Can you feel the buzz and the excitement?! The biggest sporting event on earth will begins today in South Africa, the 2010 FIFA World Cup. For those of us who follow soccer/football this is the pinnacle of the sport, where players from all over the world come to together to claim the sport’s biggest prize, the World Cup. The countries that are in the tournament have been playing qualifying matches for the last four years in order to earn their right to play. We all have our favorites to win the tournament, but it’s also a time for us to show our national pride and back our team no matter what the chances are of lifting the trophy at the end of the tournament. I for one will be proudly wearing the red white and blue this Saturday as the United States will begin their quest against England!
Speaking of colors…The flags of each nation become symbols of every national team attending the tournament. 32 countries will be in attendance. Its amazing how visual the World Cup has become. Flags, banners, face paint, jerseys, every fan in the stadium has become a walking symbol for their country. The colors of our country have become the brand we follow and display so that everyone knows who we’re shouting for.
Unless you’ve been asleep for the last few months you’ve also seen that the World Cup has become a world wide marketing phenomena. Commercials, soundtracks, concerts, shoes, clothing, internet content. The most recent final was watched by more than 715 million viewers worldwide, whereas the Super Bowl was watched by 106 million in just the U.S. Soccer stars are selling everything from shoes to underwear and are among highest paid athletes in the world. Business productivity will lower and governments will shut down just to watch (400 channels in 208 countries). So, if you don’t know what a corner kick is now you will know in the future.
The world cup was first played in 1930 and is held every four years. Since then there have been posters designed for each tournament representing the country holding the event. Being the poster junkie that I am, I would love to have several of these to display. These designs are not only something to admire visually, but they also represent a significant time in the history of the sport. The stories that unfolded at each have been told many times over. I’m excited to witness the stories that unfold in South Africa!
Tags: Branding, Color, Kurt Palmquist, Ripple Marketing
Posted in Branding, Marketing, What's Up With That? | No Comments »
Couldn’t let this coincidence go by. The other day Nikki here at our office sent me a link to a hilarious video. Albeit one that only type geeks could really appreciate the humor. Its a homage to the Neutraface typeface inspired by the song Poker Face by Lady GaGa. Now I’m not a huge Lady GaGa fan, but if you know anything about her, its hard not to notice her and her songs. These fellows in the video had way too much fun doing this and I’ve even caught myself with the lyrics going through my head! Don’t worry though, you won’t see me anytime soon on YouTube.
Neutra Face : An Ode On A Typeface
The next day I found out that two super giants in the telecommunications industry in the UK were combining; T-Mobile (UK) and Orange. Their new name is…Everything Everywhere, eventhough they will still be known as T-Mobile and Orange to customers. The new name itself would be an interesting discussion to have. It was developed in house with the help of some high powered agencies for both Orange and T-Mobile. The new word mark is set in none other than Neutraface italic. Now I know where to go for inspiration…YouTube parodies!
Tags: Branding, Corporate Identity, Kurt Palmquist, Logos, Ripple Marketing
Posted in Branding, Corporate Identity, Marketing, What's Up With That? | No Comments »
by Kitch Walker
Recently, Mountain-Pacific Quality Healthcare Foundation (MPQHF) engaged Ripple Marketing to conduct a statewide telephone survey in Montana. The market survey targeted hospitals and clinics throughout Montana and was designed to learn more about the use of electronic health records (EHR) in these organizations. This information will be used to apply for Federal grants for Montana under the new stimulus packages. This market survey was part of a comprehensive environmental scan being conducted by MPQHF in Montana. In past years, Ripple Marketing has supported MPQHF with environmental scans in Alaska, Montana and Hawaii.
This survey project also extends to a broader initiative being undertaken by HealthShare Montana, a consortium of Montana healthcare leaders and stakeholders with representatives from state government, major payers, consumer groups, large and small healthcare facilities and individual physicians. HealthShare Montana has been designated by Gov. Schweitzer as the Montana organization responsible for the development of a statewide health information exchange (HIE) infrastructure.
Janice Conners, MPQHF CEO, commented “Thanks so much Kitch….I am very pleased with how your organization moved quickly and efficiently to help us to organize our thoughts, develop survey questions and complete the survey. I will definitely use you for our future projects.”
Tags: Environmental Scan, Kitch Walker, Market Research
Posted in Market Research, Marketing, Recent Ripple Marketing Projects | No Comments »
I was reminded of the challenging task of selecting colors for a new logo as we are nearing completion on a new identity for a company called Timberline Tool. Think of any major brand in the marketplace and you can probably identify the color that is associated with them. IBM Blue, UPS brown or the color of a school bus. A person doesn’t need to read a package to know that it is a Coca-Cola. Over time these companies have invested millions of dollars to make sure they “own” a color an
d spend millions protecting their color as well.
Our association with color is closely connected to our emotions and senses, just like our sense of smell and taste. It affects our mood, what we wear, and what we purchase. The brain reads color after it registers shape and before it reads content. The human eye can distinguish some 10,000 hues of color. This presents both opportunities and dilemmas in the world of corporate identity and branding.
Early in my career I worked for a corporate identity firm in Seattle, WA, where I first learned how important this was. The project was for Boeing www.boeing.com and we were updating their corporate standards which included standardizing the colors for their corporate identity system. There was no doubt that there needed to be standard color when at the time they had over 200 different versions of business cards in use. They had realized that over time their core brand had deteriorated partly due to the abuse of the color blue. I have never looked at so many different shades and hues of blue, but the end result was two specifically formulated colors known as “Boeing Blue” and “Boeing Gray.”
For smaller business enterprises this should not be overlooked. It is the one tool in your marketing belt that is quite often overlooked and ignored. Companies that control their color in their industry will have a distinct advantage over those who don’t. Ensuring proper reproduction of the brand color across a broad range of mediums is a tall challenge, but one that is well worth the investment considering the equity you can gain by establishing standards.
Here are a few basic questions to test the effectiveness of a color strategy:
Last but not least, once standardized colors have been established, create identity standards and guidelines that make it easy to use for those who are involved with your marketing efforts.
How strategically did you select your colors? Does your brand identity truly represent your company or product well? Have you established usage standards and guidelines to maintain and manage your identity?
Tags: Color, Kurt Palmquist, Logos, Small Business Branding
Posted in Branding, Marketing | No Comments »
© 2010 Ripple Marketing LLC, All Rights Reserved +1 406-585-8168 (USA)
Ripple Marketing Blog is proudly powered by WordPress 3.0.1 Entries (RSS) Comments (RSS).
