Fresh out of ideas for out-of-the-ordinary marketing?

Two local companies are helping small businesses make a big splash through Web consulting and innovative design services.

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Spartan Internet Consulting is a Web assessment and Internet consulting firm in Lansing that offers high-level strategic planning in addition to creative marketing and some design services. Established in 1997, the firm helps bridge the gap between marketing and high technology.

Ryan Vartoogian, president of Spartan Internet Consulting, said his company assesses online engagement and marketing efforts to ensure clients are getting the most out of what the Internet offers.

“Portable devices are truly changing the way the Internet is used. More and more people can access the Internet in more flexible ways. In ten years, the Internet will be something as seamless as the cell phone is today. The Internet is a huge part of the equation for most companies today and a crucial communication channel,” said Vartoogian.

A large part of what Spartan Internet Consulting does is quantitative measurement and Web analytics, something Vartoogian called “a strong, emerging field” of Internet consulting. Web analytics acts to measure every single action that takes place within the Web experience.

“It’s understanding how the entire Web experience is going for a client’s potential customers. It’s more than just the number of hits a website is getting. For example, we can determine which search engine someone used to find you, and how many sales are generated and so on,” Vartoogian said.

Spartan Internet Consulting has developed a model Vartoogian called the information supply chain. It’s a system that allows businesses to monitor the many distribution channels the Internet presents.

“Much like Wal-Mart’s use of bar codes in the 1980s revolutionized the process of procuring and delivering goods to the customer, we believe the information supply chain gives businesses an idea of the accessibility of their products and services on the Internet,” Vartoogian said. “It’s all a part of Web analytics.”

This fall’s presidential election is a good example of Web analytics and future changes coming to the Internet. The Spartan Internet Political Performance (SIPP) Index is a quantitative measure of the performance of each presidential candidate’s online impact, Vartoogian said.

“The SIPP Index is the measurement of online participation of potential voters through social networks and the impact it has on people’s participation at the voting booth in November. [Democratic Presidential nominee] Barack Obama had about 70 percent online market share according to the SIPP Index back in September,” Vartoogian said.

With the emergence of online communities and blogging, Vartoogian added, companies actually have less control today about what is said about them than ever before, adding to the importance of understanding the cultural shift of the information age.

  “With all of the forums and chat sites, there has been a huge shift of how companies can manage that. Ultimately they realize they cannot control it, which adds importance to marketing strategies that use the Internet to promote and educate people about the good things they are doing,” Vartoogian said.

As the Internet matures and traditional e-commerce methods are improved, companies must take advantage of online engagement with potential customers, Vartoogian explained.

“There is no basic Web page design anymore. It’s all creative concepting and marketing strategy implementation now that will position a client for success using the Internet.”

Spartan Internet Consulting, which has 35 employees, expects to move into the Information Technology Empowerment Center (ITEC) by the end of this year. The company will occupy nearly 10,000 square feet in the completely renovated and refurbished former Holmes Street Elementary School. 

If you are looking for marketing ideas or strategies with a unique flair, Vision Creative can conceptualize a marketing campaign from start to finish.

Vision Creative, established in 1995, specializes in brand management, said Camron Gnass, founder and president.

 “We are not just graphic design people. It’s part of what we do, but we touch on so many different things. We can brand a new business, we can enhance a company’s website and deliver a better experience for their customers, or we can take a company that has been around 50 years and re-brand or enhance the brand,” Gnass said.

Working out of a studio in a refurbished 100-year-old building in Downtown Lansing, Vision Creative’s eight person staff focus on developing the best marketing ideas and graphic design for clients who want their problems solved.

“There are a lot of super creative people around––good designers, freelancers and in-house creative people. We utilize our brand management skills to create a package that benefits the client and enables them to become more successful,” Gnass said.

Vision Creative, whose clients include Troppo, Biggby Coffee® and BD’s Mongolian Barbeque, won 12 ADDYS at the 2008 ADDY Awards earlier this year for its work in identities, packaging, signage and interactive work. The ADDYs are awarded each year by the Mid-Michigan Creative Alliance for excellence in advertising.

 “We spend a lot of time researching, polling, testing, asking questions of current customers and franchisees to see what their expectations are. We search for fresh marketing ideas and graphic design for projects that can be very extensive or surprisingly simple,” Gnass said.

Sometimes a simple design is good, Gnass explained, when it comes to brand definition.

“The impact of Web graphics is really unmeasurable. Graphics are great, but we can design a website with few graphics that can be very successful. Clients get wooed by flashy sites, but when you really qualify how people reach your site and the convergence of those people online, it’s really more about changing the perceptions of those visitors and getting them to use your products or services,” he said.

A specialty of Vision Creative is their nontraditional print concepts, Gnass said. Nontraditional is the hallmark of Vision Creative, much like the holiday card the company sent to its clients last year.

“We kind of turned the tables on them. We sent them an elf kit and told them to decorate them and post it online. Whoever was the most creative won free design time from us,” Gnass said. “We had great participation and the clients enjoyed the turnabout. We told them, ‘We always get creative for you, so here is your chance.’”

Gnass said his studio’s customers are certainly not insulated from the struggling local economy. However, most are smart enough to know that now is the time to invest in marketing when others are not.

“Print work is way down, but the Web side is still growing and very healthy. Our clients are realizing the Web is the future,” Gnass said.