Weirdly, every entrepreneur wants to be like Jobs but they don’t bother to master the basics.
In my experience, marketers don’t frequently start their own companies, which is a pity, because most startups from the get-go make these three basic branding errors that hobble their growth:
1. A head-scratcher brand name
A brand name that needs to be explained is a liability rather than an asset. Ideally, a brand name should create a positive emotion that ties into the product or service. The classic example here is Apple Computer. (It’s a computer, but it’s small, tasty, and easy to use.)
One of the worst brand names I’ve encountered is Deuce Productions. The term “productions” could mean anything, and the word deuce refers to a playing card with two pips. Turns out, it was an events production company run by a pair of twins. Even when explained, it’s a head-scratcher.
If I were rebranding them and they really thought (for some reason) that being twins was a competitive advantage (I’m not at all sure about this), I’d advise them to go with something that actually has a positive and meaningful twist, like “Twice-as-Good Events.”
2. Launching with multiple brand names
Over the weekend, a friend asked me to look at his branding plan, which included a corporate brand, a product brand, and a personal brand, all of which were different from each other.
It’s very difficult to establish a single brand in the minds and memories of investors and customers. Three brands? Not gonna happen. I told him to focus on one brand and dump the other two.
I learned this one the hard way. When I first launched myself as a writer/speaker/consultant, I tried to promote “Geoffrey James” and “The Institute for Business Wisdom.” I quickly learned that two brands was one too many and rebranded as Geoffrey James LLC.
Startups should ideally launch with a corporate brand that’s also its product brand. Once again, the classic example is Apple Computer, whose first product was … you guessed it … the Apple computer.
3. Adding new brands rather than extending existing brands
Many companies seem to think that the more brands the better. (I think this belief might be a leftover from the “Heinz 57” days.) The worst example of this was General Motors, which was a brand-name salad until the company wised up and dumped half of them.
When expanding your product set, it makes far more sense to extend your existing brand than to launch a new brand name. That way, you take advantage of whatever momentum your current brand has acquired. Again, the classic example is Apple, with the Apple I, Apple II, Apple III, and then Macintosh (still building on the small, tasty, easy meme).
Let’s apply this principle to a real-life startup.
I recently purchased a full-body motion-capture suit (for doing SFX like Gollum) called Perception Neuron PRO from a company named Noitom. Just to be clear, I have no relationship with this company; I just happened to buy one of its products.
Both Perception Neuron and Noitom are head-scratcher brand names, but they’re also disjoint. Noitom recently launched a new product called the Hi5 VR Glove. That’s a decent brand name (if you know what “VR” means), but it has no obvious connection with the original two brands.
A better approach would have been to start with a corporate and product brand name like Hi5 MOCAP and a first product named the Hi5 MOCAP Suit. That would then be followed by the Hi5 MOCAP Glove, etc.
This simplified brand scheme would have made the company and its products more memorable, easier to promote, and easier to combine and package.
On April Fools’ day no one is safe from brand PR stunts. Where Microsoft has just initiated a blanket ban on 1 April humour, other companies have decided to uphold the tradition of capitalising on the event with some fake news of their own.
In a memo to staff last week, Microsoft noted how April Fools’ pranks had a “limited positive impact”, pointing out that ill-judged jokes can even result in “unwanted news cycles”. But while big tech might be cynical about filling journalists’ inboxes with fake news for a day, consumers aren’t as uptight.
In the UK at least, research indicates 86% of people think humour is one of the best ways a company can connect with them. 68% even say they think April Fools’ campaigns were funny.
Though some admittedly miss the funny bone, this year’s lot of brand executions is a mixed bag of inspired ideas, millennial product parodies and a few clumsy rebrands.
Among the efforts is a ‘height verification tool’ from Tinder which has already proven to be divisive despite its aim of bringing “truthfulness back into the world of online dating”. British retailer Boden, meanwhile, has riffed off the current Brexit chaos with a tongue-in-cheek Breton top ban.
Scroll down to see the rest of this year’s tongue-in-cheek stunts, campaigns and product launches from around the world, from Singapore to Scotland.
Tinder: Height verification badge
Recognising that height is a valuable currency in the world of online dating, Tinder has trolled users by announcing plans to introduce a ‘height verification badge’. “Simply input your true, accurate height with a screenshot of you standing next to any commercial building. We’ll do some state-of-the-art verifying and you’ll receive your badge directly on your profile,” it teases.
