Case Study: Circle A Angus Ranch Marketing Plan

ABOUT THE CLIENT
Circle A Angus Ranch is one of the nation’s premier Angus operations, with cow/calf operations, heifer and bull development programs and their own 5,000 head feedlot. Circle A operates a 24,000-acre, 7,000 head ranching operation headquartered in Iberia, Missouri.

THE CHALLENGE
We were tasked with providing a complete marketing plan to design and create promotional materials for their two annual sales. Circle A also wanted to update the look and enhance the usability of their website, and create a social media presence through Facebook.

OUR SOLUTION
We provided Circle A with a cohesive marketing plan and brand image that carried over seamlessly from print materials and web promotions.
RHD’s Seedstock Marketing Team provided a strategic focus not just in creating designs, but looking at the big picture of the beef industry, focusing on the individual marketing options and strategy of the client, and tailoring custom advertising and marketing plans to fit their needs.

ONLINE MARKETING
We designed a new website for Circle A that incorporated rustic and bold design that complimented the images of their cattle in an easy to navigate and visually appealing package.

Using the website as a foundation, our team created custom Facebook graphics along with several email blasts, sent out to our database of more than 20,000 voluntary subscribers, to complete their online marketing materials. We also created a 1-month paid Facebook advertising campaign on behalf of Circle A and scheduled strategic content for one month prior to the sale.

PRINT MARKETING
The RHD print division designed multiple print advertisements and the 60-page Circle A Fall Bull and Heifer sale catalog, integrating the overall design elements of the ranch.

THE RESULTS
Social media:

By investing our suggested social media strategy, Circle A Angus grew their Facebook following to more than 6,000 followers in less than a month. The Circle A Angus Facebook reaches an average of 8,213 unique users each day.

Sales: 
Circle A has a tremendous reputation for quality cattle in both phenotype and pedigree, and a great client base. Their sales are always outstanding. However, following the implementation of the Circle A Angus Ranch materials developed by RHD, the client hosted their best fall sale to date. The sale averaged $4,665 on 106 bulls and $2,483 on 298 bred heifers.


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Want more information? Learn more about Ranch House Designs marketing services here: http://ranchhousedesigns.com/marketing/our-services/

4 Times The Customer Isn't Always Right

We've all heard the saying "The Customer Is Always Right..." and in most cases, we really do try to follow that at RHD. After all, we are consumers too, and we like to be treated with respect and courtesy just as much as the next person. But sometimes, admit it, we've all be in the situations where sometimes, the customer isn't always right.

Face it, graphic designers, advertising professionals, and many marketing experts are snobs. We know what works and what doesn't. We know how things are usually done yet we are always looking for ways to do something differently or better. So when a customer goes against what we recommend, it's hard.

Now let me back up by saying, never once in my entire career have I ever had like a knock down drag out with a client over something that they wanted, and we didn't recommend. Most of the time, if there is something we disagree on, we respectfully tell them what we don't recommend, and why, and then go from there. If it comes to be a big issue, we usually go with what the customer wants and simply don't put our logo on the ad or project, or don't really advertise that we did that project.

(Any of our customers who are thinking right now...wait...there's no RHD logo at the bottom of my print ad...don't get worried!. Honestly we have done so many print ads sometimes we just simply forget to put it on there. Don't freak out.)

So here are some of the top things we tend to have to disagree with our "customer is always right" rule, and why.

1. USE OF ALL CAPS. Unless you are Cindy Cagwin. Then you can all-caps it all day long, because you're Cindy Cagwin and you're the bomb. The reason we tend to avoid ALL CAPS is because that is viewed as YELLING AT THE READER. It's also kinda viewed as spammy. So avoid all caps. And we get pretty firm about this.

