Origin Story #1
Read Time:
3 to 4 Minutes
Prologue:
Design and Marketing are two birds trying to reach the same destination, often fighting for territory along the way. Sometimes fighting each other.
Creative Marketing genetically modifies both, to become the two wings of Sales.
Get this wrong and you’re headed toward mediocrity and stagnation.
Get it right and flowers can grow from stony ground.
Blue Strawberry Elephant is unusual amongst Design Companies due to the array of experience, skills and often weird knowledge we encompass. Which is why our heritage was that of a “Creative Marketing” company years before the term became “buzz words”.
We’ve stuck with the description while fashions and buzz words have changed, gone around in circles and come back again.
The 2026 website attempts to chart, with as much clarity as we can muster what we can do for Tactical-thinking businesses and Strategic-thinking businesses – we work equally well for both; often helping our hard working Tactical friends to become more Strategic in their thinking, and our Strategic partners to add tactical activity to their plans.
Introducing the Blue Strawberry concept of “Trategic” enterprises. (Basic Archetypes)
Our approach is more holistic than that offered by simple design agencies, hard edged marketing outfits or the many sales gurus out there.
Kurt Vonnegut wrote: “…I have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope [instead of bulk buying online]. I meet a lot of people…see some great looking babies…a fire engine goes by…I give them the thumbs up…ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, I don’t know. The moral of the story is – we’re here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that.”
What has this to do with the price of Olive Oil or chasing sales targets by number of units per quarter?
Everything. Show me someone not happier playing with the kids, hitting a small white ball, socialising with friends, shouting at a referee, or pottering around the garden … than dealing with whatever it is you’re trying to sell them – on top of their one hundred other jobs.
Real life is everywhere else:
In the Rest between flights.
The Pause between notes.
The Gaps between clicks.
Forget the promises of Artificial everything – the latest silver bullet or magic wand.
Robots won’t buy what you sell, and you won’t sell as much as you might if you can’t get into the heads of fellow humans.
It’s ok. You’re here now – this is a safe place for ideas to grow, and hopefully we’ll convince you our approach is a great fit for your customers, you personally, your company’s hopes and aims – and those of your Sales Director’s cardiologist.
A Note on Terminology, which might help while you’re visiting:
Approach vs Process
Approach is broader, with many analogies.
What the hell, as you obviously have time, here’s one you might like:
If you plan to marry, you know your partner well; why you love them, what they bring to your life and also their bloody idiotic hobbies, annoying habits and irritating family (make your own list).
You know all this going in.
Some people feel they can live with the down sides, because actually some foibles are quite cute – all part of what makes them what they are.
Some people think it’s all ok, because once married they’ll be able to change a partner to a better specification of spouse.
Believe me, of all the reasons to marry, even tax planning, the hope someone will change is probably the worst.
If you bring Blue Strawberry Elephant on board, we won’t expect you to change, we’ll work with what you are – and love ya just the same – but we will take you to a different place, we will change your outlook and we will bring you better marketing outcomes.
If we’re annoying while we get you to that place (and “some” of us really can be) we just hope you won’t divorce us before you’ve seen all we can do.
If we find your old habits irritating… we’ll try not to mention it.
At our very first meeting we will know if you’ve read this far; it is almost always the first question we get asked.
Or, more often than not, a client will simply lead with, “I just love the name.”
It’s a reaction that leans toward the visceral rather than the analytical.
Which is exactly the point.
If you didn’t read this far (how very dare you) and you don’t mention our name, it just becomes the Elephant in the Room – you’ll ask eventually.
If you want the truth: it involved several bottles of wine, a bit of a brain storm and a late-night realisation that life is too short for a name like City Design & Marketing Associates Ltd.
But if you want the “Creative Marketing” analysis, here is why it works:
• It’s Memorable:
In a world of “Artificial Everything,” being forgettable is the only true sin. You might forget what we said, but you won’t forget the Blue Strawberry Elephant.
• It’s Lyrical:
There is a cadence to it. It slips off the tongue. In an industry obsessed with “frictionless” digital experiences, we believe the physical sound of a brand matters, just as much as 3 of the other 4 senses not fully utilised by screens.
• It’s a List of Likes:
People like the colour blue.
They like strawberries.
They (mostly) like elephants.
Starting a relationship by listing things people enjoy is a much better “approach” than starting with a sales pitch.
• The “Why Not” Factor:
We do so many different things – from tactical design and strategic thinking to “weird knowledge” consulting, that no descriptive name could ever hope to cover it all.
By creating a name that speaks only of imagination, we freed ourselves to speak about everything.
• It’s an invitation to curiosity:
If we made you stop and look
imagine what we could make your customers do.
