None of us are big sports enthusiasts, but we do very much get into the commercials. This year we decided to have a review party complete with score cards and lively discussion.

In June of 2009, Forty was first approached by the Friends of John McCain about developing an all-new Web presence for John McCain’s upcoming Senate campaign. It was expected to be a major departure from their old site.

It took a few months for things to get rolling, but we eventually accepted the project and began sketching out concepts for new ways to approach a political website.

The initial site map for JohnMcCain.com

An initial site map for the architecture of the website

Sunny Thaper and Jeremy Vaught in a meeting to discuss site architecture

Some initial page sketches and ideas

The initial sketch idea for John McCain's about page

The initial sketch of the "Take Action" page

Our Post-it task management system in action!

Amy and Sunny in a progress and design meeting

Amy working her magic in Photoshop

Forty developed the overall strategy and approach for the site, and sketched prototype layouts for each of the key pages on the site. We sent the sketches over to our friends at OVO, the campaign’s branding agency, who designed the basic look of the site around the campaign identity they had established. Forty used this direction as a baseline for designing and developing the rest of the site.

Thanks also go to Sorenson Media for the robust video technology in the Supporters section (and for their long hours working on implementing it), and also to Dev-Fu for their excellent custom coding for the home page promo rotator.

The new site features people-focused content that will continue to be enhanced as new features and content get added to the site. There’s also an interactive “video wall,” where supporters can record online videos to show their support.

Supporter Wall

The entire site was built in HTML 5, the next major revision of HTML, and implemented in the Expression Engine content management system.

We’re proud to be a part of such a project and would love to hear your feedback on any aspect of the website.

Leave us your feedback either in the comments below, or, if you’d like to share some more in-depth thoughts on the site, our process, or any thing else on your own blog, just send us a link to your post and we’ll add it below:

• Dave Murrow shares his thoughts on the process that went into the design

It’s the end of the year, which means it’s time for Christmas and/or politically-correct-holiday presents!

This year, I decided to take some time to put together a yearbook of photos from our many experiences over the course of 2009. It’s been quite a year for Forty.

Everyone on our team received a coffee-table style book with the photos, but I thought I’d share the PDF here for anyone who’s interested in what goes on behind the scenes over here. :-)

forty-2009

“Decision Modes” are a tool we use here at Forty to think about design, functionality, and copy. It helps us remember that not everyone thinks the way we do. Here’s a quick overview:

Can you figure out which decision mode you tend to use most?

It’s an odd reality that people often name their companies on a whim, because of an inside joke, or simply because they have a certain word that appeals to them and will make it work.

The truth is that your company/product/service’s name is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Just as you didn’t rush into a functioning business model, production schedule, or marketing plan, you shouldn’t rush into something as important as what your customers will refer to you as for as long as you’re in business.

Here are some quick tips to consider before committing to a name:

1. Without a doubt, you will have better luck introducing a new word into someone’s vocabulary than introducing a new spelling for a word they’re already familiar with. This phenomena can be seen in the struggle with homonyms such as “here” and “hear” and “they’re,” “there,” and “their.” It’s probably safe to assume they were introduced to one of the spellings first and struggle to remember other versions introduced later in their lives.

2. Pronunciation and spelling are not the same things. Pronunciation should be the least of your concerns as everyone will pronounce a name differently (think “Jaguar”), but a spelling problem is a huge issue in a text-based world. If someone can’t type your name into a search engine, you might as well not exist.

3. All the good names are definitely NOT taken. The English language alone includes almost three quarters of a million words. The world speaks as many as 20,000 languages, not counting endangered or extinct ones. I promise you, there are still good names out there.

4. Think your name doesn’t really matter since your product speaks for itself? Ask yourself why companies such as Apple, Google, Blackberry, and Yahoo aren’t called “Sturdy Computer Company,” “The Lookup Place,” “Dyrex,” and “Surch Enjiin.”

5. Don’t discredit simplicity. Just because a potential name doesn’t sound flowery and complex, doesn’t mean it can’t be incredibly awesome. Some of the best names are also the simplest. Ex. Etsy, Yelp.

