Rejuvenate your Business by Re-branding it!!

When a company decides it is time to re-brand its image, it is an exciting and busy time for its marketing team. Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to work for both small and large companies during their re-brand.

It was early 2000's, and I was working in Turner's in-house Ad Agency, RET Media. It is/was a great department full of young, driven people, focused on the new face of Turner. TNT adopted the catch phrase "We Know Drama," airing programs like Law & Order and The Closer, while TBS began to air comedies, like Sex & the City, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Seinfeld. Sex & the City became my baby, and I worked with numerous print vehicles, out of home vendors, and web-sites to make sure our new "Very Funny" image was top of mind. It was a huge turning point for the Media Conglomerate, and I was ecstatic to be a part of it.

Just recently, I was brought on by a smaller company Filta Group, Inc. to re-brand its image to incorporate their push to be known as the Environmental Kitchen Solutions partner. They were interested in branding with print media, a new web-site, all new marketing collateral, and a new perception in the marketplace.

To re-brand a company is a time-consuming process, and most of the time, you will not see results over-night. However, it keeps your image fresh, approachable, and tells consumers that you are not remaining stagnate and set in old ways. I have heard from sceptics; small business owners that have remained profitable yet have not changed their image over the last few decades, abiding by the catch phrase "if its not broken, why fix it?" My response is that you are going to have new consumers in the market place very soon. Consumers who have never known life without a computer and recent technology. The consumers of the future are smart, savvy shoppers who respect new ideas and imagery, and by re-branding you will catch their attention and gain their respect of your business.

Coca-Cola Give It Back

These are some of the items that were developed for Coca-Cola for a program I managed while with Arc Worldwide. The program was called Give It Back, and it began as an initiative to increase awareness and incidence of recycling on college and university campuses nationwide. It quickly became such a success that we helped them take it to the RNC and RNC Conventions last summer, and before long it was adopted as the bottle/can recycling platform for all of Coca-Cola North America. It's a program I'm extremely proud to have been a part of, and is an amazing example of creativity that has the power to transform human behavior.

When Life Gives You Lemons...Make Lemonade!

Casey said it perfectly, when she wrote that Element Marketing was not only established to be the next step in our career path, but a mission to help small businesses weather the current economy. Although cliche, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade! So, we have done just that by developing our company, focusing on the small business, and making it a priority to serve them to the best of our abilities. I am truly excited to start on this business venture with Casey. We have always turned to one another for career advice. She picks up where I leave off and vis versa. We are a team that will bring affordable solutions to a company's marketing efforts.

So, in honor of the great optimisitic adage, I have created my own recipe for Element Marketing Lemonade:

Let's Make Lemonade!

Ingredients
1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
1 cup lemon juice
3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

Method
1. Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.
2. While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.
3. Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.
Serve with ice, sliced lemons.
Serves 6.

How this all started...

Hi everyone! Welcome to our site, and thanks for joining us on this new venture. A little bit of information about us:

Element Marketing was formed by myself, Casey Blackwood and Keira Sullivan - two friends and former college roommates who both, until recently, enjoyed successful marketing careers working in various industries with companies of all shapes and sizes (Arc Worldwide/Leo Burnett, The Coca-Cola Company, Turner Broadcasting, CNN, and Westwood One to name a few). By May 2009 though, we both found ourselves laid off twice within a year and while commiserating one day about the vast numbers of people we both know in similar situations, we decided to do something about it.

All around us we noticed friends and family members who owned their own businesses, and other small(er) local, start-up and family-owned companies, were having an especially hard time weathering this storm of an economy. Many of them started coming to us for advice, so we formed Element with the intention of providing real, affordable, customized marketing solutions to small businesses of all kinds. We're pooling our experience, knowledge and network of resources to provide a valuable service to those who need it most right now.I am in Atlanta, and Keira is in Orlando, which is working out well so far thanks to technology. Our Facebook page is now up and running, and business cards are in the works. If you're interested in our services, or if you're a vendor or freelancer interested in working with us, or if you just have thoughts, suggestions or advice - we'd love to hear from you.