#l.o.1

Executive Summary

The Industry Based Learning (IBL) project carried out for RocketZone Marketing was based on the creation and launch of a brand and website for theKIDzone – one of RocketZone’s most recent ‘zones’.  Danni Barnes, the owner of RocketZone Marketing, created theKIDzone to support child-related small businesses in New Zealand, with marketing assistance. 

The aim of this IBL experience is to illustrate the amount of effort that was required from the start to finish of the project.  It demonstrates that the team behind it wants to connect with their audience and the end user. 

The project plan provides a detailed guideline upon which to steer theKIDzone plan.  It is divided into three distinct phases which allow for concentrated efforts and planning during each one.  Regular presentations to the owners of RocketZone Marketing mark the milestones for each phase.

The work carried out is described in this report and gives an insight into the events which transpired during Phases One, Two and Three.  The assistance from the RocketZone team have contributed to the result of theKIDzone work as well as to my own personal learning experience. 

Introduction of Project and Workplace

RocketZone Marketing was established by Danni Barnes during her final year studying towards her Bachelor of Business (Marketing) at Unitec.  She has a passion for growing small businesses and applies her learning and personal experience to many scenarios in order to assist clients.  The RocketZone Marketing team comprise of the owner Danni Barnes and Michelle Doherty who is the Communications Manager.  A lifelong friend and acquaintance of Danni’s, Michelle provides assistance and high quality written material for business owners through theSALONzone as well as all other RocketZone clients. 

Danni had originally created several ‘zones’ with reserved domain names under the view that each one would be set up at a later date - providing each zone was a feasible venture in its own right.  From a selection of zones available to be used as a project, theKIDzone was the most appealing and relevant one to me.  The theKIDzone brand and website had yet to be created and no concept regarding designs had been planned.   Therefore, the project undertaken for Industry Based Learning (IBL) with RocketZone was to create their new theKIDzone brand and website from an initial standpoint.    

The initiative behind theKIDzone is to provide marketing related services to New Zealand small businesses which provide products or services that are child-related.  Examples include (but are not limited to); preschools, yoga for children, toy stores, furniture stores etc.  The philosophy behind theKIDzone is to ‘connect’ to the audience and thus, through marketing campaigns, the client’s customer.  In order to be viewed as a potential client, there is a criterion which needs to be met.  The owner must:

·         Own a boutique-style store/shop with no more than two multi-sites

·         Have made attempts at marketing previously but lack the expertise to perform this function to their potential

·         Services/products offered should be niche or unique to its industry

·         Be very passionate about growing their business and open to ideas regarding this goal

Project Plan

The planned project commenced on 23rd August 2011 and concluded on 1st November 2011.

Description of the project

The project entails designing the ‘theKIDzone’ brand and website for RocketZone Marketing and it will be divided in three phases.  These three phases are described in the following paragraphs.

Phase One – Research:  The first phase requires thorough research into similar projects elsewhere – whether it is in New Zealand or globally. Drawing inspiration from other companies is encouraged but an ardent need to develop creative concepts is most favourable.  The research will extend into a variety of industries which provide children-related products and services, as well as visit boutique style stores which offer services/products for children. 

 Phase Two – Branding:  The second phase of the project is to research and create the brand for ‘theKIDzone’.  Importance is placed on designing a brand which is relevant and encompasses the initiative of the project.  The application of branding theory from classroom learning as well as real-world examples is highly encouraged.

Phase Three – Website:  The third and final phase of the project is the construction of the ‘theKIDzone’ website including any introductory marketing activities/promotional ideas/integrated campaign.  This phase will incorporate the knowledge gained from previous phases and marks the culmination of this project.  For optimal results, research is required to ensure that the website content is relevant and appealing to theKIDzone’s audience.

The required final outcome of the project is that theKIDzone’s branding and website is created and encompasses all research conducted within each phase of the project. 

