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Brand is Everything
Pacific Benefits Group (PBG) had a name, but not much else. A series of three Roman pillars was being used as a makeshift identifier on some marketing materials and the name of the company varied from Pacific Benefits Group and PBG, to PBG Northwest and more. Unknowingly, they did have a brand identity, but it was only present when customers called into the company looking for information, quotes or to apply for coverage.
With permission, Copious Creative was allowed to hear some recorded portions of customer phone calls. What came from those sessions helped build the brand voice, look and feel. Quickly, it was discovered that while many insurance agencies tout “cheap,” what customers really want is someone who is honest, forthright and warm – in addition to knowing a lot about insurance. Pacific Benefits Group was delivering everything the customer could want, however the message was disjointed depending on the method of interaction.
A new pallet of colors was chosen to show PBG’s friendly demeanor as well as its strength. A friendly PMS 631 C (teal) now works in conjunction with the strength of 7519 C (brown). Both work well to showcase Pacific Benefit Group’s dedication to the customer. In addition, a new word mark was crafted to exemplify the once-hidden brand: “Dedicated to life, health, and you.”
Insurance Gets a Digital Makeover
The biggest concern Pacific Benefits Group had at the beginning of the six-month project was integrating a customer-centric architecture with the new web site. The Copious team created a landmark architecture system that not only helps push customers through the quote process, but also builds leads via insurance providers, which brings in additional revenue for the company.
PBG’s new state-of-the-art phone system was also a focus. Since it was going to be used to catalog conversations and make “voice signatures” possible, the website also had to work in conjunction with the phone system to deliver information quickly and easily to agents.
In regard to content, the insurance industry changes quickly from week to week. Therefore, fast content revision was a necessity. Copious customized their enterprise level content management system so the company’s experts could change regulatory-heavy content quickly and easily.
PBG's Budget Went a Long Way
At launch, which included the full integration of new collateral and more, overall visits increased 50%, page views went up 30% and lead increased up over 150% over the following six months. Every benchmark PBG had for the new site was met with spectacular results.
Holistically, PBG began selling insurance on a new level. Once only present when talking directly to a Pacific Benefits Group agent, the branded look and feel is now present online, in person, and in the company’s ever-expanding marketing strategy which now includes educational newsletters emailed to current and past customers.
To view the always-changing world of insurance though the eyes of a Pacific Benefits Group customer (or potential customer) visit www.pbgnw.com.
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 Pacific Benefits Group's Old Logo
Pacific Benefits Group's Old Web Site
 Pacific Benefits Group's New Look
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You can contact Patrick directly at Patrick@copiousinc.com with questions on this subject and/or to learn more about Copious Creative creative and branding services.
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About Copious: Copious Creative, Inc. is an award winning, Portland based agency teeming with creativity, big ideas and the know-how to get even the most complicated project done right. For these guys it's never about art for art's sake. The Copious team specializes in brand, interactive and media that really works. No matter what, every client is a business partner, and every campaign/project deserves measurable results.
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by Debra Haines, Director, FILTER Portland
Once a design is launched to the public, the real test begins. Analytics should not just be used by marketing executives and other website stakeholders, but also be shared with the creative team.
By viewing 'heat maps,' an overlay of color on a dashboard showing areas of user activity, a designer can understand the navigational areas on the site that need improvement. In other words, the designer is given a visual fingerprint of the user's movements and can see if he or she wasn't enticed to click on a call-to-action or another revenue driver.
Web site optimization sounds like a dry, business process, but believe me, it can be a designer’s dream. We can now ‘play’ with multiple versions of design elements in a live environment. Finally, those three concepts you like will all get air time. No longer do we have to save our unpublished concepts in an ‘old version’ folder. No longer must we listen to a client who exclaims they ‘just don’t like blue’ – we can remove subjectivity and listen to the People.
Feel free to contact Debra at debra@filtertalent.com if you’d like to know more about this subject, and/or have creative job or talent search questions.
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FILTER is a full-service creative resources company that delivers proven results. For businesses that need talent—either in-house or off-site— FILTER
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offers staffing services and project-management expertise for a variety of design, production and content management needs.
By finding and fostering talent, FILTER offers flexible, cost-efficient solutions for producing outstanding creative and marketing content. FILTER serves the creative industry like no one else, with a powerful combination of style, passion and matchmaking expertise.
The company is headquartered in the Seattle area, and has branch offices in Portland, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Its clients include prominent technology and services companies as well as many of the leading design, advertising and interactive agencies. Visit filtertalent.com to learn more. |
All Content Is Advertising, All Advertising Isn't
Some may cringe at the thought, but in the final analysis all content is a form of advertising. Content is rarely if ever neutral, even if it doesn't overtly promote a product or service. Content always has a point to make, or an idea, concept, or position to advance.
If content doesn't provide some perspective, some meaningful knowledge, then does it really qualify as content?
The same can be said for advertising, if it doesn't explain, enlighten or engage, it is just noise.
What Is Advertising's Most Important Word?
My vote goes to the simple, innocuous word "like": a nondescript word that carries with it all the conceptualization power you need to create a business identity, to form a brand personality, and to position your product or service in the mind of your audience.
