So you’ve designed a website, or had one designed for you … you’ve tested it and it functions correctly … but something is missing – your website isn’t CRAP!
That’s right, your website should be as CRAP as possible!
What is CRAP?
All design, no matter whether it is print or online really should be CRAP. The word CRAP refers to the 4 major principles of design; Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Position (or proximity).
Each of these principles has an effect on your design, at least to some extent (and never the same extent on two projects). CRAP is an easy to remember word and if you can remember the main points of each principle then CRAP will help guide you into a more attractive design (than if you don’t make it CRAP). Now, as with most things on the web CRAP-ness began as offline design principles – however, I believe they are just as valuable online as offline.
Creating Contrast in Design
In design you should always avoid 2 or more things being “similar” – this is to say that (for example) if you have headings and text you should always make the difference clear. This means not making them a similar font size, and as with in the case on this website the same colour. The main point here is that If it isn’t the same make it look different a fairly simple idea
So how do you create differences?
Different Font Styles & Font Sizes
Different Font or Background Colours
Underline or Border an Object
Re-Align an Object
Space Your Objects
So you’ve got some ideas on how to create contrast on your website, but that isn’t enough because I bet your thinking of some real world examples on your own website(s) and need some help with this. So let’s take a look at some real world examples of contrast on the web.
Emphasis of Interaction
Now there are many ways to signify emphasis of user primary interaction, or “calls to action” as they are more widely known. However, I want to look at the worlds number 1 online user interaction (at least in my view) …. Google
As always Google have kept design to a minimum and user interaction to a maximum. It is clear here what the call to action is… to search! so the buttons stand out clearly and show the user where to click. When you look at a wider view you can see navigation at the top of the screen on both the left and right but this isn’t the main interaction and so is all but ignored by most users.
Highlight Your Notices
Contrasting and highlighting can be very important when things go wrong. We’ve all seen the windows pop-up errors that appear all over the place (even on the high street) but online error messages are vital. If you are filling in a form online, it gets rejected and you can’t find out why easily then you will probably stop filling in the form, for website owners this mean’s you’ve lost a conversion!
Below is an example of a simple error message standing out from it’s form.
Notice how the red border of the box makes the error stand out, this is emphasised even more so by a light red background differentiated from the page background this also makes the text and therefore error stand out.
Repetition of Elements
Repetition of design elements throughout your website(s) creates not just continuity but also an air of professionalism – chopping and changing makes for a second rate interface. Put simply by repetition in this case I am simply talking about “being consistent” in how a site looks, feels and how elements function.
Now generally you will have noticed repetition subconsciously relating to brands, with brands the repetition is dictated in style by brand guidelines. Online this can be a little harder to control for any business, however it is not impossible. The best way to ensure consistency is simply to employ someone as the “controller” or “manager” of your website (or group of) – this will ensure a continued style of user interface.
One of the most consistent of online brands is … once again … Google. Can you see how the below or consistent in design?
Aligning your Content
This is one of the more simply explained CRAP attributes of any design. We all know of the 3 major alignments (mainly because we’ve all used them on Microsoft Office); Left, Centre & Right. The rule of thumb is simple; Always think about alignment, never randomly align. This is to say as with the above continuity you should always follow your own rules for alignment of elements (and this includes text obviously).
Correctly aligned elements can be used to guide the user through a document or web page, just as incorrectly aligned elements can harm the user experience (and make people turn away in many cases). Users naturally will follow a hard line of an element, so if you are left aligned this is where the user will focus (on the left), and the same with the right. The next natural occurrence is that humans will also follow pages from top to bottom in the search for what they are after (generally skimming content), a more natural flow is from top left to bottom right (as with print on an A4 Page).
Now, do a Google Search … you will see all text is left-aligned, very little content (if any) is otherwise aligned.
Positioning is Key
Proximity of elements, sounds a little like rocket science… but it isn’t. Quite simply I am talking about placing related elements close to each other (primarily navigation/controls). Mentally, things that are positioned closer to each other are subconsciously seen as having a stronger relationship that those far apart. However, being close doesn’t always mean related, this can difference is easily shown by a breakdown header or some other break point.
A clear example of this (once again) can be seen on the latest Google SERP update.
As you can see Google have added a secondary navigation tool bar to the left of the results (primary tool being the search bar). The proximity of this navigation to the results shows these are related items. Also you can see a clear horizontal rule between the top links and bottom, this shows a split in relation. The lower links are secondary tools for a user to use (my guess is they may look nice but aren’t often used).
Following the rules of being CRAP will make for a better website & better user experience all around.
So is your website CRAP? Let SEOAndy know via twitter (@andykinsey)
A strong brand is what can differentiate your business from any other, it helps you to stand out from the crowd and allow your customers to identify with your company in an engaging manner. Brands create loyalty, trust, a base on which to build your business and most importantly a connection with your customers.
When you think brands (like I asked you to with our previous series of brand management posts) you will think of the likes of Apple, Nike or maybe Asda, it is this train of thought which disenfranchises most small businesses from thinking that they too can create and develop their own brand.
As you may have guessed from the title of this post, this is not the case. Indeed, a strong brand for a SME (small-to-medium sized business) can be built with relatively little expense, this is because branding is all about perception. Perception of which is created in the minds of your staff, your stakeholders (funders/partners) and most importantly that of your clients, is based on what they see, hear, feel and experience with your company and/or products/services you offer.
The emotions (of the brand perception) are based on the messages your brand gives off. This is to say everything from if your showroom is warm and comfortable to how nice your staff are to the quality of services you offer, so you see it is not exclusively your company image or logo. (The logo of a company is NOT it’s brand)
Basically – A brand is much more about the promises you make your customers and how you fulfil these promises.
At this point it is therefore a good idea to know exactly what kind of clientèle you wish to attract, what your core message is, and this should be done before you even begin to create your brand – these should be in your business plan*
Top things to consider:
Who do you wish to attract? (male/female, age range, type of person etc etc)
Where does your business fit into the market (as a whole and locally)?
Is your company based around cost or quality?
Who are your competitors (locally, nationally and internationally)?
How do your competitors look & behave? Describe the brand of your competitor.
Does your business (SME) need a brand?
Whether you like it or not, even now your business has a brand. That’s right even if you think your business has no brand it does, it has a personality.
Customers and Suppliers will already have formed an opinion of what kind of business you are. This will have been formed from simple things like phone calls, emails, letters, how quickly you pay your bills, how clean your office (or store) is and how receptive your staff are. All of the above perceptions of your brand are based on a deep level of thinking, they are subconscious perceptions, which may be working with you (or against you).
Once you realise that you do have a brand and simple actions can form opinions of the brand, you can really start to take control of the brand. This means controlling brand strength through producing/creating a more cohesive and positive message. So without further thought let’s get you started with the basic building blocks of your brand.
The good news is that all you need for this exercise is a pen and paper
Starting Point > Building Blocks of Brand Creation
Over the years more and more companies are awakening to realise just how powerful their brand could be for them. Take for example the word “cola” … have a think about it, my bet is you will be thinking CocaCola or Pepsi Cola … and so is everyone else, so now the question is what could you do with your brand to make it as strong as these in your market.
The Cola Effect
Firstly, you must take you must take a good hard look at yourself, your business and just what you have to work with, the longer you take on this section the more it will pay off later. You may find little to work with (to progress with) in which case you will find what you need to change and adapt – these are valid findings … as always in the process make notes. This is known in the branding/marketing trade as a basic “brand audit” or “brand review” – though we would probe areas maybe you are too close to and take for granted.
Now you’ve got some notes, put them to one side. With any luck you already have a business, you have clients and suppliers, so ask them for their opinions – maybe do this via an online survey (people are much more likely to be honest and brutal if you are not stood in front of them). The views of these people are vitally important as they are the ones perceiving your brand, they are the ones to whom the brand really matters. They provide an “outsiders view” of your brand, adding depth to your review.
Repeat the above step with your staff, see if they agree with you and/or your external assets. Ascertaining the facts is very important, and the chances are your view, the staffs view and external views will be different - but hopefully not significantly. If they are the same brilliant, if not (as in 99% of cases) it simply means you need to redefine your message and find a new way to convey it clearly.
Tip: By including staff and stakeholders in your brand review and giving them a voice of opinion which you take seriously (you have to give them an open field to criticise without fear of rebuff) increases the likelyhood they will be willing to help make the changes you need, and it will also add loyalty and install confidence in your team.
During your brand review there are several key questions you need to be asking all parties:
What are the core abilities of your company? and the staff?
What are you and your staff good and bad at? (remember be brutally honest)
How do your customers and suppliers view your business?
(ask them! – reliable, cheap, expensive, nice, warm, quality, exciting, customer focused etc)
What words are associated with your business? (ask other business owners locally)
Is there a pattern in your client-base? (demographic)
Why are your client-base who they are?
(you maybe targeting 18-24 year olds but your client base are all 40-odd… why?)
Who would you like to work with in the short-term, and long-term? (audience wise)
Finally, are there any black holes in your business, things people say are missing?
Constructing A Brand Review
When you’ve got the answers to the questions you’ve posed it’s time to take your notes again and compare to find the differences. With more answers you get more clarity for the review, now on a single page go through the answers you have, take key points, take recurring views and importantly write down the extremes of the opinions.
Now you’ve identified these differences in perception of your brand it is time to generate a plan, remain realistic and don’t be tempted to idealise your plan based on other brands or similar shops – you are your own business and stand alone in the market. Remember however that you need to be appealing to your market in some manner, whether its simply amazing products or astounding customer service.
Development of Brand Values
You’ve done the leg work, you’ve researched and analysed opinions of your brand, both internally and externally. Now it’s time to turn our attention to your “brand values” and the “brand commitments”.
Ideally you should have around three standing core values, two of which are based on difference brokers and the third is an overall value. There is zero benefit in having pages of unworkable brand values, you’ll never remember them and nor will your staff or external assets – forget long lists be concise and to the point.
Core Overall Brand Values – these are the values which your business must have to operate within a given market, generally unless you are in a tiny niche these maybe somewhat common to you and your competition.
As an example lets look at café’s – core brand values maybe a simple as being clean (both staff and equipment), quality food and good end user cost – most café’s will have similar values.
Difference Broker Brand Values – these are the values on the other side of the coin. They are what makes your business different from your competition, this is the important set of values which makes the big difference to your customers, it is something they will associate with you over any competition.
There should always be a link between who your brand really is and where you want your brand to go – i.e how you wish to be perceived by customers and suppliers. The most important thing in this process is often your staff, getting staff to understand your vision of the brand values can help define your brand significantly. And remember earlier you got them involved in the consultation, this is where they will thank you by helping you out.
