Burst!

Creative Group
Bachelor Thesis

“Differentiation within a creative industry”

M.J.E. van Meurs

Hogeschool Zeeland
2010
 “All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. © Copyright 2010, HZ University of
Applied Sciences Vlissingen.

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 Title page

Author:
M.J.E. (Mark) van Meurs
Paulus Potterpad 20
4571 MZ Axel
+31625334329
mark.vanmeurs@gmail.com

Student number:
39804

Program:
BBA Commercial Economics

Institution:
HZ University of Applied Sciences, Vlissingen

University mentor:
Mr. B. Postma

Nature of the report:

Bachelor Thesis

Title:
“Differentiation within a creative industry”

Company:
Burst! Creative Group
212-211 Columbia Street
Vancouver, BC V6A 2R5,
Canada

Business mentor:
Mr. J. Pinder

Vancouver, 2010

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Table of Contents
Preface ............................................................................................................................................. 5
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 6
Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................... 7
1. Brand Design: a background ........................................................................................................... 8
1.1 Brand ................................................................................................................................................... 8
1.2 Design .................................................................................................................................................. 8
1.3 Brand Design ........................................................................................................................................ 8
2. Internal Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 9
2.1 Nature of Business ............................................................................................................................... 9
2.1.1 Vision statements .......................................................................................................................... 9
2.1.2 Mission statement ......................................................................................................................... 9
2.1.3 Goals and Objectives ................................................................................................................... 10
2.1.4 Strategy ........................................................................................................................................ 10
2.2 Marketing Mix ................................................................................................................................... 11
2.2.1 Products and services .................................................................................................................. 11
2.2.2 Personnel ..................................................................................................................................... 12
2.2.3 Price ............................................................................................................................................. 15
2.2.4 Promotion .................................................................................................................................... 15
2.2.5 Place ............................................................................................................................................. 16
3. Macro Environmental Analysis ..................................................................................................... 19
3.1 Current condition ............................................................................................................................... 19
3.1.1 Economic factors ......................................................................................................................... 19
3.1.2 Social factors ................................................................................................................................ 19
3.1.3 Technological factors ................................................................................................................... 20
3.1.4 Demographic factors ................................................................................................................... 21
3.1.5 Political/Legal factors................................................................................................................... 21
3.2 Affect on Burst ................................................................................................................................... 22
4. Market Analysis ........................................................................................................................... 23
4.1 Threat of substitute products ............................................................................................................ 23
4.2 Threat of the entry new competitors ................................................................................................. 23
4.3 The bargaining power of customers ................................................................................................. 23
4.1 The bargaining power of suppliers .................................................................................................... 24

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 4.5 The intensity of competitive rivalry ................................................................................................... 25
4.6 Affect on Burst ................................................................................................................................... 27
5. SWOT Analysis............................................................................................................................. 28
6. Conclusions and recommendations .............................................................................................. 29
6.1 Marketing Strategy............................................................................................................................ 29
6.1.1 Products and services .................................................................................................................. 29
6.1.2 Personnel ..................................................................................................................................... 29
6.1.3 Price ............................................................................................................................................. 29
6.1.4 Promotion .................................................................................................................................... 29
6.1.5 Place ............................................................................................................................................. 30
6.1.6 Strategy ........................................................................................................................................ 30
6.2 Website ................................................................................................................................................ 31
Glossary .......................................................................................................................................... 31
Annexes ......................................................................................................................................... 32
Resources ....................................................................................................................................... 44

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Preface
This is the graduation thesis of Mark van Meurs, written for the Burst! Creative Group on behalf of
the owner, Jeff Pinder.

During my period at the Hogeschool Zeeland I have always been attracted to the possibility of going
abroad for either studying or working. When the opportunity came for me the go to Vancouver I
never doubted a second of taking this chance. My choice for the Burst! Creative group as the
company of my final internship was made based on my personal interest and the possibility to work
and live abroad for 5 months. A long time dream therefore could be fulfilled. For years I have been
interested in graphic design and web development, and Burst! was therefore the ideal choice. In
addition to this, the opportunity to conduct the kind of research the company offered me to do was
very attractive to me as it was the ultimate examination for me to test my previously learned skills in
practice.

The research is for a large part focused on marketing and strategy which makes it an excellent
preparation for my future career.

During my time in Vancouver I truly felt at home and enjoyed the atmosphere in the office and really
took pleasure in the work I managed to do.

Therefore I want to thank Jeff Pinder for giving me the opportunity and all the freedom to work on
my research. Furthermore I want to thank Edgar Valenzuela and Sung Lee for there support during
my research and Bouwe Postma for his help and support from the Hogeschool Zeeland.

The abovementioned people have all contributed to the realisation of this thesis.

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Introduction
Objective

With this research I’m hoping to help the Burst! Creative Group in their pursuit of growth and desired
position in the industry with useful marketing, strategic and operational related recommendations at
the end of this thesis. The thesis is written for Jeff Pinder, owner of the Burst! Creative Group as he is
in charge of all marketing and strategic related decisions.

Main Question

The thesis and research is based on one main question. The main question of this thesis is stated as
follows:

 How can the Burst! Creative Group gain a stronger position in it’s market over it’s
competitors?

This question will be answered through a number of sub-questions:

 What does the current Metro Vancouver branding/graphic design market look like?
 Which new products/services are also appealing for Burst! to offer?
 What is the new marketing strategy for the Burst! Creative Group?

Structure

First of all, I will explain what the concept of Brand Design means, so that it is clear what the
company’s added value is. Following this background I will analyze the organization through the
internal analysis to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the company. After this internal
analysis I will continue with a Macro-analysis through the DESTEP-model made by Philip Kotler to
figure out what the impact of these factors are on Burst.

The next step is a market analysis, which will be made through the Five Forces Framework by Michael
Porter. The focal point of this market analysis will be the competitive analysis. This will be an
important foundation for the recommendations at the end of the thesis.

After these three analysis are taken into consideration, the next step is to develop a SWOT-analysis
and connect the strengths and weaknesses and opportunities and threats which came out of these
analysis to get a clear overview and recapture the research.

After the SWOT-analysis is taken into consideration and conclusions have been drawn up. The next
step is to make final recommendations for the marketing strategy, website and product portfolio.

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Executive Summary
This thesis is written for the Burst! Creative Group, a graphic design agency located in Vancouver, BC,
Canada. The company wants to know what is going on in their environment with their competitors
and what strategy might fit best with the company, considering the different environmental factors.
Furthermore the company wants to know what changes could be made in the product/services
portfolio.

In the internal analysis it became clear that Burst, according to the value strategies of Treacy and
Wiersema, is using Product Leadership as their strategy since the quality of the graphic design work is
the most important aspect of the company, and is been the most valued aspect according to current
and past clients.

In the analysis of the Marketing Mix, it showed that Burst has a basic product portfolio that covers
the basic services, but lacks special services or packaged products.
When it comes to personnel, Burst has a small team of designers with modest experience, but
besides certain specialties can work at the highest level.
When it comes to pricing, Burst uses Cost Oriented Pricing to determine their prices to each
individual product, no-fixed prices are being offered.

Promotional activities are not an important aspect of Burst’s marketing mix, since the website has
thus far been the only marketing tool. The current website is at industry standard, but lacks certain
features such as an interactive aspect and a extensive showing of the portfolio.
Located in the historic Gastown in Vancouver, Burst has mainly focused on the potential clients
within the Metro Vancouver area.

The Macro-environmental analysis illustrated that economic recovery in Canada, and Vancouver, is
on the horizon. This recovery has an immediate impact on the demographic figures, as the
population is growing, and immigration figures are increasing every year. The technological factors
will have the most immediate impact on Burst. Products such as Flash, SEO and Online advertising
are up and coming, and industry trends.

The market analysis gives an insight in the immediate factors influencing the company. The most
important conclusions that were drawn were that the entry barriers for entering the market are very
low, and substitute products can be seen as irrelevant. Furthermore it seemed that it is economically
more feasible to focus on lasting relationships with their customers.
The competitive analysis gave the following conclusions. Strategy-wise the competitors of Burst seem
to either focus on graphic design or on website design, or just offer these services separate.
Burst lacks a few important products/services in comparison to its competitors, Flash/Video, online
marketing services, social-media and SEO are the most important ones.
The website lacks an interactive aspect, which can be overcome through the use of a blog and social
media.

