What is a brand? And how strong is yours?
Brands are often thought about in very limited terms but in reality, they exercise tremendous power in every kind of business or organization.read more
Our Work
Competitive Advantage Diagram
This diagram maps your brand offer as it relates to consumer needs.read more
Brand Value Map (Brand Map)
Your complete organizational brand value is distilled into 3 pillars, the intersection of which represents your brand value delivered through experience. This helps us assess the means by which your brand promise is fulfilled, and illustrates the rationale for common economic or social transactions that your brand invites.read more
Product-Level Brand Strategy
In addition to the institutional Brand Pyramid, all products can have their own Brand Pyramids, Brand Maps and Competitive Advantage Diagrams. This allows you to market those products with greater efficiency and effectiveness.read more
Marketing Targets Diagram
The Marketing Targets Diagram presents a strategic hypotheses that clarifies which of your marketing targets should have marketing resources applied toward them, which of them should be addressed by other means, and which are not likely to yield sufficient return on investment in economic or brand terms.read more
College Brands
March / 14 / 2018
The College Brand Personality: Matching Personal and Academic Brands
With an entire culture dedicated to what purports to be the biggest decision of your life, there is surprisingly little information on how students are supposed to choose which college to attend. People rarely discussed specific programs or opportunities; instead, you were meant to conclude from some combination of personality, party habits, and academic performance where you’d fit in. To choose a college was to determine the school that best aligned with your personal brand.read more
Mascots
February / 7 / 2018
Olympic Mascots, Soohorang and Hodori
With the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games upon us, here's what you might want to know about the official mascot Soohorang and his "dad" Hodori, mascot of the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, from a design and branding perspective.read more
branding
September / 26 / 2017
When customer care doesn't care
It boggles my mind that a multi-billion dollar company wouldn’t invest what would be a drop in the bucket toward customer goodwill, which would only help to ensure and elongate the success of its brand in the long run. It’s ironic that it refers to its customer service team as Customer Care.read more
Business Consulting
August / 10 / 2017
Who is our customer? Let's look at Drucker's second question.
The second of Peter F. Drucker's five most important questions is "Who is our customer?" Like all of his questions, it is deceptively simple. The most common wrong answer, given by default, is "the people in the decision room."read more
Culture
May / 31 / 2017
Cuteness and Culture
Cute and serious are mutually exclusive in the American mindset and would send a conflicting message when combined. Seeing Seoul through my American lens made me realize that cuteness is culturally specific.read more
360 Brand
May / 12 / 2017
You Should Be Paying More Attention to Internal Branding
Most think of brands in terms of how they influence the customer—those outside of the company or organization—but a brand must function internally as well. Brands play an important role in attracting top employees and retaining them over time. We advise you not to make the mistake of neglecting this crucial audience.read more
Creativity
April / 25 / 2017
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Artists
I’d like to discuss creativity with the 7 habits of highly effective artists outlined by Australian 3D artist Andrew Price as the springboard. Here are my thoughts and tangents on each point—a sort of supplement to the talk, if you will.read more
Creativity
April / 20 / 2017
On Rigor and Creative Block
What do you do when a client asks you to recreate the brilliance of a campaign you came up with years ago? That’s a lot of pressure. Illustrator Christoph Niemann cites Chuck Close saying it's about showing up and “enabling the chance for something to happen.” In other words, us professionals don’t need to count on dumb luck. What a relief.read more
Alignment
April / 14 / 2017
Do performance reviews have to suck?
Do performance reviews have to suck? It’s a question many people seem to ask. Brief answer: NO. Quite the contrary: they should be a gift and an inspiration. Performance reviews are not small tools to assess individual performance. They are large tools that impact the capacity of an organization to have the effect that it intends in the world.read more
Alignment
March / 25 / 2017
The Importance of a Small Set of Core Values
Jim Collins says, “A company should not change its core values in response to market changes; rather, it should change markets, if necessary, to remain true to its core values.” At Tronvig Group, we endorse this idea: While business strategy must be dynamic and responsive, values are meaningful only when accompanied by long-term commitment.read more
Policy
March / 3 / 2017
The False Logic of Budget Cuts to Foreign Aid
U.S. foreign aid is crucial funding for a litany of causes that impact global public health, security, human rights, and many other areas. But it is under threat from the Trump administration, which wants to slash funding for foreign aid as part of a plan to cover a massive increase in defense spending. This is a misguided idea.read more
Policy
February / 28 / 2017
Unlocking the American Dream: What is the true cost of cuts to arts funding?
The arts are one key to unlock the American dream. Museums did this for me. What does it cost the government to do this for the next generation of Americans?read more
Advertising
February / 1 / 2017
Clutch announces Tronvig Group as top advertising and marketing agency
Clutch published a report recognizing Tronvig Group at the top of their list of high-performing advertising and marketing agencies with proven records of client satisfaction.read more
Branding
January / 30 / 2017
Jazz in Marketing (La La Land and the Brand of Jazz)
Why are marketers and advertisers keen to slap the word "jazz" on unrelated things from movies like La La Land to cologne and fruit? Let's examine the use of jazz in marketing.read more
alignment
January / 13 / 2017
Organizational Alignment
Organizational alignment allows you to complete the loop from marketing communications and your brand promise all the way through to the lived experience of your consumers.read more
Branding
December / 29 / 2016
Branding Eats Policy for Lunch: How the Trump Brand Won in 2016
Donald Trump won the presidential election by doing what we tell our clients to do every day. He rigorously stuck with the Trump brand.read more
History
November / 30 / 2016
History Brands (History and the Mechanisms of the Mind)
We like clean narratives because they are easy to hold and remember. This goes for history, and for branding. What will history make of our time?read more
Museums
October / 31 / 2016
The Experiential Museum
Are interactive features like card-making booths and ambient sounds at art museums "infantilizing prattle" distracting from the art? Or a way to engage audiences who might otherwise be lost?read more
Organizational Culture
October / 26 / 2016
Culture eats strategy for what?
Does culture eat strategy for lunch? Not really. But will a misaligned culture eat up your strategic efforts? Probably. Does it make sense to pay careful attention to an organization's culture and not just its business strategy? Absolutely!read more
Organizational Health
September / 23 / 2016
Mind the Communication Gap: Culture & Organizational Health
Are cultural practices impeding your organization's health? Are you mindful of any communication gaps that may exist?read more
Advertising
September / 9 / 2016
Exhibition Advertising: Leading with Strategy
Along with our client, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC, we are proud to have won a first prize in the American Alliance of Museums' 2016 Museum Publications Design Competition.read more
Marketing
August / 1 / 2016
Pokémon Go, a win-win for your business
Pokémon Go attracts players to specific locations & can be used by businesses to bring in customers. Are trending mobile games the new wave of marketing?read more
Branding
July / 11 / 2016
Brand Names: Do I change mine?
Brand names, like all names, are crucially important. Do you keep yours when others whom you cannot control are using it?read more
Inspiration
June / 15 / 2016
Inspired by AAM2016
The American Alliance of Museums 2016 conference in DC left me refreshed and inspired: "If we are trying to solve all the problems inherent in figuring out how to do interstellar space travel, what are you doing?"read more
Marketing
June / 11 / 2016
What is marketing discovery?
Our marketing discovery process is aided by a set of tools outlined here. We believe that they are some of the best available.read more
Museums
May / 19 / 2016
Cinema and Museums
Fashion design is ancient, and the origins of that Seventh Art known as the cinema date back at least to the 1890s. In other words, U.S. museums are long overdue to recognize these vital forms of artistic expression.read more
Branding
May / 12 / 2016
The Brand of No Brand
A brand is more than marketing or empty promises and these case studies show that it really is impossible to have a product without a brand of some kind.read more
April / 28 / 2016
"She Who Tells a Story" at National Museum of Women in the Arts
While the popularity of She Who Tells a Story is undoubtedly affected by the curiosity and national climate of oversimplification and stereotyping that surrounds the Arab world and Iran, the real engine for attendance is the quality of the exhibition itself. (Also, we're proud of our advertising campaign.)read more
Museum Store
March / 31 / 2016
The Museum Store
The spectrum of content consumption that once had a clear distinction between museum and museum store is blurring. It's possible that one day in the not-so-distant future the distinction between the museum and the store will just fade away in our instagram-friendly world.read more
Identity
March / 22 / 2016
Is the new Barbie still Barbie?
Who is Barbie now if not a svelte blonde that most girls can only aspire to be? Is the new Barbie still Barbie?read more
Business Consulting
March / 2 / 2016
What business are you in?