Durex: Fish skin and mala hot pot flavoured condoms
Durex is inviting couples to unleash the heat with a special new flavour:”Spice things up and experience the taste of the fish skin condom with mala hot pot flavour. Packed with handpicked ingredients for your tasteful experience. Let ’em pleasure your mouth…” it insists on its Facebook page.
Jameson: A glittering deterrent
Jameson has launched a clever (and sparkly) way to deter would-be whisky thieves from stealing a dram of the good stuff. Jameson Catchmates comes complete with ‘glittershot’ technology. One twist of the cap sees any sip-stealing roommate or relative met with a wave of green glitter, turning their sticky fingers into shimmering ones.
Boden: Brexit Breton top ban
Breton shirts are the latest casualty of EU upheavals according to Boden. The retailer claims consent has been withdrawn for it to continue producing the French-inspired sartorial staple in the UK, and that anyone owning a Breton top will now need to apply for a special EU shirt license to wear one or face a €1000 fine. As such, it’s offering a thoughtful solution to customers: a Breton stripe removal service. The complimentary postal service erases illegal stripes by screen-printing, a technique the company calls ‘the Bret-off’. Boden’s founder has been giving interviews to the media this morning.
Travellodge: Bedshare service
In its bid to compete with sharing economy rivals, Travel lodge is taking sharing to the next level with a fresh ‘bedshare’ service that makes travelling a little less lonely and cheaper. Guests will get a 50% discount if they are willing to share half their room with another guest, and the company will clearly mark everything down the middle to make sure each person gets their fair share.
SodaStream: A wind-powered innovation
American astronaut Scott Kelly, best known for having spent the most time in space on a single mission, is the face of SodaStream’s newest innovation; SodaStream.ME, which turns people’s excess CO2 into sparkling water on the go. One small burp for man, one sparkling leap for mankind.
Discussing the campaign with The Drum, Scott Kelly said: “I have a SodaStream and really like the product. As a lover of our planet, I appreciate partnering up with a brand whose environmental values fall in line with my own personal beliefs.”
He clarified that: “You can’t burp in space. On earth – or in a gravity field – the gas in your stomach is lighter than air, so it rises opposite to the force of gravity. In space – in microgravity – there is no weight and hence the gas isn’t “lighter” than air, so it doesn’t rise. It stays mixed in with the food in your body, so it’s eventually expelled another way.”
Maryland: Avocado cookies
Forget smashed avo’ on toast, Maryland has taken the millennials’ favourite food craze one step further with the launch of its brand-new Avocado Cookie. Promising an “Instagrammable snack” like no other, the snack maker claims to have used “refined avocado powder” in lieu of flower, creating a super-food alternative to original cookies.
Hello Fresh: A bold unicorn box
What do brands think millennials love more than avocados? Luridly-coloured foods and Unicorn-themed products apparently. That’s why Hello Fresh is adding the ‘The Unicorn Box’ to its meal subscription box options. The first-of-its-kind experience contains three colourful recipe kits that will let diners eat “like a mythical creature with a box full of farm-fresh rainbows, smiles, and joy right at your doorstep”.
Honda: The polite horn
Sometimes drivers need to get the attention of others. But do they have to be so rude about it? In its mission to make roads everywhere more civilised, Honda Canada has launched a solution: the polite horn.
Origin: Sun power
Solar panel business Origin has announced it’s literally going the extra mile for customers and heading to the sun to power the entire planet, in a world first mission to capture solar power in its purest form. It says the traditional method of waiting for sunlight means we lose around 98% of its power before it hits earth. So, in order to capture the energy in its purest form, Origin has engaged some of the world’s greatest engineers to head into space to carve off a bowling ball size of the sun – which alone will be enough to power the world for the next 60,000 years.
Caring Skin: Astronaut facial
Space is a recurrent theme this year, with Singapore facial spa caring skin revealing it will be sending customers into outer space to clear blemishes and treat sensitive and inflamed skin. The 150-minute suborbital ‘pop-up’ treatment, dubbed ‘The Astronaut Facial’, is endorsed by influencers Camira Asrori and Cassandra Tan.
