Petchup is a long established and successful supplier of pet health supplements and pet nutritional products to the veterinary profession. Now, building on the expertise gathered from the Veterinarian range, they are happy to announce the launch of their new website to showcase their innovative range of pet health supplements under the brand name Petchup.

Paul Bies



President,
Mystique Creative

If you don't already know, the latest smart phones and quick response codes (QR codes) are entering into online and offline marketing. QR codes are a hot item in mobile marketing as more and more advertisers add them to their marketing initiatives.

More than just a 'cool factor', QR codes drive website traffic from print and direct mail. Magazine ads are using QR codes instead of asking their audiences to manually type in their information. Scanning the code into a phone automatically allows access to immediate information. By adding the QR code into a direct response piece, you can easily transmit the user to product information, websites, contact information and much more. This can potentially lead to an immediate sale or conversion, plus by using services such as Bit.ly you can track the success of your campaign.

As the techno-savvy buyer travels by foot or motorization, realty agents can take advantage of immediate access to information about prospective real estate by offering the 2D barcode to those with a scanner app loaded on their smartphone. Sure beats typing in a phone number or address to view info on that newly-listed house you just jogged by.



The immediacy of the QR code means quicker response. Imagine you have a video on YouTube. Post your QR code and immediately drive traffic to your movie trailer, commercial or music video. Add a QR code to your next event invitation so your uncle Bob can scan it in for Google map directions and not end up getting lost in some bar.

So the question you should be asking yourself is: "why aren't I taking advantage of QR codes, and what should I use it on to leverage my online and offline communications?" Contact us at Mystique Creative and we'll show you how.

Frank Beecham
Webguy
Mystique Creative

Branding at its origins was a means of identification used on both livestock and humans applied with clothing, tattoos, hot irons and various other means. It served a very simple function as a mark of ownership as well as a mark of shame (fictional works that use marks of shame include The Scarlet Letter and Inglourious Basterds).

Flash-forward to today's corporate landscape and brand has evolved into something much more engaging and sophisticated, serving as a medium between companies' and consumers. While it is still a mark of ownership, no longer is it a mark of shame but a mark of distinction.

First and foremost, companies' thrive on good business practices that support solid products and services. While there are companies' out there that are very successful without the aid of branding, it very rarely happens. Branding is your frontline in the corporate trenches. For the consumer, it is both their first and last impression of a company, defining values and character among other qualities. It serves as a means of awareness, by interacting with consumers, and developing relationships and familiarity. Over time, the brand, its personality and its great products and/or services become synonymous with each other, ultimately cultivating consumer loyalty.

Here's one great example of branding's effect of consumer loyalty:



In October of 2010, Gap tried to refresh it's company image by rebranding themselves in a more 'contemporary' light. This was followed by a public outcry online as their website was the first thing to change. Anyway, they got so much flak from their consumer base that they eventually reverted back the iconic blue box with knocked-out capped serifs. Up until that change, the logo had been in service for almost 25 years. That's a quarter century of brand equity they were tossing out the window! Although I think no one could've anticipated the ensuing revolt as it is quite common these days for a long-standing company to refresh their brand, a survey could've been conducted before actually moving forward with the rebrand. This is a good example of a deeply connected and well-cultivated brand relationship with its consumer-base, one based mainly on nostalgia. I myself, felt very disappointed by the change and thankfully the good majority of people shared the same feeling. Pepsi is another well-known company that went through an awful rebrand but unfortunately they decided to stick with it. Like they say, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

Follow this link to see Pepsi's branding since 1898:

Branding extends beyond just the logo, stationery and business cards. It is a thoroughly developed system modeled for consistency that defines everything from colours, typefaces, photographic/illustrative treatment, and this can apply to everything from print collateral (both internal and external) to web applications and even environmental design.

Blurring the boundaries even further are people/celebrities supplanting brands. Lebron James is a good example, undisputedly one of the top 2 players in NBA – rumblings occurred when he made his decision to 'take his talents to south beach,' arguing that playing alongside another superstar (Wade) and dropping his franchise player status in Cleveland would hurt his personal brand. The same could be said about Chris Bosh (but to much lesser extent) for going from franchise player here in Toronto to 3rd wheel – but I digress. The point is these guys have a brand image and associating their qualities and values relating to athleticism, leadership and talent with products will only help drive consumer activity. The same process applies for a well-developed brand identity, starting with brand image creation to represent the company persona as a means of reinforcing its great products and/or services.