6. Be willing to “go there.” Sure, your competitors all have similar sounding names, that doesn’t mean you have to as well. In fact, imagine the possibilities of going somewhere with your name that others are terrified of going? Yeah, “out there” is a scary place, but it sure can have its benefits. A great example is Happy Hammer, a local construction company in Arizona. In a sea of southwest/generic sounding names, Happy Hammer certainly stands out.

7. Don’t get caught up in domains. If your name research simply involves looking up available domains, you should just stop while you’re ahead. A good name is a good name is a good name. The domain is in another realm all together. Domains vary wildly, and people are used to such a thing. If you’re smart, you’ll find a killer name, get a domain, and work on your SEO to ensure that when people search for you, they’ll find you.

Check out our previous post for even more tips on company naming.

Questions to Discuss

1. Do you have any other tips you’d add to this list?
2. What lead you to the name(s) you currently have?

If you’re working on a design project, a mood board is a great way to present the visual direction of a project or brand separately from the layout of a specific project. They’re a helpful step that helps keep everyone on the same page without a huge time investment.

Mood Boards for Designers from Amy Lamp on Vimeo.

In case you missed it, we did a live Forty Training Session on developing and using personas in design, marketing, packaging, etc. (pardon the technical difficulties in the first minute or so).

As promised, you have a little homework to get you working with and creating personas. Below is fictional data about a client you’ve just recevied, and it is your job to create a persona that will help guide the direction of their project.

Please create a jpeg, PDF collage, personal blog post or whatever you can think of with all of the information you’d like to include in your persona – the details are up to you – and post the image or a link in the comments below.

So here’s a fictitious client scenario for everyone to create their own persona around:

1. Client: Oh Mega (custom iPhone cases)
2. Goals: structure a marketing plan to get more people using their service, specific standard imagery available, color choices to make available, and general awareness of product/service
3. Known demographics: males, ages 15-25, females, ages 16-30, iPhone owners, tech savvy, hip/fashionable, business owners, innovators, thought leaders

Can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

In an effort to continually expand our knowledge and cross-train, the team over at Forty has decided to create an ongoing series of training sessions put on by people we know. The first of which was led by the one and only, Chris Conrey, who led an extremely helpful session on client communication techniques.

Since we’re not really the types to exclude others and hide what we’re up to, we’re making these training sessions open to anyone that wants to join! We’re working on setting up a schedule, but for the time being here’s what’s in the pipe line:

• September 4, 2009 @ 3pm – SEO for Designers and Developers, by Chase Granberry of Authority Labs, a rank monitoring service.

• September 11, 2009 @ 3pm – Expression Engine Training, by Sunny Thaper (our very own production director).

• September 25, 2009 @ 3pm – Mood board development, creation, and interpretation, by Amy Lamp (Design Director at Forty)

• September 29, 2009 @ 3pm – Creating and using personas for marketing/design/copywriting/anything, by Kim Stearns (Marketing Director at Forty)

Some ideas for future workshops include: media planning and buying, mood board tips and tricks, creating personas, and much much more! If you’re interested in joining one of these sessions, just head on over to Gangplank, and plan to stay for about an hour. If you’re interested in putting on a workshop, just shoot me over an email to kim at fortyagency dot com and we can schedule something!

Let’s get our learn on!

After months of revisions and ideas and gathering all of our best information, the team at Forty is proud to announce the 40 Creative Marketing Ideas workbook is now available for free download!

No email address required, just visit Fortyideas.com and click to download.

Here’s a sneak peak of what you’ll find inside of this awesome workbook:

Tips, tricks, ideas and suggestions to pump up your marketing.

Examples of other companies already putting into practice these ideas.

Questions and sections to keep you thinking about how these ideas can be applied to your own marketing.

Download it today and be sure to let us know what you do with it either by commenting here or sending us an email.

