The Blauugh

Hutton and his friend Jake are having a charity Skatevenger hunt this weekend – check out the event facebook page http://www.facebook.com/events/165824240175716/ and if any of you old timers want to show your skills, please rsvp and attend. R Squared is the food sponsor so I’ll be cooking not skating.

1PM start at Chase Field (formerly known as BankOne Ballpark) 401 E Jefferson St, Phoenix, AZ 85004 – $5 Dollar Entry Fee, all proceeds will go to the New Foundation. For more information on the New Foundation check out: http://www.thenewfoundation.org/

The event will end 2.3 miles away at Margaret T Hence Park – 67 West Culver Street, Phoenix, AZ There will be some unbelievable prize given out for the team with the most points.

Also it should be noted that the Metro lite rail run to both Chase Field and Margaret T Hence Park – one ride is $1.75 and an all day pass is $3.50 – you can view the route map at http://routes.valleymetro.org/timetables/785/transit_route?type=1

Hope to see you there

Wow two Blauughs in one day – trying to make up for lost time. The New Foundation’s 3rd Annual Golf Classic was a great success – it was held this year at Cattail Course of the Whirlwind Golf Club and with the winners shooting a 49 and we a measly 58 our only chance at winning anything was with our snappy attire. Can you believe the whole uniform was under $12 each Oh and by the way, the Cheerleaders were ecstatic to associated with 4 winners. – Just wait until next year.

Happy Birthday Blake, our newest addition to the R Squared gang. He’s not much of a golfer and he has the whitest legs I’ve ever seen, but not to shabby of a Graphic Designer – As a matter of fact I think he won the initial design competition with a stellar design for State Seal (web design not included) Anyways we had a special guest who came all the way from Texas to share in the celebration of Blake’s 27th – )Wow, he could actually be my son)

The Tee Pee Mexican Restaurant was started by Tony and Anna Duran in the 1960’s. Tony bartended while Anna did the cooking. During the late 1970’s their daughter Kathy and son-in-law Zip started to run the Family business. Now they are the owners and are teaching their children, Jefe and Julianna, to run the business. You can always find a family member at The Tee Pee. Your server is probably a niece or nephew. You will always be greeted at the door by a friendly face. Our Manager, Shannon, started out bar backing in the Late 1980’s and Tony Duran III is also following in the footsteps of the Family tradition. We are all Family at The Tee Pee.

The Tee Pee is nothing fancy. We often have been referred to as a Ma and Pa Restaurant. We serve our meals with paper napkins while you relax in one of our original booths from the 1960’s. Some of our customers have been eating here for four generations.

While you are waiting for your table you can browse the walls of fame. We have had many famous visitors come to our restaurant. People such as President Bush and Willard Scott from the Today Show have been our guests. Not to mention a great number of famous sports athletes and movie stars have eaten here as well. Be it a famed celebrity or a local community hero, you never know who you might be sitting next too here at The Tee Pee.

Today, August 5, 2011 is Stuart’s last day at R Squared. We are happy to say we have “Found” his replacement. Blake Found was our 2008 summer intern and will be joining the R Squared team on Monday, August 15. We will have a formal introduction at that time as today is dedicated in wishing Stuart and Sarah much success in Utah!

Commentary by Susan Blei, Project Coordinator
Hundreds of Days Later: Stuart is “Funny”
What can I say about Stuart?
I met him on March 24, 2008, my first day at R Squared Graphic Design. I had no idea what I was in for.
If someone had told me 3½ years ago I would be sad to see Stuart leave I wouldn’t have believed them. It took me hundreds of days to get use to his personality and realize that he doesn’t just hate me, he hates everyone!
The first time I heard the expletives fly from his office, I thought he was listening to some horrible radio station — then I realized it was him! I thought: ‘Oh my goodness, you kiss Sarah with that mouth? I hope Rick doesn’t let Stuart talk to clients.’ It didn’t take long to understand why that job has been given to Cody.
Push the button and fast forward 3½ years. I hate to admit it, but I can say those who said I would be sad, are right. I’m going to miss Stuart and everything he has taught me. Because of him I’m feistier and I definitely stand up for myself more today than on my first day at work.
All kidding aside Stuart is a person that any company should want working for them. He is smart, reliable, willing to learn and has one heck of a sense of humor.
As he leaves R Squared I hope Utah is well prepared…

Please help us give Stuart Laybourne an appropriate farewell. On Friday, August 5, Stuart and his wife Sarah will be relocating to Salt Lake City where Sarah has accepted a position as a judges’ clerk.

R Squared will be posting some of our favorite memories of him throughout the coming week. Feel free to share any thoughts or photos you may have.

Kicking off our walk down memory lane, we hope you enjoy these images from our July 4, 2008 promo, “Crossing the Border with Fireworks.” We enjoyed a day at Rawhide with Tony Blei Photography as he created the photos used in the promo. The only thing is that we should have thrown away the key when we locked him in jail.