After all analysis were taken into consideration the following recommendations were made.
Flash/Video should be incorporated into the product portfolio. Burst should furthermore specialize in
online advertising, with SEO as the most important part of this service.
The personnel needs further education in the aforementioned services and when it is financially
feasible, the company should consider hiring new personnel which can fill the needs.
For the pricing policy, the company should consider fixed prices for small products such as a logo or
stationary since companies are hesitate for studio rates.

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Since the budget for promotional activities is very low, it is recommended that Burst starts being
active on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn since this very common within the industry and an ideal
way of free promotion. Social media will mostly be used to show that the company is active and
dynamic and will endorse the latest work or events.
Furthermore, Burst should focus on the market outside of Vancouver, as contact is easily possible
through e-mail and telephone.

Burst should present itself as the design agency that focuses on the big picture: Branding. Offering
the complete package to their customers. Branding, logo design, stationary, business cards,
promotional material and a website. In order to realize this Burst should focus on long term
relationships with wealthy customers. This concept fits the design team better as they are more
capable of working on a few big projects than on a lot of small projects. Burst should therefore shift
to Customer Intimacy as their new strategy.

The website is graphically at industry level but needs a few extra features. Social media is the most
important aspect missing, and should directly be featured on the website.
The portfolio, showing Burst’s design work, should be showcased more extensively. Case studies is an
ideal way to do this.
Finally, Burst should startup a blog/news page to keep the site interactive and show that Burst is a
dynamic company.

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1. Brand design; a background.
To really understand the core business and added value of the Burst! Creative Group it’s important to
clarify what brand design1 is. I will split up the word in two parts, brand and design, to simplify the
explanation.

1.1 Brand 2
A brand is the top of mind feeling that a customer has when it sees or thinks about a product, service
or company, it’s intangible. The perception of the brand is what affects its success, no matter the size
or reputation the company already has. A brand helps consumers choose between same types of
products. A brand communicates the quality of a product, service or company. A brand ensures that
consumers can identify with a product, service or company. A brand defines the product’s, services’
or company’s position within its market.

1.2 Design
The design element of brand design consists of the tangible part of the brand; the visuals. In most
cases (when a new logo is needed) the logo will be the first object to be created. The logo needs to
be in line with the brand’s description and perception by the consumers. That’s why it’s important to
develop a clear brand identity before the design process starts.

Important aspects of logo design:

 Texture
 Color
 Size

When the logo is finished, other business graphics will be developed according to the design of the
logo. This includes web design, package design, signage, banners, advertisements, stationary,
business cards and other business graphics.

1.3 Brand design

Let’s bring the words back together. Brand design ultimately is all about bringing the intangible brand
to life into tangible graphic design material. Not only the brand has to be taken into account during
the creative process, the business strategy is also an important factor as it has to be in line with the
logo and other graphic material. The process can be drawn up as follows:

Business strategy Brand analysis Creative briefing Creative process Graphic material

Figure 1 Brand design process

1.4 Added Value

The ultimate goal of businesses is to differentiate itself from its competition. Branding and brand
design is key in communicating this message to the company’s target customers, and can therefore
be seen as a vital part in the business process in all possible industries.

1
Background is based on: Wheeler, A (2009). Designing Brand Identity,
2
See glossary for different types of Branding

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High-quality graphic design makes companies more credible and professional which is essential for a
business, graphic design is the only industry which can make this possible.

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2. Internal Analysis
The internal analysis will evaluate the company’s strategy and marketing mix including: products and
services, personnel, price, promotion and place. The goal is to get a clear view of these internal
factors, since in the end the recommendations will be all about these factors.

2.1 Nature of Business

Burst Creative is a small, full-service branding and communications firm founded in 2004. It was
incorporated in May 2009 by the principal owner Jeff Pinder.

Working with both business start-ups and established companies. In the clients need for a high-
quality look, Burst brings their clients vision to life with complete brand-overhauls.

The areas of expertise include brand overhauls, new identity development and interactive design,
web design and programming.

2.1.1 Vision statements

Client
 Act with trust and honesty in all of our relationship.

Team
 Value teamwork and open communication.
 Encourage creativity.
 Inspire passion within the pool of talented designers.

Work
 Produce effective and consistent work.
 Provide fresh product ideas.
 Be willing to go the extra mile.
 Deliver work on-time.

A vision statement tells the customer how a company is going to realize its mission. A company can
only have one vision per department.3 Adjustments can therefore be made for the vision statement
of Burst since there are now 8 small visions. A possibility is to add some of the visions into one
complete vision.

2.1.2 Mission statement

‘Burst Creative’s mission is to provide the right marketing solution to make your business more visible
to your customers, on time and on budget.’

A mission is statement is all about the reason the company exists. It also tells in what way people
should look at the company. Furthermore a mission statement should always be a statement the
company can live up to, as customers will view this as a promise to them.4
The mission stated by Burst could therefore be adjusted as it does not completely live up to these
requirements. The: ‘on time and on budget’ statement is a risky thing to say since projects at times
overrun and therefore take more time and money.

3
Thomassen, J (2000). Waardering door klanten: klantenmanagement als fundament voor totale kwaliteit
4
Franzen, G (2002). Strategisch management van merken

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2.1.3 Goals and Objectives

I. To grow the business and hire 6-10 staff agency

II. To grow the business and double in Gross in 1 year (10-15 clients)
III. To get better known and build reputation by:
• Expanding services
• Delivering better services
• Launching Marketing and Advertising Campaign
• Establishing business relationships

2.1.4 Strategy
There are different ways to look at the company’s strategy. A way to look at it are the Generic
Strategies of Michael Porter5. This method has 3 strategies:

 Cost Leadership: Low cost at a certain industry standard.

 Differentiation: Offering unique products, that are valued by customer.
 Focus strategy: Focusing on small market segment, while either using low cost or
differentiation.

For Burst, the strategy that would best fit is Cost Leadership. As stated in their mission, Burst tries to
offer their products ‘on time and on budget’. And since the product portfolio is not very unique,
differentiation would not be the best strategy to describe.

A second way to look at the company’s strategy is to use the value strategies of Treacy and
Wiersema.6 This model also describes 3 strategies:

 Product Leadership: The quality of the product is the most important aspect of the
company’s strategy.
 Operational Excellence: The operational process is the most important aspect of the
organization, low cost and an effective process are key within this strategy.
 Customer Intimacy: The Customer relation is the central piece of the strategy, long lasting
relationships are being pursued.

The best strategy that could describe Burst would be Product Leadership. The quality of the graphic
design work is the central piece within the company, and has been the unique selling point for Burst.

The difference between these two models is that Treacy and Wiersema focuses on core competences
as the basis of the strategy, whereas the Generic Strategies are more based on the overall direction
of the company.

5
Johnson, G. Scholes, K. Whittington, R (2007). Exploring Corporate strategy, Pearson Education Limited
6
HZ Course CU03846 - S2-07/08 Marketing Advanced

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2.2 Marketing Mix

2.2.1 Products and services

As Burst has grown in recent years, the product portfolio expended as well. The list below shows a
detailed description of the services / products offered:

Graphic Design
• Product Design
• Product Packaging
• Business Graphics

Corporate Identity
• Branding
• Logo
• Naming
• Business Card
• Letterhead
• Stationery
• Collateral
• Signage and Sandwich boards

Website Design & Development

• Design
• Blog
• Template
• Custom CMS
• User Interface

Burst does not offer packages for their services, which means that every single service or product a
customer wants’ will be purchased separately. Overall the product portfolio looks very basic, it has all
the standard products and does not offer special services or offers such as the abovementioned
packages.

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2.2.2 Personnel
Burst Creative currently employs three graphic designers who work alongside the owner, Jeff Pinder.
Office hours are from 9:00-6:00pm but can extend later depending on the work load. As the business
grows the target is to hire 6-10 additional staff filling the roles of administrator/receptionist,
marketing and sales and additional graphic designers.

JEFF PINDER
Owner

EDGAR
FLIGHT DECK ORIN STROLL LINDSAY BAILEY TIRATH KHATKAR
VALENZUELA
Web Design Lawyer Lawyer Accountant
Head Designer

DARREN JARVIS
SUNG LEE TRAVIS BROWN
Web
Graphic Designer Web Designer
Programming

Figure 2 Organizational Chart

The current staff meets current industry requirements as far as design capabilities concerns although
a few important applications or services are still not present in the product/service portfolio. Besides
these limitations the staff lacks experience when it comes to non-design related matters during the
work process.
Due to the small group of designers, Burst rather has a few big projects than a lot of small projects.
These are more profitable for Burst since the current design team would have problems handling the
workload when there are a lot of different small jobs.

