JFG Coffee Sign Returns
On Saturday, a Charlotte icon returned to the city's skyline and marked the beginning of Charlotte's Historic Preservation Month.
The JFG Special Coffee shines brightly again, now atop the VBGB Beer Hall & Garden at the North Carolina Music Factory.
The NC Music Factory was a natural fit for the 40-year-old sign because the area is made up of historic buildings that have been converted into venues for producing and enjoying music.
The JFG Coffee sign used to perch along I-277, near Bank of America Stadium. It was removed in 2009 with the hope of finding a new home and funding for its restoration. The mission to save the sign helped to spark a new campaign called Save Our Signs, which aims to preserve other vintage signs around the Queen City.
Another historic landmark benefiting from the emphasis on preservation is Reid's Fine Foods. It's sign at the Myers Park location was also relit over the weekend.
Alive After Five
Tonight marks the kick off of Charlotte's biggest summer happy hour – Alive After Five. This weekly celebration allows corporate America to roll out from their cubicles, crawl down their concrete towers, and indulge in post-office beverages, laughs and feel good music. Not particularly kid-friendly, unless you want 'you-have-a-baby-in-a-bar' stares, this outdoor festivity has increased in popularity over the past several years, especially among young adults.
During the month of April and to help celebrate its 10th anniversary, AA5 will warm up its concert series at Wachovia Plaza on Tryon Street. This is where the excitement began back in 2001 and has since grown massively in reputation and size. Beginning May 5, the party will relocate to its latest three-story home of the EpiCentre, a newly instated icon of Uptown, only a few blocks over on College Street. The party will remain at this self-proclaimed Mecca of social gathering for the remainder of the summer.
Though the drink specials are anything but 'special', the bands are anything but spectacular, and cash is king at this weekly event, it's a wonderful place to unwind with coworkers and friends. Also, if Thursday is the new Friday, it's good to note that the AA5 wrist band offers admission into any designated after party bar sans a cover charge.
If it rains? No worries, the EpiCentre location has instituted a new "When it Rains, We Pour" promotion by purchasing two large tents and promising discounted drink specials during inclement weather. (Wachovia Plaza better hope for a dry April.)
The festivities begin at 5pm tonight and host Liquid Pleasure, a North Carolina-based band versed with an upbeat R&B and Motown vibe that has proven to be an AA5 favorite.
For more information or a list of performances at both the Wachovia Plaza and the EpiCentre, please check out their website.
The AA5 season spans every Thursday afternoon at 5pm from April 7th to September 15th in Uptown.
Contributed by Keri Lynch
Giving Back
Each year Addison Whitney participates in GRACE (Giving Relief and Care to our Elderly), a charitable initiative funded entirely by donations from employees. Donations help support senior citizens in our local community.
We recently visited Sardis Oaks Nursing Home to see the newly updated beauty salon our donation helped fund. The salon was given a fresh coat of paint and new cabinets and mirrors were put in.
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Be a Light to the Village
For our December Helping Hands event, AW chose to sponsor the Christmas Village Toy Store at the request of one of our visual designers. It is a suggestion that many AW employees embraced, as the excitement of children at Christmas far outweighs our own as adults.
The inspiration came in 2006 for The Christmas Village Toy Store, a collaborative effort among several area churches that is designed to empower and develop at-risk urban communities in Charlotte. The store itself preserves and promotes joy and dignity at Christmas by engaging a free market system, allowing shoppers to pay a discounted price for desired items rather than be forced to accept “charity.”
Both those who donate toys or volunteer their time and shoppers who purchase toys contribute to store profits that are reinvested into the local community through educational grants and scholarships. Because of this, even the shoppers at the Toy Store are “paying it forward” into their own communities.
Addison Whitney was able to donate several boxes and bags full of toys for children ranging in age from infant to teenager. There were dolls, mp3 players, blocks, books, bath accessories and much more. In addition to donating toys, several employees, along with their friends or spouses, volunteered their time to helping the Toy Store prepare and run the shopping events. We were represented as toy pricers and parking lot attendants.
