When my soon-to-be husband and I started shopping for our first home he told me he would not move out of the town limits of Vail proper. Ultimately, we ended up buying just down the road in EagleVail. It is a part of unincorporated Eagle County and more of a neighborhood than any of the other areas up valley. It has always been a great community with people using the parks, pool and golf course, and just out walking with their kids and dogs in the neighborhood. But the last year has seen a shift in the community. The board got approval for a small tax increase and built a new pool that is focused on the community. They hired a professional manager, and some individuals in the community came together to build a true community garden. They have started holding small community events.

I spent a couple of years branding and marketing high end real estate before the real estate crash. And, it is really fun to see the brand for this community build organically. It is so different than what we did in creating the brand the client wanted and then shaping the community around it. In this case, the community, without possibly even intending it, is creating its own brand based on the desires of the people in the community.

This spring we had neighbors who were renting while looking for a home to buy. They extended their lease several times because they were determined to buy their new home in EagleVail. This summer I saw an aquaintence in the area three times in one day. When I asked her if she had moved here from Edwards she replied, “No, but we should.” EagleVail has become a really great community for families and locals, and I am sure it is on its way to becoming an even better place for locals and families to live.

One word. “Brilliant!”

It shouldn’t surprise me that the first advertisement that has ever, really ever, blown me away came from Tony Hsieh and Zappos. I think I am a good marketer. I’ve managed some really great branding projects. I understand target markets. I “get” social media and understand how to integrate it with other marketing channels. I have some beautiful and effective work in my portfolio that I am really proud of. I have NEVER ever been blown away by an ad like I just was with the new Zappos ad in Real Simple Magazine. They did so many things right, and it wasn’t that they took out six pages with a gate fold. But that they did it strategically and integrated so many channels while grabbing the attention of their target market.

Earlier this week I received my Real Simple Magazine in the mail. I’m busy and just haven’t had time to make magazine reading a priority in recent months, so I didn’t rush to read it. I’ve run out of good books to read at bedtime and remembered I had it in my bag so got it out and was flipping through when I came across an ad with my name on it, literally. I have a unique name so it stopped me dead in my tracks. What is this? Is this customized to me? It has to be.

Okay, then my mind goes into the technical questions only someone in the print industry would ask. How did they do this? Magazines are printed on huge web presses on humugeous rolls of paper that get folded into a big group of pages and then trimmed and typically sent out to be bound. There is no way to customize an ad to print an individual’s name on it on a web press. So, they printed that page of the ad on the outside of one of the signatures (group of pages) and then ran that through another print press to customize names on the ad. WOW–That had to be expensive. Could that ever pay off? And they did a gate fold right next to it. That isn’t cheap either. What is Zappos thinking spending so much on a print ad? So maybe I have a unique perspective on this. I start babbling about it to my husband. He thinks it is pretty cool too, but goes back to reading his book a couple of minutes later.

I’m still staring at the ad and realize I haven’t even opened up the gate fold yet. I open it up. It is interesting. Definitely targeting the mom demographic with paper doll cut out clothes. Now I realize there are some cut out doll clothing pieces missing in the closet in the gate fold, so I turn the next page. There are two more pages to this ad and wow does it include a lot more. Did I just say wow again? There’s a QR code to take you to a video featuring Zappos.com style expert. What? Zappos has a style expert? I read Tony’s book, “Delivering Happiness” and there was no mention of a style expert. And why does a shoe company that also carries accessories need a style expert?

But wait. There’s also a sweepstakes through Twitter, apparently known as Tweet Sweeps with a call to action to tweet @ZapposStyle with #zapposcloset hashtag to win a $2500 Zappos shopping spree. But then I notice that each of the missing pieces on the last two pages of the ad have the logos and brands of each piece. Zappos just plugged all of their preferred suppliers and quite possibly got them to help offset the cost of this super duper expensive ad.

They have managed to really creatively tie together so many marketing channels and techniques:

• Print Advertising
• Online Video
• Variable Data Printing
• QR Code personalized with the Zappos logo
• Social Media
• Co-op advertising

QR code, Twitter, Tweet Sweeps, video and co-oping. The new Zappos ad integrates it all while grabbing your attention. Sorry, I did get excited and make notes on the ad that you will have to excuse.

Zappos is positioning themselves as a style resource, a one stop shop to purchase every key piece that you need for your seasonal wardrobe. If this works, they may have also just changed the way we shop. Not just meaning shopping online. I would speculate that many of us every day working moms who don’t have personal shoppers, go out and buy a couple of pieces that we need at a time. And, we may see something else we like and impulse buy along the way. But Zappos is suggesting to us that we plan our seasonal wardrobe and go to them for advice on pieces to go with something we may already have. I love it!

