An Interactive Branding Strategy Firm

Revolutions start quietly, in back rooms.

Joseph Szala met Jason Bowser at a mutual client's wedding. Szala was a designer and creative director growing a fledgling business with the help of some seriously high-profile clients willing to take a risk, Bowser, a strategist and producer held hostage in corporate america, but on mercenary status moonlighting with a web development business.

Like the uncanny relationship between chocolate and peanut butter, peas and carrots,  quarks and leptons, they connected instantly. The two shared similar backgrounds and ideals with respect to the current state of capitalism and the importance of branding in building strong businesses.  You could say it was branding that brought them together.

They also shared a similar distain towards the "Big Dumb Agencies" who had conditioned clients into celebrating mediocre work, who had convinced businesses that tangible results that never actually dropped to the bottom line still represented effective campaigning and to keep the money coming. The two shed a tear towards the poor businesses who bought this crap, who really weren't bad brands, just misled. 

The agencies had become a guild of thieves and something had to be done about it. Revelation, obscenity and possibly too much drink followed, the revolution began and Vigor was formed.

To Vigor, it was clear that new media had pushed its way to the center of the business universe, so it was silly not to recognize e-related media channels were rapidly becoming a totally acceptable—and preferred—gateway to connecting consumers to brands, both services and products.  This was happening at a break-neck rate and at the expense of the poor brands who didn't have a champion to lead them through the chaos.

Today's consumers have evolved beyond those of ten years ago. They have decision-making power like never before and can sniff out a cheap tactic from a mile away.

Where it might have been effective to spend on television and billboards to develop some facade of a brand presence a decade ago, these new consumers are paying more attention to their laptops and mobile phones. They'd rather challenge your claims than drink your Kool Aid wholesale. They're a skeptical bunch who doesn't appreciate anyone wasting their time.

Traditional media worked for a long time because there wasn't a better way. Agencies would throw money down a number of paths in hopes of seeing a real return on investment. Or not. If nothing else, there's always the nebulous claim that "brand awareness was increased significantly." This just isn't fiscally responsible in any way, shape or form (See figure 1), it's merely a legacy cancer in a new business landscape.

No wonder people were pissed.

Disjointed initiatives like this fostered foggy results. Companies were faced with accounting for their marketing and advertising dollars, and that's never going to change. What was spent? What was seen in return? Return on investment is what keeps businesses solvent. A path to achieving tangible results must be clearly defined prior to even starting a campaign. It's just common sense.

As a first order of business, Vigor adopted a cleaner, simpler approach focused on directing singlular, streamlined actions toward common objectives. Each action is linked with others through a central e-location—each brand touchpoint, each call-to-action can be measured and benchmarked. We call it e-Centric Brand Strategy and it saves a ton of time and money. (See figure 2.)

As a result, Vigor makes a rule of demonstrating tangible, measurable results instead of making excuses to justify your spending.

We've focused Vigor on being a research-driven creative firm with a big toolbox and inquisitive craftsmen, intent on employing creative to align with strategy based on acheiving measurable results.

As logicians, we thrive on the demanding, problem-solving aspects of brand-building, replete with brain-twisting challenges. As creatives, we live for the opportunity to meet these challenges in unique ways that might manifest as design, copy writing, strategy, communicating, or sometimes things not nearly so traditional. Whatever it takes to get the job done.

It's not what we know as experts about developing Web sites, graphic design, marketing communications, writing or printing. These are just tools through which a solid strategy is implemented. A craftsman is expected to have a deep knowledge of his tools. His measure of excellence is in how he uses these tools in a unique way to achieve successes beyond all others.