Milestones

The end of each phase will be marked with a milestone presentation to the Director, Danni Barnes.  The presentations illustrate the results of the research conducted during each phase and are not required to be formal; however a strong attention to detail and professionalism is desired.  The presentation of each phase’s findings is essential before moving to the next phase.   The timeline for each milestone is as follows: 

·         Phase One - Research: 6th Sept

·         Phase Two - Branding: 27th Sept

·         Phase Three - Website:  25th Oct

Details of work carried out

The guideline provided by the project plan gave the scope which was required during each phase. 

During the first phase, there was much discussion and research regarding inspiration for theKIDzone drawn from local and global businesses.  Sources of the research came from the internet, textbooks, library books, and magazines.  Of most use were the parenting magazines because they contain examples of small New Zealand businesses which meet theKIDzone’s criteria.  Potential clients which met the aforementioned criteria were placed in a list for theKIDzone team to contact in future.  At the end of Phase One, a presentation was made to Danni and Michelle at the RocketZone premises.  Danni and Michelle gave feedback regarding the results of Phase One’s findings as per the presentation and subsequently discussed how this relates to the next stage of the project.

The second phase drew from a variety of visually inspiring sources – these came from the internet, magazines, store signage, as well as discussions with Danni and Michelle.  In addition, there was much which needed to be learned about branding because it was a subject I had not fully explored at Unitec.  Books borrowed from the local library as well as textbooks were used in order to understand the theory behind brands and how they affect businesses today.  Each source used was vital to this phase of the project and helped shape the eventual design of theKIDzone brand.  Because theKIDzone’s target audience are New Zealand owned small businesses (which provide child-related products/services), the brand needed to be relevant to them and also to their customers too.  Several brand design suggestions were created and presented to Danni and Michelle at the end of Phase Two.  Again, their feedback and suggestions allowed the way to be paved for the final phase of the project plan.  The selected brand design was sent to RocketZone’s graphic designer along with a brief regarding the details of the design.

The third and final phase incorporated all the research conducted in Phases One and Two.  This phase involved many pre-plans regarding the website design and the website content.  Mindmeister was used to create the sitemap for the new website in order to understand how the content would be put together.  The website content had information drawn from both the RocketZone website as well as theSALONzone website – only relevant content was selected from each website and adapted to suit the tone and theme of theKIDzone.  The bulk of this phase was dedicated mostly to information-gathering as opposed to creating a website; this is because the website creation (based on a Wordpress theme) would take approximately four hours.  Examples of information gathered were:  Top 10 Search Engine Optimisers for theKIDzone website, and two blogs related to theKIDzone services. 

Danni and Michelle lent their expertise throughout each phase of the project, to ensure that the outcome for theKIDzone was a well-rounded, relevant body of work.  As a result, the website has been completed on time and with all the information it needed.  The website for theKIDzone can be viewed here:  www.thekidzone.co.nz

Conclusion

In conclusion, the RocketZone marketing team created theKIDzone to assist small business owners who provide products/services which are child-related.  Danni and Michelle had yet to create any branding for this ‘zone’ and used it as the project for my Industry Based Learning (IBL) project.

The project plan was structured and comprehensive enough to ensure that the scope for each phase would be explored thoroughly.  The application of milestones at the end of each phase is invaluable to the RocketZone team because they can examine the development of the project as it progresses through its stages.

Last week Danni asked that I research and come up with the top 10 Search Engine Optimisers (SEO) for theKIDzone.  The SEO’s must of course be relevant and help the website achieve maximum exposure in search engines.  In short, my top 10 SEO tips are:

1.       Deep linking

2.       Social bookmarks

3.       Indicate page titles by using title tags

4.       Use description meta tags

5.       URLs which are easy to understand

6.       Plan the users navigation based on the homepage or ‘root’ page. 

7.       Use of Google Adwords. 

8.       Create fresh unique content such as blogs

9.       Anchor text that is easy to understand

10.   Optimise the use of images.

This list is in no particular order and the document I sent to Danni had accompanying justifications for each item on the list to show relevance of each item to theKIDzone website. 

