| |
| |
|
Branding Information |
|
|
|
Save This Page Branding Mistakes - Brand Identity Guru
1. It "sells itself." I don't need to market. Okay, you might have a solid product or service. You might even routinely satisfy your customers. They might even send their friends and family to you. But wait. Is that your product or service selling itself? No (that is, unless your widgets have learned to speak). That's one of your customers playing out-of-the-goodness-of-my-heart salesperson for you. Yeah, word-of-mouth is nice, and if it's happening for you, congratulations! It's a sign of a great product or service. But relying on it exclusively can hurt you. Yes, six degrees of separation and all that, but counting on those connecting conversations to consistently mention you, especially down the line, is a bad gamble. Word of mouth needs help. A kick in the butt: a reminder to your customers of their good experience with you and an enticing offer to potential new customers to give you a try. Providing this kick is what a well-conceived branding and marketing strategy should do. At Brand Identity Guru (www.brandidentityguru.com), we've got some BIG boots. 2. "One of these things...looks just like the other" You might sell red cars, and Johnny Big Wheel down the street might sell a similar blue car. But what's under the hood? Even better question: what's under the hood that makes your better than the blue car? This is the essence of differentiation in the marketplace, and if you're not playing up the things about you that make you different-and better-than your competition, your marketing is driving nowhere. At Brand Identity Guru (www.brandidentityguru.com), we know how to steer a marketing campaign that leverages differentiation to build your brand and increase your bottom line. 3. Liar, liar, your business is on fire and up and smoke If you think word-of-mouth is powerfully working for you, it's just a fraction of the punch a bad buzz can pack. The best way to a bad buzz? Over promising and under delivering. It will kill you. That's why it's important to be truthful in your marketing. Say what you can do. Not what you wish you could do, or might be able to do. If you must err, do so on the side of under promising and over delivering. 4. One-trick marketing is like a no-trick magician It won't do anything, and people won't pay to see your show. To get your message to resonate in a 21st century market, you need to make your appeal in every corner the market looks. Print advertising, direct mail, online, telemarketing, public relations, and in person. In every place, a consistent brand image and message. 5. Microsoft Word clipart is for junior high book reports, not corporate identities A logo is the face of your company, so it must be unique and memorable. Not available for millions to place into whatever bake sale flyer they're working on at the moment. But a corporate identity is more than a logo. It's your company's unique value proposition and its products and services?all instantly recognizable on sight of your logo, name and tagline. 6. Don't be visually absent Talk can be cheap if it's not paired with a strong visual presence. Well-conceived visuals connected with your market makes your message stick, no matter the medium. Brand Identity Guru is an agency that can drench any marketing effort with huge vats of sticky visual honey, even if you're currently bone dry. 7. The typewriter and telegraph are cool machines, but not to use today A business owner by nature has to have a little bit of Evil Knievel in him, but when it comes to technology, he or she is often more of a cowardly lion. That's understandable. You got into your business because you know it, like it and can put food on the table with it. Not because you like to tinker with every new business technological innovation that comes down the pike. However, cutting edge technology can be a powerful profit-generating tool for your business, especially when it comes to marketing, and Brand Identity Guru (www.brandidentityguru.com), can help you find your technological sweet spot to get your message out. 8. If an employee's 14-year-old son designs your website, it will be painfully obvious A website must have a nice look, but that's a small part of a good web presence. You have to give your prospect information they need and close the sale fast. Otherwise, they'll surf on by to a competitor's website. In today's digital marketplace, your website must be an integral part of your overall sales strategy. Not just a token presence. More than ever, prospective customers are researching their buying decisions on the web. If your site doesn't substantiate who you are and your offerings, educate, inspire and finally motivate your visitors to buy, your online presence isn't strong enough. Brand Identity Guru (www.brandidentityguru.com), knows how to strengthen it. 9. You have a website, but don't tell anybody Having a website is pointless if no one sees it. That's why it's just as important to drive traffic to your website as it is to have one. How do you do that? A great way is through traditional advertising like billboards, print ads, signage and printing the web address on all your marketing collateral. Online, there's search engine optimization, banner ads, online advertorials, keyword purchases, links and cross-promotion strategies. A good mix of online and offline traffic strategies along with solid branding will drive traffic to your website. 10. "I don't need to be in the paper" On the contrary, editorial coverage carries more credibility than any kind of paid advertising you can do. Getting it, however, is difficult. Only a well-conceived public relations strategy that targets media outlets your prospective customers frequent will get the job done. But it's not just about writing press releases. It's about providing relevant information to the media outlets you're trying to get into and cultivating relationships with key editors and journalists. If you're successful, you'll see your name in print and a bigger number on the bottom line. 11. Branding done yourself is branding done badly Given the choice of doing branding yourself and not doing it at all, you may be better off not doing it all. There are few things worse for a business than an "amateurish" image, and that's usually the result with DIY branding. Even if you know how to do some graphic design work or are a decent writer, good branding takes strategic know-how and the finesse and time to get it just right-things only a good branding agency like Brand Identity Guru can offer. 12. If you think your employees aren't part of your brand? You're wrong. Your brand is the face of your company in every interaction with the outside world, and your employees interact with it quite a bit. On the phone, on sales calls, at schmoozing and networking events, or in informal settings, you must train your employees to represent your company in a way consistent with its brand image. Doing so can ensure you have an army well-groomed brand ambassadors out there. 13. Failing to track your branding campaign's success can lead to future failure If you don't make your market's reaction to your branding effort your business, your business will suffer mainly because you won't know where to go next. Successful branding is a constantly evolving process, and if you don't learn from your mistakes, you'll continually repeat them-and make more! On the other hand, once you know what your most successful strategies are, you can build off of them. Any branding agency worth its salt will be able to effectively track the success of your campaign. 14. Don't forget the clients who got you here, keep good relations As businesses grow, they sometimes forget the little people who contributed to their success. Don't. Those who got you here can be an invaluable resource to you even if their business isn't as important as it was. Since they've known you for a long time, they can offer valuable counsel as to the future direction your company, such as offering their opinion on new products or services. They can also continue singing your praises as another satisfied customer. Plus, you never know when a little fish might eat a big lunch and become a big fish to you again. To measure how strong your brand is copy and paste: (http://brandidentityguru.com/bightml/brandmasterpiece.html). Then click "Take the brand strength test". This is a short survey that measures the strength of any company's brand. It's a great tool to see where you are today. Scott White is President of Brand Identity Guru (http://www.brandidentityguru.com), a leading brand consulting and market research firm located in Easton, Massachusetts, USA, near Boston. Brand Identity Guru specializes in creating corporate and product brands that increase sales, market share, customer loyalty, and brand valuation. Over the course of his 15-year branding career, Scott White has worked in a wide variety of industries: high-tech, manufacturing, computer hardware and software, telecommunications, banking, restaurants, fashion, healthcare, Internet, retail, and service businesses, as well as numerous non-profit organizations. Brand Identity Guru clients include: Sun Life Financial, Coca Cola, HP, Sun, Nordstrom, American Federal Mortgage, Simon (America's largest shopping mall manager) and many others, including numerous emerging growth companies. Scott White is a very enthusiastic speaker and has the gift of being able to explain the principles of branding in a compelling and entertaining manner so that people at all levels can understand.
