Even as we welcome our clients and collaborators back into the studio, we’re excited to continue to offer the flexibility of remote photoshoots! Over the past year, we’ve honed our process to offer an engaging and attentive experience with our in-house photo team and studio, all without the time or expense of traveling to the set. Check out the below or get in touch to learn more about how we’re bringing the set to you!
Tag: brand strategy
2020: Giving Back & Looking Forward
At Smith Design, giving back is at the heart of our actions. In 2020, it was an honor to be a part of incredible causes and campaigns that provide support to those in need and advocate for progress on important issues.
Earlier this year, we partnered with multiple organizations to bring relief to those impacted by COVID-19. Through the #EN95 Campaign, on our social media channels we brought attention to the need for PPE and encouraged donations of masks, money, blood, and food to assist the medical community and their patients.
We pulled together as a team to provide support for the responders on the front line of COVID-19. We worked with FLAG, Front Line Appreciation Group, to create Flag Fuel Boxes. These Fuel Boxes provided food and words of encouragement for front line and essential workers. Members of our team and their families purchased and packed these care packages and wrote personal notes for these unsung heroes. Together, we completed 172 boxes! We can’t thank our frontline workers enough for all that they have done throughout these challenging months.
To continue to drive awareness of CDC guidelines and to help #StopTheSpread, our design team created graphic PSAs for the #HelpByDesign campaign. This initiative brings messages of hope during this time of uncertainty throughout lockdowns, restrictions, and social distancing. The campaign is run by the group Known Unknown, a global community of designers. Participating in this campaign helped connect us with designers all over the world and proves the importance of visual communication as a unifying tool in times of crisis.
In support of the fight against systemic racism, Smith Design made contributions towards the organizations Black Lives Matter and Color of Change. Through our social media network, we strived to bring attention to these additional organizations that seek to dismantle the injustices and inequalities perpetuated by racism:
- The Official George Floyd Memorial Fund
- Black Vision Collective
- Reclaim the Block
- Campaign Zero
- Unicorn Riot
- Color of Change
- ACLU
In honor of Pride Month, Smith Design donated in support of The Trevor Project and The National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network. We also promoted other important organizations that support the LGBTQ community:
- The Marsha P. Johnson Institute
- The Okra Project
- Black Trans Travel Fund
- Human Rights Campaign
- It Gets Better Project
This holiday season, Smith Design proudly supported our troops via Trees for Troops. Our donation of 10 trees meant free farm-grown Christmas Trees were provided to United States Armed Forces members and their families across all branches of the military. Visit treesfortroops.org to learn more about their program that delivers “the spirit of Christmas to military families – one Christmas Tree at a time”.
Believe it or not, the #1 requested item in homeless shelters is socks. Knowing this crucial shortage during the winter months ahead, we donated 900 pairs of socks to people in need, including our local shelter.
Our team was excited to participate in LEGO’s #BuildToGive initiative, a campaign that donates sets of LEGO to children in need for every LEGO ornament shared online with the hashtag. It was a joy to create the ornaments for a good cause, with our teams’ very own LEGO Master leading the way.
In a year of uniquely challenging circumstances, we have strived to push kindness and caring forward through these giving back initiatives. We look forward to continuing to support these and other great causes in 2021. Here’s to another year of compassion, optimism, altruism and teamwork!
Importance of Brand Planning
When you think of successful entrepreneurs or brand teams what are the first things that come to mind for how they became successful? At first glance, you might attribute their success to things like smart, confident leadership, a great product, competitive drive, or a great marketing campaign. However, the unsung hero, the backbone of their success is often their brand planning. Planning is not sexy, it’s not the part that people talk about and share, but it universally serves as the guide they follow to achieve success.
Planning is not a one-size-fits-all process, some may have more elaborate plans than others, but regardless of the size of your business, you still need a plan that lays out even a basic roadmap for how you will achieve your goals.
Why is brand planning important?
A brand plan aligns everyone in your organization behind the same vision, strategies, tactics, and costs needed to make your brand or business venture a success. In this cluttered world of overwhelming options, writing a brand plan will help you and your team stay focused, guide the way you allocate your limited resources, and consistently express your brand offering to your target consumers.
What should your brand plan include?
- Business Analysis & Issues – specify how your brand or business is currently positioned in the marketplace. Who are your current and/or potential customers? What are their needs and wants? Who are your key competitors and how are they performing? What are your current strengths and weaknesses? What potential opportunities and threats exist that could impact your brand.
- Objectives – your plan should spell out what it is you want the brand to achieve. Your objectives can be defined both in terms of long and short term goals, for current or future customers and/or specific business outcomes like sales, market share, brand awareness, brand image, customer loyalty or more.
- Strategies – here you will lay out how you plan to achieve your goals, what channels and tools you will use and how you will focus your resources. Depending on your product or category, key decisions to align on could include which product you will prioritize, how will it be designed or positioned, how will it be sold and priced, and how will you engage your target.
- Tactics – stemming from your strategies, tactics are the specific tasks you and/or your team will execute to work towards your goal. What will your team work on, what are the resources available and what is the budget and timeline you will allocate to each task.
You may only write your brand plan once a year but as a business leader you should always be in planning mode, that is to say, you should always monitor your brand’s performance, identify key learnings and areas of improvement. As you learn more about your customers and your key competitors, you can adapt your plan to help you stay on track and keep working towards achieving your goals.
– Emma Medina, Director of Brand Strategy at Smith Design