I have completed the first two blogs which will go on the website.  They are based on my own experiences thus far in my work while on theKIDzone.  The blogs are about branding and writing briefs.  I found this exercise particularly challenging because the blogs are to be written professionally yet appropriately tailored to the audience (who own kid-related businesses), it must be informative but not condescending.  In truth, I’d started writing the blogs over 2 weeks ago and have been revising the contents as the weeks have worn on.  I can no longer revise the blogs and have finally placed it in Dropbox for Danni to view and critique. 

Also, to go with my work on theKIDzone website Danni gave me a website brief template.  This brief is best completed once all information to go in the website has been gathered.  I completed the template in a matter of hours because thankfully all the background work on theKIDzone has been done. 

I placed this work in Dropbox for Danni and sent her an email regarding the work. Below is the email communication between myself and Danni:

From: Danni Barnes [mailto:[email protected]]  Sent: Wednesday, 26 October 2011 5:14 p.m. To: Tracey Alenepi Subject: Re: KZ work today

Hi Tracey,

Here my feedback regarding the updated tasks for theKIDzone:

·             Top 10 Search Engine Optimisation tips for theKIDzone

I'm really happy that you have identified 10 worthy SEO tips relevant to theKIDzone website, please place them in order of application considering this is a new venture some tips such as reciprocating incoming links with other businesses will initially be limited. Ranking these will illustrate your knowledge of these activities and theKIDzone website. 

·             KZ website plan – to go with mindmeister

This is a correct copy of the RZ & SZ websites content, please add Testimonials. Can you see any pages we should add to extend the viewers knowledge & understanding about theKIDzone?

·              KZ blog

I like the design brief blog entry as I recognise that it is written about your experience, please be careful not to write negatively about graphic designers, imagine if Sarita read that. Ask yourself not "Why am I writing this?" but "Why would a potential client read this?" Check your use of jargon and remember your target audience has very little marketing experience. 

·             theKIDzone website brief

The focus on competition is useful and the critical analysis is insightful, thanks. Now that you have looked at our competitors maybe you can reassess the content prepared for theKIDzone website and check for relevance. 

I hope this helps your learning process.

See  you tomorrow,Danni.

On 25/10/2011, at 6:38 PM, Tracey Alenepi wrote:

Hi Danni,

 Just letting you know that I’ve placed and updated the following in Dropbox (IBL theKIDzone folder):

·         Top 10 Search Engine Optimisation tips for theKIDzone

·         KZ website plan – to go with mindmeister

·         KZ blog

·         theKIDzone website brief 

Cheers,

  Next week is my collaborative assessment meeting between my Academic Supervisor – Roger Hawkins, my Work Supervisor – Danni, and myself.  I have been encouraged to apply for a MERIT grade and am concerned that I may not meet the criteria for it.  I will give this much thought before completing the required forms and have all my fingers and toes crossed that the meeting turns out well! 

theKIDzone website design is  well underway but before the website is created, there are many things which need to be completed – the content for the website must be written (relevance to the audience is key here) and  the website plan must be drawn up (what will it look like, in which section does each information belong?). 

Although the design of theKIDzone brand has been decided upon, getting it down to the fine details of what Danni wants is crucial, that is why writing a brief for the design is not only a very good idea, it is also a vital component to the design.  We have agreed that theKIDzone website shall have a banner across the top of it so this week I wrote the design brief for theKIDzone’s website banner.  Danni’s experience with writing design briefs has allowed her to give me as much vital information that I need for this task.  I have written creative briefs for marketing assignments during my past three years at Unitec but I had not really learned as much in those instances as I have this week.

