Monday, April 9, 2012

Understanding Brand and Identity


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Identity, as a logo, is a foundational component of a 'brand' but it is often misunderstood as being 'the brand'.
A strong visual identity is a good-start on the road to building a brand, but unless the visual identity is reinforced with a fully-realised brand that permeates the entire company, when the market comes to engage with your business, there is the risk that their expectation of your brand and their actual experience of the brand will differ dramatically.
Brand is the composite totality of all interactions between the market and your company; each and every time your company interacts with the market, a brand-experience is created. It is a continuous process and to be successful it must not only be a positive experience, it must be a consistent experience.
From a visual design perspective type-faces, colour palettes, image styling and contextual language are all components of brand design, they effectively form the collateral component. Effective brand design has to involve and extend throughout the entirety of a company, from the manner in which Customer Service answers a telephone, to the definition of a product set and the expression of company policies or values to market.
Brand is particularly important to businesses experiencing rapid growth or those opening new branches in new territories. Once a company begins to grow, the personality of the CEO or Senior Sales Staff that drove the business cease to become as readily accessible to market as it once was. Therefore, the role of engagement and experience has to be transferred to the brand, and the brand values have to be encapsulated in process.
All companies have a vision statement, these are often platitudes produced to create a 'feel good impression' with a prospective client or customer. 'Vision & Value Statements' need to be translated into process in order to have purpose; by translating them into process they then perform an active role in the company. A 'proposition' is then able to deliver tangible value for the company and the customer.
A strong brand also creates a strong-identity within the company itself, reinforcing the corporate culture which creates greater employee retention, and a strong well-designed corporate culture is more capable of innovation. In situations, where employees need to be replaced if they have moved on, a clear and defined brand makes it easier for new employees to adopt the personality of the company and perform their role in the market.
Brand can therefore be distilled into: identity, collateral and process. Without each of these components being fully realised and operating as functional tools in the day-to-day operation of the company, the brand will not be performing at its optimal level, and if the brand is not performing then neither is the bottom line.
Scott Richards is a media consultant and has worked with some of the world's largest brands developing their digital identities, media strategies and marketing collateral.
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Choosing the Location of Your Display Stands and Store Fittings


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When you are the manager or owner of a shop you have many responsibilities such as ensuring you provide good customer care and maintaining the condition of your various stock. However it is important as well to consider the other elements of running a store that many managers tend to forget - which are the layout, appearance and set up of the store and the isles themselves.
A good store manager will always recognize the importance of a correct layout in their store and will realize that this has a range of important psychological effects on the way that customers interact with the store and the products therein. This is particularly important with regards to your display stands and store fittings which are only useful if they are used in the correct way.
In this respect designing a store has some things in common with designing a website and you will do both with many of the same ends. With a website you see you will consider seriously the color scheme, the positioning, the navigation etc regarding the position of your content and of your adverts; and with a shop you need to likewise think about how your customers are going to find their way around your store, and where their eye will be drawn as they go.
Consider your display stands and your store fittings like adverts - they are there to promote the items you want to help sell, but they may not be what the customer is actually looking for when they come in. Thus you need to place them in clever places in order to catch attention and in order to encourage shoppers to want to buy the things they're advertising.
One way to do this then is to put them in the window of the shop, or in the doorway. This way it is the first thing that your customers see, and even people who don't enter your shop will see them. This way you might find you at least plant the 'seed of an idea' in their mind so that they think about the offer you are promoting and perhaps come back at a later date.
Likewise it is very possible to funnel your customers and to anticipate the way they are going to go around your store. For instance, if you have a product that everyone wants (in a newsagents this might just be milk, in a games store it might be the latest and most high-profile game), then you simply put the display stands near that on en-route to that so that they spot them on the way. You can achieve something similar here as well by periodically altering the layout of your store. When you do this you leave your customers searching for the new items and this way you can ensure they are more likely to see your display stands and the other things your store has to offer.
And finally POS stands will go down well because you know your customers will pass these if they are buying something, and because they will already be committed to spending money and so more likely to add something to their basket.
If you use your display stands wisely you can increase the value of each of your customers to you. Click here for a variety of store fittings.
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Modern Graphic Design Tips


