by Lindsay Sleightholm | Dec 17, 2012 | Advertising, Business Success, Creative, Design
Marketing and Design must work hand-in-hand. It really doesn’t matter if you have the best creative in the world; without a solid strategic plan to back it up, the message won’t see its full potential. Likewise, if the creative is overlooked for the strategic plan, the message won’t communicate what it needs to. Before delving into any advertising pursuit, a clear idea of what you’re aiming to achieve is essential. The following are some questions that many entrepreneurs have at onset for promoting their business venture.
Why do I need marketing?
Contrary to the hype you may have heard, marketing is not dead. Just like everything else, it’s evolving. What is dead is complacency. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, if you’re standing still you’ll get left behind. By not continually reevaluating tactics and their efficacy, any business will suffer.
Today’s marketing initiatives need to be nimble. The surplus of new channels available to marketers means a greater challenge to find the best combination for each mandate. Determining that combination requires having the experience and understanding of both traditional and new marketing channels. Online marketing is crucial, but as any experienced marketer knows, you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Can’t I just crowdsource design?
You can, but why would you? It will contribute no value to your business. On the surface, crowdsourced design has a certain “gloss” of something professional. But it will inevitably fall short on investment. That is, it won’t perform in the long run. And it won’t be effective communication. Similar to marketing, the creative for your communications is an integral part of your business message.
Graphic design needs to be clear. It also needs to speak clearly to a specific market segment. On top of that, it needs to be flexible. Without forethought into how the design will adapt to various media, it could end up being boxed into a corner. Any effective design solution should be able to cross platforms, channels and languages without hindering the message it’s trying to communicate.
Why do I need both marketing and design?
Marketing and design are a yin yang combination. In other words, their differences combined strengthen each other. Marketing creates the plan for the messaging while design delivers the right message. You could also say the tactics dictate the playground, while the creative shows it’s a fun place to visit.
Speaking of playgrounds, let’s use that as an example. Its marketing plan will take into account who will be using the playground, how they will interact with it and where to place the messaging. The design will address what the playground has to offer, how it will appeal to those using it and why they should check it out. Ultimately, you need to know not only where your market will hang out, but how to speak to them.
What am I investing in?
I used the term “investment” earlier. That’s what good design and marketing is. They don’t represent a cost rather an investment towards your business success. So, if you plan on communicating the benefits of your business to your market, that plan needs to be strategic. And, if you want your market to hear the right message, you need strong creative. What’s more, since you only have one opportunity to make a first impression, by all means make it professional. Effective marketing and design together equals successful communication that will produce results. You can count on it.
by christine | Nov 9, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Creative, Design
As a creative person, passionate about digital media, graphic design and the visual arts, colour has always been an important factor in my work.
How colours interact with each other or to a specific object can be significant especially in design. The same can be said about how colour relates to your brand and its impact on the consumer and what emotive feeling will be identified with your brand. Will the perception of your brand be a positive or negative behavioural reaction?
Pairing the wrong colour palette with your brand can kill your identity. It’s important to know your target audience, culturally, geographically, gender, age, and also the purpose for your campaign so that you launch your business in the right direction.
Just by viewing a colour in a design, and how it interacts with your brand can completely change or send out a false representation of your brand to the viewer. Colour is such a powerful and important communication tool that it should not be neglected; it is part of our daily actions in life represented in religious, cultural, political and social influences.
Studies have shown when users are shown a bright red hue; it will create a physical feeling of anxiousness and an increase in heart rate. This would not be a good use of colour if used on the interior walls of an emergency room, but if the colour red were associated with food, it would be a positive action to a reaction. You want the consumer to feel hungry and in a response really need to go out and purchase your product.
There is so much more complexity to colour and colour theory and I could go on, but maybe I will save that for another blog.
*Just a note you may want to check out a few of my favourite artist’s that were really the pioneers with colour theory– Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc to name a couple.
Marc
http://www.franzmarc.org/The-Red-Horses.jsp
http://artsconnected.org/collection/111185/franz-marc
Kandinsky
http://www.wassilykandinsky.net/
by Miriam Hara | Oct 29, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success
The word branding is definitely a verb. It takes thought, intention and actions to turn a brand into a Brand.