What business are you in? I have found this question poses a challenge in almost every engagement, surprising participants. It wakes people up as they realize that they cannot answer or cannot agree on the answer. "If we cannot agree on who we are or what business we are in, how is anyone on the outside going to understand or guess right?"read more
Culture
February / 25 / 2016
Cultural Generalization
Bagels. Bagels everywhere. Savory bagels. Sweet bagels. Bagels and cream cheese. Bagels. Just. Everywhere. Tronvig Group's intern from Australia muses about cultural stereotypes.read more
mentor
February / 10 / 2016
On Jim Crane's Shoulders
Rarely does a day go by where I do not make use of what I learned from Jim Crane.read more
Mascots
February / 9 / 2016
What does Mr. Clean have to do with Tronvig Group?
Tronvig Group President James Heaton was quoted in AdWeek earlier this week giving his thoughts on the 50+ year old Procter & Gamble cleaning brand Mr. Clean.read more
Adventure
February / 1 / 2016
Mongol Rally: The Great In-Between
We drove out of London on July 20, 2014 and six weeks later, we arrived in Ulaanbaatar under our own power (although our car’s suspension was completely destroyed). Quite a bit happened in between, but here I will simply point out a few discoveries or observations relating to brands, perceptions, and cultural differences.read more
Brand Association
January / 20 / 2016
Are you in good company?
Whether music or luxury goods, it’s crucial to be in good company or the company you are hoping to attract. Your product will be perceived only as good as the company it keeps, for better or worse.read more
January / 10 / 2016
Tronvig Group Brand Pyramid
We are developing a Brand Pyramid download that will walk you through the process and pose the questions for your organization, your company or your product. It will walk through how you can use these questions to expose strategic weaknesses and fix them.read more
Branding
December / 9 / 2015
The Beef Brand
Beef has come to be interpreted not just as meat from a cow but rather as the more generic and simplified meat; "If he does not eat beef, he must be a vegetarian." These two brands are differentiated enough and simple enough to make it easy to move between them, A to B. Where does your brand fall on this scheme?read more
Brand Choices
November / 27 / 2015
Choosing When You've Too Many Choices
How does a consumer choose when there are too many choices? Here's my experience shopping for skin care products in Korea.read more
Consumers
November / 16 / 2015
The Apple You Eat
Reason indicates that an apple and a sliced apple are equally good, but if examined through the lens of which version of an apple has greater appeal to a specific consumer group, then they are actually very different.read more
Internship
November / 7 / 2015
A Look into Tronvig Group: Honesty in Marketing
With essentially no real experience in the actual marketing business, I came to Tronvig Group with an open mind and ready to learn. My mind is stuffed now and I have learned some surprising things.read more
logos
October / 31 / 2015
City Brands: The New Seoul Brand
Seoul unveiled its new city brand mark after an open and democratic selection process. Thoughts on "I.SEOUL.U" and what it conveys.read more
Free
October / 15 / 2015
What is the downside of free?
If you are a free institution you have both a blessing and a curse. The blessing part is easy to understand—less barrier to entry. The benefits are many. Let’s look though at the curse.read more
September / 30 / 2015
If you satisfy your customers you fail.
If you satisfy your customers you fail, because in order to succeed you must deeply satisfy the customer for whom your product is most naturally suited.read more
Food
August / 18 / 2015
Food Flight from China (or How I Learned to Hate Ginger & Love Yogurt)
Tom from the UK and I met over a pile of someone else's food. We were both staying in a hostel that for some reason was underground and connected to a night club in Chengdu the capital of Sichuan Province adjacent to Tibet.read more
tattoo brand
July / 14 / 2015
The Tattoo Brand
On my 19th birthday, I told my parents that my sister and I were going out to lunch. We are only two years apart and had fought a lot growing up, so they pursed their lips, shared a bemused glance, and did nothing to rock the boat.
We weren’t getting lunch. We were getting our first tattoos.read more
Story
June / 30 / 2015
What is your story?
I’ve never felt moved to support an institution like American Ballet Theatre, even at a level as basic as buying a ticket to a show. But once I heard this story and saw the face of one person in the company, it made me think that I must go.read more
Logo Quest
June / 24 / 2015
Brand Consulting: New Logo for the Met
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, commonly referred to as "the Met," hired a brand consultant and apparently he/she recommended that they call themselves "Met" without the article—no "the."read more
Value
June / 9 / 2015
Price and Pleasure
Does it feel better to pay a lot for something? If we pay a lot for something we need it to be good.read more
Vision
May / 26 / 2015
Strategic Plan (Carpe Diem)
We traveled safely from Washington D.C. to New York on the 7PM train Tuesday, May 12th. The 7:10PM train which could just as easily have been our train was not so lucky. On hearing the news that we were unharmed I got an email from our client in D.C. with the sign-off "carpe diem."read more
strategy
May / 14 / 2015
Strategy Primer
Strategy is a very misused word.
Marketing strategies are—if you look at how the word is used—any marketing activity that might possibly work. People talk about "strategies" such as "posting to Facebook more."read more
360 brand
May / 6 / 2015
Visual Brand and 360 Brand: What's the difference?
What is the difference between a visual brand and a true 360 brand? How do you get your organization to think beyond just the visual brand?read more
choosing an agency
May / 1 / 2015
Bigger is better ... right?
Hiring a big and flashy agency may seem "safe." But think about what they stand to gain by working with an organization of your size and budget. You may find that you're actually sacrificing the responsiveness, energy and focus on quality of smaller firms for the false sense of security that comes from going big.read more
Product Brands
April / 20 / 2015
The "Made in China" Brand
It was only after I got home that I looked at the back label again and noticed three words that I had missed on the lower left hand corner. If you are familiar with the Face Screaming in Fear emoji, you may get a sense of how I felt when I read ”Product of China” under the bar code.read more
Advertising
April / 14 / 2015
Empathy in Advertising (and the Need for Differentiation)
Empathy in advertising is essential but its expression should not be reduced to a formula. Think of it as a baseline requirement, but differentiation is even more important.read more
Decision-Making
April / 6 / 2015
The Farmyard: Decision-making in Large Organizations
If you are like most institutions the pressure to capitulate to the requests of powerful factions within your organization is likely very real.read more
Moved Next to Brooklyn Borough Hall
We don't have ants in our pants, but we did outgrow our space in the very interesting to be in Brooklyn Navy Yard, so we have moved to downtown Brooklyn. 50 Court Street.read more
Nonprofit Marketing
March / 18 / 2015
Nonprofit Marketing Return on Investment
Return on investment in a brand initiative is very important. Measuring the results of any initiative and doing proper goal-setting for a project is an essential part of good governance, of good strategic behavior. But how do you measure the return when you are not really selling widgets?read more
Digital Transformation
March / 10 / 2015
Music and Museums Undergoing Digital Transformation
As the museum world undergoes its digital transformation, it might look to the music world, a field in a relatively advanced stage of digitization, for applicable lessons.read more
Museums
March / 5 / 2015
What are museums for?: Chris Ofili at the New Museum
What are museums for? Are they envelope pushers? Receptacles for beautiful art? Legitimizers for criminals or perverts?read more
Conversation
February / 13 / 2015
Collaborative Conversation
I was reluctant to join the conversation until I jumped in when it turned to race—then I could barely contain myself.read more
Social Media
February / 10 / 2015
Social Media: Encouragement for the Frustrated
Should you be using social media to spread the word about your valuable offers? The answer is almost certainly "yes," but many—perhaps like yourself—seem wary to take the plunge, and reticence to do so may be holding your business back. Well, no better time to start than the present!read more
Doing nothing
February / 3 / 2015
The Practice of Doing Nothing
I can think of just once where I felt bored out of my mind. Boring beyond comprehension in my current life as a hustling New Yorker, the time was a much-needed boot camp in doing nothing.read more
Exhibition Advertising
January / 23 / 2015
"Meet Mary" Doing Its Job (Picturing Mary Outdoor)
The National Museum of Women in the Arts put street-level exhibition advertising signage on the building for the first time.read more
Branding
December / 23 / 2014
Marketing, Half-truths, and USDA Organic (A Follow-up to "Tell Them the Truth")
Examining the trend of marketing half-truths to the consumer. The USDA's Organic labeling provokes the question: Has the government jumped on this bandwagon?read more
Zoo Brands
December / 2 / 2014
Zoo Brands, Conservation and the Future of Zoos
I asked my 11-year-old son if he thought zoos were good or bad. His answer was immediate and unequivocal: "Bad," he said, "I don't like the idea of animals being held in cages." If there is another side to this story, and there is, zoos need to get busy telling it.read more
James, President & Creative Director
Calm and personable, yet passionate about ideas and focused on the issues at hand, James Heaton leads Tronvig Group with a combination of roving curiosity, sharp-minded analysis, and gentle encouragement. As president and creative director, it is his job to keep everyone moving along the path to "finding creative ways to help our clients make the world better."read more
Bank Brands
November / 14 / 2014
Branding and Sales: a Bank Brand Story
What happens when you attempt to take over a brand space that is already occupied by a strong competitor?read more
Branding and Art
October / 31 / 2014
Burning Man and the Brand of America
Does America have a brand? And if so, what can Burning Man tell us about it?read more
Peace
October / 10 / 2014
2014 Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is tricky. I must say I do not envy those who have to decide on the recipient for such an award. Is it really even an award, or more of an incitement to do better?read more
Carnegie Hill Neighbors
Carnegie Hill Neighbors is hard at work preserving, protecting, and improving their Upper East Side Manhattan neighborhood. Tronvig Group helped them to find brand expression through a new keynote message that answers not only what and how they help Carnegie Hill, but why they do it and why anyone in the neighborhood should care about the valuable work they do every day, much of it unsung or behind the scenes: "Because it's our home."read more
CIty Brands
September / 19 / 2014
City Brands: Dealing with a Lack of Control
Cities have become important actors on the global scene. Metropolitan governments are among the best ‘glocal’ players, sharpening their global influence strategy and improving the management of their brand. International city branding has its undeniable challenges, however.read more
College Brands
September / 8 / 2014
College Brands (Can colleges save millions by having better brands?)
