CS Creative Employee Blog

In this series conclusion about developing a brand identity for Texas Instruments’ (TI) medical business unit – TI HealthTech – we look at results following its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this past January. We reviewed the discovery phase in the first installment of the series, describing our research with key TI stakeholders. In the second post, we shared the products that make up the entire brand portfolio, including graphics for different marketing materials and digital components such as banner ads and a website.

Now that the new brand identity is in the public marketplace, our clients at TI have graciously shared some initial results that the new brand has achieved.

Although it’s too early to have solid analytics from the campaign, initial indicators show that online conversions have increased since the branding launch. Based on client feedback, the new brand has exceeded all of its objectives.

Objective 1: Communicate that they are able to meet the needs of new audiences and provide new products.

The introduction of unique, yet clearly related brands showed CES attendees that TI HealthTech now served new markets. “Externally, the media and our customers have commented on how easy the new segment break up and name is and how much sense it makes that we went in this direction,” TI said. “The media were very interested in our business shift to focus more on Health & Fitness.”

Objective 2: Emotionally connect with their customer needs on the first brand encounter.

The mosaics demonstrated how TI HealthTech supports the development of the customer’s products, and eventually helps create happy, healthy end-users.

Objective 3: Educate and equip the internal team and sales reps on how to position the business unit.

The cohesive and polished branding, message map and internal training sessions educated the sales team to better understand and communicate their new direction. This helped empower the team to be brand advocates, and to drive their message to more divisions at prospective companies. “The biggest surprise was in finding out that we received so many positive comments internally,” TI said.

Objective 4: Generate awareness and excitement around the new brand both internally and externally.

The client reported the following feedback:

• “EVERYONE is pleased with the way it turned out and seeing it live at CES sealed the deal! I had several communications managers and our business teams say, ‘I just noticed the awesome mosaics and how many end equipment devices they had in them — and every one is different!’”
• “Internally, I’ve received great and positive comments from my counterparts in communications all the way to the top of the organization. I’ve received input that other businesses should consider going through the same process. Everyone likes seeing the segments have their own icons and imagery.”
• “We get comments regularly on how nice the program turned out, and the response to the new name and graphic has been above expectations.”

Our client has also shared with us how much everyone involved in the process thoroughly enjoyed it. “I most enjoyed seeing the team and process come together in the decision-making phase, selecting the graphics, and seeing their expressions when they were satisfied with the results.”

The unveiling at CES was the icing on the cake, made more memorable by all the positive feedback the team received from visitors and guests.

“HealthTech is by far the best space,” our client said. “It was very obvious what we were all about, and the graphics and new branding elements were solely responsible for that. CES was the perfect platform to unveil such a big program.”

In addition to the success we had at CES, we just got word that the TI HealthTech branding initiative was selected as an American Marketing Association Crystal Awards finalist.

If you’d like to check out the other posts in this series, please click on the links below:

A Healthy Brand From the Ground Up – Part 1

A Healthy Brand From the Ground Up – Part 2

In our last post we shared a little about the foundational work done to create a new brand for Texas Instrument’s medical business unit. The research showed the value and equity in the parent company’s reputation and expertise, so it was important to tie back to TI. And it was important to create a name that speaks to their expanding product applications and audiences.

The chosen name was TI HealthTech, and divisions were identified as: Fitness, Health and Imaging. We also created a tagline: Engineering Components for Life. A message map was written as a guideline for the TI HealthTech team when speaking internally, to customers and to prospects.

Now came the part where we were able to bring the brand to life visually! Following are examples of some of the materials we designed. TI HealthTech, and each division, was assigned a color palette, an icon and a lifestyle mosaic image created from hundreds of images of the TI products and applications. This concept drives home their brand vision – providing technologies that help clients create innovative products to transform healthcare worldwide. Clients and prospects can immediately see how TI HealthTech will benefit them and their customers.