If you take a product that delivers on its promise, give it a great name, an iconic logo and a fantastic well thought out tagline, you’re set – you have the makings of a brand. All of these elements are great, but quite frankly, if you don’t intentionally do, you’ll risk your Brand’s demise or fall short of your Brand’s potential. In order for a brand to become a Brand, it must in fact start to act. It’s important to not only look like a brand – it’s important to “walk” like a brand. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a corporate executive in charge of brand marketing; an individual trying to become a personal brand or a major chain retail outlet; the act of becoming a brand is essentially the same
In order for a product to become a brand and establish itself as a winning brand it must adhere to the following brand exercises:
Brand Consistency: Your audience needs to recognize your Brand instantly. How can they do that if consumers are always being shown inconsistencies in style, colour, tonality or voice. Determine what these brand layers are for your Brand and feature your Brand within the same context, consistently, consecutively and simultaneously. Brand can only be established if the message is always presented in the same way. There are no short cuts in developing a brand. Cost cutting measures early in the game will often harm the Brand’s development and stunt its growth… indefinitely.
Repetitive Brand Visibility: It doesn’t matter if it’s by placing a business card sized ad in the community paper or developing a full-scale national advertising campaign, whatever your Brand is about, its messaging must be consistent with every communications initiative. Think of it like filling a bucket with water, one drop at a time. All these drops will eventually fill the bucket. Branding is about repeating your message, in a variety of different ways. It doesn’t matter if it’s an event, social media endeavour, advertising campaign, premium giveaway or a website – all visibility goes into the same bucket.
Brand Originality: Dare for your brand to be “un”-ordinary. Yes, be over the top if needed – “extra”-ordinary. If you are trying to achieve your Personal Brand or launching a product, dare to be bold in how and where you communicate. Just like no two people are truly alike, the same applies to brands – no two are alike. Take one element of your Brand’s Persona (big or small) and blow it out of proportion. This refers to colour, typeface, logo, or even a sound logo. Whatever element it is, it must be your Brand’s and your Brand’s alone. This will allow you to “own” the market. Others can and will try to mimic your brand, but they will end up falling short.
Consistency, repetitive brand visibility and originality – these actions will turn your brand into a Brand.
by Miriam Hara | Oct 22, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Social Media
In the fast paced world of Social Media, every bit of knowledge to maximize the exposure of your blog posts is gold!
I found this infographic very interesting and useful. Thank you LaunchGrowJoy.comfor sharing this.
by Miriam Hara | Oct 18, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Creative
Listen up Marketing Vice-Presidents, Professionals, Brand Managers, Ambassadors and Gurus… I know only too well that it’s hard to separate yourself from the Brand you’re responsible for. After all, you work it, live it, breath it – 24/7. You understand it intimately, better than anyone else. You define its market and potential, watch its competitors (with disdain!), develop the strategy that will give it wings, provide its raison d’être (USP). Then – fight for the budget by promising the powers that be that just around the corner, there’s profit to be had (ROI)… if only they would believe, like you believe.
When you’ve done all all that and successfully received the sought after funds, you need to entrust it to an “outsider” (yes, an advertising agency!) to communicate to the world what you know is this Brand’s promise and truth… The “how” and the “why” of it.
So off goes the agency’s team, armed with your Communications Brief, Brand Guidelines, Brand’s positioning statement, market assessment and competitor’s information. They come back with creative that responds to brief, the market conditions and provides a good solid plan on how to obtain the objective that is required for that ever elusive ROI.
That’s when it begins, the shift from professional objectivity to personal judgement. That’s when business and marketing professionals change hats and become emotional human beings. The tweaks, the design directives, the micro management of font selection, type treatment, the scrutiny, the judgement calls, all about the creative. I am not suggesting for one minute that all agency work is on target, on point or on brief. Although, I am not quite sure how it can’t be if the brief provided was correct. The development and creation of Marketing Creative and ideation is very rational. Rationality doesn’t take away from creativity. Quite the contrary, it adds to it. Marketing creative is about thinking inside the box… the box that was created by the Brand Keeper.
Assessing Brand Creative properly is as important as writing a solid Marketing Plan. It’s important to learn how to assess creative effectively and efficiently. Here are 9 questions to ask yourself when assessing Brand Creative.
- Are you walking in your targets’ shoes? Remember, you aren’t the target market, even if you fit the demographic profile. You are a Marketer, and more specifically the Marketer of this product!
- Is the product benefit easily communicated? Is the communication efficient. Does the creative speak succinctly and effortlessly about the end benefit.
- Does the creative deliver? Does it offer consumers the reasons to believe so that they can take the next step in the customer journey.
- Does the creative adhere to Brand Guidelines? A good brand agency lives by guidelines. Any agency that doesn’t isn’t a brand agency.
- Is the creative in line with the Brand Persona and the Brand Voice? This is the most subtle and intuitive part of any creative. Refer back to your communications brief for guidance.
- Is the creative original and Brand Unique? Does it provide a strong identification with the Brand… and only this Brand.
