One of the challenges of the RV industry is the availability of products for photography. We usually have to scramble to get products in and out of the photographers, and often don’t have the leisure to take the products out for on-site photography. The solution is to use a little bit of digital elbow grease and a lot of attention to details. This tow-shot is the compilation of five photos and nearly 50 detail, color adjustment and blurred layers.

We worked with our photographer to coordinate perspective and positioning of the unit, then pieced together a library of photos that were assembled and adjusted put the product in a setting that resonates with the target audience. This product is a Toy Hauler that features a garage for ATVs, motorcycles or other recreational vehicles.

Details such as reflections of the sky and landscape are added to blend the product with the environment.

Utilizing Photoshop’s features we can give each photo a sense of movement through motion blurs, and also use blurring to create a sense of unity and depth in the completed photo.

For Starcraft, these photos will be used in sales literature, online and in PR. They become valuable assets for the Starcraft brand and are made available for local use by their dealers through easy digital access.

Because it’s the consumer perception that really matters, it’s important to understand where you brand fits into the their mind.  Understanding what consumers believe your brand stands for (and what you can deliver) allows you to better connect with, educate, and serve your customer base.  This is especially true for brands in turmoil.  Think BP.  The company has encountered a major disconnect between what they believe and what the public perceives.  Did you know that BP has led many good environmental programs?  Is it the truth that Halliburton is really responsible for the oil spill (or Transocean, or Cameron International)? Did BP believe they were telling the truth when the first spoke about the severity of the spill?  While the answers to those questions should (in a perfectly objective world) be considered by the public when judging BP, the company is swimming upstream by trying to get the public to recognize those points.

In the public’s eye, BP is responsible for (possibly) the the worst oil spill in US history.  Whether this is fair or not doesn’t matter.  What the consumer believes is what BP is up against.  Rather than tout past environmental programs or pass blame to contractors, BP would do best by acknowledging the perception of their brand and working damage control from that angle.  I’m not meaning to disparage how BP is handling their damage control efforts (PR & marketing, not oil clean up), but BP’s situation paints a clear picture of the clash between perception and reality.

It’s a very difficult task for a brand to put aside certain truths and step back from ego work to understand where they fit.  What the corporate office believes doesn’t matter.  What the agency believes doesn’t matter.  What the brand actually “does” doesn’t matter.  The only thing that truly bares any weight is what the customer believes.  The customer perception is the brand’s reality.

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Toyota (unsurprisingly) cropped up throughout the discussion and for many reasons. What was surprising is that instead of a bashing of Toyota’s falling brand, there was more talk of expectations of Toyota bouncing back.

Regardless of the current recall snafu, Toyota is still associated with quality. They’ve spent the appropriate money, time, and effort to build that branding, and even in the face of adversity it sticks. Yes, Toyota clearly has a quite a bit of work to do right now:

• They have to make things right with the customer, make good on their brand promise.
• They have to go into PR overdrive, listen to consumers, and connect/engage like never before.
• They have to invest even more into branding to make sure they don’t loose the power position of quality leaders.

The #brandchat group easily acknowledged that while Toyota may be in a tricky situation right now, they’ll be able to return full force. Why? Because they have a solid foundation. They’ve thought strategically and long-term, and haven’t (until now) allowed their positioning to falter. Because of this, they’ve built resiliency and will be able to overcome adversity.  Toyota will bounce back.

The quick Toyota lesson for today is that a smart and strategic investment in branding will pay off, even if there are rough patches.

#brandchat is a weekly forum conducted on twitter where the “community” discusses different topics in branding, #brandchat is every Wednesday at 10:00am CST.

With 20 years in the books at HuebnerPetersen, we’d like to document some of our favorite work that may have never seen the light of the world wide web for one reason or another. We’ve decided to try and compile some of this work in a series of posts that explore “things we like to do.” This first installation is a brief collection of design that involves organizing and categorizing complex information into quick, easy, understandable visuals. Some call it information design or information architecture. We don’t care what it’s called, we just love doing it.

Information design has applications from packaging, to one-on-one sales, online, editorial, educational and even billing/forms. Regardless of the setting, the design is more about what happens in the viewer’s mind than what is on the paper. Good information design equates to mental understanding and models that achieve the communication goal with a high level of success, resulting in quicker comprehension, greater retention, reduced error, more efficiency or greater impact.

These are some of the projects we’ve done over the years that proved to be effective:

Sales literature that explains Casey’s knowledge, services and applications in three distinct industrial construction settings.

An illustration used to show how Settle Inn’s franchise relationship is uniquely designed to give more control, profit and ownership to the local franchise owner.

Sales literature and illustration that explains the process and outcomes of micro-enterprise development.

An illustration of the community development process.

Simple graphic that explains time savings for an industrial construction setting where trades can work on top of each other rather than in strict sequence required by outsourcing.

Package design illustration that helps viewers quickly understand product features and benefits.

The hotel booking process redesigned to be easy to follow and reduce errors.

Experts, across the board, will agree that developing a solid strategy for your brands social media efforts is the most important driver of success.  Your strategy should be built around your long-term goals, your capabilities and resources, and your audience/customers.  While the framework for your social media strategy can be developed at the corporate level, it’s easy to overlook how you’ll integrate your dealer network.

For OEM’s a holistic social media strategy is one that functions at both the corporate and retail levels.  When developing your strategy, don’t forget that every department, every employee, and every one of your dealers represents your brand – and every one of them has access to social media.  How your dealers utilize social media will directly affect your brand.

Planning your strategy with your dealers in mind will help you avoid disjointed messages and misused branding while at the same time helping your dealers to promote themselves.

