43 minute read
Reflective Logs
W14
WHAT
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This week we met with Paul Young, co-founder of brand agency A New Kind of Kick, to get an initial insight into the concept of a “brand book”. Paul initially took us through a brand development deck for a concept his team had worked on for Worksurf. It was particularly interesting to see a real-life example of how research, insight and opportunity materialise, and how this is later used to inform the branding elements. I was surprised to see how three different branding approaches considerably changes the brand personality, and in my personal opinion, either alienated to targeted certain consumer segments. Thinking ahead, this really opened my eyes to how significant small branding adjustments could either strengthen or weaken my brand. Whilst I realise that branding is slightly subjective, I appreciate that sufficiently justified choices, as well as seeking additional opinions, will support me to direct my project in the appropriate direction.
We met with Paul again on Friday to have a more individualised session in which we would have the opportunity to discuss the unique questions in our study groups. Ahead of the session, I prepared an insight, opportunity and descriptive line for Salus (see below), in an attempt to conceptualise my idea and communicate the concept clearly and concisely. SO WHAT
The independent “brand book” is a new concept to me, although, in reflection on my time in industry, I believe I have recurrently come across a similar deck that was intended to remind agencies of the brand principles. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the session as I could see the various factors that should be considered in the development of the brand, such as typography and image style, which I had not yet explored in detail. Inspired by this, I took the opportunity to build a brand resonance model, which would lay the foundations for my branding and campaign and communication intentions. One thing I noticed in the brand development deck was that Paul had begun by writing three brand mission statements, one for each customer segment, and one for the total product concept. Upon discussion with Paul, I learnt this was to help the team focus upon what the brand aimed to deliver to each audience base, which was then used to inform the final overall brand mission. Considering I myself also have two core customer segments, this is something I plan to explore as part of an exercise in further refining my target audience (as indicated in my semester 1 feedback). By defining precisely how I wish to serve each customer segment, I can determine how important each segment is to the brand and perhaps determine whether one segment is more valuable than another.
During the second meeting with Paul, it was suggested that some group members cut down and refine their brand concept. This made me reflect on my own brand concept, and how I often find it challenging to explain concisely given it addresses two core issues: women’s safety and under provision of fashionable-functional women’s outdoor wear. Thankfully I spent some time last semester cutting out elements such as a podcast and charity partnerships, moving those into “opportunities” on a SWOT rather than integral brand elements. However, I believe now there is scope to ‘tidy up’ elements of branding, such as refining brand imagery style and colour. I’m keen for the brand to stand out as a unique, women’s outdoor brand, and therefore will need to remind myself of core competitor branding, and ensure that Salus is easily distinguishable.
In explaining my insight, opportunity and descriptive line to Paul, I was relieved to hear he liked the concept and could see the opportunity for such a brand. As expected, however, my feedback was to refine or shorten the brand explanation if possible. At present, my insight, opportunity and the descriptive line would be appropriate for an ‘elevator pitch’ but are lengthy when needly to quickly explain the brand concept without ‘selling’ it. To do this, I believe I need to focus on the key issue I am addressing, women’s safety, and shift body positivity to the secondary messaging. Nonetheless, I still believe both are crucial to touch upon, as both are central to the brand, its opportunity and its purpose. At this stage I am excited at the concept of further developing a brand I have grown to be passionate about, however, naturally, the task feels somewhat daunting at present.
NOW WHAT
Next week I plan to take time to digest my project feedback from semester 1, and ensure I have understood the areas of development. I also plan to keep practising refining the brand insight, opportunity and descriptive line, to be able to better define my brand concisely, as this is where I feel I am particularly struggling at the moment.
Insight Opportunity
Driven by a desire for health and community, women’s participation in outdoor sports has grown exponentially in the past two years, however, women are still reporting high levels of anxiety when exercising outdoors, and remain frustrated that much of the industry still adheres to the “shrink it and pink it” principle. Women’s outdoor brand that delivers adaptable core items for identified male-driven sports, supported by an app platform connecting users, facilitating route planning based upon unique needs, and making personalised product recommendations based upon patterns in logged terrain/environment. Descriptive Line
WHAT
This week continued to be a week of building context and background in preparation for the task this semester. Early in the week, I listened to a discussion with Babette Radclyffe-Thomas, a journalist, brand strategist and consultant, amongst other accreditations. One thing that Babette mentioned that resonated with me was that we should focus on creating a brand strategy and campaign strategy that works with the consumer, not based on what I personally like. Babette used luxury consumers in China as an example for illustrating her position, sharing that luxury Chinese consumers appreciate exclusivity and physical experience, rather than in-app functionalities, and therefore creating a brand app for such a consumer base would be inappropriate. This is particularly relevant for me, as I am not necessarily captured within Salus’ primary target audiences, and therefore need to remove my personal opinions to some degree.
This week I also took the opportunity to review the feedback I received from the previous session and outline where I felt I would appreciate additional clarification. This was seemingly well-timed, as it fed into my ‘good, neutral, and bad’ elements to highlight in Friday’s seminar.