MORE RESOURCES:
Joint Venture Pays Dividends For Steel Advertising & Interactive ... - Business Wire (press release)
Branding - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
New Uniforms Could be the Gold Charm for the Golden Arches New designer uniforms could be the gold charm McDonald's needs to connect their new hip marketing campaign to their fast-food restaurants. This possible gold charm for the fast-food chain has the ability to let the actual fast-food restaurants reflect the image they are portraying in their advertisement campaign. Your Small Business Name -- Important? You bet a name is important. Many small business owners try to come up with a clever name for their business rather than one that explains what they do. You Bored Me at Hello - Top Three Strategies for Networking Your Brand "You had me at hello," those famous words from the movie Jerry McGuire let Tom Cruise know that Rene Zellweger's character was hooked from that point and the rest of his talking was unnecessary. When in networking situations, many small business owners leave people with a slightly different feeling. What the Heck is Branding and Why Should I Care? There's been a lot of buzz lately about branding. But what exactly is it, and who needs to do it? Simply put, a brand is what makes your business uniquely YOU! It's the way you present your business and how the world perceives it. Jan Verhoeff: Brand Your Market Marketing potential of any product is based on recognition and quality. Name based recognition happens with a variety of products. Into The Limelight To stand out in a cluttered world, become a recognized expertThere are millions of small businesses vying for our attention. Yet, because the marketplace is more discriminating and skeptical, it's hard to get noticed. The Top 10 Strategies for the Positioning of Success Many businesses of today are often driven to compete striclty on price, quality, and features of their products and services. Companies who prosper over the long term don't simply offer the best deals, the best quality, or the most impressive bells and whistles. Importance of Branding - Whats in a Name? Branding is perhaps the most important facet of any business--beyond product, distribution, pricing, or location. A company's brand is its definition in the world, the name that identifies it to itself and the marketplace. McDonalds Supply Chain of Potatoes McDonald's buys its potatoes from corporate farmers in Idaho not the commodities market; therefore it limits its exposure to price gouging that might have occurred by using the commodity exchange to get those potatoes. Starbucks is doing the same thing, but instead of having partnerships and coffee beans, they are all of in-house. How a Great Tagline can Help your Business "Just do it." "We try harder. Brand Image - Brand Identity Guru Having a brand image is not a "have or have not" proposition. Everyone has one. Franchising is Virtually Fraud Free The number of complaints to the Federal Trade Commission on Franchising do not indicate ramped fraud in the franchising sector. The FTC before Congress gave a report showing that the number of complaints was fewer than one tenth of one percent, lower than any other industry. What About Me? What You Need To Know About Me-Marketing What about me? Are you asking yourself this question? If not you should be. Don't wait until you are in crisis mode when you are losing your job or your business before you think "what about me?"Here are a few points to consider. Differentiate and Dominate Quite often small business owners will ask me to reveal the most powerful marketing strategy I have seen. I can say without hesitation that the most powerful marketing strategy has little to do with advertising, direct mail, web sites, referrals or blogs. Brand Image - Brand Identity - Brand Strategy - Brand Identity Guru Consumers perceive and accept many brands within a certain trade group in different ways. By personifying a brand (How would you describe brand X if it were a person?) we can find out, that for instance consumers perceive brand A as a young, impulsive, lively, attractive, energetic woman full of ideas. Brand Identity - Corporate Identity and Brand Value Companies work hard building the strength of their brands - it is critical to the ongoing brand management process to have meaningful and actionable data-driven measures of these efforts.Building a brand, cultivating its strengths, pruning its weaknesses, and making it more valuable to its owners is the bottom line job of marketing. Logo Design Tips Logos can be described as visual icons that provide a unique identification element to a business or product. Logos provide quick visual recognition of a Company which in-turn builds branding. Branding Your Business To Make More Money Branding your comapny should be the first thing a company does. You have to convince potential customers to buy from you. Branding Your Products Is Important I was chatting with a couple of friends, all of us are either copy writers or graphic designers?or both?.in the advertising industry, so, naturally, our conversations leaned towards the topic. Shattering the Branding Myths If you've been online long, you're sure to have seen many "gurus" give their ideas about branding. However, much of what you read simply isn't true.
|
