The CSK Group is honored to be the exclusive Strategic Brand Marketing & Design Partner of the 2012 Cornell Hospitality Icon & Innovator Awards.

How the Stars of the Hospitality World Came Out to Shine!

When Cornell’s famed School of Hotel Administration first approached us, we could see that the Cornell Icon & Innovator Awards celebration was a leading event in the hospitality and travel industry. We could also see that this event could become THE premiere, most anticipated recognition event of its kind in the industry — the Oscars or Kennedy Center Honors of the hospitality and travel world.

Our goal was to elevate the event into a not-to-be missed, once-a-year celebration where the hospitality and travel world’s elite would come together to recognize its most visionary leaders and innovators (such as the Tisch Family, and Four Seasons CEO Kathleen Taylor).

Our approach was simple: uncover the true, meaningful and distinctive set of brand perceptions the event could uniquely own, and then signal these perceptions at every point of contact — with sponsors, guests, awardees, alumni and the media.

From email campaigns to print invitations, from USA Today advertisements to the Souvenir Program Booklet received by attendees at the event, CSK applied a cohesive brand strategy that clearly communicated:

 I&I, where the stars of the hospitality world come out to shine.

The result?

Cornell sold out their VIP and premier event tickets well in advance of the event. Open and click-through rates on their email campaigns significantly surpassed those of event emails in prior years. Sponsorships not only rolled in quickly, many of the event’s sponsors increased their commitment levels mid-way through the event’s marketing lifecycle.

And advertising was in such high demand that CSK added additional pages to the event’s souvenir program booklet just days before sending the piece to print in order to accommodate leading industry companies who wanted to be associated with the newly elevated brand of the Cornell Hospitality Icon & Innovator Awards.

At CSK, we build brands that make the world a better place, and the Cornell Hospitality Icon & Innovator Awards is one of those brands. Besides offering much-deserved recognition for the leaders who drive the hospitality and travel industry forward, I&I generates important philanthropic funding for the world-renowned Cornell School of Hotel Administration and the next generation of industry innovators it is educating right now

It is CSK’s honor to be a partner in this year’s Cornell Hospitality Icon & Innovator Awards. To our friends at Cornell School of Hotel Administration, we want to say congratulations once again on the unprecedented success of this year’s event.

May the Cornell Icon & Innovator Awards, and all the leaders and visionaries who celebrate tonight, shine brightly in the industry!

To learn more about how your hospitality and travel brand can shine as well, please contact Cheryl Farr MMH ’04, Principal, at 719.434.5260 or cfarr@thecskgroup.com.

The CSK Group recently had the opportunity to participate in a “Brand Curator Team” created by the brand committee for the city of Colorado Springs. When the new brand strategy and identity was first unveiled to the community late last year, it met considerable resistance. Okay, removing all political correctness, most people hated it. They hated the logo and the tagline. (Thankfully, CSK did not do that original work). What was fascinating (and a bit sad) was the most vitriolic responses came from people who know nothing about marketing, branding or design. And while this is conjecture, my suspicion is that those who provided the harshest critique did so without taking time to understand the process and strategy behind the design.

Instead of letting the negativity kill the project or get them down, the city’s brand team grew some thick skin. They took all the feedback to heart, and decided that the strategy was correct, but the creative execution was off. So, they put out a bid to create a new logo leveraging the existing strategy. They also asked CSK to be part of the “Curator Team,” which was created to select a new design firm, and ultimately, a new logo.

It was a very fun process. We got to engage with civic and business leaders across our community, but also got to be on the “other side of the table”. Instead of creating and presenting a strategic design, we got to evaluate the strategic approach, evaluate the designs, and help shape what ultimately became the new logo for the city of Colorado Springs.

On Monday of this week, the city unveiled the new mark, along with a very comprehensive communications plan discussing the background, the process, the strategy, and how the design ultimately was chosen.

There was, of course, another round of community feedback, mostly through web article comments and social media. And, as you’d expect, there was a plethora of different opinions. My favorite piece of “constructive” feedback was “we should just adopt the Mexican flag”.

