032326 ~ Shaping Your Brand - Michael Steinbeck & Jeremy Dulac

0:00Our Ann Arbor Ibslanny Regional Chamber of Commerce report today shaping your brand is the topic as we welcome the co-founders of arc brand and creative studio Michael Steinbeck and Jeremy do lack it's great to have both of you here welcome thank you thank you this is my day for branding apparently which is really important to businesses out there the two of you how did you meet you met at working in the corporate world is that right we were working for a pretty big corporation and we worked together in the same department the company was not a creative company it was an engineering company but we worked in the we ran the creative department and we worked together and we had a lot of the same ideas and same you know we really we're in sync together with a lot of our ideas and years later it seemed like when it was a appropriate time for us to propose this idea of working together I came to Jeremy and I said what do you think about starting a company and he was all in and you know kind of we went from there and you know it worked out that's a big leap of faith isn't it Jeremy yeah yeah but it felt like the right move at the time yeah we have a lot of experience in the industry so

1:11it just felt like the right thing to do it made sense at the right time there and we just kind of went with it so you to say that being able to tell your story is everything and a lot of companies don't know how to do that right why do you think that is Michael well I mean people don't connect with with products you know that's not when people are shopping for something or looking for a reputable company they don't really connect with the product they connect this emotions and in things that have a human connection there so really getting into that you know telling us why why your company does what they do and the human element behind it that really is what you get people to actually remember your story that's a really good point because when you think about companies that have a really good brand you know what their company is all about because of maybe how they position themselves not necessarily because of the product sure sure yeah yeah I think that uh you know the fate you know people just think they connect with the face and they connect with the you know the people using the product right

2:17they don't connect like Mike said with the product so you know you need to have a good story that evokes the emotion from people to sell your product I think and that's what you guys do best you put that story together for your clients that's that's kind of like what we you know where we set ourselves apart you know we when we're looking at uh starting this company we a lot a lot of agencies that are in this business they they focus on functionality you know they come to a client or a client comes to them and they say we want this we want to put a video together that has this on it we want to put together a social ad and the marketing company will say sure all right we'll do that but like you know we focus on the actual why behind the what not just the what so you know functionality is important but you know we we always go back to this you know this little anecdote about you know why do you think about a movie that you watch over and over again a movie you just always put out and say I love this movie I can watch it all the way through even though you've seen it ten times or a book that you reread constantly and what is the key there why do we do that you know because stories you know create emotion for you when you you feel a certain way it's all about how you feel and when you watch that movie it feels good or you

3:22read that book and you're like I love this part it makes me feel good and it's something that connects to your personal emotions or whatever it is that you know some human element there that makes you feel good so you know it you can go and you can try to get just a sale you can get a single sale out of this and I'm happy or you can build yourself an audience for your brand and in audiences people that remember your story they tell other people they maybe they wear your logo maybe they you know they that's that's when they become an audience for you you want to know you you know they want to know the person selling the product probably just like Derek they want to know they want to know who he is the person behind I mean that's part of that's part of your brand you know having Derek here you know it's my brand yeah you guys established that's that's a good thing you also don't don't don't get rid of him because you see how they made that connection that was really great our great before we get into connection and how you've been able to do that for your companies and the kind of work you do I want to find out a little bit about each of you Michael Steinbeck with the name like Steinbeck I have to ask you related to John Steinbeck the author we're pretty sure yes you are no no no official confirmation but we're pretty sure we are yeah

4:25oh what that's incredible yeah we traced my my mother she had traced a lot of our genealogy back and she thinks that we traced it back to Austria and that in that time frame and area and stuff and there weren't a lot of Steinbeck's around back then so we think that that's well think about this he was a great storyteller yeah and here you said it's not a bad name to have tell me more about yourself and where you went to school and and how you started doing what you're doing you know I've always just had a passion for for this you know I've been making films with my friends since I was 10 years old you know using my parents video camera when they didn't want me to behind their back stealing it from them and then putting it away before they knew I had a chance to make anything but you know I always wanted to get into this and I went to school for creative media in Chicago and just moved out to Michigan here about 20 years ago and got into doing some stuff for a software company and that was you know not super rewarding

