Blog
Welcome to Notes from Beyond the Boxes.
The bulk of this blog is about marketing and branding; more specifically Gonzo-style marketing and branding. So if you’re looking for a blog on Icelandic poets from the 17th century you’ll have to look somewhere else. Similarly, if you’re looking for a stuffy agency using the latest “corp-speak” buzzwords you should hit your back button now. However, if you’re looking for marketing info you’ll find useful and fun to read, ways to trim your costs without sacrificing quality, and info to help you brand your business without breaking your bank account – stick around.
Logo Design and Branding: RETRO
Traditionally the Burleson Chamber of Commerce annual gala celebrates a different city each year. However, 2012 marks the City of Burleson’s centennial celebration. So rather than celebrating a place, the 2012 Burleson Chamber Gala is celebrating a time – specifically 100 years worth of time. The Burleson Chamber contacted Gonzo Strategies to take on the tasks of developing a name for the event, performing the logo design, and creating consistent branding. We developed “RETRO: A Timeless Gala Celebrating 1912-2012”. Because the...
read moreLogo Design and Branding: Burleson Wine Crawl
The Old Town Burleson Wine Crawl is an event started in Burleson, TX in 2011 by Reis Event Management and The Ritz Salon and Spa. The purpose of the Wine Crawl was to promote local businesses in the Old Town Burleson area prior to the holiday shopping season. Retail businesses had exhibits and ran special sales for attendees while local wineries offered complimentary tastings and sold wine by the bottle. In addition to the shopping available, businesses were paired with local non-profits to help raise money, and live music was played by local...
read moreWebsite Development: The Ritz Salon and Spa
The Ritz Salon and Spa is an upscale salon and spa in Burleson, TX. In addition to the standard services you would expect to find in a salon; The Ritz also has massage therapists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and more on site. Also located inside The Ritz is The Glitz, a boutique targeting women who want to complete their trendy look with trendy clothing and accessories. Prior to working with Gonzo Strategies, The Ritz Salon and Spa had a website that required a web designer to make changes and update content. Because the products they...
read moreWebsite Development: Dodge Legal Group
Dodge Legal Group is law firm with offices in Dallas and Fort Worth, TX, focusing primarily on business and employment law. While Dodge Legal has had a web presence for several years, their old site had become dated. The platform it was built on lacked modern website design elements we’ve come to expect in today’s marketplace. Dodge Legal Group also wanted to take the next step in online marketing by connecting their site to social media and launching a blogging platform to educate their existing clients, and promote their expertise to...
read moreWebsite Development: The Mindset Matters
The Mindset Matters is a non-profit organization in Fort Worth, TX; dedicated to promoting credit education and financial literacy among children and adults. They do this through workshops, coaching, and community outreach. One of the key elements necessary for The Mindset Matters to fulfill their mission is a website that can act as a central hub for resources and information. Because Mindset Matters is a non-profit organization, it was important for them to have a site they could maintain themselves in order to keep ongoing website...
read moreWebsite Development: Teresa Nelson Speaks
Teresa Nelson Speaks is an offshoot of Teresa Nelson’s primary business, Teresa’s Treasures. Gonzo Strategies recently did a branding strategy and logo design to launch Teresa’s speaking business. The next step was to develop a WordPress website for Teresa to give details about the types of topics she presents that would appeal to the audience she’s trying to reach. Because she’s a public speaker, we wanted to make sure her topics and the words on the pages were the focal points of her site. By working from this idea, along with the...
read moreBranding Essentials: Understanding Pixels
Last time I talked about the different types of electronic artwork and the differences between pixels and vectors. Since I spent most of my last post discussing the importance of vectors I thought it fair to give pixels equal time. When it comes to using images and logos to support your company’s branding, it’s important for you to have an understanding of pixels and resolution so you’ll know what your graphic artist is talking about when he tells you he needs “hi-res” or “web friendly” images. Unless...
read moreBranding Essentials: Why You Need to Know About Vectors
“When it comes to branding, Vectors make the world go ‘round” Recently I was working on setting up a promotional product for one of my clients that needed to include logos and branding from a variety of businesses in the Fort Worth area. When I asked for vector art, what I got was everything but vector art. So I thought now would be a good time to give a primer on why vector artwork is important for branding, and a guide to help you determine if your art is or isn’t in vectors. What is vector artwork and why is it important for...
read moreThe 3 Letters You Need To Know To Market Your Business
Ages ago when I was teaching a class on marketing for small businesses and start-ups one of the students asked a question that still makes me chuckle. He said, “Can’t you just tell me what works and I’ll do that.” If I had the universal answer to that question I could retire. The short answer to his question was, “All of it works, and none of it works.” But in order for any of it to work for you long-term you need to know 3 simple letters: USP. For those of you who read that really quickly and transposed a couple letters,...
read more“Me Too” Is a Dangerous Marketing Strategy
As someone who eats, sleeps, and breathes marketing; there’s a common tactic I see that just makes me cringe. I don’t cringe because it’s offensive or tasteless. I cringe because I know the business using it is on a dangerous path. The tactic I’m talking about is one I call “me too marketing”. Me too marketing means you’ve seen your competitor putting out a marketing message that’s so good you become envious. So you start screaming to the world, “Me too!! Me too! I do that...
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