We would like to say thank you to Warehouse 242 and the other Charlotte-area churches who are part of the Christmas Village Toy Store for allowing us the opportunity to give to such an amazing organization. We look forward to being part of the initiative in the future, whether as individuals or as a company.
A Fresh Start
Sarah is a Charlotte-area junior who has been a Girl Scout for ten years.
She is now in the final stage of earning her Gold Award.
Much like the Eagle Award is to the Boy Scouts of America, the Gold Award is the highest achievement within the Girl Scouts of the USA. Only about 5% of eligible Scouts successfully earn the prestigious award. The Scout must complete 30 hours of leadership work, 40 hours of career exploration, and the 4Bs Challenge during which the scout identifies key needs in her community. After those steps have been taken, she must complete a service project. This service project must extend beyond GSUSA and provide a lasting benefit. It requires a minimum of 65 hours of work.
Sarah says that the homelessness crisis in Charlotte has been a passion of hers for many years, primarily due to her mother’s involvement with the Urban Ministry Center for almost half of Sarah’s life. Because of this, it was an easy decision for Sarah to determine her Gold Award project, as she has grown up working with homeless people.
For her project, called “A Fresh Start,” she is compiling 85 laundry baskets full of basic household items, including dish detergent, washcloths, hangers and sponges, to be donated to the upcoming residents of Charlotte’s newly constructed Moore Place, a housing facility built by the Urban Ministry Center. Moore Place will be Charlotte’s first permanent supportive home built to give a roof to chronically homeless men and women. Sarah’s aim is to provide these baskets as a house warming gift and starter pack.
As a Helping Hands event for November, Addison Whitney collected enough goods to fill two laundry baskets with the household items. These items will benefit two new residents of Moore Place and will make a dramatic impact in getting these new residents settled in their new homes.
Sarah plans to help the residents move in and hopes to continue working with them long after their first bottle of laundry detergent runs out.
If you’d like to put together a basket for Sarah’s project, please visit her website.
You can read more about Moore Place here.
Paint AW Pink
Part of Addison Whitney culture includes active support of philanthropic endeavors. Breast cancer is an illness that has affected all of us in some way, and we are part of a much larger initiative dedicated to finding a cure.
In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we here at AW made donations to BCC Rally and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. As a gift, in return for our donations, we each received a 7-inch hot pink ribbon to be displayed on our desks, cubes or doors. Excitingly, we collected enough money to receive 35 bows. They went up on Friday, October 1, the first day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
To coincide with day one, we encouraged everyone to wear pink to the office and help to Paint AW Pink. Friday was definitely a pink day as the bows glowed brightly throughout the office, and many of us showed off our pink shirts and dresses.
The bows stayed up through October, but we will always be part of the fight for a cure.
24 Hours of Booty
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This weekend, more than 1,200 cyclists converged on Charlotte for 24 Hours of Booty. For 24 hours, cyclists rode a nearly three mile loop around the Myers Park neighborhood in a sign of unity against all types of cancer. This annual event raises money for cancer research and survivorship. This year, participants raised more than $1 million!
Addison Whitney’s own Verbal Branding Coordinator Jenna Wise took part in the ride as part of Team Gita. Volunteerism is a large part of the Addison Whitney culture so seven members of our team, along with a few spouses, signed up to help out.
Some people may think of volunteering as something you’re giving an organization, but I’m always amazed at how much I get back from volunteering a few hours of my time. This event was incredibly inspiring. The race began as cancer survivors rode off after an emotional send-off. And then an army of cyclists, some riding in memory of those they’d lost to cancer, and others simply devoted to helping others took off – all 1,200 of them.
This event isn’t about how many laps you’ll ride, it’s about why you ride. The best part of my night was then a father and daughter came over to chat. The young girl proudly told me she was riding for her mom who was a survivor. That’s why you ride.
The Rebranding of the Y
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Any given day, you’re sure to find an Addison Whitney employee at the Y running on a tredmill or perfecting Zumba moves. As a member of the YMCA of Greater Charlotte, I received an email last week from the President & CEO and Metropolitan Board Chair that blew my mind – in a good way.
