Building a retail brand from the client out and customer in.

Brand Strategy for Retail

Project date: 1990

“Domaine feels like a place you'd like to move into: i.e., pay the rent and stay.” John Hinterberger, The Seattle Times

Retail brands are defined at the point of purchase. Retail design, signage, display, product selection, return policies, customer service training, all do more to define the brand than the advertising does. The development of a new retail housewares/home furnishings store in a competitive market requires finding a niche unexplored by others. Duane visited every kitchen and housewares competitor in the market area, and identified their strengths and weaknesses and how the market was being served. Along the way noting the ideal way to display nearly every kind of product offering.


Then Duane partnered with his client to source an Architect/Project Manger, a Construction Manger, and various consultants to produce Domaine, a 2,963 square foot up-scale kitchen/home store. He performed a name generation process. Developed a market profile and roughed out a initial marketing plan to guide his design efforts. He created the initial space plan. Developed design themes, and worked with the experts on fixture details, and interior signage. Duane also sourced key material suppliers and helped with initial store management hiring.

The solution:

• By hiring one person with a broad skill set the client saved money.
• Duane's broad background helped coordinate the design thinking of Architect/Draftsman, Cabinet makers, General contractors, Display designers, Signage makers, Logo designers, Product buyers, into seeing the project as a whole.
  
• Duane's client orientation helped the client be more involved in the design process and communicate visual ideas to others in the project team.
  
• That process helped the client define a vision of what he wanted and we could better match that to a gap in the marketplace.
• The discovery process provided the inspiration that every store has similar product selections, the difference is the environment.
• Duane defined the store as "packaging the customer walks through".
• Designed ideal fixtures for product presentation, and a "place for everything" feel.
• Developed neutral color pallet to let product stand out.
• Created finishes for a very polished look.
• Opened to a rave review in the Seattle Times, and survived significant market changes over the course of 20 years.
  

COMPONENT PROJECTS

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Competitive Research
Brand Strategy
Space Planing
Store Design
Fixture Design
Name Development
Vendor Sourcing
Hiring Process

Pro-bono Brand Development

I'm not counting the days until retirement. Or living for the weekend. I love what I do. And I often say "If I won the lottery I'd still do this".

Finding opportunities where I can make a difference is important to me. That's one of the reasons why I volunteered my skills through the Taproot Foundation to Seattle's Lighthouse for the Blind. And one of the reason's why I often sit down and discuss branding and marketing topics without asking for anything in return.

For very small businesses I will sometimes charge "what you feel this was worth to you". It's more gratifying to receive the equivalent of a weeks profits from a entrepreneur just starting out than thousands from a going concern.

For individuals working on understanding "personal branding" I just meet for coffee and share a few simple models for discovering their brand and applying that knowledge.

Anyway, that said. There is only so much pro-bono that I can afford to do. So the standard is to provide a sliding scale depending on the revenues a non-profit has and the scope of the work that needs to be done.

One secret for success is to contact me (or any professional really) as early as possible to get the best value for the time to be spent.

Developing a consistent vision for the blind

Brand Strategy Development

Project date: 2010

As his first project as a volunteer with the Taproot Foundation Duane lead development of Brand Strategy and Key Messaging for Seattle’s Lighthouse for the Blind.

A dynamic new president had been charged with increasing the visibility of the organization. There was also recognition that the organization needed to improve their marketing messages. Our team was tasked with developing Brand Strategy and Key Messages inline with general Taproot guidelines.

With Robin Staples as Account Director, Carrie Zheng as Marketing Manager, Anne Geurts as Copywriter, and Britta Michalove as Project Manager, Duane lead a discovery process that included developing a survey, interviewing representative stakeholders, and auditing the organization and competing brands.

We uncovered inconsistent naming, unneeded communication tools, and an organization that while remarkably clear in its values and mission, was unclear in how to communicate that focus.

We discovered an inherent inspirational ideal shared by all stakeholders of wanting to make a difference in the lives of the blind, and the shared belief that nothing makes more of a difference than helping someone help themselves.

Our process and deliverables gave the organization a better understanding of itself and its relationships with stakeholder groups, and provided a guide for communication when talking to those groups. Now Seattle Lighthouse has tools to prioritize future marcom projects and an understanding of its chief brand asset: it’s pivotal position in changing the lives of Seattle’s Blind, Deaf-blind, and blind with other disabilities through skill training and the development of work opportunities.


PROJECTS

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• Brand Strategy
• Key Messages
• Marcom Audit
• Naming / Identity Brief

Looking good in photos.

Let's say you are trying to make yourself look as good as possible for a dating site. Trying different outfits, maybe thinking about where you have your picture taken.

Maybe you should think about the camera.

OKcupid explores how to appear most attractive in your photos. (and BTW iPhone users get more sex)

A brief history of graphic design in America

A great resource for designers looking for inspiration (or for what NOT to do), and for clients looking for designers (or at least what good design looks like).

I only ask that none of my clients point to one of these images and say: "I want something like that, only different." Good design solutions are like fingerprints they should match you and you alone.

Autonomy, mastery, fun, purpose

Many businesses seek to motivate their employees by expecting the employee to adopt the employers sense of purpose. Replacing their values with the organizations values. This video shows why it's better to align the company and employee values and purpose.

Many philosophers and social scientists have pointed out that life is about finding and expressing your purpose. Not someone elses: yours. Making a difference, having fun, doing something cool, being good at something. Finding that which makes your contribution, your life, irreplaceable.

Think of how your organization could apply this understanding.

A revamped view of social media

Social Media Video by Erik Qualman - Reveamped (Statistic sources are on his site)

A small businesses payment system

Getting paid is one of the most critical parts of being a business. Presenting an attractive offer, to a qualified buyer, at a competitive price point, that you can make a profit with is all irrelevant if the check bounces or if you have to send things to a collection agency.

This little piece of technology offers to make things pretty easy for little businesses to compete with bigger ones. Click on the image to check it out.

One approach to Promotion on the Internet

A short presentation I put together in about 2 hrs for a small business that wanted to get started with advertising on the internet.

At it's most basic, while it does require a few different skills to do well, advertising on the internet isn't complicated. (I'll add the caveat that a whole lot of strategic and planning work should come before one gets to the point of advertising. But that's a different presentation.)

Small Business Digital Marketing Basics

View more presentations from DF Hobbs.