For starters, the term ‘brief’ can be quite deceptive if you aren’t familiar with the marketing terminology because of course brief can mean ‘short’.  In marketing speak it basically means ‘to get to the point’.  It is a document which describes your design in as much detail as possible down to the most fine and specific detail.  The brief I wrote this week is for Danni’s graphic designer Sarita – an incredibly talented person who lives in Dubai and has produced some inspirational work for RocketZone clients.  Danni has described that many graphic designers are so creative that if you ask them to design something (without being specific about it at all), the scope and depth of the selection they can produce will be immense, awe-inspiring I’ll bet, but immense!  As you can imagine, this does not bode well when you have a specific design in mind – so the onus is on the owner of the design to be very specific about their design requirements.  Hence, the design brief. 

Armed with this knowledge and researching how a brief should be written, I wrote my first ever website banner brief, here is what I wrote:  

I submitted my website banner brief to Danni via Dropbox who had a thorough look through it and made some required changes.  It is necessary to point out that although Danni made several changes to the brief, I am happy that she kept most of the items I had written too!  Here is Danni’s revised version of theKIDzone website brief:

This showed how much I’d learned about writing briefs and makes me more confident in my ability to write another one should the chance come up again.  What I really enjoyed is that Danni didn’t have a ‘slash and burn’ attitude towards my brief – she had made it clear from the outset what was required and I followed that as closely as I could.  The changes she made to the document were really based upon the aesthetics and the technical aspects of the banner – these things I don’t have much knowledge of just yet (for example:  Pixels and PNG format etc). 

The second thing I had to do today was create a sort of sitemap using a tool called MindMeister, found on www.mindmeister.com.  It makes creating brainstorming and sitemaps so much easier and involves mouse clicks!  This mindmeister task took me only 20 minutes to complete because I already had the content ready for the website creation.  I felt great about this because I now have another skill I’ve learned and can use in future scenarios.  I have attached a screenshot of my mindmeister below:

This week I presented my branding proposal to Danni and Michelle at RocketZone HQ in Titirangi.  I was so nervous because I didn’t want a repeat of the feedback I received from Danni from the last proposal I'd done for her and Michelle.  To prepare myself I had been fine-tuning the brand design as much as possible and made sure I had placed importance on the relevance of my idea to the brand (not to mention how it all relates to the audience).

I made several mock-ups of my brand idea and basically wanted to show Danni and Michelle how the brand could look in different scenarios.  Part of the research process in branding for me was to list all the touchpoints for theKIDzone and how the brand would be reflected on these touchpoints.  The touchpoints I listed were:

Stationery and Office:  Letterhead, folders and folios, business cards, pens, pencils, pen holders, book-covers, organisers, diaries, mouse-pads, stickers, calendar, compliment slips, email signatures, fax cover sheets, quotes and invoices, coffee mugs, stress balls, picture clips, lanyards, envelopes, notepads

Signage:  Company premises, company vehicles, road-front signage, flags, office showroom,  in-store signs and posters, instruction manuals, product tags, changing room signage, In-store instructions, fridge magnets

Identification:  T-shirts and staff uniforms, name badges, wristbands, security ID tags, answering machine message, umbrellas

Products:  Packaging, product tags, boxes and shopping bags, embellishments on products, labels,  price-tags,

Events:  Invites, programmes, public relations, media information, serviettes,

Online:  Email messages, Social media, blogs, networks, website, online forums, e-brochures, banners, images to be used online

Personnel:  Client interactions, team communication, business networks, presentations, events, promises and experiences

As anyone can imagine, this list could go on and on because there are just so many touchpoints that a business could take advantage of!  The main touchpoints that I used to illustrate my branding idea were the website, the business card, the road front signage, and the company vehicle.  Here are the mockups I prepared for my presentation:

Website:

Business Cards:

Road Front Signage:

Company Vehicle:

Danni and Michelle provided constructive and positive feedback regarding my ideas.

