Gift Card In the Big Store
October 11, 2011 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
“It’s like a gift card in a big store.”
Recently a client made that statement at the conclusion of a discussion about a new branding initiative for his insurance firm. The client was delighted about having a range of choices in the creative materials we had developed. But he also was a bit torn and forlorn about having to only choose one approach from more than one choice.
Ah, there’s the rub, as Shakespeare once said.
With a marketing budget, or any budget for that matter, insurance brands need to make choices. Read more
True Name Grit
May 31, 2011 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
With the summer kickoff of movie season this past Memorial Day weekend, I thought back to a recent movie I enjoyed. In the 2011 remake of Western film True Grit, 14-year-old heroine Mattie Ross hires rough-hewn U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn to hunt down and bring to justice Tom Chaney, her father’s killer. Cogburn is an “aging, one-eyed, overweight, trigger-happy, hard-drinking man.” But to Ross, he’s the right man to ride out onto dangerous ground and find the elusive Chaney, who has a head start fleeing across the river from Arkansas into Indian Territory (now the state of Oklahoma).
Rooster has “grit” (Ross’s word), even if he’s time-beaten, weather-worn and (in actor Jeff Bridges’s take) has a muffled, mouth-chewing way of speech.
The girl heroine insists on coming along, so Rooster and Ross ride out on the range, encountering dead bodies, outlaws, rattlesnakes and other hazards. [Plot spoiler: Rooster tracks and kills his quarry (with help from a Matt Damon-acted Texas Ranger who has his own reasons for hunting down the villianous Tom Chaney). Mattie Ross gets her justice.]
I’m not a movie buff nor a Western fan, but this well-done movie led me to reflect on naming and insurance brand tagline projects we’ve been working on here at Aartrijk: Read more
The spokes-nightmare
May 17, 2011 by Maureen Wall Bentley · Leave a Comment
This morning Arnold Schwarzenegger confessed to fathering a child with a household employee 10 years ago. While I’m shocked, I’m not at all surprised, as Ahh-nold has had his scrapes with lascivious and arrogant behavior before. 
After sending out good mental vibes to Maria and the kids, who deserve way better than this, I got to thinking about the corporate fallout from this. While Schwarzenegger is not currently a spokesman for anyone (that I know of), he has been busy reviving his film career, including the announcement of an animated children’s program called The Governator. Which means that somewhere there is a PR office (other than his own) madly constructing spin and corporate lawyers reviewing the morals clause of his contract to determine if, indeed, Schwarzenegger has “committed any act that offends the community or any segment thereof and/or public morals and decency.”
Now, you and I may consider this a fairly cut-and-dried case for terminating a relationship with a celebrity spokesperson, but if the situation is not about right or wrong but merely right for us or wrong for us? What if the spokesperson’s private life simply veers from the brand it is representing? What if, for example, we saw photos of Sam Waterston gambling in Vegas—instead of conservatively investing his money with TD Ameritrade? Or if Raymond Burr had declared his homosexuality while he was representing the traditionally conservative Big I, instead of being outed after his death? Today it wouldn’t be be a big deal (nor should it), but in the 1980s? Good luck with that. Read more
Vintage Brand Names Bring Nostalgia (Plus or Minus)
January 4, 2011 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
Vintage brand names went on the auction block earlier this month, according to a New York Times article announcing the event and another diagnosing the “disappointing” results (subscription may be required to read the articles).
A few of the defunct brand names up for action were: Bowery Savings Bank, General Cinema, Handi-Wrap, Infoseek (which is not really that old but was relied on like Google at one point), Meister Brau, Shearson and Snow Crop.
Notes The Times: “According to a new study from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, nostalgic choices have power because they help consumers fulfill a need to belong.” It quoted a researcher: “Nostalgia has a very social component.”
Putting aside whether the auction was successful or not, nostalgia can be a useful element of a brand.
What sense of nostalgia does your brand bring to mind? What other attributes do consumers and business partners think of when they think of your brand?
For a brand you know or use that has nostalgic value, what would you change about it?
What’s Your Marble Floor?
November 9, 2010 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
The Driskill Hotel's marble floor features its 'D' logo
Walking in to The Driskill Hotel in Austin for Brand Camp 2010 in October, I admired the high ceilings, the 1880s southwestern architecture and the quick attention from the staff.
And the marble floors.