Easy ways to involved your dealers:

Educate your dealers
Explain to dealers why the brand is involved with social media, the brand’s social media goals, and the different online mediums the brand will use.  Help them understand why social media is important to the brand, and how it can be useful for their own business.

Be social with your dealers
Encourage dealers to “follow” and communicate with you on all social platforms.  Follow your dealers and encourage their efforts.  This will this expose their audience to your corporate profile and work to develop community.

Keep dealers informed on corporate social media activity
Posting a video, podcast, blog post, or photo stream?  Email your dealers a link at the onset and get them excited about what you’re doing.  Jumping into a new platform?  Let you dealers know first, and encourage them to friend or follow you.  Starting a discussion online?  Communicate the goals of the discussion to your dealers and ask them to participate.

Provide dealers with tools that aid their social media efforts
Help dealers learn how to get the most out of social media.  Teach them how to pinpoint local prospects with online profiles, how to monitor their dealership online, how to setup profiles and best use them, and how to link to corporate profiles.  Be a resource for your dealers.

By including your dealers in the strategy and tactics you develop for social media, you’ll expand the reach of your efforts.  Make sure that when developing your social plan you don’t forget that every dealer can become involved with social media and have a positive influence on your brand.

We’ve started a tradition of designing and producing a unique notebook each year, as a way to say thanks to our clients, vendors and friends. 2010 is the second installment and we had fun developing the concept and design for this year’s book. It features a “notes” section and an “ideas” section complete with spaces for doodles, idea-ranking, next steps, date, topic and importance.

This year’s ideabook celebrated our 20th Anniversary in business. It was great to reflect on the past and be reminded of the ways we’ve been blessed by our work and our clients.

Conveniently packaged at 6×9″ we hope the 2010 ideabook might be a valuable and enjoyable sidekick.

If we neglected to send you one (our apologies), you already filled yours up, or you’d just like to get your greedy little paws on one, let us know. We’ll save  a copy for the first ten e-mail requests we get.

We recently helped position and brand Entegra Coach, a great new line of luxury Class A motorhomes. They’re stepping into the market during hard times but have a great history and dedicated family behind them. Entegra Coach is owned by the Bontrager family that has a forty-year history in the RV industry. They have a great reputation, fiscal stability and track record of marching to the golden rule, not Wall Street. So the team decided to capitalize on this commitment and history, during a time when some manufacturers futures are shaky.

The result was making “The Bontrager Promise” a prominent part of Entegra Coach’s story. Giving it a teeth and memorability. It really is a story that few of the competition could try and replicate. The strategy has come out in in ads, an elaborate invitation with “Bontrager Promise” book and eventually will result in a new website and sales literature.

But the funnest part of the project may have been getting the Bontrager Promise Logo right. We started with a rough comp then went to work looking at the signatures of the Bontrager brothers that are involved in the new brand and their late father who founded Jayco.

Consideration for legibility, truth to the actual signatures and reproduction resulted in the final version.

Here are 5 ways to help facilitate retail success:

1.  Provide insightful and effective training.
Develop programs that focus on both product training and sales training. You can have the best product training program in the world, however none of that will be effective without focused sales training. Teach your dealers to sell strategically and provide them with the tools to sell your product.

2.  Develop and install an infrastructure that supports dealers.
Streamline your operations and technology to provide the greatest benefit to dealers. This includes warranty programs, ordering systems, parts supply, marketing resources, ect. Often times, little tweaks make a world of difference. Evaluate your systems and establish infrastructure that works for your dealers.

3.  Help dealers move aged inventory.
Through specialized manufacturer driven sales events, rebates, and incentives, show dealers your commitment to their success and financial stability. Demonstrate your dedication to your product lines, your dealer network, and the overall state of your brand. Take notice when dealers are struggling to move inventory and offer them solutions.

4.  Provide dealers with marketing support.
Give dealers the materials to communicate your brand message. Targeted point-of-sale materials, Internet landing pages, Adwords, and direct marketing materials get more usage when sent from the top office. Mediums that dealers would never explore on their own have valuable potential – tap into these channels. Dealers will use what you provide.

5.  Seek out dealer’s viewpoints in all new product development.
Dealers know what will sell in their markets, they are closer to the customer, and understand their desires & needs. Ultimately, dealers are who determine the success of any new product. Consult your dealer body to develop “buy-in”, gather valuable insights, and to set the stage for new product launches. Seeking dealer opinions will help develop the strength of your product lines.

Wanna see brand equity in action? I was in the camping section today and observed this side-by-side comparison of two “Emergency Ponchos.”

One was an obscure brand and the other was Coleman. Same poncho. Same basic packaging. Only the brand names were different – yet the Coleman brand was commanding a 22% higher margin!

If you think the marketing dollars that Coleman has spent over the years has been an expense and not an investment in brand equity…think again!

Providing customers with something new and different is not strictly about innovation, innovative products are ineffective if they don’t meet customer needs. The best brands and companies anticipate customer needs. They have their ear to the ground and finger on the pulse of culture and technology — BUT, most importantly, they know their customers. They have relationships with their customers. Being able to figure out what more you can offer your customers is impossible without a true knowledge of who your customers are.

With the mountains of data readily available, the plethora of research platforms that exist online, a growing crowd of citizen journalists, and the explosion of social media, all brands and companies, no matter what size, have the opportunity to forge customer relationships.

It sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s not that easy. Developing real, meaningful relationships with customers takes handwork (research & strategy), persistence (several rounds of failure), patience (no relationship is built over night), and skillful listening (meaningful relationships are two way streets). Deciding to develop customer relationships is big step that requires commitment, but it’s worth it.

The insights you gain from knowing your customers are invaluable, and more importantly if you’re not taking the time to build meaningful relationships with your customers — someone else will (or already is).