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Expert Author Tom M Wiseman
I think everyone will agree when I say that good graphic design stems from an in-depth understanding and knowledge about color balance, visual cues, and the power of a well thought out layout.
Whether you design websites, business cards, pamphlets, magazine covers, logos or anything else, you need to understand who your audience is and be well versed in your medium. Simply throwing together some text and stock photos or graphics won't cut it in today's market, especially considering the number of talented folks out there.
No, what you need to do is learn your trade and enhance your skills in anyway and whenever you can.
Let's start off by examining color palettes. If you can't look at a piece of graphic art and decide instantly whether or not the colors flow naturally and enhance the overall piece, it may be time you take a look at some examples so you can get an idea of what colors balance with one another instead of clashing.
When you start adding colors to whatever project you're working on, remember that there needs to be some sort of theme. You don't want to just add colors willy nilly and hope that it will look good in the end. The colors you choose should enhance the project and help to visually relate the message that piece is trying to convey.
As an example, try to visualize a website for a truck accessory retailer. Do you think using neon or pastels would work for this type of site? Of course not. What about using those same sort of palettes for say a cake or doughnut bakery? They probably would work in those instances right?
Additionally, if the message is supposed to be uplifting or inspirational, you probably don't want to use dark colors. Keep with the lighter shades for these and use the darker colors for more technical or industrial projects.
Let me state here and now that very rarely, if ever, should you use more than 5 or 6 colors on any given project. This does not include colors used for shadowing or highlights, but should be a general rule of thumb for the project's palette.
If you don't believe me, check out the countless home-made websites out there using 10 or more colors on a single page and see what you think of those sites after viewing them.
Visual cues are everything and more often than not, the difference between a good and great design is something that at first seems insignificant. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the subtle graphic nuances that great projects have, and typically everything else does not - something that makes that project stand out.
It can be a background image that blends well with the rest of the design, some abstract design that fades in or out, little extra graphics scattered about in just the right way, the right font and typography, or some sort of visual magic trick that makes you think you see something without it really being there. Shadows do wonders for the last category by the way, and there are lots of examples out there to follow.
It's the little things that will set your work apart and make people envious of you and your skills, but remember not too over do it. Too much of anything is not recommended and will most likely result in the project taking on an amateurish look rather than one created by a professional.
When starting a new design project, take care of the basic layout first, keeping in mind that you can always change it later if you need to. Then add in your fonts for any text you may have remembering that the right font will go a long way in sending the message you want. Hopefully at this point you're feeling inspired by what you see and can then start to design the custom graphics that will be placed at strategic locations. A key point here is to remember where someone's eyes will land first, second, third, etc... and to make use of that. If you want the name of the company or the title of an article to stand out from everything else, then it should be near the top and designed in a such a way that a person's eyes will naturally gravitate to that area first. Using a gradient or pattern overlay for the text just might be the ticket here.
Once you have everything in place, step back and take a hard look at what you've created, possibly getting some other opinions. Decide whether it conveys the proper message and if it needs any enhancing. Does it have the right colors and do they all blend well with one another? Does any item stand out from the rest? If so, is that a good or bad thing?
Finally, though you should be keeping this last factor in mind during the entire project, you need to know who your audience will be. Will the main demographics tend to be younger, say between ages 14-21? If so, then you'll probably want to create something with a well known theme, perhaps along the gaming genres, barring any copyrighted material of course. Older audience? Perhaps a stylish, antique looking theme would be better suited here.
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Advertising Avenues


