CE Pro September 2021 - 45

Ovation Technology Group, with an all-new
website and marketing materials. He hired
Cruzan to be general manager, retained the
two veteran Ovation salespeople at the time
of the sale (Brad Edwards and Mike Sheets),
and got to work with Cruzan renovating a
small portion of the original Castleton fl agship
store. They began adding new brands and
hiring installation technicians in a bid to relaunch
Ovation as Indy's go-to stereo store
for music and video lovers of all ages, and as a
place to go for mid-level custom sales.
Opened in late 2016, the space was not
large (3,500 square feet) but Poynter and
Cruzan did an excellent job creating a warm
classy space with a welcoming entrance
lobby, interesting architectural details, several
mostly small listening rooms and a powerful
Chris Cruzan, COO, has
30+ years in the industry
and enthusiastically
demos high-performance
AV for customers.
CE Pro: Where did you develop your branding
experience?
Smith: Early on as VP Marketing at Tweeter, we had an inhouse
agency, so with 20 stores it was imperative to keep the
brand message fully aligned across print, radio and TV in four
markets. In fact, it really was the TV campaign that put Tweeter
on the map and it has been terrifi c fun for me to re-assemble
the old Tweeter team to make new TV ads for OvationAV
and OvationTG.
However, my real brand education came through PARA
when I had to create an entirely new brand image for each
year's management conference with a fresh logo, colors and
fonts - and then carry that look across all conference materials
from registration packets and nametags to drink tickets
and PowerPoint templates.
CE Pro: What advice would you give to help other
custom companies improve their brand presentation?
Smith: In our industry, many companies may have the installation
and service aspects of their business down pat, but
their logo, marketing message, business cards, showroom,
website and truck graphics can be a hodge-podge of disparate
elements that confuse their upscale customers and undermine
their ability to establish themselves as luxury service providers.
When a brand lacks consistency and cohesiveness, customers
feel uneasy. Though they can't always articulate why, the
lack of brand alignment makes them feel uncomfortable and
sends mixed messages that diminish their trust in your company.
Most integrators simply don't realize that every single part
of their business is a refl ection of their brand.
The upshot is that great brands don't happen by accident
and they don't happen overnight. To begin, someone in your
company needs to step back and take a fresh look at everything
from business cards and vehicle wraps to what people
wear so you can determine what it will take to re-imagine certain
marketing elements - and then tie them all together to
create a more complete brand experience for your customers.
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CE Pro September 2021

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