Week 2 Documentation: Embracing AI and Bringing Life to a Brand
I’m getting hands-on experience with the business needs of a new startup called Toucan Cleaners. After meeting with the company this week, my original goals have changed.
Initially, I planned to rewrite their Copy. I audited their website and found areas that could be improved. However, they brought more pressing matters to my attention.
They told me about how they’re using artificial intelligence (AI) to write all of their Copy. When asked if there was anything specific they wanted from me, they gave me some other paths to take. Therefore, to ensure I still provide the company with valuable work, I’ve pivoted my focus.
What they’re really needing right now is marketing. Although my previous plans were shot down, I’m still stepping up to the plate to provide value in other ways.
So let’s dive into it!
What Went Well
Communicating with the company has continued to go well.
The Co-Founders invited me to their collaborative ideas board on an app called Craft. I got to see everything they have so far, including an album of almost four hundred photos! This will be essential for laying the groundwork for the “Behind The Scenes” that I plan to build in the coming weeks.
It also helped me get an overall feel for the company and its goals. It made it easy to write the background story for their company mascot, Oscar the toucan.
When I met with the company this week, I asked them how they wanted Oscar to be portrayed.
The Founders described what they wanted Oscar to be:
- Different from the other birds
- Values cleanliness
- Is resourceful when it comes to scraping away grime
My next step was to research successful brand mascots like Tony the Tiger, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Energizer Bunny, Kool-Aid Man, and Mr. Clean. I learned about the intentions of the mascots, why they’re designed that way, and what personality traits make them effective.
Then I did a little research on toucans and found that they are messy birds that don’t fly or sing often.
I incorporated this information into my story creation. My goal was to market Oscar as lovable and to normalize cleaning trash cans. The Founders really liked what I wrote. Check it out for yourself here.
What Didn’t Go Well
Toucan Cleaners needs marketing for its social media. Specifically, they want to start with Instagram content first.
Developing a social media marketing campaign is a long process. I originally planned to finalize it this week, but I don’t have enough content yet.
Instead, I wrote the background story for Toucan Cleaners’ mascot, Oscar the Tidy Toucan.
I will continue my research and brainstorming until I get exactly what I need for the company’s social media.
What’s one thing you would change?
I would spend more time researching. In particular, I would research the marketing of Toucan Cleaners’ competitors.
This is a difficult service to market. Since I spent this week researching to little avail, the next step is to see what is working for other similar services. That’s how I plan to approach it in the future.
What’s something you didn’t expect to learn?
I didn’t expect to learn so much about using AI for copywriting. I’ve been writing Copy by hand this whole time and didn’t realize how AI would help. It’s been so fun using ChatGPT and seeing what the AI comes up with.
While a human touch in copywriting is still valuable in some cases, AI is an ever-evolving tool. Just as robots have taken over many manufacturing processes, I learned about how AI is creeping up on copywriting. You can read more about what I learned here.
Next Week’s Goals
- Write bios for the Founders of Toucan Cleaners
- Create the social media marketing campaign
- Devise a plan to track marketing effectiveness
Ves Slone 