Freelancers

Megan recently held a Lunch & Learn where we discussed and evaluated our freelance connections. We sure do have a long list, and in the past few months have been contacted by many new freelancers who want us to take a look at their portfolios in the hopes that we'll want to collaborate with them on new projects.

Well, we went through designers, copywriters, web developers and programmers that we've worked with in the past and talked about what certain things we liked (and didn't like!) about working with each. We evaluated each of the freelancers on how they communicate, how creative their work is, cost, and any other things to note. So, to freelancers out there, it's not just about your portfolio. Of course we want to see your work, but as an agency, we also like to know how responsive you will be, how you work best, and what past work you've done that relates to clients similar to ours.

Recently, I had a request from a client and I found myself in the need of a copywriter, and quick! After a slight panic of thinking to myself, "how am I going to get this done professionally and quickly?" I sent an email to a copywriter that we work with on a consistent basis, and no more than 10 minutes later, received a response that he was willing to work on the project and have something for me to review in the next 2 hours. Talk about responsive - problem solved!


We welcome freelancers to share their portfolios with us - Don't you want to be on our go-to list? Give us a call or send us an email (mailto:info@mbmmarketing.com

Happy Halloween!

A look at customer service, take 2

Reading back over one of Maggi's posts, I was thinking about the world of customer service. Recently, I've had some negative customer service, but each business went out of their way to resolve the issue and leave me as a happy customer.

Kroger -
I think Mercury must have been in retrograde, but my normally very friendly Kroger was particularly grumpy and rude during a recent visit. Bothered by the experience, I left a comment with Kroger's customer service online. Soon after, my local Kroger wrote me a letter, assured me that the customer service issue had been discussed with their team, and provided a $10 gift card.


Healthy Choice -
Given the number of Lean Cuisines and Healthy Choice frozen meals consumed in our office, it was only a matter of time before a package showed up with an issue. Upon opening a lunch, I discovered the plastic was unsealed. A quick online comment later, and Healthy Choice sent me a letter and gift card in the mail.


Panera -
This one's by far the best. Recently, we ordered lunch in for an office meeting. While divvying out our orders, I discovered that Panera had forgotten my sandwich (lesson learned - ALWAYS check your order). With no time to return and pick up my lunch, I called Panera to make sure I'd at least get a refund. Their manager got on the phone and arranged to have the sandwich delivered to the office, along with a selection of desserts for everyone. REALLY awesome.


Point is, no one's perfect, and no matter what you do, something's going to go wrong for a customer or client at some point. But if you show concern and genuine effort to resolve the issue, your customer may end up even MORE impressed with your brand than if everything had gone correctly in the front place.

Explaining Social Media?

His royal highness, Roy Williams The Wizard of Ads (www.wizardofads.com) had a PS in an email last week, requoting that ""Twitter and Facebook and all the other social media are like a party. You don't go to a party to sell things. You go to a party to initiate relationships. Sometimes you meet people at a party and later invite them over to your house where they can see what you're all about. Your blog is your house."

I like that explanation and think it works well for what we're doing with our blog - bringing you into MBM and what makes us tick. So that means sometimes we talk about our work, sometimes how we're enhancing the work experience for ourselves, and sometimes what we're thinking about and planning on doing together.

So, welcome! Come in, make yourself at home. And as we say in the South: ya'll come back soon, ya hear?

Kids These Days

I have heard a lot of different sources talking lately about the changes in the next generation of kids and their attitudes/perceptions. What I'm hearing is that there will be a cultural shift coming towards more volunteerism, respect for the environment, and overall a much higher BS monitor. What that means for marketers and businesses in general is that transparency is of utmost importance and whatever message you put out there had better be "real".

I've seen some of this in the 20-somethings I know but wasn't sure if I really believed it was going to be as transformational as the "experts" said it would be. That is until I got to hang around some middle school kids lately. It's amazing how unselfish these kids are! They are collecting books for kids in India, volunteering at local organizations, and overall doing things for other people instead of it being all about themselves. Weird. :)

Well, it might just be a microcosm of kids that I've met but I think it is really cool. And I think everyone trying to market a product or service should start thinking about how these cultural shifts might effect their business when these kids grow-up!

Clever Ad

I saw this ad over the weekend, and really liked the clever use of everyday objects making faces. Take a look - it's the new campaign from American Express.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m56F4EKN9hg&feature=related

What's A Girl Gotta Do?

Seriously, I had two really disappointing customer experiences this weekend and it makes me wonder what people are thinking. Both were in the services industry - a beauty salon and a restaurant. I'm thinking these are both industries challenged by current economic times so wouldn't they be bending over backwards? Or at least be accommodating? I had to wait 15 minutes at the salon while the employee put on HER OWN Makeup! I mean really, it was 12:30 in the afternoon - what had she been doing all morning that a paying customer had to wait for her. The store was not crowded, in fact my girlfriend and I were the only clients in there. And yet WE waited for THEM to get pretty before they could make us pretty. The same afternoon a restaurant/bar couldn't be bothered to open 1/2 hour early, even though I had a group of 30 thirsty wedding attendees standing at their front door pleading for an over-priced cocktail. We walked an extra block and the staff at Tarrant's went out of their way to make us happy - and were rewarded handsomely.