2. Use of Crappy or Over-Used Fonts. It never fails, one designer finds a really cool new font, then within 3 months every other designer on the planet is using it. In 2007 it was Bleeding Cowboys. Honestly I'm pretty sure Stephanie Steck first found this, and used it in the August Show Circuit for one of her clients. By the Fall Sires edition, every ad in there was using Bleeding Cowboys. Then it was Myriad Pro, a simple but totally awesome font. Now it's the LHF fonts. Everyone has them. So, we just tend to avoid those at all. Or wait 5 years til people are over that font, then re-introduce it again. And our cardinal rule. We will NEVER, ABSOLUTELY NEVER, use Comic Sans :)

3. Copyright infringement or other ethical concerns. This is another one we are really firm on, and through the years, has cost us some clients. Usually this occurs during bull promotion season when someone has a bull named after a popular brand, entertainer, or movie. They come to us and say...I named by bull after (INSERT CURRENT BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE NAME HERE) and I want his bull banner to look just like the movie poster. Yeah, not gonna happen with us. Unless things are done above the board and done correctly. For example, years ago we did a promotion for a bull named Bazooka Joe. We had to go through that firm's legal department to get clearance. Same for when we originally promoted Monopoly. We had to get a written sign-off from Hasbro, and if you notice in some of the early ads there was a disclaimer that Monopoly was a registered trademark of Hasbro.

4. Unrealistic Demands. On a few rare occassions, we have clients who are so creative that they are actually more creative than what we are. And in these cases, we just have to honesty say "We can't do that". For example, one time I had a client tell me that they wanted to use an ad background that had a father and son walking in a pasture, with a barn with a Texas flag painted on the side, with the father pointing to a black baldy calf, and the son looking up at the dad wearing a (RANCH NAME) baseball cap, and the daughter doing a cartwheel in the grassy bluebonnets next to the calf. Okay the cartwheel part I made up. But I was like...."Okay are we going to stage this photo shoot?" and the client said..."No, can't you find a stock photo like that?" Ummmm, sure. There are tons of stock photos out there of little kids wearing baseball caps with your ranch name on it that I can find online. And no I'm not that good at Photoshop. So, sometimes, we just have to say...that's beyond our capabilities.

Of course, other than these 4 areas I mentioned above....we definitely feel that the customer is always right :) And we work our tails off to do everything possible to make sure that each and every customer knows that at the end of the day...we work for you, and thus, you're always right! 

By Popular Demand: The Art of the Mix CD's...

A few weeks ago, I posted a facebook status stating that I had recently found an old Mix CD, and that I wondered how teenages or college students these days formed new relationships (or broke up with someone) without the assistance from a strategically mixed "Mix CD".

For you young people....a Mix CD....which was preceeded by the "Mix Cassette Tape" is a personalized collection of all of your favorite tunes....prior to the iTunes playlist. And let me say, as you can see from the comments to the left, I have a reputation as quite a Mix CD DJ.

To put it in perspective, chances are you have a Mix CD from me if you have ever gone on a road trip with me, dated me or any of my closest 5 girlfriends, or attended an event I hosted prior to 2008. One of our college traditions was to make a "Mix CD" to commemorate any and every possible event.  For example, if we were going to Louisville, we would make a "Louisville Mix" that contained our top 16 favorite songs of that time frame. Or, say we were having a girls night out, we would make a Mix CD of all our favorite girls-only songs to listen to in the car while we drove around from place to place that night. For example, some of my better collections were "Great Shorthorn Revival Mix" "Dallas Mix" and a very special summer mix called "Tanlines." I was even so thoughtful that I would personalize the CDs with special songs for special people on the trip. For example....on our Great Shorthorn Revival Mix, I included TuPac's "California Love" in honor of Brooke Bennett who was one of the 3 partners in crime on that trip. And thank goodness our rent-a-car had a CD player!

My affinity for Mix CDs went to a WHOLE new level when things like Napster and Kazaa became readily accessible while I had the dangerous combination of 1)My Music Knowledge and 2)High Speed Internet Access in College Station, Texas.

So as I mentioned in my earlier post, while cleaning out one of my old desks, I found an un-labelled Mix Cd and it was like musical gold! This prompted Crystal Blin to suggest I post my favorite Mix CD table of contents on a blog. To which I replied.....I'm not sure the contents of my best mix CD's are all that professional!

However, after sorting through a few of them, I found out they actually aren't that bad! So here are a few of my favorite Mix complitations...Enjoy!


