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Time Geisha Brand Review

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Brand Review of Time Geisha

www.timegeisha.com

Twitter: @AlanaKarran

TimeGeisha_Front

Based on the current design and copy, we can reconstruct a loose brand platform:

Brand Values

- Order
- Beauty
- Art
- Serenity
- Grace
- Spirituality
- Harmony

Target Audience (TA)

The TA who would most likely respond to the current presentation:

Small business owner or solo-entrepreneur, tending towards female with an appreciation for the aesthetic and beatiful things in life. Her business is a celebration of her worldview, but she may not realize how to better manage her schedule to allow for a balance of business, work, life, and love.

Here we may have an issue. It seems the intended TA profile may actually be:

High-powered CEO or executive of mid to large-sized business operation. Tending towards male, always catching up, becoming frentic and numb, seeking an escape from the wear and tear of the daily pressures that seem to keep mounting. The harder he works, the deeper he is buried. Family is strained, sanity is fraying, but he doesn’t need a shrink. He needs a better time and info management system.

The issue faced is who you’re selling to. Right now, the brand seems to be selling to itself. In other words, the brand appeals most to the owner of Time Geisha (Yep, lookin’ at you Alana!) Now, that would be great at attracting like-minded business owners. ;)

So you have to decide, are you targeting the solopreneur female? Or the high-powered workoholic, unorganized, time-starved male (or female) executive who desperately needs solutions at the top of a larger pyramid?

Everything hinges on that decision.

Strategic Changes

Problem: The current design may alienate “serious-minded” male workoholics who are in need of the service.

Solution: The design and aesthetics can incorporate a more gender-neutral approach that incorporates CEO-friendly messaging. Done right, this will not lose the appeal of the current intended audience.

Aesthetic Critique

The site is a very beautifully done, unified atmosphere. The desaturated colors and minimalist style serve the brand very well. However, the design can still be cleaned up with more white space, and text can be reduced and tightened with the help of a few well-placed graphic elements.

1. Font is a bit too creative. The brand spirit is certainly expressed, but overdone for the target audience (TA). This font says, “Artistic, creative, exotic, interesting, passionate, beautiful.” The TA is probably most compelled by, “Efficient, effective, simple, intelligent, neat, clean.”

Font is a bit too creative.

While it does express the brand identity, it may be trying to work too hard.

2. Drop-Shadow over Background Image is a design no-no. It gets cluttered with too many shades and elements. This is the closest thing you have to a logo – it needs to be sharp. Actually, why not get a logo designed?

3. Double-entendre in Tagline is very clever, but complex. Just making it “heart” or “art” should be enough. I know you want both. But it muddles an already deep concept. Taglines need to be simple, especially for a service that is paid to simplify, order, and create harmony.

4. Long Copy can lose the reader very quickly for the landing page. We can go through the copy line by line, but it’s just too much. It can overwhelm a time-pressed executive. Also, the language is very intellectual and requires parsing. What does “Shifts of awareness and authentic action” mean to a stressed-out manager, however enlightened? The implied benefit is great, but keep it to the point.

5. This beautiful graphic is in the most click-friendly real estate on the landing page. It may be better utilized as a button, such as for the newsletter subscription.

OK. The hard part’s over. Now for the fun stuff.

Brand Platform

There is one place in your site where you say,

“What would it feel like to be the master of your time?”

This is your brand promise.

Beauty, spirituality, actualization, and infusions are great. But this is the promise that every element of design and copy should point to.

Your logo, your tagline, your web copy, even your very site layout should express this concept. Here is your brand value list again, this time including what we’ve learned:

Brand Values
- Order
- Serenity
- Grace
- Harmony
- Progress
- Wisdom
- Minimalism

- (Removed art, beauty, spirituality. These can still be attributes of the brand, but are not necessarily values derived from the brand promise. See how Grace still applies, even though Art doesn’t?)

1. Change the brand name to Geisha Consulting. (Assuming it’s not taken) I know you are trying to express that Geisha = Time Management. But the name of a brand does not need to explicitly express its feautres (”time”). It’s a name, not a descriptor. That’s what a tagline is for.

Let me really drill this home, because it’s critical in branding. Do you have a friend named John? Perhaps he is a lawyer. When you first met him, you may not have known what he did for a living. But you still had a sense of who he was. Once you learned he was a lawyer, that became a part of your concept of “John.” But you don’t feel like his name is “John the Lawyer” (unless you have trouble with memory). No, his name is still John. Brands work just the same!

Once your TA comes across Geisha Consulting, they may not know it’s a time management service until they read the tagline or see the landing page. But once they do, they will never forget that Geisha = Time because of the branding. You don’t need to remind them with your name (John the Lawyer) every time they see you. That’s why it’s called a brand. Like a fiery scar, it’s not just you who is branded with “time”; your TA’s memory is branded just the same!

2. Re-write the tagline to reflect the brand promise. Something zen would be great. Something like, “He who controls the present, controls the future.” (Though I believe that’s trademarked!) I’m sure you get the idea.

3. Redesign your landing page to illustrate the benefits immediately. You have time for long copy in your newsletter and on pages deeper in the site. The landing page should immediately, explicitly show what you offer.

4. Get a logo designed. I noticed this little butterfly as a beautiful divider in the site:

butterfly

This aesthetic would make great inspiration for a logo. I also imagine some playing with an hourglass or infinite symbol could result in some great designs.

OK… I couldn’t resist. This is a quick concept logo to illustrate my suggestion (NOT a polished design). Something along these lines:

GeishaLogoConcept

The rest of the site could follow this aesthetic. You can see the brand values infused in the design principles. With this approach, you can appeal to the TA – chaotic executives AND the spiritual solopreneur. It is very inclusive, while expressing your brand values and promise.

Yes, I have more ideas for the site, but that’s all the time I have for now. I wish I had Geisha powers so I could get some more time!

Note to readers: Second opinions of my second opinion are always welcome. Comment below!

Posted on
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Filed under:
Brand Review.