Posted by admin on January 18th, 2010 — Posted in Branding
The brands are coming! Their arrival has been evident in our supermarkets and on the main streets of our towns and cities for some time now. It started as a trickle, led by the makers and the retailers of consumer goods, but it has more recently become a fast moving torrent that races headlong through almost every business and walk of life. In certain respects, it has come later to the hospitality world than to many others but now that it has arrived it is clearly planning to stay.
Make for the high ground! For many in the industry, it is something to be
viewed uneasily as it threatens to burst its banks and overwhelm everything that
stands in its way. Others are out constructing canals and reservoirs. For us,
branding offers something new and exciting; a fresh flow of ideas that will bring
renewed direction and vigour to our business.
So, to brand or not to brand? This is just one of the questions facing Irish
business owners in 2003 as we regard the landscape and consider our choices.
Any unease that we may feel in the matter is readily understood. The B-word
has been bandied about a great deal during the last few years and has been blamed
(most famously in Naomi Klein’s recent book No Logo) for some of the worst
excesses of globalisation. It is often presented as invasive, almost colonial, in its
intent, something that we are particularly sensitive to on this island. (Ironically
perhaps, two of the more prolific brands sweeping hospitality in the UK - Jury’s Inns
and O’Brien’s Sandwich Bars - are Irish).
Branding too is often associated with a cookie cutter approach to business and
thanks to the efforts of brands such as the global burger chains it can seem to offer
only faceless uniformity and hopeless mechanical repetition (albeit whilst helping to
deliver huge profits).
Smoke and mirrors! At times, it can seem to be nothing more than a navel-
gazing exercise that promises much and delivers little, or at least little of any
substance.
Finally, our unease probably owes a great deal to our native resistance to some
of the worst excesses of marketing-speak, particularly that which has its origins on
Madison Avenue. For some of us, the recent fuss about brand culture seems to
provide yet more evidence of US-style marketing gone mad.
Brand As Opportunity
But branding is too valuable a tool to be dismissed out of hand. It is vital to the
good management of reputation and relationships. Consider any of the great
businesses - including the independents and the family-owned - and you will see a
great brand at work. The great business leaders use it intuitively and
unselfconsciously. Like all tools, it can be pressed into service in a variety of ways.
Used properly, branding offers a business the opportunity to marshal its resources,
play to its strengths and gain significant competitive advantage.
It is a tool that can be used to great effect in those areas where it is difficult to
offer something truly distinctive and influence choice. We have seen how brands
such as Kelly’s of Rosslare and Derry Clarke’s L’Ecrivain can offer their owners the
opportunity to own a niche in a fiercely competitive market. For businesses
operating in hospitality and tourism branding offers a powerful way forward.
Brand Influencing Choice
As we have seen, during these past ten years, the hospitality and tourism
landscape in which hotels and restaurants operate has changed almost beyond
recognition. These years have seen huge growth, both in terms of market size and
choice, and this growth has been matched by considerable investment at all levels.
As a result, we can truly say that the customer is spoiled for choice. At the same
time, recent events internationally and at home have contributed to a falling market
(although certain parts of that market, e.g. the leisure break, have typically
remained strong). In the current climate, hotels and restaurants in Ireland are now
faced both with opportunities for further growth and with significant challenges to
that growth.
Where the customer is spoiled for choice, many of the features and benefits
that are on offer are no longer influential. In a market where there are few functional
differences between products or services, the customer choice is driven largely by
emotional factors. What you do has become less important, it merely brings you into
play. What increasingly influences choice are the values that drive your business, in
other words, who you are, what you stand for and how you deliver.
And yet, for many hotels and restaurants, product features and functional
benefits continue to provide the basis for all marketing and communications.
Say something! Anything! Think of the rash of advertisements and directories
where hotels and restaurants slavishly list the central location, the number of
rooms, the genuine hospitality and the fusion cuisine that fail to distinguish one
offer from the next.
Clearly, something extra is required in order to gain competitive advantage. A
distinct and well-defined identity gives a business something significant to say to
the market whilst providing a clear blueprint for the development of all
communications.