Google: Snakes on a map
Google prefers to celebrate April Fools’ day instead of tricking people. Last year, you might’ve seen Waldo peeking out of your Google Maps to invite you to find him on a scavenger hunt: This year, it’s revived another nostalgic game that takes people back to a much simpler, pre-Fortnite time: Snake. Confusingly, the ‘snake’ is now a train. Regardless, the twist on the 90s Nokia classic lets players ‘travel’ to different locations across the world—including Cairo, London, San Francisco, São Paulo, Sydney and Tokyo – straight from Google Maps.
Jägermeister: Introducing the Jägerbong
Just ahead of the 4/20 celebrations, Jägermeister has announced that it’s joining the cannabis market with the launch of the Jägerbong. Coming in at a clever $42, customer can light up the party with a kit which includes a 1L bottle of the aperitif they can recycle and turn into a bong, a bong carb, a hacky sack, eye drops, a lighter and grinder.
Aaron & Partners: Animals need lawyers too
UK law firm Aaron & Partners has launched an employment law service for pet influencers. Dogs, cats, fish and tortoises are just some of the species the firm hopes to work with. Standard employment contracts will be drawn up to suit the needs of each animal, including key clauses such as fixed nap times, allocated time for belly tickles or petting, and remuneration in snuggles and favourite treats.
BMW: Lunar paint
BMW has unveiled an innovative new feature that helps to “push the limits of electric driving”. From 1 April, BMW drivers will be able to add Lunar Paint as an optional extra to their i series vehicle. The product uses “revolutionary photovoltaic technology to harness the power of the moon and passively recharge your battery in the hours of darkness.” It’s what Neil Armstrong would have wanted.
Deliveroo: Crustless wonder
Delivery giant Deliveroo has revealed its plan to remove all crust options from the app, due to overwhelming anti-crust feedback from customers placing pizza orders across all of its 14 markets.
Like Tikes: Big Tikes
Kids toy maker Little Tikes will now be known as Big Tikes. The announcement reflects the brand’s “new found maturity” and is a nod to its fresh and grown-up approach. The new logo will appear across all brand channels and on social media.
KitKat: Tea time
After four years of intense research, Nestlé has crafted the optimal blend of tea leaves for the perfect brew to accompany its famous KitKat break. This tea has been developed in the brand’s very own Teaology labs and comes in tea bags inspired by the signature KitKat range: two-finger, four-finger and KitKat Chunky to fit every break occasion.
Amazon: Audible for fish
Amazon is giving Aussies the chance to get their fish hooked on literature with Audible for Fish – a three-second audiobook designed to keep underwater friends company while their owners aren’t around. It says research has shown that marine life is stimulated by short bursts of audio, sounds a little fishy to us.
London Dungeon & HSBC: Rugby torture chamber
Organisers of the HSBC London Sevens rugby tournament have announced a collaboration with macabre tourist attraction London Dungeon. The London Dungeon has installed a replica of its infamous torture chamber within a dungeon-style sin bin at Twickenham Stadium, where players will be sent on receipt of a yellow card throughout the duration of the nail-biting two-day event.
Zava: The Meata-blocker
Following a record-breaking Veganuary, it’s the dietary trend on everyone’s lips, and from today Brits can simply pop a pill to help them lead a plant-based lifestyle. Online doctor Zava’s Meata-blockers have meat-suppressing properties, diverting blood flow so that hormones involved in creating meat cravings can’t circulate around the body as efficiently. The pills also cause a decreased sense of smell and therefore less temptation when a tasty bacon sandwich is nearby.
Foodpanda: Jetski deliveries
A new mode of food delivery via jet blades has been revealed by Foodpanda Singapore. The innovation will “shave delivery times by half”, reducing it to 15 minutes or less. Not to disappoint Singaporeans, Foodpanda will be rewarding one lucky customer with a personal jet blade session (valued at S$198) with Ola Beach Club on Sentosa, with those who include ‘fpjetblad’ into the voucher code box until 5 April in with a chance of winning.
Wilkinson Sword: Casting Ken
Wilkinson Sword has appointed Ken Carson as the face of its Hydro 5 Sense product range.
Otherwise known as Ken Doll, clean-shaven Ken now can grow a beard… in seconds.
