Idea Mensch interviewed me & my business.

I was very honored by the article and my thanks to Mario. I can't say anymore about speading your company's message to your audience.

Biscuits Cafe on Johnson Creek Road in Clackamas, OR.

I was invited to my first Molly's Fund board member interview at Biscuit's Cafe. They are a local chain in the Portland metro area. Their food is consistent and large portions (you could split a normal plate with two other people). Never had a bad meal. 

But this franchise went to the point of putting their PURPOSE right on the wall when you walk in (with the owner's signatures). That tells me that they are going stand behind their food, employees and service. I like that.

To make it one step better would be to show your customers the faces (and their stories) that provide them with the fresh food. 

© 2011 Michael Johnson - Inkspot Graphics. All rights reserved

follow up to last WOM marketing missed opportunity…

I tried calling the Costco optician to schedule an eye glass appointment. The phone was busy…AMAZING! Now, most normal customers are going to call someone else, especially if it is an emergency.

The message should say, "Sorry, for the inconvenience but we would like to respond to your call immediately, please give us your name and phone number. Thank you again for calling Costco's optical department for Dr. Hammmhamma."

It just is a no brainer! Sometimes you get this opportunity only once.

© 2011 Michael Johnson - Inkspot Graphics. All rights reserved

Have you ever had one of those little damned screws come out from your eye glasses?

Needless to say it is very frustruating! I decided to go to the local Sears store (Optical Dept) and get it fixed before I lost the expensive lens. I was the first customer in the optical department and I don't know if you have ever been there but it usually is fairly slow – even during the Christmas holiday.

The nice woman at the counter asked if I needed any help and told her about my glasses needing to be fixed. She said, "That replacement screw will cost $5.00". I said that would be fine. "It will take me a few minutes, if you want to shop around…". I told her no problem. I wandered into the tool department, half blind. After I killed 10 minutes I walked back into the Optical Dept and the woman said, "I have your glasses fixed but noticed that the nose bridges are worn, did you want me to replace those…it would be another $5-$10? I said, "No thanks, I am going to get them replaced within the next month."

Now how am I going to pass on a good optical business recommendation to Sears? A number of things that she could of done to get my business and tell the world about this great optical business that I love to recommend:

1. The cost of screw and time that it took to fix the glasses wasn't important. They could of said, "We love to do this for you – call it our holiday gift to you…by the way we also replaced your nose bridges…at no cost! Do you have an emergency set of glasses in case it happens again?

2. So, I am half blind without my glasses. It really doesn't do any good have me wandering around the store because I am not going to buy anything. But if they gave me some temporaries I could have gone into the electronic department and watched some television and contemplated about buying a new set.

3. Get an opportunity to introduce yourself and get on a first name basis with the customer. 

4. How long has it been since you have been for your eyes checked? I could have slip you in right now to see the optomotrist and get your eyes checked for a special price of $49.99! That would be convenient since I am waiting and I need to have it done!

Hmm. Your thoughts or suggestions?

© 2011 Michael Johnson - Inkspot Graphics. All rights reserved

Ben Sandberg - PDX Fix It

I started working with a friend of mine that is a local Joomla web developer that was looking to rebrand himself. 

I have started this new book by Simon Sinek, "Start with Why". All I can say is that I usually start off the conversation with, "What is your PURPOSE".

WEEK 1

We went through the discovery process and researching his competition and target market. I went through and made four pages of conceptional ideas. 

WEEK 2

Looked at mood board printouts with various colors and images (icons). Dug deeper into what was his "purpose". By discussing more he found that he had quite a few different directions he could take his company.

WEEK 3

Presentation of three polished concepts that I liked and completely identified his personality. My challenge was to make his brand memorable and his company's URL to stick in his customer's head. We also talked about what are the descriptive key words that describe him and his business. So if your potential clients are trying to look for you what would they Google search for?

I really thought that makes Ben unforgettable is that he is always wearing those shoes that have the toes sticking out. He loves those and I think that it is one of the funniest things that I will always remember about him.

Ben told me that his wife, Amanda, was really impressed with the brand discovery process and wanted me to do her company's logo. It is really nice to have people that are excited and see the real value of having a purpose.

Meet Chuck from E-Zee Fence Post Repair.

I got a referral from a friend of mine. I called and I met Chuck at Starbucks. We exchanged business cards and I was trying not to let my jaw hit the ground! I looked at his business card and was frustrated because I didn't know what his logo or product was. He asked me what I thought of it…

There were a couple of problems:

1. I asked him how he picked his company's name "E-Zee Fence Post Repair"

CHUCK'S ANSWER:

It described the ease of using the product. Unfortunately, there is another company with the name EZ Fence and E-Z Fence products.

* This is a big branding problem if you are trying to sell a product that conflicts with competitor names. Most of the time the buyer will go with the first one that he finds.

2. His company card didn't have a logo that makes product memorable to target market. 

I took some time to explain how branding works for your business. The card that the designer created had three different icons on it. The recycle bug, the fence and the "President's Club" logo.

