Studies showing how investing in branding can make a difference
When you’re running a business, investing in a professional to help you with your branding then it can seem like a costly and unnecessary expense – unless your brand is incredibly outdated a rebrand rarely feels like an essential. But the thing is, it’s probably a more crucial tool for growing your business than you think.
Why a brand matters?
Having a lacklustre brand or one that looks home-made and generally unprofessional will make people question the quality of your service or product – if a company can’t be bothered to invest in itself, why should they?
In today’s market, the internet means the consumer is confronted with an abundance of choice from entering a simple search term – and your business only has a few seconds to make a good first impression. If you website, product and brand don’t look the part, it’s likely you’ll lose…
Plus three ingredients that you can combine to create a powerful name and strap line
The name you select for a brand, product or service will clearly have a major impact on how prospects and customers perceive your service, but what are the options for choosing the best name? There are lots of ways to name a business, a service, or a product. The addition of a strap line can take the name a little further. From nonsensical words, like Google, to highly descriptive names, like Compare the Market – there are just so many ways to think about naming! Whilst it's true that naming is a bit of an art and today we are often constrained by domain name availability, there are certainly a few issues to consider to guide you to choose a name that can work much harder for you.
1. Nonsense names – e.g. Google
The benefit of a name like this is that once you’ve lodged…
Recommendations for a 1 hour brand audit process
There could be a number of reasons for carrying out your brand audit and there are as many metrics to be considered in order to get the answers, as far as the reception of your brand is concerned.
Your brand needs to stand out and a regular brand audit will make sure that you stay different.
So, what is included in a brand audit? The process involves a number of elements which would I will explain. You may be looking to acquire more customers, or your business may have taken a downwards slope, or maybe your revenue is going down. No matter what, even if your business is doing well, it is essential to do a regular online brand audit [see this Smart Insights brand audit template for a suggested structure to…
Best practices and examples of building a brand in 2014
For many new businesses and startups, failure is not an option to be considered. Unfortunately, failure is exactly what the majority of new companies face the first time they introduce their brand on the internet. Far too often, e-commerce endeavours fail and the sad part is that most of the time, the owner has no idea what may have happened.
If this sounds like something you have been through, it may be time to take a good, long look at your branding strategy.
Why many branding strategies fail?
Many people do not realize exactly what a brand is or what it means to have one. They have a vague idea… yet never take the time to understand fully the concept or even realize that there is more to it than a recognizable logo. They find an appealing image, slap a catchy phrase onto it,…
Learning the commercial case for creative marketing
I'm a fan of marketing that thinks, before it does. And, if I am honest, tired of "digital" marketing that focuses on channels and moving media spend without addressing the real strategic challenges, without putting the customer, and so integrated marketing, first.
It's why I posted recently about meaningful marketing and brands such as Dove, I think wherever brands are seeking to genuinely connect with the consumer, commercial success will follow. If brands act in a commoditised way, expect commoditised results.
Just a few weeks ago the Coca-Cola Company won 20 awards at the 2013 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, presented with the 2013 Creative Marketer of the Year Award at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, widely considered the world’s most important award for creative excellence in brand communications. So what can other…
Brands owners: cut the red tape for commercial success
I recently spent a few days in and around a large global brand, a business that we've started working with and are still learning about. A business with an enviable brand reputation and standing that evokes immediate feelings of quality and luxury, of innovation and progress.
Yet I've noticed that, from a marketing and brand communications perspective, there's unfortunately great news for their competitors since there are significant, self-imposed road-blocks to focussing on marketing priorities and getting things done. The problem in short is that the corporate 'brand police' have more power than the commercial sales and marketing teams.
The learnings are too important to not share since I realise that I've encountered the same issues time and again, it's really not unique. I think these issues will be recognised by those working within brands,…
The urgent need for risk-taking and creativity in marketing
I recently attended Seth Godin's presentation around his new book, the The Icarus Deception, a 'Penguin Live' event.
I've been meaning to sit down and consider what I learned from it so that I could share it, so here are my key learnings from the man himself…
Icarus who?
If you don't know the reason for the name, The Icarus Deception, it centres around the myth of Icarus. You will know he ignored his father’s instructions not to fly too close to the sun, resulting in his home-made wings over-heating and ultimately in a fatal crash into the sea. Icarus, flew to close to the sun, he got burned, simple, that's the part everyone knows.
The less known part of the myth is that Icarus was also warned about getting too close to the sea, about flying too low.…
Creativity paves the way to commercial success
Let's face it, in the grand scheme of things, people don’t care about brands that much, they care about themselves. As individuals busy in our own worlds, we care about what we want, need, worry about or want to solve.
It stands to reason then, that if we want people to pay attention to our brands (to Like, Click, Share, Comment), we often hear this as "engagement", then we have to face up to this fact and the human emotions where our brands risk falling in to the 'whatever' category, our target audience simply have better things to go and do. This is all getting worse for brands with the advance of mobile technologies and access to more information, tools, apps and social platforms.
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you…
Actions speak louder than clicks
Value/Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Starcom MediaVest SMBI Study
Starcom MediaVest reveal how social engagement benefits the brand
I thought it would be useful to share this new research in our alert since unusually it shows what outcomes different types of social media interaction lead to:
The SMBI study essentially measures actions that indicate future involvement with the brand, they did this by monitoring user's social media behaviour and then follow up dialogue with those users.
The Social Media Behavioural Index (SMBI) is the result of a Starcom MediaVest Group study of brand engagement. Working with over 6,000 Twitter, Facebook and YouTube users across 29 brands.
Several sectors were researched, including finance; food and drink, health and beauty; retailers; media and entertainment; and technology & telecommunications.
The study offers several key take-aways
The most engaging social media action revolves around commenting and sharing content
The deeper the interaction with social media the…
How do you really approach your marketing planning?
After my recent post on marketing with the human factor, I've been thinking that most marketing today is still very product or category orientated - based entirely on what the business has to say or sell... typically it’s very features orientated and competitor obsessed as opposed to what the customer is wanting to find, learn, decide or buy? This isn't so much a criticism but a reality of pressured organisations today where marketers (including digital) are focussed on sales in its most direct sense.
There’s potentially a huge gulf between the marketers and customers which is where customer-centric marketing came in to the fore 10 years or so back and Philip Kotler inspired a new generation of marketers. Customer-centric marketing was born from the information age and where CRM’s over took corporate structures broadcasting information en masse, it typically adds to product based…