Brand Driving Strategy
Branding as an activity is seen principally in marketing and communications but
its effect is soon felt throughout the business. In addition to giving a business
something to say about itself, the identity of a business provides it with both
purpose and direction.
In order to successfully make any business stronger than the sum of its parts, it
is vital that the organisation support and direct its business and management
strategy through the development of a strong brand identity that enables it to
establish a clear, compelling and competitive presence in the marketplace.
In business people buy people and good business management is primarily
concerned with the effective management of business reputation and relationships.
This is especially true of hotels and restaurants.
At the same time, the business identity enables the team to accurately reflect
the long-term goals of the business (particularly in terms of positioning and
behaviour) whilst helping to drive the business strategy to achieve those goals.
Central to this role for the brand (and to the strategic and management
decisions that this prompts) is the requirement for a robust brand model that
enables the business to manage the identity and which is able to withstand the wide
range of demands that are being made on it by the various business functions.
Active management of the identity using a brand model or framework enables
the business to make a clear statement of intent and focuses all effort on the
achievement of business goals in a consistent and credible way. It also delivers
economies of money, time and effort as it streamlines decision-making throughout
the business.
Brand Delivering Benefits
What then does branding deliver to the hotel or restaurant business?
- It enables the business to build its reputation, manage its relationships
(especially its relationships with its customers) and play to its strengths.
- It levels the playing field. One of the beauties of brand development is that
the small business is at least as well equipped as the national or global chain to
build and maintain reputation and relationships (albeit at a more modest level).
- It provides a guiding principle and organising framework for the business and
takes the guesswork out of business decisions relating to relationship management
and communications.
- It allows business owners to make a clear statement of intent with regard to
their business direction and behaviour. It offers a common language for the
business team and a means by which they can readily describe what they do and
what makes them different.
- It enables a business to lead through its values and enables business owners
to trust to the intuitive leadership that distinguishes many of the great businesses.
- It makes for fresh and compelling communications that engage the customer
and provide a basis for long term business relationships.
- Finally, and most importantly, it helps a business to identify its market, carve
out a territory for itself that it can own and defend, and enables it to establish
genuine and sustainable competitive advantage.
Gerard Tannam is the founding Managing Director of Islandbridge Brand
Development. He delivers brand direction, planning and communications across a
wide range of sectors including property development, retail, hospitality and
tourism.
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Posted by admin on January 11th, 2010 — Posted in Branding
The quality of your logo can mean the difference between success or failure. It can be that simple!
Trademarks and Logos make up the most international language in the world. An excellent logo can cross many barriers and provide your organization with a means of delivering to your customers an unequivocal and uniform message.
Every successful company has its own “personality,” and just as human personalities are complex, so too is your company’s personality. A successful logo is a means of condensing a complex reality into a single, simple statement, one that can be controlled, modified, developed and matured over time.
Your logo needs to be much more than just a
distinguishing mark for your company. It must be an
indication of quality, value, and reliability.
Does your logo do these things successfully?:
• IDENTIFY your company, product, or service.
• DIFFERENTIATE it from the mass of other
similar companies.
• COMMUNICATE information as to your products
value and quality.
• ADD VALUE by causing you to provide a quality service in order to maintain your company’s reputation.
• REPRESENT potentially valuable assets. When people see your logo, can they tell by the design that your product or service is of high quality.
If your logo doesn’t do these things, then you might
need to update it, possibly seeking professional
advice.
Is your logo design really that important?
It is extremely important! Your logo is a part of the
foundation on which you build your brand. Especially since the recent explosion of Internet businesses, but even before that, consumers have an overwhelming variety of choices. Chances are that whatever you are selling, there is something similar to it available. Chances are there is someone in direct competition with you right now. Yes, there are very few products that are shielded from direct competition because of a patent or for some other reason.
It is because of this that much of your efforts in
marketing and branding should be concentrated on
building a distinctive and differentiated “brand
personality” for your company.
Take the success of Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. There is some difference between these two products, but this difference is very subtle. Plus, there are hundreds of other brands of cola on the market. Even so, these two brands, Coke and Pepsi, are able to dominate the world wide cola market. What is the main factor for their success? It is the strength and appeal of their brands.