The lesson in this for marketers is that we can’t and shouldn’t be discouraged by negative feedback. Nor should we take every piece of advice and try to adjust our strategic approach to try and satisfy every critic. At CSK, we have learned that even great strategic design, build on a sound strategy and vetted through research will still have its critics. We have also learned that the best learning experiences often come from listening to those that are adding another layer to our already thick skin, and that everyone succeeds when we can use the critique to continually improve.

Steve Maegdlin, Principal and CEO, The CSK Group. Steve has developed quite a thick skin over the past 20+ years as a strategic brander and marketer, but due to the exceedingly high quality staff at CSK, rarely hears negative feedback these days.

The key to successful brand communications is not to talk endless logic and facts and numbers (although they do have a rightful place in the process), but to tell an emotional, authentic, brand story. One that uses the right balance of evocative messages and clear visual images that, together, trigger highly memorable brand “perceptions” — those things your brand stands for and can uniquely own.

First, message. When it comes to words, the most powerful persuasive formula is also one of the simplest:

No.1 – Communicate how what you do (or how you do it) is dramatically different from all your customers’ other choices. (Think: What is the one thing that my brand does, or how it does it, that no one else can replicate?)

No. 2 – Articulate the limited but powerful set of obvious, direct and highly-meaningful emotional and functional benefits — no more than three to five — that your target customer is guaranteed to receive by using your brand. (Think: What’s in it for them?)

No. 3 – Amidst the noise of all the competing claims your customers are hearing and reading and seeing, why should they believe what you are claiming? Hint: You can never have enough “reasons to believe.” (Think: Why should my customers believe what I am telling them?)

Second, images. What does the visual portrayal of your brand signal? Visuals are the most powerful messenger of what a brand stands for. Research shows that images work inside our brains on a subconscious level as perceptual shortcuts, instantly “triggering” desired perceptions and perceived value.

Example: Bottled water. Put the world’s purest spring water in an ordinary plastic bottle, and people will only pay so much for it. Put the same water in a tall, elegant glass bottle resembling a decanter — then add an image of an icy blue Nordic fjord to signal pure, premium, rare — and people will pay much more than they should.

The problem is, all too often the imagery used in marketing communications is not signaling the true meaning of the brand it represents. Often the imagery is communicating “generic” — visuals without the necessary cues and context that unequivocally signal the specific brand perceptions that are rightfully yours to own.

Lighting, angle, color, perspective, shape, context — you can scientifically put all these highly emotive cues to work for you to create brand imagery that instantly triggers your desired perceptions (just like that premium bottle of water).

By emotionalizing the “logic” of your brand, visual cues empower your communications to rise above the competitive noise and — in a single glance — capture the hearts and minds of your customers.

The simple takeaway here? It’s an easy formula:

Powerful Brand Story = Authentic, Emotional Message + Visuals That Trigger Unique Brand Perceptions

Because for a brand to be unforgettable . . . it must be emotional.

Thomas McMillan is director of brand strategy for The CSK Group. He never forgets that his clients want to be unforgettable.

This idea got me thinking about marketing messaging. What if you could only say something once every 4 years? What would you say, and how would you say it to make the biggest impact? I know, I know — the purists are saying, “That’s ridiculous — you’d never have that scenario, and real marketing has multiple touches across multiple channels over a period of time.”

True, but work with me on this one. You (hopefully) only ask someone to marry you once — better make that one count. You only get one chance at differentiating yourself on the college Common Application . . . so that’s kind of important. And, unless you are Meryl Streep, the probability of winning more than one Oscar and having more than one acceptance speech is remote — so that one better count too.

What if we took that idea and applied it to everyday messages we use in our marketing? What if we took the attitude that “this message only has one chance to be heard and acted upon.” My hypothesis is that we’d think about it bit harder. We’d likely research our audience a bit more stringently. We’d make sure we understood how the message was going to be received, and we’d be extremely clear about what action we want people to take once they heard our message.

