Studio Locale

Phil recently had the opportunity to do a presentation at The Centre for Family Business, where he spoke about what makes a good business story and why it can be a huge asset for your brand.

Here are some of the key take-aways!

A good business story can be a huge asset to your brand. 

It can position you well against your competitors. It can help you connect with your target customers. It can give people insight to your core values. It can demonstrate your commitment to something.

But your story may be different than what you might first think it to be.

At Studio Locale, we approach a story a bit different from what some might expect, because we feel it’s more than what you might think it is. It’s not just your origin story. While that may be interesting to some, it’s likely not the core reason why someone chooses to work with you.

People often think a company brand is “just” the logo.

But a brand is much more than that. Your logo may be the picture that pops into someone’s head when they think of your company, but your brand is really the sum of all of the different touchpoints it has with the world. Your brand story is exactly the same. It’s not just what you have on the About page of your website, it should be on every touchpoint you have with your clients.

Are you memorable? 

The other thing to be aware of is that people only have so much capacity to remember. Our brains have a “memory slot” for all the different things that we might need to remember, and most of us have a lot going on in our heads.

But when we have a moment of calm, we want there to be a clear picture, or story, for people to remember your company. We want your story to help people catalogue your company as the one they remember for that slot in their brain.

So before your ‘story’ is shared, stop and consider what part of your story matters to your clients. What part adds to the value you offer customers, what part helps you differentiate yourself from your competitors, and how easy it is to remember.

What matters to your clients? 

Many companies are sharing the “Canadian” part of their story right now, and understandably so. We all want to do our part to support fellow Canadians, so it’s thinking how that offers value to your customers, or differentiates yourself from your competitors. If there are other Canadian companies in the mix, it’s not a story that is going to necessarily be enough on its own.

Once you know what your story is, you can begin getting it out into the world. Remember you want it to be clear; you want it to be easy to understand; and you want to share it consistently everywhere.

A good test to tell how clear your brand story is –  Do others say the same thing? What do your employees say? What about your partners or suppliers? You may have brand ambassadors? And most importantly, your clients. Fingers crossed they are all saying some variation of your story, building up a really solid brand experience.

Our Brand Story

We are a branding and marketing agency here in Kitchener and we’ve been quietly working away at building brands for more than 10 years. We really love building brands and marketing companies who are working to get to the next level – whatever that might be for them.

That’s our story. Digging deep to help our clients succeed.
So when we talk about weaving your brand story into all of your touchpoints, we’ve practiced what we preach and we started at the beginning when we developed our name.

What’s a locale? 

The definition of locale is an area or place, especially one where something special happens. It creates the setting for the story to begin. It sets the tone and establishes the mood. When we are working with our clients, we immerse ourselves into their world, digging deep to understand their values and culture, their industry, their clients, to set the foundation for THEIR story to be told through their branding, website and marketing materials.

That’s why if you take a look at our work, you won’t see a ‘house style’, or ‘trending’ designs across every project, because that’s not what works for our clients in their space.The role of our team is to work with our clients to figure out what their story is, why it matters to their customers, and how that sets them apart from the rest of companies they are competing with.

To conclude…

If your story is consistent across each interaction and moment, can be clearly understood, and resonates with your clients, then it’s contributing as an effective brand tool in your larger brand toolbox.

Robin joined Mike on the Mike Farwell Show to discuss our “open” program, which offers local nonprofits a week of pro bono design, marketing, and development support. We’re thankful for the chance to highlight our commitment to giving back and helping organizations overcome challenges. Thanks, Mike, for the opportunity!

M: In studio guests are some of my favourite guests, and somebody that I have communicated with many times over the years is finally in studio sitting across from me, Robin Mondor, the owner at Studio Locale. Good morning. Thanks for being here. 

R: Thanks for having us, Mike. 

M: Tell us a little more about Studio Locale and what you do there.

R: Yeah. For sure. So we are a branding and marketing agency here in Kitchener Waterloo, and we focus on helping our clients kind of hone in on their messaging and communications and brand to kinda get them to the next level. So that’s really our passion and that’s what we do. We have a wide range of different clients that span all sorts of different industries and different points in their timeline and where they are with their business. So we just kinda jump in and help them. 

M: Yeah. And that help that you do has been so successful and so highly regarded. That’s how our paths have kind of crossed electronically Yep. Over the years.

