Ziakam Module 6

Hinweis der Redaktion

1. For my synthesis project, I decided to do the company I’ve actually been with from the beginning, NiceShirt.Org. It has been a great experiecne for me and has really given a wonderful outlook to the real world. I’ve been able to strengthen my design skills and learn much about general business, working with clientele, and the work place. Although I have nothing but great things to say about this company, they still are a brand new company with much room for growth and improvement.
2. For those of you that do not know, NiceShirt.Org is a social enterprise started in Bowling Green, Ohio early last year by BGSU graduates, Skyler Rogers and Wesley Parsell. This group started off with much support from not only the university, but also from collegues, friends, and family. In just the first twelve months NiceShirt.Org won the Ron Whitehouse business plan scholarship for $20,000, was named Start-Up of the Month by Young Entrepreneur Magazine, and raised over $110,000 for different non-profits, organizations, and causes across the country. NiceShirt.Org has their central office in Bowling Green, Ohio which they refer to as the Great Lakes Branch, and then two smaller branches, one in Denver, Colorado and another in New York. They have worked with extensive causes in all fifty states and over ten different countries. NiceShirt.Org has had three different terms of interns through the BGSU university, in which all members have had much hands-on experience. NiceShirt. Org provides a fast-paced, quirky environment with the opportunity for young entrepreneurs and aspring philanthropists, to really get the inside scoop of how business can be fun, inspiring, and productive at the same time.
3. Over the next few years, NiceShirt.Org hopes to really build and expand the different branches. Right now the headquarters in Bowling Green is the source of about 90% of the work that is done through the company. With that being said, the majority of the sales being done for Nice Shirt are rooted at different remote locations, when the perfect opportunity is within the same town. Bowling Green’s campus has hundreds of student organizations that purchase merchandise each semester. I believe that most of these organizations should be going through NiceShirt for their apparel needs, because they will get a kick back to their different philanthropies and causes. I believe the main problem to be the lack of branding. This semester we have installed new branding standards in which will keep all marketing materials consistent across the board. Without consistent branding, the company will not be recognizable to potential clients. Currently NiceShirt.Org highly depends on their college interns to gather leads for a large portion of their bulk orders. Since their main precadent is online fundraising, they lack in the essence of landing easy available campus merchandise orders. I believe that this is all rooted from the lack of consistency of branding. Without a solid brand, the backbone of marketing is an effort that really does not suit a purpose. Another area of weakness within the company, is feedback and excitement to be partnered with NiceShirt.Org. Hardly ever are they campaigns that are launched, and then do we get any kind of exciting posts about the t-shirts. Every so often there will be a fallen warrier family that will tag the Facebook account, however this should be happening more often, with several different demographics.
4. Creating the standards that can be used throughout marketing, advertisement, and general branding will give the overall company a much stronger edge and grasp on the things they wish to accomplish. By having a solid logo and brand, NiceShirt.Org will be able to mass communicate all of the things that we can do for organizations. Right now we’re trying to focus on the large picture and gather as many campaigns and orders to help fundraise as possible, which is great, but in essense what is happening is that we are gathering a strong niche in certain areas, such as warrior/solider base. By creating a strong brand and identity through business essentials, people will not be able to forget us. The logo is very impactful by itself, so by mass producing this with uniform business cards, letterheads, and mailers, NiceShirt.Org will market itself.
5. One of my main focuses was to create a business card that could be used for any NiceShirt.Org associate, whether an ambassador, intern, or founder of the company. Originally I had used the top row of graphics in order to give a quick feel for what NiceShirt.Org is about. After doing some evaluation and discussion with the team at Nice Shirt, we realized that they weren’t the things we wanted to focus on. I adjusted these graphics to really give a strong outlook for the three areas that NiceShirt really is focused in: one of which being custom apparel – which we offer screen printing, embroidery, applique, and even custom merchandise such as hats, can koozies, silicone bracelets and much more. NiceShirt.Org also has a very strong set of designers some of which are our very own VCT majors. And last but not least – fundraising. At the end of the day NiceShirt.Org does all of this work to give non-profits, various causes and organizations and provide the boost they need to continue their movement and awareness campaigns. These icons seemed more like a filler to me at first and I quickly realized how wrong that was. Being a VCT major, I should have understood how vital some small icons can be to designs.
6. Although NiceShirt.Org has only been around for a little over a year, they have already established their company identity with corporate Pantone Spot Colors, as well as accent colors. Their logo has been altered very minimally since the original launch, only adding the url extension, .org and then later adding the full url to the logo. NiceShirt.Org has a really strong logo that speaks directly to the company culture, however I think that overall the branding and consistency is lacking. The current business cards do not have matching typefaces as the company brand, and in which does not match the website, nor any other printable materials. They do not have a company letterhead whatsoever. By bringing everything consistent across the board, it will help market the company much more effectively. I also think that NiceShirt.Org has wonderful choosen accent colors that are not utilized properly.