In a competitive service industry, the staff is an important factor for clients when choosing a graphic
design agency. While creativity is not a problem for Burst, the lack of experience and size is.

To analyze the quality of the personnel and the level of service, a service development analysis7 is
made to check whether or not the company’s level of service is at the required level. This is done by
creating a list of questions that might be raised by potential clients when choosing between Burst
and its competitors.

DIMENSIONS EXAMPLES OF QUESTIONS THAT CLIENTS MIGHT RAISE

TANGIBLES 1. Does Burst Creative have the technology needed?
2. Do the designers appear professional in the way they present
themselves?
3. Does the office of Burst Creative have a good ambiance?
RELIABILITY 1. Does Burst Creative meet the quality and standards of design
that they promise to their clients?
2. Is their work at par with industry standard?
RESPONSIVENESS 1. Does Burst address and bring an action towards the
complaints of their clients?

7
The service development program was made with the help of Jeff Pinder.

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 2. Is the staff open-minded and creative when sharing ideas?
3. Do they attend to special requests of their clients?
ASSURANCE 1. Is the staff able to answer clients’ queries confidently?
2. Can staff members handle clients’ requests without taking too
much time?
3. Is the staff patient enough to handle indecisive clients?
4. Does Burst Creative live up to its guarantee of fresh ideas and
execution? Within the budget set?
5. When the client is visiting the office, do they feel secure
within the vicinity?
EMPATHY 1. Is the office easy to locate?
2. Are the technical jargons simplified as to make it easy to
understand and answer for the client?
3. Does the staff make time to follow up (after service), make
suggestions and get feedback orally?
4. Do they reward regular clients? (better service, price, make
time for)

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In order to find out at what aspects Burst! is at the required level or is falling short, the answers from
the Service development analysis will be answered in the schedule below.

DIMENSIONS ANSWERS ON QUESTIONS

TANGIBLES 1. Burst has not all current standard technology in its product
portfolio.
2. Overall, the look of the designers in the office can be called
‘casual’. Which corresponds with the image of graphic
designers.
3. The urban / modern look of the office as an open minded
place has gotten a lot of positive comments.
RELIABILITY 1. Burst never promises anything to their clients of which they
cannot live up to.
2. Burst feels that the quality of work is at the industry’s
standard.
RESPONSIVENESS 1. Complaints or feedback are usually be dealt with right away,
as the company makes that a priority.
2. To a certain point they are.
3. The staff normally tries to attend all requests within their
possibilities.
ASSURANCE 1. The level of knowledge is at a certain high, that questions can
be answered with assurance.
2. The staff normally is up to speed when it comes to requests
or editing.
3. The staff is patient enough when it comes to indecisive
clients.
4. Although Burst always tries to do so, the fact that there is no
fixed prices does not always make it possible to stay within
budget.
5. Overall, clients like the office atmosphere and feel
comfortable.
EMPATHY 1. The office itself is easy to locate, the office space within the
building is harder to find.
2. Textual documents are being transformed into readable
pieces for clients.
3. The staff does follow-up after projects, also to keep in touch
with their clients.
4. Regular clients do get rewarded with reduced prices.

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2.2.3 Price
There is no fixed price for the list of services offered by Burst Creative. A studio rate of $100-$150/hr
depending on complexity of work is normally charged to clients. Longer term clients who the team
has already built a relationship with benefit from better rates and receive more flexibility when
number of hours to be billed is computed.
An example of a complete brand overhaul, requested by NICCSS:

Logo: 30-40 hours

Stationery system: 40 hours
(thank you cards, mailing labels, business card, letterhead, envelopes)
Registration, fax template, internal and external forms: 5 hours
I.D. tags: 3 hours
T-shirt: 10 hours
Sandwich board: 4 hours
Vinyl banners: 5 hours

Total hours where 107 at an hourly rate of $120 which made a total of $12,840.

However if Burst comes across a new company or organization they feel strongly about, rates
sometimes are adjusted to fit the clients budget.
For website creation, clients can be charged $3,500 or more depending on the client’s wish-list.
Clients which are asking for just a single product such as a website or a logo, or companies with a
smaller budget are at times afraid of studio rates as they have no idea what it is going to cost 8. Not
having fixed prices could therefore result in a lower influx of customers.

Pricing is based on cost oriented pricing, which determines all fixed costs and variable costs
associated with each individual project where after a certain markup is added.

2.2.4 Promotion
Upon till now, the Burst! Creative Group has not been very active regarding promotional activities.
First of all, the company has not felt the urgency to actively promote itself within the market,
secondly, there has not been a big marketing budget for such activities. Client acquisition happened
mostly through word of mouth and personal acquisition so far.

Burst has recently developed a tagline: *Design that influences the way we think. Burst tries to
communicate the message that their team works with the client instead of for the client.
Furthermore, Burst tries to communicate that they create design with a message and that their
creative work is not just ‘eye-candy ’.

The website has been the main marketing tool as far as promotion is concerned. Mainly because in a
market of graphic design en web design, the website is the premier source of information and the
important first impression of the company. The website has been updated in the last week of March,
the new website is a temporary website since it had to be updated urgently, because the old website
was completely outdated. The new website is an upgrade over the first version when it comes to
graphical aspects. The look and feel are modern and in line with current industry standards.

Nevertheless, the website does lack an interactive aspect that is seen at a large part of their
competitors, the site shows the company’s portfolio and overview of products and services, but a
blog or news page is missing. Furthermore the website is not very ‘deep’ which means that the visitor

8
http://www.costhelper.com/cost/small-business/graphic-designer.html

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is rather quickly done with watching the website. An extended portfolio with possibly case studies
could make the site more deeper, and will show the company’s ability.

The company feels that it has not yet utilized all possible promotional tools and it is now starting to
feel this because the Burst! brand is not as well known as thought and as a result of this there is a
lack of new projects.

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2.2.5 Place
Location
Burst Creative is located at 212-211 Columbia Street, Vancouver, British Columbia.
The office is situated in the Gastown district. As Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhood, Gastown is
known for its well preserved, historic buildings. In accordance with the Gastown Heritage
Management Plan, work spaces have been created at 211 Columbia, where the extensive renovation
retained the old town charm but provided improved high-tech ready office space. Burst Creative
occupies a unit which is 1,600 sq ft. It is a shared space with Flight Deck Media a web design
company who they are affiliated with. Rent costs $20,400 a year.

Image 1 Burst Creative's office location

The Gastown area includes the commercial/retail district running north-south along Cordova Street
and Water Street, and east-west between Richards Street and Columbia. Traffic primarily flows
through Cordova and Water Street however Vancouver’s primary public transit station, Waterfront
Station, lays at the northwest corner of the BIA, extending Gastown’s catchment area to thousands
of commuters from all over Metro Vancouver.

Although the area is seen as historic and high-quality, the area faces a lot of difficulties. The
Downtown Eastside area experiences a lot of drug problems with a large amount of HIV-infections.
Furthermore the area is known to be the ‘home’ of lots of homeless people wandering through the
area of the office’s location.

Market

Burst’s market mainly consists of Vancouver based clients around the downtown area. These areas
are: Gastown, Yaletown and downtown Vancouver. These three areas have also been the company’s
target when it comes to client acquisition.
The target group for Burst Creative is small to medium sized businesses that are young keen,
graphically strong, fresh and innovative in any industry. In a market size breakdown9, figures show
that in the market currently targeted by Burst there are roughly 3,500 potential clients, based on
geographical position and company size.

9
Annex 1

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Although the current market approach seems very logic, there is a bigger potential that can be
realized. Since the branding design industry can develop their products through e-mail/telephone
contact there is no need for personal contact in a lot of cases. This opens up an immense market as
we can now add a bigger part of Canada and even the US to the potential market.

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3. Macro environmental analysis
3.1 Current Condition
The macro environmental analysis will be made through a model (DESTEP) as stated in Principles of
Marketing, by Philip Kotler which makes an analysis through 5 macro-environmental factors and their
possible influence on the company. The following factors are being analyzed:

 Economic
 Social
 Technological
 Demographic
 Political/Legal
3.1.1 Economic factors
In 2008 the Canadian economy saw a downshift from the previously good years in 2006 and 2007.
There were mergers and acquisitions that happened to keep companies alive. These same companies
now need to communicate a unified message across all touch points to ensure the right message is
heard.