Finally, this week we briefly met in our study groups to discuss what our understanding of a brand book was. While piecing together our understandings/ takeaways from Paul’s session we determined a loose idea of the intended contents, we concluded that it would be most appropriate to wait for a formal introduction and explanation during the lecture series so as not to create confusion. The lecture this week was centred around integrated communications strategy, a reminder that we should coordinate a variety of communication channels to deliver a clear and consistent message about the brand or offering, that ultimately strengthens the brand image and consumer understanding of the brand concept (Grassi, 2022). In considering this,
The Friday practical session was supported by Jo Beardsworth, who organised a task in which we had to evaluate our semester one projects and determine which parts were good, neutral and bad (i.e. could be improved). My critical analysis of the good, bad, and neutral project elements are captured below.
SO WHAT
Whilst I am pleased with my project grades, I am especially keen to keep improving and developing the brand based on the feedback I received. My objective is to create a brand handbook and final project where the brand is consistently communicated throughout every page through a clearly defined image style, colour palette, framework and structure. As such, I anticipate using the group feedback (see post-it notes below) to build upon the written feedback and support the development of my brand concept. Expanding upon Locke and Latham (1990) analysis, group feedback related to project performance is particularly valuable from a development perspective, as it highlights potential changes or new goals, as well as areas for personal learning. Moreover, having fostered a strong working relationship during the first semester, there is an already established level of mutual trust and respect, allowing the members within the study group to freely give and receive feedback, as well as counterargue any points if appropriate. NOW WHAT
Ahead of next week’s session, I anticipate having a 1-2-1 feedback session with Dr Grassi to ensure I have properly comprehended the feedback from the semester one module, and clarify some questions regarding message prioritisation. I will also take some time to reflect upon my group feedback from Friday’s session, consider how I may wish the brand personality to manifest, and also look at Stay Wild Swim as recommended by a group member.
● The meaning behind the brand name. ● The brand values ● Overall marketing mix elements were well explained and justified, however, I should transform “product features” to physical evidence, and add in a “People” section. ● Justification of the product opportunity is grounded in research ● I wish to refine the image style. This is challenging considering my two audience segments represent somewhat different characteristics, however, I believe this is possible to do based upon personality. ● I wish to establish more brand personality. ● The Colour palette: Whilst this has already been brightened following feedback in semester one, I feel this could be better refined to be even more invigorating. ● The overall concept is good, but I want to be able to refine it more to explain more concisely. ● I’m keen to go deeper into consumer profiles, present them more creatively and bring them to life. ● Review Stay Wild Swimwear for possible comparable brand personality ● Enhance colour palette (one group member suggested a gradient palette) ● Refine consumer profile to be more tightly defined.
W16
Description
Conclusion
This week I met with both Dr Grassi and Kate Eady, a brand strategist and CEO of Wrapped Agency, to discuss the project development from the previous semester. With Dr Grassi, the focus of the conversation was to clarify the written feedback collected during semester 1, whereas with Kate the intention was to collect broader insights related to campaign strategy.
At this early stage in the process, I still feel slightly overwhelmed with the prospect of devising five unique brand campaigns, although I am of course excited to continue developing my brand. At present, I have a flurry of potential campaign ideas, however, I am not yet decided on which to pursue given I am keen to deliver on the ‘innovation’ criteria, as suggested in my project feedback.
In terms of the takeaways from the meeting with Dr Grassi, it became clear that I could strengthen my work by more tightly defining Salus and what it delivers. Where in the previous submission I had highlighted the brand’s relatedness to women’s empowerment, body positivity, surging sports participation and women’s safety, I appreciate this needs to be ‘dialled back’ and refined. As such, I have chosen to centre the project around women’s safety and body inclusivity, each closely related to a dimension of the business, and the other elements such as women’s empowerment will emerge as a by-product of facilitating women’s safety and championing body inclusivity. Following the refining of brand focus, I chose to review and reconfigure the insight, opportunity and descriptive line I had originally presented to Paul, to better reflect the direction of the brand. Moreover, this iterative process was recommended by Paul in the previous week and thus is clearly of necessary importance. In the second iteration (see below), whilst some additional desirable elements have been retracted (such as the clarification of personalised product recommendations), the fundamental elements of the brand are communicated and can be built upon in the conversation that ensues. Having refined the brand focus, it is clear that now the personality needs to be cultivated to align with this. Considering the communication of the brand is central to this assignment, the personality should be communicated commensurately across image style, language and tone, and therefore should be determined as early as possible. Beyond the assignment, the importance of brand personality is evidenced by Usakli and Baloglu (2011) assertion that brand personality is an influencer of “attitudinal and behavioural outcomes” (Matzler et al., 2016). In the previous submission, I found this challenging as it was my belief that the personality should be reflective of the target audience, of which I had two segments. However, following the meeting with Dr Grassi and some further reading, I appreciate this does not need to be the case, as brand personality refers to the humanistic qualities consumers associate with a brand based upon their communications and actions (Banerjee, 2016). Summarised in Aaker’s Brand Personality framework (1997), brand personality is characterised by five dimensions: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, ruggedness. At present, I believe Salus to be most closely related to the ‘sincere’ dimension, given it should elude a sense of both cheerfulness whilst also appearing down-to-earth. This is devised because I wish for the brand to feel like a safe space for women, that acknowledges the challenges they face and uplifts them to overcome them. As such, comparable to brands such as Dove, Salus’ brand personality should be born from purpose, evoking both honesty and positivity (IgnyteBrands, n.d.)
