Branding and imagery are important to every business, but when it comes to massage therapy practices, they're crucial. The massage therapist wants to convey the type of service clients will receive—whether relaxation, rehabilitation, or something in between—through branding. Up until a few years ago, a massage therapy practice had to hire a graphic designer or an agency to develop a unique design. But, more recently, practices have increasingly turned to online crowdsourcing platforms for their design solutions.
Wikipedia and TripAdvisor are two of the best-known crowdsourcing models. Wikipedia invites the public to edit and update encyclopedia entries, while TripAdvisor collects feedback about hotels and other locations that users have visited. The crowdsourcing model is regularly used for a variety of other business solutions as well. For example, in celebration of Heineken’s 140th birthday in February 2013, the Dutch brewing company held a contest for a crowdsourced bottle design.
Happy Customers
Hannah Jones, of Studio Rejuvenate in Greer, South Carolina, is a happy MycroBurst client. She says the crowdsourcing process helped find a logo that fit her family-run practice, which offers deep-tissue, prenatal, sports, and Swedish massage, in addition to yoga and skin care. “We chose the logo that conveyed what we wanted our customers to see, which is two people connecting through healing touch. It was a quick, impressive service, and I’d definitely recommend it to other massage therapists. My advice is to take your time and be patient, as the perfect logo will come up and grab your eye.”
To find the perfect logo, a client begins by filling out a creative brief. Interested designers then upload designs for the client’s consideration. MycroBurst contests run for seven days, and at the end of that time the client chooses a winner, the designer who won gets paid, and the client is the proud owner of a custom-designed logo or brand. (Prices for logos start at $199.)
In April 2012, Nikki Roy launched Body Mechanics, a mobile service in London, England, that provides holistic, remedial, deep-tissue, and sports massage. Roy also offers postural and joint assessments for charities, corporations, and private clients, as well as taping and strapping for sports injuries. Her experience of using crowdsourcing for a new logo was “quick, simple, and efficient. Being able to have a wide range of design perspectives on the same project is invaluable, as it gives you choice, and gives you ideas to think about, including some things you hadn’t considered.
“I wanted my branding to look fresh, modern, and simple, and to have some kind of movement incorporated into it,” Roy says. “I also wanted the logo to appear ‘soft,’ making the company feel approachable. I think the symbol and the movement in my logo achieves this.”
Roy especially liked the efficiency of crowdsourcing in the midst of the stress of launching her business. “Massage was a career change for me,” Roy says. “I’d previously worked in sales and marketing for 12 years and left to retrain. In order to get up and running as quickly as possible, I needed a slick and professional approach to a logo and branding. Being able to receive work from a wide range of designers 24-7, with the ability to discuss changes quickly, really helped me achieve my goals.”
Roy offers the following advice to other massage therapists who choose to crowdsource their branding: “I would recommend that you keep your briefs detailed, but concise. If you’re not entirely sure what you’re looking for in a brand, include links to other sites, stating what you do and don’t like. Keep an open mind, and consider different approaches that may be outside what you originally envisioned—sometimes they work better. And most of all, enjoy the process. It really is exciting to see your idea and the designers’ combined ideas come to life!”
Michelle Lewis is director of communications at MycroBurst, and a freelance writer and editor. She can be reached at michelle@mycroburst.co.uk.
Crowdsourcing
is the practice of soliciting solutions for a problem through an open call to the public. Often, the person who provides the solution is rewarded with a prize, money, or recognition.
How It Works
If you want to crowdsource a logo, or branded materials such as banners, business cards, T-shirts, or websites, you can visit an online crowdsourcing platform for graphic design like MycroBurst (www.mycroburst.com), where more than 40,000 designers from around the world produce ideas for clients. Businesses of all types and sizes—from hair salons to government agencies to dentists—use the service and massage therapists are regular clients, too.
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