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Advertising your business today is nowhere near the same as it was 10 years ago, much less 5 years ago. We have so many new ways to reach our customers, and spark their interest in our businesses, that sometimes it can become overwhelming to both the customers, as well as to the business owner. Which type of advertising is right for your business? Newspaper? Magazine? Radio? Internet? Direct Mail?
Chances are good that if you have ever advertised your business that you have reviewed many different types of advertising, and probably have tried at least two or more of the most popular choices. You may have even tried all of them, hopefully with great success from at least one of them. The challenge is finding which method works the best for your business, while not spending a fortune doing it. Each of the most popular types of advertising has its pros and cons, like anything, and some will work better for your business than others will.
The newspaper, in print at least, is slowly becoming a thing of the past. If it weren't for the coupons, comics,and crossword puzzles, I am not sure that newspapers would even have half the subscribers they do. But since we live in the age of the internet, newspapers have evolved to the internet and electronic formats for those of us on the go. Newspapers, just like most everything else in news gain a large chunk of their revenue from print ads. Quite frequently, when you place an ad in the paper, that ad will carry over to the newspaper's online presence as well. This of course may cost you a bit more, but will certainly gain you a larger audience.
Magazines are a little different, in that they usually are only published once a month and their ads are usually for high dollar full page spreads from large companies. But if you've ever read the back pages of a magazine, you'll still find a few pages of small advertisements for small businesses of all types. This can be a great place to advertise if you have a product that would be geared toward a specific group of people, like say a fancy new singles dating website would be advertised in a young men's magazine. These ads would be in every magazine published across the country. Imagine the possibilities!
The radio of course is a local only advertising avenue, which is excellent for a small business which is not able to cater to a national market. Maybe you're an attorney who specializes in personal injury. Advertising in the local area will certainly gain you a large volume of listeners who may need your services. The ads will usually run several times a day, and most often you can pay for a specific time slot - maybe you as the personal injury attorney would pay for a slot during rush hour.
We all know the internet is where it is at these days. There are many ways to advertise online, however the most popular is usually with keyword pay per click services, such as Google. With a service from Google, you are able to see not just how much money you've spent on clicks, and where those clicks are coming from. It can take some time to be able to tailor your click campaign to the right phrases or key words, but in all, this is a great way to gain tons of traffic in a short time to your web site. If you get 100 hits, you ought to expect that least 5% of those will be new customers, provided you've chosen your keywords properly.
Direct mail, while it seems to also be making its way out, is always a great way of advertising still. You are able to choose your market yourself, and mail your enticing deals and offers directly to the people you'd like to see as customers. While this method can be quite costly, when you consider the cost of the actual mailings and the ever increasing cost of postage, it can also be a great way to introduce your product to your community.
The main point is that with the vast majority of businesses in the area are all competing against each other you have to be able to be creative in your marketing campaigns. Engaging your customers by telling them about something interesting within your business, and giving them a reason to want to check you out further is the only thing that your marketing campaign needs to focus on, no matter what avenue you've chosen.
Carmella Martinez
LowKeyMedia Marketing Team
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7 Advertising Tips You Need To Know


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Expert Author Mary Wilhite
No business can grow without advertising. You need to tell people about your services and how they can affect their lives. You can do it by word of mouth, writing an article like this, participating in forums or the traditional way. Should you opt to advertise on radios TVs or newspapers and magazines, here are basic guidelines to use. 
  1. Advertise where prospects look first. By advertising where prospects look, you shorten your sales cycle and get more responsive clients. It will mean that if your typical clients visit a certain forum, then that is where you need to advertise. If they read a certain magazine than place your ads there. If you target seniors and they are known to be fond of a certain local radio station, then place ads during the times they are most likely to listen. That means that you will have to do research to know your typical clients. You can't assume. Think of their preferences, tastes, like and what moves them.

  2. Use media that touch prospects often. It is often observed that the more you come into contact with an item the more it affects you. That's why when listen to a song so many times, you often can sing along when you hear. You know the lyrics and beats. Similarly, the more you expose prospects to an ad the more it will affect them. However, it needs to have a deadline otherwise it will lose meaning. That means that if you have an offer closing on the 30th of the month, you may consider running the ads as from the 14th of the month and as the time draws closer to the closing date, running with more frequency.

  3. Put your ads in context. Consider the ads you see in restrooms of restaurants. Or those that people step on as they walk. These ads perhaps make people change their feelings about the products or company that are advertised.