Summarising my learnings from this past week, I believe I am a step closer to determining the style of personality I wish my brand to embody, however, I anticipate elucidating this further by envisioning the brand as a person, how they may act and interact with people, their likes and their habits.
In addition, over the next week, I intend to review previous examples of student submissions to assess how they have communicated their brand personality and brought it to life. Furthermore, following Friday’s seminar on objectives, whilst reviewing last year’s examples, I also plan to evaluate their individual campaign objectives and how they align with their final campaigns. Whilst I remain undecided on my final campaigns, this task would offer a good reminder and grounding for when it comes to my own marketing, communication and creative objectives formation.
What
In addition to meeting with Dr Grassi this week, I also briefly met Kate Eady from Wrapped Agency in my study group. The session was centred around digital strategy, with Kate sharing insights on the types of successful media, as well as combinations of media that are often complementary or require additional support. So What
Though short for time, towards the end of the session we briefly touched upon our individual projects. Kate mentioned she was “blown away” by my project proposition and suggested that the business had the potential to receive funding due to its tone of women’s safety and the relevancy of such a topic at the present time. According to the UK Government website, Salus would be eligible for funding between £500 and £250,000 under the SME Business Enterprise fund (Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, 2022), which is a point to consider in reviewing the financial plan. Aside from the practical benefits of additional funding, the suggestion that Salus would be eligible such funding is a personal ‘win’ as it suggests that Kate believes there is a genuine opportunity and need for such a business. As mentioned in previous reflections last semester, likely a consequence of my working style, such positive feedback energises me to continue developing this project further. My next aim is to work on the innovativeness of the campaigns and strengthen the strategy. Now What
Iteration Insight Opportunity Descriptive Line
Driven by a desire for health and community, women’s participation in outdoor sports has grown exponentially in the past two years, however, women are still reporting high levels of anxiety when exercising outdoors, and remain frustrated that much of the industry still adheres to the “shrink it and pink it” principle. Women’s outdoor brand that delivers adaptable core items for identified male-driven sports, supported by an app platform connecting users, facilitating route planning based upon unique needs, and making personalised product recommendations based upon patterns in logged terrain/environment.
Despite increasing female participation in outdoor sports, the outdoor apparel industry remains exclusionary in terms of size and capability/expertise, and concerns for personal safety remain worryingly high. To deliver adaptive, stylish women’s outdoor wear alongside an application facilitating safety via route planning support and educational resources. Female-centric outdoor brand holistically equipping women to enjoy the outdoors safely and comfortably.
Female-centric outdoor brand providing size-inclusive apparel and an online resource centred around women’s safety and community development.
This week I had the privilege of meeting with Kate Eady on a 1-2-1 basis, to receive individual feedback on my semester 1 project. A recount of the meeting is captured in the reflection below.
Before the Meeting During the meeting
Prior to the meeting, I had considered the areas I felt I was struggling with and prepared a couple of questions framed around such issues in case the opportunity for questions presented itself. In terms of the questions, I was keen to hear Kate’s opinion on my two identified target consumer groups, and whether I should refine these to only target one group, and also ask her thoughts on the two different brand personalities I have been trying to choose between. I was looking forward to the session and was keen to walk away with a clearer idea of the brand and campaign strategy. In terms of answering my questions, Kate was clear that she liked my current target audience selection, as both could clearly benefit from the brand. Reaffirming my research last semester, Kate shared that having two consumer groups is not a cause for concern as long as both groups are targeted in a way that appeals to them, either through a particular channel or using a particle messaging style. Ensuring the women in different consumer groups are best addressed in a means that appeals to them, Kate suggested employing a messaging hierarchy, such as 1. Safe Exercise, 2. Made for everyone, 3. Looks and deels great. Depending on which audience was being targeted, the hierarchy would shift to accommodate. For example, for older women, safety may be more of a pressing concern, whereas, with younger women, it may be about looks.
The next pointer from Kate was to do with the mission statement. Kate said that the current mission statement (to better equip women for the great outdoors) isn’t clear enough in terms of communicating what the brand does and that it should address factors such as community, clothing and safety. Expanding upon this, Kate suggested I have a brand strapline that also addresses the brand’s relationship with technology and the environment. This is because, according to Kate’s interpretation, the USP for Salus is that the brand offers both the clothing side, as well as the safety side, all in one place, and therefore that should be highlighted.
Kate also noted that she felt my brand values were extremely strong, and clearly indicated the brand priorities. As such, Kate was very keen that my campaign strategy centre around the brand values, with a campaign for each independent value. Having reflected upon this for a few days, I can see how this would be a strong foundation for a 2-3 year campaign strategy, as it communicates what the brand stands for from the outset, leaving little room for confusion, which is imperative for a new brand. This would also support the mission of building a reputation within the first year, another point that our industry mentors have stressed.