He explained that his background was in sales and that the designer that he hired basically created the pieces without any reasoning. And billed him $1500.00 to boot!

3. The designer didn't use any bleeds on the card (which normally has the card cut unevenly). It also tells me that he probably had it printed online to cut his costs.

4. Used all CAPS for the long business name. It is harder to read both for print & web.

5. The designer's "Before" business card didn't stick out. I told Chuck that he needed to have a sticker of his brand on the product (I will show in another post). I presented his card with a blue and red logo (which really popped). Chuck didn't want his logo to have that much attention so we compromised on a brown color.

I told Chuck that I would help him out with his branding and all his marketing. I knew that he didn't have very much more money to spend before he went broke, so I put a little time in this project. My goal is to do the right thing and give Chuck some marketing that would help his business and look professional. He has been very happy with his new campaign. Unfortunately, I met with a public relations specialist, Amber Dennis and she told me that Chuck should rethink his whole business name but he couldn't afford to spend anymore time (or money) with branding his product. I did the best with the cards I was dealt and it was a HUGE STEP for Chuck and his business!

My next post will show the brochure that I created for E-Zee Fence Post Repair.

I had to chuckle the other day when one of my client's managers asked, "Can't you design our company brochure in Microsoft Word?"

You see this quite frequently in the software industry – just like Microsoft Word™ was originally designed as a word processor. Like other software applications, Microsoft is trying to convince their buying public that Word can do everything. Well I am here to tell you that it is like trying to rake up your leaves with a shovel. Word™ has been a wonderful tool for communications side of business. But it has it limits just like other software!

Word™ Limitations

1. No Bleeds. 

You cannot create a bleed with your document. It just looks very unprofessional to have a 1/4" white space go all around your document. Your document just screams, "Is this as creative as you can get – my mother could do this!"

2. Font Conflictions.

It will substitute some of it's own fonts for those that you have specified for the document. The difference in fonts may vary in spacing when the document is moved from your work station. You will notice that these fonts below may look simular but can cause big problems when being substituted on different machines (note: take a close look at the "a" at the end of Helvetica).

3. Word uses RGB color rather than CMYK

To have any document printed in color it needs to be in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black). RGB (Red, Green & Blue) is made for video or television. It also is not capable of specifying PMS (Pantone Matching System) colors if you want to print your document more conservatively than four color. Even when RGB is converted to CMYK there is a major color variance. Big problems & headaches for the prepress operator that is trying to make printing plates from your file.

4. What if I need to make edits to my Word document

If there are corrections to be made (after you have sent your document to be printed) the printer most likely couldn't make the changes for you. They would have to send you back the file to be corrected. Now you will be delayed in the timeliness of this project and there will be added costs.

If you were to go to any legitimate printer or prepress house in your local community they would all suggest using a page layout software for all your printed marketing materials (Adobe InDesign™ or QuarkXpress™ are the best and most well known). These are not cheap or easy-to-use pieces of software so there is a learning curve. In these programs you can resize, rotate images, add drop shadows, adjust transparency of a placed photo and quickly make adjustments to the high res files. Finally, if you want to send a pdf to a client to view or print there are lots of options that work to your advantage. 

I can guarantee you that by using the correct software to create your files will save you lots of time & money down the road. My policy has always been, "Use the software for which it was created for!"

© 2011 Michael Johnson - Inkspot Graphics. All rights reserved

Just got turned onto this new book by a friend of mine about how to design web sites that keep viewers engaged.

Neuro Web Design

I have nearly underlined every piece of copy in the book. Great stuff!

Here is a teaser:

"Most behavior and decision-making isn't conscious. That means that they will have to engage the mid brain and the old brain, in addition to the new brain. We want to think that we are making logical decisions, even though we aren't. The mose effective Web sites are Web sites that talk to all three brains. When the Web site engages all three brains, then we click."

If you do anything on the web, I would strongly recommend this book.

© 2011 Michael Johnson - Inkspot Graphics. All rights reserved

Catch their eyes!

I was very happy with this ad that I created for local CEIC publication. It does a couple of things…

1. It will stop people when they are reading publication because of curiosity. Why does this cow have a funny icon on him? Now they have to read the copy.

2. It is humorous which reflects on my personality and business model. 

3. The icon (or QR code) is one of the fairly new social media technologies that will actually direct you to my website blog if you were to use a QR reader on your smart phone.

We also thought about putting a testimonial from another CEIC member but I thought that it would disrupt the clean layout. I love the white space!

Do you have any other samples of good layout that has plenty of white space?

© 2011 Michael Johnson - Inkspot Graphics. All rights reserved

This is an amazing video from the TEDx conference in St. Louis, Missouri. The founder and CEO of Panera Bread Company, Ron Shaich discusses how his company is not just giving money to local charities but is investing in his community. 

Panera Bread Company has over 1400 locations in 40 states. It's estimated net worth is 3 Billion Dollars! This 20 minute video will really make you think about how we need to be more involved and have a purpose.

He has found a solution to help feed the poor and homeless without having to through the humiliation of standing in line for free handouts. This video is very inspirational and promotes community.