Le Chameau: Muddy boots
Building from the insight that people want an authentic outdoor experience, Le Chameau has launched an exclusive Pre Muddé service.
Pre Muddé offers boot lovers the desirable, well-worn country look, without even stepping outside. The boots arrive in soil curated by the brand’s expert pedologists (soil specialists).
Shutterstock: AI-serviced library
Shutterstock has announced plans to build the world’s largest brick-and-mortar library. The library is to house over 250 million volumes of imagery, a full-floor of 14 million reels of film and a listening bay where visitors can enjoy over 20,000 music tracks.
AI-powered robots call Cyanotypes are to replace traditional librarians, to ensure the building is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Construction of the building is to commence in 2020 and will be designed by the world-renowned Belgian architect, Alexandria VonPixel.
Sainsbury’s: Pink avocados
Sainsbury’s is to stock a limited edition run of ripe and ready pink avocados – a naturally grown hybrid of different avocado varieties.
The supermarket has worked closely with a supplier in Peru to grow the exclusive Rosa-vo, which will go on sale as an initial trial to gauge popularity among UK customers and Instagram hungry millennials.
Nakd: Takeaway flavours
Nakd has expanded its range of bars with a series of savoury snacks inspired by Indian Takeaways.
The Indian ‘Flakeaway’ comes in four flavours: Vindalover, Poppadom Paradise, Korm-azeballs and Pilau Nice.
Cineworld: 4DX movies
Cineworld has done the impossible and brought snowfall in London, in Spring.
To celebrate the countdown to the arrival of its 4DX screens, visitors exiting North Greenwich station were met with an unexpected snowfall.
Snow is one of the effects 4DX can stimulate in the screening room, as well as wind, lightning, bubbles, water and scent work.
Hotels.com: Pet passports
With Brexit still up in the air, 75% of pet owners do know that their EU pet passports are in jeopardy.
To ensure pets don’t miss out on the beauty of the continent, Hotels.com has launched its first European Pup fakeation. It is a themed pet stay where dogs can enjoy European destinations without leaving the UK.
Royal Caribbean: Air space
Who says cruises can only be enjoyed on water? Not the Royal Caribbean, who has launched its first ‘cloud-class’ plane called ‘Master of the Skies.
Set to take off in 2020, the plane offers guests the chance to enjoy all the hallmarks of its cruises at 35,00 feet in the air.
When the seatbelt sign turns off, the plane turns into a dedicated entertainment zone that hosts an air-hockey table, a library of video games, as well as a whirlpool and dining area.
Subway: Listening in
As paranoia mounts around smartphone listening and ad targeting, Subway is the first brand to openly admit it makes use of covert research techniques.
In dramatic new footage released today, a Subway Sandwich Artist has been caught on camera, capturing overheard conversations in an unknown part of Great Britain. He can be seen hiding in bushes, behind a newspaper and dressed in state of the art military-standard disguises.
Benson for Beds: A royal visit
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shocked shoppers at a central London store after they were spotted testing out mattresses.
With their ‘newly born’ baby in tow, the couple were seen browsing the Benson for Babies cot mattress section.
Spam: A vegan treat
Spam has jumped on the plant-based wagon, by launching a new variation of its iconic tinned food.
With a quarter of 25-34-year-olds identifying as vegetarian or vegan, Spam is re-positioning itself towards those decreasing their meat consumption, with ‘Vegan Spam.’
Duolingo: A passive aggressive owl
Learning a language takes a lot of work, perseverance and motivation. With this in mind, Duolingo has launched ‘Duolingo Push.’
Duolingo’s Duo is an online passive aggressive owl that sends you reminders when you need to practice your language skills, but this year, Duo will remind people to practice their language skills – in person.
Duo will turn up at your work, when you are on a date when you are at the gym to make sure you practice your French, Spanish, Korean, Klingon, High Valyrian or Chinese.
Muuna: Cheesy cannabis
Muuna has introduced a new flavour to its cottage cheese range. Muuna cannabis cottage cheese is a limited-edition variety, using milk from grass-fed cows.
Muuna’s limited edition Cannabis variety features cottage cheese as a base with a sprinkle of food-grade cannabis on the bottom.
Designed to create an element of carefree relaxation, while delivering an earthy taste, its latest offering will leave customers relaxed while keeping the munchies at bay.
