Resources

Ideas that engage, inspire and inform.

Welcome to our new resource center for sharing ideas. We made a commitment to constantly challenge ourselves to publish useful, relevant and entertaining content for our clients, prospects and professional colleagues. We invite you to look around, download any of our eBooks or articles and to watch our films and videos. We welcome your feedback and if you have requests for content on any other topics, please let us know.
 

Emotional Branding

Emotional Branding

Turn Your Audiences into Believers and Followers Whether we admit it or not, we all fall under the spell of brands that tap into our particular values, aesthetics, or worldview. That appeal to our emotions and sense that we are intimately understood is a powerful pathway that marketers can leverage to build greater customer loyalty, […]

Breaking Brand

Why Every Brand Needs to Evolve

Brands are becoming less about actual products and services and more about the values and communities that surround them. Authentic meaning and connection are what smart brands are built on, fueled by social media, real-time messaging, and larger societal issues. Learn more about what it takes to build a brand that draws interest and loyalty […]

Digital Marketing Campaigns

Factors of a Successful Digital Campaign Just about any marketing campaign today has at least some digital component. But simply using digital tactics without careful consideration of how to optimize their advantages will yield disappointing results. In our free “Digital Marketing Campaigns” white paper, you’ll get a better understanding of what questions to ask first, which elements […]

Creating a Brand That’s Built to Last

Whether you’re establishing your brand for the first time or refreshing it to stay up to date with your audiences, it helps to have a process to ensure that your brand is relevant, unique, and works hard for years to come. The Channel BrandBuilderTM is an easy to follow yet thorough roadmap for knowing where […]

Be Sure Your Brand’s Walk Backs Up Its Talk

Brands are becoming increasingly engaged in, or at least supportive of, initiatives aimed at addressing social, environmental, healthcare, political, and other issues. However, many are also finding out that it’s far more challenging to live up to these values through tangible actions than it is to simply engage in virtue signaling. Our free ebook, “Be […]

What Does Your Brand Sound Like?

We usually associate the identity of a brand with its visual presentation—a logo, graphic design, or even a specific color. However, a unique sound signature can also be a powerful asset for providing audiences another way to recognize and remember you. Learn more about how sound branding has been used by leading marketers and enterprises […]

8 Ways to Seperate Your Brand from the Crowd

8 Ways to Separate Your Brand from the Crowd

Be Noticed by Willing to Be Different Your brand depends on differentiation from the competition. You can do this through any number of variables—price, quality, packaging, service, etc. But what if your marketplace is packed with competitors who collectively have formidable advantages over you in all of these and other factors? If so, it’s time […]

TDC Web Builder

TDC WebBuilder

Building a website is easy. Building a website that’s functionally, creatively, and strategically sound is less so—but will be a powerful branding and marketing asset for achieving your audience engagement and retention goals. The TDC WebBuilder provides a concise overview of the various steps and components to create a robust website. Whether you’re looking to […]

Brand Symphony

Developing and sustaining a strong brand is a lot like conducting a symphony orchestra. Every element that goes into your brand— positioning, messaging, identity and visual assets, engagement channels, and more—all play important parts in creating the most impactful and memorable impression on your audiences. However, these pieces must be carefully managed and implemented in […]

Design Thinking

Design Thinking

The Art of Problem-Solving When most people hear the term “design thinking,” they often regard it as a process pertaining only to artistic pursuits. However, design thinking is actually an approach to problem-solving that has been practiced for millennia in a wide range of applications and arenas. In short, it’s a formalized way of applying […]

Event Branding

Event Branding

Make Your Meeting a Must-Attend Experience An annual meeting, conference, or trade show is a tremendous opportunity to attract new prospects, strengthen ties to current members, and highlight the unique value your organization offers. In other words, it’s a prime branding opportunity—one that you can’t afford to overlook. In fact, creating an effective sub-brand for […]

Brand Identity Guidelines

Brand Stewardship

Making Sure Your Brand Always Puts Its Best Foot Forward While you may have invested a significant amount of time and effort in developing a new brand identity for your organization, you need to resist the urge to immediately apply these to all of your marketing materials before you take one more critical step. Developing […]

So What’s Your Story?

