Coca Cola. Just mentioning the name conjures up images of a flowing script logo, bright red everything, and the contour of a bottle so distinct that, even when broken, the pieces are easily identified. All of these are brand cues embedded in our experience over time. Less evident though is why we feel the way we do – and how Coke manages the cues that create that brand experience.
So, you say, “Sure, but we’re a startup B2B company. Coke has been around for decades. They’re a huge consumer brand.” That’s true. But for startups and B2B marketers, the challenge and benefits of a strong brand are no different.
How is a strong, consistent B2B brand an investment in your future growth?
- It cuts through the mind-numbing, commoditized sameness of the B2B market.
- It makes your company look bigger and more organized.
- It minimizes individual managers doing their own adhoc marketing that dilutes a brand.
- It brings streamlined, cost-reducing focus to your marketing processes.
Ultimately, your brand simplifies the decision-making process of potential clients. After all the rational evaluation, it is typically branding that steers a team to choose between companies they perceive as having similar features.
All those touch points. All one brand.
Website. Social Media. Sales materials. Business Cards. Email. Blogs.
A clear vision for how your brand’s marketing is experienced (logo, colors, fonts, language, personality, video) is more important than ever.
For Crux, it all started with a tagline.
“Everything you need. Nothing you don’t.”
This summer our interns conducted a Crux marketing audit. They sat down with each member of our staff and some of our clients to find out what Crux meant to each of them. While some responses varied, there was one thing that was mentioned and valued across the board: “Everything you need. Nothing you don’t.”
For this two-year-old startup that focuses on B2B marketing, we quickly saw how this resonated with people.
The phrase was birthed out of CEO Melea McRae’s vision to serve small- to mid-sized companies who have unique needs and limited budgets. For some companies, the agency model doesn’t quite fit. As a startup ourselves, and as professionals who have worked in the agency setting, we understand those pain points.
- We know they need effective, to-the-point marketing.
- We know they need to amortize costs and reduce risk.
When we say, “Everything you need. Nothing you don’t.” we are addressing a much-needed value. It’s more than just a tagline, it’s our brand promise. We believe it 100%. And we deliver on it.
The Crux of the Matter
Startups and small businesses have a common marketing challenge. They’re too small for big agencies (and their big fees.) Too big for independent freelancers. They need the depth of an agency-experienced team – only outsourced.
That’s what we give our clients. It’s that simple. And the punctuation-point of the red Crux logo reflects that clarity.
Cruxifying the PopSocket
The PopSocket was just made to be Cruxified. Pew Research Center reports 77 percent of Americans own smart phones, and that makes the PopSocket prime real estate for brands. Whether you’re placing your phone face-down on the table at The Roasterie, checking your phone waiting for the Streetcar in River Market, or taking a selfie by the shuttlecock at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Crux is there.
Before we knew it, we were seeing Crux PopSockets all around town. Not even two inches in diameter, these tiny, round gadgets have proven to be powerful. The round shape was the perfect manifestation of our red Crux ball logo, and its practicality and ease of use made it a natural way to get our name out there.
Similar to the PopSocket, Crux is small but mighty.
Melea has formed a team of talented marketing professionals who apply their unique skills in a cost-effective way to deliver for our clients. Our branding is bold, and it’s interwoven into our work. It embodies who we are as a company, both internally and externally, and it’s why our interns heard it so often in their audit.
It’s everything you need, and nothing you don’t.
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