Like many distinctive hotels, The Driskill spends a lot of money on its floors. They’re marble, distinctly colored, and clean as can be. Placed in the middle of the floor in the center of the hotel’s meeting space is the hotel’s logo (see photo to the right).
The floors and the logo were easy to notice as I was walking from meeting room to lunch and back.
High Anxiety = Insurance’s Best Moment
October 26, 2010 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
Aren’t we here for times like this?
Principal, Met Life, and other big financial brands publish research studies (or news releases about same) pointing out how the public’s financial mood has drooped and dropped. The consumer news media also have plenty of stories pointing out how difficult things are economically, and how that is impacting decisions by politicians and, in this pre-election season, voters.
It’s obvious how much value the insurance industry provides, right? As we said when we were kids: “Duh!?” Read more
Brand Camp Agenda Features: Do It Now, Value of Brand, Marketing Challenge
October 22, 2010 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
Aartrijk Brand Camp 2010 kicks off Monday October 25 at The Driskill Hotel, Austin, Texas.
We invite you to follow Brand Camp updates on LinkedIn, Aartrijk’s Facebook page, Twitter (@Aartrijk) using hashtag #ABC2010, and Aartrijk’s blog.
Monday October 25, 2010
First up are the “Do It Now” sessions at 3:30 pm Central Daylight Time (CDT). Bring your problems, dreams, aspirations (large or small). Brand Campers, Counselors, and outside speakers will help you, on the spot. It’s a chance to create or fix key items for your brand. Then comes the welcome reception. Read more
This Middle-Aged House, Painted
September 28, 2010 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
Every year at summer’s end I seem to spend time working around the house. This year I spent time over Labor Day weekend painting. I primed and then recoated the wooden paneling in a foyer/entry area of our home, and repainted the trim around the doors. Then my wife coated the walls using colors that accented the adjacent family room. This was all on the heels of having a contractor install some new tile in the foyer–tile that dated to the home’s creation in the late 1960s.
Most who own a home will recognize this pattern: As the project progressed, it became apparent that other work needed doing.
When I painted the trim that joined the newly repainted paneling with an adjacent wall, the paint on that wall looked dimmer and worn. When I put fresh paint on the the molding for the laundry room door, suddenly the laundry room walls looked drab.
It’s that way with branding too, isn’t it?
When an independent agency successfully upgrades to an agency management system, perhaps its speed makes other workflow seem slower. When an insurance carrier upgrades its e-mail communications, its Web site landing pages need an upgrade too. When an insurance trade association rebrands with a new logo, its member communications call out for attention. Read more
Guest Blogger Pat Alexander, InsuranceEcoSystem.com Founder: ‘Brand and Message Are Inseparable’
July 26, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Pat Alexander, founder of InsuranceEcosystem.com
The Aartrijk team is pleased to welcome — for the first time — guest bloggers from in and around the insurance industry, starting this month.
To kick off this occasional series, we welcome Pat Alexander, founder of industry blog InsuranceEcosystem.com and a Brand Camp 2009 alumna.
About Pat: In 2009, she launched InsuranceEcosystem.com as a resource for the insurance industry and a way to spark more conversation about her areas of expertise in independent agencies, coaching and technology. She describes Insurance Ecosystem as a blog that “provide[s] you with communicators that don’t normally blog but have great views and information to share. Each of these individuals … [has] so much to contribute in their area of expertise.”
1. What has happened in the past year with your firm now in the area of branding? What changes or initiatives have you been working on?
After Aartrijk Brand Camp 2009, I developed a plan to redesign my primary Web site, PatAlexander.com, and give it a fresh look and to develop a blog where individuals of interest to insurance agents could blog regularly or at their whim. Developing this blog included developing a brand for it as well as an audience.
Alphabet Soup
July 14, 2010 by Maureen Wall Bentley · 3 Comments
One of the first eye-openers I had when moving to the Washington, DC, area some 20 years ago was that virtually every organization in the vicinity has an acronym. Whether a military entity, high-tech company, government agency or association, they all are awash in unfathomable letters. Sure, we know the FBI and IRS, and we all have USB ports in our laptops, but have you ever hear of NASPGHAN (North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition) or MANPADS (man-portable air-defense system)? Even a Beltway veteran like John McCain can be overwhelmed by this lettered nonsense (see video clip).