Having staff understand your brand empowers them to behave in a certain manner which will reinforce your brand. So if you’re a casual company maybe they will wear everyday clothes to work (make sure you logo them up), but if you are working in a salon you want to show professionalism so your staff should be wearing a recognisable uniform. The staff you have are one of the most important tools in your arsenal for brand development, they are in a vital position to make or break your brand.
As I say they could break your brand, this happens if they don’t understand your brand values, don’t agree with them or sometimes simply aren’t at your meeting where you take questions – they’ve only seen them in writing and don’t understand it so interpret the values in a different way to you and other staff. Damage can easily be made into a company with one bad event, but it can take many years for this to be recovered – take BP at this current time with the events in america, this huge oil leak will not only cause staffing changes but will cost billions of pounds in clear up costs, but also billions in lost sales due to damage of the brand. So I repeat by empowering your staff from the start of your consultation you get them on board and understanding where you are going and why.
Your “brand promises” and “brand values” are the foundations on which you will base your brand, they are most vital aspects of your brand – but they can be helped along with a few little ideas … which conveniently i’ve put just below this section (how nice of me )
Brand Identity
This is the bit many of you will have visited for this is where your brand meets a logo … this is called brand identity (sometimes referred to as corporate identity). This of course refers to the visual identifier of a brand, the logo, this is one of the things which allows your audience to recognise your brand.
As with everything in your brand which carries a message, once you have a logo to make the most of the logo’s impact for your brand you should apply it everywhere you can. This being a visual identifier (unlike brand tone – see below) this means putting it on all of your products, your website, your business cards, letter heads, company vehicles, newsletters (both internal and external) and of course emails (there are many more but I won’t bore you).
When you completed your brand review, one of the things commonly found is that the logo needs “updating” or bringing up to date, in order to meet your business values – which may be significantly different since your last logo design. The logo is your opportunity to engage with your audience, things like style, colour and design are all elements which contribute to the effectiveness of your logo in engaging with your potential customers.
In brand growth it is, of course, important to meet the needs of today’s ever changing markets (both locally and globally). Many big brands do this each year, every year (for example the multiple different apple logo’s over the decades). They also evolve the brand by examining the smaller details, for example Texas Instruments (a microprocessor manufacturer) examined whether sending paper datasheets with their products was effective and whether people used them … the answer was no (and its the same when people send newsletters in the post for many years without renewing the list – do people still read them after 5 years… probably not) … so TI made a move and put the datasheets online. This worked well for 2 several reasons; they could update brand image more easily as they weren’t reliant on old customer who would recognise a new logo, also it saved a lot of money – it cut packaging down and it also as a whole reduced cost of marketing ( part of which is now profit, part they reinvest).
If your business is in a market subject to changes then you should consider building into your “identity” a proportion of flexibility to allow your image to change over the years.
Brand Tone
Messages which your brand give off, be this for internal or external usage, memo email or bill board poster, the tone of a brand is important to the communication. The tone of voice is everything from the words you use, to the style used and the personality your message gives off.
The brand values and your identity should help you decide the right tone of voice for your company. The big companies have provided us with some fantastic examples, just one of which is the Virgin brand.
Virgin are known to be cheeky, friendly, outgoing and young – they aim for the youthful market of teenagers.
A great example is one of the latest adverts for virgin (bingo) - embedded below.
Ok maybe this doesn’t have the viral factor that virgin were seeking, but it does show that they aren’t taking themselves too seriously – and its the same with almost every other brand to come from virgin – find out more by reading some of the Richard Branson Books (here).
So with this in mind as yourself, does your brand have an existing tone and what is the tone? Also does your brand speak on a one-to-one basis or in third person? Are you approaching your audience in an attractive and friendly manner or are you simply competing as someone else in the market … do you (again) stand out from the crowd?
Remember – your tone should always be consistent regardless of communication method or end point. This means from every member of staff the message should be both the same and as passionate.
Brand Management
Before reading this section it is very important to remember one little thing. Brand Management is not a short-term fix to the success of a business, rather brand management is about the long-term strategy that requires commitment.
When such a strategy is implemented effectively, your brand will grow and prosper. As your brand grows, your strategy must also develop – and this is when your long-term game playing becomes important.
Driving your brand forward is important, not just on day one but over the years and decades your business exists. The good thing is that you will have help along the way, in 2 ways. One you will have your staff and stakeholders, it is these people who have a vested interest in your brand and making it a success that will help push your brand forward in the best direction possible. The second is of course your customer, if you do a great job or offer something really amazing or different then your customers will be your best brand builder, best advertising media and better yet experience is Free … they will sell your product or services by word of mouth – this is where a lot of new sales can come from. You may also find that over the time your brand grows your employee base will evolve and you will begin to attract certain types of employee – think of the differences between employees in say Top Shop, a retail bank like Barclays and say technology leaders Google (all attract different types of people and employee based on brand values, tone and how you manage your brand).
As I’ve mentioned above customer interaction with you brand is a tool for your brand to evolve. You should be using this all important feedback, it is these people and this feedback that will show you how to grow and evolve and what your market wants from month to month and year to year.
To help your brand evolve you should be doing the following:
Reviewing your competitors techniques, see where they are going wrong and more importantly what they are doing correctly.
If you see an unhappy customer or a confused customer talk to them find out what is wrong and correct it there and then.
Review everything on a regular basis from staff progress, to brand identity, to overall customer happiness – reviewing everything means you see the bigger picture sooner.
Of course one thing you must remember is there will be victims of your progress along the way, you may loose staff who don’t like what you become, you may loose customers who may not like the way you are moving or you may loose faith in general of your brand external. The important thing is to review review review, know why your staff leave and try to make things better before they do, know where your custom is going and why (is it just brand values or something more?) and the most important thing is to keep going through it all – if you can’t keep faith in your brand then no body else will. Maybe you will take a “wider” view of your brand than others and in doing so you keep the values going but can change the methods by which you get to your end goal.
For my next point in brand management 101 I would like you to consider McDonald’s the fast food global franchise chain, and how they have perfected their menu on a global level. Brand continuity is important and it is only through planning and good strategic management you can get this. Your brand should be consistent both ascetically (from logo to shop layout) and in price (and not forgetting quality and message, but i’ve rambled on this above). So back to McDonald’s, you walk into a shop your greeted by the same checkout system in each restaurant, the same price (effectively) and lets not forget the small detail that is the staffing uniform. McDonald’s have perfected all of the above on not just a local level but also a global level – something other brands such as SubWay and KFC seem to struggle to do very well.
Finally in this short brand management 101 section I want to consider ‘resources’ and the reality that your resources can only reach so far. If you over reach you will look a little silly and will also look completely stupid and untrustworthy when it comes to your brand being bankrupt. However, one key point I must emphasise is that not all old adages are true, they say “pay peanuts, get monkey’s” this is all well and good I guess, unless you want monkeys
Finally, Your Brand is Living
From all the above you should have come to realise that a brand is at the centre of any company. If your body is akin to the business, then your brand and everything about it is your heart and soul. Now think of the big brands and how they deliver on all the above areas. Sure they have huge amounts of money and people now, but go back to the start of their stories – not many had any money at day one (at least not on the level they do now) – so if they can do it, so can you.
My final bits of advice are quite simple;
With the worlds markets ever more competitive, you must find your place in the market and essentially you and your team must decide on the direction of your brand (using the techniques above).
By using these techniques you wont just develop a brand – that is nice I know – but you will also create an advantage over your other SME competitors, this in a world where people like to support local small businesses can be very important.
If you can create a distinctive brand for your business you can then go onto develop a business to go with it. There is a train of thought which says if you create a brilliant brand that you can use that brand for any business(es) you want, i believe this is very true – a great example is Virgin … so…..
Today is the day you start to grow your brand for tomorrow.
If you need any help with your brand then feel free to contact me.
Well we’ve finally reached the end of our “building your brand” series of articles, this is the sixth and final instalment (7 if your technical about this). In this article I will look at the 10 things which will make your brand/company not just stand out from the crowd and competitors but also develop your unique selling point (usp).
It may seem like a lame way to do these in a “top 10″ fashion but that isn’t how I’m treating these, these points are in no particular order and are all important to any brand, regardless of size (generally).
Increased Selection
Increasing your selection of products and/or service is one simple way to stand out from the crowd. Another reason for a larger selection is that you are seen to be covering all areas of your market, the more you offer under one roof the less work clients need to do running around from business to business, plus maybe you can give them a discount for taking multiple services with you (remember how to improve customer loyalty) Consider: if you sell something (product or service) don’t just offer them on your site, go to free advertising like gumtree and freeindex. If its a product try ebay or amazon.
Innovative Product / Service
If you have a new product with a patent covering it or a service that others don’t offer, you will have something that no one else can offer. Another reason for doing this kind of thing is that you show you are upto date and working towards the future in your market, you are a market leader. Consider: Patents can take sometime to occur, especially world rights, so apply in good time - remember you can go to manufacture with patent pending. Also make sure you tell potential clients you are the only brand selling the product and what makes this product/service so special.
Multi Use Products / Services
Once you have a service or product, think of how you can twist them to become useful for something else. Multi purpose products mean that the end user doesn’t need to buy another product, they save money and are likely to come back to you. Consider: Aspirin has multiple uses including treating pain and preventing heart attacks – very useful. Mobile phones are now digital cameras too… what in your selection of products & services can you twist to help your end user.
Extreme Customer Service
Customer service can make or break a brand, ensuring your customers know you are eager to deliver the best service both through products and customer service implores the customer to trust you and your company & possibly recommend you. Going the extra mile can often make the difference between a sale or no sale, or between the customer return for repeat custom or not. Consider: If someone contacts you that you ensure you say thank you, ask them for feedback on your product or service (and say thank you for this), ensure you go the extra mile (sometimes literally like Dr’s doing house visits). Maybe like myself you can send an automatic thank you to anyone enquiring using a form on our websites. – This point helps with customer loyalty too.
Convenience of Sale
Make your product or service be convenient to buy or use, it can make that last step to use a little easier. A great example of making a service convenient is Banking ATM’s in supermarkets or shopping centres. If you offer a local service make the service more accessible by getting leaflets into local shops, show your support for these shops in return for a little help for your local shop. Consider: If you offer a service or product ensure you reach a wider audience by using the internet as a revenue stream
Confidence in Expertise
If you have expertise in a given field you should be using this to sell, and training others to sell for you. Sounds simple when I say it like that and it can be but the important thing is that you use the knowledge to a useful end with your customer. A great example is your best friend, the IT guy, you call him up and he can help you with many things from “why doesn’t my printer work?” to “how do I install this?” to connectivity issues … he shares his knowledge, but equally if he worked for an IT company he could use and exploit this knowledge as a selling tool to make a sale or to upsell – both valuable sales you wouldn’t have otherwise. Consider: If you are the line manager or overall manager of a company, do your staff have ALL the knowledge they could in your field of speciality – if you work in clothing shop for “hip” teenagers, do your staff know about the latest trends and how people want to look?if not why not? Get them Trained. – Equally this can be said for any part of any business.
