We got up early this morning to spend some time with fellow members of the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce. We were invited to present at the Chamber’s Sunrise Scrambler on the topic of selling value, not price. Sometimes it seems that everything boils down to low price. We attempted to show that companies and brands do not have to compete on price to be successful.This is because, people will pay more for something that has a higher perceived value, as illustrated in the video.

In our presentation, we covered the following (download your own copy of the slides here):

1. Uncovering key features of your business or products through exploring shared equity. Shared equity is made up of things that your organization identifies as key features that you do well, which are also key features that your customers say they value.
2. Using key features to find your unique selling proposition. Once you have your features identified, determine the customer benefit that is derived from the features. For example, a feature might be your years of operation. The benefit of this feature may be security, continuity or even trustworthiness. Once you know the benefits, find those that are unique to your business and those that set you apart from the competition. These make up your unique selling proposition.
3. Branding and image advertising is important. This type of advertising, which communicates your unique selling proposition, is key to building perceived value, or equity. Multiple studies have shown that companies with more brand equity experience success where it matters most: profitability.

This is just a portion of what we covered in the presentation. Overall, we hope that we helped people see the value of building their brands, focusing on their unique selling propositions and engaging in the right level of advertising to support their growth.

(Video from Showtime’s “Penn & Teller: BullS@$t!”)

Recently, several of our clients have asked us to create a name for their product or service. It’s a challenge that can be fun, fascinating, frustrating and fulfilling. Sometimes logical approaches work, sometimes it’s more art than science and sometimes you just have to wait for it to fly in out of nowhere and plow you over.

Of course, you can never know which way you’ll find your name at the start of the process. So, in order to simplify the process for you, we thought we’d provide a few things to remember when finding a name that works for your product or service.

1) It must be memorable: As one of our past creative directors used to say, “You can’t bore people into buying something.” And a name that people can’t remember won’t help sales. Good example: Amazon.com. Named after the world’s largest river, Amazon.com is easy to remember and implies that it is teeming with products. Another good example is Monster.com … which … uh … well, I’m not exactly certain what the concept is with that one.

In both cases, the name doesn’t explicitly say what services they offer. But they’re both more memorable than, say onlinebookseller.com or jobsearch.com. Relevance can be important, however, so try and maintain a balance when creating a memorable name.

2) It must be protectable: When we have a naming project for our clients, we always double-check with our attorneys to ensure that there aren’t any trademark conflicts with an existing name. The unfortunate reality is that a name doesn’t even have to be exactly the same as an existing name to warrant potential legal action. The attorney we rely on is thorough enough that if there is even a slight chance of conflict, he recommends not using the name.

The legal fees incurred in double-checking that a name is available to be trademarkable can add up quickly, however. Discuss with your attorneys the possibility of sending multiple names for review at the same time, and you might be able to get an “economy discount,” so to speak.

3) Try to anticipate unsavory connections: Try your best to look out for negative connotations of your name, or obvious similarities to unfortunate words. Not that it’s completely avoidable. If someone wants to make fun of your name, they’ll find a way to do it. Even Apple — who excels at keeping their names simple — is victim to the occasional mockery, as evidenced by “iTampon’s” appearance as one of the top trending topics on Twitter shortly after the release of the iPad.

4) Envision how it will work as a domain name: Sometimes when two words run together, there can be an unfortunate result. My favorite example is when I was doing online research for insurance, and found a company named Youngs Insurance. Perhaps they were afraid that YoungsInsurance.com was too long, and tried to shorten their Web address to youngsins.com. That particular Web address is no longer live, so apparently they’ve since changed it … for the better, I might add.

