Joe Ricci, an industry expert in P-O-P merchandising, gave the Go East-designed Post-it® Brand planogram (POG) an A+ grade in a past issue Shopper Marketing magazine.

The POG, located at Staples stores, is 16 feet long and separated into four, 4-foot sections, promoting easy navigation and a cross-sell feature among various Post-it®  products, all available in one location.

Check it out for yourself and let us know what grade you’d give this POG.

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With summer winding down, merchandisers are beginning to focus their efforts on the two top retail seasons that lie ahead — Halloween and “the holidays.” Because consumers are inundated with many retail options during this time period, it is essential that you optimize your in-store brand presence. But this can be tricky: a retailer may require you to adhere to its seasonal brand guidelines during these times periods. So how can you make that work to your advantage?

A few things can work in your brand’s favor during this busy time of year. Retailers’ seasonal events are starting earlier than ever, allowing more time for seasonal promotions. An early start also provides consumers with gift and decorating ideas weeks or months in advance, thus planting seeds for when they are ready to make their purchases. Both of these can work to your benefit: your brand will be in stores longer, gaining more visibility and awareness. This can be key to success during this season, especially when the channel’s seasonal and/or permanent graphics take precedence over your brand.

As we have learned at Go East, as you work with a channel over time, you will be able to gauge how strictly you need to follow the channel’s guidelines. However, clear, concise merchandising efforts year-round will help to ensure that consumers recognize your brand whatever the season, but especially during the busiest times. And if you develop your seasonal merchandising campaigns early in the season, you will be able to hit the shelves as strongly as possible. As a result, you’ll likely be top of mind over other brands that didn’t join the effort as quickly.

What are some key factors you deem important when creating artwork for seasonal periods of the year?

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Is there an expiration date or a steadfast rule as to when brand guidelines should be updated? In the strict sense no, but as your brand grows, so should your brand guidelines. In fact, while there isn’t a specific timeframe that determines when this document should be updated, there are circumstances that will demand updates.

Think of the brand guidelines document as a fluid, flexible road map for your brand. As people begin working with your brand guidelines, new communication needs will arise and new tactics will be created. To accommodate them, your brand guidelines will need to expand.  The following are a few more examples of situations that would warrant an update:

• New brand positioning
• New design elements, e.g. stationery, literature, promotional items
• Rapid business expansion that causes your business model to change
• Change in your target market or audience
• Corporate mergers or acquisitions
• Product or channel diversification

For example, consider FedEx and Kinko’s. These two companies merged a few years ago, forming FedEx Kinko’s. As the two companies merged, a new brand guidelines document was needed to clearly and concisely guide communications for the newly formed brand. Most recently, FedEx Kinko’s has become FedEx Office. This brand transformation again necessitated an update to the brand guidelines document. 

When these types of changes happen in an organization, deadlines loom and it is easy to loose track of critical brand details. So while guidelines don’t come with explicit expiration dates, it is essential that someone in your organization is dedicated to keeping up with your brand as it grows, making sure your brand’s guidelines reflect this growth.

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Go has partnered with United Family Medicine (formerly UPFHC), a non-profit community clinic, in an effort to help successfully rebrand the clinic during their exciting transition to a new facility. UFM is able to make the move to a new, upgraded facility due, in large part, to donations from foundations, organizations and individuals.

(more…)

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The holiday season is on the horizon. I’ve already started a mental list of people I’ll be buying for this year, and once again, I’m racking my brain for “perfect gift” ideas.

Typically, I give gift cards as a last resort — I find it more exciting and gratifying to give and receive gifts that have been personally selected. A new survey from the National Research Network indicates that other people feel the same way: The perception that gift cards are impersonal is the top inhibitor for consumers purchasing gift cards, with nearly half of respondents citing it as a factor.

On a recent visit to Target.com, I realized that they now offer personalized gift cards, allowing users to upload photos or other images to their cards. Digging a little deeper, I found a few other retailers that are also offering this option (Wal-Mart, Toys “R” Us and Starbucks to name a few).

Brandweek noted that consumers spent nearly 18 percent of their 2006 total holiday merchandise gift expenditures on gift cards, up from 13 percent in 2005, per the International Council of Shopping Centers. Among other findings in the study:

• Discount stores such as Wal-Mart and Target were the most popular gift card benefactors, with 42 percent of respondents reporting purchasing a discount-store card in the past year. Restaurants came in second (26 percent), followed by clothing stores (21 percent);
• More females (60 percent) than males (44 percent) reported buying cards in the last year;
• The average number of gift cards consumers receive tends to correlate with household income. As household income increases, consumers tend to purchase more gift cards;
• Christmas and birthdays were cited as the top occasions for gift card giving;
• This holiday season, younger consumers are expected to buy gift cards, with 78 percent between the ages of 18-24;
• Fifteen percent of gift card recipients spend less than the total gift card amount.

Will customization add that personal touch that sometimes seems to be missing in gift cards?

Personally, I think this is a great new product feature for those of us who prefer to add an extra touch to our gifts.

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