  They were drawn to the use of the kite on the brand – I felt happy about this because this was my favourite brand idea too!  The kite also represents freedom and playfulness and it’s connection with both adults and children is universal and non-generation specific.  I liked how Danni and Michelle could appreciate my ideas and helped refine it according to their ideal. 

In the end, Danni and Michelle contributed their idea and the final agreed-upon theKIDzone brand is:

There are still some changes that need to be made to this design of course.

  Such as, the connecting squiggly lines will be in crayon, the magazine icon’s words will be in red, the father in the family icon will have a brighter red tie and the mother will have blonder hair.  The use of colours in this brand is important as it ties in with the logo and the kite too – it’s pleasing to the eye and balances out the page in a sense. 

The next step in this process is to write a design brief which Danni will check to make sure I’ve covered all the design elements.  This brief will be sent to Sarita the graphics designer who will create the absolute final product – a vital aspect of this stage is to be as specific as possible when describing the designs to Sarita so that she knows exactly what we want.

Danni showed me some website templates I can use for theKIDzone so that will be next week’s task:  to create the website.  Before we do that, I need to bring to Danni the information which will be on the website so that’s what I’ll be working on until next time.

I’m very excited at this stage of my IBL and have been learning so much more than I imagined.  Next week I will be learning something brand new – creating a website – I have been looking forward to this aspect of my learning so look out for next week’s blog for the update!

This week has been busy busy indeed!  I continued my research into branding for theKIDzone which opened my eyes to how a simple and effective brand gets started from a range of ideas which can be complex or simple (or a blend of these).

I have been reading up about branding and its role in an organisation; the most important things I've taken away from these readings is best summed up by Dennis Hahn:  

Our conviction is that branding, at its best, is more than a marketing responsibility - it is an integrating business practice. We believe branding should span your organization, weaving across and through personal interactions, corporate culture, communications, products and services. It should both reflect and inform your business decisions, and it should guide all of your customer contact points. Your brand should be championed by top management and embodied from the inside out by all of your employees, product offerings and communications - at all times. Branding should never be treated as a project that has a beginning or an end. Dennis Hahn.

Today I arrived at RocketZone's HQ in Titirangi amidst scary weather conditions (rain and wind pelting against my little Toyota Vitz especially along windy roads is not pretty!) but thankfully it was nice and warm inside and Danni was ready to start a day of working on my project.  

The great thing about working with Danni is that she gives me the freedom to work on my own to gather my information - she doesn't micro-manage me and allows me to randomly bounce ideas off her from time to time.  I went through various websites and trawled the internet for further inspiration for theKIDzone brand concept when it hit me that the brand idea should stem from the running theme behind theKIDzone - to CONNECT with our clients and help them CONNECT with their own customers.  This led me to look for 'kiddy-themed' toys or activities which are universally associated with 'connection'.  I started off with Connect 4, then Danni helped me by suggesting Marble Run etc.  A lightbulb flashed in my head when I thought about 'connect the dots' which nearly everyone knows how to do -children play it and apparently, so do adults!  From there, the idea for theKIDzone's connect the dots brand idea was developed.  

By day's end, I had created a mockup version for Danni and we discussed how this concept could be applied in different branding scenarios - if the logo could stand on its own, if it could be put on a car, on business cards, on a road front sign etc.  She seemed quite satisfied with today's work although I agreed with her that it definitely needed refining.  I was not yet satisfied with the colour scheme I had come up with, the colours in my mind still don't yet match the colours I had selected in my mockup.  Well, it is still a work in progress and thankfully the final decision for the brand will come from Danni after I present to her and Michelle in two week's time.  

I am going to Sydney this Saturday and return in 9 days time, I had emailed Danni previously to advise her of my travel plans so that she was aware of my absence during that time, this is a copy of the email I sent to her (scroll down to read my email first):

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Danni Barnes Sent: Thursday, 1 September 2011 2:32 p.m. To: Tracey Alenepi Subject:Re: leave for 20th Sept 2011

Hey Tracey,

 How lovely, going to Sydney for a week and a wedding. Feel free to visit some kids stores in Sydney for added research & branding ideas hehe.