5) Patience is a virtue: We’ve named a lot of products, a lot of services and a lot of babies around this office. Believe us when we say we know how difficult it can be. My favorite anecdote is from when my parents were opening a coffee shop. In addition to the stress of finalizing menus and finding vendors for their food and coffee, they found themselves struggling to find the right name. Nothing quite captured those harrowing months like this humorous name suggestion from my dad: “Grounds for Divorce.”

by Ed Shank

I went to work at University IGA at 25th and Hillside on my 16th birthday.  I couldn’t wait to start and make real money.  I had pestered the owner, Mr. Goering, for a job for weeks.  He was a stickler for the rules and kept insisting I wasn’t old enough.  Prior to “coming of work age,” I had been limited to throwing newspapers morning and evening and to whatever lawns I could mow in the summer, not to mention the babysitting jobs on Friday and Saturday.   As a sacker at the IGA store I earned $1.25 for every hour I worked, and I worked 50 hours a week stocking shelves, sorting pop bottles, and sacking groceries.  The only negatives came on Friday evenings, when I missed my high school events, and Sunday afternoons, when I’d be heading to work to face shelves and my friends would be heading to an area lake.  But after taxes I earned $55 a week, which allowed me to buy my first car, a 1960 Hillman Minx, for $440.  My car payments were $22 a month.  I paid off my loan at KSB&T 11 months early.

Approaching 62 years of age I’ve worked full time for 46 years.  I figure that I’ve worked over 10,000 days.  I’ve been in the advertising agency business for the past 35 years, 22 of them at Armstrong|Shank.

Life has been wonderful so far.  I’m privileged to spend most of my time around two of the people I treasure most – my life partner and wife, Kim, and my work partner and friend, Susan.  Both have tolerated my quirks and eccentricities.  Both have indulged my excesses and fed and encouraged my creative ego; when I was a young boy taking a long look at life through an adolescent prism fraught with insecurities and embarrassments real and imagined, I would never have believed anything so dear.  I’ve been loved and liked way beyond what I’ve deserved or returned in kind.  I’ve also experienced the joy of the company of two better copies of me than me – my sons Sylvan and Andrew.  When they were children I worried at the end of every day what I might have done to screw them up.  Now that they are mature men I’m relieved to say they are an important part of the hope for the future of mankind.  They are making the world a better place.  They are worthy of praise.

(An important side road: Something of no small importance that I’ve learned is that if a bird flies hard into a window and its neck is not broken it can often be saved.  Usually after striking the glass the bird lies stunned on the ground below.  If left in that posture it typically quietly passes away.  Gently placing the bird on its feet will revive it more often than not.  It might take 15 to 20 minutes for the bird to regain its senses and fly away, so be patient.  As I was writing this morning a goldfinch flew into my window.  I set her upright on a bed of faded leaves.  Following a fretful wait of about 20 minutes she flew into the welcome embrace of a frost-covered yew – the sun is shining brighter on my keyboard now.)

I’ve always lacked confidence in my creative abilities.  I’ve never felt good enough for the responsibilities with which I’m entrusted.  Successful people retain Armstrong|Shank at handsome fees to make their businesses even more successful. Our employees entrust me with their futures; they depend on me for direction that will secure better futures for them and their families.  That confession aside, what a lucky guy; people pay me to have fun every day.  The problems we’re given to solve require a talented team of professionals of diverse abilities. Every day is different.  Challenges are new and usually unexpected.  We get to learn about virtually everything over time.  On any given day we can name a new service, write an ad for a bank, or charity or Bible, counsel a client on the best response to manage a publicity crisis, have a creative meeting to design television spots for a national golf equipment company, meet the local newspaper editor for lunch, and review plans for modifying our own Web-based marketing service … whew.  Fun, huh?  When my boys were small and they’d ask me what I did at work all day and I tried to give them an honest answer, they didn’t believe me.  They’d look at Kim and ask if I was telling the truth.  She assured them that for once I wasn’t making stuff up.

At the end of February I will walk away from my life in advertising.  I will move on to other things.  To be good at what I’ve spent most of my adult life doing you need an insatiable curiosity.   I’ve put off “some day” for long enough.  It’s finally time for my time.