Isobel: Brexit stamps
As the UK still looks set to exit the EU, a series of six stamps commissioned has been leaked ahead of their official release.
Created by isobel, the six first and second class stamps capture six Brexit ‘icons’ who are presented as famous historical figures complete with a relevant line of copy.
Theresa May is presented as the lady with the lamp – the UK’s first woman of nursing Florence Nightingale, while Boris Johnson has adopted a rotund Churchillian guise.
John Berkow, leader of the house is seen donned a suit of armour as Henry V with the line “Once more unto the lobbies!”
Virgin Atlantic: A sing-a-long
Virgin Atlantic is going back to their musical roots and trialling sing-alongs on key routes.
As part of an extension to the airline’s ‘depart the everyday’ campaign, passengers will be encouraged to join the crew for in-flight karaoke from shortly after take-off.
Highlights of the schedule include a Saturday Night Cabin Fever disco on weekend flights, mile-high hip-hop during flights to LA and non-stop Sinatra on flights to New York. Start spreading the news…
Digital publisher Joe Media has unveiled a new logo and identity as the brand looks to deliver a more coherent look across its numerous sub brands.
The company, founded in 2010 by Irish entrepreneur Niall McGarry, has largely held the same identity for the last decade. Its look has been updated by an in-house team to run better on mobile and evolve to better reflect the intent of the company.
In particular, it has expanded from Joe Media to also encapsulate verticals such as Football Joe, Sports Joe, Politics Joe, Comedy Joe, MMA Joe, Fit Joe and Rugby Joe. As a result, it required an identity that can better adapt across numerous platforms and audiences.
Rebecca Fennelly, head of brand and communications, told The Drum: “The new design reflects our heritage as much as it does our growth, evolution and big ambitions for the near future. We are still the same Joe – same mission, values and personality. We want to enrich lives by entertaining and inspiring through our original content. We still pride ourselves on our continuous investment into legacy journalism and modern-day storytelling. But we are always innovating.
“It is something we’ve become known for. When it comes to new logo designs, there tends to be knee-jerk assumptions made that they mean a ‘rebrand’ or a move away from a previous identity. When others may need to change up shop in big ways, Joe is building on something we’ve been working hard on from day one. ‘Brick by Brick’ as we say here. We are very proud of our roots and the distinct brand heritage we’ve built for Joe, and it is all enveloped into the carefully calculated subtleties of the new logo design.”
The project was led by Joe’s head of design Jack Homan, having previously worked at Channel 4 and Channel 5, and was delivered by an in-house team.
On the work, Homan said: “Breaking out from Joe’s old box means we can be more playful with our logo. For big editorial and commercial features we’ll look to build bespoke artwork featuring our logo, using the word-mark itself as the boundary box. The old Joe logo was boxed in, we wanted to break out and let the typography speak for itself.
“The logo now has a balance that the old did not. The ‘J’ and the ‘E’ are the same width. The aperture of the ‘O’ is the same size as the top bar of the ‘J’ and the middle appendage of the ‘E’. Turn both the ‘J’ and the ‘E’ in on themselves and they will meet in the middle of the ‘O’. This balance allows us to more easily lock our new logo up with commercial partners and our sub-brands.”
He concluded: “Whilst a lot of work went into this new design, it was important we didn’t move too far from our original logo, but rather embrace the best of it in the new iteration.
Late in 2018, The Drum sat down with the title’s, head of content Evan Fanning, to learn about how it is scaling up promising talent in order to take on more-established media players.
He said: “Going to a place like Joe with the freedom to attack things without the newspaper deadweight was really exciting. We say we do ‘traditional media, but digitally’.”
It is your unique combination of skills and experiences that make you who you are, and what others will recognize you for, so effective personal branding should differentiate you from other professionals in your field.
Effective personal branding is of pivotal importance, especially if it is essential to advancing your career. Therefore, one should be aware of what it is that you are communicating that may be preventing you from breeding a successful career.
Two critical factors result in effective personal branding: authenticity and credibility.
Authenticity and credibility arise when consistency occurs between what you say and what you do. Like any brand, your own will also come with expectations and should clearly communicate your values, skills and personality. Personal branding is about leaving a mental and preferably indelible impression in the mind of others, which positions you and makes you stand out from the crowd. Continue to adjust your brand strategy to match the changes in your life and objectives. You’ll need to communicate yourself to others in a simple and easy-to-understand manner –making yourself heard in the midst of all of the information and messages they receive every day.
