CancerForward Moves Forward

Today we launched the second phase of the CancerForward website that includes resources, stories and helpful links for cancer survivors. Our team and the CancerForward team have worked very hard to develop the infrastructure and format for future discussions and development. I'd like to thank Beth Sanders Moore for her tireless efforts supporting the vision for the organization. We're very proud to be involved with such a worthwhile cause and excited about helping those who live with Cancer every day. We're excited to see what the future holds and looking forward to helping with "everything after Cancer."

Read the press release to see more information about where we are.

BE Helpful Day at The Houston Foodbank

Quarterly we recognize our successes and do some good in the community. In the past we've built houses, done a great deal of pro bono work supporting organizations and causes we believe in greatly. This quarter we went to The Houston Foodbank where our team prepared over 7,088 pounds of food for Houston's hungry. Our staff works tirelessly to serve our clients, each other and the community every day but it's nice to take time out and just focus on doing good for a specific organization. I'm very proud of our team and the great things they do. Bragging a bit, every time we go do this they tell us we work harder and seem to have more fun than many of the groups that come an help, I think this comment exemplifies what the professionalism and enthusiasm of our team. See photos of our team in action!

I do want to share one thought I had yesterday. Without our clients, our industry partners, our families and others who support our company we would not be able to do the good that we do. It's always interesting to think about the purpose of an organization, as we see it our mission (or our purpose) is to help people an organizations grow. That statement comes with a lot of responsibility and reaches far beyond the marketing and creative expertise expected of us.

In my eyes, the purpose of this business is to do good professionally, personally and socially. Yesterday, we did a lot of good and as always I'm proud to be a part of this team.

Bo

The language of social media

Published August 01, 2010 on Chron.com @Social Media by Mary Rambin

Jonathan Fisher speaks our language

On first glance, you wouldn't guess Jonathan Fisher, a man over 40 wearing a classic suit with his initials monogrammed on his starched shirt, would be one of the most well-versed Houstonians in social media. He doesn't fit the bill of the young, trendy, over-caffeinated, hipster type who has his head buried in his iPhone. As COO of BrandExtract, one of the most highly-acclaimed branding companies in Houston, he probably employs a few of these characters, but he himself appears to be the vision of corporate Houston. The reason for his success lies not only in his appearance, but more so in the fact he can translate the mystery of social media into a language that Houston business owners understand.

When he begins to speak about social media, you probably wouldn't pick up on it for a few minutes. After working in Houston for 16 years, he knows not to throw out the buzz words that turn off CEOs adverse to change. He constructs a language that relates what you are doing now to how you should be doing it.

He speaks in terms of history and visibility.

When delving into the past, he offers the internet as his prime example. The web launched in 1993, but he still couldn't sell people on the idea of it in 1994. By 1996 people were approaching him to build their website because their competitor had one. Finally everyone jumped on the bandwagon in 1998 and ran to his office desperate for a website asap. Houstonians are simply late adopters. It was the same story with television, faxes, and email. Can you imagine your boss telling you not to use email?

Now consider his argument on visibility. Social media is a fast and free way to make your brand more visible. Fisher uses a salesman as an example. "Let's say a guy can make 25 calls in a day. So that's as far as he can reach. But if he posts his information on Facebook and he has 100 friends or to Twitter where he has 1,000 followers, he's just amplified his reach exponentially," says Fisher.

For Fisher, the bottom line is that "there is a conversation going on out there about your industry and you can put your head in the sand and let your competitors pass you by, or you can participate and lead the discussion."


Posted by Mary Rambin at August 1, 2010 12:24 AM

New Guys

It was a big day for BrandExtract, our newest team members from Parker:Hayden officially moved in. While it might take a few months to figure out whether or not we'll keep the wagon wheel coffee table, rusty old ash tray and Mark we know that this is going to be a great opportunity for our firm and our clients. We have already begun collaborating on projects together and it seems that the sum will be much greater than the parts. I'd like to extend a special thanks first to Julia and Leigh Ann for the hard work coordinating and getting things from one space to the other.

On another high note, much like the BMA awards where combined our firms took home 13 Lantern Awards, the combined teams of BrandExtract and Parker:Hayden scored six AMA Crystal awards for work done for Lasco Enterprises, Casa Ole and others.

Here's to the future success of our people, our clients and our firm.

Sherrill Awarded with 'Big Head'

Web developer Sherrill Baggett was honored with our first quarter Big Head award for employee excellence.


As Sherrill programs and builds Web sites, online applications and e-mail campaigns, she does so with ingenuity mixed with enthusiasm.

Customer service always comes first for Sherrill. BrandExtract employees and clients have learned how dependable she is – that they can lean on her for a well thought out solution for every challenge that comes her way. In the words of one co-worker, “Sherrill always helps out…like the Boy Scouts, we know that on her honor, she will do her best.” And even though some of our clients have never met Sherrill, “they think she hung the moon,” according to BrandExtract president Bo Bothe, referring to her pleasant demeanor, focus and dependability when working on first-time projects, updates and service.

Congratulations, Sherrill, on being chosen as our quarterly BrandExtract Big Head winner, and thank you for your unwavering dedication to excellence in the work we do for our clients.

BrandExtract Merges with Parker Hayden

Creativity + Purpose = Success
After months of meetings, collaborations, group hugs and some hand wringing BrandExtract is growing in a big way. The merger we are announcing today with Parker:Hayden is both crazy and courageous. We have known Guy and Mark for a while and have always been impressed by their creative energy, once we met their team we knew it was a good fit. Our firm's mission is to help people grow. Whether it is our clients, our teammates or our families we are in the people business and we have even more incredibly good people.

Our Brand is More
Our firm now has even greater capabilities. Watching trends and changes in the marketing profession it is increasingly obvious that people connect in different ways. Corporate branding and consumer branding practices are converging. The way a consumer brand might use social media to engage its customers is the same way a large corporate entity would use it to engage it's employees and in turn their customers. Our previous merger with Bravo Zulu Interactive gave us incredibly talented usability, search and development experts along with SAM, our proprietary site management tool. This merger provides us with even greater creative talent and additional skills that include video, audio, advertising, media and PR.

Strong People, Stronger Clients
In my mind one of the greatest strengths in this merger is the desire of both teams to provide our clients with measurable results. The combination of purpose and creative innovation is what has always driven our firm and we are adding a like-minded group that feels the same way. It has always been our goal to effectively and creatively guide growing companies. Now, we have more tools, smart people and ideas to move our clients and our firm forward.


Boy Scouts of America


Casa Olé


Windsor Foods


Monterra Minerals and Production

A Brand with Purpose

Last year, our firm completed the BoyarMiller rebrand. The firm's 19 attorneys focus on business transaction and litigation practices. Our focus in the rebrand was to help a firm already defined by key values develop the external brand to support it. Having worked with the firm for the past nine months on their marketing initiatives, it has become clear that they run their firm like no other. With a focus on sound business principles, the firm is run like a business. In many cases, service business are run as like a group of individual practitioners all managed under one brand. Their team approach combined with operational excellence provides a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Because all of their actions have defined goals they adopted the position, and tagline, "Practice with Purpose." Our efforts along with those of the BoyarMiller team have gotten them recognized as the "Marketer of the Year" by AMA Houston.

I share this example because internal vision and process are just as important as marketing when it comes to branding, maybe even more so. So many focus on telling people who they are without really understanding what they do. Your brand is made up of two major parts, the internal brand and the external brand.