Branding by Zipcode Creative – Ask the Founder

For Stacey’s birthday, we flipped the script—and decided to let you in on a round of Ask the Founder!

Making a living at being creative isn’t just about knowing color palettes—but running Zipcode Creative is truly a labor of love, finding what works and what doesn’t both with visual and verbal branding as well as within the realm of multifamily.

We do things a little differently. Because our brand founder and creative director Stacey Feeney, takes a different approach. So we picked her brain as our gift to you!

What are your all-time favorite brands? Why?

Stacey: Two come to mind.

Subaru. I love the culture they’ve created around their vehicles. They are THE outdoor adventure car. It’s a movement, really. Mostly, they’ve done a great job of identifying their ideal customer and tailoring their brand and marketing to speak directly to that person. The thing is, they are not the most rugged off-roading vehicle brand and their features really put them in a higher class, but they’ve made a reputation for themselves as being the must-have brand for the outdoor enthusiast. I recently moved to Colorado and sure enough: I go on a hike and 80% of cars in the parking lot are Subarus. I also have one, so I guess it worked on me, too.

Secondly: Kimpton Hotels. I’ve consistently been drawn to Kimpton hotels whenever I travel. They do such a great job of branding the experience through thoughtfully curated interior design that extends into branding. Their features, amenities, and design make you want to stay and spend time in the hotel—more than just using your room as a place to lay your head after a day out on the town you’re visiting. Multifamily can learn a lot from looking at this adjacent industry gem.

What creative work do you do in your own time?

Stacey: I often develop brands for either pro bono/charity work, friends and family, or occasionally we will take on a client outside of the multifamily industry just to bring variety into our day-to-day and keep our creativity flowing. Variety spices things up—we get this through taking on a plethora of project types. For example, I recently created a brand for my cousin—she’s starting a food truck business in Indiana: loaded baked potatoes! My favorite bit: All the clever plays on her name: “Taylor”. Tay’s Tayters is the business, but there are a bunch of fun brand voice additions—see if you can spot them all!

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Other pro bono projects we’re currently working on:

• Creative for the Multifamily Mentor Matchmaking group’s new website in partnership with Resi
• Branding for Project 29:11’s “Community Building Through Community Giving” program. 

How do you stay up to date on trends and stuff?

Stacey: Looking both outside of the industry and within is important for this. Hospitality is a great place for me to start because it’s extremely similar to multifamily, and is an adjacent industry, really.  I love keeping an eye on hotel brands because the experience and offering are very much the same, but length of stay is the main difference (short-term vs. long-term).

But: even outside of industries similar to multifamily, like hospitality, it’s good to see which brands our ideal residents engage or identify with. For example, the adventurous or outdoorsy type of persona might resonate with Patagonia, North Face, Subaru, while the health-conscious may be drawn to Whole Foods or Lululemon.

In my day-to-day, Pinterest is a big part of staying up to date for me. It’s a classic, tried-and-true place to see trends and then document them in boards to help my team see the vision.

In your opinion, what’s the biggest challenge in brand development?

Stacey: First challenge is the educational piece.
We always want to make sure clients understand what branding really is (so much more than a logo!) The verbal identity is particularly difficult to grasp at times, because it’s not something that feels tactile or visible in the same way that typography, textures, and palettes do.

My team and I work really hard to produce content all year long that helps educate and shed light on branding: what it is, why multifamily needs it, and the benefits of a well-crafted brand.

The second challenge is strategy balance.
Doing the work in research and deep discovery then strategizing on brand positioning for the right audience…it’s all super important! Yet the thing that makes this the most challenging is when stakeholders have strong opinions that end up trumping our expert advice backed by the research we’ve done and the strategy we’ve developed. It’s always finding the right balance of pleasing owners and stakeholders while also ensuring we are positioning the brand to target the right customers.

The definition of success for us is working with you so you’re happy and your brand works.

Where do you find creative inspiration? What’s the strangest thing/place you’ve drawn inspiration from?

It’s funny how many random things can spark inspiration for me. It could be anything really. Sometimes I get inspired by fashion brands, sometimes it’s car commercials, but usually it’s the most random little detail I come across in my daily life. Lately I’ve been taking photos of the various moss/growths on rocks when I’m on hikes because I love the natural color palettes I find there (and in nature in general). 

What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned over the years as a founder and creative director?

As a brand founder I’ve learned how to multitask really well. Ha! But also that I need to delegate because I can’t do it all. So: hiring good people that you can trust. 

I’ve also learned that just because it’s an industry norm or a business standard process doesn’t mean it’s the right fit for me and my company. I am always asking questions and soaking up advice like a sponge from a variety of sources, but at the end of the day I get to make the calls and I often find myself doing something outside of the box because it feels right for me and how our clients experience us. 

As a creative director I’ve learned not to take it personally when a client selects artwork that isn’t my own favorite concept or option. Ultimately, creative choice is subjective. This also goes back to one of the challenges I mentioned previously: Finding the right balance between what we believe will resonate best with the target audience and what the client wants…and what I personally like!