How strong is the average college brand? How well are America's liberal arts colleges able to meaningfully differentiate themselves from each other?read more
Millennials & Museums
August / 25 / 2014
Millennials and Museums: Oil and Water?
What chance does the museum world have with millennials? Are millennials and museums really oil and water? Let's hear the story from the horse's mouth.read more
Museum Camp
August / 8 / 2014
Museum Camp: Can you take it with you?
With Museum Camp (now in its second year), Nina Simon is trying to find a way to infect our thinking long enough for it to dent our obstinate surrounds. We should be trying to help.read more
Museum Camp
August / 5 / 2014
What I Learned at Museum Camp
I flew out to California for Museum Camp last week on the power of a hunch—If Nina Simon was doing it, then I would learn a lot. That was a pretty good hunch.read more
Conversation
July / 18 / 2014
The Conversation: Do we know how to have one?
Can a group of diverse and interesting New Yorkers sit around a table for dinner and have a SINGLE sustained conversation for at least two hours—no moderator, no side conversations—just a single, contributive, collective, shall I say it ... civilized, conversation on a given topic?read more
Branding
June / 18 / 2014
Mascots as Brand Amplifiers
Mascots—those lovable anthropomorphized characters who push cereal, chocolate milk, and tires—are more than just cute tools for marketing to children.read more
Marketing
June / 9 / 2014
Om Marketing (Yoga and Marketing)
Yoga is about controlling your mind. Marketing is about trying to control other's minds. End of story, right?
Not exactly.read more
Branding
May / 30 / 2014
Brand Power and Its Limits
"Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind." —Walter Landorread more
Vesterheim: National Norwegian-American Museum
Vesterheim: National Norwegian-American Museumread more
Museums
May / 22 / 2014
AAM2014 Sessions
Among all the things I experienced and vividly remember from the 2014 American Alliance of Museum Annual Meeting and Expo in Seattle, I would like to discuss one particular session. It was a session fascinating to me for reasons unintended by its designers.read more
Competition
May / 15 / 2014
"Competitors are stealing my ideas."
"All strategies aimed at exploiting an innovation, must achieve leadership within a given environment. Otherwise, they will simply create an opportunity for the competition."read more
UX
April / 29 / 2014
Dear Social Security Administration ... I am me.
In general, the difference between the good and the great can sometimes be a matter of how effectively you sweat the little things, the things that actually matter to people at the human level interface. We call this the tactical user-level interface. Sometimes this is the difference between a positive experience and a negative one. This difference matters for any brand.read more
Museums
April / 23 / 2014
Museum Visibility: What's the problem?
Within the museum world there seems to be some reluctance to engage with contemporary culture in a deep way. But if you take a look at the museums that are thriving, you will find a willingness to do just that. The museums that are flourishing now exhibit a conscious responsiveness to and engagement with contemporary issues and concerns.read more
brand strategy
April / 7 / 2014
Brand Strategy Basics
Brand strategy gives McDonald's a 27 billion dollar advantage over Burger King. It's important that you understand how this happened, and how it applies to your organization.read more
Museum Branding
March / 20 / 2014
Branding and Perception: Nailing Jell-O to the Wall
The better you understand how the brand of your PLACE operates in the minds of your target audiences, the more effective you can be at engaging with them.read more
Marketing
March / 11 / 2014
Find the Pain: Business-to-Business Marketing
Pain, fear, anxiety … these are strong emotions that drive behavior. This is true of life. Life is also, it turns out, the very stuff of marketing, even that most rarified and peculiar kind—business-to-business marketing.read more
Sales and Marketing
February / 28 / 2014
The Difference Between Sales and Marketing
Sales has the power to change conditions, to transform a situation through the skills of the sales person. Marketing however, generally does not possess such transformative power. Marketing needs to work with conditions as they are.read more
HHM Branding
February / 17 / 2014
What is the brand of New York? (Historic House Museums)
We don't always think of cities as having brands, but they certainly do. While some cultural institutions are actually strong enough to be active builders of the brands of their fair city, most are not, and most historic house museums are certainly not in such a position. But each institution's history and meaning in relationship with the existing brand of its city is a factor in its success.read more
Marketing Plan
February / 7 / 2014
You Need a Target: What makes a marketing plan strategic?
Finding out what you need to know in order to have a proper marketing strategy is not easy or cheap, but I can pretty much guarantee that what's far more costly is executing a marketing plan without a strategy to guide it.read more
Museums and Race
January / 20 / 2014
Museums and Race
Does thinking about race make you racist? No. Does not thinking about race make you racist? Unfortunately sometimes yes. These are uncomfortable issues and hard to look squarely in the eye, but they are standing right in front of you. Time to say hello.read more
Memory
January / 8 / 2014
Madeline Gins (1941-2014), thank you.
I loved Madeline Gins. I loved her as a friend and collaborator, as a sometimes co-conspirator. I loved her as my parent in New York. I loved her as the truly original spirit and intellectual light that she remained until early this morning.read more
Strategic Goals
January / 6 / 2014
Goals & Goats (How do you set strategic SMART goals?)
Strategy is born from deep inspection of the question Why? Why is this goal important? If I cannot get to a good answer to why this goal makes sense in the context of my strategic vision, then the goal is suspect (or the strategy is suspect).read more
Poems
December / 27 / 2013
Poems by New Yorkers
A stranger steps up to you on the subway and asks you to write a poem. You pause to consider the request. Then you let down your guard, detach from the rush, open your heart and oblige. In that moment you are being a true New Yorker—friendly, generous, creative, kind.read more
Branding
December / 10 / 2013
Your Brand Idea: Who but Horton can hear it?
If your Brand Idea is succinct, meaningful and consistently and coherently expressed, it will be able to break free. It will be hearable outside of your brand bubble, outside of Whoville.read more
Dreams
November / 25 / 2013
Legend of Novo and Other Dreams
Everyone has dreams. What you may not realize is how your dreams may be hinged to the dreams of others.read more
Marketing
November / 21 / 2013
Marketing and Desire: What can we learn from Buddhists?
The cessation of desire leads to the cessation of suffering. —Gautama Buddha (paraphrased).
The implication of this, the second of the Four Noble Truths, is that the enlightened are generally not good marketing targets. Fortunately for most marketers this is a very small group.read more
Marketing Strategy
November / 4 / 2013
What is marketing strategy?
Marketing strategy allows you to use pathways and footholds that apply your limited marketing budget more effectively (everyone's marketing budget is limited). Marketing strategy facilitates your ability to apply marketing money to the correct half of the Wanamaker equation—the half you are not wasting on audiences who do not value your message.read more
Marketing Research
October / 23 / 2013
Focus Group Testing Ban (and Some Better Alternatives)
Focus group testing is appealing. I really do get it. In theory, it's a quick and efficient way to find out what you need to know about what people think or how they use your product or service, but in fact it isn't quick or efficient, and it has a dangerous inclination to lead you down false pathways.read more
Internet Bias
October / 22 / 2013
Internet Bias and The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife
The Internet is the great connector but only of what it has in it. So put yours in or be damned by it to silence. Only porn it seems had the power to penetrate the membrane that separates my pre-Internet writings from the entirety of human knowledge that we can access today at the stroke of a key.read more
Museum Branding
October / 7 / 2013
Is the museum brand god dead?