Pricing Strategy
Consider Apple and Microsoft – Apple are highly priced, “executive toy”-like, amazing quality products (apparently ) – whilst Microsoft are a lower priced common place machine for everyman and his dog, plus they are always in the new for viruses and stuff (it seems). Not getting the picture ? Ok well … Consider: If you price high you convey quality for the higher end of the market, lower pricing will bring the thrifty peoples attention. This isn’t always true though, if the whole market charges high prices for something – either they are all great quality or something is going on – great example of this is the Virgin Atlantic & British Airways price fixing scandal.
Longevity of a Product or Service
As I’ve mentioned before your primary selling tool should be based on time and emotion (see price advertising means fail here). But I feel the need to clear this up with a few examples from adverts those in the UK (maybe else where) will recognise. Using time to tug on the strings of emotion can mean selling at a high price easier because you are offering the little bit extra (seemingly for free!). Consider: Tyres – Michelin (amongst others) are always always going on in TV adverts about how much further the tyres they sell can go compared to “ordinary tyres” … this is like Fairy Liquid saying 50% extra free on bottles in store and in adverts going further telling you in every advert for the past 5 years that “fairy liquid lasts longer” … an interesting outcome to note is that on TV adverts saying xx% free doesn’t appear to work for the UK market, however when instore or looking at posters in the street or banners on the internet xx% free does very well.
Offer a Guarantee
Offering some kind of promise is a fantastic way to either clinch a sale or implore trust in your company. Asda (Walmart UK for you americans ) offer a money back guarantee “if you are not 100% satisfied” with their home-brand products, everything is covered from shampoo to cutlery to food goods – a great way to show you are quality in what you do. This week Asda have gone one step further (in some way) and have jumped on what is a common bandwagon in other industries (insurance mainly) and say if you can finx X cheaper in asda than another shop get the difference off your next shop.
Consider: 99.99% of those who see your offer will never take it up, there may be one or two people who do but because you have grown trust and belief in your brand, products and services the sales generated from this will be far far more than the sales you would have recieved without – but be careful not to offer something you can’t keep to. Broken promises can spread the world in seconds in this digital ages – as can bad news … ask Gordon Brown.
Packaging for Market
Offer packaging options which make you stand above the rest. Supermarkets do this by offering a variety of long-life bags, plastic 5p ones, fabric 34p ones and more. The shape and designs change, size, brightness, environmental concerns and more all make a difference. The thing with packaging for supermakets like Asda, Tesco and Morrisons is that this is another way to raise revenue, but for the foremost they don’t they claim they do it for the environment and so make no profit … but this isn’t the same for small businesses or sending out parcels. If this is you… Consider: Can you package using less material – saving money and space, Can you make the package childproof – this means if its a present or damageable good it won’t get hurt, Can you make the packaging intuitive – Ribena juice cartons with a straw in the side, where as cheaper drinks have no attached straw (not user friendly), Can you offer free gift wrapping at a certain price, Can you brand your packaging so that even whilst in transit your brand is being seen.
Welcome to the penultimate article in the “building your brand” series, today I want to talk about the usage of social media to help promote your company, a product/service or yourself (personal brand).
To help illustrate the various characters that can be found in social media and to see which best suits you I am going to work with examples of a teenage party (18th birthday or leaving school type thing, where all are invited). The reason for this is that in my view social media is just a like a party, and the hosts are the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Ning, Digg and many others. You or Your Brand are the guests and just like partying teenagers its about “standing out” and “being the best” … not being the little ignored guy in the corner.
@ The Social Media Party
The guy/girl in the corner
Ok so this sounds like I’m being a little mean, but we’ve all seen the little shy guy/girl or person with few friends who is very quiet attending a party but not really doing much. Sometimes they sit alone sometimes with others but none the less they are quiet and unheard. This to me is like creating a facebook fan page for your brand and not shouting about it. Just because you attend the party doesn’t mean you will make any friends, you have to advertise and network to develop the relationships where by people will come and talk to you, or in this case join the fan page or follow your twitter account.
Consider: If you answer “yes” to the following questions then you should start a conversation, otherwise next time you hear “everyone is doing the social media thingy, so should we” have the guts to say “no” because its not right for you. Do you have content worth sharing? Do you release content worth sharing on a regular basis (including blog posts)? Is your target audience under 35?
The Loudmouth Blabber
The loudmouth is the one that overcompensates for the lack of value they carry by blabbering on … basically decrease in quality in crease in quantity. The person is constantly demanding attention and never listens. This is exactly the same with social media (or blogging) companies whom are constantly “pimping” themselves and the products/services they offer, by not listening to feedback from the crowd you are in essence shutting the door in their face – they are unlikely to want to come back and talk to you (in our case less likely to deal with your business or brand).
Consider: Social media should speak for itself because your content should also, if your content doesn’t talk quality then you stand little chance in social media. In general the higher the quality of product/service the more people will talk about it on the social networks. The theory is that you should only need to post 1 link per post you write, it is then for the community you have to spread the word (from one to another and so on, the viral effect if you’re lucky).
The Sparkling Showoff
We all know who I’m talking about, the people who get out their smart phone or little gadget that does something special, or shows off something expensive or that he/she know one else in the room has (maybe an iPhone or the new iPad). People gather round (follow your group on facebook, follow you on twitter etc) to be closer to the centre of the party. Soon after they gathered begin to dissipate and back off because they realise that the gadget maybe inaccessible (they won’t get a go on it), the person/brand is intimidating or maybe they realise that the person/brand/product is bland and nothing special. This is like launching a new site online, there is a social media buzz and viral effect almost but after a few days the honeymoon effect ends because you haven’t maintained the connection with the others, you’ve decided that instead of you working you will let your product do the talking… not always the best route it is generally the connection and relationship you have with your clients that brings them back time and time again.
Consider: Beauty is skin deep, products and services have a limited ability to talk for you and sell themselves – it is for you to connect and show the real value and resource of your product… it is you whom the connection is with and you whom the community trust – not your service.
The Buzzword Adict
These are the people who namedrop constantly or are constantly talking about themselves and what they have done that is so amazing recently, even though for most people what they do is for them an everyday event! These people are those who go online mention famous names left, right and centre just to get attention – or perhaps they fill social content such as twitter with keywords and links … not only do people pick up on this but they will begin to ignore you and further to this search engines will take little to no notice of these events. The best bet and best practice is to talk naturally and not to act as you think you should be seen, social media is about conversation not campaigning for your product or services.
Consider: Remember what I said earlier it’s a converstation, it’s two way and it should be totally natural. If you decide to use social media it requires commitment to engagement, not commitment to a campaign.
Be a R.A.T.
Sounds like a peculiar thing to tell someone but being the RAT can make your social media branding exercise extra special and give it that x-factor that your competitors don’t have, after all if you are going to be the same as them what is the point – you need to be the best.
Responding Now
British Telecom are well known for having one of the worst customer service records in the UK. Unlike some companies (eg ComCast – telecoms company in the USA) BT are yet to find social media as a route to better service. ComCast offers a twitter conversation (via @ComCastCares) to its customers to help report and fix problems but the minor and major, they are not alone in doing this, one of the AKD partners UKHost4u also offer a similar service to repost hosting issues or outages. Responding quickly to current and potential customers is of the upmost importance, gaining trust isn’t easy but this is one great big leap you can take towards being trusted. As well as this it also protects your brand because you are acting in a very proactive manner to reduce larger complaints.
Adventure Beyond Competitors
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and do something new or different, something from another industry or that has never been done before. A good way to do this is to offer a competition with a huge prize to draw attention, this is how big brands do it so try it with a smaller brand too, if they do it so can you.
Target Correctly
Targeting your audience is very important, you must target and speak to your audience in the correct tone and manner. Each type of person and audience requires a different approach – for example KFC or McDonalds would target the younger generations trying to take a tone which is “young and urban” maybe even using texting acronyms like Vodafone have done on billboards with the advert “unltd txts” … if you are selling meals on wheels to elderly people online then you may not use social media to begin with but if you do you will need a softer less abrasive tone which speaks on a friendly level with the client.
3 Steps to a Strong Social Brand
1 – planning
Planning your social events can be a crucial point for any business or brand (not so much if your selling yourself as a brand because that is you as a person and should be you talking naturally off the cuff not pre prescribed). You need to determine what you want to show your brand as being (consider brand position), plan what resources you want to show-off and consider why you want to show it off – don’t just do it for the sake of it because you can. Remember quality over quantity. Also plan which social media outlets you will use, facebook and twitter are the norms but if your technical you may want to take a look at Digg or Delicious. Hint: Writing down your plan means if you go away on holiday the conversation continues.
2 – Implement
This is where the hard work really begins, you need to put your strategy into action – generally unless you’re your own brand this isn’t a one man job (though you can hire an seo like Andy Kinsey) to really help you out. If you get stuck and need help posting tweets on a regular basis you may want to consider auto-tweeting using socialtoo.com
3 – Analysis
Tracking and monitoring your implementation and time on social media can be very important, otherwise you won’t really know the impact it has had on your sales or visitors. There are many tools for doing this, one of the simplest is simply using analytics tools (such as google analytics) but generally this isn’t enough, there are a number of ways to check the number of times a link you post is clicked, several are paid but the one i favour bitly is completely free and they are constantly improving the analytics they provide (also bitly is a link shortening service).
Do you have any tips for using social media for branding? Is your brand currently in need of followers on twitter or facebook? Do you own a successful social brand? If you’ve said “yes” to any of the above then leave a comment below.
Over the past few weeks you will have read a lot about branding, and over the next few weeks this will continue. But this week I want to introduce some new services that we can offer at exclusive rates through our mother company, Andy Kinsey Designs.
Our Marketing Packages start from an amazing £350 – thats around £50 extra on top of a fairly simple site for a lot more!
Our packages can be customised to meet you needs more closely, but we think we’ve got most companies covered, if not buy an add-on, if you still can’t find what you want then make an enquiry and leave the extra bit as a message/comment for us – we’re always looking to expand and something you want may also be something someone else wants!
And here’s the exciting bit!
We know that we can fill your need, but we also know we can fill that of many other businesses.
It is through this belief we are today opening our referral scheme.
Our scheme is so easy, there is no sign-up required just ask those you refer to enter your email as how they found our services! – thats it, we will then contact you about your payment. – Also we have no minimum payment requirements, aka we won’t hold your money hostage like some referral companies.
What Will We Pay? Here’s the great news!
For spending between £0 & £250 – We pay 10%
For spending between £251 & 500 – We pay 7.5%
For spending between £501 & £1999 – We pay 5%
Over £2000 – We pay 2.5%
For the third (ok, fourth if your being clever) article in this series of “building your brand” I want to focus on your customers and how you can change certain aspects within a brand (and actions it makes) to make the consumer more receptive to the brand, including products or services you offer.