The one question I have about their strategy was whether Twitter was the right social media channel, over Facebook which is more mainstream. But, perhaps. Twitter does have the influencers. It will be interesting to see if they can make trending topic. Okay, two questions. How many every day working moms know what a QR code is for and actually have a QR reader on their phone? I do, but I am also a marketer, and I haven’t bothered to utilize it yet to watch the video. Better do that so that I can also comment on the video. It was worth the 2-3 minutes of my time, and had a couple of good tips.

So, who is the mind behind this brilliant ad. Is Mullen, Zappo’s agency, responsible? It looks like it based on a little research. But interesting that for the last ad campaign they sent previews to major media and don’t seem to have for this one. This ad isn’t quite as sexy or brazen as the previous campaign, but in my opinion they nailed it.

What do you think? Did the ad impress you as much as it did me? Will it be effective?

I am an extremely bottom line driven marketer. My non-profit background makes me extremely conscious of ROI. So, I have to wonder if this could possibly pay off for Zappos in sales. I don’t know. It will be interesting to see. But it certainly was a really great first step to reposition themselves as a style expert and kick them out of the shoe store niche into a much wider market. Clearly more than shoes!

One of the few positive aspects of a recession is that it creates and motivates entrepreneurs. According to Entrepreneur.com, “Results from Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ job market index revealed that 8.7 percent of job seekers gained employment by starting their own businesses in second quarter 2009–way, way up from the record low of 2.7 percent during the last quarter of 2008.” New businesses create new jobs, which will also help us climb our way out of this recession. Are you an entrepreneur? Have you ever thought of starting your own business? Do you know someone thinking of starting a business? There are a few basics that you will need from a marketing perspective to get you going: a logo, business cards and a website.

We here at Kaleidos Marketing like to think of ourselves as entrepreneurs and aspire to support those like us, and those who have the motivation and creativity to help pull our economy out of this recession. So… Kaleidos Marketing is offering a branding package that includes a logo design, business card design and printing and a basic 4-5 page website designed, programmed and optimized for SEO with a content management system for only $2250. This package retails for more than $5000 and will be available for only $2250 until March 1, 2010 at which time we will consider renewing it based upon its success and positive feedback.

So, what’s the catch? Well there are a couple of limitations, but you can always add to the package. We are happy to provide estimates for any “extras”.

How does it work? You give us your elevator pitch and describe and show us a couple of logos that you like and what you like about them. We’ll take that and come up with two original logo options for you. You can then give us feedback and we’ll make one round of revisions, presenting you with a final professional logo that represents your business. Then, we’ll take the logo and put it into a couple of business card designs. Again, if you have any business cards that you really like, share them with us and what you like about them and we’ll incorporate that into your business card design. You choose the design you like, give us any changes and then we’ll send your final design to print, providing you with a set of 250 business cards that you can be proud to hand out, printed on 14pt CS25 gloss card stock. Then finally we’ll design a 4-5 page website for you and program it into a content management system so that you can change the text on the go. No need to contact us and pay us to change it for you. You have control. Once we have set you up, you will actually enter the content yourself.

This package includes a basic website, which means that it does not include any flash, e-commerce, forms, blogs, photo or video slideshows, domain name registration, hosting, e-mail, etc. You will provide content and photography. If any of these things are important to your web presence we are happy to provide an estimate and you can opt to incorporate it now, or wait until your budget allows.

Oh, and once you have entered your content and the website is ready to go live we will optimize the site for search engines. We will write meta tags for each page of the website and submit it to the larger search engines. Voila.

2009 was the year of the non-profit for Kaleidos Marketing. We had the pleasure of working with three non-profits who contribute to their communities in diverse but important ways. It was truly our pleasure to be able to help them launch new brands to best represent their organizations and services.

Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival

2009 Bravo Brand

As a summer music festival, Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival is in a position to launch a new look and feel (or brand) each season. Their logo remains the same as does the product, but the look and feel is unique to the season. The 2009 season collateral was the product of a unique partnership between, Bravo, Glyphics and Kaleidos Marketing. In our possibly biased opinion, the end result was the most beautiful collateral of the past twenty-two years, and a happy client. The 2009 season collateral included a newsletter, ticket brochure, pocket calendar, education brochure, poster, cards, invitations, bookmarks and program book. Both the design and the product (FSC and recycled paper and printing process) represented the Festival’s dedication to the future of our world and the quality for which the Festival is known.

Roundup River Ranch