The Importance of Branding & Advertising- PART I

After hearing of some of the sad closures of some of my favorite boutiques around this area, and hearing of the struggles of many small business owners these days, I've decided to blog on something I know a little about! Advertising, and Branding. For those of you who don't know before I started The 2u Collection I worked first as a graphic artist, then later as an art director in both In-house and Independent Advertising & Marketing Agencies. I did this for the last 10 years so I have quite a bit of experience designing collateral and Ads for all kinds of different industries. And most recently in the last 2 years (in addition to my invitations) I've really specialized my Advertising work to the Wedding Industry. Being a Vendor in the Wedding Industry has given me a unique and intimate perspective on this industry and has helped me create unique, more specialized branding and ad pieces to help my Wedding Vendor Clients reach their proper audience.

But enough about that, what I really want to write about is HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO DEVELOP YOUR BRAND IN THE WEDDING INDUSTRY!!

So let's start with the basics-- What is a BRAND?? an organization's brand identity represents how the company wants to be perceived in the market, what a company stands for and most importantly what the company promises to its clients.

Why develop a BRAND?? To set your company above your competition and create brand recognition in the audiences' eyes. (In this case brides, you want to create a buzz and image around your company which will spark recognition in the bride's mind and cause her to choose you out of the sea that is your competition!)This Brand Recognition will also Legitimize you to Potential Clients, Publications and Fellow Colleagues!

HOW do I as a business owner, create BRAND RECOGNITION?? As most of you know the wedding industry is saturated with many, many, many talented and amazing wedding professionals.
So how do you set yourself apart?

Create, Develop and Fine tune both the image and message you put out there. Now I know in these tough times that it can be difficult to allocate the dollars to your own Branding and Ad materials. But I am here to tell you, the one thing I've learned over the years is the companies that continue to Advertise and get their name out there during the slow economic times, are the ones that grow leaps and bounds when things start to turn around. Afterall, that is the point of a Brand to affect your bottom line!

So here are 5 financial benefits to Developing a Strong Brand Identity. (you all must excuse the car references, my husband has brain washed me.. :)

1. Brand Identity commands a Price-Premium. Why is someone willing to pay thousands of dollars more for a Lexus than for a Toyota? They are virtually the same product, minus the add on options and accessories. They are made by the same manufacturer, and they even share parts. It's because the BRAND of the Lexus is WORTH MORE in the minds of the consumer, regardless of whether the product actually functions better.

2. A Price-Premium creates the "PERCEPTION" of quality. This follows the old saying "You get what you pay for." If Product A costs more than Product B it must be because Product A is of better quality. Right? Well, not necessarily. Customers Pay more for what they PERCEIVE to be a better or higher quality BRAND! But at the same time, if you don't deliver on your "Quality" promise- there won't be BRAND Loyalty, and therefore your brand recognition will deteriorate.

3. Perceived quality has been shown to Positively Affect Customer usage. Consumers tend to select brands they perceive to be quality brands. This also connect to repeat clients, otherwise known as BRAND loyalty! Clients tend to continue to buy brands that reward them with a good experience and quality. They also tend to REFER Brands as part of that loyalty.

4. Clients relate VALUE with QUALITY. If one brand is perceived to be of higher quality than another brand, clients tend to perceive that the higher-quality brand is a better VALUE.

5. Perceived Quality can be a point of differentiation. Successful companies are continually looking for ways to differentiate their brand from the competition. Perceived quality can be used to set your company and its services apart from your competition, which then loops back to #1- enabling the company to charge a premium for their strong BRAND.

Now what does this mean to the normal small business. This means that if you can BRAND yourself, your company, your product or your services-- you will set yourself apart from your competition, and over time your brand will strengthen-- which in turn will bring Higher Premiums to your Product or Service. But keep in mind.. it's not just smoke and mirrors-- the truly successful BRANDS not only "talk to the talk, they walk the walk" and deliver everything their BRAND promises!