Well-written copy can inspire its readers to do pretty much anything. In order for your copy to have this same impact, there are a few key things to keep in mind as your drafting these motivating words:

1. Make your headlines action-oriented – The difference between: “New Website is Up” and “Be the First to See Our Newly Redesigned Website,” is huge in your reader’s eyes. You want to get them excited, regardless of what it is that you’re writing about. In order to get anyone else excited about what it is that you’re talking about, you, yourself, need to be as well. Even if you’re just writing up a quick announcement about a small change to something, write as if it’s the greatest thing in the world! You can always tone it down later if you go overboard.

2. Organize your content appropriately – This is especially important when drafting up newsletters: put the most important items in your newsletter at the very top, then work your way down. People get bored after a chunk of text or two, so make sure they’re seeing the good stuff, first! It’s also important to think about this idea from a business perspective, It may not be the most important thing to you, but what do you ultimately want to get across in your message?

3. Use better more effective words - You don’t need to be a walking thesaurus to know which words make people more interested in what you have to say than others. A fatal flaw in your copy can be the insertion of ordinary, subjective words that don’t really paint the picture you’re looking to tell. Here are a few quick examples:

• Instead of “great,” use words such as: incredible, monumental, special, admired, renowned, notable, etc.
• Instead of “fun,” use words such as: enjoyable, amusing, entertaining, carefree, etc.
• Instead of “new,” use words such as: just announced, unveiled, novel, latest, current, advanced, modern, etc.

4. Cut the Fluff – If you ever want people to enjoy reading any of your copy, you need to make sure that every bit of it is powerful, and worth their time. People learn quickly, so if you stick in some filler copy in one area and people read it, they’ll start to think the rest of the your site isn’t worth reading as well. Your copy should be thought of as important as your design – cut out the unnecessary words taking up space and get to the root of what you’re trying say. Travelzoo has a great newsletter that is tremendously popular, yet only includes the absolute basics: Headline, price, and link:

5. Cut the Copy - As much as I love copy, it really is not always a necessary aspect of everything you do. Yes, maybe a sentence or two is required, but beyond that, it can be OK to say nothing else. The most effective and popular newsletters, are often the most simple. Here is an example of a newsletter that does a terrible job of this:

Stats about this newsletter:

August 3rd edition word count – 4,077

July 29th edition word count – 5, 653

Guess what I do with this newsletter when I open it up? I don’t read a single sentence and it gets deleted. How am I supposed to know which of the 26 pages of text is actually important to me?

6. Forget SEO - Your first instinct might be that all of this text means search engines will love your website more and reward you with higher search result rankings. If you’ve checked out our post titled “SEO for the Average Joe,” the you should know the most naturally written websites tend to do best with search engines. Just write for your audience, and the search engines will do the rest.

So get writing already! And make sure you keep in mind that your copy should always try and encourage its reader to take some sort of action when they’ve finished consuming it, so make it good!

Questions to Discuss

1. Do you have any other tips to add to this list?

2. Where have you seen copy that really got you interested in doing something?

I was recently working on an SEO checklist to ensure we weren’t missing any important steps in providing higher search results for our clients. Instead of creating a list from scratch, I thought I’d glance through existing lists and not double up my efforts.

Much to my surprise, I found most lists already published (and commonly used) to be confusing, stuffed with opinion, and not really relevant to our purposes (our clients don’t typically have any interest in promotional activities that skirt the line between ethical and not).

photo credit: zenera

So from about 10 lists I found, I gathered only the points that we would need and would make sense to the average person looking to ensure their SEO is up to snuff. I only found about 15 usable points in all of those lists; but from my research, I came to discover something much more valuable.

After collecting these 15 items and putting our current client’s new website to the test, I noticed a lot of these items were already done. Not because we had an SEO expert on staff, but simply because SEO really is something that comes pretty naturally with effective copywriting.

Keyword density in body text between 5-20%?  Any decent copywriter pretty much does this without thinking twice. Singular and plurals of keywords and keyphrases? Once again, a copywriter with experience will automatically do this. Anchor text links created for internal pages using keywords and phrases? You get the point by now…

So the next time you’re looking for a company that performs SEO services and hands over keyword filled copy, go ahead read it over. I bet you’d be surprised to find that even you can’t understand what’s been written, which means your audience won’t have a clue either.

The best thing you can do for your website? Hire a copywriter.