Overall the Canadian economy shrank 2.6 % over 2009. The last quarter however, the economy
showed signs of recovery with a 5% annualized increase.

According to the Bank of Canada’s quarterly Business Outlook survey conducted from November 16,
2009 – December 11, 2009 shows more firms plan higher spending on machinery and equipment and
increased employment. At the same time, a bigger amount of businesses experienced some financial
breathing space. The bank also said that, on balance, “Firms reported that credit conditions eased
over the past three months, although responses suggest that improvements have been modest and
have been concentrated among large firms.” Also, while the percentage of companies saying they
would have trouble meeting an unexpected increase in demand was higher than in the October
survey, the result – 29 per cent – reflects that most companies “still have excess capacity and
anticipate that this situation will persist for at least the next six months, consistent with the
expectation that demand will recover only gradually,” the bank said.10
Furthermore, recent figures show that companies are keen on investing again now that economic
recovery is on the horizon.

The nation's fastest-growing industry is niche business consulting; its workforce is expected to
increase by 5.9 percent through 2016. While the competition is fierce in this area, the barriers to
entry are low, and the industry as a whole is seeing a shift as clients drop big corporate consultancies
in favor of smaller, more specialized firms.

3.1.2 Social factors

The industry has seen a call for Repositioning: A shift to Green Business and Sustainability
Management. With much pressure from Eco-minded individuals and organizations, companies
became mindful of its carbon footprint. It is only natural for companies therefore to communicate
this aspect in their branding and take advantage of the trend that has occurred over the last years.

10
Annex 4

22 | P a g e
Renewal and Change. In response, companies are currently re branding – changing their logo,
updating the web design, and overhauling the general look and feel. In the current economy
companies constantly need to change their image and products to keep customers interested which
makes it an excellent opportunity for the branding business to respond to this trends.

Social networking/media is becoming an integral part of both business and personal life. After first
becoming a major part of peoples regular life’s, in recent years it has shown a shift to the business
area where it has become a completely new marketing tool. Social media has become a complete
new community through networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Most of Burst’s competitors are already active on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is mostly used to
create awareness as people can become a fan. On these pages the competitors place new work such
as new logo’s and websites on which people can comment.

Twitter is mostly used to talk about non-business related matters such as hobby’s, activities or local
news. The most important reason for these companies to be active on Twitter is to show that their
business is an active community.

3.1.3 Technological factors

Mobile Marketing

According to Simba Information in their research, Opportunities in Mobile Marketing and Advertising
2008-2009, Facebook had close to 43 million unique U.S. visitors in August 2008; MySpace had 71
million; Hi5 tracked 55 million monthly visitors worldwide; Friendster had more than 80 million
members worldwide with 97% of them outside the U.S. With this audience available—all of whom
want to connect with others, share information and pictures—social networks have become
communications systems. This need to be connected has fostered the popularity of 3G and Wi-Fi
capable phones. These are supported by carrier providers (Rogers, Telus and Fido) and experienced
content creators with the likes of Yahoo, Google and MSN. Mobile phones may not have drastically
changed the way people browse the web but the technological advances has made it far more
effective than before.

Naturally mobile web development will be the next steps of most companies. Growth is seen to be
substantial whether the company chooses to have a mobile edition (e.g. m.yoursite.com) or takes
mobile web presentation into consideration in the initial planning of the design. Possible executions
also include development of one-way, two-way, SMS, alerts, promotions, ringtones, wallpaper, Java
games, and chats. The biggest drawback is cross-browser compatibility. Each phone supports
different functionalities which makes standardization and quality control very difficult to have in the
mobile edition.

Flash and Search Engine Optimization

For years, Flash could not be read by search engine spiders. All of the content within a flash file is
contained within a .swf file rather than in the HTML of the page. Because of this, none of the content
can be seen by the search engine spiders. This makes the site impossible to index or rank.

Recently, Google and Yahoo announced a new technology that allows search engine spiders to crawl
into flash .swf files and index their content. They call this technology or code an “indexing algorithm”.
The spiders can now use this algorithm to read through text fields in a flash site and match words
found within the site to the terms used in a Google search. The spiders can also detect links within a
flash site and then crawl those link locations and further index the content. This indexing of .swf

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content in theory will allow a site built entirely in flash to be findable via search engines which until
now was not possible.11

From an SEO standpoint, there will be more competition in the search world as more content is
indexed by Google. All that old content that was previously hidden in flash files may now be included
in the search index for searchers to enjoy. Once the SEO community becomes confident in Google’s
ability to scan Flash files, they’ll likely start giving the green light for increased flash implementation.

Online Advertising

Internet usage has long cut into Print and TV viewing although it is a long way from completely taking
away from dollar ad sales. Online advertising started with Banner ads and Pay Per Click sites
popularized by Yahoo, Google and MSN. All of which are major sites.

What is new in the industry is the shift from static and standardized Banner Ads into Rich Media Ads.
Traditional Banner Ads, being static, are boring and very easy to ignore. Rich Media on the other
hand give creative agencies leeway to produce something spectacular. It can take the form of a
video, web crawlers, be incorporated in an RPG and the like. This in turn improves click through rates
and the possibility of buyers actually purchasing the service or product. The biggest drawback would
be the cost benefit of creating a Rich Media Ad.

Another trend is the creation of paid blog networks. The Internet for a long time has been used as a
great source of information, whether validated or not. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and with
the popularization of blogs people are now able to share their thoughts with the rest of the online
community via blog sites. It was only a matter of time before paid blogs emerged from this.
Advertisers who want more exposure for their business generate public buzz and increase search
engine visibility by hiring bloggers to write about and review advertiser’s products, website or
service.12

3.1.4 Demographic factors13

Canada has experienced a huge variety in ethnicity for a long time, mainly through huge movements
in immigration. According to the 2006 census by Statistics Canada, the country had more than 200
different ethnic origins. Furthermore the census reported that an approximate 5,000,000 individuals
could be seen as visible minorities, which represents 16.2% of the total population in 2006.

British Columbia in particular is the province with the highest proportion of visible minorities. With
over 1 million visible minorities, accounting for 24 % of the population within the province. Those
total has risen with 20 % in the period 2001-2006. Vancouver residents 86% of the provinces visible
minorities with Chinese being the main ethnic background.14

Immigration is also the main reason of the increasing population. In 2006 Canada had 31,612,897
residents which was a 5.4% increase from 2001. Furthermore the census reported that natural
growth was a small cause for the increasing population.

Much like other major countries, the Canadian population is getting older. The 65-and-over
population is growing with the demographic group of under-15 is reaching its lowest level ever.

11
Annex 5
12
Annex 6
13
Facts and Figures provided by Statistics Canada (www.statscan.gc.ca)
14
Annex 7

24 | P a g e
3.1.5 Political/Legal factors
Canada has a strong relationship with the USA as far as business is concerned. An important example
of this fact is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which is an agreement between the
US, Canada and Mexico. The agreement for a large part has caused an increase in Canadian – US
trade.

This opens up a significant market, especially for a graphic design businesses as Burst, because
personal contact is not required when making websites or other graphic material, long distance
business relationships can therefore be established while still having trade advantages.

3.2 Affect on Burst

What is the influence of all these factors on the company.

The economic recovery in Canada is positive sign for Burst. The previous year has been hard on Burst
as well, because of the economic downfall. The most important signal of these economic factors is
the fact that companies are starting to invest again. The previous year Burst has met with companies
that could not make investments because of the downfall, these economic figures show some
promise that in the coming months that could change.

Social factors that have an influence on Burst, are mainly the growth of Social Media within the
business life and personal lives of the population. This is an indication that Burst should consider to
connect to their customers (business community) through the social media networks such as
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

The technological developments that have occurred in the Branding industry seem to have the
biggest straight impact on the company.
The emergence of Flash within SEO and the growth of online advertising have an immediate
influence on the product portfolio of Burst as it these services are not yet offered but are becoming
more important in the industry.

The positive immigration numbers show that Canada and Vancouver in particular are experiencing
both economic as well as social good times. While the Canadian population is getting older, these
figures should only have a positive impact on the economy, and therefore Burst.

The final factor that should be considered an influential one is the fine relationship with the US.
Although this relationship has been a fact for some years, this not been utilized or seen as an
opportunity by the company.

