The Background Story.

Born and raised around agricultural California, Beau Mills grew up on the baseball field. His father, Brad Mills, played in Major League Baseball and later returned as the bench coach for the Cleveland Indians. Beau was drafted by the Cleveland Indians from California State University, Fresno. He decided to walk away from the game after he and his wife, Alicia Mills, had their second child. Though it was a tough decision, he knew it was best for him and his family.

The Entrepreneur.

Beau is creative at heart and knew he didn’t want to be stuck in an office following his baseball career. At the time, his father-in-law owned a large dairy farm in California. Beau and his brother-in-law decided to build a custom farming company. After a year and a half, the dairy farm was sold, and shortly after they decided to sell the farming company too. He then had the opportunity to buy a moving company. It started with just a truck, and he grew it for three and a half years into a big storage facility. He had a logo designed and created a brand for it.

Baseball and Bulls.

Beau was always intrigued by Texas. He decided to move from California in search of the ranch he always wanted. His outdoorsman’s heart and desire for freedom that couldn’t be provided before nudged him to sell his moving company. He was introduced to bucking bulls when he was in baseball back in 2009. During this time, he got into buying bucking bulls and having them trained. This is where the inspiration behind starting a business started.

Making It Official.

Beau had a vision for the company from the beginning. He wanted to make it personal and knew people in the baseball world are drawn to bucking bulls. Mills wanted to tie both worlds together in his brand. Though baseball and bucking bulls seem to have nothing in common at first glance, they both require training athletes. He and his good friend, Ryan Shaw, came up with the name Red Laces. Soon after, Beau cast his vision to GreenFox and thus begun the brand development process.

To begin the process, a full evaluation of his goals were conducted. Through these intentional questions, our team gained insight into the direction of his desired brand. We took on the challenge of marrying two things that don’t go together: baseball and bulls. After many revisions, we created a brand that Beau was proud of and reflected his vision. His desire was to have a brand that outlived him, and he is now seeing a positive connection and perception of the Red Laces Cattle Co. brand.

If this inspired you to rebrand or to have a brand created for your new business, consider taking the opportunity to win a Brand Giveaway. We want to hear your story and document the process behind building a brand. All you have to do is tell us your story and why you need a brand or rebrand. Submit your story to brand@greenfox.io.

The (Game) Calling.

Four seasons ago, Valor Game Calls was created. Micah grew up hunting occasionally, but he fell in love with duck hunting when he was taken out by a buddy in 2015. He was intrigued by the different duck calls: what they do, how they sound, how they work. He started looking into the ones that he really liked and realized he could buy all the parts to create them himself. One night, on his back porch, he created his first one. He ordered five to six blanks, turned two, and took it to the office the next day. His coworkers were impressed.

The name Valor originated when he was doing The Armory, an apparel company he previously created and owned. One day, when he went to pick up an order of shirts, he saw a shirt with the word “Valor” on it. The name instantly grabbed his attention. Through this name, he gained a lot of traction with military folk and also desired to represent those in the hunting industry. His vision was to “live a life of valor.” The culture was naturally formed around, “You don’t have to know what you’re doing, but come on anyway.” In duck hunting, you don’t have to be as quiet as you do in other hunting games. There’s so much comradery that takes place because of that.

What gave him traction on social media, was that he turned clear acrylic with grass in it. That one post started his initial selling. He ran his business through a Facebook page for a long time. This was new to him since he’s a pastor at a local church and the hunting demographic was not his daily interaction. This season, he’s discovered a vendor that can place anything on the blanks, which has broadened his customization. Valor Game Calls makes custom varment, duck, and goose calls.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner.

It can be grueling at times to narrow down your demographic, but you find who you really are when you niche it down to specific demographics. Through this rebrand development process, we are going to create personas, voice and tone, and logo design, including fonts, colors, etc. We plan to do market research to determine Valor’s demographic, more specifically, the target audience’s location, income, age, and more. We will determine who exactly their target audience is so they can put all their marketing money toward them. A voice outside of Micah Smith will be created so that his field staff can have a formal document to say, “This is Valor Game Calls.” We are going to bring the Valor Game Calls logo altogether. Depending on what Micah would like, we will present a new logo or make intentional edits to his current logo. This will all be put together into a full Brand Guide. This will be placed in a PDF form so that Micah can share it with the whole company so that everyone is on the same page about Valor Game Calls.

