In clear terms, it defines your company’s direction… and actually acts as a compass through growth opportunities and changing market conditions. It is the critical platform for all communications. Without direction or focus, the brand goes…. absolutely everywhere… and not in a good way!
It seems very easy to create… A few words that speak volumes. How difficult can it be? More to the matter, how significant is a positioning statement? Positioning Statements, or in the case of Consumer Packaged Brands, slogans, have been at the heart of advertising sell copy since the inception of mass selling.
It is an important component of your marketing initiative… if not the most important. Positioning is not just a fluffy marketing word… it defines and identifies your Brand/Business. A brand positioning statement eloquently states your brand’s “stake in the sand”. Moreover, it expresses “This is who I am, this is what I do, this is what and how I deliver”. In basic marketing practice, the easiest way to describe a positioning statement is that it announces to the world what makes your brand stand out above the rest and how you do that in a very succinct message.
Keep your brand/business on track with a powerful positioning statement. So how do you go about developing one?
A good marketing exercise to do prior to attempting to create your own positioning statement is to look at the brands that have successful taglines and try to identify the key messages that the tagline promotes. Ask yourself if the statement is relevant to what the brand promises, or the product delivers….or if it speaks to the service the business provides. View the positioning statement in rewind. You’ll find that the good positioning statements easily reflect the market, the target and the benefit of each brand or business. Here are some to get you started: McCain “It’s all good TM”campaign, “i’m lovin’ it”, an international branding campaign by McDonald’s Corporation (they incorporated it with their logo), and Scotiabank “You’re richer than you think”.
In this new world of do-it-yourself marketing and branding, many start-up companies go at developing a brand positioning statement on their own. Often those positioning statements end up being descriptors of the brand. Like the warning copy on an Evil Knievel daredevil act, I urge you not try this at home… and alone!
Here are the must haves of a positioning statement, in no particular order:
1) The Promise: Must state what we offer.
2) The Benefit: Must clearly identify what’s in it for them.
3) Personality: Must reflect the culture and brand voice.
4) Originality/Uniqueness: Must be a thing of beauty and joy.
5) Simplicity: Must be so succinct as to inspire a “wow”.
6) Longevity…. it must be there for the long haul.
What better way to demonstrate the importance of clearly stating the benefit simply within a positioning statement than with the Muppets! Watch this video clip from the Muppets Take Manhattan movie, for Ocean Breeze Soap. The message is bang on!
Once you achieve the Positioning Statement…. you must, and this is so very important: Use it consistently and frequently on all communication pieces. On business cards, web sites, apps, trade booths, ppt presentations, print ads, radio ads, digital ads, TV ads, leave behinds, etc, etc, etc.
This positioning statement will drive your message home to consumers, just like a GPS and will definitely build the foundation for brand recognition. Check out our ebook “Branding Understood” to get your gears turning!
Does your positioning statement have what it takes to direct your brand’s destiny?
Creativity is not a gift possessed by few. I can just hear the combined outcry from all CPs (Creative Professionals)! According to Jonah Lehrer, in his book “How Creativity Works“, creativity is a thought process that we all can learn. I tend to agree with Lehrer . I have seen this in action where a “non-creative” professional has stated something within a brainstorming session that has inspired a great idea. In the pursuit of the next great idea, innovation or concept, “creative” individuals gather around to catch that ever elusive WOW moment.
Our 3H brainstorming sessions are relaxed and informal, usually accompanied by popcorn (cause who doesn’t like popcorn?), a big (HUGE) notebook, a black Sharpie pen, armed with briefs, background information, research, market trends, etc… Just when you think that’s it, there’s more controversy from Lehrer’s book… and let me say this from the get go… I don’t necessarily agree with. Lehrer is of the belief that group brainstorming sessions don’t work. Group brainstorming sessionshave worked for us.
However, some say group brainstorming sessions don’t work because we cannot demand creativity, that ideas usually come more freely when we are doing things like brushing our teeth or driving to work. As in most group dynamics, those with the biggest egos get heard, leaving the rest quiet, forgetting their idea while they wait for their turn to speak, or worse, neither able nor motivated to contribute to the conversation. In a large group, it is often easy for one to ride the coattails of the more vocal in the group, focusing on other people’s ideas, consequently not generating their own original thoughts.
In our agency, we brainstorm to find solutions to solve a problem, remove an obstacle or rise up to a challenge. Our group is not small nor big… and we often build on each others ideas, successfully! In our group we all think differently. Our different backgrounds and experiences have provided us with a unique dynamic in achieving creative results. Everyone acknowledges that individually we have something valuable to offer. When you work as a team like this, everyone can take ownership for the resulting solution, and feel passion and enthusiasm for the end result. In a group dynamic, it is important that everyone is encouraged to participate, to allow the freedom to speak out loud… there are no bad ideas, thoughts or words: each suggestion or idea builds on the next. We follow our Brand Kinetix process. In broad strokes, here is how we work it:
In a comfortable, relaxed environment, we discuss and agree on the objective, based on a client brief.
