Experience Matters 25 Years of Solving Nearly Every Kind of Communications Challenge

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Raincastle's Web Design & Branding Blog

Posted by Paul Regensburg on Feb 16, 2015 8:56:00 AM

Do I Need a Brand or a Visual Identity?

Sometimes when people come to us for "branding," I quickly ascertain that what they really mean is an updated "visual identity."

"So, you're looking for help integrating your vision, competitive positioning, audience messaging, market perception and corporate culture," I might ask. Just as often they respond, "I just need an update to our logo, collateral templates, PowerPoint, web design, etc." For many, the visual manifestations of a brand are "The Brand."

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Tags: web design / branding / design / design thinking / rebranding / brand / differentiation / design and business / Web Design Strategy / branding for websites
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Posted by Paul Regensburg on Jan 28, 2015 9:56:00 AM

Brand personality: who really cares?

In our data and analytics driven marketing world, why would something so touchy feely, so ethereal and hard to quantify as brand personality be something you care about?

Everyone wants to be Apple. Everyone wants to, "Think Different."

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Tags: B2B / branding / copywriting / content creation / design / brand / design and business
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Posted by Paul Regensburg on Jan 6, 2015 4:46:00 PM

How to Build B2B Websites That Serve Multiple Audiences, Part I

Maybe it is the function of the multi-product, multi-tasking, multi messaged nature of businesses these days but it seems that practically all of our clients share a common problem, which is how to create B2B websites that effectively speak to two or more disparate audiences — without diluting the user experience for each of those audiences. In this two-part blog post, I will address this "multi-audience" web problem, which spans brand, design, information architecture, content creation, and SEO.

B2B Branding for Multiple Web Audiences

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Tags: web design / B2B / content creation / design / responsive design / website / brand / trends / branding for websites
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Posted by Paul Regensburg on Oct 8, 2014 12:02:59 PM

Why "EXPERIENCE MATTERS"

I write regularly about how branding impacts your website, your marketing and your business. Last week, in celebration of RainCastle's twentieth anniversary, we launched our new website, in which we introduced our new brand theme, "EXPERIENCE MATTERS," here's why.

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Tags: web design / client service / client relationships / B2B / branding / brand messaging / brand / Experience
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Posted by Paul Regensburg on Sep 29, 2014 1:05:00 PM

An Effective Web Design Strategy Starts with Your Brand

We've talked about Market Strategy, Brand Strategy and Content Strategy, so why do we need a Web Design Strategy? Because, of all of these strategies, only your Website Design Strategy is externally facing. Let's put Website Desgn Strategy into context to clarify how these strategies work in tandem.

Using a funnel metaphor, your Market Strategy is your highest level strategic decision, in which you define the markets for your products and/or services and determine whether your market approach is industry specific, solutions or applications-focused or some combination.

Once this is determined, your Brand Strategy encompasses the way you describe what you do, for what audiences with a compettive value statement, which sets you apart from your competition. You socialize this brand internally, and externally at every customer and employee touchpoint.

The power of a relevant Content Strategy — based on sound Market and Brand Strategies — is to create a program to disseminate and exchange your valuable content across all media and over time, which leads us to your Website Design Strategy.

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Tags: web design / B2B / user experience / brand messaging / design / content marketing / brand / brand positioning / design and business / Web Design Strategy
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