A previous article of mine "A Web site Without Video Is Like..." uses the power of metaphor to illustrate how this little four-letter word can crystallize an idea in the mind of an audience.
Metaphor, Analogy, Stories: The Adman's Best Friends
A metaphor explains complex concepts and hard-to-comprehend processes by comparing them to common, everyday knowledge. We use metaphors every day without even realizing we're doing it. We "race" to the office. We work "like dogs." And we all know, it's a "jungle" out there.
Metaphors are critical to the way we communicate with each other and to the success of our marketing communication and advertising.
Metaphors can be extended into analogies, and analogies into stories, and stories into campaigns. And campaigns developed in this manner have a higher probability of achieving the elusive status of meaningful content that embeds your message in your audience's collective consciousness.
There is no better way to overcome a client's objection than to put that objection into perspective with an appropriate allegorical story.
Overcoming Objections: How Long Is Too Long?
We've all heard the constant bellyaching from impatience Web users about how long they have to wait for everything on the Web. Every time I hear this from somebody, I am reminded of the story (perhaps apocryphal) of the early introduction of the Polaroid Land camera.
Before the days of one-hour photo shops, digital photography, and instant video feedback, people had to wait up to a week for their pictures to be developed by the local pharmacy or camera shop. When Polaroid came out with a camera that delivered a finished photograph in sixty seconds, people were amazed; the era of instant gratification had begun.
And, so the story goes, a group of adventurers traveled deep into the Brazilian Rainforest to learn about the indigenous people. When they came across a tribe who had never seen outsiders before, they befriended them and took pictures of them with the Polaroid cameras they brought along. The natives loved the pictures since they had never seen anything like this before, but they did have one complaint, "Why did it take so long for the pictures to develop?"
The problem is not technology; the problem is one of perception. Like the natives who perceived the 60-second developing of photographs to be slow, so to do many Web users perceive the Internet to be slow when in fact it is an incredible technological achievement where anyone with a computer and Internet connection can access information from all over the world in seconds or, heaven forbid, minutes.
The Better the Story, the Better the Communication
The solution to the problem is better communication to make yourself and your message instantly understood. People who are truly interested in what you have to say will wait for your Web page or video to load. What gets them frustrated is that when they wait—and instead of getting a meaningful message they get a bunch of nonsense that is irrelevant, self-congratulatory, or completely incomprehensible.
A video or audio message on your Web site is more easily grasped than a page full of densely written text or cryptic bulleted points. But you will loose your audience quickly no matter what the form of your message if it's confusing, muddled, overly complex, or buried in b-school platitudes and industry jargon.
You need your message to be understandable, engaging, and memorable. And one of the best ways to convey that message is to compare it with something your audience can relate to.
It's like teaching your kids a life lesson by reading them one of Aesop's Fables.
Finding Your Metaphor
Some people have a knack for expressing things in a way that an audience will instantly grasp and, more importantly, remember.
For those of us in the communication, marketing, advertising, and creative-development businesses, it is a necessary skill learned over the years. But for those in the day-to-day grind of business's nitty-gritty, it is rarely an ability that ever gets developed.
Creating a Web video campaign that your audience is going to watch, remember, and pass on to colleagues requires a commitment of time and money, and you'll want to make sure it communicates your message effectively. Rather than using your traditional-approach concentrating on features and facts, try something different: Try developing a campaign based on a metaphor that delivers your brand's personality and emotional value-add.
Where to begin? You need to set yourself free from the concrete and concentrate on the conceptual. If this seems like a difficult thing to wrap your head around, start with baby steps.
Concentrate on the Conceptual
Any effective marketing campaign—whether it's a series of Web videos, direct emails, magazine display ads, banner ads, outdoor billboards, television and radio spots, or any combination thereof—will work only if it focuses on a single message.
At the heart of all advertising is the promise you commit to delivering to your clients. No matter how clever or memorable your marketing, if you fail to deliver on that promise, you will fail.
Learn a lesson from the politicians. The general publics' opinion of politicians is about on a par with having a prostate exam. Politicians can't help themselves; they promise the electorate what the electorate wants to hear, and then fail to deliver on promises that can never be kept. Consequently, people become cynical and distrust everything politicians say.
Failure to deliver on your promise to be the cheapest, the best, or the guy with the most features, is like a politician promising no new taxes. Read my lips! Those kinds of promises are a prescription for marketing disaster.
Taking the conceptual approach requires a certain degree of confidence and an understanding that you are going to have to give up something to get something in return.
If you present your identity as the Timex of widgets, inexpensive and ubiquitous, then you are giving up the audience looking for the Rolex of widgets, expensive and exclusive.
Audience Resonance: It's All About Striking a Nerve
One of the most memorable commercials ever to appear on television was the 1985 introduction of the Apple Macintosh computer. The anti-Big Brother message said nothing of bits or bytes, or anything else computer-related, but it did establish Apple's character and personality with its allegorical message, which is still valid today.
If your marketing message lacks this kind of power and personality, if your advertising is getting lost, or drowned-out by the competition, try finding a metaphor that instantly tells your audience who you are and why they should care.
About the writer: Jerry Bader is senior partner in MRPwebmedia (www.mrpwebmedia.com), a Web site design firm that specializes in Web audio and video.
Article source: Marketing Profs
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