So, why don’t we do that? There are probably some good reasons, but likely there are more not-so-good reasons. Reasons like “that’s not the way we do it,” or “that’s the way we’ve always done it,” or “because it’s hard.” None of which are real reasons of course.

Here is your “Leap Year Challenge” for the next month. Treat every marketing message like it was your only message for the next four years; like your (business) life depended upon it; like it was your first and only impression you could ever make. Think about the power of one — I only get to say this once so I’d better make it count! And, if you’re struggling with how to do this, call us. This is what we love to do.

Steve Maegdlin — Principal and CEO, The CSK Group. When not fretting over impending college decisions and costs for his oldest daughter, Steve gets to hang out with the best strategic minds in the business at CSK.

Our advice — all marketing deliverables should be tied to the not-so-glamorous part of marketing: research and testing. Even if you’re under the gun to deliver now, allot some time to this crucial step to ensure your campaign is on good footing. Whether you consult your in-house researcher (or ours), mine data from your analytics and CRM, or do an A/B test, the business intelligence you gain from this step can be indispensible.

Case in point: CSK presented three concepts to a client recently. Then, we facilitated an online focus group to validate the client’s internal concept survey and recommendation. Surprisingly, the concept that resonated best with the target audience (our focus group members) was not the one the client recommended. Good thing we found out before we plastered it on 24-foot billboards. Additionally, the focus group felt the color pink was too juvenile for our target audience. However, they ultimately chose a pink concept because the stronger message overshadowed negative responses to the color. With this information in hand, we can make smarter design decisions founded on empirical data.

So often, we let our guts do our bidding or concede to popular opinion (or the highest paid person’s opinion) instead of testing our hypothesis and evaluating the results in a scientific manner.  The easiest way to settle any disagreement or ambiguity on campaign concepts, headlines, imagery, etc., is to let your customers tell you the answer.

Share your testing insight with us.

Stephanie Santos is an integrated campaign manager at the CSK group with more than a decade of marketing communications experience in B2B and B2C. She is a wife, a mother, a closet poet, a lover of live music, a former Coastie and a humorist at heart. 

At CSK, we’re always looking for fresh, meaningful creative that leverage truths and distinction. So, which 2012 Super Bowl ads stood out to our staff?

NBC: Brotherhood of Man (This aired before kickoff.)

KIA: A Dream Car for Real Life

Honda: CRV’s Day Out

Chevy: Silverado Apocalypse

Chrysler: It’s Halftime in America

How do these compare to general public opinion? When USA Today expounded on their long-standing and influential Ad Meter focus groups by teaming up with Facebook, they allowed viewers to discuss and rank commercials, providing companies incredible insight on their products. Voting began at kickoff and ended Tuesday evening, February 7. Of the 55 ads, Doritos “Sling Baby” received the highest marks in online voting, and GoDaddy’s “The Cloud” finished last. (It was also declared the most tasteless in a NY Times poll.) The USA Today Facebook Ad Meter top ten list is below.

1. Doritos: Sling Baby

2. Bud Light: Weego

3. Kia: A Dream Car For Real Life

4. Chrysler: It’s Halftime in America

5. M&M’s: Just My Shell

6. Doritos: Man’s Best Friend

7. Volkswagen: Dog Strikes Back

8. Skechers: Go Run

9. Audi: Vampire Party

10. Dannon Oikos: The Best Yogurt

What was your favorite Super Bowl commercial and why?

Stephanie Santos is an integrated campaign manager at The CSK group with more than a decade of marketing communications experience in B2B and B2C. She is a wife, a mother, a closet poet, a lover of live music, a former Coastie and a humorist at heart.

Jen Wilson is a strategic writer at The CSK Group. She has experience in both for-profit and nonprofit marketing, a self-admitted coffee addiction (IN SEALED CUPS WITH LIDS) and a healthy obsession with the Colorado fall. 

My fiancée and I began seeing each other seriously right before the NFL season began in 2010. She had never been a fan of football; none of the men in her life before me watched. But, it being that blissful time of new romance, she was interested to learn and enjoy things I knew and enjoyed (and likewise — but that’s a blog for another day).  