In a postmodern world—the one we live in now—the AUTHORITY, the curator, the author, the expert—anyone whose charge it is to create grand classifications and assign meaning—has been demoted. This is our Internet paradigm, is it not? The authority is now just one voice among many.
What does this mean for museum branding?read more
Exhibition Website (UX): The Armory Show at 100
The Armory Show at 100 is a monumental reenactment of the 1913 Armory show in New York.read more
Marketing
September / 23 / 2013
When FedEx Slew the Giant: Sell Value Not Price
When you think overnight courier, what comes to mind? I'm guessing FedEx is probably at the top of the list. This was not always the case.
Let me take you back to the moment when a budding company called Federal Express slew the Goliath of its industry—Emery. Let's take a look at what happened and what you should learn from Emery's horrible death.read more
Custom Web Experience: Vineyard Theatre
The Vineyard Theatre is a wonderful nonprofit theatre that produces three new shows every year. One of America's preeminent places for the creation of new plays and musicals, the Vineyard has produced an astounding array of notable and award-winning works by both new and well established playwrights.read more
Museum Branding
September / 10 / 2013
What if museums were run like successful companies?
If you are not marketing and innovating, you will be eliminated from the market place. In business this happens all the time. More than 80% of the Fortune 500 companies from 1955 no longer exist. Maybe this sounds like an entirely different world from yours.
I'd suggest that it is not.read more
Short Essay
September / 6 / 2013
In praise of boredom
Nothing is not nothing, but something essential that we should be careful to preserve in our lives.read more
Short Essay
August / 20 / 2013
Electronics Cold Turkey (Vacation must now work harder.)
I took my family on vacation to a place with no electricity and no running water. We stayed there for ten days. It was electronics cold turkey, and at the end, the consensus among my three children—9, 12 and 15—was that we had stayed too long. I'm inclined to believe that the problem was that we did not stay long enough.read more
History Game
July / 4 / 2013
Making It Relevant: History Museums for Kids
"As luck would have it, just at that moment Liberty—their canine sidekick—barks, jumps up from his bed and runs right into Uncle Pete’s time machine and ZAP! he disappears."read more
Marketing Science
July / 1 / 2013
Brain Science and Marketing: Role of the Limbic & Reptilian Brains
You think you are in control. "You"—your sense of self—your highly developed, amazingly capable conscious mind, housed in the big wrinkly hemispheric thing that we most often associate with the brain: the neocortex—is not really in control as much as it thinks. It's just easier for all of us to carry on with this delusion.read more
Responsive Design
June / 8 / 2013
What is responsive design?
Responsive design has been around in various forms for a few years, but it is now coming into its own, and should be a serious consideration for any new website project.read more
Museum Marketing
May / 15 / 2013
Marketing of the Bronx Museum
Museums exist in particular places. The Bronx Museum exists in the South Bronx; it's a contemporary art museum located right in the middle of the poorest community in the continental United States, a community that could not be more distant from the stereotype of the whitewall, high art tradition underpinning much of the aesthetics and behaviors that permeate the world of contemporary art.read more
Website
May / 8 / 2013
Grant's Interest Rate Observer
Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, the financial publication best known for blending ancient and modern ideas, today unveils a thoroughly 21st century website designed by Tronvig Group.read more
Marketing
May / 3 / 2013
Marketing is Not Optional
"There are only two things in a business that make money – innovation and marketing, everything else is cost."
—Peter Druckerread more
Museums
April / 29 / 2013
Museums and Motivation (Intrinsic Motivation)
Intrinsic motivation comes from inside. It is inspired by deep-seated interests or from pleasure derived directly from an activity. Intrinsic motivation is critical for long-term or repeated engagement. Intrinsic motivators are effective at supporting sustained, engaged behaviors—the kind I suspect you really want.read more
Branding
April / 23 / 2013
"I don't need a brand. I need a product."
When saying "I don't need a brand. I need a product." the speaker was saying she doesn’t need McDonalds, she just needs fries—any fries for that matter. She doesn’t need HP, she just needs a computer or printer—any computer or printer will do. She's assuming her consumers will behave this way. I think they will not.read more
Museums
April / 10 / 2013
Museums and Motivation (Trouble with Gamification)
How can museums use motivation more effectively to engage visitors and other constituents? What are the dangers and opportunities of the "gamification" trend, and what can museums do with insights obtainable from the motivational factors within games?read more
Branding
April / 2 / 2013
Local Brand Positioning: ICI French Country Kitchen
Tronvig Group developed the brand strategy, the new brand, as well as brand applications such as menus, signage, and a new website for this local Brooklyn farm-to-table restaurant and event space. ICI French Country Kitchen, Est. Brooklyn 2004 is located between the Ft. Greene and Clinton Hill neighborhoods in Brooklyn and is within walking distance from our new office.read more
Motivation
March / 18 / 2013
Mixing Motivation: Danger of Extrinsic Motivation
"Virtually every type of expected tangible reward made contingent on task performance does, in fact, undermines intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, not only tangible rewards, but also threats, deadlines, directives, and competition pressure diminish intrinsic motivation because, according to cognitive evaluation theory, people experience them as controllers of their behavior."
—Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deciread more
Branding & SEO
March / 12 / 2013
Tell them the truth.
"Tell them the truth. First, because it is the right thing to do, and second, they'll find out anyway."
—Paul Galvin.
Ahh the truth. That thing to be finessed if you want to succeed in marketing ... NOT.read more
Marketing Museums
February / 28 / 2013
Consumer Insight: Singles (Family Life Cycle for Museums)
Singles, age 18-35, are a very large and growing population, particularly in metropolitan areas, even relatively small ones. This makes them a very desirable consumer target. They are also important because the habits formed during one's single life are tenacious and strong.read more
Games, Museums
February / 15 / 2013
Kids Games for Museums
When thinking of games for museums it's hard not to let your mind think of hits like “Angry Birds” which had 200-million downloads by May 2011. Players worldwide spend 200 million minutes (=380 years) on the game each day. This demonstrates that people do love to play well-crafted snack food style games that have optimized game play mechanics (easy to learn, hard to master) that are addictive and fun. Should museums try to replicate or imitate this? Probably not.read more
SEO
January / 24 / 2013
SEO and the Art of Internet Dating
Is your content useful, timely, relevant, needed? Is it adding something valuable to the MASSIVE conversation that is the contemporary internet?
It should be.read more
Short Essay
January / 10 / 2013
We make mistakes.
"To swear off making mistakes is very easy. All you have to do is swear off having ideas."
—Leo Burnett.
We make mistakes.
The trick, of course, is to learn—and to make process changes from that learning—so that on our next pass through that same or a similar gauntlet we exhibit more finesse.read more
Website Design
December / 19 / 2012
History in Context: Guantánamo Public Memory Project
The Guantánamo Public Memory Project uses first-person accounts, "Stories;" historical context, "Timeline;" and geography, "Place;" to create a rich picture of this unique place.
Our final design presents a metaphorical window through which you can now see the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base—as a place, as a history, as a collection of real people's stories—more clearly.read more
Short Essay
December / 12 / 2012
This piggy did no time sheet.
We are certainly not the first organization to struggle with getting everyone to fill in their time sheets. We've tried a variety of methods. We have made it really easy with software. We have tried asking nicely, telling regularly, assigning a person to go check and cajole each and every day. Through all this somehow consistent compliance has always eluded us.
Enter the piggies.read more
Short Essay
December / 5 / 2012
The Ideal Client
We want to make the world better, and for us the way we can do that most effectively is through our clients. So it is important that we choose our clients well. These are the ten questions we currently ask ourselves when we consider if a potential client is likely to be the ideal client for us.read more
Short Essay
November / 26 / 2012
The Journaling of Jane T. Heaton
Written with a pen from the funeral home where my dad was cremated just two months ago, these are my mom's last words. They are written in her journal.read more
News
November / 14 / 2012
New Tronvig Group Website
Some of you may have noticed last week that our website was new, easy, simple, blue.