In the recent recession (and I say that knowing the UK has shown economic growth for the last quarter of 2009 and first of 2010) I watched carefully as brand after brand crumbled in the UK and around the globe, including many financial brands which most people were here to stay. Other than the banking fiasco causing the recession around the world, another thing which helped fuel the economic depression (and causes issues for many companies) is that prices are being driven lower. The reasons for this are many and varied, a number of companies believe that the customers have “been empowered with information” and therefore know where to go to compare prices or get it cheaper. In my view this is not so much the case, the drop in prices is down to a lack of strong brands, in the 90′s and early 00′s big brands such as Nike, Adidas, Microsoft and Apple dominated the global markets in many ways, looking at the same brands now adidas is slowly dieing, as are nike and microsoft, apple remains strong due to its market position as being “elite” and not so much for the ordinary punter… they price themselves in the upper market. As I said in my previous post about brand position:
The more obvious the connection is between the brand and the prospect’s daily activities, the greater the chances are that the chances of selling the product or service you are offering.
I recently did some research for these posts (as I do with all posts I make) and subsequently did an analysis of what I found and any data figures I could compare – and it is the 3 significant findings about customer loyalty I want to now concentrate on. The interesting part of this is that these cover all markets and industries not one specifically, the mindset of the consumer the world over doesn’t change very much in respect to these ideas.
Price Advertising = FAIL!
Time is the sales driver, not the price. (ok over generalising here but I will go into this in depth in a post in the future). Lets take the following common examples, when your reading these think carefully about if the product mentioned is changed to something you use on a regular basis what you would do.
Example 1
Slimming Pills – Buy 150 Capsules and Get 28 Free – £29.95
Example 2
1 Months Supply of Slimming Pills, Clinically Proven to Show Results in Less Than 3 Weeks of Continual Usage – More than 20% FREE – £29.95
Example 3
Slimming Pills – Proven to Work in Under 3 Weeks – 20% extra FREE – £29.95
I admit these aren’t the best examples but lets unpack them. Example one is too the point and shows the sale clearly and effectively, but its lacking a real pull. Example two is very much wordy and as such is wasting the users time from the start, a claim of more than 20% free … so how much is free? also from a good point of view there are 2 time focuses, they do not align (1 month and 3 weeks, so whats the extra week for?) this is a messy advert and another bad example. The third example is clean and concise, it says what the product is, has a time attached and is proven (something easily overlooked in example 2) and declare 20% extra free – it is the combination of a short time period (shorter than most slimming pills) and getting something “extra” for free that pulls the consumer in, and it is this small wording change that can make a difference between them buying from you at £29.95 and from someone else with a similar product at £19.99 …. its about evoking the emotion of feeling that it will work, and you trust the product. Which neatly brings my to my next point …
Emotional Advertising Reduces Price Sensitivity
This may sound a little strange to even those who are market hardened and think they know their customers. But this is a trend that is becoming much bigger and more important on the web and tv, and it is only in the last year that it has really began to boom on the web (& tv) and also pick up in other media such as newspapers and adverts in supermarkets.
Evoking emotion in campaigns makes the advertising campaign around twice as likely to generate much larger sales figures than the “rational” (and boring) advertising of old.
If you can evoke certain emotions or memories, such as making an older person remember a good time in their childhood with an image or an old saying, my research shows that these campaigns does something quite amazing and powerful. The emotional campaign reduces price sensitivity, and means that a brand can take up the “premium” space in any market place.
A great example of this as I’ve already mentioned is Apple. In theory the products that they provide are based on the same hardware that E-machines, HP & Dell provide however they prices are much higher, this in part is due to the operating system being “great” (though i don’t think its that good) and the stylish nature of the products. The products and brand evoke a feeling of being executive and stylish – it makes you feel its high quality and therefore they can ask a premium price for the products they offer.
Loyalty Programs – Bringing Outside Inside
Again I apologise for skipping some detail here but there will be another post in detail about this specific topic, so I will cover the basics here.
One aspect that many brands use to inspire loyalty and promote a brand is to give a loyalty scheme, for example Tesco ClubCard and Nectar your build up points by shopping at various outlets and then you spend the points in store or online. Ok you’ve giving away 1 to 5% (on average) of your sale however you can be sure they will come back and spend that and it will encourage them to build up points because they want something free, we all do, its human nature. So you will get those sales, and if you make it one hundred points = £1 as with tesco the person has to spend £100 on a 1% basis so to get £10 back you spend £1000 (some nice sales begin to build up) and because the scheme only gives you so much and the person wants something nice for free they may be willing to pay any difference upto the amount of points again … so you get approx 50% of a sale … it all builds up.
Other schemes like affiliate schemes mean again you give away the same amount in sales to a person as commission for bringing you a sale, or you give them a fixed amount say £5 per sale of a TV or Laptop. They do the leg work for you promoting your brand and website, and research shows if you let these people use the affiliation themselves they will also shop with you simply because again they are getting “something for nothing”.
So overall the three points above are things you need to consider in order to create a real base of customer loyalty. If you have any more ideas let us know by leaving a comments or tweeting @andykinsey
Finally – This article as with all of our articles is bought to you by and in association with Andy Kinsey Designs of Manchester whom have today (14/4/10) relaunched their home website andykinsey.co.uk – Again tweet your opinion of the site to @andykinsey
This article takes a break again from the normal SEO set of blogs to take a look at building your brand using business cards. Last week I published an article about why corporate branding is important, and this article is one of a series of follow-on series about building your brand.
Whilst reading this please consider I am speaking from the stand point of which I would take if you was to be an “online only” business client of Andy Kinsey Designs and not from a full overview – though my finally summary is just this.
Just because you are an online business does not mean business cards are useless to you or your company. Business Cards do not become obsolete just because your an Internet based business, they are as much an important brand building tool as those business who operate in a “brick and mortar” world.
Recognition – having brand and business recognition is of vital importance to any company, generally as my (corporate branding) post says this is the job of a good/great logo. Business cards help you go a step further, you can tell more about a company through its business cards than you often can from speaking to a person over the phone. A business card allows you to add colour, your logo (obviously), your contact details, a selective style of font – plus you can even show some information some people may not expect like twitter username or a facebook public url (eg facebook.com/search.andy is mine)
How the New AKD business cards look
As I’ve eluded to above a business card is an extension of your company and more so a show of what ideally you would like your company to be. Lets take my new business card as an example – if you visit my main site (andykinsey.co.uk) you will find that the site is very much based on blue and white, also you will see the big AK Designs logo on the bottom right of the first page of the site (as it is on each page under the menu on this site) , next you will notice the use of a specialised font (this is to make the brand unique and memorable and will appear on any new products from AKD) and finally above in the logo you will notice a little animation … this is to represent a foil overlay I am using to make the card that little extra memorable and there in making the brand more memorable.
As I have said it is an extension of the company brand, a business card is not alone a brand – far from it (even though you are just an internet only business) – your business card as with my own should pull in factors from the work you do, your stationary (letter heads, compliment slips, invoices & receipts etc), your catalogue and of course your website. A business card is simply the final bit of “spit and polish” to any brand.
Something You May Not Know – By producing a set of business cards that are sleek and professional you are fostering the idea that your business card is the first point of contact (as you should consider for everything your business produces in my view) and therefore you are inadvertently increasing the footfall of traffic to your site, increasing the chances of being contacted by the person whom receives the business card but also you are opening the doors to new contacts, as its pretty much a given if you have a unique card and style your business will get mentioned from one person to another (and from business to business). This form of referral where one person shows another your business card is quite rare – and even more rare is when you find out that the person who had your card had a fight with the other person involved to keep the card. This is why at trade shows or conferences you should go with at least 100 business cards to hand, you never know when you will asked for one nor where your next lead may come from (I recall one client I still work with, we met in the gents of a night club, I had a business card handy in my wallet!). Referral by business card also removes a vital step for most websites … your user doesn’t go through a search engine – ok if your very highly ranked you may think of this as an issue (so do what channel 4 sometimes do for new programmes and tell them to search your name … eg “Search: Andy Kinsey Designs”) but for most companies this can be a positive step as they get little and insignificant traffic because they find them selves on pages 6 or 7 (or worse!) in the search engines.
Business cards have long been an essential marketing tool for anyone serious about their business. They still are today, the one tiny little difference about today is today it is about making your brand (and therefore business card) stand out from the crowd.
The other great thing about producing a fantastic business card today is that a number of smaller businesses see them as either a) useless or b) too costly … when in-fact they are neither. a) as highlighted above business cards can be extremely useful in building your brand and therefore useful in increasing your business revenue in the long run. b) other than my previous statement business card and stationary design and printing is not expensive … for example Business Cards from Andy Kinsey Designs cost just £45 to design (plus you get a free letter head design too) – the printing added on top can be anywhere from £30 for 200 high grade cards to £80 for 1000 high grade cards, letter head design print is FREE! (so as you can see its not expensive, and if you just need the text changing for another person in the company add £5 per person ) and if you want something a little less glossy for your company then take a look at Vista Print whom offer some nice brand based services.
In Conclusion – If you think business cards are dead and buried you are very much wrong, indeed they could be used to much more effective use today than at any other point in history. Business Cards are an extension and show of what you want your brand to be (eg. fun, vibrant, corporate, sleek or professional) they alone are not your brand and should not be. And finally business cards can actually increase brand recognition and traffic to your site a huge amount.
If your anything like myself or most the people I work with, then you will probably use Google multiple times in any given day. However, unless you are some kind of geek there will be certain tricks you will have missed that could vastly speed up your search for information … and also prevent you typing 20 searches to get what you want.
So to help you out I’ve decided to make a Top 10 list of Google Tricks – now these are from my own experience the most useful, but there are many many more of this kind of thing floating around.
Exact Phrases – if your looking for an exact term or phrase simply put quotation marks around the phrase your searching for. (eg. “i’m searching for this”)
Exclude a Word or Phrase – now if your searching for something but really don’t want a certain word or phrase to turn up, simply place a – just before the word or phrase without a space. (eg. i want to search -this)
Search Similar Terms – if you have an exact phrase but you want to find something similar then search the term with a ~ just before it (eg. ~professional)
Site Specific Search – we all know that on site searches can be a little tricky so let google do it use site: http://example.com search term to search a site for something specific.
Search for a Document – by adding filetype:ppt you are asking google to search for a powerpoint presentation … (eg. “professional chef” filetype:ppt) other examples are doc & xls for word documents and excel sheets respectively.
Get a Definition – want to look up a word but can’t be bothered loading some software or going to find a dictionary site? simply enter define: aword and google will grab you a definition (usually from princeton).
