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 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?
by Lindsay Sleightholm | Sep 25, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Creative, Design
So you’ve created a brand… What was once just a nugget of an idea has been researched, developed, designed and finally brought to life. The result of all that hard work is a complete identity that will embody all the values of your product or service. Now it’s time to release that new brand into the market for whom it was created. Time to pop open the bubbly and celebrate? Well, not just yet. Before you unleash your brand into the consumer world, there’s one more important step you need to take to ensure its success: you need to provide it with proper brand guidelines to steer it in the right direction. What are brand guidelines? Brand guidelines are a detailed outline of a brand’s essence, explaining everything from brand positioning to visual identity. They will form a document that will act as a reference tool of standards. In other words, they’re an “owner’s manual” for your brand. The standards given in brand guidelines provide direction in times of potential branding mishaps – say, for instance, an inappropriate use of a logo, which would result in inaccurate brand representation. Basically, it all boils down to consistency. The role of brand guidelines is to keep a brand consistent within its identity, and a consistent identity aids strength of brand. Is there any room for maneuvering? Of course. Consistency is the key to the strength of a brand’s identity, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be a little leeway allowed for. Overzealous guidelines will only serve to box your brand into a corner. If guidelines are too restrictive – simply “insert photo here” – the brand won’t be able to thrive. It must be given room to breathe within its guidelines. And the creative team working with the brand should be able to convey effective messaging, without having to check their brains at the door. Know your guidelines
What’s important to remember is that a vested interest into the inner workings of your brand needs to be present at onset. Unlike the one you use for your car, this owner’s manual isn’t just something to consult when malfunctions arise. Instead, you need to ensure everyone working with the brand understands its identity, values, culture and how it communicates to its market. Brand guidelines should not only be made available at all times, but also clearly understood and referred to often. Brand guideline must-haves
- Brand definition: A clear definition of the brand should include all aspects regarding brand positioning, brand voice and brand management.
- Logo, icon and positioning statement applications: After the brand has been defined, it then requires having a complete illustration of the brand’s logo(s) and their components as part of the visual identity.
- Colour palette: The colours associated with the brand’s visual identity make up its palette. All colour values must be indicated in their various conversions for all forms of media.
- Identity restrictions: Unacceptable identity logo usage needs to be detailed in diagram form.
- Identity sizing and clearance: Minimum sizing and a measurement for logo clear space needs to be indicated.
- Identity typography: All typefaces, their sizes and weights as well as any typesetting requirements should be outlined.
- Trademarking: Any trademarks or legal lines that need to be present on graphic material, need to be stated.
- Brand visuals: Visual elements including photography and graphics associated with the brand need to be shown.
- Sample identity usage: Examples of acceptable advertising, promotion materials or signage while adhering to brand guidelines help to solidify requirements.
Anyone who has assisted in creating a brand knows the importance of brand guidelines. Successful branding starts with a clear identity and guidelines that promote consistency in its use yet allows for brand growth. In turn, the brand can thrive and build in value. The role of effective brand guidelines is essential to keeping your brand on the track to success. How much weight do you put on brand guidelines?
by Saara Jafari | Sep 21, 2012 | Advertising, Business Success
How many times have we heard ourselves and those around us complain about how there never seems to be enough time? And how often have we walked down an aisle in a grocery store and gotten overwhelmed by lines and choices of products? The answer would be ‘countless times’. Then why is it that advertisers often, in their rush to spend their marketing/advertising budgets often fail to understand what exactly they are competing with before formulating the message they want to communicate to the buyer.
While it is simple to define ‘competitors’ as those whom you are competing with, it would be naïve to limit the scope to only include products or businesses in the same category. Today’s lifestyle is often the major competitor. With the increasing tendency of multitasking and quick fixes, where cost of living is sky rocketing, and people are working more than one job or longer hours, people place a greater value on the little time they have left to spend with their families, friends and personal development.
What does this mean to marketers? It means there are only a few seconds in a day, for companies, to get consumers’ attention and how they reach out to consumers is equally significant. According to a research conducted by McKinsey in Europe, 54% of the respondent base went online to collect information before making a purchase. This means companies should have a stronger and mindful online presence, whether it’s through digital advertising or social media. It’s important to streamline your websites and have engaging topics of discussions on your social media sites and user-friendly navigation to assist consumers in getting the information they want effortlessly…. And quickly.
Information overload is a definite competing factor and should be recognized and analysed when trying to get consumers’ attention. Whatever it is you have to say, say it well and say it fast. Be sure that what you are claiming to offer is relevant to your consumer’s need.
It’s imperative to understand consumer buying behaviour before developing your communication strategy. This is what you need to know:
- know what they think, how they feel, who influences them, what drives them to buy that product and at what time,
- what makes them pick up the one brand as opposed to the others,
- when and where are they most receptive to actually listen to what you are trying to say,
Here are a few tips to make sure that your point gets across and sticks!
Do not ramble. You have to be focussed. You need to be concise.
Be catchy. There is enough serious stuff going on in the world. Don’t be afraid of a little cleverness, a little colour, a little music, a little positive emotion.
Keep it light. People like funny. If your brand puts that smile on their faces, they will remember you. Your job is partially done if they remember you fondly, and have positive emotional associations with your brand.
It goes without saying, of course, that your product should deliver on what it promises… marketing 101. No amount of cleverness or humour can make up for a brand that doesn’t deliver on its promise. Actually, you’ll tick off your consumers even more because they’ve taken out the time that they could have used else where to engage with your brand … only to be disappointed. But if you convey your promise of satisfaction and deliverance of benefits in a simple, light and humorous way, and deliver…you’ll definitely stand out.
You need to get inside their heads and step into their shoes to know how they think, how they process all the information bombarding them from everywhere. You need to understand this in order to break through all the clutter sucking up all their time. After all, that’s what advertising should do, gain share of mind and top of mind.
Please share your comments. We’d love to hear what you have to say.