Think of a few people who you feel possess a strong personal brand and ask yourself the following questions:
Why did you choose these people?
What do you find strong about their brands?
What are you learning from them?
You should take into consideration people you want to be connected to—selecting your target group, your channels and the frequency of your self-marketing is very important in the direction you would like to go. Also, keep in mind that many years of branding work can be easily destroyed with one adverse action. It is crucial to continuously nurture your brand regularly in order to stay connected with those who can positively impact your brand. Some people choose to hire a brand or PR (Public Relations) managers who can assist in the upkeep of their personal brand and also provide them with exposure.
Impressions, Imprints and Expression
If you want to convey your message to your audience, you need to operate within these three dimensions.
Impression – what people experience when they first meet you.
Imprint – what you leave behind after the conclusion of a conversation.
Expression – what everybody says about you and how individuals perceive you as a person.
If you are having a hard time mapping out a personal brand strategy, then try to establish an overview of what you do well and identify areas that require improvements. Additionally, write down what people say about you. Take some time to discuss your image with people you trust or who you feel will provide honest feedback. Asking someone you have a close personal relationship can be misleading and bias, so attempt to find people who are not afraid, to be honest with you, however, they must know you reasonably well.
Once you’ve found your chosen “brand advisors,” you can start by asking them what kind of impression you believe you’ve made when you first meet them. Try to be as objective as possible and do not take the feedback personally. A first impression is formed in the first 15 seconds, so knowing what kind of impression you make on others is essential to brand and or rebranding yourself.
Find your audience
Why should people listen to you? What makes you and your message worth listening to? Where is your audience? Who are they? And where can they be found?
Being creative and paying attention to the location of your target group is crucial. Try to communicate in places where your audience is present. Once you find where your audience is located, create a plan of action for the topics (subjects) and messages you want to communicate with them.
You should be able to share with your audience three explicit messages about who you are, what you stand for, and how you can help them, but you can only communicate these messages once you’ve gained their attention and trust.
The internet is an obvious choice to find your audience and communicate your message. Social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter makes interacting with your surroundings considerably easier. A few years ago getting in contact with many people within a short period was difficult or, at the very least, very expensive. The internet offers you the opportunity to create a free or very cheap branding platform. All you have to decide on what you would like to say, how and when.
Your personal network will also be helpful in gauging your new audience. People like to see that other (credible) people are recommending you. Therefore, you should ask for a testimonial when you have finished a project for a client. Make it a habit. These testimonials can be from your teachers, fellow students, colleagues, bosses and clients who know your personality and work ethics well.
I am a motivational speaker, philanthropist and author, with approximately 200-plus global talks per year. I advise major companies on topics such as sales and service and customer loyalty, strategic relationship-building and change management, employee motivation and the MORE
To understand the difference between these concepts, simply apply them to you
In my work with entrepreneurs and business students, I often hear marketing strategies explained as “having social media,” “having an online brand,” or “advertising a lot.”
These explanations make me cringe because while they might be part of a plan, they grossly oversimplify the deeper and more complex concepts behind a truly effective marketing strategy.
In order to explain and help others understand marketing — namely the difference between marketing, advertising, and branding — I ask them to apply each of these concepts to themselves personally. When you do, this is what it would look like.
Marketing is how you see yourself.
Marketing is the image that you are trying to present to others. It starts with how you dress, the colors and patterns you choose, and how you groom. We all have a strategy for this — yes, everyone, including your unkept second cousin who rarely showers and wears the same Star Wars shirt he’s worn since college.
Even not having a strategy for your personal appearance is a strategy itself.
You choose your image to portray yourself as a business professional, a punk rocker, a tech nerd, etc, and by doing so, you are expressing to others through your appearance your character, lovable attributes and in the end the value you offer to others.
It isn’t fun to admit that appearances are as important as they are, but let’s be honest, first impressions are driven by appearance. Impressions can evolve and be molded later, but as we all know, they require time and effort to change, so we do our best to get it right up front.
For a business, a marketing strategy considers how you want others to perceive your company. It should convey the vision and values of the business and express these in a way that the public will recognize and associate with your company.