The final point Kate touched on was that I should try to keep campaign visuals simple, such as the example I created in my brand deck. Kate felt this composition was good to best let the products speak for themselves, however, a CTA in the form of a QR code could be a really effective way to quickly take the viewer to the appropriate location. Thankfully this is something I had already addressed in my previous submission, and thus will continue to pursue this idea. Furthermore, Kate suggested that the free app should be heavily pushed from the outset. I appreciate this is a good means of encouraging potential customers to try out the brand and learn more about the brand offering, and thus will consider this when planning out the campaign objectives. After the meeting
Keen to utilise as much of Kate’s expertise as possible, I have organised a 1-2-1 session next week, to receive additional individual feedback to support my brand strategy.
In addition to the meeting with Kate, on Thursday, Matt Pealing hosted a session on brand handbook layout, sharing some examples for major brands across various industries, as well as offering a critique for three other students’ work. Seeing examples from brands in the industry was particularly eye-opening as it highlighted the intricacies of branding in advertisements and brand campaigns and reinforced the importance of strong brand symbols and cues to enhance the brand image and recognisability of the brand elements. Following the session, I chose to adjust Salus’ brand palette and build a logo that can be used both on promotional materials but also as a symbol on the clothing and other merchandise. The logo was an important addition to the brand, as in my competitor research it was evident that the majority of major sportswear brands have a logo that is interchangeable with their written brand name, and therefore, to be within the same ‘playing field’, Salus would benefit from following suit. After much deliberation over which brand element to focus on (safety, environment, roman mythology, wellbeing), I played with different forms and elements, taking inspiration from both sports brands and other industries such as hospitality and technology. Inspired by McDonald’s’ renowned use of the letter “M” across much of their marketing, I initially began by exploring iterations of the letter “S”. However, after some experimentation, I feared the brand could risk being confused with Shazam, Splice or Strava, all relying on an “S” symbol to signify their brand. As such, I set a deeper focus on a symbol logo for the brand, considering signs and ideograms that relate to brand elements. The logo I have landed upon is a set of wings (a subtle nod to the goddess of safety and wellbeing, Salus), where one of the wings is a leaf, an acknowledgement of the brand’s environmental commitment. In terms of typography, a medium boldness, sans-serif font was chosen to subtly allude to the un-seriousness of the brand, and emanate the similar ‘clean’ appeal achieved by brands such as Outdoor Voices. In addition to the colour palette, as indicated in previous reflections, this week I chose to adjust the brand palette to strengthen the indication that the brand should serve to uplift and invigorate. Adhering to WGSN’s assertion that players in the sports industry should communicate optimism through bright tonal palettes (Kostiak, 2021), the resultant palette is even brighter than the previous iteration. Keen to maintain the green tones, vibrant pink hues have been added to serve as accent tones, and capture the eye of the reader. Moreover, considering pink symbolises good health and playfulness, alongside being traditionally used to represent femininity and the women’s empowerment movement (Smith, n.d.) the colour felt a good tonal fit. I shared the new palette proposition with my study group for feedback, and all overwhelmingly voted in favour of the new brand palette. As indicated above, the next step would be to continue brainstorming the campaigns and consider how the visual brand cues can be incorporated into the promotional materials.
Branding Elements Development:
“S” and “Salus” Exploration Goddess Exploration Colour Palette Development:
Before
Final Logo After
What So What Now What
This week I continued to work on developing my campaigns, finding it challenging to condense my various ideas into 4-5 coherent campaigns with strongly implemented marketing communication. I am further challenged by my desire to extend beyond the traditional mass targeting channels.
Following the 1-2-1 feedback session with Dr Grassi, however, I appreciate the need to remind myself of what my brand stands for and how it serves my consumer, build a set of marketing objectives around this, and then begin to consider the intricacies of the campaign. The conservation with Dr Grassi, and later the Friday practical session highlighted the optimal way to develop an integrated marketing communications strategy, beginning with defining the brand, and then considering what the brand needs to do in terms of objectives, to ultimately succeed in the market. Lavidge and Steiner (1961) suggest there are six steps to gaining acceptance amongst consumers: “awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase” (p60). While this approach is widely referenced across literature, Colley’s (1961) five-step approach is equally relevant, particularly in its reference to comprehension of the brand image, which arguably is more profound than Lavidge and Steiner’s ‘knowledge’ phase.
Whilst broadly, all stages leading towards the purchase and post-use behaviour are crucial, within this project I will attempt to condense the stages into three broad phases, as suggested by Dr Grassi and Dr Blanco-Velo. The phases include awareness, interest and desire, and maintenance.
In the case of Salus, a new brand set to enter an existing market, the focus of my objectives will first be to build awareness of the brand’s existence, in line with the “awareness” portion of the AIDA model. As such, according to the Facets Model of Effects, the objective should be related to building favourable perception (Moriarty et al, 2012.), which could be achieved through communicating the problems that Salus solves, tapping into the emotions of the target audience.