  4. Make ads memorable. When an ad is memorable it has a higher ROI because you require less of them to run and the ad stands above the clutter that is commonly available in today's advertising world. What's memorable will vary from medium to style. What makes one memorable may be the choice of words, scenery, or audience.

  5. Test, Test, and Test. You can never know what ad works and what doesn't work unless you test. Test headlines. Test mediums and test offers. Ideally testing never stops as long as you are in business. And failure of an ad should not make you condemn the copywriter, agent or anybody else involve. Failure simply means that you are taking lessons about your business. That is why it pays to start small. Do a classified instead of a quarter page. Run a radio spot off-peak in instead of prime time where costs are more.

  6. Track every ad. Perhaps this where most big corporations fail. They never track. In fact you can tell it because they mostly running a couple of ads concurrently. They normally assume that advertising works. However, they can't tell what effect 1% reduction or increase in their advertising budget will have on sales. They cannot tell if radio works better than TV or newspapers. And for small business it can be important every ad must have a code and a tracking mechanism.

  7. Never retire an ad that is working because it is old. As long as an ad is bringing in money it should never be put away just because it is old. The best way to go about it is to test it with other news ads. As long as it remains unbeaten, then keep running it. If an ad brings in 3% every time you run it why retire it to take on one that's doing 1%? It doesn't make any business sense.
Mary Wilhite is a Mobile Marketing Specialist, also known as the Mobile Marketing Queen. Teaching small businesses, entrepreneurs, and internet marketers how to attract better customers with mobile marketing devices. Get more of her mobile marketing tips, tricks, and strategies today. Just click here http://marywilhiteblog.com
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Substance Before Style - For Advertising That Get Results


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Expert Author Joan Nowak
When it comes to your company's advertising, are you more concerned about how it looks or what it says? While design and style are important, all the glitz and cool stuff won't mean a thing if there is no real substance to your message. Whether you use print ads, direct mail, email, website or social media, copy is king!
So the next time you sit down to prepare a new marketing campaign, give a little more thought to your copy. Here's a six step approach that might make this a little easier - and make your marketing a lot more effective.
Step 1: Define Your Ideal Customer
The best marketing starts with a clear 'audience' in mind! Write a one-page description of your most ideal client/customer. Describe in detail all about them. For consumers, this might include age, marital status, car they drive, number of children, income range, personality type, common problems or challenges. For businesses, this might include size, industry, # employees, decision maker title, hobbies, personality type, goals, and common problems. This answers the question "Who" is your ideal client (not your target market - your IDEAL "A" class customer)
Step 2: What Would They Buy?
"What" would your ideal customers buy from you? Most businesses offer more than one product or service for their ideal customers, so identify all of them.
Step 3: Why Would They Buy?
This is important and is two-fold. Why would they buy from you instead of your competition - and what are the benefits they receive when they make the purchase? Your Unique Value Proposition is important here so you don't compete on price alone!
Step 4: Headlines That Speak to Ideal Customers
Whether you are creating a landing page on your website, an email marketing campaign or direct mail piece, a powerful headline is a must -- to get attention and encourage ideal customers to read more. Brainstorm and write down 10 headlines that speak to your 'who' and grab attention of your ideal customers. Here's a few headline starters to get you thinking:
  • Here's How You Can
  • 7 Ways to Increase Your
  • 5 Reasons to Try
  • For Less Than $5 a Week
Step 5: Outlandish Offers
Offers are a must for small businesses to get people to take action - call, visit website, come into location, sign up for an event, etc. So based on "What" they would buy - come up with 3-5 outlandish, over-the-top kind of offers.
Step 6: WIIFM - What's In It For Me
Develop benefit-oriented copy based on the answer to the 'why' above. Remember the WIIFM (What's In It For Me) -- How can your products or services solve their problems, ease their fears or make their life better, simpler or more profitable.
Joan Nowak is a Small Business Profit Builder, seasoned Business Coach, and creator of the Hybrid Coaching System for small businesses. For additional resources and ideas to grow your small business, visit http://www.HybridBizAdvisors.com. While you are there, join her mailing list to get her monthly eNewsletter and receive a FREE copy of her eBook, Mastering the 7 Elements of Business Success.
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