Mystique Creative loves to hear from our customers. We put passion into every aspect of our business, and it gives us great pleasure to hear that our efforts are paying off.

Congratulations to Shereen Daghstani of CIBC who won the iPod Touch for participating in our Customer Feedback Survey.

Thanks to all who took part. Your answers will help us better serve you and all clients in the future.



Paul Bies



President,
Mystique Creative

Heart House Hospice hired Mystique Creative to assist with the marketing of a new fundraising event; Russell's Got Heart - An Evening of Comedy. The event was held at The Hershey Centre in Mississauga and featured Russell Peters who graciously donated all proceeds in support of Heart House Hospice's initiative to build a much needed Residential Hospice.

Heart House Hospice wanted a simple logo. We paired it with a full body shot of Russell. We also developed a promotion designed to capture leads which featured an Apple iPad as the incentive. The promotion generated a contest database with nearly 25% opting in for further newsletters and information from Heart House Hospice.

Components included:
• Sponsorship PowerPoint Presentation
• Show flyers
• Press Kit
• Donation form and envelope
• VIP and All-Access passes
• Media Backdrop
• Donation boxes
• Event landing page
• Thank you gift for Russell Peters.

Need help branding your next event? Contact us to discuss your ideas.

Paul Bies



President,
Mystique Creative

Samfiru Tumarkin LLP is a Toronto-based law firm that specializes in labour and employment law, as well as personal injury and insurance claims. They commissioned Mystique to design a new logo for them along with a fresh website and corporate marketing materials.

Paul Bies



President,
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