color assessment service. Whether you’d like a professional to review your corporate palette, or offer guidance on a specific marketing communications piece, you will benefit from our experience and passion for the power of color. For more information, contact your Asset Communications Account Executive, or email us at cshiebler@assetcommunications.com.
 

Take the Color IQ Test:

So you think you’re pretty good with color? Want to test your mettle? Check out the Color IQ Test at X-Rite’s website. X-Rite is the global leader in color science and technology, and the parent company of Pantone. www.xrite.com/ph_toolframe.aspx?action=coloriq

Put color to work – for you!

Top 11 ways to influence yourself and others in five minutes or less

1. Always use a black pen for business correspondence. Business etiquette says black ink is the most formal, professional color for official correspondence.
2. Print employee memos or difficult communication on soothing colored paper, especially light blue. Your audience will be more receptive to your message.
3. Package client communications in a non-white envelope that is consistent with your company brand. The unique look and feel of a colored — or even a translucent or glassine — envelope will create awareness for the client, differentiate your company, and promote affinity based on the color of choice.
4. White space is often used to make a message more prominent. The lack of color is as impactful as its presence. White space also gives the reader’s eyes a chance to rest and absorb ideas.
5. Some colors like brown, gold and pink often don’t print the way you want them to, and tints can be tricky. Achieving the effects you want also can be costlier.
6. Use primary colors when marketing to children. These vibrant, attention-getting colors also represent warmth, sweetness, trust, reliability and playfulness.
7. One out of 10 people are color blind. The best colors to use in live presentations are blue, green and black. They are softer on the eyes and easier for color-blind people to see.
8. Be “web safe”. Macs and PCs render colors differently, as do browsers. Use “web smart” colors to minimize issues.
9. Be careful when using light text on dark backgrounds — not all colors work together. What matters is contrast; white text on a black background is very effective.
10. Color should be used to accentuate messaging by being congruent with content.
11. Orange is a great attention grabber. Although the color orange goes in and out of fashion, it is often underused; your materials will stand out more readily when used effectively.

1 http://www.crayola.com/colorcensus/science/index.cfm
2 www.aimhieducational.com
3 Presenting Effective Presentations with Visual Aids, U.S. Department of Labor; http://www.osha.gov/doc/outreachtraining/htmlfiles/traintec.html
4 http://jgroshek.public.iastate.edu/color%20on%20marketing.pdf
5 http://press.tiffany.com/About/Tiffany/TiffanyBlue.aspx
6 http://www.xerox.com/innovation/news-stories/color-matching/enus.html
7 http://www.ricoh-usa.com/ppbg/pdf/ric_dmc_casestudy_January102008.pdf