Freshman Mix (Circa 1998)

• Bye Bye (JoDee Messina)
• Are You Jimmy Ray?
• You Shook Me All Night Long (seriously what college mix doesn't include this)
• Sangria Wine
• Don't Wanna Miss A Thing 
• Kiss The Rain
• I Love Rock & Roll
• Redneck Girls (This was a staple of every mix CD ever made by me)
• Fightin Texas Aggie 
• My Body
• My Heart Will Go On (How embarassing)
• This Kiss (Faith Hill)
• TubThumping (as in I Get Knocked Down....)
• County Fair 

Wow how old do I seem now?

Karaoke at the Kolle's Mix (Circa 2001) This is our all time go to favorites that we would Karaoke too

• Just Like Jesse James (Cher)
• Save Up All Your Tears (Cher)
• Leaving On A Jet Plane
• Sweet Child Of Mine
• Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (of course)
• You Can Eat Crackers In My Bed Anytime
• Playing With The Queen of Hearts
• California Love
• Thong Song
• Country Grammar - Nelly
• Oops I Did I Again

Living In Michigan / Wishing I Was In Texas Mix (Circa 2002)

• Three Days (Pat Green)
• Texas On My Mind (Pat Green)
• The Bluest Eyes in Texas
• Feet Don't Touch the Ground
• Look At You Girl
• I'm Real (J Lo)
• Lie To You For Your Love (Bellamy Brothers)
• My Hometown (Charlie Robison)
• Please Come to Boston
• Riding For A Fall (Chris Ledoux)
• Stars on the Water
• Southbound 35
• Texas Women
• Anything Destiny's Child
• Total Eclipse of the Heart
• What I Like About Texas

As Heard At the Dixie Chicken - I never went, I have just heard these are the songs they played :)

• Amie - Pure Prairie League
• Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On
• A Big Ball in Cowtown
• Corpus Christi Bay
• Don't It Make You Wanna Dance
• An Empty Glass
• El Paso
• Gringo Honeymoon
• Guitar Town
• Lone Star Beer & Bob Wills Music
• Lookin for Love
• Pancho & Lefty
• Rancho Grande
• She's Actin Single
• Wagon Wheel (Yes, I knew this song before knowing Wagon Wheel was cool)

Feeling Pathetic Mix - This one is a guaranteed tear jerker, used especially for troubled dating or when you're feeling especially sorry for yourself. 

• Against the Wind
• Some Fools Never Learn
• I Wanna Go Back - Eddie Money
• Nothin's News- Clint Black
• A Feeling Like That  - Gary Allen
• I Go Back - Kenny Chesney
• I'm Coming Home - Robert Earl Keen
• I could list about 10 more but I don't want to look THAT pathetic.

So....there you go! You're welcome iTunes. If I see Thong Song in the Top 100 on iTunes I'll know this blog was a success. 

I Am A Showman

Available as a livestock motigational t-shirt at 

http://ranchhousedesigns.mybigcommerce.com/i-am-a-showman/

Updates on the Livestock Marketing Workshop This Friday

Our Livestock Marketing Workshop is less than a week away and we are really excited about it.

As of today we have about 66 participants registered from all across the USA and Canada too!

We have been getting a few questions so here are some of the hot topics....

Is it too late to register? Actually no. Our spots are full for the optional photography workshop on Saturday but anyone is welcome to attend the Friday workshop. This is $150 to attend and will be a full day of instruction in the following topics:

• How do you sell your livestock?
• The Top 6 Free Livestock Promotion Tools
• The Livestock Marketing Toolbox
• Ethics in Livestock Advertising
• The Formula for Success in Print Advertising
• What Makes a Great Ranch Website?
• Social Media: The Wave of the Future
• How to determine your Advertising Budget
• The ROle of Liestock Shows in Advertising
• Behind the Brains of Your Camera
• The Ideal Livestock Photo
• Excellence in On-Farm Photography
• Show Photography & Ring Shots
• Video: The New Normal in Livestock Advertising

All of these topics are included for the $150 registration fee.. These will all be held in the classroom of the Wharton Civic Center. 