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4. Market analysis
The market analysis will be done through the Five Forces analysis by Michael Porter15. This
framework is developed to analyze external market factors influencing the company. The following
five forces are analyzed:

 The threat of substitute products or services

 The threat of the entry of new competitors
 The bargaining power of customers (buyers)
 The bargaining power of suppliers
 The intensity of competitive rivalry (Competitive analysis)

4.1 Threat of substitute products

Substitute products are not really applicable within the graphic design industry, as graphic design
simply is graphic design.
Things are a little bit different for web design. As it becomes more easy to build your own website.
Companies which want a simple website without any flashy features can now more easily take a look
at customer friendly software (Joomla)16 which enables employees to develop a professional looking
website their self without needing the knowledge of a programmer. Established firms such as iHop,
Citibank, MTV and Harvard University have used programs such as Joomla for web design purposes.
This shows that this is a considerable threat to the professional web design industry.
Overall, the threat of substitute products is very low.

4.2 The threat of the entry of new competitors

The capital investment for starting in this industry is fairly low. Because of the fact that one single
person can start as a professional graphic designer. It requires an office space, computer (s),
software, printer, and a qualified education to operate in this market. Of course this is putting it
plainly, but overall there is no need for big investments.

Another factor are graphic design students which begin to accept jobs for companies to do graphic
design work, these students most of the time already have the necessary equipment. It is therefore
easy for them to start in this market.

One of the only entry barriers would be the required knowledge that comes with graphic (web)
design. Every graphic designers will know the basics but in an ever evolving market and with
especially web design being very diverse it is hard to collect all this knowledge when starting a new
business.
Overall verdict, the barriers of entry are very low, therefore the possibility for new competitors to
enter is significant.

4.3 The bargaining power of customers (buyers)

As the industry has a large amount of providers it is easy for customers to switch over to other
graphic design company’s. The process of switching over to another company is also not a huge
process because customers usually work with a graphic design company based on projects.

15
Exploring Corporate Strategy
16
community.joomla.org/showcase

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Although customers can switch easily, their ability to influence the setting of the price is less
stronger. There is a certain standard in the professional graphic design market with studio rates
around $125 per hour. Depending on the amount of work, prices can be adjusted until a certain level.

A third aspect that determents the bargaining power of the customers, is the amount of customers
For a graphic design company as Burst! the list of potential clients is enormous. Because of the fact
that every company large or small needs graphic design in any way (logo, website, promotional
material) basically every business that can afford graphic design can be seen as a potential client.
For Burst, a Vancouver based business, companies from around Canada en the USA can be seen as
potential clients because all contact can be (and is) done through e-mail and telephone.

Overall, customers can easily switch to other graphic designers, but because the potential for new
clients (projects) is almost boundless, the power of the customers is therefore limited.

4.4 The bargaining power of suppliers

Within the design process of Burst Creative Group, a few parties can be seen as suppliers.
First of all, the formed alliances17. These companies support Burst! during the more high-end projects
when they supply their knowledge and supportive work. Because Burst does not offer these services
they are quite unique and therefore important to the company. There is an ability to switch although
the established relationships have their value too.

Secondly the printing companies are regarded as suppliers. The quality of the print material is of a big
importance in the design process. But because the current standard in the printing industry is that
high, switching to other printing companies then the current ones would not be a problem.

Overall, the bargaining power of the suppliers is average.

17
Annex 2

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4.5 The intensity of competitive rivalry

To determine the level of competitive rivalry, it is important to develop a competitive analysis.

A selection has been made between direct and indirect competitors based on comparability, location
but most of all, the owners vision. Here is an overview of the competitors and their main focus /
strategy.

Direct competition

Graphically Speaking, Vancouver

Strategy: Purely based on web design, option to develop simple and high-end websites. Offers simply
everything for the web.

Red Rocket, Vancouver

Strategy: The company offers the complete package, from web design until marketing material.
Furthermore they offer branding and strategy services.

Ion Branding + Design, Vancouver

Strategy: Ion focuses purely on branding and graphic design, leaving web design to their competitors.

Canister Creative, Vancouver

Strategy: Canister offers graphic design with marketing material and print design. Furthermore they
specialize in web design.

RDG Strategic Design, Vancouver

Strategy: RDG has almost the same strategy as Canister as they focus on web design and print
material.

GoGo Telugo, North - Vancouver

Strategy: Gogo Telugo is a high-end graphic design company which can offer website designs as well
as print material all in one. Furthermore they specialize in photography.

Armada Design, Vancouver

Strategy: Armada focuses on branding, and offering the complete package in graphic design and
website design in one.

CA Design Group, Burnaby

Strategy: CA Design focuses primarily on graphic design and branding and go further than just graphic
material. Web design is not in their portfolio.

Evolutionary Imaging, Vancouver

Strategy: The company offers website design and promotional material, mainly simple projects.

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Indirect Competition

Burnkit Creative, Vancouver

Strategy: Burnkit focuses on branding; mainly web design and video. Graphic design itself is not in
the product portfolio.

Hangar 18, West-Vancouver

Strategy: Hangar 18 is a full-branding company which offers graphic design, advertising and website
design.

Dossier, Vancouver
Strategy: Dossier is focused on the branding process solely through graphic design which includes
product design, packaging design, logo design and retail design.

Smashlab, Vancouver
Strategy: Smashlab does it all, branding, graphic design, web design and other internet services.

Engine Digital, Vancouver

Strategy: Engine digital has its focus on digital services which include digital marketing

Subplot Design, Vancouver

Strategy: The focus for Subplot is completely on branding and graphic design, website design is not in
the product portfolio of this company.

To determine the level of rivalry between the abovementioned competitors and Burst a competitive
analysis is made 18. It is split up between website analysis and service analysis with the last one being
split up between design services, programming services and online marketing services.

4.6 Affect on Burst

What is the influence of these different factors of the market analysis on Burst.
Substitute products do not seem to be a considerable threat to Burst (website design industry) as
free software cannot produce websites at the industry level. A substitute for graphic design is yet to
be found.

Because of the low entry barriers within the industry it is pretty easy to enter as a graphic designer.
Because of the fairly low cost it is easy to start up. The advantage that Burst has over these potential
competitors is that they are more experienced and more professional in their work and portfolio.
Burst should communicate this message to the public.

Although the market potential is enormous Burst should focus on lasting relationships with their
customers because in a mainly project –based market, switching is very easy. Furthermore this type
of relationship fits better with the small group of designers.

When it comes to the competitive analysis, the following findings can be noted.

Strategy.
As far as strategy concerns, most companies analyzed choose to either focus on web design or print
material. In most cases companies do offer both services, but focus on one or the other. These
companies see graphic design and web design as separate services. Exceptions on this rule are Red
Rocket and Hangar 18, which focus on the complete package.

18
Competitive analysis can be found in annex 8.

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Furthermore there are companies which focus on web design only (Graphically Speaking) and
companies that have no web design in their portfolio (Subplot).

Products and services portfolio.

For the design services, the most important product that Burst is short of is Flash/Video. A service
that has been mentioned before as one of the latest trends within the industry. Besides this,
catalogues and reports is a product that is offered by most companies and not by Burst.

When it comes to programming services, Burst is at industry level since it covers the most important
services.

The online marketing services are not very well represented in the product and services portfolio.
Blog writing and Video are important services that are being offered by other competitors and not by
Burst. Furthermore, the earlier mentioned Social media is an important service that the company
could specialize into since it is becoming an important factor of business life and other competitors
are offering this service as well. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) could also be noted since it’s an up
and coming trend and offered by other competitors.

Website.
When it comes to the website Burst comes up short on a few important aspects. The most important
element is the interactive element. Much like other competitors Burst does not have a blog, besides
this, Burst is not yet active on Social Media such as Twitter and Facebook. Especially the Social Media
is big setback as it has become a vital part of business and competitors are starting to pick this up as
well. Graphically, the site meets industry standards and is at the top of the competition.

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5. SWOT – analysis
Now that the internal analysis, the macro environmental analysis and the market analysis are drawn
up, the next step is to develop a SWOT – analysis19 which summarizes and connects all conclusions.