Effective Brands Use Narrative to Engage Customers Hard facts and figures usually inform most of our day-to-day purchase decisions. Whatever’s faster, lighter, bigger, longer lasting, or less expensive usually wins our wallets. But when we’re looking at products or services that might show our values and beliefs to others, we often look for brands to […]

Uncommon Branding

Building a Brand that Separates You from the Crowd Exceptional brands draw deep loyalty and even fanaticism among their followers. They represent a perspective that touches upon an often unspoken value or belief—and provide the expression of that value or belief that an individual is proud to display or partake in. Think Apple, Tiffany, or […]

7 Steps to Building Your Brand

A Guide to Creating a Lasting Brand Once a term used almost exclusively in the marketing and advertising industry, branding is now a common term for everyone. And while branding is generally understood by anyone, what is far less known is how to actually build a brand. And even more scarce is knowledge of what […]

AIGA Design Census

The 2016 Design Census is partnership between AIGA and Google. It grew out of the annual AIGA Salary Survey and recognizes the need for open source data about designers, for designers. It is supported by numerous design organizations including IDSA, IXdA, SEGD and Ico-D, the NEA and many design schools. One statistic that came out […]

Cause Marketing eBook

Make the Case for Your Cause Often, non-profit organizations assume that the nobility and virtue of their causes are self-evident to everyone. As a result, they believe that they don’t need to have a strategic communications effort in place to attract attention. The fact is, making your cause noticed, supported, and ultimately an effective vehicle for […]

Branding for Associations eBook

Why Brand an Association? Many associations look at branding with skepticism. Why should a non-profit organization that serves a highly specialized audience need to brand itself? Shouldn’t its name be sufficient in letting people know what it’s about? First of all, it’s important to know what a brand really is. A brand is more than just a name or […]

Brand Design eBook

How do you want to be known? Where is your next big success? What competitive advantage can you sustain? What does the marketplace want? How much growth is possible? Success is no longer a given from simply working hard. Growth is not automatically sustainable because you did something right one time. Customers and clients are […]

Content Marketing for Lead Generation

Content Marketing for Lead Generation eBook

Lead generation is key to starting the sales process—but how can you leverage content to your advantage to begin a dialogue with prospects? Prospects and customers are more sophisticated than ever when it comes to marketing communications. They know when they’re being “marketed to” and can instantly access brand, product, or service information online that […]

WordPress eBook

WordPress eBook

Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned design professional, if you’re looking to build a website, you can’t go wrong with WordPress. WordPress is a content management system that serves as the foundation for millions of websites today. It’s the go-to choice for anyone who wants ease of use as well as powerful functionality. Why […]

Brand Positioning

Brand Positioning Evaluation eBook

Brand positioning is one of the most important steps in building a memorable brand. Determining the elements that go into a strong brand positioning statement, however, isn’t easy. You’ve probably already conducted a lot of research to gain a deeper understanding of the perceptions surrounding your brand. You’ve also sifted through this information to identify […]

Messaging

Messaging with One Voice eBook

Before you can start spreading the word about your brand, you need to learn what your brand messaging voice is. And determining that voice, if you want it to be an accurate reflection of what your organization is really about, requires identifying a number of key messaging components. These should be examples of values that […]

Brand Attraction

Brand Attraction eBook

Brand attraction: what is it? Brand attraction involves more than just having a particular preference—it’s a love affair. It’s a relationship that turns audiences into fierce advocates and lifelong evangelists for a brand. In other words, it’s the kind of relationship that every organization or company dreams of having with its customers. This eBook explores […]

Content Marketing eBook

Content Marketing eBook

Content marketing is embraced by more brands today as a standard pillar in their marketing arsenal. But just what is content marketing? Is it the same as social media? What does it look like? How long has it been around? What kind of value does it deliver? What is it? A helpful way to understand […]

Brand Clarity

Brand Clarity eBook

Just about every company or institution today claims to have a brand. But what exactly is a brand? Simply put, a brand is the expression of an organization’s philosophy, culture, abilities and goals. Branded communications materials can announce or mumble, inform or confuse, delight or depress, stimulate or irritate, and make or break a sale. […]