Also for the $150 registration fee, you get a copy of Rachel's Livestock Merchandising Textbook, a BBQ lunch, and lots of other handouts. 

You can register online here!

What do you wear? It is totally casual!!! The weather here in Texas will be hot but we will be inside all day so even a light jacket might come in handy in the classroom. 

Can you register on-site? Actually you could, but we ask that you pre-register so we can make sure we have your packet ready. You can call us at 979-532-9141 to register over the phone. Or, call us to RSVP and you can pay your registration fee when you arrive. 

When is the next workshop? Our next workshop will be in the fall. We do not have a date set yet but we will announce it probably in May. 

So, if you haven't registered yet, here's a great reason to get out of town on Friday, bring a friend and come learn a crash course in livestock advertising!!!

Comments about RHD on Steer Planet

Ahh, Steer Planet forums..... a great place to learn and share with others but place where friends can also become enemies with a few strokes of the keyboard and an anonymous screen name.

I saw a post on www.cattle.com today about SEO, referencing a Steer Planet post where someone was blaming a web design firm on a new client site not coming up first on Google.

I thought -- oh, I'll go find that post, I want to see what they are talking about.

Low and behold, one of those genious anonymous posters was talking about RHD!!!

http://www.steerplanet.com/bb/the-big-show/our-new-website/


Wow! Kinda makes you feel funny when people are blatantly criticizing your business on the internet when they don't even know you or know anything about your business.

In this post, someone made the comment insinuating that RHD sites have "good form but no function" and aren't going to be listed on search engines.

Which made me laugh, which was right up there with the humor when someone posted that RHD only works on weekends updating clients websites.

Anyway... I'm not sure where this poster got his information, but actually, RHD takes a lot of pride in search engine optimization and designing sites that are search engine friendly.

We have a full time staff member (Carole) devoted to SEO. Our entire staff has gone to educational workshops on SEO, and we actually brought in an SEO specialist from Houston for a full day of training for our whole team on SEO.

We know how to use Adwords, facebook advertising, and much more.

So, if you fall for believing some random person on Steer Planet who makes blanket statements that aren't true....I'd like for you to take this challenge.

Pick your favorite search term of how you think people would try to find a cattle website on Google...and google it, and see if you can find an RHD site.

For example,

Google "Show Steers For Sale" -- see how many RHD sites are on the front page. I don't want to give it away but when I googled it, we had 3 of the 11 sites on the first page, and the other sites listed were all directories like showsteers.com, steerplanet.com, etc. No other design firm had that many sites listed on the front page.

Google "Show Cattle for Sale" and see how many RHD sites come up

And, FYI, when I googled it, Bill Cody Show Cattle was like the first one that came up. FYI - That was one of the very first sites we ever did here at RHD. We don't do it anymore, but RHD laid the foundation for that site's SEO.

Whatever your term - pick it - and see if you can find an RHD site. I bet you money if it's a livestock related search term that we'll be in the top.

Sculptor Cattle Co : Forgan, Okla.

This is one of our more recent sites and we are excited to be working with this family of Angus, Angus cross cattle producers. Located in the "short-grass" country of western Oklahoma, the Cooper family is in love with the cattle business. Starting in 1966, Jerry and Trudy Cooper purchased their first set of cattle and moved forward with the use of AI sires in 1973.

The Sculptor herd focuses on the mother cow, but they have used the Ohlde and Duff genetics in their herd. When they do purchase cattle, the females are deep sided, moderate and easy fleshing.

If you are in the neighborhood of Forgan, stop in any time to look at their private treaty cattle offered right on their farm. No time to visit the ranch? Well, no problem. They currently have pictures and videos of bulls up on their website. Click and give them a visit. Call on them any time. You won't be disappointed by their customer service and depth of cattle.

Visit www.sculptorcattleco.com today.

Livestock Advertising Code of Ethics

http://ranchhousedesigns.com/education/ethics

Here at RHD, most everyone knows that we take ethics and integrity as our top priority. We have always tried our best to maintain the highest level of professionalism in our designs and writing, but we recently thought it was a good idea to put it all in writing. So, we developed the RHD Livestock Advertising Code of Ethics. 