Calculate This – stuck on a maths question? let google do the hard work for you as a calculator (eg. 2854 * 150)
Get the Latest Stock Pricing – check stocks by entering the ticker symbol (eg. GOOG )
This OR That? – want to find something or something else but not both? simply enter OR between the two terms. (eg searching google OR searching bing)
Get a Local Time – Google knows the time in every country simple enter “time in xyz” where xyz is a country (eg. time in Hong Kong)
May these lovely tips and tricks help you search that little bit faster
So you’ve designed a website, or had one designed for you … you’ve tested it and it functions correctly … but something is missing – your website isn’t CRAP!
That’s right, your website should be as CRAP as possible!
What is CRAP?
All design, no matter whether it is print or online really should be CRAP. The word CRAP refers to the 4 major principles of design; Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Position (or proximity).
Each of these principles has an effect on your design, at least to some extent (and never the same extent on two projects). CRAP is an easy to remember word and if you can remember the main points of each principle then CRAP will help guide you into a more attractive design (than if you don’t make it CRAP). Now, as with most things on the web CRAP-ness began as offline design principles – however, I believe they are just as valuable online as offline.
Creating Contrast in Design
In design you should always avoid 2 or more things being “similar” – this is to say that (for example) if you have headings and text you should always make the difference clear. This means not making them a similar font size, and as with in the case on this website the same colour. The main point here is that If it isn’t the same make it look different a fairly simple idea
So how do you create differences?
Different Font Styles & Font Sizes
Different Font or Background Colours
Underline or Border an Object
Re-Align an Object
Space Your Objects
So you’ve got some ideas on how to create contrast on your website, but that isn’t enough because I bet your thinking of some real world examples on your own website(s) and need some help with this. So let’s take a look at some real world examples of contrast on the web.
Emphasis of Interaction
Now there are many ways to signify emphasis of user primary interaction, or “calls to action” as they are more widely known. However, I want to look at the worlds number 1 online user interaction (at least in my view) …. Google
As always Google have kept design to a minimum and user interaction to a maximum. It is clear here what the call to action is… to search! so the buttons stand out clearly and show the user where to click. When you look at a wider view you can see navigation at the top of the screen on both the left and right but this isn’t the main interaction and so is all but ignored by most users.
Highlight Your Notices
Contrasting and highlighting can be very important when things go wrong. We’ve all seen the windows pop-up errors that appear all over the place (even on the high street) but online error messages are vital. If you are filling in a form online, it gets rejected and you can’t find out why easily then you will probably stop filling in the form, for website owners this mean’s you’ve lost a conversion!
Below is an example of a simple error message standing out from it’s form.
Notice how the red border of the box makes the error stand out, this is emphasised even more so by a light red background differentiated from the page background this also makes the text and therefore error stand out.
Repetition of Elements
Repetition of design elements throughout your website(s) creates not just continuity but also an air of professionalism – chopping and changing makes for a second rate interface. Put simply by repetition in this case I am simply talking about “being consistent” in how a site looks, feels and how elements function.
Now generally you will have noticed repetition subconsciously relating to brands, with brands the repetition is dictated in style by brand guidelines. Online this can be a little harder to control for any business, however it is not impossible. The best way to ensure consistency is simply to employ someone as the “controller” or “manager” of your website (or group of) – this will ensure a continued style of user interface.
One of the most consistent of online brands is … once again … Google. Can you see how the below or consistent in design?
Aligning your Content
This is one of the more simply explained CRAP attributes of any design. We all know of the 3 major alignments (mainly because we’ve all used them on Microsoft Office); Left, Centre & Right. The rule of thumb is simple; Always think about alignment, never randomly align. This is to say as with the above continuity you should always follow your own rules for alignment of elements (and this includes text obviously).
Correctly aligned elements can be used to guide the user through a document or web page, just as incorrectly aligned elements can harm the user experience (and make people turn away in many cases). Users naturally will follow a hard line of an element, so if you are left aligned this is where the user will focus (on the left), and the same with the right. The next natural occurrence is that humans will also follow pages from top to bottom in the search for what they are after (generally skimming content), a more natural flow is from top left to bottom right (as with print on an A4 Page).
Now, do a Google Search … you will see all text is left-aligned, very little content (if any) is otherwise aligned.
Positioning is Key
Proximity of elements, sounds a little like rocket science… but it isn’t. Quite simply I am talking about placing related elements close to each other (primarily navigation/controls). Mentally, things that are positioned closer to each other are subconsciously seen as having a stronger relationship that those far apart. However, being close doesn’t always mean related, this can difference is easily shown by a breakdown header or some other break point.
A clear example of this (once again) can be seen on the latest Google SERP update.
As you can see Google have added a secondary navigation tool bar to the left of the results (primary tool being the search bar). The proximity of this navigation to the results shows these are related items. Also you can see a clear horizontal rule between the top links and bottom, this shows a split in relation. The lower links are secondary tools for a user to use (my guess is they may look nice but aren’t often used).
Following the rules of being CRAP will make for a better website & better user experience all around.
So is your website CRAP? Let SEOAndy know via twitter (@andykinsey)
A strong brand is what can differentiate your business from any other, it helps you to stand out from the crowd and allow your customers to identify with your company in an engaging manner. Brands create loyalty, trust, a base on which to build your business and most importantly a connection with your customers.
When you think brands (like I asked you to with our previous series of brand management posts) you will think of the likes of Apple, Nike or maybe Asda, it is this train of thought which disenfranchises most small businesses from thinking that they too can create and develop their own brand.
As you may have guessed from the title of this post, this is not the case. Indeed, a strong brand for a SME (small-to-medium sized business) can be built with relatively little expense, this is because branding is all about perception. Perception of which is created in the minds of your staff, your stakeholders (funders/partners) and most importantly that of your clients, is based on what they see, hear, feel and experience with your company and/or products/services you offer.
The emotions (of the brand perception) are based on the messages your brand gives off. This is to say everything from if your showroom is warm and comfortable to how nice your staff are to the quality of services you offer, so you see it is not exclusively your company image or logo. (The logo of a company is NOT it’s brand)
Basically – A brand is much more about the promises you make your customers and how you fulfil these promises.
At this point it is therefore a good idea to know exactly what kind of clientèle you wish to attract, what your core message is, and this should be done before you even begin to create your brand – these should be in your business plan*
Top things to consider:
Who do you wish to attract? (male/female, age range, type of person etc etc)
Where does your business fit into the market (as a whole and locally)?
Is your company based around cost or quality?
Who are your competitors (locally, nationally and internationally)?
How do your competitors look & behave? Describe the brand of your competitor.
Does your business (SME) need a brand?
Whether you like it or not, even now your business has a brand. That’s right even if you think your business has no brand it does, it has a personality.
Customers and Suppliers will already have formed an opinion of what kind of business you are. This will have been formed from simple things like phone calls, emails, letters, how quickly you pay your bills, how clean your office (or store) is and how receptive your staff are. All of the above perceptions of your brand are based on a deep level of thinking, they are subconscious perceptions, which may be working with you (or against you).
Once you realise that you do have a brand and simple actions can form opinions of the brand, you can really start to take control of the brand. This means controlling brand strength through producing/creating a more cohesive and positive message. So without further thought let’s get you started with the basic building blocks of your brand.
The good news is that all you need for this exercise is a pen and paper
Starting Point > Building Blocks of Brand Creation
Over the years more and more companies are awakening to realise just how powerful their brand could be for them. Take for example the word “cola” … have a think about it, my bet is you will be thinking CocaCola or Pepsi Cola … and so is everyone else, so now the question is what could you do with your brand to make it as strong as these in your market.
The Cola Effect
Firstly, you must take you must take a good hard look at yourself, your business and just what you have to work with, the longer you take on this section the more it will pay off later. You may find little to work with (to progress with) in which case you will find what you need to change and adapt – these are valid findings … as always in the process make notes. This is known in the branding/marketing trade as a basic “brand audit” or “brand review” – though we would probe areas maybe you are too close to and take for granted.
Now you’ve got some notes, put them to one side. With any luck you already have a business, you have clients and suppliers, so ask them for their opinions – maybe do this via an online survey (people are much more likely to be honest and brutal if you are not stood in front of them). The views of these people are vitally important as they are the ones perceiving your brand, they are the ones to whom the brand really matters. They provide an “outsiders view” of your brand, adding depth to your review.
Repeat the above step with your staff, see if they agree with you and/or your external assets. Ascertaining the facts is very important, and the chances are your view, the staffs view and external views will be different - but hopefully not significantly. If they are the same brilliant, if not (as in 99% of cases) it simply means you need to redefine your message and find a new way to convey it clearly.
Tip: By including staff and stakeholders in your brand review and giving them a voice of opinion which you take seriously (you have to give them an open field to criticise without fear of rebuff) increases the likelyhood they will be willing to help make the changes you need, and it will also add loyalty and install confidence in your team.
During your brand review there are several key questions you need to be asking all parties:
What are the core abilities of your company? and the staff?
What are you and your staff good and bad at? (remember be brutally honest)
How do your customers and suppliers view your business?
(ask them! – reliable, cheap, expensive, nice, warm, quality, exciting, customer focused etc)
What words are associated with your business? (ask other business owners locally)
Is there a pattern in your client-base? (demographic)
Why are your client-base who they are?
(you maybe targeting 18-24 year olds but your client base are all 40-odd… why?)
Who would you like to work with in the short-term, and long-term? (audience wise)
Finally, are there any black holes in your business, things people say are missing?
Constructing A Brand Review
When you’ve got the answers to the questions you’ve posed it’s time to take your notes again and compare to find the differences. With more answers you get more clarity for the review, now on a single page go through the answers you have, take key points, take recurring views and importantly write down the extremes of the opinions.
Now you’ve identified these differences in perception of your brand it is time to generate a plan, remain realistic and don’t be tempted to idealise your plan based on other brands or similar shops – you are your own business and stand alone in the market. Remember however that you need to be appealing to your market in some manner, whether its simply amazing products or astounding customer service.
Development of Brand Values
You’ve done the leg work, you’ve researched and analysed opinions of your brand, both internally and externally. Now it’s time to turn our attention to your “brand values” and the “brand commitments”.
Ideally you should have around three standing core values, two of which are based on difference brokers and the third is an overall value. There is zero benefit in having pages of unworkable brand values, you’ll never remember them and nor will your staff or external assets – forget long lists be concise and to the point.
Core Overall Brand Values – these are the values which your business must have to operate within a given market, generally unless you are in a tiny niche these maybe somewhat common to you and your competition.
As an example lets look at café’s – core brand values maybe a simple as being clean (both staff and equipment), quality food and good end user cost – most café’s will have similar values.
Difference Broker Brand Values – these are the values on the other side of the coin. They are what makes your business different from your competition, this is the important set of values which makes the big difference to your customers, it is something they will associate with you over any competition.
