Further research:
We realised that is fairly hard to find information about Marc Ross on the internet since his website hasn't been set up properly yet. We found interviews with him and other bits which could help us to construct our questions. We set up a group on Facebook where we post anything relevant we find.
Katy wrote up an email for him about a week ago, Jenny framed a consent form and the rest of us was researching. Unfortunately Mr Ross hasn't answered yet so we decided to wait until next Monday and keep looking at relevant topics. I got Brand & Market as a theme to research.
His attendance on the internet is not a very good example of his work so far although the front page of his website - http://www.marc-ross.co.uk/ is nicely designed and suggests a strong, confident image of his brand. I would love to find out when it's going to be updated and what's the reason it hasn't been finished yet.
I found this description on a branding company's website and I thought it very accurate and inspirational:
'Your brand identity is much more than a logo: it's the colour and packaging, the space in which you deliver your services and products - whether physical or virtual; it's the definition and essence. It's about focusing in on what's special about your company and communicating it effectively so it stands out against competitors and appealingly to your customers.'
An interesting description of the “Marc Ross” woman in an interview:
- strong, independent
- she dresses to look important and capture her audience
- not afraid to express her individuality
- be who you are and wear what you want
He follows these instructions himself and as I imagine he's doing real life networking at parties instead of sitting in front of a computer but I'd like to find out more about this.
He's also a participant of Cultural Enterprise Office's Starter for 6 program which meant to provide new creative businesses an experience in collaboration, a founding, and a business plan. I checked their website and it seem to be easy to apply online for the programme and all the participants were very happy about their outcomes.
Question ideas:
He learnt stock broking for a while so he must has some interest in business and maybe marketing too. How does it helped him to set up his own brand?
How is he networking?
What would he name as the most important thing to do to get to be known?
How much effort goes into building up his brand identity? Did he had any help from other designers or other companies?
What did he really get with Cultural Enterprise Office's Starter for 6 award?
Do they give advice how to spend the money wisely?
Tomorrow is the day for our next meeting and fingers crossed he will reply to our email otherwise we have to contact someone else. Fortunately there are so many young successful designers out there.