After 18 months of working from home, many businesses are now planning for the team’s transition back to the office HQ. Will your people return to an office that looks exactly the way it was the day they moved out?

At that time, some of us were thinking the move to “work from home” was only going to last a few weeks. I’ve heard stories of sweaters still draped on chairs and even a few half-full coffee cups still sitting right where they were left on people’s desks.

Or will you make sure your work environment is a place your people will feel good about coming back to? read more…

Color is critical for a brand. For a brands color to be successful, it needs:

1. To communicate – who they are and what they do
2. To differentiate – to look different and unique in their market
3. To engage with those they’re talking to (including both the internal team and prospective customers).

Color supports your story, helps your brand stand out from the crowd, and makes your brand is engaging to your audience.

read more…

When creating a brand for your organization or product, not seeing the finished product before you start can be overwhelming. You have ideas written out but no idea how those strategies translate to another medium – into visuals.

While we can’t show a picture of what the finished visuals look like before we start designing, we can (and do) develop a tool that helps us have a meaningful conversation about creative direction.

We call this tool a Moodboard.

read more…

When creating a brand for your organization or product, not seeing the finished product before you start can be overwhelming. You have ideas written out but no idea how those strategies translate to another medium – into visuals.

While we can’t show a picture of what the finished visuals look like before we start designing, we can (and do) develop a tool that helps us have a meaningful conversation about creative direction.

We call this tool a Moodboard.

read more…

Clients are, of course, the lifeblood of our business. Without them, we close our doors.

So, finding and keeping them is Priority 1A. Priority 1B? Having a team of great employees that fit your culture and core values to serve said clients.

read more…

Clients are, of course, the lifeblood of our business. Without them, we close our doors.

So, finding and keeping them is Priority 1A. Priority 1B? Having a team of great employees that fit your culture and core values to serve said clients.

read more…

We’ve had a series of conversations lately with people thinking about their brand, their website, and the tactics that might help them market their services or products. And the questions that come up in every conversation are, “how does this work?”, “what does this look like?” and “if we work with you, what are the steps this is going to involve?”.

Understandably, many marketing leaders are challenged by how to attack the problem or opportunity facing their brand.

When you hire an agency like Sussner, you’re hiring an experienced team that works with you to build something special rather than buying a pre-packaged item. But we understand that special thing is not tangible, and you can’t see it or touch it (yet). read more…

How to create your brand’s personality
Question #10 When Considering a Brand Refresh

If you’re considering designing a new brand or refreshing your existing brand, and you’re like many marketing leaders I talk with, you may be unsure how to get started. To help make the first step more manageable, we created a worksheet with the ten questions we use to start every branding project. Using this tool will inform you, your internal team, or your agency/design firm partner and will help you gain a deeper understanding of your brand’s landscape as you get started. You can download the free Sussner Brand Worksheet here: http://bit.ly/sdcobrandws

For a look into questions 1-9, please reference our previous blogs. This post dives into the final question to wrap up this series – which happens to be my favorite – as it transitions from the discovery to the creative phase.

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” – Dr. Suess.
To stand out, your brand needs to look and sound different – and better – than your competition – and attractive to your target audience. To do this effectively, the question we ask is, what aspirational qualities do you want your customers to associate with you, your business, and your products? In other words, how do you want people to think of you?

To help answer this questions, let’s look at this in three parts.

read more…