Here is the future: Picture a remote Irish cottage in the Flint Hills sixty feet above the west fork of Little Fall River.  There is a low dam with a veil of white water just below the house.  The water is clear because it is fed by springs pouring out of the limestone rocks.  Two dogs, an Irish terrier and a miniature schnauzer, awake me at 5 a.m. each morning wanting my company and, to be perfectly honest, they want out to patrol.  I make strong, black coffee and sip it while frying vegetarian bacon and planning my day.  Following breakfast I will spend a couple of hours in my garden of organic vegetables nestled on a gentle slope in the side yard.  The tall grass of the prairie is a few yards to my east and south and the dogs flush a covey of seven quail, with the terrier leaping five feet in the air in chase.  Once satisfied that the weeds in the garden are sufficiently at bay, I will hike up our lane to continue work on a dry stone wall bordering the morning side of our drive.  I will be following principles perfected in Europe over many centuries.  Lifting and positioning the stones for the waist-high wall is hard on my back and regrettably I’m forced to stop for a simple lunch after only a couple of hours.  The chilled crappie from our pond on a bed of fresh greens, with tomato, onion, and assorted herbs from our garden is a welcome respite.   The crisp pinot is a nice accompaniment.  Taking my fishing rod from the corner of the garage I beckon to the dogs.  While eating I’d noticed the cows feeding at the farm below.  The man who built the cottage was an accomplished outdoorsman.  He taught me years ago that when the cattle are feeding the wildlife is feeding.  Then is when you want to fish.   So we head to the pond about a hundred yards through the woods.  Using an ultralight rod and four-pound test on an open spinner reel I cast a Rapala® onto the still water.  As I crank the balsa lure it runs about eighteen inches beneath the surface.  When I’m halfway through the retrieve I see a spotted bass race from the depths to take my bait.  It hits the fake minnow hard and immediately runs for the cover of the weeds at the edge of the dam.  It’s a beautiful fish of about two pounds and will make a delicious dinner.  I will dispense with further details of my day other than to say it will include editing a movie on my Mac, studying birds or other fauna, hiking with the dogs, improving my cooking skills, and likely gazing through my telescope after dark.

It’s a simple life, I know, and that is the way I like it. To me, there is no place more beautiful or wonderful than the prairie and the hills. I will miss advertising. I will miss collaborating with people of supreme intellect and skill. But I don’t want to overstay my usefulness. I have hired people better than me. It is time for me to move on. It is your turn.  I hope you enjoy the ride.  I certainly did.

Our agency sets out aways from the hustle and bustle, on a nice patch of wooded area.  If you think about that Robert Frost poem about the two roads diverged in a yellow wood, the path to our agency is definitely down the road less traveled by.  Whether “that has made all the difference,” I’m not sure.  But it does make for a great creative environment.  For some reason, the ideas flow a little better when you look out your window and see a stand of  trees–or a family of raccoons, like in footage below captured out of one of our office windows.

What is certain is that, when it comes to effective advertising, it just might pay to take the road less traveled by.  Sure, there are plenty of ads out there that try to claim the same great things, and attempt to shout louder than the others.  For me, the most memorable ads, the calls to action that strike me, stand apart from the rest and go places the others don’t.

I’m a lucky guy. In my career I’ve had dozens of interns, and nearly every one of them has been a joy to coach and an asset to my employers.

Maddie Marney, Armstrong|Shank summer intern from May to August 2009, raised the bar for intern performance and pleasantness. She was fearless when challenged to do a task and voraciously receptive to any learning opportunity. We trust she found her time with us equally rewarding.

We asked Maddie to reflect on her summer with us, and here’s what she had to say.

Mark Chamberlin
Director of Marketing Services and New Marketing Development

By Maddie Marney

Before starting my summer internship here at Armstrong Shank, I had little knowledge of what it really meant to work in advertising. Of course, I have seen the movies and TV shows featuring fake all-powerful ad agencies that snag every nationwide billion dollar budget campaign, but no one tells the real stories behind this business.