Following are the product guidebook covers:

Additional marketing pieces included web page headers…

…online banner ads…

…an eNewsletter header…

…and other marketing materials.

The new brand was to be revealed at the industry’s largest exhibit, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Come back next week to read about how the launch was received and hear about the results TI HealthTech achieved as a result of the new branding and marketing materials.

What do you think? We’d love your feedback! If you missed our first post describing the initial stages of preparing for this project, click here. And be sure to check back next week for the final post in the series that details the results following the rebranding.

UPDATE: If you missed the conclusion post in this series, please click here to find out the process by which we analyzed the medical business unit’s greatest marketing need and then gathered all the stakeholders together to develop an understanding of how a new brand might look like.

Identifying the need

We recently had the privilege of working with Texas Instruments (TI), one of our longstanding clients, on branding its medical business unit. Most of the internal divisions at TI are positioned by the product they develop or the audience they talk to, so this business unit was known simply as the medical business unit. The division broadened its product offerings and targeted industries, so medical no longer covered all of their offerings. They needed an impactful way to communicate this expanded focus internally and to their customers/prospects. We were brought in to develop a brand position, identity and key messaging to address their audience needs from the first brand encounter, and set them apart in the competitive marketplace.

The process

To launch our branding efforts, we sat down with TI’s medical business team to understand their marketing objectives and challenges, and we gathered binders full of information about TI, the medical business unit and other internal departments.  We then conducted a roundtable discussion with key internal stakeholders to uncover their current perceptions, how they are seen in the marketplace and how they would like to be seen. Additionally we held one-on one interviews with TI’s international sales team members to learn about customer perception, and also interviewed current customers. The last step of our research was a marketplace analysis to determine how their competition was positioning themselves.

Compiling, analyzing and reporting back on the data led to a new brand positioning statement and blueprint for the business unit’s marketing efforts. The deliverables also included a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) and a creative brief.

Conclusion

This was the foundational step in the branding process. In the next two blog posts, we’ll fill you in on the brand and identity we developed for TI’s medical business unit, and how their marketing elements came to life. We welcome your feedback, so please check back next week for the next post in this series!

UPDATE: For a look at some of the graphics that we created for TI’s rebranding, click here to check out the 2nd post in our blog series. The final post in the series explores the results of the rebranding process following the new campaign’s debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January of this year.

We’re all about going the extra mile to help our clients, especially if it means being invited to some pretty cool after-parties!

Kevin, our creative director, had the opportunity to be right at a client’s side when he assisted CARBO with their trade show booth at the ATCE 2012 conference in San Antonio last week. The venerable, 88-year-old annual oil and gas conference attracts thousands of attendees from around the world.

We worked on CARBO’s booth as well as their marketing materials leading up to the event. Check out these photos, straight from the trade show floor, including a few from the swanky Club CARBO party.

A commercial roofing company approached us with a common request: to redesign their website. After scoping the project, we very quickly realized that there was a larger problem at hand. It was more than a web redesign; it was an identity crisis.

Although DFW Urethane has been in business since 1986, the company was referred to inconsistently. Sometimes it was Dallas-Fort Worth Urethane, other times DFW Urethane or even Dallas Urethane or Fort Worth Urethane. Additionally, urethane isn’t exactly an everyday word. What is urethane? And what does it have to do with roofing?

To address the inconsistency with the company name and unfamiliarity with urethane, we began to develop a brand identity. First, the name. We agreed on DFW Urethane to be inclusive of both cities (and frankly, it’s easier to say than Dallas-Fort Worth). Because urethane roofing is applied through spraying, I wanted to include an element related to that. I also wanted to incorporate that the product is environmentally friendly and energy efficient.

After some doodling in the margins, pensive thought, and collaboration, we arrived here:

The spray pattern of the logo mark alludes to the application process. Bold, substantial type is used for the company name to reflect strength and reliability. An earth-tone palette was chosen to reflect the product’s environmental benefits. A new tagline, “Leaders in Insulated Roofing,” was also included in the logo lockup to quickly explain both urethane and the company’s product offering.