Choosing NOT to continue under the persistent and powerful effects of "the cobbler's son has no shoes" syndrome, we forced the birth of a new Tronvig Group website.read more
News
November / 3 / 2012
Hurricane Sandy Beachfront Experience
My Monday night—the night Hurricane Sandy came ashore—was spent in my fourth floor apartment on Manhattan Beach. On one side I watched the ocean waves cover the roofs of the homes on the beach. On the other side, I watched the Sheepshead Bay canal waters rush in over cars and through buildings. As I saw all this I was wishing I had packed an inflatable boat in my "to go" bag.read more
News
November / 2 / 2012
Social Media, Communities, and Disaster
It's day 4 after Hurricane Sandy hit, and I'm just as anxious as I was waiting for the storm. Fortunately, my home is located in a safe zone. Unfortunately, many of my friends' and loved ones' homes aren't.read more
News
October / 29 / 2012
Tronvig Group in the Red Zone
Tronvig Group updates regarding the effect of Hurricane Sandy on operations and our offices.read more
Tronvig Group To Brooklyn Navy Yard
On April 18, 2013 Tronvig Group moves in to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Taking up new larger offices in Building 280 of a re-envisioned and evolving, eco-friendly industrial park.read more
The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation
Is your organization searching for ways to engage the local community and do so effectively? Meet the experts: The Harwood Institute.read more
Education
October / 18 / 2012
NYU Center for Spiritual Life
New York University was calling. It turned out to be the newly minted Center For Spiritual Life.
When I spoke to the co-director, a lively, amiable and eminently likable Ms. Shy, I asked what they needed done. She answered with the now dreaded assertion, “We want a new website.”read more
About Us
October / 10 / 2012
The Truth Will Set You Free: The Story of Tronvig Group
Our rise from the abyss has brought us to clarity of vision: "Finding creative ways to help our clients make the world better." We are no longer doing poorly trying to do well. We are instead fulfilling a destiny that has us—to use the Quaker words of Ben Franklin—"Doing well by doing good."read more
Marketing
October / 3 / 2012
Customer Personas: What Sally Can Show You
A persona is a kind of mental model—an imaginary person with a name, history and story who has a way of doing things. A persona should have enough psychological detail to allow you to conveniently step over to the persona's view, and see your products and services from her perspective.read more
Interactive Map Feature: Open House New York
The Open House New York weekend map feature has a few improvements this year and still serves as a good example of visual data navigaion.read more
Marketing
September / 19 / 2012
The Science and Art of Marketing
As marketers we must never be in a position where we are just throwing shit up on the wall to see what sticks. We should be applying our creativity and artistry in execution of a strategic hypothesis that is based on research and genuine insight.read more
Short Essay
September / 11 / 2012
Stories About My Father
Here I write a short hero story. It may ring true for others who loved (and hated in short bursts) their fathers, who wanted to be like them and wanted not to be like them, who were proud and ashamed, who will dearly miss them when they are gone.read more
Branding
September / 5 / 2012
Your Name is Your Biggest Brand Asset
Is it better to have a unique name like Kinko's or a more descriptive one like Staples? Is it better to have a name that's actually a person's name like Lowe's or something that really clues you in to the core business promise is such as Home Depot? International Business Machines or just a feel good symbol like Apple?
There is danger and reward everywhere.read more
Short Essay
August / 29 / 2012
How Not to Vacation
Last year I wrote about taking a solid two-week vacation and described taking the family to our remote Canadian island with no electricity and no running water.
That was a really good vacation.
This year, I blew it.read more
Marketing, Advertising
August / 23 / 2012
Can You Hear Me? Consistency and a Hearable Message
I came upon the Jerry Seinfeld "Don't break the chain." reference twice in two days this week. If you have not heard it, it's a recollection from Brad Isaac of some useful and practical advice he was given by a then up-and-coming Jerry Seinfeld.read more
Games, Museums
August / 16 / 2012
Kids History Games: What makes a good one?
Kids? History? Are we talking oil and water?
Maybe, but many popular kid games are packed with history both real and imagined. It's a rich source of material.
We know history is enthralling, and given the right hooks, kids bring the past to life for themselves. So how do we make history relevant for kids?
Games can do it.read more
Marketing
August / 1 / 2012
I want a new website.
"I want a new website." There is a certainty in the eyes and voice that pushes back my objections. "That's what we need. Here is what we want it to do. How much will it be?"
This desire and clarity of purpose is supported by the belief that a new website will make things all better, like a mommy's kiss.read more
Marketing
July / 24 / 2012
Consumer Insight: Find Your Trim Tab
What can you do that will be effective at getting the word out, but will not break the bank?
Is there a relatively inexpensive tactical shift can you make right now that will yield significant long term results?
The answer is yes. It's just a matter of finding it. It will not be obvious or easy.read more
Arts, Architecture
July / 19 / 2012
Reversible Destiny Website
The new Reversible Destiny Foundation website is a metaphorical extension of their persistent and active interference with death and the death-dealing habits that populate a normal life. She aims no lower than to free you physically and mentally from the confines of assumption about your body, your perception of the world, and—very literally—to free you from death.read more
Museum Games
July / 11 / 2012
Historical Game Characters for Museums
We have had to create a few historical game characters for games targeted at kids. Along the way we have acquired some insights that may be useful to others doing the same or similar things.read more
Advertising
July / 5 / 2012
Not to Market is a Crime
If your mission, your reason for being in the world—regardless of weather you are a nonprofit, a for-profit, a museum or an educational institution—is good, then you have no excuse not to market yourself.read more
Chaffetz Lindsey Brand Refresh
Having grown to more than 20 persons the basic brand message needed to be put in the context of the firm they were becoming.read more
Home Grown Books
Home Grown Books has created a wonderful series of early readers that don't insult the intelligence of kids as they are just starting to learn to read.read more
Marketing
June / 26 / 2012
Optimism Bias in Marketing
The warning label which works contrary to our tendency toward optimism and self-indulgence misses the potential leverage point because the possible event of a future consequence can be set aside, rationalized away, and, most importantly, simply ignored because we (most of us) are biologically wired to pay little attention to such warnings.read more
The Work of Hope Microsite
Rich Harwood published the Work of Hope. Tronvig Group designed the book and created this microsite for it as part of the larget branding and marketing work that we are doing for the Harwood Institute of Public Innovation.read more
Marketing
June / 14 / 2012
Mitt'spelling: Missed Opportnutity?
The opportunity for fun is at the heart of viral marketing, and what happened with this Romney campaign App COULD be looked at as something more interesting than a few days of online entertainment.read more
Social Media
June / 8 / 2012
Google Makes You Stupid
Always knowing that you can easily find out anything you might want to know without actually having to recall it is really quite new. It strongly undercuts the drive to try and store a lot of different things in your head.read more
Strategy Applied on the Web: Center for Social Inclusion
Two years into its young life, after we initially created it, the Center For Social Inclusion website needed a refresh.read more
Marketing Museums
May / 31 / 2012
Museum Marketing: Think Like a Consumer
Odds are you already deliver on what people need. The trick in museum marketing, as in any kind of consumer marketing, is to think beyond what you do or how you do it, and focus on why your target would want it.read more
Marketing
May / 25 / 2012
Call me trim tab.
So what do you call this thing that does NOT take massive effort, but has the potential for great positive effect far beyond its seeming capacity?
I think one very good answer to this question was was provided in 1972 by Buckminster Fuller when he said the following in an interview ...read more
Dutch New-York: Educational Game for Kids
The Dutch New-York educational game for kids was created by Tronvig Group for the DiMenna Children's History Museum as part of a suite of educational games.read more
Museum Marketing
May / 4 / 2012
Why Museums Must Engage: Impressions of AAM2012
Although I'm not sure it is generally seen in these terms, the call for more effective engagement is a recognition of the reality that museums ARE in heated competition.read more
Websites
April / 28 / 2012
SEO for the Rest of Us
The basic principals of SEO are not hard: be honest, explain your content, link things up.
Use the page title, description, and tags to genuinely help people find and understand the content of the page. Don't put tags on the page for things that are not directly relevant to the content. Don't title the page something it is not.read more
Marketing
April / 26 / 2012
The Need for a Crowd
On March 6th I came home from work late and my 14 year old daughter was up avidly watching a video on the computer. She said it was very important and that I had to watch it. Later that evening I did. It was the Kony 2012 video.read more
Small Business
April / 20 / 2012
Website Copywriting: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and the Rewarding
If you are thinking about creating a new website for your company, or revamping the one that served you well five years ago, but just isn’t quite up to snuff anymore, then this is information that could help you launch (or re-launch) a website that truly addresses your most critical business development needs.read more
Marketing Museums
April / 10 / 2012
Museum Marketing for Non-Marketers
Marketing is a big term. What is it in the context of a public-facing institution like a museum? What is it when you do not have a large or consistent marketing budget or even a dedicated marketing department?read more
March / 29 / 2012
Advertising in the Facebook Age: Bronx Museum Free Campaign
We launched the Free advertising campaign for the Bronx Museum this week as they announce to the world, and particularly to the Bronx, that they are going free to the public.