5:25but ended up being they had a adjacent department that it was doing some video work and things so I was able to kind of show my skills and in that creative realm and move over there and they kind of just developed from there and you and your family settled in dexter we live in dexter yeah and Jeremy what about you your background? yeah well I think that I probably didn't know quite as early as Mike did what I wanted to do with myself I think you know I got into college and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do and my dad sort of said want to take a look at this video production thing and I did and the second I picked up a camera it was kind of all over from there I kind of fell in love with it realized I had a real knack for seeing things through the lens and you know I went to school at Ferris State and got my media production degree there and then moved on to Detroit was working at some public access stations for a while and played some music and did that sort of stuff in the Detroit scene and then got my first real big job

6:29and actually that's kind of where I met Mike from there and then you know 10 years later we decided to take the leap here. We did a couple of side projects together you know in between there and we really we would go on for part of our job together we would go on this three week trip over to France because it films to do some filming and we realized if we can put up with each other for three weeks in a row and still still be working and doing put not some good stuff that we we knew it was a good test of our working relationships. Michael Steinbeck and Jeremy Delac they're with arc brand and creative studio that's ARC where does the name come from Michael? A story arc. Oh yeah there's always that arc in the story right? Is that where it builds and builds and builds? Yeah it's the whole process it's from start to finish you know so it's you know that starts at the bottom it builds up goes up to the finish so. Our listeners can see your work at welcome to arc.com welcome to to arc arc.com Let's talk about some of the work that you've done and what are you most proud of Jeremy?

7:33Well we've I think that we've done a lot of pretty broad range of different types of projects. I would say that all the work is meaningful to us but some of my favorite stuff has been kind of the opportunity to get to travel around and we used to shoot a lot of racing. I think we're that racing out here. Yeah we used to shoot a lot of motorsports racing and that was kind of just such a unique experience for me that it stands out as one of my favorite. You kind of just you go to the track and you stay there for you know five days at a time and you stay in a hotel and you know head into the track every morning and stay in there the whole day and capturing pretty exciting stuff you know. It's a very cinematic industry. Exactly you also have general motors listed on here University of Miami health system. The Department of Defense.

8:33Yeah so through that engineering company that we worked with we did a lot of work through they were a defense contractor. So we would do through them we would do a lot of work with directly with defense con other defense contractors and Department of Defense himself. And Dexter Community Schools of course. That's a that's a more recent contract under arc. Yeah that was something that we have a contract with them or producing all of their media and doing a lot of like much needed educational things getting out to the community to let people be informed on a lot of things going out of the school. That's how I mentioned that but yeah also like put the football games they have we're doing a lot of the height. They got a brand new fancy scoreboard we're doing some some height videos for the scoreboard. That's wonderful. So let's let's give everyone an idea when they're trying to formulate their story. What do you think they need to know how do they do that since people do it so very badly. I mean I think I think one of the first thing people understand is what a brand is because I think people think of a brand as it's my that's my logo. You know I got to design a logo they don't understand that that's logo should be coming way after you've already established your brand.

9:35You know a brand is a 360 degree identity essentially every company and you you figure out your mission you figure out your your story behind. You know why did I start doing this you probably have one you probably have one why am I why are you doing what you're doing you know and I ask that question every day. Knowing your audience knowing who am I who am I selling this to who am I who's my target audience and what's your value proposition you know why am I better why should people do this by my product or somebody else's. And once you have that you then that's when you start designing stuff you design your logo based off that you design your your verbiage on your website design your color palette you don't know stuff that that's what defines your brand. So you should not be going out and saying my brands by logo and I'm done now it's it's really defining who you are and then the important thing is is once you have all that staying consistent. That's like your it's like your Bible you know your brand identity is like I got to refer back to this and test everything I'm doing against this and see if it still holds up. That is so true it really bothers me when I call companies and people at the company answer the phone differently with different kinds of names they might shorten it a little bit and I don't understand why they haven't been impressed upon that you have to stick with the brand.