And what is the foundation for their brands?
It is their powerful Logos!
Your logo is the means by which you can distinguish
your products and services and therefore serve both your needs and the needs of your customers.
Ok, so what are the TOP 5 components that make up an excellent logo?
1) Long lasting style.
It is often tempting to adopt a design that looks
really cool at the time but that can become outdated
very quickly. This leads to the logo being constantly
changed. Your logo designer should resist the urge to change your logo unless it is really necessary. It is only after consumers frequently see your logo that
people may start to notice it. (Sometimes this is after you are already bored with it)
2) Distinctiveness.
It is interesting to note that many new companies adopt logo styles that are very similar to everyone else’s. Don’t go overboard though, your designer should be sensitive to cultural norms. A really wacko design wouldn’t do well in funeral home. However, you should still seek distinctiveness.
3) Appealing to consumers.
Your logo must be appealing to those who aren’t
affiliated with your company. This means you must
test your logo. Show it to your customers and see what they think. Ask them what emotions it evokes in them.
4) Conveys the right image.
What image are you trying to get across to your
customers? Corporate? Upscale? Franchise looking?
5) Legibility
No matter what you do, if people don’t understand your logo, then it will be ineffective. Who are you trying to target? Where are you going to be displaying your logo other than your web site? Will it be on your letterhead, business cards, auto signs? Does your logo put out the same message no matter where it is displayed.
In conclusion, your logo is central to your company’s “personality”. Even if your company has a great personality, if your logo doesn’t convey that, then people may get the wrong idea and never do business with you. Within your logo and company name is held all of your investments, because it is this clear, identifiable aspect of your brand that the consumer uses in selecting your company or purchasing your products.
—————
The author, Nathan Cain has more ideas that will help your business marketing efforts.
Visit his promotional
products web site at http://www.Web-Magnets.com
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Posted by admin on January 10th, 2010 — Posted in Branding
About once a month a few of us at the office get together during lunch for what has become known as a SWAP meeting. We share thoughts, stories and sometimes play Pictionary. It’s a great way to relieve stress and learn interesting tidbits about the people we work with.
One afternoon our conversation turned, as all conversations eventually do, to the topic of The Lord of the Rings. Our discussion about differences between the book and the movie evolved into a discussion about the characters in the movie which made up the Fellowship of the Ring. The interesting thing to note was the difference in the levels of awareness of these characters by various people. We were struck by the similarities in how people remember these movie characters and how people remember certain brands.
The highest level of character awareness can be called ‘the geek level’. These are people who know the character’s full names as well as additional details about them. For example, knowing that Legolas, Sindarin elf of the woodland realm, is a great archer is comparable to those people who know the brand name, logo and jingle, all unaided. The next level, still pretty high on the scale, can identify the characters by name and race: Aragorn the human, Gimli the dwarf and Legolas the elf. These are the people who know the brand name and correctly match it to the product still without a helping hand. Then there are the people who know the characters by the actors who play them. These people may know the parent company of the brand or the name of the product, but don’t know the advertising or what the product actually does.
After that, the characters become a bit more fuzzy. They may be identified by type of being (the dwarf, the elf, the hobbit, etc.) or even worse “the hot guy from The Pirates of the Caribbean movie.” That’s when you know your brand may be in trouble. These people may only be aware of your brand when prompted, and may not be at all aware of the advertising or maybe incorrectly identify the brand that is being advertised.
There are varying levels of brand awareness. While we’d all like our brands to be known on the geek level, realistically they may only be known by association with another brand.
Scott White is President of Brand Identity Guru a leading Corporate Branding and Branding Research firm in Boston, MA.
Brand Identity Guru specializes in creating corporate and product brands that increase sales, market share, customer loyalty, and brand valuation.
This Article may be freely copied as long as it is not modified and this resource box accompanies the article, together with working hyperlinks.
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, Franklin Sports and many others, including numerous emerging growth companies.
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Posted by admin on September 8th, 2009 — Posted in Branding
Ever see an amazing band perform and wonder why you’ve never heard of them
before? Ever see an astonishing artist on the street and wonder why isn’t their work
isnt in a gallery? Ever see an astounding independent film and wonder why people
all over the world don’t know about it?
