Marketing
Branding is important with any organisation as it builds an identity that members and the public will relate with the organisation. The most successful organisations have strong branding and a strong brand can even add emotional attachment to a product or organisation. It can be a powerful tool if used properly and stuck to. For example, who here remembers where they were when Marathon changed its name to Snickers? I for one felt a massive sense of betrayal and anger at the mars company that day and it took me many years before I could bring myself to buy a snickers bar. Ok that might be an exaggeration but you get the point.
On the other hand overzealous use of branding can stifle creativity. Imagine the response if a young marketing executive in the coca-cola group were to push their coke cans changing colour to blue. He’d no doubt be fired on the spot even if he had a fantastic design in mind.
We want people to come up with ideas and designs for So Make It and not be a slave to our current branding but do ask the following:
- We ask that all publications(including leaflets, advertisements, blogs specifically about the space etc) are posted to the mailing list for review by the membership for a few days before being published. This gives everybody a chance to correct mistakes or raise objections if they wish.
- All publications try to include our logo unless it detracts from the design. This way we get a little stamp on everything which spreads our brand and also lets people know this is an official publication.
Graphics for so make it are available here. While we don't have any official affiliation with Southampton City Council we used their brand identity as inspiration for our own. A guide to using their colour schemes is available as are our/their typeface and they have done such a great job branding the spirit of Southampton, we'd be silly to ignore it.
Graphics for SoutHACKton are also available here.