Healthcare Marketing eBook

Healthcare is one of the most complex and challenging industries to market successfully today. The rapidly changing dynamics, policies, and infrastructures must be navigated with agility. However, there are a number of hard-and-fast elements that cannot be ignored and must be incorporated into any healthcare marketing plan. Whether it’s a large healthcare system, a local […]

Branding and Identity: An Overview Slide Presentation

Branding and identity: an overview of elements and principles Branding and identity are terms that are commonly tossed around in even casual conversation nowadays. But what exactly is branding? What can it do? What processes are involved in developing a brand? Do you know what it truly means? Contrary to popular belief, a brand isn’t […]

Online Reputation Management eBook

Your online reputation should be a top priority. It’s no surprise nowadays that your company’s online reputation is increasingly being defined by how your customers describe their experience with your products and services—especially in online channels and social media. People are 12 times more likely to listen to customer reviews than to your marketing messages. […]

Managing Creativity eBook

Creative team management Regardless of their job titles, your creative team members form the engine of your marketing organization. They generate the ideas and tools that make your organization stand out and help lay the groundwork for advancing your competitive position. As such, it’s important to know how to get the most out of their […]

Destination Brand Building eBook

Destination Brand: Arriving at Better Solutions Developing a compelling destination brand for a region, county, city, or location-based attraction involves understanding factors that are different from those of a product or service. Characteristics such as historical landmarks, local customs, nightlife, and even weather can play major roles in determining how a destination is marketed. In […]

Is Direct Mail Dead? eBook

Direct Mail: Does It Still Work? Direct mail has had a long history of success. But it’s interesting to see the disconnection between data-driven digital natives who claim that direct mail is dead and the facts that clearly show how direct mail is still producing significant ROI, profits, and response every day. Certainly, direct mail […]

Branding for Independent Schools eBook

Tips for private and independent schools Independent schools enjoy a number of advantages over most standardized or public institutions. These include smaller classes, more personalized instruction, greater freedom to explore new subjects and experiences, a mission-driven culture, etc. Yet when it comes to developing—and creating consensus for—a brand persona, independent schools often face major challenges. […]

Higher Education Branding and Marketing eBook

Higher visibility in higher education In the early 1950’s, M&M’s was one of a dozen candy-coated chocolate brands on the market. However, in 1954, M&M’s announced itself as the confection that “melts in your mouth, not in your hand.” While any of its competitors could have made the same claim, M&M’s was the very first […]

Unique Value Proposition Exercise

Find your Unique Value Proposition Do you know what sets your brand apart from your competitors? What benefit do you offer that no one else does? If you don’t know this, you’ll find it tough to be noticed in a crowded marketplace. Whether you’re a start-up or an established enterprise, identifying your Unique Value Proposition […]

Branding Essentials eBook

Branding isn’t just a marketing industry term—it’s part of popular culture Anything can have a brand nowadays. Celebrities, sports teams, and even political leaders all tout their brands. However, effective branding is more than just a recognizable face or logo. It requires discipline and insight. No matter what is being branded, it’s important to remember […]

Branding for Banks eBook

Is Branding for Banks Really that Important? Ask a bank CEO to choose between budgeting hundreds of thousands of dollars for branding and hiring several new business development officers, and he or she will always go for the latter. Most bankers typically believe that their success is built exclusively on personal contact—there’s no way success […]

Positioning eBook

Positioning for better branding Before your ad, social media campaign, or website sees the light of day, there’s one that has to be set in stone. Your company or organizational positioning is the foundation for any marketing communications. It establishes what you do, who you serve, and what makes you unique—all things that define your […]

10 Steps to Successful Direct Marketing eBook

Direct marketing tips for better results Believe it or not, direct marketing/mail is still a highly effective channel for engaging prospects and customers. Direct mail is tangible, tough to ignore, and, as a result, often provides a better opportunity for engagement and exploration than email or other forms of digital marketing. However, there is a […]