Soap and Glory thank Vicky Vaughan

Vicky Vaughan, boss of the Brand Surgery, Branding agency in Worthing, Sussex, will be giving a short presentation entitled ‘DO A MADONNA – the Secret to Branding Success’ at the FSB’s Ladies at lunch at the Kingway Hotel in Worthing on Wednesday 8th September at 11.45pm to 2.30pm.

This is the first talk that Vicky is giving since her book was published. DO A MADONNA has already had fantastic press in The Chamber newsletter and the founder of Soap ad Glory cosmetics, thanked Vicky personally by sending her a luxury hamper full of Soap and Glory goodies. Maybe it’s fate that Soap and Glory, and The Brand Surgery both love pink and white!

DO A MADONNA has been tipped as the most valuable branding consultation on the market. It is a fun way of looking at an important subject! Vicky will talk about ‘The Importance of Branding to your Business’ and ‘Giving your Brand a Personality’. If you would like to book a place – call Pam Thornton on 07710 024588 or email jane.field@fsb.org.uk and sharon.bryant@fsb.org.uk!

PS Vicky has been advised to mention Mercedes in her next book!

Worthing Idol takes place at Worthing Lido on Bank Holiday Monday 30th August 2010 between 12 noon and 3.30pm. It has already been pointed out that Lido is an anagram of Idol – so the location was obviously meant to be. We are all doing a ’sun dance’ in the office so that the weather is nice to us on Monday.

The line-up for Worthing Idol 2010 is amazing. You can click here to see it. Simon Cowell would be most envious if he saw the show – it is official – Worthing has definitely got talent!

Here is a movie clip of round 2 of the Worthing Idol auditions.

The Brand Surgery team have played a major role in the preparation of this event.

• Logo design and branding
• Website design and development
• Blogging and Facebooking campaigns
• T-shirt and banner design
• Marketing collateral
• Press releases and all PR
• Event planning

From the BBC website: A ban on the use of Blackberry phones to send and receive messages is being rolled out in Saudi Arabia, users say. State-owned phone operator Saudi Telecom has blocked text, e-mail, web surfing and instant messenger functions, users in the kingdom have told the BBC.”

Two things ran through my mind …

1. This news story shows how some circumstances (political and/or reglious reasons) are completely beyond our control and this can affect our brand – for better or worse! In my  book, DO A MADONNA!™, I recommend that all businesses should perform a PEST analysis on their brand as well as their business.How will this ban affect their sales? How will the ban affect the brand image in Saudi Arabia, or across the middle East. The good news is that the PR has promoted the Blackberry brand across the rest of the world. These are important subjects to consider when you go into business. I wonder what would happen if our government banned junk mail. After all, a ban would save on recycling costs, trees and print chemicals. It would be disastrous for many printers and designers who could go out of business if they didn’t have a contingency plan in place.
2. The name of brands is very interesting. Do you remember the film Crocodile Dundee? When an American reporter goes to the Australian outback to meet an eccentric crocodile poacher and invites him to New York City? Do you remember how Michael J. “Crocodile” Dundee struggled in our modern jungle? Crocodile Dundee was released in 1986, the same year as the internet. However, the internet didn’t become common until at least ten years later. Can you imagine how funny Crocodile Dundee would be if they re-released it now? What would Mr Dundee (Paul Hogan) make of Blackberry, Orange, Apple, Windows, web, O2 and even Twitter? If you said to Mr Dundee: “I’m going to Twitter today using web on my Blackberry, which is hosted by Orange”. What would he be thinking?:Twitter used to be a verb: to utter a succession of small, tremulous sounds, as a bird. to talk lightly and rapidly, esp. of trivial matters; chatter, to titter; giggle. So is twitter a good name for such a powerful form of social media? Social media experts promote Twitter as a phenomenon in business communication and networking. It is amazing that such a powerful brand wasn’t called roar or something loud!With the above said, Twitter has taken off, as have Blackberry, Orange, Apple, Windows, web, O2 and even Twitter!

If you would like to find out more about successful branding, why not purchase a copy of DO A MADONNA!™. Click here to purchase. DO A MADONNA!™ is the most competitive branding consultation around!

Richy Moss graduating at Sussex University

Meet Richy. Our clever, but non-geeky web developer. Richy joined our branding agency a few weeks ago. As you can see he recently graduated and is sporting a Computer Science BSc certificate in the photo above. Richy lives in Worthing, and when he is not working, he loves playing football at County level for Worthing United.