Strengths Weaknesses
 High quality of design  Technology
 Quality of work is  Lack of experience of staff
consistent  No clear strategy
 Located in historic  Difficulty meeting
Gastown deadlines
 Flexible staff  Plain product portfolio
 Talented designers  No fixed prices
 Ability to work with  Small awareness within
long distance clients market though lack of
 Established good promotional activities
relations with existing  Low marketing budget
clients
Opportunities S–O Actions W–O Actions
 Economic  Add new important  Educate staff with new
recovery technologies to technologies
 Flash and SEO portfolio  Flesh out new marketing
 Online  Find ways to connect to strategy
advertising market outside of  Offer branding as a
 Social Media Vancouver. complete package
 Branding  Renew contact with  Possible offer fixed prices
 Market outside current clients for small work
of Vancouver  Build awareness through
social media presence
Threats S–T Actions W–T Actions
 A lot of established  Communicate and show  Get testimonials and
competitors (tight quality and uniqueness referrals from customers
competition) of work  Manage timelines
 Low entry barriers  Upgrade product  Create distinctive strategy
 Higher demanding
portfolio according to
market
market demands

19
Kotler, P (2005). Principles of Marketing

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6. Conclusions and Recommendations
Now that everything is drawn up and connections between the different analysis are made, it is now
time to put the recommendations in writing.

The main question was: How can the Burst! Creative Group gain a stronger position in it’s market
over it’s competitors?

As stated before, this question will be answered through recommendations regarding the marketing
strategy, website and product portfolio.

6.1 Marketing Strategy

Recommendations for the marketing strategy will be drawn up in the same way as the internal
analysis, this means these recommendations will be about the marketing mix and the strategy.

6.1.1 Products and services (product portfolio)

The current product portfolio clearly lacks some important products when looking at the competitive
analysis and taking the technological factors in consideration. Therefore its highly recommended that
the following products need to be implemented in the product portfolio.
For the design services, Flash/Video is a must have and is offered by many competitors. Furthermore,
this product is getting more attractive since flash websites nowadays are being read by search
engines. It is therefore highly recommended that Burst inserts this product in their portfolio.

For the online marketing services it is recommended that Burst specializes in online advertising.
More specifically, SEO is a service that is becoming vital when it comes to web design and should
therefore be a focal point for Burst. Besides this, a lot of competitors offer the development of social
networks as a service, put in the fact that social networks (media) is a flourishing industry and it
seems more than logic that Burst offers this service as well.

6.1.2 Personnel
Since Burst is active in a competitive industry, personnel is an important factor. In order to realize
growth and to implement new products and services to the portfolio, changes need to be made to
the personnel. If possible the staff needs further education on these new products and services that
are to be added. It is recommended that the staff gets the opportunity to get additional education.
Secondly it is possible to think about hiring new personnel which has the ability to fill in these needs,
but this should only be considered when its financially feasible and continued grow in workload is
expected.

6.1.3 Price
When it comes to the pricing of Bursts’ products and services, there is not much that can be adjusted
to the studio rate since it covers all expenses, and is based on a certain percentage of turnover.
Nevertheless, it is recommended that Burst could set fixed prices for simple / single products such as
a logo, stationary or business cards. This could make these products more attractive to customers
since they are often anxious of studio rates and overrun of projects.

6.1.4 Promotion
As far as promotion concerns, the budget for promotional activities is very low and within the graphic
design industry it is not very common to actively promote your business. For Burst it is
recommended to become active on social media since this is completely free and is becoming

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fundamental for businesses these days. It is suggested that Burst starts being active on Facebook,
Twitter and LinkedIn.

6.1.5 Place
The current office located in Gastown is a fine office space, and although the area has its problems
with a lot of homeless people, the neighborhood is known as the creative heart of Vancouver and it
therefore is a great place for Burst to be located.

As far as the target market for Burst is concerned, it is recommended that they start to look beyond
the Vancouver market since the possibilities for the market outside of Vancouver are limitless. I
suggest that the company actively starts looking for proposal requests for companies outside of the
Metro Vancouver area, and even the USA.

6.1.6 Strategy
When looking at the competitors strategies, it would be a good fit for Burst to present themselves as
the creative agency that focuses on Branding; offering the complete package to their customers. This
means that Burst offers everything in one: branding, logo design, stationary, business cards,
promotional material and a website. This strategy involves long term relationships with the more
wealthy customers, which is also a better fit with the small design team as they are more capable of
working on a few big projects, rather than working on a lot of small projects.

The current strategy, when using the Generic Strategies of Michael Porter is Cost leadership. After all
the factors of the different analysis are taken into consideration it is recommended that this strategy
shifts to Differentiation.
When using the value strategies of Treacy and Wiersema, the current strategy that is used is Product
Leadership. After all analysis are taken into consideration, it is recommended to shift to Customer
Intimacy as the new strategy.

6.2 Website
The latest website is graphically at industry level. But because this website is a temporary version a
few recommendations can be made for the future permanent website.

First of all, social media should be present on the website. Links to the soon to be launched social
networks need to be added to the homepage.
Secondly, it is recommended that Burst presents their portfolio as extensively as possible to show
what their capabilities are and illustrate that there is a big difference between Burst and the
numerous new competitors entering the market. Case studies are a perfect method to show the
company’s portfolio. Case studies are recommended to use to showcase the portfolio.
Thirdly, Burst should startup a blog/news page to keep the site interactive and show that Burst is a
dynamic company. A lot of established competitors have this feature on their website and Burst
should start building up a blog, this blog can be linked to the Facebook and Twitter page.

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Glossary
Types of Branding:

 Branding: “Branding is a disciplined process used to build awareness and extend customer
loyalty. Branding is about seizing every opportunity to express why people should choose
one brand over another” 20
 Cause branding: building a reputation for a charity.
 Co-branding: looking for partnership with another brand to achieve a goal.
 Country branding: efforts to catch the attention of tourists.
 Digital branding: web, social media, search engine optimization and e-commerce.
 Personal branding: building a reputation for an individual.

 Flash: Is Software which enables designers to create animated images / videos / websites
which show a lot of movement.
 SEO: Search Engine Optimization, is the process of increasing the volume of traffic to your
website through better search results. This is done by creating certain content on your
website that will be picked up by search engines.
 Social Media: Social media are media designed to be disseminated through social
interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-
based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social media
dialogues. They support the democratization of knowledge and information and transform
people from content consumers to content producers. 21

20
Quoted from Alina Wheeler; Designing Brand Identity
21
Quoted from wikipedia page: ‘Social Media’

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Annexes
 Annex 1
Market size breakdown

Industry Canada defines a small business as one that has fewer than 100 employees (if the business is
a goods-producing business) or fewer than 50 employees (if the business is a service-based business).
A firm that has more employees than these cut-offs but fewer than 500 employees is classified as a
medium-sized business.

According to the Vancouver Economic Development Commission which produces both Commercial
and Neighbourhood area profiles, the business mix of the targeted area of Gastown, Downtown
Vancouver and Yaletown reports the following:

Table 1: Business Mix

Downtown
Gastown Vancouver Yaletown
Service 291 3,760 535
Retail 188 1,234 197
Finance 34 1,179 56
Mining 0 766 9
Transportation,
Communication,
Utilities 17 391 28
Public
Administration 6 308 9
Wholesale 11 247 66
Manufacturing 17 208 28
Construction 6 105 9
Agriculture 0 11 0
Non-Classifiable 0 7 0
571 8,216 938
Source: www.bizmapbc.com

Gastown

Of the 51% service businesses, the most common are business services (69), engineering and
management services (59), legal services (51), membership organizations (22), personal services and
education services (21 and 19) as well as amusement and recreational services and motion pictures
(15 and 14). Of the 33% retail businesses, most are eating and drinking places (54), miscellaneous
retail (51), apparel and accessory stores (38), furniture, home furnishings and equipment stores (31)
and food stores (11).

As for individual business types, there are a significant number of lawyers (49), restaurants (42),
associations (18), architects and retail clothing stores (14 each), computer software (13), advertising

35 | P a g e
agencies and gift shops (12 each), beauty salons and women’s apparel (11 each), and art galleries
(10).

The Gastown BIA is comprised primarily of ‘micro’ sized businesses with less than 5 employees (52%),
followed by small-sized businesses with 5-20 employees (40%). Medium to large businesses only
account for 7% of the pie.

Gastown: 262 target companies

Downtown Vancouver

Of the 15% retail businesses, most are eating and drinking establishments (490), miscellaneous retail
(310) and apparel and accessory stores (170). Of the 46% service businesses, the most common are
legal services (1,121), engineering and management services (789) and business services (584). This
business mix is very different than most BIAs, which tend to have a much higher proportion of retail
businesses and within retail, a much higher proportion of eating and drinking establishments.

