Lofgren Media

Do you have a brand definition?
Do you have an identity guide?
Do you have a set of core values?
Do you have a key messaging document?
Do you have a logo that stands up against logos of other companies in your space?
Do you have a marketing plan?
We could go on, but you get the idea. You need the foundational elements before you start executing projects. Once you have the foundational elements, the projects move quickly.

The creative process varies depending on what kind of work we are doing, but almost everything starts with Discovery. I am going to paste in some sample language from a recent engagement where they needed pretty much everything to get started. Please note that you may not need 100% of this, and that's okay. But this is the process when someone needs it all:

Phase I of our relationship could include the following: Discovery is a period of time that includes research on & learning about your industry and your firm. It involves multiple interviews with key employees and research on the internet. It also includes Competitive Analysis, which is where we review the websites of the top three competitors you identify for us in order to better understand their brand definition and messaging so that we can create your Brand Definition and your Key Messaging. Brand Definition is the outcome of brand workshops and the creative time it takes to process, create and define your brand’s vision, positioning, personality and affiliation. The Brand Definition will inform the entire creative team about who you are, what you stand for, who you speak to, and what you should “feel” like in graphics and text. The Discovery process and the Competitive Analysis we do are integral to create your Brand Definition. Key Messaging is a document that defines the key messages that are the main points you want your target audience to hear and remember. They create meaning and highlight the issues you want to convey. They allow us to control communications, enhance relationships with your target audiences and are an important feature of any marketing campaign. The very first creative output from the aforementioned activities is a Logo. A logo should be simple, scalable, memorable, versatile and relevant. But it also needs to evoke a passionate reaction of some kind. Passion trumps ho-hum every day. Next up is a Tagline, which is meant to tease the audience to want to learn more about you. This is counter to some people’s opinions on the purpose, who believe that a tagline should be descriptive and informative. That is not consistent with our philosophy. We believe the tagline’s meaning should be obvious once one knows what you do, but before that time its job is to intrigue people and get them “hooked” to learn more. If it is informative and clear what you do while still achieving the primary goal, however, even better. After we have the Logo and the Tagline completed, we move to the color palette and identity creation – both of which inform the Identity Guide. The Identity Guide provides the creative team (along with the rest of your employees and representatives) with the graphic standards (typography, photography treatment, verbiage, terminology, etc) for your brand. Once we have everything defined for you, we will start creating standards in practical form, implementing those standards within the deliverables of a Proposal Template and a Presentation Template. The Proposal Template will be a Microsoft Word template that you can use for pitching your services to your prospects. The Presentation Template will be a Microsoft PowerPoint template that you can use to create your presentations. It should be noted that it is quite common to have various specific needs for a new standard to be created in unique instances over time, and these templates will only take into account what we know at that time. As new situations arise that require a new standard to be created, we can do that on an as-needed basis for you. It is also equally important to note that we are not including any writing in the template creation. We can assist with the writing, of course, but that is not in the scope of this proposal at this time. Product Packaging is a general catch-all term that really means that we will be working on creating “products” out of your services to make them more easily consumed by your audience in various mediums. At this point, we do not know in what form this will take, which is why it’s a “general catch-all term.” Once we have all of the above work completed, we have what we need to create your Website. In a business-to-business scenario, the Website’s goals should be to establish credibility and pique the interest of your prospects. It should not be an educational resource that takes the place of your salespeople. The salespeople need to have the sales conversation with the prospect. The Website’s job is to get them into that conversation. Also included in the Deliverables is a Corporate Brochure that can be 4 or 8 pages. Its purpose will be to clearly communicate the company’s brand using all of the tools we create in the first few deliverables above. It will follow the graphic standards we create in the two templates and will have the same tone we set in the same. Finally, we will create social media profiles for tablets, mobile devices and desktops across LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. At this point, we are in a position to turn our focus to your Lead Generation and potential Advertising. We will address that in Phase II of our engagement.

This depends on the client and on the project. We would definitely need a phone call to determine what we need from you.

Creating value for my clients and their customers using marketing as the tool.

I enjoy the freedom of working on what I want, when I want and not working on things I don't want to work on. That's the bottom line.

Not everyone should choose me. You should only choose me if you are willing to trust me. I truly do not want to work with clients who don't trust me with their best interests. So choose me if you want value beyond a marketing guy. Choose me if you want to increase your company's value through marketing. But only choose me if you are willing to trust me. :)