Through my years of college classes as an advertising major, we are taught to think out of the box and how to work in an effective team. Though these are great things to learn, they are not the biggest challenges to face in this business. We should rather be taking classes such as, “Stubborn Clients 101″ or “Navigating Through Millions of Files,” which would seem more appropriate for the actual working world.

When asked to sum up my experience here, I dug through my brain for a way to do so that did not consist of just listing the amazing things I have gotten to do. I figured the only way to get my point across was to come up with some guidelines, or commandments if you will, for those interns that may follow me in the future.

1. Advertising is somewhat of a compromise between clients, account executives, and creatives, all who have different visions of what the ending product should be.

2. Always bring a sweater to client meetings; you never know when you are entering an icebox.

3. Good research is the key to any project put in front of you whether it is a print ad, a PR project, or anything else that comes your way. You may learn something you never thought you would know.

4. Always ask questions, whether they seem dumb or not, you might actually learn something valuable.

5. Always bring your lunch, because of the limited food options. The workers at the Sonic down the street have gotten to know me a little too well.

6. Don’t be offended when your projects go through several revisions, because you will be so much prouder of the end product.

7. Embrace the new technology, you may learn how Twitter really works.

8. And finally, be careful when asking someone if they need help, you may soon regret you asked.

Regardless of these words of wisdom, my time here at Armstrong Shank has allowed me to gain some insight into this exciting and fast-paced industry. I feel like I now have the knowledge to talk to future employers with ease, as well as finish off my senior year with gained enthusiasm for entering into the “real world of advertising.”

One of the benefits of the social media age is that reaching out to your audience is easier than ever before. This is beneficial for several reasons: One, you never have to suffer from “out of sight, out of mind” syndrome. Cultivate a strong following through an outlet like Twitter, for example, and you’ll always be fresh in your followers’ minds.

You can also use social media as an invaluable image tool. If your online research indicates that there’s an unfortunate perception of your company, you can use social media as a way to chip away at that perception.

For example, I’m a Kansas City Chiefs fan. Over the last few years, fans like me haven’t had much to cheer about. Before the 2007 season, the front office failed to anticipate the decline of key players on the roster, and the team nosedived to a dismal 4-12 record. It got even worse during the 2008 season when the team’s plan to build for the future by letting younger players learn on the job resulted in an even worse 2-14 record.

Thanks to those spectacular failures, a very vocal segment of Chiefs fans and writers lashed out, deriding everyone from the coaching staff to the front office as morons or worse. In some cases, they went so far as to claim that the front office responsible for acquiring players and building the team was making personnel decisions based on ensuring the organization’s profitability, and not out of a desire to give fans the kind of winning team they could be proud to root for.

I’ve been a diehard Chiefs fan since the 1980s, and this was the most negativity I’d seen toward the team and, more specifically, the people running it.

To the Chiefs’ credit, they’ve made moves to rectify both the on-field and off-the-field issues. To reboot the football operation, Chiefs Chairman of the Board Clark Hunt disposed of a number of front office employees and coaching staff members and aggressively assembled a new staff of the best and brightest.

If the comments I’ve seen on various Chiefs-related forums are any indication, those moves helped engender a little faith in the football side of the organization. They’ve also used the power of social media to combat some of the negative stereotypes that have plagued the organization in recent years.

They’ve introduced a new blog on their Web site, manned by an up-and-coming writer hired to bring new energy and a new perspective. They’ve employed Twitter to give fans a steady stream of updates into the Chiefs’ day-to-day operations. They’ve introduced Chiefs 365, an online message board where fans can stay connected to each other and the team, and a number of other fan-driven features to the site. And look no farther than this gem for proof that they’ve truly embraced the power social media has in dispelling the image of an organization gone stale:

Now THAT is great. It’s funny, it’s current, and it is strikingly different than anything I’ve seen out of the Chiefs in 20 years. And while the truth is that it will still take wins on the football field to truly reignite the fan base, for an organization intent on recreating itself in the eyes of its fans, they’ve already punched in a touchdown or two.