Naturally, we grilled Richy to find out his loves and hates, and here are his replies:

VV: So Richy, when you’re not working on websites or playing football, what do you like to do?
RM: Going to gigs – The last one we went to was Greendays.

VV: What kind of music do you like?
RM: I love anything really. Rock. Anything. Eclectic I suppose.

VV: So what is your food?
RM: Roast Lamb and mint sauce. Yummmmmmmm.

VV: So what is this Computer Science degree all about?
RM: I was on a cutting-edge course at the University of Sussex which was rated in the top 15 of UK universities for the quality and volume of our research in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). UoS taught us core skills such as Java programming and teamwork, SQL and relational database management, as well as professional issues and career development, with a focus on employability.

VV: So what will you bring to our customers?
RM: Fresh ideas, innovative approach – although I know you have oodles of that already. My work will compliment your award-winning branding agency.
VV: Oooh. Richy. Keep it coming!!

VV: Do you have any bug bears?
RM: Yes, bad functionality makes my blood boil. I hate it when things don’t make sense – like when you click somewhere on a website and what you expect to happen just doesn’t happen! Usability is key to website success. I am not a lover of flash websites and I detest seeing frames.

VV: What is your favourite website?
RM: The BBC site is excellent. I love the polished design and good functionality. It is very easy to use.

VV: While researching for this blog, Richie, look at these awful websites we spotted! They need help!
• http://havenworks.com/people/a-z/b/biden-joseph-robinette-jr/
• http://yvettesbridalformal.com
RM: Yuk. They are vile! They should come with a health warning – could seriously damage your eyesight. Are these for real?

VV: So what about website design then? Funky backgrounds seem to be fashionable right now. Do you think it will last?
RM: Yes probably because screens are getting larger all the time, so now there is more room for visual impact.

VV: Any last words?
RM: All the website development projects I work on are naturally W3C standard compliant, paying special attention to semantic mark-up to ensure our customers websites make more sales.

VV: Welcome to our team Richy!

Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression. The Brand Surgery’s speciality is branding websites combined with good functionality. So if your website is letting you down, don’t fear. Call us on 01903 824229 to have a no-obligation chat about your website. The Brand Surgery, branding agency in West Sussex serves Brighton, Portslade, Shoreham, Worthing, Littlehampton, Arundel, Chichester, Portsmouth, Horsham, Crawley and the Gatwick Diamond area.

Lisa Cooper, our work experience extravaganza, showing off her research for her pop-up book, Indiana Penguin!

This week, we pass the hot spot over to Lisa Cooper, our work experience pop-up book legend!

Hello …

My name is Lisa Cooper, I am 15 years old and I go to Davison CE High School for girls, in Worthing. Every year, amongst other schools, Davison give the opportunity for every girl in year 10 to have a go at work experience so like most others, I used this opportunity to do exactly that. I got myself a placement at The Brand Surgery – a graphic design based company. Impressed by my graphics portfolio, The Brand Surgery have asked me to write a blog about the graphics course at Davison, so here goes nothing!

At Davison, I take graphics as an option and what a brilliant option it is. Most people think that when it comes to graphics it’s all design work, but I assure you it’s far more involved than that! When I first began the course my teacher got us to practice designing, researching and manufacturing. Now, usually I would enjoy doing design work but it is slightly less enjoyable when your teacher is timing you, and every once in a while going ‘Tick … Tock’. However, what I did learn from him doing that is the time constraints sometimes issued on you when you have work to complete. This was a good method to use to prepare us for what was coming up!

The project began …

When I began the actual project, my teacher briefed us on what we needed to do and what the structure of the lessons was going to be like. He explained that we would need to do a lot of research before starting the design work. Doing this helped me gain an understanding of the requirements of the target audience I would need to aim my product at and what sort of things would appeal to them. We had a choice of either designing and creating a perfume box or a pop-up book. Now, I don’t know about you, but when given the choice between a perfume box or a pop-up book, one kinda stands out more than the other? So I chose the pop-up book. From this I started the research.

To meet the criteria of the brief the exam board gave to my teacher, I would need to do a lot of research, in a lot of detail. The three main pieces of research we had to complete were: product comparison, product disassembly and a survey. The product comparison helped me see what competition there was on the market and where gaps were – Gaps for me to fill with my product. Now, what is an interesting, unique, original and child friendly theme for a pop-up book? Indiana penguin of course! This idea ensured that it would be suitable for both males and females as it is adventurous and also. Who doesn’t love penguins?

