by Miriam Hara | May 22, 2013 | Branding, Business Success, Latest
Ever wonder how Google came up with its name? Did they think the name Google would become synonymous with information sourcing, referencing, mapping and everything in between? Is there some sort of history behind the name, or was it just a random choice?
Many business start-ups make much ado about what they should name their business… and so they should. Like everything else in business, you need to go through a process:
1) Define your business. What is it? What makes it unique?
2) Define your 3 to 5 year business objective. If you’re a consultant, it could be that using your own name is a good start…but what about after you start? If you want to eventually provide more than one to one consulting, maybe your name just won’t cut it.
3) Who is your target group? What’s their demographics…and don’t forget their psychographics.
4) Research the competition and see what names are out there in the same industry and geographical area. (Just Google it!)
5) Brainstorm and come up with a list of 10 names.
6) Take these 10 names and verify to see if the URL is taken, and if so by whom.
7) Verify if the name is trademarked within your industry and within your geographical area.
8) Get objective feedback for your top 4 names. Research for start-ups has become more affordable for business start-ups with software such as Survey Monkey and panel online advertising.
There’s much ado about the naming of businesses. I am of the opinion that the name is important, but what you do with that name is even more so. How are you launching? What media channels are you using? What’s your brand character, brand voice and how is that represented in your communications. Being first to market and being very visible when you are first to market is definitely the best approach to reap the benefits of longevity and recognition. Just to name a few: Kleenex, Coke…. and of course Google!
And just to close the opening thought of this post, I actually googled how Google got its name. Like all things in Google-like, I had many sources to choose from. The first link I clicked on was http://www.question.com/how-did-google-get-its-name-10903.html. Interestingly, I learnt that the definition of Google is quite appropriate for Google. The name Google is based on the mathematical term “googol”, coined in 1938 to equal 10100, a number larger than any practical counting operation would require.
From a wiki.answers.com, I also got more of an anecdotal story: In September, 1997, so the story goes, some Stanford grad students were helping Larry Page choose a name for his search engine. “Googolplex,” said Sean Anderson. (They’d already sensed how big this could become.) “Googol,” Page replied. Anderson, checking to see if the name was taken, typed g-o-o-g-l-e into his browser and made the most famous spelling mistake since p-o-t-a-t-o-e. Page registered the name within hours, and today, Google isn’t a typo, it’s a verb, one with a market cap of about $160 billion.
Fact or fiction, it doesn’t really matter…what matters is that Google provided an innovative product that revolutionized how information was being delivered to the masses… I doubt the notoriety or the business outcome would of been different if their name was Googol.
by Miriam Hara | May 21, 2013 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Latest, Miriamisms
We’ve all read it and heard it… over 50% of business start ups fail in the first 5 years. There’s a number of reasons why that happens. Rather dwelling on the negative, I rather look at the inverse and say 50% of business that do start up, are in fact, still around after 5 years. Why is that so? From my perspective, having started up a business start up 25 years ago, there are a few must-do philosophies that can be attributed to business success and longevity. Here are a few visual biz-isms from 3 ebooks published last year: Marketing Understood, Branding Understood and Social Media Understood.
Establish your definition of success before you start.
Objectives provide you with the measurement of success
Add Value.
Price becomes an issue at the absence of value
Take care of your clients, customers, audience, community.
What’s in it for them
Good enough… never is.
Raise the bar…everyday.
Don’t wink in the dark…you’re the only one who will know what you’re doing. Communicate!
Talk to your target!
You’re intimate with your business. Your consumers aren’t.
Know your audience.
You don’t know it all.
Don’t rely on conventional wisdom.
Deadlines aren’t elastic!
Mark your calendar.
Complacency in business means death.
Keep Current.
Believe in what you are creating.
Stay true.
Business in general: Are you just interested or committed?
Be wildly, passionately in love with what you do!
Be realistic.
Don’t over promise and under deliver.
Be passionate, not emotional.
It’s business. It’s not personal.
Businesses need to evolve.
Enable growth.
Business is hard work.
Business Work Out Routine.