We eat popcorn. This is essential for our brainstorming sessions to achieve success.
We share ideas and suggestions, having agreed on a time limit, knowing that this may be the first in a series of brainstorming sessions.
One person manages ideas in whatever way works best for your group: sticky notes, big piece of paper, a bulletin board, etc.
Come up with a handful of good ideas, refine them, and then regroup to see if it stands the test of “the day after, the afternoon before”.
There are many other “organized” approaches towards brainstorming to keep things fresh and stimulating. Here are a few:
6-3-5 Brainwriting – according to Wikipedia:The technique involves 6 participants who sit in a group and are supervised by a moderator. Each participant thinks up 3 ideas every 5 minutes. Participants are encouraged to draw on others’ ideas for inspiration, thus stimulating the creative process. After 6 rounds in 30 minutes the group has thought up a total of 108 ideas.
The Stepladder Technique:This is a decision-making approach involving the creation of a two-person subgroup (the core) that begins initial discussion of the group task. After a predetermined time interval, another group member joins the core group and presents his or her ideas. The three-person group then discusses the task, and the process continues in steps until all members have systematically joined the core group. When this occurs, the group arrives at a final solution.
Round-Robin Brainstorming works like this: 1. Sit your group or team at a table. Each person gets a stack of index cards. 2. One person communicates the brief to the group. No one else speaks yet. 3. Each person quietly takes a card and writes down one idea. They then pass the card to the person on the right. 4. That person reads the card and uses it to generate a new idea. He or she then turns the first card upside down in a stack, and passes the new card to the right.
5. The process of writing new ideas and passing to the person on the right continues for a set amount of time, perhaps ten minutes. 6. At the end, the facilitator gathers the cards and reads each idea aloud. The cards are then arranged and grouped on a whiteboard or wall, with duplicates discarded. This is used to stimulate discussion or more ideas.
How do you feel about brainstorming as a group? Are you in agreement that “a-ha” creativity can’t be achieved in this context? Are there other approaches that you’ve utilized? I invite you to share them here.
Are you going app-crazy? How many apps do you have downloaded on your iPhone, iPad, Blackberry or Android? Surely you’ve contributed to the latest stats that I’ve been hearing… to date, Apple has surpassed 25 billion (BILLION) apps downloaded, and 60,000 more added every month! I probably don’t need to tell you that mobile apps create interactive experiences. It goes without saying that they improve your business’ visibility. Today it’s all about 24/7 access to instant information and location sensitive content. In the not so distant future, mobile devices will replace traditional computers completely.
Being in business (B2B) or having a brand (B2C) there is ultimately one question to answer and deliver on: How do you break through the app clutter?
Well, just because it’s a new channel doesn’t mean you need to throw away traditional techniques. In fact, they are even more important to adhere to. To effectively market your app you must use a consistent, measured approach to best guarantee long-term success. Taking the time to ensure adequate support of the product, considering your market and designing a marketing strategy is vital. Understanding the value of the channel and the media properties you employ is key so that you don’t spend your entire marketing budget in the first few weeks.
Tips to successfully market your mobile app: 1) Build your website: I know it may sound crazy, but make sure your foundation is sound. You may have a great app, but eventually you’ll want to turn that app subscriber to a customer and client, and that takes a solid website ready and positioned to handle incoming traffic and lead generation. 2) Blog and update regularly, connect with like-minded blogs to promote your app. Your profile or company profile for each blog should always speak to your app, with a link to download it now. 3) Be the first! Be unique!It’s tough to be the first to come out with your type of app in an already saturated market , but you can offer an existing concept in a different way or be innovative taking an existing app and making it better. 4) Develop and Implement a Strategy: I won’t belabour this point. Let’s just say Marketing 101. 5)Shout it out!Being first or being unique doesn’t get you anywhere if people don’t know about it. Don’t wink in the dark! Consider a pay-per-success campaign where you are only required to part with money if the advert leads to a direct download. Don’t do it yourself… if you can’t. Enlist the services of a promotional tool to toot your horn to targeted audiences. 6) Build up hype about your app launch: A combined approach incorporating word-of-mouth, viral marketing and advertising is the best way to keep your downloads high and think long-term sustained success by staggering your message.
No shoemakers children here at 3H: Following our own advice, we have a just launched our new marketing app : Hoopla…. download it now! Just click here.
It used to be that the purpose of a blog was to state your opinion or viewpoint to those people who connected and linked with you…. so that like-minded people could join in a conversation and contribute to the dynamics of the discussion. This is still true and very relevant today, however as a brand enabler I believe that blogging has taken its rightful place as a viable channel for brand voice. The emergence of the brand blog is very real. In today’s world, brand is no longer only a product… it can be, well, you! We are in the age of personal brand and, like everything else in Marketing, your “brand blog” needs to have very precise and articulated goals for you, the brand, to prosper! The objectives you set should be around increasing your SEO rank so more people can find you. In order to do this, make your objective to increase your page views as this will help you in achieving a stronger position in the internet world of ranking. Once you see your ranking go up, this will motivate you to continue pushing out great content. Be patient while you build momentum. Try to get over 100 daily views and continue to set goals from there.