There should always be a link between who your brand really is and where you want your brand to go – i.e how you wish to be perceived by customers and suppliers. The most important thing in this process is often your staff, getting staff to understand your vision of the brand values can help define your brand significantly. And remember earlier you got them involved in the consultation, this is where they will thank you by helping you out.
Having staff understand your brand empowers them to behave in a certain manner which will reinforce your brand. So if you’re a casual company maybe they will wear everyday clothes to work (make sure you logo them up), but if you are working in a salon you want to show professionalism so your staff should be wearing a recognisable uniform. The staff you have are one of the most important tools in your arsenal for brand development, they are in a vital position to make or break your brand.
As I say they could break your brand, this happens if they don’t understand your brand values, don’t agree with them or sometimes simply aren’t at your meeting where you take questions – they’ve only seen them in writing and don’t understand it so interpret the values in a different way to you and other staff. Damage can easily be made into a company with one bad event, but it can take many years for this to be recovered – take BP at this current time with the events in america, this huge oil leak will not only cause staffing changes but will cost billions of pounds in clear up costs, but also billions in lost sales due to damage of the brand. So I repeat by empowering your staff from the start of your consultation you get them on board and understanding where you are going and why.
Your “brand promises” and “brand values” are the foundations on which you will base your brand, they are most vital aspects of your brand – but they can be helped along with a few little ideas … which conveniently i’ve put just below this section (how nice of me )
Brand Identity
This is the bit many of you will have visited for this is where your brand meets a logo … this is called brand identity (sometimes referred to as corporate identity). This of course refers to the visual identifier of a brand, the logo, this is one of the things which allows your audience to recognise your brand.
As with everything in your brand which carries a message, once you have a logo to make the most of the logo’s impact for your brand you should apply it everywhere you can. This being a visual identifier (unlike brand tone – see below) this means putting it on all of your products, your website, your business cards, letter heads, company vehicles, newsletters (both internal and external) and of course emails (there are many more but I won’t bore you).
When you completed your brand review, one of the things commonly found is that the logo needs “updating” or bringing up to date, in order to meet your business values – which may be significantly different since your last logo design. The logo is your opportunity to engage with your audience, things like style, colour and design are all elements which contribute to the effectiveness of your logo in engaging with your potential customers.
In brand growth it is, of course, important to meet the needs of today’s ever changing markets (both locally and globally). Many big brands do this each year, every year (for example the multiple different apple logo’s over the decades). They also evolve the brand by examining the smaller details, for example Texas Instruments (a microprocessor manufacturer) examined whether sending paper datasheets with their products was effective and whether people used them … the answer was no (and its the same when people send newsletters in the post for many years without renewing the list – do people still read them after 5 years… probably not) … so TI made a move and put the datasheets online. This worked well for 2 several reasons; they could update brand image more easily as they weren’t reliant on old customer who would recognise a new logo, also it saved a lot of money – it cut packaging down and it also as a whole reduced cost of marketing ( part of which is now profit, part they reinvest).
If your business is in a market subject to changes then you should consider building into your “identity” a proportion of flexibility to allow your image to change over the years.
Brand Tone
Messages which your brand give off, be this for internal or external usage, memo email or bill board poster, the tone of a brand is important to the communication. The tone of voice is everything from the words you use, to the style used and the personality your message gives off.
The brand values and your identity should help you decide the right tone of voice for your company. The big companies have provided us with some fantastic examples, just one of which is the Virgin brand.
Virgin are known to be cheeky, friendly, outgoing and young – they aim for the youthful market of teenagers.
A great example is one of the latest adverts for virgin (bingo) - embedded below.
Ok maybe this doesn’t have the viral factor that virgin were seeking, but it does show that they aren’t taking themselves too seriously – and its the same with almost every other brand to come from virgin – find out more by reading some of the Richard Branson Books (here).
So with this in mind as yourself, does your brand have an existing tone and what is the tone? Also does your brand speak on a one-to-one basis or in third person? Are you approaching your audience in an attractive and friendly manner or are you simply competing as someone else in the market … do you (again) stand out from the crowd?
Remember – your tone should always be consistent regardless of communication method or end point. This means from every member of staff the message should be both the same and as passionate.
Brand Management
Before reading this section it is very important to remember one little thing. Brand Management is not a short-term fix to the success of a business, rather brand management is about the long-term strategy that requires commitment.
When such a strategy is implemented effectively, your brand will grow and prosper. As your brand grows, your strategy must also develop – and this is when your long-term game playing becomes important.
Driving your brand forward is important, not just on day one but over the years and decades your business exists. The good thing is that you will have help along the way, in 2 ways. One you will have your staff and stakeholders, it is these people who have a vested interest in your brand and making it a success that will help push your brand forward in the best direction possible. The second is of course your customer, if you do a great job or offer something really amazing or different then your customers will be your best brand builder, best advertising media and better yet experience is Free … they will sell your product or services by word of mouth – this is where a lot of new sales can come from. You may also find that over the time your brand grows your employee base will evolve and you will begin to attract certain types of employee – think of the differences between employees in say Top Shop, a retail bank like Barclays and say technology leaders Google (all attract different types of people and employee based on brand values, tone and how you manage your brand).
As I’ve mentioned above customer interaction with you brand is a tool for your brand to evolve. You should be using this all important feedback, it is these people and this feedback that will show you how to grow and evolve and what your market wants from month to month and year to year.
To help your brand evolve you should be doing the following:
Reviewing your competitors techniques, see where they are going wrong and more importantly what they are doing correctly.
If you see an unhappy customer or a confused customer talk to them find out what is wrong and correct it there and then.
Review everything on a regular basis from staff progress, to brand identity, to overall customer happiness – reviewing everything means you see the bigger picture sooner.
Of course one thing you must remember is there will be victims of your progress along the way, you may loose staff who don’t like what you become, you may loose customers who may not like the way you are moving or you may loose faith in general of your brand external. The important thing is to review review review, know why your staff leave and try to make things better before they do, know where your custom is going and why (is it just brand values or something more?) and the most important thing is to keep going through it all – if you can’t keep faith in your brand then no body else will. Maybe you will take a “wider” view of your brand than others and in doing so you keep the values going but can change the methods by which you get to your end goal.
For my next point in brand management 101 I would like you to consider McDonald’s the fast food global franchise chain, and how they have perfected their menu on a global level. Brand continuity is important and it is only through planning and good strategic management you can get this. Your brand should be consistent both ascetically (from logo to shop layout) and in price (and not forgetting quality and message, but i’ve rambled on this above). So back to McDonald’s, you walk into a shop your greeted by the same checkout system in each restaurant, the same price (effectively) and lets not forget the small detail that is the staffing uniform. McDonald’s have perfected all of the above on not just a local level but also a global level – something other brands such as SubWay and KFC seem to struggle to do very well.
Finally in this short brand management 101 section I want to consider ‘resources’ and the reality that your resources can only reach so far. If you over reach you will look a little silly and will also look completely stupid and untrustworthy when it comes to your brand being bankrupt. However, one key point I must emphasise is that not all old adages are true, they say “pay peanuts, get monkey’s” this is all well and good I guess, unless you want monkeys
Finally, Your Brand is Living
From all the above you should have come to realise that a brand is at the centre of any company. If your body is akin to the business, then your brand and everything about it is your heart and soul. Now think of the big brands and how they deliver on all the above areas. Sure they have huge amounts of money and people now, but go back to the start of their stories – not many had any money at day one (at least not on the level they do now) – so if they can do it, so can you.
My final bits of advice are quite simple;
With the worlds markets ever more competitive, you must find your place in the market and essentially you and your team must decide on the direction of your brand (using the techniques above).
By using these techniques you wont just develop a brand – that is nice I know – but you will also create an advantage over your other SME competitors, this in a world where people like to support local small businesses can be very important.
If you can create a distinctive brand for your business you can then go onto develop a business to go with it. There is a train of thought which says if you create a brilliant brand that you can use that brand for any business(es) you want, i believe this is very true – a great example is Virgin … so…..
Today is the day you start to grow your brand for tomorrow.
If you need any help with your brand then feel free to contact me.
Well we’ve finally reached the end of our “building your brand” series of articles, this is the sixth and final instalment (7 if your technical about this). In this article I will look at the 10 things which will make your brand/company not just stand out from the crowd and competitors but also develop your unique selling point (usp).
It may seem like a lame way to do these in a “top 10″ fashion but that isn’t how I’m treating these, these points are in no particular order and are all important to any brand, regardless of size (generally).
Increased Selection
Increasing your selection of products and/or service is one simple way to stand out from the crowd. Another reason for a larger selection is that you are seen to be covering all areas of your market, the more you offer under one roof the less work clients need to do running around from business to business, plus maybe you can give them a discount for taking multiple services with you (remember how to improve customer loyalty) Consider: if you sell something (product or service) don’t just offer them on your site, go to free advertising like gumtree and freeindex. If its a product try ebay or amazon.
Innovative Product / Service
If you have a new product with a patent covering it or a service that others don’t offer, you will have something that no one else can offer. Another reason for doing this kind of thing is that you show you are upto date and working towards the future in your market, you are a market leader. Consider: Patents can take sometime to occur, especially world rights, so apply in good time - remember you can go to manufacture with patent pending. Also make sure you tell potential clients you are the only brand selling the product and what makes this product/service so special.
Multi Use Products / Services
Once you have a service or product, think of how you can twist them to become useful for something else. Multi purpose products mean that the end user doesn’t need to buy another product, they save money and are likely to come back to you. Consider: Aspirin has multiple uses including treating pain and preventing heart attacks – very useful. Mobile phones are now digital cameras too… what in your selection of products & services can you twist to help your end user.
Extreme Customer Service
Customer service can make or break a brand, ensuring your customers know you are eager to deliver the best service both through products and customer service implores the customer to trust you and your company & possibly recommend you. Going the extra mile can often make the difference between a sale or no sale, or between the customer return for repeat custom or not. Consider: If someone contacts you that you ensure you say thank you, ask them for feedback on your product or service (and say thank you for this), ensure you go the extra mile (sometimes literally like Dr’s doing house visits). Maybe like myself you can send an automatic thank you to anyone enquiring using a form on our websites. – This point helps with customer loyalty too.
