Make the logo VISIBLE

March 14, 2007

Coffee from...um...wherever.And now, a pet peeve from the copywriter’s desk.

If you are a coffee shop, why would you create cups that are completely bereft of your identity?

Why would you present someone with the very lifeblood of your business without giving them something to remember you by? Why would you use a cup that looks like the one to the left - boring, bland and unremarkable. Oh, and completely logo-free.

I see this more and more. Two of my favorite coffee haunts in Sioux Falls – Cascada Caffé and the various Cappuccino Cabin locations – give me great coffee, wonderful service and a decent price.

But they also give me cups that are featureless. Nothing. Generic cups. And to the general public, for whom image is everything, a generic cup looks like it holds generic coffee. When people see a generic cup, they don’t care. The coffee could have come from the church basement, or the place you took your car for an oil change.

Think of Caribou Coffee or Scooters. Go all the way to the top and think of Starbucks. They give cups with their logo on it, cups that look like they hold a good cup of coffee, a brew that is filled to the brim with suave intelligence and chic style. It’s more than coffee, at that point. It’s a testament to the dedication of that coffee drinker’s choice. It says, “Look at where I get coffee! Don’t you wish YOU got coffee at the same place!”

The coffee cup is the single most effective advertising that a coffee shop has. It is the embodiment of the product – a personification of the brand. There’s the logo, surrounding a pool of hot, wonderful coffee. The connection can’t be made more effectively.

So when I see coffee shops with featureless cups, I just don’t get it.

You sell good coffee. Let people know where it came from. Put your logo on the cup. Put a sticker of your logo on the cup, if price is an issue. Or surround it with a sleeve that features your identity.

Coffee drinkers are loyal. They want to let their friends know what they’re drinking. Let those coffee drinkers express themselves.

By Corey

Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, Criticism

How? Or Why?

March 6, 2007

Something that keeps coming up in my life – how do you balance the “how” with the “why?”

In other words, what’s the point of winning awards if the message doesn’t help the client?

At this point, early in my advertising career, I still feel the allure of awards – of winning Addys and of qualifying for Cleos down the line. I want to make a name for myself my company and my clients. I want everyone to know that I work for the best agency in town and that I work for the most fun clients around. I want to be number one. It’s only natural. I love sports. I love competition. I was made for winning trophies.

Agency-land is filled with this. It’s good to have your work recognized, to be seen as the best advertising and marketing agency in the city. We won a good number of Addys this past year – not the most in the city, but enough to feel vindicated. It helps boost the self esteem. It shows that we can be flashy, creative, clever. We know HOW to create.

The struggle is when to leave that behind in order to create something functional – to realize the limits of what we can do. Creating a killer television spot that wins lots of awards is nice. But if it doesn’t connect the product to the audience, it’s all for naught. It’s wasted money. The How has been done to perfection – slick production, hilarious idea, clients willing to take a risk. But the Why hasn’t been researched.

At HenkinSchultz, we talk a lot about the Why. It’s the reasoning behind a message; the purpose for a design. It’s weighing the benefits of raising some awareness vs. the cost of the production. We know how a message can be created, but we focus on why that message needs to be created, and why the consumer is supposed to care. It’s the difference between clever advertising and smart marketing. The two can overlap. But one can’t survive without the other.

So I find my mind split, oftentimes – I want a project to be uber-creative, cutting edge, Addy-winning material; something I can hold up and say “Yes, I worked on this and Everybody Loves It and We RULE!” But I also want the client to come back and say “You know that postcard you created? It helped sell 80% more candy bars.”

I love creating fun products. The only thing that compares is creating functional, helpful products that work.

Many of us slip into this. We worry more about the beauty and cleverness – the How – the press and the glitz and the awards; all of them are important to raise an agency’s and a client’s esteem. But what we need to increasingly remember is, well, a shiny beer cooler may look pretty, may be collectable, may cause people to stop and stare, but if it doesn’t keep your beer cool, what good is it?

Focus on the How. But don’t forget about the Why.

By Corey

Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, The Process