We pride ourselves on being able to work with budgets of any size and deliver quality creative solutions for clients.
A million dollar budget? We’ve managed that.
$10,000 budget? We can make that work.
No matter the amount, we treat our clients’ budget with care and expertise – as if it was our own money!
Here’s what one client had to say on our amazing budget-maximizing abilities:
“TCG worked within our budget so that it was affordable to create a new website for Wee Care Day School. The result has been a continuous flow of emails/phone calls for future enrollments! I love working with this group of creative people.” – Kristin Troop, Owner, Wee Care Day School
Have you ever seen someone who is dressed impeccably…until you get a look at the shoes? Stylish, perfectly fitted clothes worn with out-of-date shoes, in need of polishing? Yeah, the whole effect is ruined.
That’s exactly the impression you give when any part of your communications effort looks out of sync. Everything needs to work together to create a professional and polished brand. You don’t want cutting-edge TV spots or ads and a website that looks tired. You can’t slap a new logo on brochures that look like they were designed in the 1970s and think you’ve succeeded in giving them a fresh face.
Design trends change and there’s a new color of the year every January. But some things remain steadfast. Integrated communications material and campaigns with professionally produced brand messaging say a lot about your organization. They reinforce one another and create an impact across your brand. And that never goes out of style.
For an example of integrated campaign material with strong brand messaging, check out these pieces we created for Lancaster County Career & Technology Center.
If you’re looking for ways to entertain yourself now that the holidays are behind us and much of the new year is still ahead, check out the mid-season lineup at the Luhrs Center!
We have been working with the good folks at the H. Ric Lurhrs Performing Arts Center at Shippensburg University since day one, designing ads, tickets, brochures and flyers for every season. Last year, the Luhrs Center celebrated their 10th anniversary. We applaud the hard work they do every year to present a delightful variety of entertainment that draws crowds from around the region and beyond. Bravo!
Click here to see the brochure that we designed for them this year.
When you’ve been in business for more than 26 years, as we have, it’s easy to slip into the mindset of thinking that most everyone knows you and what you do. You may think that surely someone who already uses your services must know all about all of the services you offer.
That’s a mindset you need to fight.
Just in the past year, we’ve heard these comments from current clients:
“Is there any way you can help us with X?” We sure can!
“I didn’t know you guys do X.” We do and we’re darn good at it!
“We paid a lot for X and still aren’t happy with it. I wish I’d known you do it.” So do we!
These experiences reminded us of a few lessons and basic principles of how we do business:
- While your website is a good place to showcase who you are and what you do, it can’t do the job alone. Take every opportunity to have a personal exchange—on the phone or in person—to tell your story.
- Try to meet with current clients once or twice a year when you both are not under pressure or on deadline. Find out what they having coming up and how you might be able to help. Go to lunch, pick up coffee and goodies and meet in their office, drop by when it is convenient for them and share your latest success about a product or service that is relevant for what they do. It just might spark an idea and an opportunity for new business.
- Be honest about what you can and can’t do. When we were asked by our client whether there was any way we could help with what seemed to be a crazy task and an impossible deadline, we didn’t immediately say yes. First we checked our resources and established a realistic timetable for delivery. Only then did we feel we could say yes, with confidence.
- It’s not so unusual to have to remind clients or prospects about all the services you offer. Everyone is busy and focused on the immediate need at hand. Reach out and make someone’s life a little easier. That’s the foundation of a successful partnership.
Whether you need x, y or z, or want to remind us that you do x, y or z, please reach out to us by emailing Kim Smith, we’d love to hear from you!
As longtime supporters of YWCA Lancaster, we were happy to again help the good folks there with promotional material for a far-out and funky event—a 70s Pop-Up Party!
Benefiting the YWCA’s Child Development and TechGYRLS programs, the party is a celebration of everything 70s, from the decade’s funkadelic music to bell bottoms jeans and platform shoes. To help publicize the party, we worked with the YWCA event committee to create the save-the-date card, invitation, flyer and poster.
Pop-up parties can take many shapes and forms. With this one, you know the date and time, but you won’t know the location until a few days before the party. You register ahead of time and get a special notice about where to go to get your groove on!
Here are more details:
Friday, January 27, 7–11 p.m.
Tickets: $50
Costumes are strongly encouraged; the best will earn awards.
Register: 70sPopUp.eventbrite.com
The fun includes live “Soul Train” performances, flashback jams, unique silent auction, and 70s-style food and cocktails.
You can be green with envy. You can be flush with greenbacks. You can eat your greens for good health.
What’s with all the green, you ask? It’s the Pantone Color of the Year! Officially it is Greenery, PMS 376. The Pantone Color Institute®, which selects a symbolic color to express the year’s mood and attitude, has this to say about the color:
“Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring…illustrative of flourishing foliage and the lushness of the great outdoors. A life-affirming shade, Greenery is also emblematic of the pursuit of personal passions and vitality.”
Our art director, Kim Smith, loves this buoyant hue.
“It’s positive, optimistic and very alive,” she says. “Greenery gives hope for a healthy and fruitful year ahead. Just in time!”
Wishing you a warm & wonderful holiday!
Creative Plus Communications provides non-profits and small businesses with communications and writing services. The challenge presented to us by owner Angela Trout was how to convey that mission in a new logo. And our art director, Kim Smith, loves a challenge!
Now and then, we turn this space over to guest bloggers, who share their wisdom and advice. Mary Kohler is president of The H&H Group, a printing, sign-making and marketing support company that we have partnered with for several years. Mary writes about “doing what you do best.”
You are very smart about your business, probably even passionate. You might even be “the expert” at what you do. You are certainly better at it than most people. Imagine if everyone had the same interests. Wouldn’t that be boring? Fortunately we all have different interests, talents and areas of expertise. And you are good at what you do. Being good at what you do doesn’t mean you are good at marketing though, unless what you are good at is marketing.
More and more people attempt to do their own marketing because software, technology, and the internet have given everyone who has access to a computer and the internet the tools to do some rudimentary marketing. Unfortunately, that has resulted in a lot of bad marketing out there. Though I think people have the right intentions, their outcomes often are off the mark.
But I digress.
If you want to use the software, technology and the internet to do your marketing, you are kind of like me picking up a paint brush and a canvas and trying to paint a masterpiece. I promise you that I cannot paint a masterpiece. I know my limits, plus that creative gene missed my generation and my daughter got it. If I practice a lot, I might become decent at painting. But that is not what I do. I do all the other work that I choose to do and love to do or … have to do… day in and day out, and painting is not one of my things. So I am not likely to become a master painter.
So what about your marketing? Are you a master marketer? If so, keep marketing. If not, please keep in mind that there is help – expert, creative, professional help – out in the world to do your marketing well. Let the artists paint and let the marketers market.