To begin the rebranding process, a full evaluation of his goals will be conducted. Through these intentional questions, our team will gain insight into the direction of his desired re-brand. We look forward to teaming up with Valor Game Calls and setting them up for marketing success. It is always our goal to create a brand or re-brand that our clients can be proud of and that reflects their vision.

If you’re a business owner or marketing director, we want to invite you to fill out a Brand Assessment at https://greenfox.io/brand-assessment/. It is a great opportunity to evaluate where your brand stands and how effective it can be marketed by your team.

Turning Your Brand Into a Campaign.

First things first, identify the goal of your marketing campaign. What are you trying to accomplish with your brand? There are several steps to choose from depending on where your business is currently at.

1. Awareness: Attract New Customers

Create awareness by attracting new customers. The key is to identify a challenge or opportunity so the audience can realize they have a problem you can solve. Campaigns in this stage should attract users and introduce your brand to a new audience. The goal is to let people know you exist. A common channel to facilitate this is through commercials and billboards.

2. Consideration: Engage Your Audience

Your audience is considering how they will solve the problem they’re faced with. They do so by researching, asking for recommendations, watching product reviews, and trying to find cost-effective solutions. This is where you need to stand out amongst your competition to be considered to solve their problem. Is how you position yourself going to allow them to choose you as a decision or not? If this goal fits your campaign the best, you need to be content-heavy, which includes videos, being product-specific, and blogs that compare your products to your competitors.

3. Decision: Nurture Your Prospects

The solution has almost been found and you want to remain at top of their mind. The goal is to present your prospects with proof of customer satisfaction and why your service should be chosen over the competition. A great way to provide proof without bragging is to let others do the marketing for you. People will recommend if they have evidence it’s worth choosing you over your competitors. Practically, this is done through direct emails, being personal-driven, and, most importantly, retargeting. Retargeting is very important in 2020 and worth learning.

4. Delight: Customer Success and Retention

Retention is more important than ever. Provide an impressionable experience that adds value, empowers people to reach their goals, and encourages promoters of your company. Have a product worth talking about that provides a game-changer. The bigger ticket item you sell, the more personal you have to get. Get people to buy your products versus getting people to let you coach them for a fee. A great way to facilitate this goal is by reporting the success your clients are having, providing free yet desirable branded swag, and having the mentality that it’s all about their experience.

Call-To-Action

During this time, you need to step up your communication game. When you were in the office, you could walk by someone’s desk, relay a quick message, and move on. Now, we are forced to change our way of thinking, especially with everything being heavily virtual. We have to increase our communication and keep up with it afterwards. To keep your continuous drive for good communication after you return to the “new normal”, make it a discipline and keep yourself accountable by putting structure in place.

If you want to know where you stand online and against your competitors, fill out a form at https://greenfox.io/brand-assessment/ It is a great opportunity to evaluate where your brand stands and how effective it can be marketed by your team.

Creative Direction.

According to our creative director, Eric, one of the first categories that should be established in forming a brand is personas. Luckily, this topic can be rather fun. Personas are created in light of who the person you are trying to reach is. This includes age, job, demographics, income, interests, etc. Defining a persona is also determining those people’s lifestyles and purchasing habits. Practically, this is achieved by looking at who has been doing business with you for years. If you don’t know who your personas are, you won’t know who your target audience is, and it will cost you more to reach the masses versus those who would actually purchase your products or services.

Voice and tone are the foundation of everything we write, create, and produce. Voice is the personality of the company. What’s the difference between voice and tone, you may ask? Think of it this way: You have the same voice all the time, but your tone changes depending on your circumstance. Often, when it comes to a brand there will be different tones between campaigns or projects. For instance, take Nike…at the time of this blog it has been about a week since George Floyd lost his life in an awful way. Eric shares, “Right now there are voices that are rightfully trying to be heard and there are lots of brands using their voice to join in the cause and I applaud them in a big way! These brands have their voice as their brand but their tone is changing. Nike is always saying ‘just do it’ and motivating people. But for this campaign, they are saying, ‘For once, don’t do it.’ It is a black and white video with no inspiring athletes, simply just words trying to communicate to the world to not just pretend there is no problem in America but to move forward and be united. (Video provided below.) So their tone for this campaign is heavy, direct, painfully truthful instead of their normal inspiring and motivational tone. But their voice has always stood for equality which isn’t changing.”