The next following step would be to entice the target audience, generating interest and desire as per the AIDA model. Here, the objectives should be a combination of cognitive, in terms of delivering information to support the understanding of brand features and differences, as well as behaviour objectives, to stimulate product trial or drive digital traffic (Moriarty et al, 2012.). As such, the campaign in line with this objective will aim to highlight the differential advantage of Salus products, whilst reinforcing the brand values of “raising the bar”, “female first” and “protect where we play” (as stated in my brand proposal deck). Now the outline of three potential objectives has been laid, I have more focus on which campaign ideas and elements I had brainstormed in previous weeks may be best suitable to achieve the intended outcome of a successful market entrant. The next steps would be to build upon the work I did last week and consider elements that would be involved in the brand handbook to present to Matt for feedback and potential guidance.
Moreover, considering the practical session next Friday is due to cover consumer profiles, I will begin to consider how I can more tightly define my audience over the coming week.
Finally, the third step would be to keep the target audience engaged with the brand, which supports the brand’s aim of generating a ‘sisterhood’ of engaged service users. At this stage, a combination of emotional and persuasion objectives would be most appropriate, generating buzz, rewarding positive behaviour and stimulating brand loyalty (Moriarty et al, 2012.). The third objective should centre around building a community of engaged service users, relating to the brand value of “inspiring communities”. Such a campaign should reinforce the messages proposed in the first and second campaigns, though the emphasis should be on community connection.
Two core events occurred this week that shaped aspects of my project development: 1. Meeting with Matt to discuss layout design 2. Practical session with Wrapped Agency discussing consumer profiles So What Now What
The meeting with Matt was insightful and has shifted my perception in terms of the project presentation, as Matt was very complimentary of the minimalist aesthetic of my semester 1 submission. Clarifying that the colour blocks occurring on some pages provided a coherent theme to the layout, and the consistent use of the brand palette throughout reinforced the colours as a brand cue. Truthfully, I was initially critical of my layout, finding the minimalist aesthetic to perhaps suggest that my layout skills are under par, or to unsuccessfully communicate a personality for the brand, however, I am beginning to shift this perception. Having stepped back from my brand, I appreciate that in fact, a minimalist aesthetic is appropriate, as I do not want to overwhelm my consumer (much like the intensity driven competitors already do), with the balance and white space allowing the reader to ‘breathe’ and digest the information in comfort, reflective of my overall brand concept. Nevertheless, I have sought to add some more playfulness in the presentation layout, anticipating this to inject more personality into the brand and allude to the brand’s vision of the outdoors as a place for recreation and rebalance, rather than a place for intensity driven athletes. Having also presented the new proposed presentation layout to Matt he agreed that my use of shape and sans serif font of varying sizes enhances the development of the brand image.
The second in-person session this week was with visiting staff from Wrapped Agency, centred around consumer profiling. Whilst my consumer profiles are relatively well-defined in terms of their attitudes, interests and opinions, I often struggle to concisely explain them given the luxury of assigning clear demographics to the target audience is not applicable to my project. Where this was previously a point of concern, a conversation with Dr Grassi highlighted to me that this is not a weakness of the brand and that major, successful brands such as Gucci also share a target audience predominantly based on psychographics and behavioural profiles. Moreover, considering the predominant objective of marketing is to identify, anticipate and satisfy the wants and needs of consumers (CIM, 2015), understanding the lifestyle, motivations and benefits sought of the target consumer, as outlined in behavioural and psychographic profiling, is crucial to successful marketing (Posner, 2015).
Influenced by the task in the session, in which we were given a brand concept and then brainstormed potential consumers and a resultant launch campaign to suit the consumer, after the session, Charley, Agnes and I did this for each of our brands. Each sharing a similar challenge of targeting women with specific needs, but not bound by age or class, the session was particularly helpful to practice explaining our target audience. As a group, we then went into greater depth, imagining where these consumers spend time and what their lives may be like when they are not in nature (see below). The session highlighted to me that while my two target consumers may lead alternative lifestyles, the approach to capturing their attention is not overtly different, with both consumers seeking education, recognition (of hurdles encountered) and something that seamlessly fits into their life. I recognised the benefit of working with others outside of my study group, who are already acquainted with my project, as I could both practice explaining my brand proposal, as well as profit from alternative points of view. Now I have a renewed understanding of my target audience, I will once again revisit my campaign brainstorms and identify ideas that would best appeal to the target audience. To do this, I will also bear reference to the brand touchpoints task explored in last week’s session (as evidenced below) Furthermore, having sought feedback from Matt, I will continue to build the presentation in preparation for the assessment.
W20
Description
Feelings
Evaluation
Analysis
This week I focused on the development of my campaigns in preparation for the practical session on Friday, in which we carried out 3 mock presentations. I also took the opportunity to revisit my executive summary, and considering Kate’s feedback, attempted to make the two-fold brand concept clearer from the outset which will be crucial when presenting to someone unfamiliar with my business concept.
