3 reasons to use video in your healthcare branding Among the greatest joys for a hospital branding agency is finding ways to differentiate a community hospital using the authentic expressions of real people. It's an approach that requires the ability and willingness to listen carefully, to ask the right questions, to wait for the answers, and to let the silences sit an germinate. One of our labors of love for our Greenville branding agency is branding a community hospital right down the road, called Baptist Easley. The hospital is a uniquely compassionate place at the heart of a community of…

Acrimonious. Businesspeople killed "synergy." The food industry killed "pumpkin spice." Hipsters killed "curate." And now advertisers are here to claim one more victim-"artisan." There's technically nothing wrong with the word "artisan." It has lived for centuries as a perfectly reasonable noun. artisan: [ahr-tuh-zuh n] noun 1. a person skilled in an applied art; a craftsperson. 2. a person or company that makes a high-quality or distinctive product in small quantities, usually by hand or using traditional methods There's even a nice adjective variant of "artisan" called "artisanal." Bowls, cheese, bread-all can rightfully be described as "artisanal." So, why do advertisers…

Invention is the mother of ... curiosity killed the ... or was it the other thing? Invention is in the DNA of Gibbons | Peck. Anne's dad was an R&D engineer in the aerospace industry. He invented some of the best ejection seat technology of all time. Made it kind of unnerving to be riding shotgun with him, in the Buick Roadmaster stationwagon, with the faux wood siding. I mean, who knows what he had rigged up in that seat? James's grandfather worked on the safety crew in a steel mill. Basically, his job was inventing shields and gates after…

In many of the industries we serve, we work with brands for whom community involvement is very important. This can be challenging to wrap our heads around, especially since no two people define "community involvement" the same way. In fact, many people have different definitions depending on what day it is, or to whom they are talking. Over the years, we've discovered a few principles you may find helpful in this area. In no particular order, here they are:1. Work at the discipline of distinguishing between community involvement and marketing.Community involvement is NOT marketing. It may touch the marketing team,…

Pricing is a comparative thing. It's almost never the deciding factor, but within the consideration set, it is often the tie breaker. "I like this one and this one. But this one is $10 cheaper. So, there it is."Pricing is something you should be intentional about. It should take into account your competitor set, your cost to go to market, your feature | benefit proposition. Of course, in aggregate it should deliver the optimum profit. But that doesn't necessarily mean the highest possible margin. There are six basic pricing strategies, with infinite possibilities for subtle distinctions within a market:- More…

Just a snippet here. While it's fresh on my mind. You can debate right into the night, like undergraduates in a dorm room, about whether a marketing initiative is successful just because it generates sales. We can have that debate, and I will take both sides and win both. But there is one thing you cannot debate: A marketing initiative that does not (eventually) generate transactions is NOT successful. And, marketing that costs more than it generates is not marketing. It's art. And who wants to pay that kind of money for that kind of art?Strategy. Concept. Execution. Transactions, baby.

I can cry if I want to. Just sayin'.

Today, I am missing Mildred Murray Peck, the mother of our co-founder. As far as I know, she never had an opinion about advertising. It just wasn't that important to her. The closest she ever got to social media was a brief attempt at email correspondence on an old iMac Anne gave her. That lasted about a month or two. She never really understood or appreciated the email aesthetic. Fragments. Loose thoughts. Random spelling. She crafted letters in her emails. I really got to know her during the last two years of her life. Her widowhood. Before that, she stood…

We've launched a few social media programs lately. The whole process has been very influential on my functional vocabulary. I can't say I've learned new words, but I sure use words routinely I never thought I would. Like blog platform. And micro-site. And RSS feed (about which, I understand Facebook is pretty persnickety). I remain unimpressed, even as I have become a bit more aware of Twitter, tweets, tweet deck, and hash tags. But the word that rules the social media lexicon, at least around here, is "Like". It's kind of funny. For the first time since High School, I…

Our friend, Grace, stopped by for a brief visit yesterday. We are like proud parents (professionally speaking) when we think of Grace. The day we first met her, she was coming to show her portfolio in order to get an internship. That would have been ... like ... well, several years ago. We were impressed with both her work and with her, even at the time. She is not a large person, but she has a certain presence about her. She is not a loud person, but she makes you want to hear what she has to say. Of course,…