As for individual business types, there are a significant number of legal service offices (1,121),
engineering and management services (789), business service providers9 (584), eating and drinking
establishments (490) and health services (312).

The Downtown Vancouver BIA is comprised primarily of businesses with less than five employees
(55%), followed by small sized businesses with 5-20 employees (33%). Fully 5% of DVBIA businesses
have more than 50 employees, with several having more than 500 employees.

Downtown Vancouver: 3,122 target companies

Yaletown

Of the 57% service businesses, the most common are business services (143), engineering and
management services (108) and legal services (51). Of the 21% retail businesses, most are eating and
drinking places (64), furniture, home furnishings and equipment stores (49), miscellaneous retail (41)
and apparel and accessory stores (31).

As for individual business types, there are a significant number of restaurants (47) as well as
attorneys (46), computer software (27), architects (26), Internet service (22), beauty salons (20) and
associations (20).

The majority of businesses (54%) in the Yaletown BIA are ‘micro’ sized – less than five employees,
although there is a significant number (37%) of businesses with 5-20 employees in the area. Small-
Medium (6%) and large (3%) are minimal.

Yaletown: 403 target companies

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  Annex 2

Strategic business relationships

Member:
 Vancouver Board of Trade
The Vancouver Board of Trade offers its members advice and business building events,
services and activities. Furthermore it’s an excellent institution for networking with other
Vancouver based businesses.

 Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce

The Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce offers its members advice and business building
events, services and activities. It furthermore offers its members great promotional
opportunities.

 Small Business Communications Council

The Small Business Communications Council provides guidance and assistance to small and
medium sized businesses in Vancouver. The council recommends policy and action to their
members on different sort of issues regarding small businesses.

 DTES (Downtown Eastside Committee)

DTES is a taskforce which contributes to solutions for the ongoing challenges facing the East
Downtown area which represents Burst’s location.

 Gastown Business Improvement Society

GBIS is concerned with the revitalization of the historical Gastown area. The organisation
provides a variety of programs and events for the revitalization of the area.

 BC Life Science Association (Future)

The BC Life Science Association is an organization which deals with the environmental side of
business. Since environmental issues are becoming a greater issue in business, this could
become an important strategic business relationship.

These memberships bring a lot of advantages to the table. The company gets more recognition as it
represents itself among other local business, and will therefore create a name for itself. In addition,
these institutions give a lot of opportunity for advertising or even free promotion.

Alliances:

Flight Deck Media – Web design

Redesign Lab – Web design
Lucent Strategies – PR and Marketing communications
Links PR – PR and Marketing communications
Change Creative – Design and Consultancy
MarketR – Online marketing solutions
Stem Interior Design – Interior design

These alliances give the company more opportunities for more high-end projects. Nevertheless it
would be more ideal if the company could offer these services itself, as it would save time and
money during the process.

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  Annex 3
Service analysis

The Flow Chart of Service as stated below shows what steps are taken from the moment that a new
prospect gets in contact with the company until the products are delivered to that same customer.

Contact
New prospect information

Follow up Appointment

Assignment outline Design process

Feedback Editing

Final delivery Billing

After sales

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  Annex 4

Canadian companies more confident of recovery

Jeremy Torobin and Richard Blackwell
Ottawa and Toronto —Published on Monday, Jan. 11, 2010 10:37AM ESTLast updated on
Monday, Jan. 11, 2010 6:08PM EST

Canadian companies are increasingly confident a recovery is taking hold, but lingering difficulties
faced by some smaller firms in accessing loans could temper the rebound.
A Bank of Canada survey released Monday found that businesses in the fourth quarter experienced
the loosest credit conditions since the summer of 2007, just before the collapse of the U.S. subprime
mortgage market. However, the bank said the improvement has so far mostly benefited larger
companies that “source their financing from capital markets” and, moreover, “the degree of easing
has been modest in comparison with the extent of the tightening that has taken place since the onset
of the financial crisis.”
A separate survey of financial institutions showed a stabilization in lending conditions, although
“significant differences were observed across borrower categories,” the bank said, particularly for
small businesses in industries that present “ongoing concerns” for lenders.
The results were not surprising, according to Ted Mallett, chief economist at the Toronto-based
Canadian Federation of Independent Business, since smaller companies have a harder time accessing
credit at the best of times. Still, while Mr. Mallett said his group understands that some industries –
such as the transportation and hospitality sectors – may be higher-risk than others seeking loans, the
inability for some companies to expand more quickly may “act as a bit of a brake” on the economy.
“I don't think it will turn it around or send us backward, but it does slow down the improvement,” he
said.

Nancy Hughes Anthony, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Bankers Association,
said by e-mail that while the country's banks have been working to boost the amount of credit
extended to small-and medium-sized businesses, “some businesses that are high risk borrowers and,
because of that, will have to pay more for credit or will face other requirements such as more
collateral.” Noting that banks only make up about half of the lending market, Ms. Anthony also said
the institutions' “prudent” lending practices had helped them escape the turmoil in other countries'
financial systems, and thus would need to be maintained.
David Ross, chief financial officer of Bonnett's Energy Services Trust, said in an interview that looser
credit has not yet reached smaller companies such as his.“For the small guy, it's not there,” he said.
“It hasn't trickled down.”

Mr. Ross, whose company supplies oil-field services from its base in Grande Prairie, Alta., said
business has improved slightly, but customers and would-be creditors are still very cautious because
of concerns current oil prices can't be sustained.
Bigger companies, meanwhile, tell a different story.
“Conditions have improved a great deal,” said Leslie Herr, chief executive officer of Empire Life
Insurance Co. in Kingston, Ont. “Credit spreads are much better ... certainly more so for bigger, more
secure firms.”In fact, he said, corporate borrowing spreads are currently not far off their 10-year
average, a remarkable recovery after the runup in borrowing costs that began in 2008.

Overall, 26 per cent of executives in the Bank of Canada's quarterly Business Outlook Survey said
they had seen some easing of credit conditions over the past three months while 14 per cent saw
tightening. The accompanying poll of senior loan officers, which measures a balance of opinion by

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subtracting the weighted percentage reporting easier credit conditions from the weighted
percentage of those reporting tighter credit conditions, found a negative balance – indicating more
willingness to lend – for the first time since 2007.

The business survey, based on about 100 interviews conducted between Nov. 16 and Dec. 11, also
found 70 per cent of senior managers polled predict sales will grow at a faster pace in the year
ahead, the most in records dating back to 1998, and more firms plan higher spending on machinery
and equipment and increased employment.

“The results of the winter survey provide some evidence that confidence in the recovery is growing,”
the central bank said in the report.

Nonetheless, while the percentage of companies saying they would have trouble meeting an
unexpected increase in demand was higher than in the October survey's record low, the result – 29
per cent – reflects that most “still have excess capacity and anticipate that this situation will persist
for at least the next six months, consistent with the expectation that demand will recover only
gradually,” the bank said.

Source: The Globe and Mail

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  Annex 5

Google Makes Flash SEO Friendly

Posted on Nov 5, 2008 by Neil

The latest statistics indicate that 90% of traffic landing on web sites originated with a Google search.
That’s a pretty impressive figure for Google but it also says a lot about how people find websites.
many people use google as a way to find a site when they may not know its exact location on the
web. for example, rather than looking on someone’s business card to find a domain name, its often
easier to enter their name or the name of the business and let google spit out some results. Surely
one of the resulting pages is the correct one.

And so the million dollar question in the web development world has become – how do i appear first
on the list? or for the less ambitious / realistic how do I appear on the first page of results? A good
SEO would tell you to make sure you have chosen the right key words, built your pages using table-
less CSS, have good keyword density and plenty of inbound links.
Oh and one more thing your site cant be made using flash.

Ouch , this last key point is a real pain. you see flash cant be read by search engine spiders. all of the
content within a flash file is contained within a .swf file rather than in the HTML of the page. Because
of this, none of the content can be seen by the search engine spiders. This makes the site not index-
able and therefore un-rankable by the search engines. essentially the all flash website has been
invisible to the search engines.