Me too!
It breaks my heart to know that there are musicians, painters, sculptors, and
filmmakers everywhere starving. Starving… for their art.
Why is a branding expert like me, who mostly deals with entrepreneurs and small
business owners, addressing musicians, artists, and filmmakers? It’s simple. Artists
are the ultimate entrepreneurs.
Think about it. Some create products and look for a market; others look at a market
and create products. Every entrepreneur starts the same way! It’s the notion of
business that often trips artists up.
Creating any piece of music, art, or film, is like creating a product. I’m not
suggesting that all products, art-based or otherwise, are equal. We all know a good
product, or painting, or film or vacuum cleaner when we experience it. Its just with
some artists, imaginary barriers get created. These illusive barriers can keep them
from creating the very success they want.
All creators have the same goals: to make a good product that is useful or
meaningful, have it well liked by many people and to be paid portionally to the
market they reach. Who doesn’t want that? Making music, paintings, sculptures,
photography or film should be addressed like any business with the same attention
to the big picture, IF you want to make a great living from it. But something often
holds artistic creators back from making a great living from their art.
As usual fear is the culprit.
Artists sometimes fear that if they develop the recognition and financial success that
comes from branding from them ’selves’, their peers will think that they’ve ’sold-out’
if they ‘make it’. Fellow starving artists might say that on the surface, but what they
are really saying is that they are envious of the success that you have created. It’s
far easier to put down someone else’s success than to make it them self. What’s
more important: what your peers think OR having your ‘art’ enjoyed by as many
people as possible and having the financial freedom that comes along with it?
Another fear that may prevent artists from taking their craft mainstream is that they
think that they will lose control of it by becoming a business and, heaven forbid, a
BIG business at that. Just like the art you make, what your business becomes is in
your control. If you develop your brand based on your vision of it from the start, you
protect it from becoming something else. Business is not bad -people that run
them can make bad decisions. The power of your business is always in your hands.
The largest fear for some artists is that the very nature of getting paid, and paid
well, for their art will change it. This will then set in motion the loss of creative
connection with the ‘art’ itself. I would argue that those that get lost were not very
centered on their purpose and passion in
the first place.
It’s odd to think that financial freedom, the freedom to do whatever you want, could
cause one to lose their way. In one of our workshops, we were fortunate to have a
successful artist who was ready to take his brand to the next level. When I asked
him what does he do, he answered, ‘Whatever I want.’ Who doesn’t want that?!
With the money you get from branding your craft, you can set up systems so that it
doesn’t interfere with your focus; donate to causes, invest in real estate, create
other products/partnerships. You can even hire the people to manage it all.
Leaving you free to… create.
The bottom line is simple, everyone has control over what they do and what they
manifest, it’s just that most people haven’t been shown how. Commitment to your
‘art’ does not preclude your ability to make money from it. In fact, the more
financial freedom you create for yourself, the more art you can create. A branding
mindset is taking that control into your own hands and owning the future. And it
must truly start from the inside -from your innate talent and your grand vision for
your art. Branding your art comes down to your commitment to yourself and to the
art itself. Branding is not only slogans and TV ads; it’s the power to be who you are
and communicating it to everyone proudly.
The definition of artist:
1. somebody who creates art
2. somebody who does something with great skill and creativity
3. somebody who is very good at doing something
Nowhere does it say you have to starve to make good art or good products.
Remember that the next time a musician, or painter, or sculptor, or filmmaker you
know breaks through to success. Ask yourself, what are you really committed to?
Don’t cheat the world of your gift. Developing a
brand mindset with integrity from the inside out is guaranteed to reach more
people. Period.
If you do something that you really love, you’re really good at it, and people pay you
to keep doing it, then branding it is not selling out, it’s selling in… to you!
Written by Kim Castle, the Co-founder of BrandU the home of only step-by-
step process for developing your business as a brand from the inside out!