Don Watt's 'No Name' brand for generic grocery and household products also blurs definitions of what a brand really is. In a visually noisy grocery environment filled with too many branded products to count, he devised an approach that would undoubtably distinguish this product line from others, by using a simple colour scheme of yellow and black coupled with minimalist package design. It's quite ironic that a 'No Name' brand would become such a successful brand but that's simply what makes it so brilliant. You could almost say he was a maverick in his approach.

Its hard to define what constitutes a brand these days but when you boil it down to basics, they all accomplish the same things – interact with consumers, develop relationships, and cultivate consumer familiarity and loyalty. In a world where everyone and every company is screaming out for attention, it's quite easy to disappear in the crowd. Effective branding systems will bring out what makes a company special and unique. It reaffirms quality of products and services and brings that distinction out into the limelight, letting its personality shine.




Rene Tan
Graphic Designer
Mystique Creative

In May Mystique Creative will celebrate it's twenty fifth year of business. During this time we've learned the importance of providing a great customer service experience. We understand that meeting customer expectations isn't enough – you have to strive to exceed them. The rationale being that if you give someone more than they expect they will remember you. If you give them what they expect, chances are no positive impression will come of it since, in the eyes of the customer, you did nothing special.

So, we look for ways to give our customers more than they expect. Recently, I had an experience that demonstrated this very basic fact.

Late last fall I had to take my '63 Chrysler 300 to my mechanic to have the fan clutch replaced and the oil changed.



I called Chris beforehand so he could order the part. None of his suppliers had the appropriate part so he recommended an online shop in the States. Sure enough they had one that supposedly met the specifications. A week or so later the part arrived. To be on the safe side I decided to take advantage of my CAA membership (a classic car owner's best friend) and had the car towed to Chris & Shane's Cars.

A few hours later, Chris called to inform me that the part didn't fit. There wasn't enough clearance away from the rad. I said I'd call CAA and he said "don't bother you can drive the car home." Get this - he took the fan clutch off of his own '63 Charger and installed it on mine. I was amazed. He informed me that he was working on his car over the winter including a new paint job and he wouldn't need it until Spring. What made it more amazing was that except for the oil change – he didn't charge me. "Let's worry about it when the new part comes in."

Five months later, after many hours of research and countless postings on Mopar sites I'm still without a replacement part. So I call up Chris and explain the situation. With the arrival of spring I asked him how soon he needed his fan clutch back. He said he didn't need it back as was upgrading to a thermostatic version. At that point I offered to buy his old one from him to hold me over until I sourced the low profile thermostatic fan clutch I need. His response was "Keep it - no cost." This blew me away. I had never experienced this kind of service from a mechanic before. It was a refreshing change from my previous garage treated me like a cash-cow and were notoriously for replacing parts regardless if they we're the source of the problem or not.

Chris and Shane's Cars created a customer service experience that made a huge impression. What did it cost them to do all of this? A bit of of time and a used part that may have sat on the shelf for years. No out of pocket cost and yet the value to me was quite large.

The bottom line is that they went above and beyond to give the customer what they wanted. They showed a customer that they appreciate their business and made it a truly memorable experience. They could have taken my money, given me good service, and I would have been satisfied. But would I have been as impressed? No way.

If you need a good mechanic in the Don Mills area, do yourself a favour and check out:

Chris & Shane's Cars Ltd
1335 Av Lawrence E
North York, ON M3A 1C6
(416) 385-1277


Paul Bies



President,
Mystique Creative

In October of 2010, Zoomerang partnered with GrowBiz Media and launched a survey in an effort to understand how small to midsized businesses used their marketing budget in 2010 and what changes they were planning for 2011. The survey was sent to businesses with less than 1,000 employees across the US )sorry I haven't come across a similar survey with Canadian SMBs).

I admit a sense of astonishment in seeing that only 54% of the 751 respondents indicate that their business currently has a website. Not so surprising was that E-mail and social media marketing continue to grow in popularity. Heading into 2011, most SMBs plan to increase their marketing spend in both online and print mediums, with online activities receiving the largest increases.

Here are the Key Takeaways –
• Businesses are continuing to adopt social media and build these practices into marketing budgets.
• The growth of social media could be linked to more than half of the businesses surveyed having a marketing budget of $1,000 or less.
• Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are the top three social networks, respectively, utilized by SMBs.
• Respondents under the age of 30 are the highest adopters of social media.
• The top five budget areas that SMBs plan to increase in their 2011 marketing budgets are: website, e-mail, direct mail, social media and print advertising.

For more information on the survey and its results, click here to download the report in its entirety.

Paul Bies



President,
Mystique Creative