M: But what I love about the purposes of today’s conversation, Robin, is your emphasis on giving back as well, helping out nonprofits that may need some support in that space. 

R: Yeah, it’s a tricky time for sure for nonprofits, and I know a lot of them are kinda feeling the pinch from provincial and federal funding or potentially philanthropic funding, and everyone else is feeling the pinch. So, we have a program called Open, and we’ve had it informally for a number of years. We’ve always given back to our community through different projects and different groups that have reached out, but this has kind of formalized it over the last few years.

So we’re excited to do that. We dedicate an entire week and give a full week of design, marketing, and development time to a not for profit who’s looking for some extra support. 

M: And what a happy coincidence that the organizations that you were able to support last year are two that are very near and dear to my heart, the, Gault Curling Club in Ayr. 

R: In Ayr. Yes.

M: Right? Or the Ayr Curling Club. Yes. Yeah. And I I say that because buddies of mine that I played ball with in the summer started curling in the winter, and that’s where they curl on Broom Street in Ayr. And I could never join because I’m too busy with my hockey season, but they have thoroughly enjoyed it. And then ink stained wretches and my buddy, Mirko, and the hard work that they do. But how were you able to support the air curling club and ink stained wretches? 

R: Well, with Ayr Curling, so they wanted to kinda become more of an inclusive group, and so they wanted to drop the name or the the term club from their name. So they’re simply now Ayr Curling and wanted to refresh their identity to reflect that. So they had an older, very traditional looking logo and wanting to have with the name change, have something that visually made it feel like it was more open and accessible to everyone in the community. 

M: So why is it important to you, Robin, as a business owner to give back in this way? 

R: I think everyone’s kind of looking for an opportunity to give back. And I think for ourselves, because our focus is on marketing and communications and helping make connections with, our clients’ target audiences, not for profits are looking for help in that making that connection. And so it was really it felt like something that was kind of a no brainer to make that connection with our with our not for profits in the community to help them connect. Where are they struggling? Is it are they struggling to reach, from a fundraising perspective? Is it, you know, connecting with theirs their community and who they’re looking to support? So it just kinda felt like a natural fit. 

M: So I’m sure there is an application process that goes along with this because as much as you would love to, you can’t do it for everybody. How can a local not for profit apply for open? 

R: Yes. So we have a web page on our website, studiolocale.com/open. And on there, there’s an application form. Because it is just for one week, we run it really, really quickly. It’s almost like a sprint to folks who are familiar with that term. So we’re starting typically on a Monday and wrapping up on a Friday. So we ask the not for profits to kinda be a little bit prepared for that week and come in so that we can hit the ground running. So we wanna know as much as we can about what you’re looking to do, where your challenges are, where there’s an opportunity for us to potentially help. And then that way, when we start off the project, we’ve got everything that we need, and we can really start getting into the details of it versus trying to understand more.

M: Are there any parameters around the organizations that are eligible to apply? 

R: So what we say is we like to focus on organizations that support youth, equality, and social responsibility. But I think if you think about it, that’s almost every sort of not for profit. So there’s a lot of flexibility in terms of who we’re looking or who we could potentially help. It’s really how folks are sharing their information with us that helps our team decide who we’re gonna work with.

M: And once those applications start coming in, Robin, are you able to work out a mutually convenient time for the organization to let you in the doors for that sprint that given week? Or do 

R: yeah. We try to do it typically in June. Okay. We find that if we wait a little bit later, we start getting into people being on vacation and away for the summer. And then in the fall, a lot of not for profits are ramping up into their end of year fundraising activities. So that time frame seems to work for most folks. Obviously, again, we’re flexible. So if it really is gonna be a pinch, we can talk about different time frames. But for the most part, that seems to work before people head off for the summer.

M: Alright. I wanna point folks in the direction of studiolocale.com/open. That’s where you’ll learn more about the program. You can fill out the twenty twenty five application form because I’m looking at it right now. Easy to find. And, one of our local nonprofits can get some support from Studio Locale in that week long sprint. Thanks for the work that you do, Robin, and thanks very much for being with us on the show today. 

R: Thanks for having me, Mike. We really appreciate it. 

M: Robin Mondor, the owner at Studio Locale. Again, check out studiolocale.com/open.