To get information on upcoming BrandU one-day workshops: http://
www.whybrandu.com/Public/events/workshop/index.cfm?semID=13
Get your Why You?!(sm) monthly ezine for easy-to-read tips and informative
insights on branding. To subscribe: http://www.whybrandu.com/
“BrandU Big Business Success No Matter Your Size”
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Posted by admin on July 28th, 2009 — Posted in Branding
Last issue, I talked about increasing your Brand Love– meaning to increase the affection that prospects and customers feel toward your business.
Why?
Because increasing “affection” will build relationships. Those relationships, if made strong enough by increased Brand Love, build a bridge for prospects to become customers. To some, that bridge might be made of rope, swaying in the breeze, complete with wooden planks. To others, it will be a mighty stone structure. It all depends on how well you connect with each prospect.
It also means putting more cement on the bond with the customers you already have. Locking customers in, tighter and tighter with every brand experience is a critical aspect to profitability and growth. The reason here is twofold: It costs less to maintain current customers than to gain new ones, and the best advertising is word of mouth. Sounds like a cliché (’cause they are), but… it’s true, folks.
So, the big question is: How to do it and do it better than your competition.
Previously, I mentioned getting honest and forthright feedback from customers. Having one-on-one conversations can help. You will also get valued honesty from questionnaire cards that have a few quick answers AND some space to write in other thoughts. Actually, that could be the most important aspect of the card. Getting this kind of feedback can provide huge rewards.
First, this type of “silent” feedback lets the writer give a more honest opinion, rather than talking face-to-face. They don’t have to sign their name. Also, the feedback given can open up trains of thought that may not have occurred to you before. You may get insight into improving your core business. The insight may turn into a realization that leads to big discovery, such as a different product, service, or an entire market.
Another way to increase Brand Love is the proper training of your employees. Nothing is more of downer (except perhaps bad merchandise) to a customer than an incompetent employee. Service
should be a big part of your marketing plan, and that means involving time and expense to train your employees properly. We’ve all heard our economy is becoming more service-based, but we’ve all suffered from bad service- more often than not. Being on hold five minutes or more. Being ignored when you walk in the door. Given incorrect information, being overcharged, or having something delivered late. All bad news for customers.
I once called a local outlet of a national home center chain, and I was on hold for 30 minutes! I stayed on as long as I could, just to see actually how many minutes it took for someone to answer. It was so long, I could hum their jingle in my sleep! And they never answered. Now, I go strictly to their competition. Alarmingly, it’s to the point where mediocre service is so noticeably different, it gets applauded. Keeping your employees trained and caring starts at the top. So if this hasn’t been a priority for you, make it one, and you’ll see your referrals go up.
This leads into my next point - becoming the Preferred Employer. In the marketing triangle, there are three elements: Business, Customers, and Employees. With the Business at the apex of the triangle, it cannot exist without the other two. You’re not just marketing to customers. You are marketing to your employees too, because they are investing their time to work for you.
When you create an excellent work atmosphere and employees find working for you rewarding, you get great performance from them AND you attract top talent. Those are two things that are priceless and almost insure success. Conversely, when you don’t care about your employees, their training, or make work an unpleasant experience, count on poor to mediocre help without much care or effort. I cannot think of a faster way to drive good help and customers away.
Being the Preferred Employer doesn’t mean doesn’t mean there are no rules in place or you pay obscenely high wages for comparable work. It simply means your employees are respected, taught to do their job well, given proper feedback when needed, and are made to feel valued.
Take a good objective look around your business. Get honest feedback from your customers AND your employees. Great businesses become that way because they are constantly searching for ways to become better. Those two groups should be your most important and most depended-on allies in that never- ending search. ~
Republishing part of or entire article, in all forms, is welcomed, as long as author bio info is printed and proper authorship credit is given. As a courtesy, please send author a complimentary copy.
John is a freelance commercial writer based in Omaha, Nebraska. He publishes a free monthly e-zine focusing on branding, advertising, and marketing from his web site http://www.brandedbetter.com. Speaking with both agency and in- house experience, he knows the most valuable asset of a business is its brand.