The survey

However, a lot more research and development was needed for this idea to work. This is where the survey came in. For my survey I came up with several questions, all relevant to my theme, to be asked to three different age groups, for a range of feedback on what I could do to improve and develop my idea. From the data I received back I then converted it into pie charts and analysed it. I then wrote a detailed description of what the data suggested to me and how I was going to use it in my later designs. Seems like a lot of work for just one popup book right? Wrong! This helped me develop my work a lot as I got user group feedback and my idea was becoming more developed and evermore like a realistic goal to achieve!

After doing all the research I started on initial designs, where again I got user group feedback on all designs by doing a review, and I also reviewed my work myself to see if my designs met specification points I had written which stated what requirements my designs had to meet. From this I labeled my designs: Red, Amber and Green – A common way of self reviewing your work at Davison. Red, meaning that the design needs a lot of work, amber, meaning the design would need some work done on it, and green, meaning it meets all specification points and would need very little work done on it. After taking into account of the feedback I had got, I developed all designs that were red and amber and started to work out how my designs would work when put into a popup book, so I designed some nets and made a prototype!

Once I had made my prototype I got feedback for each product and developed them, if indeed they needed development. This helped me produce my final design accompanied by a series of nets all drawn to scale. By completing this, I had completed two ‘bits’ to the project – the research and the designing. In year 11 I will start the manufacturing part of my pop-up book and that is when I will see if all that research and development has paid off!

So to sum up… Davison offers a brilliant graphics course that will inform you and help you gain experience in, not only the basics of graphic design, but also the stages needed to accomplish researching, designing and manufacturing a product. Not bad eh?

Thank you Davisons!

Thank you to Davisons for sending us Sarah! We are well impressed with your graphic design course, and think that some university students could learn a thing or two here!

Call The Brand Surgery on 01903 824229 if you would like to find out more about our graphic design and branding services.

Indiana Penguin by Lisa Cooper

ILM NVQ Level 3 for The Brand Surgery

The Brand Surgery, branding agency in West Sussex, have been swotting up on a Train to Gain course, supplied by Northbrook College, to bring our customers an even smoother and seamless service. Brand promise and customer care are our priority, and in future, our improved back-end office system for producing logo design, web design and development, brochure design, exhibition design and so on, will be even slicker, as we have put improved systems in place as part of our training. At The Brand Surgery, we invest in our staff, so that they are continually learning, which is stimulating them, and maintaining interest. Everyone is happy!

What courses are we on?

The boss, Vicky Vaughan, is working towards The Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM), NVQ level 3  Management qualification which is broadly equivalent to a GCE A Level. This will be her second NVQ Level 3 course, after she passed the Business Setup course in 2005 with a distinction.

The NVQ in Management (NQF Level 3) has been specially designed for first line managers with responsibility for: managing budgets, allocating work to team members/colleagues/contractors, achieving specific results and for some decision making. The qualification aims to give participants an opportunity to develop their management performance, become more effective and to progress their career. Vicky is taking four mandatory units (which look at managing resources, heath and safety, leadership, and allocating/monitoring work) plus three optional units.

Jody, our creative goddess, is on the OCR Business Administration course, level 2. This qualification provides evidence of competence of being in a supporting role in an office environment. Optional units provide opportunity to show understanding and skills in a variety of areas, including basic finance, IT and contributing to events.

We would like to thank Northbrook College for working with us, in between us rebranding businesses to make them beautiful and increase their sales!

Call us on 01903 824229 if you think we can help your business grow.

The Brand Surgery training with OCR

The magicman rebrand included new logo, brochure, website and livery.

We are very proud of our latest achievement – the magicman® rebrand!

Way back last year we created a stunning new look for magicman®. Our brief was that they wanted to move the company onto the bigger things, and hence they required a new corporate look. The brief including a new logo, brochure, website and livery, plus signage for their new executive offices.

We created the magicman® logo in a variety of formats, all which can be used in various mediums eg. for press advertising (black and white version of logo), white logo for placing on dark backgrounds, blue logo for placing on white backgrounds. The accent colours are a warm lime green and stone colour. This client didn’t require a branding toolbox, however branding toolboxes are part of our platinum brand consultation service and are excellent to send out if you are having adverts designed, or to promotional product companies.

You will see we kept the dark blue for the rebrand, plus we kept the ’star’ as the ‘dot’ on the ‘i’ of magicman® – just a tadge more tasteful.

The new magicman® logo, just like The Brand Surgery logo, is a registered trademark and we recommend that if you want your company to ‘go large’ you should also do the same.

We are now well on the way with the website, and hope that before long we will be blogging about another magic success.

