Business Brand Key to Success
October 2003, excerpt
By SUE ROBINSON Courier-Post

EVESHAM Before Carol Schmidt found a location for her start-up gourmet takeout food business, she thought about her brand. She thought about it before she started thinking about menus, and even before she approached the banks for loans. "It is the most important thing you do when you start your business," said the former marketing director-turned-entrepreneur.

Building a brand is big business: An a la carte menu of services could cost $500 to $800 to design stationery, $800 to $1,000 for a logo, and anywhere from $800 to $10,000 to create a brochure - money, said Julie Ruth, assistant professor of marketing at Rutgers University-Camden, well spent. "For anyone just starting out, that's going to be a lot of money," Ruth said. "But the more money, the better. Branding is about building an experience as much as it is about any one logo." Schmidt set aside $12,000 just for the creation and launch of her brand, CasBar, and another $12,000 for the first year's marketing of that brand. "I didn't want to be just another take-out," Schmidt said. "You slap a sign up there and you are missing out on an opportunity to leverage that sign, to communicate something to your customers about who you are."

Figuring out how to communicate that, though, was an intensive process that had roots in both design and psychology. First comes the identity building considerations: client demographics, competition, upscale or discount, differential, – all questions asked by her marketing firm. If your business had an emotion, what would it be? If it had an audience, what would it look like? Where would they live? What kinds of products would they buy? asked the Chameleon Design Group of Moorestown. Schmidt identified two "perfect" customers: the single person making at least $50,000 who likes to cook but never does; and the married couple with a kid or two and enough money to spend on food - but a crazy schedule that prevented the family from eating as they should, or as they wanted to.

With this information in mind, Chameleon turned to the name: CasBar, Schmidt announced proudly, a compilation of the names of her siblings and a childhood game. "Would people think it was a bar?" Chameleon's staff remembered asking. To them, the name didn't convey gourmet foods.

But Schmidt was adamant, so the name stuck. There were colors to pick: Schmidt described the groans at her insistence to use red and yellow. The two colors would not reproduce well in different shades, but more important, the primary colors just didn't say “gourmet”, gently suggested Marina Pino-Unland, Chameleon's president. Schmidt conceded the point. An earthy pumpkin and cornflower blue would better convey fresh, natural, gourmet foods. Then there were the font and the lettering: They recommended lowercase lettering to exude a hip, upscale, forward-thinking image, and the elegant but sensible Century Gothic font that would look good on any platform. Meanwhile, the firm was concerned no one would know what CasBar was, Schmidt's motto, - The Good Life to Go - didn't quite do the job. They compromised on a “Gourmet Foods” tag line that resides under the company name on the primary logo, and designed a secondary version for limited use, that replaces “Gourmet Foods” with “The Good Life to Go”.

They all liked the logo, a soup bowl with three lines of steam waving from the icon, depicting the freshness of the food and warmth, casbar in lowercase. Many other planned details would make up the foundation for the rest of the marketing strategy that included a comprehensive Web site with an online menu, direct mail marketing, public relations and advertising campaigns.

"You're aiming for a constant series and consistent message with enough variation to keep it fresh and exciting," Pino-Unland said. The big day arrived Jan. 6, the day CasBar opened on Route 73 in Marlton and the first test of the brand. Schmidt looked around that morning with satisfaction. The muted shades of orange No. 718 and blue No. 541 accented everything: the napkins, the T-shirts, the delivery bags, the menus, even the flowers that Pino-Unland brought. She felt confident the look would entice potential customers.

From the 250 people at that opening, Schmidt developed a loyal following, people who brought in the mailings, people who ordered from her online menus. CasBar's revenues have grown about 5 to 7 percent each month. The brand, it seems, has already started working.