So let’s take a few of our clients as an example. The G-Force voice is as approachable as it is admirable. The intent is to communicate with graphics that grab attention, then position oneself as an expert in the field with branding that is memorable and edgy. The tone is sharp, experienced, and patriotic. Bring this idea home by remaining steady in branding and up-to-date channel messaging. This is a demographic that is varied and each persona is highly influential to the next. It is imperative that advertising and media are defined and assertive. The voice of BentOak Capital is confident and knowledgeable with an edge of coolness. BentOak identifies with its conservative clientele, while at the same time remaining innovative as an industry leader. The tone is steady and there is a feeling of renewal. Like the oak tree that sheds its leaves in spring, there is a sense of rebirth with this brand. Consider the characteristics of an aged oak tree. BentOak Capital is independent and strong, as well as efficient and progressive. The brand lends itself well to stand out and remain memorable amongst national competitors. The tree icon is easily recognizable, allowing for nearly instant trustworthiness in recollection.

Barefoot is an apparel company that is mainly in college towns of universities. Their voice is young, cool, and relevant. They have sub-personas during this time and are not scared to make a bold move in a heartbeat. They are strategic in that they don’t speak to all college students, ut instead they target their branding and design to 18 to 22-year-old females.

Clarity in Content.

As we examined the content development process with our content director, we were reminded of how it is about establishing advocacy for our clients. With content, our team digs deep into knowing the voice of a company and its products or services. As content director, Brittney “works closely with account directors to make sure the strategy created is true to who they are, crafted for their target audience, and directed toward their goal.”

Getting in the mind of our client’s prospect is key to creating meaningful content. You need to figure out what your target audience really wants. Allen Dib’s The 1-Page Marketing Plan states, “It’s rarely the thing you are selling, it’s usually the result of the thing you are selling.” This couldn’t be more accurate. To get in the mind of the audience, we need to discover what results they are actually buying. Once you understand this, you then need to craft your unique selling content based on the result your audience wants to achieve. You want to go from being a business to being viewed as a trusted advisor that’s serving their needs.

The key detail that should be applied when creating content is always filtering everything through the saying, “If you confuse them, you lose them.” It is all about clarity! We’ve touched on this before, but we can’t stress it enough. Brittney shares, “Anytime I create content for any project, I examine it and make sure someone will walk away with information, not confusion.”

People are constantly exposed to an abundant amount of information and are rarely motivated to wade through a confusing message. “Don’t fall for the lie that a confused customer will seek clarification or contact you for more information.” That is never the case.

Sketching Your Vision.

As we delved into the process behind graphic designing with McKenzie, we found confirmation that branding is much more than a logo. Part of the beginning is realizing the vision of the client and starting the foundation to bring it to life. For McKenzie, preliminary hand-drawn sketches are done during the initial meeting, following with intentional research. A source of inspiration is social media and current thriving brands.

Businesses tend to solely request a logo with no context of their voice and tone, who they are as a business, etc. McKenzie adds, “Some clients know exactly what they want and it’s easier to create it, while others have no idea. It’s important to have a voice and tone to assist in creating their brand, logos, and visuals.” The advice McKenzie would give for a client requesting a brand or rebrand would be “to do research on what other competitors are doing. Whether it’s good or bad, it gives you the opportunity to filter what you like and don’t like. Even to the point of discovering that everyone is doing X and you want to do Y.” With this research, we can then come alongside you, guiding in the best direction where your brand will flourish. “If you come to us with an idea, we can help you refine it.”

Something that is special about McKenzie is that she is talented at sketching by hand, which not all graphic designers can do. She states, “First and foremost, I am an artist.” A great example of this unfolded with Barefoot’s Christmas campaign, ‘Tis the Season to be Barefoot. McKenzie shares, “Barefoot is a client that is super easy to be inspired by, can have more free-range and pushes it to the limit” because of how they’re not scared to be bold. In the creative meeting for this campaign, McKenzie began to sketch out ideas as the client and our team brainstormed what this should look like. The sketches actually ended up being used in their campaign branding and social media posting. (Sketch and graphic provided below.)

Practically Branded.

This is just a peek behind the curtain of what we do as a marketing partner. We enjoy meeting and dreaming with clients to produce and create their vision for their company. Getting to do that is an honor because this is your livelihood, and we want to take it as seriously as you do to make sure your business is successful in all aspects. Spend the time upfront when creating your brand, because your logo can change over time, but what won’t change is the target audience and brand.

If you like to get practical, and want to see the process behind brand development, we invite you to enter to win a Brand Giveaway. We want to hear your story and document the process behind building a brand. All you have to do is tell us your story and why you need a brand or rebrand. Submit your story to brand@greenfox.io.

Clarity and simplicity.