How you “dress” your company will determine how effectively your message and image will be accepted by consumers.
Advertising is how you act in public.
If marketing is how you see yourself, advertising describes your actions.
How you carry yourself, where you hang out, and what you say are just as important as how you look. All of this should be considered with your marketing strategy to assure that you have consistency between your image and your actions.
For instance, imagine that you wear a New England Patriots jersey and get a “I Heart Tom Brady” tattoo, but during the Super Bowl, you cheer for the Philadelphia Eagles and celebrate their victory. You will confound — and probably infuriate — all of your friends and likely be exiled from future Sunday game days.
Your business advertising strategy is the same. If you execute it in the wrong places, with the wrong message and tone, at the wrong times, or to the wrong audience, it will ultimately confuse consumers and could turn them away.
Branding is how others see you.
While marketing is how you want others to see you, branding is how they actually do.
Your marketing strategy should assess and consider your personal brand. If you have a strong brand, you can spend more time building on it. If you have reputation problems, however, you need to focus on rebuilding or changing perceptions.
As an example, if your professional network believes you to be fraud or slacker, then it will require more than just dressing professionally and mastering your LinkedIn profile to change this perception.
Similarly from a business standpoint, understanding how consumers perceive your business is crucial for how you decide to execute a marketing and advertising strategy.
Now, I understand I just over-simplified complex marketing concepts — exactly what I critiqued at the beginning. I find, however, that applying these concepts to ourselves creates an effective and simple way to explain how each concept can and should be applied to your business.
The race to be a prospective customer’s top choice is only going to become tougher as the competitive landscape increases. More and more businesses are starting up, there’s tougher competition for top talent and brands constantly have to account for algorithm changes on social media platforms. Current leaders have to be committed in ways unlike their predecessors to achieve success and level the playing field.
So what can you do to achieve brand recognition?
Connecting with the right people at the right time will determine success or failure. The right people are those who align with your purpose and actively support it. A focus on building community with people and organizations that will participate in your vision should be at the forefront of growth. In spite of a technological revolution, people still make the world go round.
Focus on these five things to further develop your brand and establish your position in the marketplace.
1. Make customer discovery a priority.Learn what works for your competitors and identify contributions to brand loyalty. These key activities, in addition to properly identifying your customers, will aid in growth. A successful brand will have customers promoting and sharing its offerings as a result of their satisfaction.
2. Create a crystal-clear mission. Brands will be called on to relate their mission to their customers in changing times. In the face of controversy, be prepared — like Nike — to substantiate your goals, purpose and brand message and actively invest in the transformation of customers’ day-to-day lives. If companies plan to stay relevant despite the shifting preferences of millennial and Gen Z consumers, they should create an internal guide referencing how and when to address social issues affecting employees and customers, even if it is outside business walls.
3. Leverage social media platforms for growth.Social media is constantly changing — however, incorporating it for brand awareness and business growth will always be crucial. Not only does your brand need an active presence online but a consistent message and pattern so that followers can actively engage with it. It is not enough to post timely messages, especially when preparing to meet or exceed goals for year end. An investment in ads and influencers is necessary to build credibility, especially as decision makers become younger.
4. Link up with other brands in your community. Great brands are not built alone. I personally have found it highly beneficial to network at my local co-working space, as it houses an active community of influencers. Community-focused locations provide your startup the opportunity to build rapport and trust with like-minded brands and those working to transform the way we do business. In addition to hosting a variety of social activities, a co-working space gives you the opportunity as either an established or developing brand to meet fellow entrepreneurs on common ground and network, and collaboratively work with them to alleviate growing pains related to lack of resources.
Regardless of whether you are an established brand or one that’s just starting out, investing in customer identification, social media and unconventional spaces will pay off. It’s no fun to stay the same, so embrace change to grow your brand.
I’ve heard this from clients countless times. And it’s no wonder people are saying this: today’s businesses have to evolve very quickly because employees rarely stay in one job for their whole careers and technology is growing so fast that it’s a constant battle to keep up with the next new thing. The stress can be overwhelming. I went through it myself at a time before Sub Rosa was what it is today.
Often the best way we inspire our clients for the future is when we connect them to the most indigenous part of themselves, to understanding why they were founded and why they are still here.
We help them reconnect by exploring their:
• Origin story: How it all began.