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Posted by admin on July 28th, 2009 — Posted in Branding
Recently, I was reviewing our website statistics. One of the sites that had a link to mine caught me by surprise. Since this is a family publication, I won’t include the name of the website. But, let’s just say it contains a four-letter word that people do not use in most business circles.
The website was basically a bulletin board for people to rant about other companies. The posting about my website started out with the subject, ‘Is this website just a little too slick?’ The postings went on to say that my website had a lot of sizzle, but no steak.
My first thought was, ‘How dare they say something so rude after I worked so hard on my site. Are they trying to say that my business has no substance? They know nothing about me and what I do. I can’t believe they would attack MY business image.’
You see, those of you who have met me know that I am a small business image consultant. I work on everything from customer service to documentation and training. Basically, all the behind-the-scenes things that affect the business image. How could MY website have a bad image?
Then I took a step back. And, with a huge gulp of reluctance, I admitted to myself that they were right. Earlier that week, I had started to redefine my business services. Small business image consulting no longer ‘fit’ the real me. And somehow that was showing through on my website. It WAS a bit too slick. It was not getting to the essence of what I wanted to say.
Instead of just changing my website, I decided to take on a more important endeavor. I took a look at my identity and my brand. I found this amazing book called Make A Name For Yourself by Robin Fisher Roffer. This was the wake-up call that I needed. After pouring over the book, I began to get in touch with my natural gifts.
While documentation has always been a part of my business, it wasn’t the part that I ‘played up’ at networking meetings. Small business image consulting sounded exotic and sexy. It got people talking about customer service and the importance of it. It got me speaking engagements. It got me lots of press. This was all of the sizzle that they mentioned on that bulletin board. But, it didn’t get me what I needed most. The steak - more phone calls and emails requesting my services, and ultimately, more satisfaction.
I decided to put my writing services in the forefront. In addition to my technical writing, I now specialize in lengthy documentation and press releases. The process of redefining my business was a scary one. All these feelings of fear and inadequacy appeared. I started to wonder what people would think of the change. Would they think that this was bad for my business image?
Then, I started to wonder how many other business owners are just offering what sounds good. How many of them aren’t expressing their natural gifts through their business. How many are afraid to make a change?
None of us should be afraid to redefine our services or to create a brand where there wasn’t one before. Now I am more secure in what I do. I am true to myself, my passion, and my gifts. It’s a freedom and a liberation that I’ve never felt before.
My services no longer have an exotic and sexy sound to them. But, at least now I can offer the sizzle AND the steak.
—
Leila Johnson owns Johnson Solutions Group in Rio Rancho, NM. She acts as Your Virtual Documentation Department. Leila is a versatile writer who works with those small businesses that don’t have the time or expertise to handle their documentation. Leila can be reached at 505-896-9379 or through her “new and improved” website at http://www.johnsongroups.com
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Posted by admin on June 8th, 2009 — Posted in Branding
One of fiction’s finest marketing minds, The Cheshire Cat,
once told Alice in Wonderland something all business owners
and marketers should remember:
“If you don’t care where you are going, it doesn’t make a
difference which path you take.”
For businesses bent upon success, it does matter which path
you take. A positioning statement helps you chart your path
to success because it lets all your audiences - internal and
external - know where your organization stands in the battle
for your consumers’ minds.
Positioning: What Is It?
You should not confuse a positioning statement with your
market position. As Harry Beckwith states in his book
Selling the Invisible, “A position is a cold-hearted,
no-nonsense statement of how you are perceived in the minds
of your prospects. A positioning statement, by contrast
expresses how you wish to be perceived. It is the core
message you want to deliver in every medium.”
Your positioning statement will be found where three items
intersect:
- your business acumen/aspirations
- your market
- what truly differentiates you
Of the three, it is your market which holds the key to your
positioning. That doesn’t mean that your acumen and
aspirations are irrelevant. You must have a clear
understanding and shared agreement on these at the
management level in order to develop an effective
positioning statement.
