Many of you have spoken with Andrew when calling the agency in his role as “Chief Verbal Greeter.” And although you’ll likely still have the pleasure of his voice on the phones, Andrew has been promoted to Account Coordinator where he’s doing a variety of project management activities.  Andrew joined Hodgson/Meyers as an intern and is currently pursuing a BA degree in Marketing Management. Andrew has also worked at Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish counties as a manager for the 2007 Northwest Homebuilders Trade Show.

The answer is a lot. In fact, color can be everything. Just where would Tiffany’s be without blue, UPS without brown, or Coca-Cola without red? Not only does each of these brands make effective use of color, they own that color in their respective categories, hands-down. Granted, it took millions of advertising dollars and years of brand impressions to do it. So what does that mean for businesses that don’t have the marketing budget of a small country? Can your brand still use color to stand out from your competitors? Why, yes of course!

Feeling Blue (or Red)

Here’s a fantastic graphic originally published in Wired magazine that illustrates the color landscape of corporate America. Although a little dated (note the Enron logo), it does a great job of showing just how concentrated the space is for brands using red or blue as their primary color. It also becomes obvious where there might be opportunities for differentiation.

Take a moment to think about where your brand falls on the color map of your specific battleground. Are you swimming in a competitive sea of corporate IBM blue?

Don’t Just Use Color, Own It
Here’s an example of how Hodgson/Meyers used color as a strong brand differentiator for Applied Systems, the largest and most progressive company in the insurance management technology industry. Applied Systems’ previous brand used a traditional royal blue and bright red color system. Ok, not a bad thing in itself — however, most of their competitors and a host of other companies in peer industries were using a similar color palette. Not good if you’re trying to stand out.

before

As a result, H/M proposed the current warm yellow as one way to break away from the pack and to represent Applied’s focus on cultivating strong customer relationships, as well as their status as an innovative, forward-thinking industry leader.

after

The new yellow color was designed to be an integral part of the brand, and was applied (pardon the pun) on everything from the corporate logo to promotional buttons. The result is a fresh look that re-energizes the brand and signifies its status as an aggressive, vibrant company.

What do you think?
What companies, brands or marketing campaigns do you think use color as a strong brand asset?  Comment here.

In an admittedly non-projectable examination of one household mailbox, “research” shows that, with five pieces of direct mail a day, the average homeowner receives more than 1,500 items of, for the most part, unrequested mail a year.

With so many letters and catalogs destined for the recycling bin, woe to the direct mail that does not immediately capture the reader’s attention. At Hodgson/Meyers, we’ve found that sometimes the best way to put the wow in your DM is to put the meow in your DM.

Enter the Fat Cat.

Illustrating the problem: Here kitty kitty

With service in 16 states in the southeast, Windstream Communications provides phone and Internet packages to business and residential markets. On the consumer side, Windstream often found itself up against more established, yet more expensive cable providers. To help portray those companies as being more costly, we represented them collectively as, you guessed it, the Fat Cat.

A casting call was put out for filled-out felines to…actually PhotoShop magic was responsible for creating the centerpiece character. Gold eyes gleaming and pleasantly plump, the animal quickly caught the fancy of H/M employees, earning such endearments as Phat C, Heavy C and Puff Catty. Not only did Fat Cat stand out as illustrated, he perfectly illustrated how cable companies profit from charging their customers higher prices.

Windstream vs. Cable TV: A tail of five kitties
Originally scheduled to star in a single direct mailing, the Fat Cat so resonated with Windstream—and its customers—that the client requested a series of five pieces to showcase the savings Windstream offered over its competition.

With Fat Cat soaking in a tub of money, one mailer featured the headline: Are you getting soaked by those Fat Cats at your cable company? Another featured the Cat sporting a diamond-encrusted gold dollar sign collar (think of it as feline bling) in front of a private jet with the headline, Is your cable company getting fat off you?

Fat results
Windstream notes that the first Fat Cat mailing pulled 55% more responses than their average pieces. Which shows that Puff Catty was the purr-fect DM solution.

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