Ahead of Friday’s session, I was confident that the 5 campaigns I had laid out achieved all my objectives as well as touched upon all elements of the brand values, thus ensuring that my target audience has a strong understanding of Salus as a brand at the end of the 3 year period. The first objective was a launch campaign, centred around a festival-style event, the second and third were product-focused campaigns separated by product type (Salus platform and apparel). The fourth campaign was centred around user stories, reinforcing that the brand is for everyday women, and the fifth campaign was intended to support the development of the Salus community. My primary concern at this stage, however, was that I was conscious I may be restricted by the time allowance of the presentations and the word count of the final submission, affecting my ability to provide sufficient detail for each campaign and justify its need/purpose.
During the first presentation, it quickly became evident that I would not be able to successfully discuss 5 campaigns to the required calibre, and I realised I would need to refine and reduce my ideas. In the short gap between presentations, I appreciated I could combine the individual product campaigns into one broader campaign centred around Salus holistically ‘raises the bar’ in terms of product development. Here, I would still be fulfilling my second objective of communicating the differential advantage of Salus products. I also decided that my consumer stories campaign could be ‘broken up’, with strong elements assigned to other campaigns and the weaker elements scrapped. I attempted to present the new campaign format in my second presentation and found I had more capacity to discuss my ideas, though they needed further thought to ensure they are integrated and coherent. After the second presentation, I quickly reviewed my objectives to ensure I was fulfilling them appropriately and realised that my first awareness-building campaign required adjustment in the form of additional awareness-building before the launch activity. Considering the consumer brainstorming I had done last week, I was able to consider some additional offline and online channels in which I could raise brand awareness and intrigue amongst my target audience.
Conclusion
Next Actions
In conclusion, I found the practice presentations to be particularly useful at this stage as they highlighted gaps in my campaign that I had previously not been overtly aware of. I appreciate I have time to amend and strengthen the IMC plan ahead of the presentation, although I know I would benefit from some further guidance in the coming week.
Over the next few days, I will continue to scrutinize my campaigns and devise a better way to succinctly describe them. I will also seek feedback from Dr Blanco-Velo or Dr Grassi to gain further guidance.
Description
Evaluation
Conclusion
The focus of this week was to complete my presentation, taking into account guidance from Dr Blanco-Velo and Dr Grassi. I had 1-2-1 meetings scheduled with both lecturers and also attended the drop-in session on Friday to ask final questions. For me, these questions were primarily to do with slide layout, as I was confident with the content I intended to present and recognise design is my weakness.
After spending the weekend researching my audience and reviewing my campaigns, I began the week feeling more positive than last Friday, confident that my campaigns are better integrated, reflect the core objectives identified in Week 18, and capture the attention of my audience in an innovative manner that existing competitors have not attempted.
Where previously the first campaign was to host an open-invite festival-style weekend launch event, the campaign was limited in that it required people to know about the brand and already have a degree of brand trust in order to attend the event. Moreover, to avoid drastic losses, it would be inconceivable for the event to be free of charge, creating a further barrier for potential consumers. Taking this learning, but still keeping the core intention of building initial interest around the brand and communicating Salus’ core values, the campaign has been reworked into a three-stage campaign. The campaign will now begin with OOH and guerrilla marketing in the form of billboards, product placement, and stencils, capturing the urban, more active base, and then online channels will be developed to capture remote workers and more rurally located consumers. With initial awareness development in progress, the third phase is to host a series of open-invite interactive workshops in green spaces across the UK. By taking the brand to the consumer, Salus shifts away from the typical London-centric narrative of many start-ups and facilitates a convenient experience for the consumer, much like the brand intention. In addition, PR would be appropriate for gaining further awareness, and I have used SparkToro, a digital consumer insights portal, to decipher the websites and social accounts most frequented by the target audience.
The second campaign is a mergence of two previously planned campaigns, each intending to focus on a particular product element (i.e. one campaign for the capsule clothing, and one campaign for the Salus app). I have chosen to combine the previously individualised product campaigns to portray a more unified brand image, communicating all the product information at the same time so as not to incite confusion amongst consumers. This new campaign consists of an educational piece intending to highlight the differential advantage of Salus products over the market average, alongside a pop-up store enabling consumers to purchase the product at the point of intrigue. This campaign is primarily targeting the urban consumer base.
The third campaign is unchanged from the previous plan, and consists of a collaboration with the National Trust, best capturing the rural and athleisure consumer base. Strengthening the community-centric brand value, a series of group walks across National Trust sites would be led by female wellness and outdoors influencers, with walkers met by a complementary Salus coffee van at the end, offering a place to further connect. Again, awareness of the initiative would be driven through owned, National Trust, and associated influencer social channels, junior posters around National Trust sites and push notifications for Salus app users.
In terms of presentation style, influenced by Dr Blanco-Velo, I chose to develop the use of the wavey line symbol and incorporate it as a core brand element throughout the presentation. This will not only enhance brand recognition through the reinforcement of brand cues, it will also be symbolic of the user journey, like the mapping of a journey on the brand app. Moreover, it is representative of nature, serving to strengthen the brand’s ‘outdoorsy’ image.