Anyway, here’s that handy-dandy checklist (which you may not even need):

1. Keyword density in body text – 5-20% depending on topic. Use http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-density/
2. Keywords appear in H1, H2, and H3 tags
3. Keyword prominence – keywords and phrases should appear as close to the top of the page as possible
4. Keywords in title tags – Should be close to the beginning, 10-60 characters
5. Keywords in description meta tag – less than 200 characters
6. Keywords in keyword meta tag – less than 10 words, every word should appear in body text or else you can be penalized. No repeating of words more than twice.
7. Keyword phrase order – the phrases directly match search queries
8. Keywords appear in alt text
9. Keywords are used in links to site pages (anchor text)
10. There are less than 100 links to external pages
11. Incoming links are present
12. Site Map was created and submitted
13. Make sure singulars and plurals are used in keywords and phrases
14. Send website to directories for listing
15. Set up Authority Labs website ranking and Google Analytics

Questions to Discuss

1. Do you agree that SEO is something that often be handled naturally by an effective copywriter, or does it require an expert and special attention?
2. What would you add to the SEO checklist?

Integrum is one of the most prominent Ruby on Rails software development firms in the world, known for their high-quality, high-profile custom web applications.

Despite having made a name for themselves in the industry and growing a fun, productive team of developers, their brand identity had long been ignored, and they realized that it was time for a change.

Because we share office space with Integrum at Gangplank (a tech/creative collective in Chandler, AZ), they knew we could help them better understand their own brand and better express it to their target audience.  So, they engaged us to overhaul their brand concept, visual identity, and website.

Brand Archetype Discovery

We needed to understand what was really at the heart of their company culture, so we began with a card-sorting exercise that helped us determine which brand archetype the company most closely identifies with.

We had previously developed eight sets of 12 cards each, providing a variety of attributes for different archetypes based on information given in Carol Pearson’s branding book The Hero and the Outlaw.

We had every member of the Integrum team, from the most senior to “the new guy,” go through the branding exercise, which gave us a surprisingly consistent, quantifiable view of the company’s internal culture.

Based on this exercise, and a whole heap of number crunching, we determined that Integrum best fit the archetype of “The Creator”:

• Motto: If you can imagine it, it can be done
• Core desire: to create things of enduring value
• Goal: to realize a vision
• Greatest fear: mediocre vision or execution
• Strategy: develop artistic control and skill
• Task: to create culture, express own vision
• Weakness: perfectionism, bad solutions
• Talent: creativity and imagination

Brand Metaphor Development

Knowing the archetype gives us a solid start, but because there are so many ways that any given brand archetype could be interpreted, we began the process of refining the concept into a “brand metaphor” based on that archetype. (Basically, we were answering the question, “That’s great, but what kind of Creator is Integrum?”)

After some research and brainstorming, we kept coming back to the idea that Integrum is a factory:

It had ties to the assembly line (the company was originally incubated in a candy distribution plant), it fit the workplace (Gangplank is currently based in a warehouse), and it was a good fit for the culture (which emphasized productivity, repeatability, creative solutions, etc.).

Visual Interpretation

With the brand metaphor in place, we were able to move to the next logical step of identifying a clear visual direction. We started by brainstorming around the “Factory” idea…

Something still wasn’t clicking, though. It felt too safe, too traditional. Integrum is an exciting, passion-driven company, the straightforward “factory” direction wasn’t really catching that.

So, we began to experiment with a variation on the theme: “Integrum is a Soviet-era factory” (as portrayed in propaganda posters, not the disappointing real thing). It would be the same basic brand platform, but with an added layer of passion, revolution, sticking together, looking to the future, etc.

With that in mind, we cleaned up the look, added lots of red, and went for it.

We also did a custom photoshoot for each of the Integrum staff members, to capture their personalities.  Here’s Chris, their sales guy:

We had a blast working on this project. We got to really flex our branding muscles and come up with a unique concept that really sets Integrum apart, and we were able to execute on that vision throughout their marketing collateral.  On top of that, they were just a bunch of really fun folks to work with.