Next week I will blog Part 2, and it will cover how to start the branding process of your company and get your Identity recognizable!

To view a few of the brand campaigns I've created in the last few years, click the links below. To see more than this check out my website on our RE-DESIGN launch date of April 15th!! 2ucollection.com

Liga Photography

Lavish Boutique

E-Events

A Testimonial from Susan Southerland with Just Marry: (we've been working to re-brand her company for the last year) Amy has such a keen eye for brand imaging. Recently, I have had to develop three logos which fall under the same brand. Amy was able to make each logo convey its own message and they all coordinated beautifully. Brand recognition is so important for success these days. It is very important to have a graphic artist who understands your company vision to create these images. Amy just gets it!

For more information or help with developing your company brand, contact me.

To read PART II click here.

A Holiday Wedding In Charleston!

So I know it's March and by now I should have had these images posted, but you know I feel like I blinked and it went from January to April.. So forgive me Jennifer and Zachary.

Last fall I took on a project in conjunction with Ines Del Mar Weddings Magazine to create invitations and menus for a feature wedding they were doing.. The colors were silver and black, the bride requested dramatic and moody, yet couture, stylish and design forward.. So I put on my cap. We used Swarovski Crystals, Black Ribbon, Silver Metallic and Black Touché papers. Everything came out beautifully.





The Magazine, Bride and Groom and myself were all very happy with the result! Below is even the praise I received from the bride for my website! This was a not amazing to design- I am excited the invitations will be in the next issue of Ines Del Mar Weddings Magazine!



Testimonial from the Bride: Our invitations meant a great deal to my fiancé and I; they are the first impression to the big day. Honestly, I had no idea what I wanted my invitations to look like, but I knew that I wanted them to be one of a kind and extraordinary. Amy was the easiest vendor that we worked with during our entire event. I told her our colors and the general wedding theme and she delivered the invitation of our dreams! It was a perfect piece of art! The invitation brought both our mothers to actual tears. The craftsmanship, quality, and attention to detail are truly five star! Everything that she chose to use was above and beyond what we had in mind. Our family and friends left us countless messages just to tell us how marvelous our invitations were. After we saw the invitations we knew that we had to have her do our menu cards. Just as the invitation was the first impression to the wedding, the menu cards are the first impression to dinner. Our guests loved the stellar detailed menu card and loved how it mirrored our invitations. We cannot say enough about The 2u Collection! If you are looking for invitations that are unforgettable and people who are exceptional…then The 2u Collection is for you.




Visit Liga Photography's blog to take a more in depth look at this bride and groom and their fabulous wedding! (and a shout out to Abby for the studio photography of the above images)

Website Teaser!

I'll make this short. It's a teaser afterall! Heather and I have been working tirelessly on our new website design. As most of you know, when you do something for a living, your own get's ignored.. Ummmm.. The plumber with leaky pipes, and the roofer who get's wet when it rains.. Well, sometimes i get so caught up and excited in my client work that it's easy to put my own stuff off.. So the current website is a victim.. It was put up over a year ago in a weekend rush. Finally, Heather and I have spent the time to feel proud and excited about our own voice to the public. We will get to showcase all of the great work that we are proud of that we have accomplished in the last 6-8 months! April 15th is the Launch date! But in the meantime.. here is a teaser of the new home page!

Hope you like!

WINNERS!! WINNERS!!

Better late than never!! I got caught up in paper, so I apologize for not blogging this sooner!! The winners of the Warm and Fuzzy Paper Couture Contest.. Susan Southerland of Just Marry!! Even though her favorite and most relied upon co-worker is growing and moving forward in her career, Susan still had these great things to say:


I nominate Michele Butler. Eleven years ago we were strangers. Since then she has grown to be not only my right hand, but my closest friend, confidant and best cheerleader. She is about to embark on a new adventure career-wise, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention what an amazingly gifted wedding planner and manager she is. I will miss working with her everyday. Fortunately, cocktails on the weekends will be never ending. :-)

Great job ladies for sharing the love for so many years!! Expect your Paper Couture goodies to arrive soon!!