If you would like to have all the biz-isms, you can download them here.
by Miriam Hara | Apr 30, 2013 | Advertising, Latest, Social Media
Most people know about social media and its distinct ability to help advertisers get out their messages. Unfortunately, as the rapid pace of the social media technology keeps evolving, it’s no wonder that advertisers can’t keep up on the latest and greatest… and how best to get these messages across. Keeping up with the speed of change is all consuming, but a necessity. You only have to look to Facebook and LinkedIn, and how they are constantly evolving their presentation, adding features, removing features, monetizing their applications. It is obvious that computers help get advertisers messages out to people, but when, where and how people receive this information is vital to the success of a brand and product.
The Smartphone gives advertisers the ability to operate in real-time and in niche marketing. This is key on so many levels when launching campaigns, opening a retail outlet and getting brand attention when it matters most… when consumers want or need to make the purchase. The generation of technology that is being launched today is user-friendly technology, all geared toward making the consumer aware of their entire surroundings. Consumers are given information on their favorite coffee shop, new products, like unique electronics, as well as restaurants, and nightclubs…and advertisers need and want to tap into this.
Kindles, iPads, notebooks, and other hand-held devices can display amazing graphics, and play outstanding videos that make content jump off the web and into the thoughts and minds of the consumer when they are looking for it… and therein lies the beauty of technology!
With up-to-date technology advertisers can adopt marketing – tech platforms, target multiple consumers across many technologies, being able to harness real-time data. Using various technologies one can measure growth and performance of your product.
The Internet itself is an ever-changing format for advertisers to promote their products. The downside to this is consumers can compare prices even as they shop. A store may lose a customer’s entire shopping purchase because the store does not stock a particular item. A brand may lose a consumer at any time in the buying cycle. People purchase new products and services together via technology, with their set critera whether it be a lower price, or a new feature… or colour!
Imagine for a moment that we are back in the days of MadMan, where ideas have to be written or typed. That pictures can only be created by hand, and presentations were not given by means of PowerPoint. And, the only way to get out your content was by the television, newspaper, magazines, or an insurmountable amount of flyers. Not to mention the gift we have given back to Mother-Earth by not using nearly as many paper products. Technology has made it a game changer for advertising.
Since one can use advertising in real-time, compared to how it was done in the past the targeting demographics as well as psychographic has not only become accessible but has become a science.
Technology, with the use of PVRs has allowed us to skip commercials on television, so that advertisements are obscured. Amazingly enough, a study posted in The Economist shows that the Brand name does get observed.
Hitting the key audience is paramount for launching your advertising campaign. Information gathered by using social media, researching and gauging the public reaction could be make or break a product. By using technology one can track one’s product, to see where, it was bought, how it was bought, when it was bought, and who bought it. Advertisers can go as far as understanding what made them purchase… through the use of AB testing, and multiple targeted offers.
Advertisers Beware: Technology has allowed marketing and advertising to have limitless applications. It has pushed the envelope, and it will no doubt keep pushing it with newer and newer technology… are you ready?
by Miriam Hara | Mar 11, 2013 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Creative, Latest
Suffice to say that in any business, client happiness amounts to a happy business– your business. In the advertising world where business marketing meets conceptual communications …objectives, strategies and creative all need to be integrated to provide the one strong solution … it’s important to keep the following in mind to earn client happiness!
This should be your mantra: KNOW THEIR BUSINESS. It’s the equivalent of being prepared when you go to an interview. You must do your homework. Research their market, the industry, the competitive landscape and the product offerings. Remember trust must be earned, so if you’re not prepared and you don’t offer up a knowledge base of their playground…clients will get nervous about entrusting their product, service or brand to you.
Be a partner and not a supplier. Be accessible and make yourself a constant resource. In today’s speed of business, marketing teams, brand managers and marketing directors feel the need to rely on external resources to get the job done…and done well. Be that external resource. How? Ask to be part of the strategic process. Keep current on industry news or competitive information. Send them articles of interest or highlight key opportunities that may be pertinent to their company’s or brand’s success. Watch their back… and they’ll only be too happy to invite you in their inner circle to get the value of your insight!