Convenience of Sale
Make your product or service be convenient to buy or use, it can make that last step to use a little easier. A great example of making a service convenient is Banking ATM’s in supermarkets or shopping centres. If you offer a local service make the service more accessible by getting leaflets into local shops, show your support for these shops in return for a little help for your local shop. Consider: If you offer a service or product ensure you reach a wider audience by using the internet as a revenue stream
Confidence in Expertise
If you have expertise in a given field you should be using this to sell, and training others to sell for you. Sounds simple when I say it like that and it can be but the important thing is that you use the knowledge to a useful end with your customer. A great example is your best friend, the IT guy, you call him up and he can help you with many things from “why doesn’t my printer work?” to “how do I install this?” to connectivity issues … he shares his knowledge, but equally if he worked for an IT company he could use and exploit this knowledge as a selling tool to make a sale or to upsell – both valuable sales you wouldn’t have otherwise. Consider: If you are the line manager or overall manager of a company, do your staff have ALL the knowledge they could in your field of speciality – if you work in clothing shop for “hip” teenagers, do your staff know about the latest trends and how people want to look?if not why not? Get them Trained. – Equally this can be said for any part of any business.
Pricing Strategy
Consider Apple and Microsoft – Apple are highly priced, “executive toy”-like, amazing quality products (apparently ) – whilst Microsoft are a lower priced common place machine for everyman and his dog, plus they are always in the new for viruses and stuff (it seems). Not getting the picture ? Ok well … Consider: If you price high you convey quality for the higher end of the market, lower pricing will bring the thrifty peoples attention. This isn’t always true though, if the whole market charges high prices for something – either they are all great quality or something is going on – great example of this is the Virgin Atlantic & British Airways price fixing scandal.
Longevity of a Product or Service
As I’ve mentioned before your primary selling tool should be based on time and emotion (see price advertising means fail here). But I feel the need to clear this up with a few examples from adverts those in the UK (maybe else where) will recognise. Using time to tug on the strings of emotion can mean selling at a high price easier because you are offering the little bit extra (seemingly for free!). Consider: Tyres – Michelin (amongst others) are always always going on in TV adverts about how much further the tyres they sell can go compared to “ordinary tyres” … this is like Fairy Liquid saying 50% extra free on bottles in store and in adverts going further telling you in every advert for the past 5 years that “fairy liquid lasts longer” … an interesting outcome to note is that on TV adverts saying xx% free doesn’t appear to work for the UK market, however when instore or looking at posters in the street or banners on the internet xx% free does very well.
Offer a Guarantee
Offering some kind of promise is a fantastic way to either clinch a sale or implore trust in your company. Asda (Walmart UK for you americans ) offer a money back guarantee “if you are not 100% satisfied” with their home-brand products, everything is covered from shampoo to cutlery to food goods – a great way to show you are quality in what you do. This week Asda have gone one step further (in some way) and have jumped on what is a common bandwagon in other industries (insurance mainly) and say if you can finx X cheaper in asda than another shop get the difference off your next shop.
Consider: 99.99% of those who see your offer will never take it up, there may be one or two people who do but because you have grown trust and belief in your brand, products and services the sales generated from this will be far far more than the sales you would have recieved without – but be careful not to offer something you can’t keep to. Broken promises can spread the world in seconds in this digital ages – as can bad news … ask Gordon Brown.
Packaging for Market
Offer packaging options which make you stand above the rest. Supermarkets do this by offering a variety of long-life bags, plastic 5p ones, fabric 34p ones and more. The shape and designs change, size, brightness, environmental concerns and more all make a difference. The thing with packaging for supermakets like Asda, Tesco and Morrisons is that this is another way to raise revenue, but for the foremost they don’t they claim they do it for the environment and so make no profit … but this isn’t the same for small businesses or sending out parcels. If this is you… Consider: Can you package using less material – saving money and space, Can you make the package childproof – this means if its a present or damageable good it won’t get hurt, Can you make the packaging intuitive – Ribena juice cartons with a straw in the side, where as cheaper drinks have no attached straw (not user friendly), Can you offer free gift wrapping at a certain price, Can you brand your packaging so that even whilst in transit your brand is being seen.
Welcome to the penultimate article in the “building your brand” series, today I want to talk about the usage of social media to help promote your company, a product/service or yourself (personal brand).
To help illustrate the various characters that can be found in social media and to see which best suits you I am going to work with examples of a teenage party (18th birthday or leaving school type thing, where all are invited). The reason for this is that in my view social media is just a like a party, and the hosts are the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Ning, Digg and many others. You or Your Brand are the guests and just like partying teenagers its about “standing out” and “being the best” … not being the little ignored guy in the corner.
@ The Social Media Party
The guy/girl in the corner
Ok so this sounds like I’m being a little mean, but we’ve all seen the little shy guy/girl or person with few friends who is very quiet attending a party but not really doing much. Sometimes they sit alone sometimes with others but none the less they are quiet and unheard. This to me is like creating a facebook fan page for your brand and not shouting about it. Just because you attend the party doesn’t mean you will make any friends, you have to advertise and network to develop the relationships where by people will come and talk to you, or in this case join the fan page or follow your twitter account.
Consider: If you answer “yes” to the following questions then you should start a conversation, otherwise next time you hear “everyone is doing the social media thingy, so should we” have the guts to say “no” because its not right for you. Do you have content worth sharing? Do you release content worth sharing on a regular basis (including blog posts)? Is your target audience under 35?
The Loudmouth Blabber
The loudmouth is the one that overcompensates for the lack of value they carry by blabbering on … basically decrease in quality in crease in quantity. The person is constantly demanding attention and never listens. This is exactly the same with social media (or blogging) companies whom are constantly “pimping” themselves and the products/services they offer, by not listening to feedback from the crowd you are in essence shutting the door in their face – they are unlikely to want to come back and talk to you (in our case less likely to deal with your business or brand).
Consider: Social media should speak for itself because your content should also, if your content doesn’t talk quality then you stand little chance in social media. In general the higher the quality of product/service the more people will talk about it on the social networks. The theory is that you should only need to post 1 link per post you write, it is then for the community you have to spread the word (from one to another and so on, the viral effect if you’re lucky).
The Sparkling Showoff
We all know who I’m talking about, the people who get out their smart phone or little gadget that does something special, or shows off something expensive or that he/she know one else in the room has (maybe an iPhone or the new iPad). People gather round (follow your group on facebook, follow you on twitter etc) to be closer to the centre of the party. Soon after they gathered begin to dissipate and back off because they realise that the gadget maybe inaccessible (they won’t get a go on it), the person/brand is intimidating or maybe they realise that the person/brand/product is bland and nothing special. This is like launching a new site online, there is a social media buzz and viral effect almost but after a few days the honeymoon effect ends because you haven’t maintained the connection with the others, you’ve decided that instead of you working you will let your product do the talking… not always the best route it is generally the connection and relationship you have with your clients that brings them back time and time again.
Consider: Beauty is skin deep, products and services have a limited ability to talk for you and sell themselves – it is for you to connect and show the real value and resource of your product… it is you whom the connection is with and you whom the community trust – not your service.
The Buzzword Adict
These are the people who namedrop constantly or are constantly talking about themselves and what they have done that is so amazing recently, even though for most people what they do is for them an everyday event! These people are those who go online mention famous names left, right and centre just to get attention – or perhaps they fill social content such as twitter with keywords and links … not only do people pick up on this but they will begin to ignore you and further to this search engines will take little to no notice of these events. The best bet and best practice is to talk naturally and not to act as you think you should be seen, social media is about conversation not campaigning for your product or services.
Consider: Remember what I said earlier it’s a converstation, it’s two way and it should be totally natural. If you decide to use social media it requires commitment to engagement, not commitment to a campaign.
Be a R.A.T.
Sounds like a peculiar thing to tell someone but being the RAT can make your social media branding exercise extra special and give it that x-factor that your competitors don’t have, after all if you are going to be the same as them what is the point – you need to be the best.
Responding Now
British Telecom are well known for having one of the worst customer service records in the UK. Unlike some companies (eg ComCast – telecoms company in the USA) BT are yet to find social media as a route to better service. ComCast offers a twitter conversation (via @ComCastCares) to its customers to help report and fix problems but the minor and major, they are not alone in doing this, one of the AKD partners UKHost4u also offer a similar service to repost hosting issues or outages. Responding quickly to current and potential customers is of the upmost importance, gaining trust isn’t easy but this is one great big leap you can take towards being trusted. As well as this it also protects your brand because you are acting in a very proactive manner to reduce larger complaints.
Adventure Beyond Competitors
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and do something new or different, something from another industry or that has never been done before. A good way to do this is to offer a competition with a huge prize to draw attention, this is how big brands do it so try it with a smaller brand too, if they do it so can you.
Target Correctly
Targeting your audience is very important, you must target and speak to your audience in the correct tone and manner. Each type of person and audience requires a different approach – for example KFC or McDonalds would target the younger generations trying to take a tone which is “young and urban” maybe even using texting acronyms like Vodafone have done on billboards with the advert “unltd txts” … if you are selling meals on wheels to elderly people online then you may not use social media to begin with but if you do you will need a softer less abrasive tone which speaks on a friendly level with the client.
3 Steps to a Strong Social Brand
1 – planning
Planning your social events can be a crucial point for any business or brand (not so much if your selling yourself as a brand because that is you as a person and should be you talking naturally off the cuff not pre prescribed). You need to determine what you want to show your brand as being (consider brand position), plan what resources you want to show-off and consider why you want to show it off – don’t just do it for the sake of it because you can. Remember quality over quantity. Also plan which social media outlets you will use, facebook and twitter are the norms but if your technical you may want to take a look at Digg or Delicious. Hint: Writing down your plan means if you go away on holiday the conversation continues.
2 – Implement
This is where the hard work really begins, you need to put your strategy into action – generally unless you’re your own brand this isn’t a one man job (though you can hire an seo like Andy Kinsey) to really help you out. If you get stuck and need help posting tweets on a regular basis you may want to consider auto-tweeting using socialtoo.com
3 – Analysis
Tracking and monitoring your implementation and time on social media can be very important, otherwise you won’t really know the impact it has had on your sales or visitors. There are many tools for doing this, one of the simplest is simply using analytics tools (such as google analytics) but generally this isn’t enough, there are a number of ways to check the number of times a link you post is clicked, several are paid but the one i favour bitly is completely free and they are constantly improving the analytics they provide (also bitly is a link shortening service).
Do you have any tips for using social media for branding? Is your brand currently in need of followers on twitter or facebook? Do you own a successful social brand? If you’ve said “yes” to any of the above then leave a comment below.
Over the past few weeks you will have read a lot about branding, and over the next few weeks this will continue. But this week I want to introduce some new services that we can offer at exclusive rates through our mother company, Andy Kinsey Designs.
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For the third (ok, fourth if your being clever) article in this series of “building your brand” I want to focus on your customers and how you can change certain aspects within a brand (and actions it makes) to make the consumer more receptive to the brand, including products or services you offer.