My approach to developing an effective positioning
statement and an actionable marketing plan begins with
gaining this understanding. Here’s how we go about it, and
you can too:
- interviews with management and employees to learn job
responsibilities, current marketing practices, as well as to
surface questions for customer interviews
- a review of appropriate primary and secondary research
- a series of one-on-one customer interviews
Customer interviews allow us to probe for information such
as:
- how customers perceive your “product” and other products in
the category. what the customer wants from the product
category he is not now receiving. what is the primary
customer benefit of your product
- how your customers currently position your brand. how
customers perceive your competitors
- what media habits, lifestyles do customers share. what
industries do they work in, what are their titles, what
associations do they belong to
- how do customers want to be communicated with
Once all the information is in, you may develop a
positioning statement that clearly says who you are, defines
your audiences, indicates what markets you are targeting,
and states what makes you different from your competitors.
Once this is done, everyone knows where they are going and
then it’s easy to find the right path.
About the author: Harry Hoover is managing principal of Hoover ink PR, http://www.hoover-ink.com. He has 26 years of experience in crafting and delivering bottom line messages that ensure success for serious businesses like Brent Dees Financial Planning, Duke Energy, Levolor, North Carolina Tourism, Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems, VELUX and Verbatim.
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Posted by admin on June 7th, 2009 — Posted in Branding
“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. If questioned for the truth, what would likely be said is, “you bored me at hello!” That is definitely not a great way to grow your business into a powerful name brand. Networking works, but not if you leave your prospects bored.
Networking opportunities are everywhere. You can find them at Chamber of Commerce and Better Business Bureau events, not to mention when you are in line at the grocery store. There are even groups of people who regularly meet solely for the purpose of networking. Unfortunately, all of the networking opportunities in the world will not help grow your business unless people remember you and your company after you are gone.
Here are three strategies to avoid boring people during your next networking opportunity:
1) Gone in Thirty-Seconds - Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Any longer than thirty seconds for your “elevator speech” and you will be tuned out. People cannot sit through a thirty-second commercial without changing the channel on the television. Your business will be treated the same way. They will start thinking about what they need to pick up on the way home or other random thoughts. Many times, they are simply waiting for you to stop talking so they can try to sell you on their business. Your brand message must be short, simple and to the point. If you ramble too much, the person will start feeling like Charlie Brown in school - “wahwah, wah wah wah,” “yes ma’am.”
2) Red or Black - Pick a color. Roulette gives you the option of betting on red or black. If you bet red, you win when it hits on any red number. Winning is good. If it hits on any black number, you lose. Losing is not so good. However, when you “hedge” and bet on red and black together you are guaranteed to not win. In a networking situation, limit what you talk about. Sure, you are risking leaving out something the prospect would like to hear. However, unless you get lucky and mention it first, the odds are that you will lose their attention by then anyway. Limit the scope of your brand, or say everything and be remembered for nothing.
3) Listen - That’s right, you are remembered more when you listen. Most of us go through our day fighting to be heard. It feels really good to be acknowledged and understood. So good that we automatically think highly of the person listening to us. Listening demonstrates that you value the person talking. Sincerely listen to what the other person has to say and they will leave with high regard for you and your business.
There ya have it, networking success as simple as 1, 2, 3! Follow all three strategies and you are sure to notice a sharp improvement in your networking. Before you know it, you will leave your future clients saying “you sold me at hello!” Now, those types of responses build a powerful brand!
Kevin Kearns is a small business branding coach. He holds a Master of Science degree in Organization Development and is a member of the Coachville Graduate School of Coaching. With a mixture of hands-on experience, research, and FUN, Kevin helps small businesses become the only choice. Visit http://www.kevinkearns.com to join The Branding Bunch - a community made up of small business owners that want to grow their business the easy way.
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Posted by admin on June 5th, 2009 — Posted in Branding
Do you want to attract new customers while building greater loyalty among your current customers? Include your customers in your marketing and promotions. By creating greater awareness of your customers (and their businesses) you may help to build their businesses and increase their demand for your products and services. Whether or not using customers in your marketing causes them to buy more from you, your willingness to showcase them will cause them to feel more attachment to you and will encourage them to remain customers for a long time to come. Here are a few ways you can make this work for you.