Questions for You:

• What do you think of the “Soviet-era factory (as seen in propaganda)” concept?  Does it work for you?
• Is all this branding crap just mumbo-jumbo anyway?
• If you were working on this project, what would you have done differently?

One of the great tragedies of the typical hiring process is the reliance on standardized one-page documents to reveal the skills, suitability, and subtleties of a certain individual.  Let’s face it, resumes suck.  They won’t get you a job; in fact, they’re really only used to filter applicants.

It’s the in-person experience that gets you the job, so we’ve decided to skip the whole resume process and request that potential future Forties submit video applications instead.

We usually don’t even look at resumes anyway. We sought out Amy Lamp based on her talent and personality; Kim Stearns didn’t bother sending one, but just told us point blank that we should hire her; and Sunny Thaper’s never even created a resume (even when he was assigned to do one while in college).

When someone sends one, we glance at it and stick it in the archive.  We’re looking something that stands out–and resumes don’t.  Those who push a little harder to make sure that we notice them (and get to know them) are the ones who’ll fit here at Forty.

It takes some extra work on the part of the applicant, but that’s our filtering mechanism.  We don’t want the people who take the shotgun approach, sending resumes to every possible employer in the area.  We want people who specifically get what we’re about, and want to be a part of it.

So, we’re starting to ask applicants to skip the resume and instead submit a video application via YouTube. Tag it with “workatforty” and shoot us over an email letting us know about it.  There are no constraints. You can say or do absolutely anything you want. You can talk about your skills, you can talk about your pets, or you can not talk at all.  That part is up to you.  Just get in front of a camera and let us know what makes you tick.

Tom VanHaaren was interested in working at Forty, so we asked him to put together a quick video. Here’s what he came back with:

That told us a lot more than his resume did. It feels like we know Tom a lot better than the dozens of faceless resumes in our archive of people looking for comparable positions, and he’d generally have a better shot at getting the job because he took some initiative.

So, those of you interested in becoming part of the Forty crew, let’s see what you’ve got!

We’re often asked why we selected the name “Forty” to represent ourselves.  It’s certainly not an obvious name for a marketing agency, so it’s generated quite a bit of curiosity over the years.  To help answer the question, I thought I’d take a few moments to explain the meaning behind the word.

Being the Idealist in a Pessimistic Industry

Forty is the marketing agency that’s going to save the world.  We haven’t always had that tagline, but that rambunctious idealism and desire to run an ethical, sustainable, and effective agency has always been part of our culture.

Not everyone shares those ideals, though. We lose bids against agencies that give unrealistically low budgets, we make less money than agencies that pad their hours, and we have to spend more time persuading clients to do things the right way instead of just giving them with they want up front.

It’s a long, hard journey, and it could be difficult to keep up that idealism in the face of the ease, convenience, and additional revenue that could come from fudging our process and numbers a bit.

The name “Forty” reminds us that it’s actually okay for things to be hard, and that we’ll see the rewards of that hard work in the long term.

The Meaning Behind the Word

Throughout human history, the number 40 has been used symbolically to represent a long journey or duration (often seen as a period of preparation or testing):

• Noah’s flood lasted “40 days and 40 nights”
• Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years
• Historically, a generation was considered to last 40 years
• 40 weeks is the average term of a human pregnancy
• Some traditional punishments involve receiving 39 lashes (because 40 was believed to be enough to kill a man)
• The dead are often mourned for 40 days in Muslim cultures
• Babylonians observed the forty-day “disappearance of the Pleides,” which coincided with the rainy season
• In some primitive tribes, males were required to leave their village for 40 days after circumcision
• Muhammad was believed to be 40 years old when he received revelation from an angel
• In some Slavic cultures it is believed that ghosts remain at the site of their death for 40 days
• There is an Arab proverb stating that “to understand a people, you must live among them for 40 days”
• According to Jewish tradition, one reaches maturity at age 40
• Ships suspected of carrying disease were required to stay in Roman ports for 40 days (the root of the word “quarantine”)

These are all echoes of the basic Forty concept, which is that “doing it right takes time.” There aren’t any quick fixes. (We’ve always used the written form of “Forty,” rather than the numerals, because we’re interested in the concept rather than the number itself.)