Boost the power of your brand blog: 12 hours/week to build your brand online presence:
1)5 hours/week: Your goal is to release one relevant and topical article every week that will generate conversation. Be selective in what you write about, don’t just write about just anything.The subject is important. Follow trends, provide how to techniques on a subject matter, or check a common pain everyone has and offer a solution. Provide resources and offer up list of those for others that have been valuable to you.
2) 2.5 hours/week: It’s not all about you (no!). Network and build relationships, share with like-minded people, comment on other posts and sites and chime in other blogger’s discussion. Social media is about community and blogs are the cornerstone of that community. Keep in mind that this social communities exists because we all help each other. By doing so, you get the added benefit of building your online brand presence.
3)2 hours/week: Blogging is definitely about speaking up… but you also need to speak out! Spread the word, or rather post! Promote your blog posts to your network, tweet about it and don’t forget to post to social bookmarking sites. Post your article where it is appropriate: Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Google Bookmarks, Reddit. Before you publish make sure that your post is keyword-enriched ,that the headline in Google friendly and that you’ve added tags and appropriate descriptions in the back-end of your blog to optimize your views. Once you set up your brand persona and a reputation, you can guest blog on like-minded sites, and return the favour by having them write on yours.
4)2.5 hours/week:One article a week does not build momentum. To increase the odds of traction, posting 3x a week is ideal. If you feel that this is too big of a hurdle, you could post a link to another blog that you comment on with an intro discussion to the post. You’ll find once you get started and realize the benefits of blogging you will quickly pick up the momentum and writing many posts won’t be an issue. The strategy here is to keep your readers engaged and show them that you are a subject matter expert by researching your content and providing helpful information.
Building a relevant and results-achieving blog isn’t something that can be fit in or done on the side, especially when creating a brand voice (product, service or person!). This is a viable marketing channel that when strategized and measured can reap monumental results. If you can’t achieve this on your own (or if you don’t know where to find those precious 12 hours a week!) there’s no harm in asking for help and outsourcing. Outsourcing doesn’t mean loss of control, just greater sustainability and more precise actions. After all , it’s the least that your brand deserves.
Can images increase your content marketing results? Retain reader attention? Improve brand loyalty? Can they even help achieve better search engine ranking?
Let’s look at Instagram. Instagram is a free photo sharing program that allows users to quickly edit and share the photos they take on their mobile devices and share on a variety of social networking services, including their own. A social network for photos. Founded 2 years ago, Instagram was recently purchased by Facebook (ahem: the world’s biggest social photo-sharing site) and has already attracted 30 million users! They paid a fortune for it (approximately $1 billion in cash and stock), so we know they believe in the power of imagery. You should too!
Optimize your images to encourage people to share the page and create some great backlinks, “like” and comment on them. It seems instead of talking about random things like “I had a tuna sandwich for lunch”, we can take pictures instead, telling a complex story or idea with a single picture. Today more than ever a good image is more than attention grabbing. If optimized, images can help you achieve better search engine rankings (SEO).
We often overlook images as an asset for search engine optimization (SEO). Drive traffic with keywords, captions and descriptions. Here’s how:
Use a great image:
A memorable, top quality, relevant image included in your blog post, website or newsletter, for example, can greatly increase the click-through rate of that shared link. We sometimes purchase a book at the bookstore because we are attracted to its cover. The image you use for your headline will attract the user’s attention and set the scene for what is to come… If you want to attract more attention when your post is seen on social networking sites, use a great image!
Use keywords in the file name:
Just like keywords in post urls are important for pages, the same is true for images. Using keyword-rich words in your image filename is important for helping search engines determine relevancy. For example, instead of naming your image “image 2748-017”, name it “Jacques-Louis David 017.jpg”
Use descriptive alt Text (alternative text for images)
Search engines cannot determine the text content of any image, so they rely on captions, alt text, files names that are relevant to the image. Alt text should be short and informative. Here is an example of descriptive alt text from Wikipedia:
[[File:Jacques-Louis David 017.jpg |thumb |160px |alt=Painting of Napoleon Bonaparte |[[The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries]] by [[Jacques-Louis David]].]]
Use anchor text (this is the visible clickable text in a hyperlink)
Anchor text is usually below 60 characters. The words in the anchor text help determine ranking by search engines, by providing the user with descriptive and contextual information about the content.
image should match content
Anchor text, Alt text, file name, keywords – all should be relevant to help search engines know that you are not spamming.
Images can help achieve better search engine rankings, improving your visibility and make your site search engine friendly. An image is worth 1,000 words… how about 1,000 views!!!?