Yesterday's post covered the importance of employee engagement to workplace output. Today's post explains steps you can take to make this a reality in your own company. 

So, since we know it can be challenging to maintain consistently high levels of employee engagement, what are some of the things we can do to try and make high engagement more prevalent in our own organization? Here are several ways we can start to work towards building a culture of highly involved, satisfied, and committed individuals:

Work on Collaboration: Encourage a culture that rewards teamwork and connectivity, and strive to improve employee relationships with team members and managers.

Remember to Recognize, Reward, and Provide Feedback: Reward is not always about the money; some people are satisfied with simply being told they’ve done a great job. Strive for genuine, valid recognition and constructive, useful performance feedback. Have regular developmental discussions — more than just once a year.

Involve Each Other: Make sure people know their contributions matter; help them to understand how they fit in with the overall strategy and objectives. Involve people in initiatives, both large and small; employees like to be involved and they enjoy feeling part of the solution.

Be Clear . . . With Everything: Make sure to be clear about what engagement means, and about expectations for performance. Make sure everyone has role clarity and knows why their role is important.

Get To Know Those You Work With: Take some time to learn about the person behind the job.

Work On Internal Branding: Try not to overlook the value of organization-wide understanding of your brand; it’s critical to get everyone on the same page.

Provide Opportunities for Employees to Have Some Fun! Create an environment that’s exciting, and a culture that everyone is proud of.

Chelsea Herring is the Strategic Insights Research Manager at The CSK Group. Chelsea is a highly accomplished and results-driven Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology professional with proficiency in qualitative and quantitative research and extensive experience implementing Human Capital and Market Research solutions.

Employee engagement. What is it?

In simple terms, employee engagement is a measurable degree of an employee’s positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, their coworkers and their organization, which profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform at work.

Employee engagement is distinctly different from employee satisfaction, loyalty or commitment alone. Where satisfaction effectively asks, “Are you giving employees what they want?” engagement asks, “Are employees willing to give you what you need?” The differing factor here is that satisfied employees may or may not perform; engaged employees do.

Engagement should also not be confused with loyalty. Loyalty focuses on intended future behavior and is a very good indicator of whether or not an employee will stay with an organization — but that’s about it. Only when other cognitive or emotional components are introduced — such as how an employee perceives and supports an organization — can one really grasp the complete concept of employee engagement.

The primary drivers that define employee engagement are identified as the Think (Rational), Feel (Emotional) and Act (Motivational) sectors. Each one of these key drivers must be present in order to accurately measure levels of engagement.

Thus, to be fully engaged, employees must have:

·    A cognitive understanding of an organization’s strategic goals, its values and their fit within it (the “Think” sector). 

·    Affective attachment to the organization’s strategic goals, its values and their fit within it (the “Feel” sector).

·    Willingness to do more than the minimum effort in their role and “go the extra mile” for an organization (the “Act” sector).

Why is all of this important? Employee engagement (or lack thereof) impacts every organization — and that means yours.

Today’s employees must innovate, problem solve and improvise to meet the needs of customers. Engaged employees add value exponentially by demonstrating initiative, displaying proficiencies and continuously making meaningful contributions. It should not be surprising, therefore, that organizations with highly engaged employees also see higher levels of customer loyalty and satisfaction, support, retention, productivity, and overall profitability.

While high loyalty, satisfaction, productivity and so on are ideal characteristics, and while everyone wants (or should want) their organization to succeed, let’s be honest: it’s pretty unrealistic to expect everyone in your organization to be fully engaged 100% of the time. Everyone goes through ups and downs at work (I know I do), and sometimes it’s hard to stay motivated or perform at your best for 8-plus hours a day. 

Now that you understand the necessity of engagement to the optimum function of your organization, what can you do to promote higher levels of engagement? Check back tomorrow to find out!

Chelsea Herring is the Strategic Insights Research Manager at The CSK Group. Chelsea is a highly accomplished and results-driven Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology professional with proficiency in qualitative and quantitative research and extensive experience implementing Human Capital and Market Research solutions.