This video–”40 Inspiration Speeches in 2 minutes”–ought to cover it!

Holy heck, it’s a bonus video! Here’s “40ft” by Franz Ferdinand (love their use of green!):

After several months of working with the Agile project management consulting firm, Sliger Consulting, Forty is proud to announce the wrap-up of their brand new fully-functioning website. The new site features an event calendar, articles, presentations, podcasts, and some new interactive areas such as Ask an Agilista and Light Bulb Moments. It feels great to have wrapped up an entire project done in our Projects Exposed format (if you haven’t seen the entire process up until this point, then go read up about the project before you continue!)

Light Bulb Moments sections:

Ask and Agilista section:

Blog:

Michele’s response to her new website:

Check out the site for yourself!

It started as a friendly competition amongst agencies to battle in a few games of bowling. Little did we know, things were about to turn quite ugly:

vs.

Thus, Agency Throwdown was born.

The idea behind these events is to spark some friendly competition among Phoenix ad agencies in silly events such as Mario Kart or darts and bring together groups of people that may otherwise never meet. The first installment of which is happening at Brunswick Zone in Mesa tonight at 6pm between the folks at Keane and the team here at Forty.

Does your agency want to challenge us? Maybe you want to go head-to-head in shuffle board against your biggest rival agency in the valley? Just keep us updated on your battles so we can come out and support the teams.

Otherwise, we hope to see plenty of you out at Brunswick Zone this evening rooting on your favorite agency!

Thanks to the Arizona chapter of the AIGA, Forty got to play host to an event all about us: Inside the Designer Studio.

We were incredibly honored to be chosen for such an event (previous ITDS events have been held at Terralever, Tomko Design, and SW!TCH Studio, so we had some big shoes to fill), but we knew this would be a challenge for us as we’re not exactly good at talking about ourselves.

Even though it took quite a bit of prep work on our part, the event went off without a hitch and a whopping 36 people showed up!

Take a look at the presentation we put together about Forty’s philosophy on marketing as well as our history:

We are very humbled in knowing that such talented, amazing individuals came out and we thank you all very much for letting us give you an inside look into Forty.

Here’s a little tribute to those in attendance:

When I was young, I had a really pessimistic view of marketing.  I thought advertising was about emotional blackmail and manipulation, branding was conceptual mumbo-jumbo, design was pointless visual fluff, and public relations was just a way to hide your faults and deceive your customers.

Taken together, all this “marketing” crap was fundamentally about making people do something they didn’t want to do, just so some rich white guy could get a couple extra digits in his bank account.

Maybe Marketing Isn’t All Bad…

As I got out into the real world, I slowly came to realize that marketing wasn’t quite as evil as I had originally thought.

photo credit: thivierr

My first job was in the Public Relations department of a community college, and I was really excited at the opportunity to help get the word out about the school.  They were doing great things with scarce resources, and I want to help the community understand that and get excited about it.  For that, we needed marketing.

That’s when I started to realize that there might be more to marketing than I’d originally thought.

Maybe Marketing Is Good?

In every field of endeavor (sports, politics, religion, etc.), the selfish minority tends get the attention, tarnishing the efforts of the generally well-intentioned and hard-working majority.

Almost every experience I’ve had with real people involved in real marketing has challenged my formerly pessimistic view of the industry.  I’ve watched marketing help people build thriving small businesses to support their family and employ others. I’ve seen it used to promote initiatives that build communities and improve lives.  I’ve experienced the excitement of a worthy effort finally getting the attention it deserves.

photo credit: rhettmaxwell

Over the years, I’ve come to understand marketing is fundamentally about connecting.

Sarah starts a business to meet a need, and John has that need. Marketing brings them together so they can both benefit.

That’s it. That’s what it’s about.

Maybe Marketing is Awesome!

In fact, marketing is the only thing that brings the supply and demand together.  Without it, the market never knows the product or service exists, and the business simply fails. Without marketing, there would be no business. There’d be no economy. There would be no “American Dream.”