Branding tips

We always recommend that a business rebrands every four to five years as fashions change and old logos look stale. It needn’t be a total evolution. Perhaps just a simple font or shape modification will do in many cases. In my new book, DO A MADONNA!™, I show you some of the larger companies that have successfully rebranded – and in some cases the change is minimal. It is important that when you rebrand, you are still attractive and recognisable to your target audience. CONFUSION = MISTRUST. If you want customers to invest in your services, you must gain their trust and loyalty.

In case you are new to our blogs, you may not know that that we do have a new online brochure service if you are worried about the cost of print – a rebrand need not cost the earth.

Call Vicky at The Brand Surgery, branding agency serving Brighton, Arundel, Chichester, Crawley Horsham, Littlehampton, Worthing, and the rest of West Sussex on 01903 824229.

Happy branding!

Magicman rebrand included logo, brochure, website, livery, signage, uniforms

We've been shortlisted for The Southern Business Awards

It’s award time again! We’ve been shortlisted for the Southern Business Awards in the Small Business category which takes place at The Grand Hotel in Brighton on 3rd September 2010. We have some stiff competition as we are up against Denton Motors in Worthing, Newhaven Enterprise Centre, Shopper Anonymous, St Leonards-on-Sea and Cake Box in Hastings.

We are proud to of been shortlisted, and wish the best of British to all the companies that have also been shortlisted, particularly our client Proto Restaurant Group who are shortlisted for Employer of the Year.

You may remember that last year we were awarded the Business Marketing and Promotion Award 2010 in the Worthing Business Awards. We are very proud of our achievement and put it down to our ethos in business which is:

The Brand Surgery believes in the principle of ‘givers gain’. We give branding advice and give help to businesses by offering high-end branding services at realistic prices. Our tried and tested formula to marketing is ‘HONESTY’ and ‘HELPING OTHERS’. We help businesses and we put ourselves in their shoes. We believe that using honesty when helping our clients with their marketing and promotions is the way forward.

Clients we have helped are so pleased with our expertise that they have passed our name to other businesses that also want to grow. We have advised all of our clients that good branding, marketing and promotions are the key to standing out, especially when the economy is tough. Customers are going to buy from businesses that look professional and established. The customers that have taken our branding advice have thrived throughout the recession.

Everything we advise our clients to do we test on our business first – from website design, to logo design, to customer care to the envelopes we post our marketing packs in. ‘Give’ as you would like to ‘receive’ is our motto for helping businesses to grow.

If you like our business philosophy, then we would love to work with you.

Visit our website www.thebrandsurgery.co.uk or call 01903 824229.

Question: What have garden decking and Eddie Izzard got in common?

Answer: Decking is tough and durable, just like Eddie Izzard it seems. If you didn’t know this, Eddie Izzard celebrated completing 43 marathons in 52 days! Wow. Eddie raised over £200,000 for Sports Relief. Read the rest of this blog by clicking here.

What is the relevance of this Q&A? Our client wanted us to mention Eddie’s amazing triumph and said if we could link this story successfully, then we were truly amazing!

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So, if you’re having a problem thinking of something to blog about, you know who to call …

Vicky Vaughan, managing director of The Brand Surgery has just published her book, DO A MADONNA!™, and it seems her writing talent is perfect for blogging. So if you are thinking about having a new website, apart from it having an excellent brand image and logo, you will want your shop to be found after all that hard work. Therefore, give us a call on 01903 824229 or email vicky@thebrandsurgery.co.uk to add a blog to your existing website. We can brand it up to look exactly like your current website.

The Coastliner N700 Nightbus - The Official Pyjama Party!

As you know, we recently worked on the illustrations for Stagecoach Coastliner 700 buses, and we can now reveal that our lovely buses are now going to be working hard throughout the night as night buses between Worthing and Brighton. They are running up to 11.30pm Sunday to Wednesday, and up to 3.30am from Thursday to Saturday. What’s more, the cost is only £5 a ticket from Worthing to Brighton, and if you already have a Stagecoach ticket valid for that daytime, you can take advantage of this fantastic service for only £1 extra.

Jody and myself were pleased to be asked to be part of the launch, and we coudn’t wait to get dressed up in our PJs! Of course I had to wear our trademark brand pink pyjamas.

Do you have a brand or product to launch?

Do you have a new brand or product to launch? The Brand Surgery, branding agency in Worthing, West Sussex are a dab hand at getting maximum exposure for your business. If you would like us to organise the PR for your company, or you need a hand getting your brand ready for a launch, call Vicky on 01903 824229.