We welcome others to use this same code of ethics in their own livestock advertising programs, or for anyone in the cattle business to use it as their guide. It is also available at http://ranchhousedesigns.com/education/ethics.  

Ranch House Designs Livestock Advertising Code of Ethics

1. RHD will maintain the highest level of truth and ethics in all advertising, public relations, marketing, news, editorial writing, and websites created.

2. RHD exercises only ethical livestock photo retouching, and will never alter the physical conformation of any animal represented in a photograph.

3. RHD exercises extra care when creating advertising materials that may be viewed by children or young adults, including using discretion based on the product, animal name, and any implications related to alcohol, prescription drugs, or guns.

4. RHD respects and maintains consumers' personal privacy regarding their preferences to receive selected marketing, news, email blasts, and advertising.

5. RHD accurately represents the circulation of printed and electronic media.

6. In the event of a potential ethical concern, RHD team members will privately discuss any ethical concerns with clients during the creation of advertising, designs, websites, or content in all efforts to resolve ethical dilemmas according to the highest ethical standards.

7. RHD strives for accuracy of all materials published, whether it be online, through social media, or in printed materials. Personal opinions in editorial writing will be labeled as such, and any errors of significance will be corrected when called to attention.

8. RHD follows federal, state, and local advertising laws and cooperates with industry self-regulatory programs for advertising practices, including but not limited to the Livestock Publications Council, U.S.D.A., U.S. Patent and Trademark office, Federal Trade Commission, Food & Drug Administration, and National Advertising Review Council.

Encouragement for New Designers

Here at RHD we have a lot of young designers who email us or tell us in person that they wish they could work at RHD, or have a business like RHD, or design ads like RHD.

Well, this morning I was going through some old boxes and I came across this little gem....

What is this piece of work you ask? Well, it's the first ad I ever designed. This was designed in 1997 when I was an intern at The Showbox magazine. I worked there for 3 months, and for the month of June and July, all I was able to design was 1/4 and 1/2 page black and white ads for shows. Which are pretty much template based. 

By August, Cherie gave me the go-ahead to get to design the ad for V8 Ranch, since it was my family, and for Wessington Springs Club Calf Producers, and R&R Cattle. 

I estimate I probably spent 10 hours on this ad. I remember pestering Laura Stanley to death about how to design an ad. (Laura was The Showbox editor at the time). I spent HOURS searching for this background. I tried every font on the computer. I mean, this was going to be my debut design in a magazine like The Showbox so I was pumped. 

I remember when it came out, I couldn't wait to show all my friends. My friend Matt Leo had spent the previous summer working at Pacific Showcase magazine and I felt like he was the friend who probably knew the most about ad design. I couldn't wait to show him.  Of course I was wanting some major bragging. 

But what did he say? "Rachel, this looks like crap!" 

WHAT???

He said, "You can't even read the headline! It looks like it says Congratulations V8 Uniors". 

Needless to say I was disappointed, but in the long run, that was the best thing that anyone could have said. Aside from the poor background and typography choice for a headline, it still was a pretty nice ad.  Good layout, good picture size, and legible captions. But ever since that day, I have always felt that typography and font choices were my first priority in designs. Because I always hear that old friend saying "It looks like V8 Uniors!' 

And, I post this to show any aspiring designer out there who's wondering how they get to be "like Ranch House Designs".....that it's not where you start...it's where you finish :)

Rodeo Empire Agency: Texas

This is a website we are very excited about! The group and their direction, paired with our design techniques, created the perfect look for the Rodeo Empire Agency, Inc. (REA).

Cowboys Logan Medlin and Turtle Powell are just a few of the clients that REA is working with to help them get the most out of their advertising and promotions.

Christi Bland and Kathleen Collier make up the Hereford, Texas based REA, whose motto is "Helping Cowboys Stay Cowboys." They both come from rodeo families and saw a need to keep the Western heritage and way of life alive. Thus, they created the Rodeo Empire Agency.

REA offers cost effective advertising to their clients for their target markets, while promoting them on a regional, state and/or national level.

Check them out, www.reatexas.com! They are ready and willing to take you to the next level.