Museum advertising often speaks primarily to the converted. This is an attempt to start up a conversation with museum virgins.read more
Bronx Museum Free Ad Campaign Bus Shelters
Bronx Museum Free Ad Campaign bus shelters.read more
Bronx Museum Free Campaign Teen Council Ad
Bronx Museum Free Campaign Teen Council Adread more
Digital News Ventures
Digital News Ventures the Media Development Loan Fund has created a fund for new ventures in the digital news media space. The idea is to seed the ideas that will facilitate the health and continuity of independent journalism as news continues to shift into the digital arena.read more
N-YHS, Revolution Exhibition Website
New-York Historical Society, Revolution Exhibit website.read more
Media
January / 26 / 2012
Is Facebook your newspaper?
So is Facebook your newspaper? If you are under 34 the answer is probably yes.
Even a year ago 48% of 18-34 year olds checked Facebook when they woke up. Sound familiar? It’s the morning paper. The difference is 28% do this before even getting out of bed.read more
Short Essay
January / 18 / 2012
My Birthday on Facebook
My family is not really on Facebook much. They forgot my birthday.
This reminded me of traveling in the Yucatan as a 22-year-old and utterly forgetting my own birthday. Somehow the group I was with knew when it was even if I did not, and they actually engineered a make-shift surprise party for me. That was perhaps my most memorable birthday, though I'm not sure I would recognize any of those kind people if I bumped into them on the street today.read more
Branding
January / 10 / 2012
Honesty in Logos
"What if company logos were honest" is a very funny blog post featuring the work of the artist and designer Viktor Hertz. It kind of gets you thinking though. I talk a lot about truth and why it matters for a brand. And yet look at all these great brands. They are jokingly being shown at odds with the reality of what they actually deliver.
I think this situation shows, among other things, that a brand is NOT just a logo. But at the same time, it points out how our brand associations really are not rational.read more
Branding
January / 4 / 2012
Brand Question: Who are you?
The key question a brand must answer is, "Who are we?" The best answer to this is one that is short and clear.
The answer cannot be, "this, and this, and, oh yes, this." No matter how complex the reality is, a brand's keynote expression must be immediately graspable if it is to have real power. And it still needs to be true.read more
Short Essays
December / 30 / 2011
Year-end Message from Tronvig Group
So far this holiday season all that many of you got from us was a warning about upgrading your version of Wordpress to protect it from malware. I thought we should do something else to express our gratitude for your business, conversation, and support this year.
The idea we came up with was to pick one of our own non-profit clients, explain a bit about what they do, make a donation to them, show the link to you and tell you about it.read more
Branding & Marketing
December / 20 / 2011
The Difference Between Marketing and Branding
What is the difference between marketing and branding?
In a recent conversation with a very senior person at a financial institution my colleague was told, "I think private wealth managers will have a hard time seeing the value of branding—they see marketing as a cost center, not a driver of sales."
Hold it.
How did we go from branding to marketing in one sentence like that?read more
Thanksgiving
November / 25 / 2011
Thanksgiving
Yesterday we had Thanksgiving dinner at our neighbors house. The kids—who have all known each other since birth—piled up their plates with whatever they wanted most (including Brussels sprouts), and our host asked each of us to express in a single word what we were thankful for. Answers: "Food," "Friends," "Family," "Death"...read more
Branding
November / 13 / 2011
Creating a Unique Brand for Wealth Management Firms
One of the biggest marketing and sales challenges wealth management firms face is differentiating their offering in a crowded field. Here's an explanation of how a strong brand can move your firm past competing on price.read more
DiMenna Children's History Museum Website
Tronvig Group created a website for the newly opened DiMenna Children's History Museum, part of the New-York Historical Society.read more
Making History Matter for Children: DiMenna Children's History Museum
DiMenna Children's History Museum website kid's home page shows the kid's club house. This serves as home base for all of the games we created as part of the DiMenna Children's History Museum website.read more
November / 9 / 2011
Sloppy Copy
Tronvig Group has launched the DiMenna Children's History Museum website as part of the New-York Historical Society website. Featured on this new website is a kids section that showcases the first of three kid-friendly educational games: Sloppy Copy.read more
Museums
October / 17 / 2011
Bill Shannon Biographical Dictionary of New York Sports
I am not a traditional sports fan. I follow no particular professional sport. I have attended few professional sports events in my life. And yet, I do in fact love sports, all kinds of sports. Perhaps this is why the Bill Shannon Biographical Dictionary of New York Sports that we created for the New-York Historical Society has become so dear to me in the short time we have been working on it. It is not an homage to any one sport, but rather to the idea of sport, and the role that sport plays in the lives of great and interesting people.read more
Short Essay
October / 5 / 2011
Adaptation and Loss (Mental Brandworks)
In August I took a two week vacation during which I was totally disconnected—off of emails, phone calls, any kind of electronic communication. I became (by the second week) very comfortable with my slowed down and uninterrupted life. I adjusted enough during that short span of two weeks that when I came back to the office I was—for a while—a kind of foreigner there.
That was back at the end of August. Now it's October, and I have fully recovered.read more
Open House New York Website
The result of this design effort, done in collaboration with their Paul Lombardi, is a sprawling, image-driven website that showcases the rich architectural treasure trove that is New York City.read more
Arts
September / 21 / 2011
Madeline Schwartzman's See Yourself Sensing Website
Rarely do you get handed a project with some of the coolest, strangest images and ideas on the planet as your visual assets. This was the case for the book website for Madeline Schwartzman's See Yourself Sensing.read more
Short Essay
September / 21 / 2011
Visual Multitasking
One of our new designers is fresh out of school and exudes talent and potential. She also spent her first few working days instant messaging her friends and watching TV shows WHILE doing her assigned design work. She was doing what might be called visual multitasking.
My art directors, who range in age from their mid 20's to their mid 50's, were shocked by these work habits.read more
Websites
September / 8 / 2011
What a Website Wants
During the first 15 to 30 seconds after I arrive on a website, I need to know that I have arrived at the right place.read more
Short Essay
August / 6 / 2011
The Two-Week Vacation
In my working career, I have taken many types of vacations. They have ranged in duration from a rather luxurious 6 weeks to nothing at all, and experience has shown that a contiguous period of at least two weeks is the most valuable.read more
Short Essay
July / 26 / 2011
Apparent Failure Focuses the Mind
Probably the two most valuable things that have happened to me as a business person were:
1) Being laid off from a corporate job and having to start a business on my own, forcing the question of how to survive and support a family without a regular salary, benefits, or anything to rely on but myself.
2) My former business partner's choice to walk off with all our clients, leaving me with the company debt and virtually no business.read more
New-York Historical Society Museum Website
Last summer Tronvig Group answered a proposal request to redesign and rebuild the New-York Historical Society's institutional website. Last week it became a living, breathing entity on the web.read more
Museums
June / 26 / 2011
Morris-Jumel Mansion Website
"From concept through to final website design & development, Tronvig Group displayed a unique capacity to effectively utilize 21st Century technology to interpret the historical significance of this 18th Century treasure."
—Ken Moss, Director, Morris-Jumel Mansionread more
Short Essay
April / 18 / 2011
Value of Truth in Photography
“Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.” (Ansel Adams)
Our initial reaction to photographic images often leans towards belief or trust that the picture tells a true, unbiased story. By following these gut reactions, we are often led by the hand toward manipulation by advertisers, marketers, and product designers. But if we aren’t going to get the thing that we are shown, why even bother?read more
Short Essay
March / 28 / 2011
Radiation, Disaster and Hubris
What impresses me most about nuclear materials is the inhuman scale of their behavior. For example, what does it mean that some radioactive materials, like Plutonium 244, have a half life of 80 million years? This "half-life" is 8,000 times longer than all of recorded human history. This has to make you wonder, at least a little, if we are out of our league when we mess with this kind of stuff.read more
Short Essay
March / 14 / 2011
The Many Forms of Intelligence: Is Snooki the smartest guy in the room?
"Reason should investigate its own parameters before declaring its omniscience."
(Immanuel Kant)
When I was in junior high school, I remember being both arrogant and stupid. I say this because I remember thinking I was the smartest kid in the class. I thought this because I got the best grades and I spent time thinking about things that did not seem to interest others. Only later did I learn there are many forms of intelligence.read more
Branding
February / 28 / 2011
Nonprofit Brand Basics
For any organization, arguably your most important brand asset is your name. Some names are better than others at explaining why you exist and why you matter. So, along with the name, most organizations also need a tagline. The tagline can serve various roles. For a nonprofit its most important role is clarification. Some nonprofits have very practical taglines that do a good job of explaining why someone should support them. Others have taken on a very catchy marketing style and are often lofty sounding but vague. Sometimes these work. More often they do not.read more
Websites
February / 23 / 2011
The $5,000 Website
There is no such thing as a branded $5,000 website.