Mr. & Mrs. Dixon! It's Official.

So this blog entry will be a bit more detailed than I normally do. If you follow this blog you know this wedding was more special than the excitement of creating unique wedding collateral. (you can click the link at the end of this blog to read the first pre-wedding blog). Not only did I get carte blanche on the design of this project, this was the wedding of my close friends Robyn and Andrew Dixon! The happy couple is pictured below!



Because my husband and I are close with the bride and groom we had the pleasure of being involved in this wedding from engagement to vows. This was exciting for many reasons, I got to see this amazing wedding go from concept and dreaming to reality.. This was mainly due in part to the hard work of both Robyn and Lisa Konecny from E-Events Design. Due to Andrew's British heritage, Robyn wanted to get married at their home with an English Garden Theme. Lisa did an amazing job on making this fantasy become a beautiful event. This is her below working on some final touches!


These 2 ladies cooked up some pretty clever and unique ideas to really blend the American and English heritages of both the bride and groom. Robyn borrowed several sets of antique china from various family members, And it made for beautiful tables, and as you can see above tea time during cocktail hour before the wedding.

And because of the English Garden theme, there were yard games, and outdoor seating areas to really get guests into the theme.


Moores Fine Foods created amazing cuisine for the event, plated dinners of filet and ahi tuna were served to guests on mix and match china patterns.

Below is where the happy couple said their vows, and because I'm close with the couple I know Andrew poured his heart and soul into this "wedding deck." He built this deck with his own 2 hands and not much help from anyone else. I can assure you it was hard work, he even had to clear out the forest to make room to build it.

And Lisa had a great idea, to take a chandelier from the house and hang it over the deck for a romantic touch. It was an amazing effect, and later when the deck became the dance floor, it made for great pictures!



Once the vows were said and Robyn and Andrew became "The Dixon's" it was time for dinner, this was exciting for me, because I created and designed several of the pieces, from menus to escort cards, table numbers and much more. Once I learned the theme of the wedding and heard robyn was thinking of using doves in a nest as a cake topper my mind started working. I came up with an idea of making the escort cards in the shape of birds that were placed in 2 topiary plants. Above is the end result and below is a more detailed studio shot of the birds. And I must say they were a big hit!


Some detailed shots of the menus, place cards and table numbers on the tables, and below a studio shot of the menu. it was 2 sided, and they were placed on the tables rotating which side was up. Made for great pictures!


The tables looked amazing, and let's not forget the florals-- by Flowers of Winter Park!


One more thing that I created for this wedding that is not only unique but a sentimental replacement for the guest book. In Lieu of a Guest Book, we at The 2u Collection created wish cards. I supplied a beautiful silver and teal keepsake box. We designed and produced Wish Cards that guests wrote their wishes for the couples future. This ensures in the years to come the bride and groom can re-live there special day over and over as they read the special notes from their friends and family!


Extremely stylish and beautiful not to mention delicious cake by Cakes by Design.



And lastly, I designed Thank yous, to match all the other collateral of the event.. With Kindness and Gratitude is the message the bride and groom will send thanks to all of their guests!

A great day had by all, and I wish my great friends all the happiness they can stand! And I am touched they included me in their special event not only as a friend but the designer in me loves them for giving me so much freedom to imagine their project with no limits!

XOXO to you both!

And a special thanks to Lisa of E-Events.. This was our first official wedding together and I really enjoyed working with her. To all of the other vendors-- as a guest I must say-- you all did an amazing job and I look forward to working with you all in the future!

(special thanks to Liga Photography -- Abby shot all of the studio shots of the collateral!)


Read a Pre-Wedding Blog about Save the Dates & Invitations for this event.