Amherst Label’s Very Special Agent
The story of our adorable AL character is a fun one. In the summer of 2014, after developing a strategic plan called a “painted picture,” Amherst Label began focusing on outreach to customers at a level unprecedented here. In order to reach the painted picture goals, we realized that Amherst Label could not be a well-kept secret anymore. Everyone who could benefit from the products we offer needed to know about us. Connecting with people who need us was identified as our marketing mission. Our challenge is to share information about Amherst Label with people who will benefit from us as a resource.
Early on we realized one communication tool that could be helpful in our outreach was a special character to serve as the face of Amherst label and help teach people about how capable and cool Amherst Label is.
Many of us—including president and vice-president Nick Calvetti and Nye Hornor—are Disney fans and appreciate Disney philosophy and creativity. Disney started with a mouse—a little character that represented qualities of the Disney company.
We decided to give Amherst Label a character to represent the company and to bring a breath of fresh air to our messaging. Often we at Amherst Label are called “the label people” so the idea of a personality made out of labels was starting to form and here’s how he came to life.
Developing our Character
It is a little known fact that Thomas Hornor, a member of the next generation of the Calvetti line, has some artistic ability. (Thomas is the great-grandson of the founder, the grandson of our owner, and the son of our special projects manager and her husband, our VP of operations, sales and marketing.) At our request, Thomas sketched a little guy made of labels who could represent us in our marketing efforts. We asked Thomas to create a character representing creativity, industriousness and craftsmanship who was very clever and attention-getting. Thomas put pencil to paper and drew the first image of a new character. We executed his drawing in Illustrator software, making slight improvements and modifications. And then the real magic happened when the art was sent to Ruth Dichard in Amherst Label’s design & prep department. The little guy came to life when he got his sneakers. He started glowing and gleaming in a way that really represented the creativity here, the goodness, the positivity. And he had charm and was immediately lovable.
You can call him AL
One wintry day on the way home from work, I realized that the little guy already had a name in my imagination, the initials of Amherst Label… AL. AL attracts attention for us. He is an adorable ambassador of Amherst Label in our communications to the world. So far, he has developed wardrobe and hobbies through suggestions about his outfits, his attitude, his vocabulary, etc. AL also has a pet dog and cat who are starring in our “Lint Lifter Triple Tech Challenge” program, coming soon.
The Painted Picture
Amherst Label’s 2014 painted picture started the marketing program that is blossoming today.