Ask your customers to share their success stories and get their permission to use them. How have they benefitted from their association with you? Have them share their stories on audio or video or in print and use them in your marketing. In their ads, Sterling Bank in Houston has their small business customers tell how they grew their businesses with the help of their Sterling bankers. It sends a great message about the bank, and increases awareness of the featured businesses.
Tell your customers’ stories in your newsletter. If you publish a print or online newsletter, include profiles of your customers and tell how you worked with them to help them succeed. Or, use the stories in your print ads. A photo of a happy customer accompanied by the story of what you did for them is very persuasive.
Audio and video recordings of customer stories can be incorporated into your television and radio advertising. Hearing customers in their own words is a powerful way to communicate the benefits of doing business with you, and your customers will appreciate the visibility they get when they are featured in your ads. You can also use streaming audio and video files at your web site.
Feature links to your customers’ web sites from yours. It doesn’t cost anything to add a few links, and customers will appreciate the extra visibility. It may also help improve the search engine rankings, not only for your customers’ web sites, but for yours as well.
Make connections between customers. Do you have customers who could benefit from knowing other customers? Perhaps you could make referrals to bring them together. Or, host a networking event where they can get to know each other.
Include customers in your publicity. The media like to have multiple sources for stories, perhaps to back up what you are saying or to provide another point of view. In one case, I was able to get a client included in a story and she was able to get one of her clients into the story, too! Your clients will not only appreciate that you got them publicity, they will be impressed with your media “pull.”
Promoting your customers as well as yourself is a great win-win for your business. Look for opportunities to create a greater bond between yourself and your customers by including them in your marketing and promotions.
Copyright Cathy Stucker. As the Idea Lady, Cathy Stucker can help you attract customers and make yourself famous with inexpensive and free marketing ideas. Get free marketing tips, articles and more at http://www.IdeaLady.com/.
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Posted by admin on May 21st, 2009 — Posted in Branding
Naming your business is probably the second thing you’ll do when you start it,
right after you decide what sort of business it will be. It’s a decision that you’ll
have to live with every day so here’s something to think about before you print
up those business cards.
Names don’t matter. Really, there is no correlation between the success of a
business and it’s name. Only the first time or two that someone hears the
name of your company will the words have any meaning. After that, it becomes
a collection of sounds.
Maybe the first time you heard the name Nike you associated it with the
goddess of victory, and that’s only if you studied mythology. Now your first
association is with athletic wear. The same is true for Reebok and Adidas, and
you probably don’t even know what those names are in reference to in the first
place. The business becomes their meaning.
Your name doesn’t even have to describe what your business does. Take
Revlon as an example. Or Accenture. When I was thinking of names for Stesnet,
my website, I noticed that many of the most successful sites had nonsense
names, like Yahoo!, eBay, and Amazon. Meanwhile, a company with a
descriptive name like Pets.com sank.
Your name can even be misleading. Take Duane-Reade, the ubiquitous New
York City drug store chain. The name comes from the fact that the first store
was founded on Broadway between Duane and Reade Streets in lower
Manhattan. They’re everywhere now, and only one is at the location that bears
the company name. Even more confusing, Bleeker Bob’s Records sole location
isn’t on Bleeker Street; it’s a block away on 3rd.
The only time names do matter is when they’re really bad. Henry Ford made
the right decision in naming his company after himself. If his last name had
been Czerniejewski, he would have had problems. Another example of a way to
go wrong is like when a Thai restaurant opened here in New York under the
name of Phuket. They changed it as soon as their customers explained to them
what was so funny. Also, avoid names that are too close to those of big
companies. Coco-Cola is probably going to get you letters from lawyers.
But, given the option, name your business something catchy and descriptive
anyway. Even if it doesn’t help, it can’t hurt. Look at Dunkin’ Donuts, or
NetFlix. Even a ho-hum descriptive name won’t hurt you, like British Petroleum,
or American Airlines.
Pick a name you like, and live with it for a week or two. Then get three opinions
from people you trust. If it passes those two tests, go with it. If later you
decide you don’t like it, you can always change it, like Philip Morris and the Bell
Atlantic Corporation did.
Fred Stesney
Stesnet Community Host
Stesnet is the only online community created exclusively for business owners.
http://www.stesnet.com
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