That puts us, as a marketing agency, and a remarkable position.  We sit between our clients and their future customers, and figure out how to bring the two together.  It’s like setting your friends up on date, and then watching them fall in love.  It’s exciting and rewarding to be part of that process.

photo credit: Glenn Loos-Austin

Over the years, we’ve enabled scores of businesses, non-profits, and individuals connect with their customers in ways they probably wouldn’t have without us.

We’ve helped people start the business they’ve always wanted. We’ve helped people come back from the brink of bankrupcy.  We’ve helped people grow their business to provide for their own families (and the families of their employees).  We’ve helped non-profit organizations get the attention and support they need. We’ve helped change industries for the better.  We’ve helped movements get started.

In short: we’ve helped.

I’m Not Kidding About Loving Marketing

Some people hate their jobs, and can’t wait to retire so they can do something fulfilling.  I don’t have to.  I do something fulfilling every single day.

That’s why I love marketing.  That’s why I love coming to work at Forty. And that’s why today, like yesterday and tomorrow, is going to be an awesome day.

Last month, Phoenix welcomed the newest PR Store to open in the country. At first glance, one might assume this is a clever name for an up-and-coming ad agency sweeping across the country, but in fact, it is exactly as the name states: a store for PR.

Upon walking through the cut ribbon of the grand opening, I was greeted by chipper folk in blue shirts with friendly smiles. I was surrounded by games (I won a $100 gift card!), drinks, food, and informative brochures. The store was filled with shelves lined with promotional frisbees, hats, pens, and hacky sacks – everything you would assume to see in a store selling something as intangible as marketing.

I had mixed feelings about such a place upon entering, but didn’t let them affect me whilst investigating the merits of such an establishment. Russ Perry, of Keane Creative, and I pulled aside Wynne Angell, the owner of the newest location, to learn more about this friendly little store.

According to Wynne, they charge a single fee (ranging from hundreds of dollars, to thousands) for their marketing services whether they be web design, logo creation, radio ads, etc. and give their clients 3 revisions – any revisions over this number will accrue an hourly fee of $75. She also discussed the idea behind having an actual store front is so that their clients can come in whenever they want, no appointment needed.

Seems reasonable enough to me. I can see where the idea of this type of business would appeal to a small business owner with no knowledge of marketing who might be looking for a quick set of marketing tools. They walk into PR Store, look at some colorful brochures and branded jar grippers, they sell you on their products, and promise a delivery date in the near future. You’re sold! One problem: marketing isn’t a product.

Similar to a restaurant with an order counter, you choose what marketing services you would like from a menu of options. Want extra pickles? No mayo? Double cheese? You got it! They type your order into the cash register, press enter, and a few minutes later, you have some food. PR Store is no different from this model. You select business cards, a website, and some branded baseball hats. Six weeks later, you have them and you go on your way.

Unfortunately, marketing is not as simple as ordering from a menu. There is the concept of branding, differing markets, changing needs, etc. that must be addressed, and readdressed. Marketing is complex and complicated – more than “would you like a glossy finish with your order?” Marketing is a service, something The PR Store is fresh out of.

The idea of a menu in and of itself is flawed. People should be coming to marketing agencies for guidance, suggestions, research, and help from those who know what they are doing. Sure, the client can get what they want (spicy mustard, please), but do they know what their customers want? Most likely, no. By putting these decisions in the hands of the small-business owner, marketing professionals become obsolete and these important decisions are left to those with no idea what they’re doing.

PR Store might be a good idea for someone looking for standard, run-of-the-mill websites and marketing materials that aren’t targeted, researched, or tailored to meet specific needs. But at least you can be sure to get exactly what you ordered. (Burger King built their company around this idea and it worked okay for them.)

Just be careful when working with an establishment such as this. As I learned when opening my gift card’s envelope back at the office, it was only valid on services totaling $750 or more. Kinda like finding out those extra pickles cost you 75 cents.

Sure you just came back from a 3-day vacation and are ready to work… but why not enjoy that awesome feeling of doing nothing for just a little while longer? Here are some choice videos of Team Forty goofing off to get you in the mood. Some of these videos have crazy colors going on… just ignore that.