- Is it provocative? No, I don’t mean showing bare skin, I mean does it resonate and engage the audience? It must provide traction to gain brand awareness.
- Is it respectful to the Brand and its audience? Does it speak to consumers and not at them, does it value the consumer’s time and mind?
- Does it work as a unit? It’s very easy to zero in on a word, colour, or small detail. The more you focus on it, the bigger it becomes and the more you feel compelled to fix it. But don’t try to fix it yourself. Articulate what is bothering you and let the agency resolve the issue. Creative is a process, so there is always room for improvement. Make that improvement effortless by communicating the issue, rather than trying to provide the solution.
I recognize that it’s not easy to let go. Often the creative of marketing is the “fun part”. Good agencies make it appear easy, but it’s not. In closing I will only say and I know it’s hard to hear but it doesn’t matter that you, the Brand Keeper, like purple or green, or that you prefer a serif type face or the use of a particular word. In short, it’s not about you. It’s about the Brand that you have been entrusted with. and have in turn, entrusted to brand agency to ensure its healthy growth by developing a strong brand awareness and position within the market.
by Madi Secareanu | Oct 11, 2012 | Advertising, Business Success, Events, Interactive, Social Media
Although traditional marketing and advertising campaigns are still effective, many programs and companies are now relying on digital marketing tools and approaches to implement their marketing strategies. In the vast digital realm, it can sometimes be difficult to identify which program, tool, network or approach to leverage to meet your objective. Marketers sometimes feel that they have to do it all or risk losing out on an opportunity, but marketing is about finding the right strategy and the right approach to reaching brand objectives and this concept has even more weight when it comes to digital marketing.
So in the digital space, which must-have marketing tools do organizations need for a successful digital marketing strategy?
Web Analytic Tools
Analytic tools, like Google Analytics can provide valuable insight into the success of your digital marketing campaigns. From tracking the click-through rate (CTR) of a digital ad campaign to monitoring website traffic, using web analytic tools to keep track of your numbers helps you identify what works and what doesn’t. Compared to more traditional, non-measurable types of marketing, campaigns that have tracking ability can deliver better reporting structures that help marketers hone in on where to focus their efforts. In the world of web analytics, more integrated solutions are now being offered, such as Optify, Hubspot, Acton to name a few, allowing for an integrated approach to measuring the effectiveness of your digital initiatives. A word of caution here: Tracking and analytic tools doesn’t necessarily achieve more effective results! Strategy and creative still play the most significant role in achieving objectives.
Email Marketing
Email is still one of the most efficient and effective ways to engage your customers and prospects – if you use the tool in a creative or informative way. When it comes to attracting new clients and maintaining great relationships with exiting ones, email marketing campaigns can be very effective. Companies can take advantage of email campaign managers like Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor for their easy-to-use editing features and subscriber management tools to help them stay connected with customers and deliver campaigns like newsletters and promotional blasts. More recently, inbound marketing is more utilized as a term and a tactic. Rather than just pushing information out, the more effective strategies that push information out with an intent of initiating engagement onto your website, with the ability not only to track open and click through rates, but also to evaluate where potential customers go… and to capture their information.
Digital Advertising
Now more than ever people are spending more time online and on social media networks, either on their computers or their mobile devices. Digital advertising is a way for companies to reach more consumers and get measurable results. However, with the onslaught of so many digital ads, all with the new trinkets, bells and whistles, internet browsers are getting wary. Impressions still matter when assessing digital properties. The beauty of digital advertising still remains its targeting flexibility. With many digital spaces, as with Facebook ads, companies can target specific locations, interests(psychographics) and consumers with more precision than traditional advertising could ever offer. You can slice and dice niche markets to the minutia. Again, I have to say, the ability to achieve the performance you set is based on your strategy, creative and execution.
Social Media
This one is obvious – you can’t ignore the giant marketing prowess of social media. With a vast variety of tools and promotional possibilities, social media has emerged as arguably the most powerful marketing tool in today’s digital universe. From Facebook, to Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest, the social media giants offer companies a valuable and effective way to reach consumers on a more relatable, engaging and exclusive level – with the ability to track and measure all efforts.
Many companies are just starting to explore the digital marketing possibilities available to them and shifting from traditional to digital campaigns. I would add a word of caution here, to approach marketing as it always has been approached, integrating parts of all channels to make a better whole. It goes without saying that Digital Marketing is one area that cannot be ignored – digital is where the customers are and where the future of marketing is evolving and as marketers it’s important to own that space.
What digital marketing tools and efforts does your company apply? And where do you see the future of digital marketing going?