10:44Yeah there's a consistency that right that people do not get right a lot of the time I would say yeah and it's you know your brand starts the minute you start a company too. So people don't always understand that too like we talk with some early very new companies and they think well I can get to that later I can worry about that later I don't need I just need to get sales going and whatever else. But you know you have a brand whether or not you're building one potentially or not so you know you've already started your brand. So if people think you look cheap think they look like you're not a good product like at the beginning like that's an impression that's hard people are already building in the brand. So and that's why it's so important to have a good story that's about you and your company and who you are as a company and not just your product because the market is so saturated whatever product X Y or Z name what it is and there's probably you know 100 other companies are more doing the exact same thing. And when people are online looking for which one to buy they're not they want trust you know they don't and trust comes with your you know your back story the human element yeah.

11:50And I that's just so critical and I think people miss it and people will think that you know I've you know I don't have to get my story right yet I don't have to get my branding right yet and they start their product and they start trying to sell it. But the second that people go to your site and see an unfinished site or a half done site that that's your brand right there and they don't think that they have a brand yet because they didn't start building their logo. But your brand is a half done website now maybe you know and that's what people see and they associate with you and that's why it's so important to kind of get this stuff all thought of you need to think about it before you jump into action. And Jeremy and Michael I think that part of that mindset is and this is something I know that is important to you is building an audience not just looking for that single sale. Oh yeah and I think it's hard for a lot of business people to get past that yeah there's there's not an immediate result when you are building an audience you know it's it's like a it's a long it's a long plan to get you telling your story over and over again.

12:50You know say like I said before a sale is a simple thing like this person came in they bought something and now I have money from the sale and I can you know that that's tempting because you know but your brand should not be in is not. We're cheaper than the competitor that's not your brand that's just a simple fact about your company. Yeah. You know your brand you got to figure out the story behind your brand and build that audience you know. There is some incredible video footage on here and I used to be in video and TV and I can recognize this you guys do. Thank you. Thank you very much. Talk a little bit about what I'm looking at on your website when people go to welcome to arc.com. Sure. Yeah well we have a wide range of stuff you'll see medical you'll see defend you'll see the defense motor sports music music. Yeah we've done a lot of different stuff. You said you were a music musician. I used to be a musician in my early days. What kind of music? Kind of like I'd call it kind of like folk music folk folk kind of punk music. Same play. What do you? I was back up vocals and I played some banjo and I played some guitar so it was a good time.

13:52But yeah huge passion for music that's something that we really pride ourselves on is picking the right music too. I can not attest to his singing. That's why I was a backup singer. And there's so many ways that you can use video today. Oh gosh yeah. Even on radio for that matter. Right exactly. I mean. If you've got the right elements in there. Yeah I mean video sells these days. It's the you know people want. They don't want to read something. They don't want you know they want to have it fed to them. Whether that's a good or a bad thing. It's that 10 second attention span with people scrolling through things on social media now. Right. That's you need to have something that grabs people's attention within the first 10 seconds otherwise you lose them. Right. So in video emotion you know it's an action and sexually moving. Right. You really got to grab them. And there's a whole other piece with you know. Getting your you know your your social posts in front of an audience too. And getting and building an audience and.

14:53You know the right way to do it is with a small investment these days. Honestly in your in your marketing and paid advertising. And then you you know utilizing someone like us or another company that can help you. To determine your audience and. Pay you need to invest some money. Unfortunately these days I would say with social media. You give it to pay for. Yeah. You need to be able to invest some money in order to get your product in front of the right eyes. You know it's. The organic social grown account you know is possible but it's. Fleeting it's yeah and it's fleeting and it's. It's not an overnight if you need quick turnaround. So saturated. Yeah. You need to be able to invest the little money I'd say. Great talking with both of you today for a two wide chamber report. Shaping your brand with Michael Steinbeck and Jeremy DuLock. They are co-founders of arc brand and creative studio. And they say your brand is the most unique aspect of your business. But getting to build that brand is what's really behind it.

15:56And you have to understand how those layers build up. Yeah. Absolutely. And for more information, our listeners can go online to your website. And they can see the video I was talking about. Welcome to arc.com. That's welcome. T-O-A-R-C.com. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. They are also members of the Ann Arbor Ipsilanti Regional Chamber of Commerce. And for information about the chamber and its members, you can go online to a2ychamber.org. You're listening to the Lucienne Lance Show, Ann Arbor's Talk Station, 1290WLBY.