Don’t tell them what they can’t do, tell them what can be done. As an advertising or brand agency it’s your job to sensitize them to the issues at hand, the potential problems of a certain initiative or concept…but if you leave it at that, that’s one more thing that they need to solve. If you want to keep your clients happy, provide solutions. You not only need to highlight the potential risks, you need to provide solutions to deter that risk. That’ll make them happy!
We all know it, we all think it. Everyone is a marketer, everyone is an art director, everyone thinks their creative. Often I have been directionally briefed. I get asked to deliver on a pre-decided tactic… “We want a direct mail” or “we need an advertising campaign”. Clients often know what they want, and they should. Afterall, they are the keeper of the brand. However, it’s our job to push the envelope and to ask the questions that may provide a hidden nugget, a new perspective, a different tactic. Our role as a brand advertising agency is to know about the next best thing about…well advertising and creative. So the rule of thumb…give clients what they need to see. Only then will they be receptive to a different approach and evaluate what you can bring to the table… making you again a partner in their business.
Prepare to WOW. It’s good enough is never enough. Go in with concepts and solutions that will WOW them. When presenting creative campaigns it’s important to go that extra mile. Understand the potential and limitations of each of your creative solutions and speak to them. Wow them, not only in what they see before them, exciting concepts, but in your thought process and preparedness to answer questions and provide insight.
One word. CARE. Ultimately that’s really the one word that wraps up all previous points. Care enough to matter. It’s about client service. There you have it. The secret on how to be a successful business. What is client management if it isn’t about keeping the client happy. And what makes clients happy, what keeps them that way is pretty straight forward.
No matter what client services you offer, ultimately there is one factor that will keep them coming back, delivering on your promise, promptly, effectively and consistently. Client Happiness is guaranteed to make your Business Happy. It’s a perfect marriage.
by Miriam Hara | Mar 4, 2013 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Events, Latest
There’s a lot out there about how business has changed over the last decade, let alone 25 years. During the course of our journey leading to this point, suffice to say, 3H Communications has not only seen many changes… it has embraced them. My earlier blog written last week speaks to those business changes. Here, I would like to talk about the ‘business staples’ that have provided us with the ability to meet the challenges of change head on, maintaining our credibility and growing the business.
1) There is no “business as usual”
Each brand, business and company is unusual… and each comes with its own personality, culture, character, challenges… Just like a person! This is a thinking perspective that 3H Communications has always implemented. Perhaps this perspective is a result of 3H’s strong marketing focus and the fact that we had never set out to be an industry specific agency. Specializing in marketing creative, we work in all industries, all media, and all channels. That has enabled us with lateral and forward thinking assisting us in identifying business patterns.
2) Passion is essential
No matter how many changes there are in business and how often business changes, the necessity of maintaining passion for the industry, for the people, for the product and for the business is essential. Just like business is unusual, a business led without passion, is led without drive. Drive is the force that allows us to focus, to work towards success… to deliver results.
3) Relationships are the cornerstone
With all the change in technology and how individuals and business communicate today, it’s easy to say that one on one relationship are no longer valid. I would beg to differ. We send out e-zine, e-newsletters; we comment on LinkedIn and set up lead generation tools on web sites; we offer e-books and feature case studies, all online, all though technology… all with the aim to establishing relationships… so we can call, meet and develop the relationship. The tools that we used in the way relationships are established, formed and even fostered may have changed…but the essence of cultivating relationships is still monumental.
4) The client is always first
No matter what else change… clients or customers are still first and servicing them in the way they need and want to be serviced still stands. Understanding the old adage, if you don’t take care of your client, someone else will has never been more relevant. With technology breaking down geographical borders, competition has never been fiercer…so servicing clients is the point of differentiation.
We hear it every day…The one thing about business that is constant, is change. So the one thing that businesses need to be is flexible. To adapt, to maneuver, to navigate. Being nimble and less cumbersome. That doesn’t mean to blindly follow all changes and trends. The need to assess and to research is still very essential…but decisions should be streamlined so that change is allowed to take place.
6) Business stance
The best offense is a great defense may be true in sports, but in business a defensive strategy is a losing one. Just look around at the businesses that are no longer. Business must always have a progressive strategy…because only then will it defend the market space it now enjoys, grow and prosper!