A brand is the emotion associated when a transaction takes place between consumers and the company. What emotion are you causing the consumer to feel by the way you’ve branded your business? Donald Miller says, “People don’t buy the best products and services, they buy the ones that are communicated the clearest.” It’s all about clarity and simplicity. If someone is trying to research a company for their product or service, you may lose out to your competitor simply because they did a better job communicating their products or services than you did. That type of philosophy starts with your brand. Is it simple, is it clear? Strive for clear over cute.

Draw the consumer in.

The goal of your brand shouldn’t necessarily be to push your products or services onto a potential client or customer, it should be for them to be drawn or pulled to your products, services or brand. For a consumer to be drawn to a brand automatically puts that business in the “trust” category, therefore, potentially finding a customer for life. The starter for that recipe is identifying the emotion you want your customers to feel.

A Brand is more than a logo.

A brand is more of a personality than a logo. It truly needs to stand alone as its own personality and not rely on the personality of the owner or managers. That is how you build a lasting brand. We do this by creating three things:

1. 1. Personas – who the person you are trying to reach is. This includes age, location, job, etc. Defining a persona is also determining those people’s lifestyles and purchasing habits.
   2. Voice and Tone – the foundation of everything we write or produce. You have the same voice all the time, but your tone changes depending on your circumstance. You might use one tone when you’re hanging out in the backyard with your closest friends, and a different tone when you’re in a meeting with your boss. Your tone also changes depending on the emotional state of the person you’re addressing. You wouldn’t want to use the same tone of voice with someone who’s scared or upset as you would with someone who’s laughing.
   3. Logo, Fonts, and Colors – And then comes the actual design. The tendency is to run straight to the tangible thing in a logo, but like most things, it is best to slow down and build a firm foundation first. You don’t build a house by starting with the countertops.

Establish your audience.

Most people are scared to target a specific audience. The reason people are scared makes sense; it takes away potential customers. However, the better you are at defining an audience, the better you will be at every stage of your business. Why? Clarity allows you to make quick and wise decisions. There’s a quote that says, “If you know who you are, then you know what to do.” The same goes for knowing and establishing your audience. If you know who they are, you know what to do with them. You simply can’t be all things to all people. Identify who you want to be because intentionality is required when you brand.

Spend the time upfront when creating your brand, because your logo can change over time, but what hasn’t changed is the target audience and brand. Spend the time to build your brand because that is what is lasting.

If you’re a business owner or marketing director, we want to invite you to fill out a Brand Assessment at https://greenfox.io/brand-assessment/ It is a great opportunity to evaluate where your brand stands and how effective it can be marketed by your team.

During this season, it is crucial that we remember leadership advice. Andy Stanley said, “If you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always be where you’ve always been.” The father of crisis leadership, Winston Churchill said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” Take this as an opportunity to push toward change along with the world. Now is the time to make positive changes for your team through evaluating what needs to be done differently, post COVID-19.

Back to the basics.

We are designed to be around people. Networking was a part of every business at the beginning of their journey. After months of being apart, realize the need to go back to the quantity of time spent with people.

We have been forced to take communication to the next level.

During this time, you need to step up your communication game. When you were in the office, you could walk by someone’s desk, relay a quick message, and move on. Now, we are forced to change our way of thinking, especially with everything being heavily virtual. We have to increase our communication and keep up with it afterwards. To keep your continuous drive for good communication after you return to the “new normal”, make it a discipline and keep yourself accountable by putting structure in place.

Using your time wisely.

It is productive to define your brand while time is on your side. Talk over, and even rethink, your business’ core values. It is an efficient way to identify how you communicate internally and externally. Scrub through the process that is in place and intentionally look for holes that are present and form a plan to fix them. Look for new opportunities to improve your team and company’s efficiency.

Learn to have fun on a consistent basis.

Look for ways to unite your team. Limited and virtual communication can break down team unity over time. Finding ways to have fun together allows you to get to know each other on a personal level. Challenge your team to continue the fun even after everyone returns to the office.

Celebrating the abilities and flexibilities of your team.

Celebrate your auxiliary players; those who are doing what they didn’t sign up for, but are excelling for the team. It is worth recognition to have the ability to stand up and take on more to operate during limited times. This season has encouraged us to see individual value versus just the team value.

So the question remains…what are you going to do about this season? You’re going to do what the world did 20 years ago and push forward, provide, give hope to the future, and help light the path. You are going to lead. Because leaders…leaders always lead.

If you’re in need of a kick start, our team is ready to help you get your business where it needs to be. Visit https://greenfox.io/brand-assessment/ for a brand assessment.