In the recent recession (and I say that knowing the UK has shown economic growth for the last quarter of 2009 and first of 2010) I watched carefully as brand after brand crumbled in the UK and around the globe, including many financial brands which most people were here to stay. Other than the banking fiasco causing the recession around the world, another thing which helped fuel the economic depression (and causes issues for many companies) is that prices are being driven lower. The reasons for this are many and varied, a number of companies believe that the customers have “been empowered with information” and therefore know where to go to compare prices or get it cheaper. In my view this is not so much the case, the drop in prices is down to a lack of strong brands, in the 90′s and early 00′s big brands such as Nike, Adidas, Microsoft and Apple dominated the global markets in many ways, looking at the same brands now adidas is slowly dieing, as are nike and microsoft, apple remains strong due to its market position as being “elite” and not so much for the ordinary punter… they price themselves in the upper market. As I said in my previous post about brand position:
The more obvious the connection is between the brand and the prospect’s daily activities, the greater the chances are that the chances of selling the product or service you are offering.
I recently did some research for these posts (as I do with all posts I make) and subsequently did an analysis of what I found and any data figures I could compare – and it is the 3 significant findings about customer loyalty I want to now concentrate on. The interesting part of this is that these cover all markets and industries not one specifically, the mindset of the consumer the world over doesn’t change very much in respect to these ideas.
Price Advertising = FAIL!
Time is the sales driver, not the price. (ok over generalising here but I will go into this in depth in a post in the future). Lets take the following common examples, when your reading these think carefully about if the product mentioned is changed to something you use on a regular basis what you would do.
Example 1
Slimming Pills – Buy 150 Capsules and Get 28 Free – £29.95
Example 2
1 Months Supply of Slimming Pills, Clinically Proven to Show Results in Less Than 3 Weeks of Continual Usage – More than 20% FREE – £29.95
Example 3
Slimming Pills – Proven to Work in Under 3 Weeks – 20% extra FREE – £29.95
I admit these aren’t the best examples but lets unpack them. Example one is too the point and shows the sale clearly and effectively, but its lacking a real pull. Example two is very much wordy and as such is wasting the users time from the start, a claim of more than 20% free … so how much is free? also from a good point of view there are 2 time focuses, they do not align (1 month and 3 weeks, so whats the extra week for?) this is a messy advert and another bad example. The third example is clean and concise, it says what the product is, has a time attached and is proven (something easily overlooked in example 2) and declare 20% extra free – it is the combination of a short time period (shorter than most slimming pills) and getting something “extra” for free that pulls the consumer in, and it is this small wording change that can make a difference between them buying from you at £29.95 and from someone else with a similar product at £19.99 …. its about evoking the emotion of feeling that it will work, and you trust the product. Which neatly brings my to my next point …
Emotional Advertising Reduces Price Sensitivity
This may sound a little strange to even those who are market hardened and think they know their customers. But this is a trend that is becoming much bigger and more important on the web and tv, and it is only in the last year that it has really began to boom on the web (& tv) and also pick up in other media such as newspapers and adverts in supermarkets.
Evoking emotion in campaigns makes the advertising campaign around twice as likely to generate much larger sales figures than the “rational” (and boring) advertising of old.
If you can evoke certain emotions or memories, such as making an older person remember a good time in their childhood with an image or an old saying, my research shows that these campaigns does something quite amazing and powerful. The emotional campaign reduces price sensitivity, and means that a brand can take up the “premium” space in any market place.
A great example of this as I’ve already mentioned is Apple. In theory the products that they provide are based on the same hardware that E-machines, HP & Dell provide however they prices are much higher, this in part is due to the operating system being “great” (though i don’t think its that good) and the stylish nature of the products. The products and brand evoke a feeling of being executive and stylish – it makes you feel its high quality and therefore they can ask a premium price for the products they offer.
Loyalty Programs – Bringing Outside Inside
Again I apologise for skipping some detail here but there will be another post in detail about this specific topic, so I will cover the basics here.
One aspect that many brands use to inspire loyalty and promote a brand is to give a loyalty scheme, for example Tesco ClubCard and Nectar your build up points by shopping at various outlets and then you spend the points in store or online. Ok you’ve giving away 1 to 5% (on average) of your sale however you can be sure they will come back and spend that and it will encourage them to build up points because they want something free, we all do, its human nature. So you will get those sales, and if you make it one hundred points = £1 as with tesco the person has to spend £100 on a 1% basis so to get £10 back you spend £1000 (some nice sales begin to build up) and because the scheme only gives you so much and the person wants something nice for free they may be willing to pay any difference upto the amount of points again … so you get approx 50% of a sale … it all builds up.
Other schemes like affiliate schemes mean again you give away the same amount in sales to a person as commission for bringing you a sale, or you give them a fixed amount say £5 per sale of a TV or Laptop. They do the leg work for you promoting your brand and website, and research shows if you let these people use the affiliation themselves they will also shop with you simply because again they are getting “something for nothing”.
So overall the three points above are things you need to consider in order to create a real base of customer loyalty. If you have any more ideas let us know by leaving a comments or tweeting @andykinsey
Finally – This article as with all of our articles is bought to you by and in association with Andy Kinsey Designs of Manchester whom have today (14/4/10) relaunched their home website andykinsey.co.uk – Again tweet your opinion of the site to @andykinsey
This article takes a break again from the normal SEO set of blogs to take a look at building your brand using business cards. Last week I published an article about why corporate branding is important, and this article is one of a series of follow-on series about building your brand.
Whilst reading this please consider I am speaking from the stand point of which I would take if you was to be an “online only” business client of Andy Kinsey Designs and not from a full overview – though my finally summary is just this.
Just because you are an online business does not mean business cards are useless to you or your company. Business Cards do not become obsolete just because your an Internet based business, they are as much an important brand building tool as those business who operate in a “brick and mortar” world.
Recognition – having brand and business recognition is of vital importance to any company, generally as my (corporate branding) post says this is the job of a good/great logo. Business cards help you go a step further, you can tell more about a company through its business cards than you often can from speaking to a person over the phone. A business card allows you to add colour, your logo (obviously), your contact details, a selective style of font – plus you can even show some information some people may not expect like twitter username or a facebook public url (eg facebook.com/search.andy is mine)
How the New AKD business cards look
As I’ve eluded to above a business card is an extension of your company and more so a show of what ideally you would like your company to be. Lets take my new business card as an example – if you visit my main site (andykinsey.co.uk) you will find that the site is very much based on blue and white, also you will see the big AK Designs logo on the bottom right of the first page of the site (as it is on each page under the menu on this site) , next you will notice the use of a specialised font (this is to make the brand unique and memorable and will appear on any new products from AKD) and finally above in the logo you will notice a little animation … this is to represent a foil overlay I am using to make the card that little extra memorable and there in making the brand more memorable.
As I have said it is an extension of the company brand, a business card is not alone a brand – far from it (even though you are just an internet only business) – your business card as with my own should pull in factors from the work you do, your stationary (letter heads, compliment slips, invoices & receipts etc), your catalogue and of course your website. A business card is simply the final bit of “spit and polish” to any brand.
Something You May Not Know – By producing a set of business cards that are sleek and professional you are fostering the idea that your business card is the first point of contact (as you should consider for everything your business produces in my view) and therefore you are inadvertently increasing the footfall of traffic to your site, increasing the chances of being contacted by the person whom receives the business card but also you are opening the doors to new contacts, as its pretty much a given if you have a unique card and style your business will get mentioned from one person to another (and from business to business). This form of referral where one person shows another your business card is quite rare – and even more rare is when you find out that the person who had your card had a fight with the other person involved to keep the card. This is why at trade shows or conferences you should go with at least 100 business cards to hand, you never know when you will asked for one nor where your next lead may come from (I recall one client I still work with, we met in the gents of a night club, I had a business card handy in my wallet!). Referral by business card also removes a vital step for most websites … your user doesn’t go through a search engine – ok if your very highly ranked you may think of this as an issue (so do what channel 4 sometimes do for new programmes and tell them to search your name … eg “Search: Andy Kinsey Designs”) but for most companies this can be a positive step as they get little and insignificant traffic because they find them selves on pages 6 or 7 (or worse!) in the search engines.
Business cards have long been an essential marketing tool for anyone serious about their business. They still are today, the one tiny little difference about today is today it is about making your brand (and therefore business card) stand out from the crowd.
The other great thing about producing a fantastic business card today is that a number of smaller businesses see them as either a) useless or b) too costly … when in-fact they are neither. a) as highlighted above business cards can be extremely useful in building your brand and therefore useful in increasing your business revenue in the long run. b) other than my previous statement business card and stationary design and printing is not expensive … for example Business Cards from Andy Kinsey Designs cost just £45 to design (plus you get a free letter head design too) – the printing added on top can be anywhere from £30 for 200 high grade cards to £80 for 1000 high grade cards, letter head design print is FREE! (so as you can see its not expensive, and if you just need the text changing for another person in the company add £5 per person ) and if you want something a little less glossy for your company then take a look at Vista Print whom offer some nice brand based services.
In Conclusion – If you think business cards are dead and buried you are very much wrong, indeed they could be used to much more effective use today than at any other point in history. Business Cards are an extension and show of what you want your brand to be (eg. fun, vibrant, corporate, sleek or professional) they alone are not your brand and should not be. And finally business cards can actually increase brand recognition and traffic to your site a huge amount.
If your anything like myself or most the people I work with, then you will probably use Google multiple times in any given day. However, unless you are some kind of geek there will be certain tricks you will have missed that could vastly speed up your search for information … and also prevent you typing 20 searches to get what you want.
So to help you out I’ve decided to make a Top 10 list of Google Tricks – now these are from my own experience the most useful, but there are many many more of this kind of thing floating around.
Exact Phrases – if your looking for an exact term or phrase simply put quotation marks around the phrase your searching for. (eg. “i’m searching for this”)
Exclude a Word or Phrase – now if your searching for something but really don’t want a certain word or phrase to turn up, simply place a – just before the word or phrase without a space. (eg. i want to search -this)
Search Similar Terms – if you have an exact phrase but you want to find something similar then search the term with a ~ just before it (eg. ~professional)
Site Specific Search – we all know that on site searches can be a little tricky so let google do it use site: http://example.com search term to search a site for something specific.
Search for a Document – by adding filetype:ppt you are asking google to search for a powerpoint presentation … (eg. “professional chef” filetype:ppt) other examples are doc & xls for word documents and excel sheets respectively.
Get a Definition – want to look up a word but can’t be bothered loading some software or going to find a dictionary site? simply enter define: aword and google will grab you a definition (usually from princeton).
Calculate This – stuck on a maths question? let google do the hard work for you as a calculator (eg. 2854 * 150)
Get the Latest Stock Pricing – check stocks by entering the ticker symbol (eg. GOOG )
This OR That? – want to find something or something else but not both? simply enter OR between the two terms. (eg searching google OR searching bing)
Get a Local Time – Google knows the time in every country simple enter “time in xyz” where xyz is a country (eg. time in Hong Kong)
May these lovely tips and tricks help you search that little bit faster