I left both disappointing shops knowing I'd tell the negative story over and over again - meaning my friends and coworkers won't be at their doors anytime soon. It's a shame, really. But it reinforces our commitment to client services here at MBM. In the end, our long standing relationships are because of the way they treated and the experience they have working with us. And it better be positive, or else - right?

Rebranding?

Richmond news sources have been busy covering the area's new minor league team - in particular, the naming of the team. 6,000 voters submitted name suggestions, which were narrowed down by the team's management. As an additional wild card entry, CNBC gathered votes and picked their favorite. The new baseball team faces these options for a new name:

Richmond Rhinos


Richmond Rockhoppers


Richmond Flying Squirrels


Richmond Hambones


Richmond Flatheads


Richmond Hush Puppies


Richmonders remain a twitter at the poor ballot of names. Rhinos plays off alliteration, and the other options try to play off of Richmond/Virginia, but they seem to be falling flat. Although 1 funny/cool name option might have been well received, voters might have reacted more warmly to a better variety of names.

Oh, and lay off the food options!

When we help a client work on their identity, we offer well-rounded options, whether its studying a variety of color palettes or examining a range of font treatments, from the edgy to the traditional. If you've got a client with more traditional style, it doesn't do any good to provide them with 6 edgy logo choices - and vice versa.

If an identity treatment doesn't properly capture how a client feels about their business, they're going to feel frustrated and as if they've been misunderstood. They're also going to be concerned that their brand won't be properly communicated. It seems to me, that's what's happened with the baseball names.

After all, who wants their city summarized by an ugly fish, a soaring rodent, deep-fried bread, meat, or creatures jumping over rocks?

Gritty in Pink

NFL teams use any means necessary to get into each other's heads. Big, mean, tough men with dark uniforms and ferocious logos designed for intimidation.

That said, it was hard not to notice each NFL player supporting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign in their own creative ways during the games this past weekend. Some with pink cleats and gloves, others with pink mouth guards, wristbands or shoelaces. No matter how they each chose to 'enhance' their uniform, the message was clear and also somewhat amusing. Large, scary beasts in pretty pink accessories to support a good cause.

Breast cancer isn't a laughing matter and I know first-hand that it touches many of our lives in some capacity. But sometimes the bold and almost awkward contrast of how a campaign is presented reaches a much broader audience, and in a way that's impossible to ignore. Advertising that's so effective that it doesn't need any icons, images or even words. Just 1 color and the awareness is there.

The WeWe Monitor

I recently came across a website that will review your website and check to see how much you are "WeWe-ing" on yourself. Sounds funny but it is pretty smart. It is sometimes difficult to turn the tables from thinking about what you do to thinking about how that impacts your customers.

We come across this a lot with clients and sometimes find ourselves getting into that same mindset. Tools like this help to quickly distill down what's being said to visitors on your homepage. Cuz if you don't get them within a few seconds once they hit your site they are gone!

You can't read the prescription from inside the bottle; sometimes you just need to let an outside perspective take a look at what you do and how you could be doing it better. (This is the part where I "WeWe" on myself and tell you to call MBM!)

Here's the link: http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.htm

Stock Photos

To make our clients' print ads more exciting, our graphic designers usually add a stock photo image of some sort that relates to the message in the ad or keeps with the brand consistency of the client. So, to provide some direction to our designers, it's easier to do some initial stock photo searching for what we know our clients might go for ahead of time. And as Client Services folks, we really know what our clients like and don't like (no images that use people, use the logo only, etc.). This week, I've been struggling over the "perfect" image for a community-focused ad that will run in a non-profit's event program.

If you've searched for images on stock photo websites like http://www.istockphoto.com/, then you know that there are thousands of choices, colors, illustrations, and photos. Well it can be time consuming and difficult, especially if you have an idea of what you're looking for in your head, and it's not there!

We came up with 6 ad layouts, all using a stock image that says "community." That's a hard one, right? We'll see what the client chooses!

Solid Ground Yoga!

I've spent the summer working with a new client - Solid Ground Yoga. Solid Ground is a brand new yoga studio in Midlothian, and I've had a blast working on it.

My other clients include businesses like a community bank and a construction company - they're great to work with too, but it was a fun change to be thinking about yoga poses and soothing colors! Plus, since Solid Ground is a totally new studio, we were starting from scratch on everything.

I'm really proud of the design work Jason did - check out the Solid Ground Yoga website.