We got this email today, no we’ve never worked with this company before. No we will not be working with them. Yes, this was a mass Constant Contact email blast:

Hi Susan,

This is Jeff Anderson, Branders’ sales director. We had an unfortunate incident of food poisoning at our cafeteria yesterday and as a result, some of our reps are not able to work 100% as of the moment. If you need help on anything, please let me know and I’ll make sure someone attends to your request quickly.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you but rest assured we are doing everything we can to get all of your requests and orders.

Thanks,

Jeff Anderson
Sales Director
Direct Line: 650-350-3370
E-mail: janderson@branders.com

We just launched another website for a friend of R2, Leppien & Associates LLC. Check it out!

www.leppienassociates.com

Lots of organizations come to our company, Advertising for Humanity, asking for “a new brand.” They typically mean a new name, or icon, or a new look and feel for their existing name. Lots of people think that brand begins and ends there — that once we shine up the name they can stick it below their email signature, pop it on their website, and, voila, they have a new brand. Much of our work consists of disabusing people of this notion.

Brand is much more than a name or a logo. Brand is everything, and everything is brand.

Brand is your strategy. If you’re a consumer brand, brand is your products and the story that those products tell together. Ikea’s kitchen chairs’ tendency to fall apart after two years is part of the company’s brand. If you’re a humanitarian organization, brand is your aspirations and the progress you are making toward them. Share Our Strength’s audacious goal to end child hunger in America in five years is its brand. The work the organization is doing to get governor after governor on board is its brand. Its seriousness is its brand. Back in 1969 NASA didn’t have the best logo. But man did it have a brand. It has a nicer logo now — but the brand no longer stands for anything. If you don’t know where you’re going or how you’re going to get there, that’s your brand, no matter what fancy new name you come up with.

Brand is your calls to action. If Martin Luther King had offered people free toasters if they marched on Washington, that would have been his brand. Are your calls to action brave and inspiring or tacky? Are they consistent with some strategy that makes sense? Getting more Facebook “likes” isn’t a strategy, in and of itself. If you’re a humanitarian organization, the things you ask your constituents to do are your brand.

Brand is your customer service. If donors call your organization all excited and get caught up in a voicemail tree, can’t figure out who they should talk to, and leave a message for someone unsure if it’s the right person, that’s your brand. It says you don’t really care all that much about your donors. If they come to your annual dinner and can’t hear the speaker because of a lousy sound system, that’s your brand. It says that you don’t think it’s really important whether they hear what you have to say or not. If the clerk at your checkout counter is admiring her nails and talking on her cell phone, she’s your brand, whether she’s wearing one of the nice new logo caps you bought or not.

Brand is the way you speak. If you build a new website and fill it with outdated copy, you don’t have a new brand. If the copy is impenetrable — a disease of epidemic proportion in the humanitarian sector — that’s your brand. If you let social service jargon, acronyms, and convoluted abstractions contaminate everything you say, that’s your brand. If your annual report puts people to sleep, that’s your brand. If it’s trying to be all things to all people, that’s your brand.

Message is a central part of your brand, but message alone cannot make a great brand. How many times have you encountered a product or service that didn’t live up to what the copy writers told you about it? That disconnect is your brand.

Brand is the whole array of your communication tools. Brand is the quality of the sign on the door that says, “Back in 10 minutes.” It’s whether you use a generic voicemail system with canned muzak-on-hold, or whether you create your own custom program. The former says you are just like everyone else and you’re fine with that; the latter says you are original. You might have a pretty sale banner that adheres to all the right visual standards, but if it’s sagging and hung up with duct tape, that’s your brand. It says you don’t pay attention to the details. Can you imagine seeing a crooked banner with duct tape in an Apple store? Never. And that’s their brand. It says that the motherboard in the Mac isn’t hanging by a thread either.

In the digital age, user interface is your brand. If your website’s functionality frustrates people, it says that you don’t care about them. Brand extends even to your office forms, the contracts you send out, your HR manuals. Do you rethink traditional business tools or default to convention? The choice you make says a lot about how innovative your brand is.

Brand is your people. Brand is your people and the way they represent you. Having a good team starts with good hiring and continues with strong and consistent training and development. No matter how well your employees adhere to your new brand style guide, if they couldn’t care less about the job they’re doing, that’s your brand.

Brand is your facilities. Are the lights on, or is your team working in darkness? Is the place clean and uncluttered? Does it have signage that’s consistent with your visual standards? Does it look and feel alive? Your home is your brand.

Brand is your logo and visuals, too. A great brand deserves a great logo and great graphic design and visuals. It can make the difference when the customer is choosing between two great brands. But these alone cannot make your brand great.

Ultimately, brand is about caring about your business at every level and in every detail, from the big things like mission and vision, to your people, your customers, and every interaction anyone is ever going to have with you, no matter how small.

Whether you know it or not, whether you have a swanky logo or not, you do have a brand. The question is whether or not it’s the brand you really want.

R Squared just completed a redesign of the web presence of Hip and Knee Reconstructive Surgeon Dr. Anthony K. Hedley. Designed not only to promote the doctor, the site also aims to provide patients with information as well as keep them up to date with the latest happenings with the doctor.

www.hedleytotaljoint.com

R Squared just completed the design for a new Phoenix area company: Roadrunner Home Services. ZOOOM!