There certainly exist many people who will design and build a business or even a nonprofit website for $5,000 or even less for that matter, but in doing this, they are inevitably leaving aside much of the essential stuff that makes a website effective.read more
Branding
February / 14 / 2011
Brand as Defense Against Attack
Branding is often managed like a propaganda war for the hearts and minds of brand consumers. This aligns with Wikipedia's basic description of propaganda: "As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience." Propaganda is not really about the truth, but about influencing minds, and so may resort to a variety of tactics such as errors of omission, selective truths and the straw man fallacy to make its case. Interestingly, if you look at the history of advertising and propaganda, they both came of age as vehicles of mass persuasion during and after World War I and they continue to rely on the same essential insights about human behavior. Advertising is white propaganda.read more
Branding
February / 7 / 2011
Design and Price Point
We recently had a small web project for a client that sells a very expensive service. Over many years they had built up a successful business, and they had done this without ever having had a website. They came to us somewhat reluctantly pushed into the wading pool, as it were, by their sales manager, who felt insufficiently supported by the brand. He needed online credentialing and support for his sale activities.read more
Short Essay
January / 31 / 2011
Chinese Mothers
A friend of mine sent me the Wall Street Journal article "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" a few weeks ago. It was sent to me, I assume, because I have a Chinese mother in my own house—the mother of my children. The article excerpts and promotes the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Professor Amy Chua, and it was actually sent to me by a few different friends.read more
Branding
January / 24 / 2011
Addressing Objections: Web Conversion
Objections are always there. Dealing with them is basic to the sales process.read more
Websites
January / 8 / 2011
Translation for Websites
In my halcyon days as a translator of Japanese, I once read that "even good translations are like tapestries viewed from the back." I thought this apt because it was damn hard to do a good translation, and even the good ones were really reconstitutions of the same content in a new skin. There was nothing really direct about them.read more
Branding
January / 2 / 2011
Brand Fatigue
My concern with brand fatigue is not that people become tired of a brand, but rather that businesses and nonprofits become prematurely tired of their own brand presentation and, as a result, push to change it before it has had the opportunity to fulfill its mission or even fully register and build power in the minds of their brand consumers.read more
Audience Engagement: Times Square Photo Contest
New-York Historical Society Times Square Photo Contest submission page. Using a little bit of digital billboard advertising in Times Square the Photo Contest attracted over 1,200 submissions for the museum.read more
Websites
December / 18 / 2010
Architects and Flash
Architects fell in love with Flash. I think it gave them the kind of absolute design control that they generally expect from the world. The problem, of course, is that the Internet no longer loves Flash, and it seems architects are slowly coming to terms.read more
Branding
December / 10 / 2010
Brand Health
A strong brand is not a luxury to be enjoyed only by companies like Nike or Coca-Cola. It is a key factor in the success and prosperity of all businesses and nonprofits, regardless of their revenues. Your brand health is guaranteed to have a significant impact on the consumer awareness of your brand AND your bottom line. It directly affects your ability to sell, to fundraise, to hire the best employees, and to grow. A healthy brand is the hallmark of a company or nonprofit that is prepared to prosper.read more
New-York Historical Society Digital Newsstand Ad
This New-York Historical Society digital newsstand ad for their Times Square Photo Contest successfully collected over 1,200 public submissions.read more
Pei Partnership Architects
“Substantial and immediate improvements to our website and online visitor traffic. Prompt and insightful guidance throughout the process. A great way to start off the new year!”
— L.C. Pei, Partner, Pei Partnership Architectsread more
Branding
September / 20 / 2010
Brand Truth
Our statement about brand truth—”We prefer truth. It gets you farther faster and holds tremendous power.“—was recently criticized on Twitter for being “grand and presumptuous.” My first reaction to this criticism was humor: “We just like it better than the alternative, and it’s a lot easier to keep track …”read more
Advertising
September / 1 / 2010
The Business of Demand Creation
I was asked to explain what I mean when I say, as I often do, "We are not in the business of demand creation." I usually go on to say, "We leave that job up to the big agencies" who seem on occasion to quite successfully create demand for products regardless of their actual quality.read more
Third Wave Foundation Website
In 2010 we created a new brand, collateral, and website for the Third Wave Foundation.read more
B2B
August / 2 / 2010
Serendipity’s Value in Business
In my experience, making good use of serendipity is a combination of things: actively setting up opportunities, a willingness to go with the flow of events, the ability to see the thing that arises by chance, and finally, being prepared to seize the opportunity—prepared both in the sense of being open to the possibility and ready to take advantage of it.read more
B2B
July / 26 / 2010
Invisible Consequences: How Branding Impacts B2B Sales
How do you get new clients? If you sell B2B, the short answer is probably “relationships.” Almost.read more
Short Essay
July / 12 / 2010
Open Source Evolution
We all now take advantage of open source software. For our work in web development, it helps make many formerly complex and expensive tasks faster, easier, and less expensive. We tend to take this for granted, but the meaning of the open source systems that have germinated and are now prospering on the web is still evolving. We do not know how far these systems can take us. What are their limits? What can be done with them once harnessed in new ways for good?read more
Branding, B2B
July / 4 / 2010
To Brand or Not To Brand (Branding for Law Firms)
An article on June 15th in the Wall Street Journal by Nathan Koppel noted that “Law firms, particularly those that represent plaintiffs, are increasingly devoting resources to developing a presence online, where consumers—and potential clients—congregate.” The article mentions Sokolove Law, a Massachusetts-based firm that's spending $12 million annually on digital outreach (up from 1/4th of that in 2006). OK, this really isn't chump change.read more
Book Design
June / 7 / 2010
MDLF First 15 Years: Underwriting Democracy Through the Fourth Estate
The Media Development Loan Fund, or MDLF, is a pioneering international nonprofit organization formed in 1995 by Sasa Vucinic and the late Stuart Auerbach with seed money from George Soros' Open Society Institute. The idea behind MDLF was to create a loan fund for the free press in fledgling democracies. Now celebrating 15 years and nearly 100 million dollars in loans, 200 projects in 24 countries around the globe, MDLF wanted to create a book to commemorate its achievements.read more
Branding
May / 27 / 2010
BP Brand Lesson: When Brands Lie
Much has been written and commented about the ongoing BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This story most certainly has a brand lesson. I wonder if the big companies and the agencies that market them are paying attention?read more
Short Essay
May / 19 / 2010
Arakawa + Madeline Gins
Arakawa Shusaku — July 6, 1936 - May 18, 2010.
It was 1991, and I was fresh from Japan, adrift in New York, and uncertain of my destiny. It was Madeline and Arakawa who found me (especially Madeline). They took me in, fed and nourished me with scraps of wisdom—and curry—from the kingdom of intellectual freedom in which they habitually dwelt.
They surrounded themselves with young minds. They fed us daily from a seemingly endless supply of insight and compassion ... and stories. They respected our thoughts and gave them room to grow.read more
Branding, B2B
May / 15 / 2010
Why Documentary Style Photography?
People and relationships are critical in business to business transactions, and so a strong B2B brand should communicate a sense of personal connection. It should speak to who the key players are and what it will be like to work with them. Great people photography facilitates this tremendously.read more
Development Capital Strategies
In 2011 we created the brand and website for this consulting company that helps companies achieve profitable growth strategies with sustainability built in.read more
Social Media
April / 27 / 2010
Short History of Twitter from Gutenberg
In the pre-Gutenberg world, books needed to be written by hand. This meant that in Europe, they were written in Latin so as to be universal. Generally, you could not waste a book on just the German speakers, for example...To quote the famous first words transmitted over the telegraph: “What hath God wrought?” … “Have you any news?”read more
Picture Essay
April / 19 / 2010
Walk to work
We were too busy to go to the botanical gardens this weekend, but I got a little show just on my walk to the office this morning through the park.read more
Lifestyle
April / 18 / 2010
The Exhibitionist Magazine
The Exhibitionist Magazine was an art and culture magazine created by James Heaton, Christian Viveros and Christian Dierig in 1996 and closed in 1997. This was the last issue of the magazine.read more
Branding, Nonprofit
April / 5 / 2010
Brand Impact on CSI (Center for Social Inclusion) Reports
It has been about a year since we finished re-branding the Center for Social Inclusion (CSI). What is the brand impact of this work?read more
Branding
March / 24 / 2010
Life and Pecans: Why Truth Matters
Last weekend I was reading the Sunday Times and snacking. I was looking at the paper and not my food, which was pecans from a glass jar. As I arrived at the bottom of the jar, I looked down and noticed little cobwebs all around the edges of the glass. Most of the remaining pecans had clearly been munched on already, and not by me.read more
Spring
March / 19 / 2010
Spring Picnic
We all went out again today to the local park for lunch. I guess it's been a rather long and dreary winter, so everyone is happy to get out of the office and feel the sun and breeze.read more
All for Africa ad released in Fortune Magazine
The March 2010 issue of Fortune magazine features an All for Africa ad created by Tronvig Group for the nonprofit organization All for Africa.read more
humor
March / 1 / 2010
The Way We Were: New York
I came to New York in 1991, arriving with a only one suitcase and a vague plan for an extended visit. After my many years in Japan, New York was a bit of a culture shock.read more
humor
February / 16 / 2010
Never let clients speak to vendors.