Thanks for the notice, I appreciate this.

Danni

On 1/09/2011, at 2:26 PM, Tracey Alenepi wrote:

  Hi Danni,

Earlier this year I was invited to a wedding in Australia for later this month.  I fly out to Sydney on the 17th Sept and return on the 26th Sept which means I miss out on one week of IBL work with you (the 20th Sept).  I understand that this falls during my branding research timeframe for theKIDzone project.  I can still work on my branding research while I’m there although I miss out on the one-on-one supervision which you provide on Tuesdays (for that particular week).

 I hope this is okay, let me know your thoughts please.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I did my proposal this morning in front of Danni and Michelle.  I was so nervous, thankfully they understood and I was able to quickly get over it.  I had prepared a set of slides and also a mini-feasibility study ('mini' because it did not include financial projections).  The research conducted during the past couple of weeks was all summed up in that document and in my slides.  Danni had set for me several tasks to be concluded today:

(1)  aim to find approximately 50 small businesses which would need our services.  They must fit our criteria:  "boutique style" niche business that specialises in children's products/services, passionate about growing their business, do not have the expertise to run their own marketing programmes.

(2)  present my findings today in a proposal to her and Michelle whereby I would let them know whether theKIDzone is a feasible venture for them.

From my findings I discovered 31 small businesses which fit theKIDzone's criteria in the Auckland region.  It is my belief that there are indeed way more in Auckland than what I found but this gives good ground work for Danni and Michelle to look at.  I also advised them that theKIDzone is a good venture and the markets available are wide and varied with many opportunities for them to expand and find companies that would be happy to have their help.  

After my presentation, Danni and Michelle seemed satisfied with the presentation and provided feedback.  One of the main points they brought up is that put simply, theKIDzone is out to help their clients grow their business - This was a point which didn't come through in my presentation but I felt I had covered in my proposal which they were not able to read through at that time.  Quite understandably, it's their 'baby' and they wanted to make sure that I was conveying the right message throughout my whole project on theKIDzone.  Another point that Danni raised was that she felt my presentation was quite broad and she had expected more scope from me at this point.  She told me later on that she felt the information I had given her was nothing new and didn't challenge her thinking.  She felt that I could have bettered it by discussing overseas companies which do fit our criteria and who do 'one-off' services/products (eg. baby massage etc) - something that although may not be available in New Zealand yet, it could be and thus the image and theme of theKIDzone needs to be already prepared to market for this.  

That was my light bulb moment and I finally understood, I was approaching this whole thing from the wrong angle!  I've been doing this first phase of theKIDzone project as if it was a Uni assignment rather than a work-that-I-love-to-do kind of assignment because upon reflection I should have seen it the way Danni did and I should have anticipated all the angles for theKIDzone.  I'm just so used to the one dimensional (sometimes two dimensional) way assignments are answered at Uni that I have forgotten this is the real world and no longer 'make believe'.  

Humbled by this and blown away by my own inefficiency I started on phase two of my theKIDzone project.  This time I am conducting research on theKIDzone brand and gathering information as well as inspiration before I write up my first ever brand brief.  The idea is to let my inhibitions go and open my mind to all possible branding ideas for theKIDzone.  Luckily, when I have to present my findings I am encouraged to supply several key ideas and let Danni and Michelle select the one they want to use as theKIDzone's new logo and brand.  I want to say that I am super excited at this stage but to be honest I'm nervous because I don't want to let Danni or Michelle down.  Probably better for me to be cautious and tread this one finely rather than blaze through it like I do all my Uni assignments (!!)  

To end this entry at a high, from what I've seen today online during my quest for branding and logo inspiration, this is definitely going to be the most fun part of this project.  For this, I love branding and all the creative buzz it will surely bring!