By the time I’d received the email, I’d heard the news of the YMCA’s rebranding to the Y. I had seen the new logo and color palette. And I had read quite a few articles and blog entries cheering and jeering the change.
But this email was different because it was from my Y. The email, entitled “Still Your YMCA,” communicated the changes members can expect including a new brand strategy defining its cause of strengthening the foundations of community and a refreshed logo. But it also told members what would not change: the mission, core values and services members enjoy.
A key to successfully introducing a rebranding effort to your target audience is communication. As a member of the brand strategy team, we tell our clients going through rebranding efforts to do just what the Y did so well. Tell your target audience why you did it, how you did it and what they can expect. Change can be scary, so calm any fears by clearly stating what will not change.
The email from the YMCA of Greater Charlotte says it best: “As you can see, the Y isn't changing any of the great programs and services that we've always provided; we're just trying to do a better job of explaining why they matter.”
And you’re off to a great start.
Addison Whitney Helping Hands Event: Million Meal Mission
Addison Whitney recently attended a mobile food packing event hosted by Harrison United Methodist Church in Ballantyne for starving children in Haiti, the Philippines and more than 60 countries around the world. In partnership with Samaritans International and the "Feed My Starving Children" organization, the "Million Meal Mission" food packing event supports children in impoverished living conditions through nutritional support. This was a community-wide event for local businesses, civic organizations and churches with a goal of having 1,700 volunteers pack 350,000 (of the 1 million) meals in 3 days.
FMSC has developed a food mixture that is easy and safe to transport. Preparation only requires boiling water and it is culturally acceptable all over the world. With the input of scientists from major food companies, FMSC developed MannaPack™, a formula consisting of rice, soy, vitamins, minerals, dehydrated vegetables and chicken flavoring.
In an assembly-line fashion, volunteers measure the ingredients and package the meals in small pouches. The formula was designed to save the lives of severely malnourished and starving children but the ingredients also improve the health, growth and physical well-being of children who are no longer in immediate danger of starvation. A single bag of food provides meals for six children.
Result:
5,000 plus volunteers and businesses around Charlotte and Union County packed 1,019,304 meals during the mobile packing events at Mineral Springs UMC, Harrison UMC and Oasis Shrine. These meals will provide enough food for 2,793 poverty stricken children for one full year!
Please visit the Feed My Starving Children website for information on how you can help!
Hospital Branding
Have you ever asked yourself how hospitals in your city seem to be everywhere these days? Here in Charlotte some have commented on how Carolinas Medical Center went from one hospital in the center of the city to a network of centers all across town. There is even a CMC branded facility in a newly built YMCA down by our office. In the last few months hospital administrators have tapped our brand consultancy to provide insights on strategic branding plans.
According to a recent article, there are four ways most hospitals across the country are achieving brand recognition. The first is through specialization. In this scenario focus is placed on building a practice around a very specific niche and all the communications reinforces that area of expertise. If an ailment comes up having to do with that specialty, a properly executed brand message would reinforce how specialization is synonymous with being the best in treating the condition. The Cancer Treatment Centers of America comes to mind in such a scenario.
We have also observed organizations, such as HealthSouth and Kindred, utilizing their master brands across multiple locations. No matter where you go, the same brand seems to remind you who the dominant healthcare player is in the area. Repetition of a brand identity is known to establish high levels of brand recognition under unaided market research. A new building brings with it a new place to expose the name.
Similar to the previous strategy, some medical groups have decided to build a brand in multiple directions. In this method multiple practices across numerous specialty areas are acquired and during the brand transition the previous brand goes away while master brand takes priority. The thought process here is to have your target audience think of you first when they get sick regardless of medical condition.
A fourth option can be illustrated by examining The Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. The two have extended their brand well beyond the physical territory they serve with the establishment of a technology partnership. Mayo has a venture with Microsoft and Cleveland with Google. In this type of collaboration all parties benefit by providing target audiences with an online tool featuring healthcare resources in what is perceived as trusted brand names.
If we think ahead don't be surprised to hear about future branded partnerships when it comes to the new online personal health records being proposed.
Contributed by Ninh Nguyen