We buy from our vendors because we like them and they do great work. We sell to our clients because they like us and we do great work. There’s something about the nature of these relationships, though, that does not encourage direct cross communication. If these two spokes on the wheel of commerce are allowed to cross, sometimes the wheel can just fly off.read more
Short Essay
January / 31 / 2010
Web-centric Branding
In many cases corporate logos' iterations for real-world use must now follow the lead and meet the requirement first set by their online life.
No longer is it the other way around.read more
Center for Social Inclusion Brochure
"Tronvig Group is made up of talented, trustworthy and tactical people, led ably by James Heaton."
—Maya Wiley, President, Center for Social Inclusionread more
Alston Bannerman Brochure
The Alston Bannerman Leadership Initiative is one of the programs of the Center for Social Inclusion. The brochure is tightly within the brand framework we created for the Center for Social Inclusion in the previous year.read more
Annual Report: Center for Social Inclusion
This 2009 Center for Social Inclusion annual report has served as the basis for subsequent reports and is an outgrowth of the brand system we devised for them in 2008.read more
Energy Democracy
One of many reports Tronvig Group has designed for the Center for Social Inclusion, this makes use of the color system where gray is a reflection of current reality, and blue (in this case somewhat whimsically) illustrates the future vision.read more
Illustration
The important issue with illustration, as with photography, is understanding clearly what we are trying to achieve from a strategic standpoint and who our audience is so that the choice of illustration style is not arbitrary and governed entirely by the tastes of the selector, but rather is intentional and governed by the tastes and needs of the audience.read more
Photography
Despite the fact that photograph is a rapidly evolving field, and photographic tastes continue to change with the technology, great photography can still make or break a concept.read more
Leading Reform, Mississippi
This report created early in the process of codifying the Center for Social Inclusion brand system does not yet have the gray and blue color scheme, but it still walks the line well enough to comfortably fit in the company of the other reports. The handwriting and hand-colored counties are inspired by a drawing we commissioned from my then 7-year-old son.read more
Website Copywriting
Copy for a website is ideally part of a tactical execution that is operating within a strategic framework and generated from an understanding of who is being addressed and what their needs are.read more
Remedi (Re/Insurance Mediation Institute)
“The website Tronvig Group created for us is truly a work of art—efficient,
beautiful, effective.”
—Katherine Billingham, Board Chairpersonread more
Website
January / 18 / 2010
You’ve got 30 seconds.
"If your single most persuasive idea takes more than one sentence to explain, it probably isn't single. Or persuasive."
—Lee Clow's Beard from Twitter, January 14th 2010.
This is a bit of an exaggeration, but I make a habit of telling my clients that they only have thirty seconds to convey their keynote brand message. And we work very hard to achieve this so that the website (and most of the time we are having this discussion in the context of a website) communicates its essential truths immediately and with word and visual expression.read more
Wiand Guerra King
"Tronvig Group is fast, efficient, and very responsive."
—Peter King, Founding Memberread more
Retouching
December / 21 / 2009
Real Estate Retouching
Most of the original photography work that we do involves photo retouching of some kind. In real estate marketing, it is important to accurately preview the experience of actually seeing the property that is being sold.read more
Really Short Essay
December / 15 / 2009
Shure
In a generous response to my request, I had been sent three emails "remember the microphone!" We were talking about the Shure microphone I had promised to bring in for a test recording that was expected by the client the following day.
The reminder floated up from my subconscious at precisely 2:00AM waking me with a start. Had I not last seen the microphone as a prop in a mock KaraOK performance in the hall starring my five year old? This could not be good.read more
Condé Nast Furniture Design and Construction for the Interior Designer
"You are literally a godsend for us, and I couldn't be more pleased with the work—from the fantastic covers to your incredible speed and professionalism."
—Erin Fitzsimmons, Art Director, Conde Nastread more
Book Design
August / 20 / 2009
Fairchild, Swatchbook
Not your average swatch reference book cover. This was created for Condé Nast's Swatch Reference Guide for Fashion Fabrics.read more
Fairchild, Tailored Fashion Design
This is the cover for the book Tailored Fashion Design, which we did for Condé Nast's Fairchild Books.read more
Digital Drawing for Designers
Condé Nast, Fairchild Books Digital Drawing for Designers book cover & book design.read more
One Region: Promoting Prosperity Across Race
One Region: Promoting Prosperity Across Race was the first project we did for the Center for Social Inclusion. It was done prior to our having developed their current brand, so the design process was guided by pre-brand principles of decisions made against the benchmark of personal taste and intuition instead of on the basis of adherence to agreed-upon brand principles.read more
Gunpowder Island
Gunpowder Island real estate sales brochure for New York Private Realty Group.read more
425 Fifth Avenue "Make Manhattan Yours."
"Make Manhattan Yours." Small space real estate ad for New York Private Realty Group.read more
Huelsta/Rolf Benz
Hülsta and Rolf Benz are German-made high-end furniture and home/office product manufacturers. Tronvig Group did ads such as this one for them in 2008.read more
Dassault Falcon
This was a multi-page co-op advertisement coordinating with all of Dassault Falcon's subsidiary manufacturers. Pictured is the opening spread.read more
West 43rd Street
Full-page spread real estate advertisement for West 43 condominium project. Photography by Dave Diesing.read more
Dassault Falcon ad
A series of ads done in conjunction with the launch of the Dassault Falcon 7X in 2007. The tag line is "Suddenly the sky is made of silk."read more
Gem Collection
A real estate advertising campaign that successfully reintroduced three premier properties that were "East of SoHo—West of the Moon."read more
Being Magazine
This magazine was published by Jockey in 2004 and 2005. Creative and production on this project were done in conjunction with Mixed Business Inc, under the inimitable creative direction of Marc Balet.read more
What can our strategy workshops do for you?
Get answers to these and other key questions: "Who is our most natural consumer?" and "Why should they care about our product or service?"read more
January / 10 / 2016
Tronvig Group Brand Pyramid
We are developing a Brand Pyramid download that will walk you through the process and pose the questions for your organization, your company or your product. It will walk through how you can use these questions to expose strategic weaknesses and fix them.read more
360 brand
May / 6 / 2015
Visual Brand and 360 Brand: What's the difference?
What is the difference between a visual brand and a true 360 brand? How do you get your organization to think beyond just the visual brand?read more
brand strategy
April / 7 / 2014
Brand Strategy Basics
Brand strategy gives McDonald's a 27 billion dollar advantage over Burger King. It's important that you understand how this happened, and how it applies to your organization.read more
Marketing Strategy
November / 4 / 2013
What is marketing strategy?
Marketing strategy allows you to use pathways and footholds that apply your limited marketing budget more effectively (everyone's marketing budget is limited). Marketing strategy facilitates your ability to apply marketing money to the correct half of the Wanamaker equation—the half you are not wasting on audiences who do not value your message.read more
Museum Branding
October / 7 / 2013
Is the museum brand god dead?
In a postmodern world—the one we live in now—the AUTHORITY, the curator, the author, the expert—anyone whose charge it is to create grand classifications and assign meaning—has been demoted. This is our Internet paradigm, is it not? The authority is now just one voice among many.
What does this mean for museum branding?read more
Marketing Science
July / 1 / 2013
Brain Science and Marketing: Role of the Limbic & Reptilian Brains
You think you are in control. "You"—your sense of self—your highly developed, amazingly capable conscious mind, housed in the big wrinkly hemispheric thing that we most often associate with the brain: the neocortex—is not really in control as much as it thinks. It's just easier for all of us to carry on with this delusion.read more