Recently, Google and yahoo announced a new technology that allows search engine spiders to crawl
into flash .swf files and index their content. they call this technology or code an “indexing algorithm”.
The spiders can now use this algorithm to read through text fields in a flash site and match words
found within the site to the terms used in a Google search. The spiders can also detect links within a
flash site and then crawl those link locations and further index the content. This indexing of .swf
content in theory will allow a site built entirely in flash to be locatable via search engines which until
now was not possible.
Now that Google has launched a Flash indexing algorithm, web designers can expect improved
visibility of their published Flash content, and you can expect to see better search results and
snippets when using flash.

Below are a few questions answered by Google techs:

Q: Which Flash files can Google better index now?
We’ve improved our ability to index textual content in SWF files of all kinds. This includes Flash
“gadgets” such as buttons or menus, self-contained Flash websites, and everything in between.

Q: What content can Google better index from these Flash files?
All of the text that users can see as they interact with your Flash file. If your website contains Flash,
the textual content in your Flash files can be used when Google generates a snippet for your website.
Also, the words that appear in your Flash files can be used to match query terms in Google searches.
In addition to finding and indexing the textual content in Flash files, we’re also discovering URLs that
appear in Flash files, and feeding them into our crawling pipeline—just like we do with URLs that
appear in non-Flash webpages. For example, if your Flash application contains links to pages inside
your website, Google may now be better able to discover and crawl more of your website.

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Q: How does Google “see” the contents of a Flash file?
We’ve developed an algorithm that explores Flash files in the same way that a person would, by
clicking buttons, entering input, and so on. Our algorithm remembers all of the text that it
encounters along the way, and that content is then available to be indexed. We can’t tell you all of
the proprietary details, but we can tell you that the algorithm’s effectiveness was improved by
utilizing Adobe’s new Searchable SWF library.

Source: www.thatagency.com

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  Annex 6

Google's Great Expectations

Google's earnings exceeded expectations, and amid signs of resurgent online ad sales, the
search giant is making plans to expand

October 15, 2009, Source: Businessweek.com

After nearly a year of revenue slowdowns and cost-cutting, Google is gearing up to take advantage of
a recovering economy.
Adding to a series of positive earnings reports from technology companies, the Internet search giant
said on Oct. 15 it sees recovery in its core business of online advertising. Google (GOOG) has begun
stepping up hiring and capital spending, as well as considering more small and large acquisitions.
"We now have the business confidence to invest in the next phase of innovation," Google Chief
Executive Eric Schmidt said on a conference call with analysts.
Google handily beat third-quarter earnings expectations. It said revenue that excludes payments to
advertising partners rose 7%, to $4.38 billion—significantly higher than the $4.24 billion expected by
analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters (TRI). "We were all looking for acceleration in revenue growth
from Google, and they delivered," says Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst with financial-services firm
Collins Stewart.

Net income rose 27% to $1.64 billion, or $5.13 a share. The more closely watched profit excluding
items such as stock option expenses was $5.89 a share, also beating the average forecast of $5.42 a
share. A year ago, Google earned $4.92 a share on $4.04 billion in revenue.
The results are the latest in a series of signs the recession is easing. In particular, technology
companies have started reporting better earnings and providing more positive outlooks than they did
earlier this year. On Oct. 13, chipmaker Intel (INTC) said third-quarter sales rose a better-than-
expected 17% amid an improvement in demand for its products. IBM (IBM) also topped earnings
forecasts on Oct. 15, though investors were disappointed that the computer services provider
reported a decline in orders, a gauge of future business.

In contrast, Google investors liked what they saw, lifting shares about 3% in extended trading. The
stock had slumped 1% amid a decline in the broader market on Oct. 15, before Google's results came
in. Google's shares already had risen 67% this year, to an Oct. 14 close of 535.32, the highest in at
least 52 weeks. Just in the last month, the stock has risen 12%, compared with a 3% gain in the tech-
heavy Nasdaq stock market. Several analysts have raised Google's 12-month target price to above
600.

Google's results may augur recovery in demand for online advertising, an industry where overall sales
fell by more than 5% in the first six months of 2009. Search advertising has held up better than
display ads, an area led by Internet portal Yahoo (YHOO), but search ads were still hit by the poor
economy. Google's revenue growth had slowed to just 3% in the second quarter from a year ago,
compared with 31% growth in all of 2008.

Now it appears marketers are starting to spend more on search ads, the snippets of text that appear
next to and atop search results. Google said cost per click, the amount advertisers pay when people
click on an ad, fell 6% from a year ago but rose 5% from the second quarter. Analysts took that as a
positive sign.

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  Annex 7

‘New Canada’ taking shape

City’s visible minority population could reach 2 million by 2031: Report

Almost 60 per cent of people in Vancouver are expected to be a visible minority by 2031, according
to projections released yesterday by Statistics Canada.
The study found that the city’s visible minority population could more than double to around 2
million people, up from 910,000 — or 42 per cent — in 2006.
It would make Vancouver the second most ethnically diverse city in the country after Toronto.

The largest visible minority group in Vancouver is expected to be Chinese, with that population
expected to double to 809,000 over the next two decades, from 396,000 in 2006. Their share of
Vancouver’s demographic would rise to 23 per cent from 18 per cent, and is expected to be
bolstered by immigration and a high fertility rate.

Henry Yu, an associate history professor at the University of B.C., said minorities already make up a
large part of our population. “The projection is of trends that are already here and have already
changed the country ... The fastest-growing segment of Canadians under 30 are visible minorities,”
said Yu. He said the new Canada is Pacific-, South Asian- and Caribbean-oriented, and people from
these regions are settling in and shaping Canada’s biggest cities.
By 2031, as much as 96 per cent of visible minorities are expected to be living in one of the 33 census
metropolitan areas.

Jeffrey Reitz, a professor of ethnic and immigration studies at the University of Toronto, said the
history of immigration shows that diversity comes to the cities first, though that may change over
time. Newcomers to Canada, he said, tend to settle in larger cities not only because the sheer size
means more job opportunities, but also because there are built-in communities of people with
similar backgrounds. “This sort of new Canada, this urban (Asian) Canada, is the present and future of
Canada,” said Yu.

“The challenge for us now is to actually come up with a vision for the future, and of our past, that
represents and reflects the reality that these stats show.”
With files from The Canadian Press

Source: Metronews Vancouver

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  Annex 8
Competitive analysis

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 Resources
Books:
 Boer, R (2007). Brand design. Den Haag: Pearson Education, Nederland, 2nd edition.
 Johnson, G. Scholes, K. Whittington, R (2007). Exploring Corporate strategy, Pearson
Education Limited, 8th edition.
 Kotler, P (2005). Principles of Marketing, Pearson Education, 4th edition.
 Padmos, B (2001). De Scriptiesupporter, Garant: Apeldoorn, 3rd edition..
 Wheeler, A (2009). Designing Brand Identity, John Wiley & Sons: New Jersey, 3rd edition.
 Franzen, G (2002). Strategisch management van merken, Kluwer, 2nd edition.
 Thomassen, J (2000). Waardering door klanten: klantenmanagement als fundament voor
totale kwaliteit, Kluwer, 2nd edition.

Websites:
1. Brand design; a background
 http://snook.ca/archives/design/the_value_of_gr
 http://www.gizmo-design.com/knowledge/valueofdesign.html

2. Internal Analysis
 www.nl.wikipedia.org
 www.burstcreativegroup.com
 www.bizmapbc.com

3. Macro-environmental analysis
 www.bankofcanada.ca/en/bos/
 www.statcan.gc.ca
 www.businessweek.com
 www.metronews.ca
 www.simbainformation.com

4. Market analysis
 www.joomla.org
 www.simbainformation.com

 www.graphicallyspeaking.ca
 www.redrocketcreative.com
 www.iondesign.ca
 www.canistercreative.com
 www.rdgstrategicdesign.com
 www.gogotelugo.com
 http://armadadesign.ca
 www.cadesigngroup.com
 www.evolutionaryimaging.com
 http://b.burnkit.com
 www.hangar18creative.com
 www.dossiercreative.com

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  www.smashlab.com
 www.enginedigital.com
 www.subplot.com

Institutions:
 BC Chamber of Commerce
 Vancouver Board of Trade
 Richmond Chamber of Commerce
 Burnaby Board of Trade
 Small Business BC

Seminars:
 BizLaunch: How to use free online tools – 16/02/2010
 BizLaunch: How to promote your Business Online – 17/02/2010
 BizLaunch: How to use social media to market your business – 23/02/2010
 BizLaunch: How to create your Pitch – 03/03/2010

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“All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.” © Copyright 2010, HZ University of
Applied Sciences Vlissingen.

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