After presenting my new campaign plans to Dr Blanco-Velo and Dr Grassi, I appreciate my ideas are on track in terms of meeting the learning outcomes and criteria of the module, however, I should divert my focus back to branding. Following advice, and researching the proposition to ensure it is justified, a deep shade of blue was reintroduced into the colour palette, replacing the bright red (which, after deliberation, felt too aggressive for the brand). In addition, I also revised the brand logo following suggestion, mixing two tones to offer a more dynamic appeal.
Concluding the week, I feel much more prepared for the presentations and confident that my campaign strategy is both integrated and effective at capturing my audience. A key objective of mine this semester was to push boundaries in terms of innovation, and I believe the set of campaigns I have proposed meet this objective, differing from existing promotional strategies employed by outdoor brands. Over the course of the weekend I will prepare and rehearse the content I intend to speak over my slides, ensuring I have met each of the grading criteria, and am capable of delivering the top-line information within five minutes.
What
I began this week with presenting my campaigns plan to Dr Blanco-Velo and Dr Grassi, and was pleased to find it went well. In terms of feedback, it was suggested that I could push myself more to communicate the brand personality. Again, I believe this short falling is a consequence of my lacking design skills, though am eager to keep working on this weakness to be a more well-rounded graduate come May. So What
I intend to improve the communication of Salus’ brand personality by increasing my exposure to brand guidelines, as suggested by Matt, and by keeping conscious of branding styles that I find may be transferable to Salus. I also took the opportunity to discuss Salus’ branding with Paul Young in group sessions on Friday. Considering Paul’s business had worked on a rebrand of sportwear label “Admiral”, I trust his opinion, understanding he has real-life experience in a similar context.
In terms of advice for Salus, Paul was confident that the primary logo (text-based and leaf combination) is strong and well suited to the brand, however, suggested that the text and leaf be the same colour. Finding this to reaffirm my doubts from last week, I will take this on board and stick to a singular colour for the logo elements.
Paul’s final advice was to strip back the colour palette. This is perhaps a point of contention, as I appreciate that a reduced colour palette may appear ‘clean’ and minimal in the construction of the brand book, but on the other hand, the rich palette alludes to the uplifting sense of the brand. Landing on a mid-way compromise, I anticipate adopting the 60:30:10 colour rule. (see how I anticipate doing this below) - 60% for two primary/core colours, 30% for medium toned colours, 10% for accent tones
Beyond stylistic branding, the conversation with Paul was particularly helpful in getting me to visualise the layout of the brand handbook portion of the final submission. Paul advised that the brand should be built gradually, via a hierarchy of information. Illustrating this, Paul suggested opening with the name and a very brief description/justification, moving onto logo, then typography, then colour. Moreover, Paul proposed a general rule of one mockup per page (providing the page limit allows). This will help give the designs ‘breathing room’ and centre the readers focus, making it easier to digest. Now What
Considering the next steps, I plan to discuss brand elements with my course mates to gain additional opinions on best layout format to communicate the brand personality.
Furthermore, as the semester is coming to a close, I will also begin to compile the final document, collating the research I have gathered thus far.
W23
Description
Feelings
Evaluation
Analysis
Conclusion
Having presented a top line overview of my campaigns in the presentation, the objective now is to return to the work I had been carrying out prior to that, establishing the foundations of the brand and the campaign strategy to achieve the marketing objectives.
At this stage, I am pleased with the feedback from my presentation, and confident that my ideas are suitable for my brand and target audience. Having considered many brand and campaign elements prior to the presentation, such as packaging design, I felt I had a good foundation to return to.
I referred to Smith’s (2015) SOSTAC framework to judge where I was with my campaign development. Confident that the situation analysis phase was complete, and the objectives and strategy had been considered, the need now is to consider the finer details of the campaign in terms of strategic intentions, communication, and creative objectives.
Turning to resources such as Google’s audience insights, SparkToro and WordStream, I was able to uncover detailed reports of the key digital channels that my consumers turn to, media and print preferences, popular influencers, podcasts and key search terms related to my brand/product offering. Combining this with the extensive consumer research carried out in my January submission, I feel I have selected promotional tools that directly and appropriately target my consumer audience to generate brand awareness and establish Salus in my intended market positioning. Utilising an omni-channel approach and executing campaigns cross-nationally, my communications reach both the rural Athleisurist consumer and urban Committor consumer in an organic manner that appeals to their needs.
In conclusion, referring to the SOSTAC framework enabled me to judge my progression and ensure I had thoroughly considered the communication and execution strategy of each of my campaigns to best target my audience. While there are still elements that I would like to check with lecturers to ensure I have fully comprehended the task and executed it appropriately, I am pleased with my progress this week and feel my campaigns are coming together well.
What
After taking a break last week to focus on the dissertation hand in, this week I returned to this project with the intention of revising the IMC strategy to ensure messages are complementary and consistent with the brand (Moriarty et al, 2012). So What
Following my suspicion that my first campaign required ‘dialling back’ in terms of promotional tools, I was keen to tackle this as soon as possible as naturally this would affect communication and creative objectives.
