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Think Big, Think Bold

Just Don’t Think Like Everybody Else

When I thumb through any major aviation publication, I am often amused. I can’t believe how many companies spend money to look like everyone else. My litmus test on these “me too” ads is to cover up the logo and try to figure out who it is. A gorgeous airplane glistening in a spectacular sky is stunning, but is it distinctive? Does it communicate your company’s essence? Does it differentiate your brand from the competition? Let’s talk about brand positioning in marketing.

Think Big, Think Bold

I’ve always appreciated a more disruptive approach to a market positioning strategy. Whatever you are, whatever you believe, take a stand for your brand. I look for authentic, eye-catching ads that are different and move me to actually read the copy. That pull me in to find out more. Ads that make me a tad uncomfortable. Because you know what? They got me to look.

Words and Images Soaring Together

When we work with aviation clients on brand positioning and vision, we don’t just find a stock photo and call it good. We work hard to unite words with visuals, until they soar together. Seamlessly blending and supporting each other. Creating a choreography that will turn heads and resonate with their audience. Whether pilots, passengers or aircraft workers, it’s about speaking to the people.

Typesetting Versus Typography

Typography – a designer’s secret weapon – can send the right message or the wrong one. Type serves as the air traffic controller directing you where you need to go and confirming you have arrived. We choose appropriate fonts, finesse and kern. We set type boldly to accentuate a point or keep it whisper light to communicate softness, sensitivity and elegance. Type is misunderstood by many, but when used properly, it can convey the emotion of a word. Call attention to a required action. Or make you fall in love with a company.

The Power of Headlines

Headlines do the heavy lifting. They express the essence of an idea in a few quick words. If a headline doesn’t grab you, you’ll never read the body copy. A headline can make or break your aviation ad. We put our headlines through exhaustive flight tests, flexing every muscle and working every angle until they become strong and powerful and can lift that idea out of the ordinary. Headlines pull emotion – make you laugh, think, cry. And make you buy.

Dominance and Relief

Anyone who has been around me knows my philosophy on what makes a design work. It’s a simple concept, but difficult to execute because we tend to want everything plus the kitchen sink in our designs. My approach calls for dominance and relief. Give me something big and simple to establish a hierarchy. Support it with something smaller and less important. Build elements to create yin-yang relationships and bring balance to the design so that each element allows the others to be seen and heard.

A Rare and Beautiful Thing

Great design, like a vintage warbird, is rare and beautiful. When you see it, it stops you in your tracks. A lot of competent design bombards us every day. Even more loud, obnoxious design pollutes our visual fields and insults our intelligence. But when brilliant design crosses your path, you know it, even if you lack the vocabulary to describe it. Take time to savor it. Apple, Starbucks, Louis Vuitton, and Target all deliver.

Color Your Brandbrand positioning color wheel.

Color transports you to other worlds. Warm subdued hues of gold and amber fill you with feelings of a sunbaked afternoon. Blues and greens radiate a cool, clean, fresh feeling of crisp spring mountain air. The color wheel never disappoints with its choices and options to transform a design. Selection and manipulation of color is one of the most beautiful gifts in a designer’s paint box. Color is tricky, not to be used lightly, overused or abused but massaged with skill, cunning and subtle control.

Strategy Rules it All

In advertising, as in business, strategy rules. Know your objectives, understand your target market, articulate your brand positioning. Most of all, define what makes you special. Then be bold. Differentiate from the competition. Be unreplicable. And tell the world.

08.28.24 · Sonia Greteman

Why Choose an Aviation Marketing Agency

Find an agency that combines marketing expertise with proven industry knowledge. 

Many aviation companies rely on small marketing departments, often a single person. Yet, the sheer number of marketing channels and connection points available today can be overwhelming, let alone developing the appropriate strategy and content unique to each. 

The bandwidth of one person (or even a few) is quickly stretched. This is where a marketing agency steps in. 

Take Some of the Load Off

Marketing agencies offer flexible and scalable solutions to fulfill or support the needs of your marketing plan or campaign(s). From lead generation web design to social media management to public relations, outsourcing projects to an agency saves you time to focus on other core aspects of your business. 

Collective expertise is joined, and a strategic partnership is formed. Bringing in an outside perspective can also lend itself to broader thinking and out-of-the-box ideas. The even bigger jackpot: Finding a marketing agency that already speaks your language.

No two businesses run exactly the same, and aviation especially comprises a niche industry with small pools of uniquely specific audiences. We commonly work with clients who sell directly to professional pilots, aircraft owners, charter passengers, aircraft brokers, maintenance directors, flight instructors and flight departments.

By enlisting an aviation-focused agency, companies join forces with a team who already understands the industry and the people within it.  

A Focus and a Passion

Aviation has been Greteman Group’s focus for decades. It all began with Bombardier Learjet as a major client in the 1990s, quickly uncovering the special aviation passion and opportunity right here in our home city of Wichita, the Air Capital of the World. 

Since then, our agency has worked with local and global brands covering all corners of aviation. We recognize the common aviation acronyms and aircraft models. We attend NBAA-BACE, regional forums, EAA Airventure and other key events. We know the industry publications, having built relationships with the reporters and editors over the years. 

As experts in aviation, we save you time and energy from needing to explain the ins and outs of the industry. Instead, our research and experience dives straight into your specific brand, business, competition and audience. 

Targeted Resources, Data-Driven Decisions

When faced with a vast, ever-evolving digital landscape, it helps to partner with an experienced aviation marketing agency that can see past the noise and hone in on what truly works for your unique marketing channels and business goals.   

We’ll bring added efficiency to your overall marketing plan using targeted resources and tools rather than casting a wide net with fingers crossed. Together, we’ll raise brand awareness, generate leads, and extend your reach with a strategic mix of content, including paid and earned media, along with social and client-generated content.

Then, we’ll track and measure using advanced analytics tools. These metrics help you make informed decisions, allowing you to refine your strategies for optimal results. Regular data monitoring and analysis makes it easier to identify what works and what needs improvement.

Aviation is Our World

Greteman Group serves clients across all major general and business aviation sectors, including OEMs, aircraft management, charter, flight training, UAS, airports, insurance, avionics, FBOs, inflight connectivity, MROs, parts suppliers…the list keeps expanding. 

From our base in the Air Capital, we don’t merely love aviation – we live it. Aviation runs deep in our roots, our city and our future. Reach out, and let’s discuss how we can help lift your aviation brand higher.

08.19.24 · Greteman Group