Not only did the client love the design, but others did as well. We were awarded a bronze ADDY for the design.

Koree, Kevin and Cindy with our bronze ADDY award for developing the DFW Urethane logo.

A designer’s work is never done. After we received the thumbs up from the client on the logo, we moved forward with web development and successfully launched DFW Urethane’s new website.

“After more than 25 years in business, I’m excited to have a cohesive brand identity,” said John Ewell, president of DFW Urethane. “I look forward to more creative thinking from CS Creative.”

Tradeshows are known for seminars, sales and swag, but what if you could transform the tradeshow experience into a unique, multimedia marketing opportunity?

The campaign combined traditional marketing materials with cutting-edge, new media marketing through QR codes and mobile-optimized landing pages.

We did just that for one of our long-term clients looking to get noticed at their industry’s most important tradeshow. CARBO has grown into a global leader in the oil and gas industry since first becoming a CS Creative client in 1995. They trust us to deliver marketing campaigns that attract attention and deliver results. This project was no different.

It would have been good enough to follow the same formula as our award-winning Economic Conductivity campaign from a previous CARBO tradeshow. But as the creative services director, I am always looking for ways to use new ideas and new technology to improve results.

So we created a campaign that integrated traditional marketing pieces such as direct mail and email marketing with QR codes and mobile-optimized landing pages. Results were tracked at an even deeper level using online pre-registration plus in-booth scanners and QR codes to count every responder.

When designing the theme, I focused on rich and colorful technology elements that complimented the client’s brand. We introduced the theme in pre-marketing materials and carried it across to the booth – from the masthead to the interactive touch-screen kiosks.

We developed a tradeshow theme using rich, colorful technology elements to compliment the CARBO brand.

Ultimately, the tradeshow was a tremendous success.  Over 80% of the visitors to our landing pages pre-registered online for in-booth events – which is an amazing conversion rate. We even topped the lofty performance of our previous campaign, with 8 times as many online registrations.

The best part was receiving some kudos from our client:

“I was really impressed with the results and how seamless the whole campaign unfolded, even before we got to the show,” said Steve Bell, director of global marketing communications for CARBO. “We definitely got noticed as a company on the cutting-edge of technology.”

The American Marketing Association let us know that all three entries we submitted to their annual Crystal Awards were accepted as finalists! Everyone keep their fingers crossed!

Once again, it’s been confirmed, that CS Creative pretty much Rocks! : )

The CARBO campaign – that earned CSC two top awards form the American Marketing Association – was just awarded THREE more awards from the International Association of Business Communicators! The campaign was clearly a success from the client perspective as it was recognized by their president as the reason behind their 19% revenue increase, but it’s also so great to have peers recognize the work for our creativity and strategy!

Congratulations to the entire team for the fantastic job!

CS Creative was nominated for two AMA (American Marketing Association) Crystal Awards for the Economic Conductivity campaign we created for our client CARBO. Being accepted into the Annual Houston AMA Crystal Awards Show is challenging and CS Creative was up against some heavy competition. The categories were Online Marketing Campaign and Advertising; Magazine Campaign.

Kevin attended the show with our client, and we won the top Crystal Award for both categories!! (that’s a 100% success rate if you’re scoring at home).  Steve is quoted as saying, “Needless to say this is great affirmation of the hard work and creativity our team put into this campaign. I look forward to more such creativity and success in the future.”

Kevin reported, “the event was a great night, and the awards banquet was over the top. They even had Vegas-style entertainment and singing. Our client was so happy and excited.”

There are a couple photos below, and we’ve posted the campaign and the press release on our website. Check them out here… Press Release and Campaign.

Kevin and Mark attended the Dallas Ad League Addy Awards to accept an award for the Legacy ER logo we designed.  Legacy ER is an urgent care and emergency room facility in North Dallas. We were hired to name the group, create their identity and help launch their business.  Great work team!