In early renditions of the campaign planning for campaign 1, With you every step of the way, I had planned to include directto-consumer communications as a promotional tool reminding early adopters to sign up to our launch events. Stepping back, however, I realise that given my campaign goal is raise brand awareness and drive impressions, DTC communications may not be appropriate at this stage. Moreover, the exploitable customer database at this early stage would likely be minimal, thus the returnon-investment for such a channel would be low. Now What
Now that I am confident in my IMC strategy and tactics, I am keen to revisit my communications and creative objectives, particularly given this is the seminar focus next week.
Having amended this, I then took to reviewing each planned campaign against Batra and Keller’s (2016) IMC framework, ensuring each communications outcome is achieved at least once across the campaigns to effectively build my brand and community across the first 18 months. Given an illustration of the communications outcomes achieved strengthens my campaign proposition, particularly when compared against Lavidge and Steiner’s (1961) Hierarchy of Effects model, I chose to include these within the main body of the portfolio.
What
This week we had a seminar revisiting marketing, communication and creative objectives. Whilst we have touched on this in previous years, a review of my first and second year work showed a distinct lack of measurability within my objectives, highlighting to me that this was something crucial to ensure I understand. Rounding off the week, my objective is to have finalised by communications and creative objectives now that I have secured my promotional tools and tactics. So What Now What
In the seminar, Dr Grassi demonstrated a framework table that would ensure comparability and consistency in objectives across all campaigns, illustrating how the marketing, communication and creative objectives relate to one another. Immediately after the session I took to reviewing the communication and creative objectives that I had drafted in prior weeks, and realised an inconsistency between some, as well as objectives misplaced under the incorrect category. During the session I also came to realise that whilst following the SMART guidelines are often necessary for the development of a ‘strong’ objective, I learnt that on occasion SMART objectives are not fully possible and are dependent upon the promotional tool/tactic. As such, I followed Dr Grassi’s examples, and, following the session, felt I had a much stronger understanding of each of the different objectives and how they ‘tighten’ a campaign to drive purpose.
With the promotional tools and objectives completed, my next step was to refer back to the SOSTAC framework and consider the means for monitoring campaign performance. Remembering the seminar on KPIs from early in the semester and taking inspiration from the KPI benchmarks used in my year in industry, I developed a series of measurable, related KPIs associated with each promotional tool in each campaign. Now that the writing portion of the submission is largely completed, next week I will turn my focus to the compilation of the portfolio document.
What
The focus for this week was on colour, branding and layout, with the intention of ensuring these were strong, consistent and appropriate for my target audience. So What Now What
After initially laying out my portfolio using my existing brand palette, I continued to have the same doubts I experienced when building the presentation, finding the palette to be marginally infantile, perhaps better suited to a children’s brand.
Following much deliberation, I chose take on advice by Dr Grassi a few weeks ago, and establish a greater sense of ‘earthiness’ into the core brand palette. This was something I had explored in the very first rendition of my brand palette in November 2021, however, this revised palette is better informed by WGSN colour trends, and adjusted slightly to better suit my more mature target audience. Overall, I am extremely pleased with this decision, finding it to better reflect Salus position as an inherently outdoors brand.
In terms of tone of voice throughout the campaign, ConsumerVue (2015) emphasised that my consumer is drawn to casual and light-hearted brands using ‘fun’ language, which is something I have intended to embody through campaign mock-ups as well as hint towards throughout the portfolio document.
Considering image selection, ConsumerVue (2015) also note that the target audience respond best to images of people looking happy and enjoying the outdoors, rather than intense or stern looks, as this better reflects their use of the outdoors- for leisure and personal wellbeing. Something that has been particularly challenging this week is moderating the page count. I am consistently looking for ways to cut down my word count and page count to maintain within the parameters without losing any crucial information or diluting the brand personality too much. This will be a continuous process throughout the next week as I prepare for submission. Revised brand palette with a greater sense of earthiness, yet maintaining the bright, uplifting appeal of the previous rendition.
What
This week my core focus was to create mock ups of my brand elements such as packaging and online identity, as well as the key promotional tools used in campaigns. So What
After researching various methods and tricks for manipulating mock-ups, I decided that Adobe Photoshop would be the most appropriate platform for creating mock-ups to the professional standard I desired and felt would complement my campaign. Having not used Photoshop since my first year at university, creating 20+ mock-ups felt particularly daunting, however, as I worked through my list, I gradually began to understand more techniques.
Throughout this phase I found I had to make further creative decisions to ensure the brand was reflected in both style and TOV, frequently referring back to my own brand book to ensure guidelines were followed. When deciphering image and copy to be used in campaigns, I recognise the importance of focusing the experience aspect of the outdoors, and not the performance, as this is what best appeals to my target audience (Consumervue, 2015). As with last week, I am also adhering to the uplifting and fun guidelines for brand copy. Now What
Now I am in the final stages of my assignment, my intention is to ensure clarity throughout the brand deck, and check my work against the project guidelines, before submitting the final version.
Overall, I am pleased I chose to push myself to work on Photoshop at this stage, as it will be useful capability post-university and an additional skill to add to my CV.