• Language: Your shared lexicon.
• Traditions: How you engage your community and acknowledge milestones.
• Purpose: Your reason for being.
Think about it: these are the building blocks of every thriving community. Whether in a tribe, a religion, or a corporation, these four building blocks are what provide meaning and create the connective tissue that forms a lasting foundation from which to grow.
A Tradition In Denim
At a meeting with a Levi’s executive, he told us that the company had missed a major opportunity by not participating in the “premium denim boom,” and it was now suffering both reputational and financial challenges. The “premium denim boom” had occurred when a number of high-fashion brands entered the market and began selling $200-plus pairs of jeans. During that time, Levi’s had maintained its traditional price point of around $39, and as a result, its jeans had acquired a low-end reputation and were considered less chic and no longer fashionable. The company was experiencing a significant sales slump.
We had been involved in a similar conversation not too long before with Absolut Vodka, whose management felt the company had missed out on the “premium vodka boom.” Apparently this premium boom was a phenomenon in a number of sectors. In the 1980s, Absolut was a top-shelf vodka. But in the 1990s, competitive vodka brands such as Grey Goose and Ketel One came onto the market with a more premium-priced product.
Absolut, like Levi’s, had stuck to its price point and dropped to a midtier status, losing market share to the new entrants. Ultimately Absolut found a way out of this by creating its own specialty, limited-edition lines, such as Absolut Brooklyn, created in partnership with Spike Lee, and premium-crafted versions such as Absolut Elyx, which was sourced and distilled in a manner designed to compete with other premium vodkas.
Levi’s needed a strategy to help it overcome a similar challenge. They had hired Wieden + Kennedy, a wellknown and successful advertising agency, to help rejuvenate the brand. Their campaign, which would later be known as “Go forth,” was being shot by a famous fashion photographer, and it would draw on inspirational imagery and language from well-known American authors such as Walt Whitman and Jack Kerouac. It would depict a new era of American nostalgia, and it was sure to capture attention. Levi’s wanted our help in turning that attention into action.
Our job was to make sure that once they had people’s attention, there would be have something to act upon and a real reason to care about the brand. This is the sort of integrated, complex challenge we love to solve, and we first began by focusing on the brand as we knew it. The company made denim and sold jeans (primarily) at a modest price point. They had once been the jeans of Marlon Brando and Steve McQueen and later the jeans of rock stars from the Rolling Stones to the Ramones. But somehow the company had lost its grip. We asked what had come before Brando and Jagger? Levi’s had begun making jeans in 1853. What had the company stood for then, and what was its origin story?
It’s fairly common knowledge that Levi Strauss & Company started out as a brand of pioneers. The men who had set out for the gold hiding in the uncharted lands of California during the famous Gold Rush of 1849 were known as the 49ers, and they had taken a big gamble, often risking life or death, to try to strike it rich. Those tough men needed tough jeans, and that’s what Levi Strauss produced. They had reinforced stitches and held up during hard work.
Over the coming decades, Levi’s rugged jeans continued to be a staple of the hardscrabble masses. Factory workers, laborers, farmers, and all manner of builders and fixers wore Levi’s as they headed out to work. They were the jeans that helped build America. We had to tell the story in a way that would ignite a newfound interest in the hearts and minds of new consumers and (hopefully) would bring back some customers the brand had lost along the way.
Panning for Gold
We asked ourselves, “Who are our modern-day pioneers?” After all, we’re not settling the West anymore, and many hard-labor jobs have since been shipped overseas. We wanted to find people who were embodying that spirit of progress and hard work and pull them into a new conversation, one that celebrated their sense of craft, of making things, of the integrity that comes from doing that kind of work well.
After a few weeks of development, we had created a program we called Levi’s Workshops and sent it off to Erik and his team. We admitted that what we were giving them was “only 75 percent of the plan.” The rest would have to be left open to serendipity. We knew we were going into the unknown, like the gold panners of the nineteenth century, and similarly we knew something about what we’d find but not everything. Like any good prospector, we knew to leave room for the unexpected. After all, you never know where you might strike it rich.
Together, our two teams became one unit. It didn’t take long for us to develop a working and speaking lingo, a kind of shorthand. When we said “pioneer,” we weren’t thinking of a grizzled old prospector chewing tobacco and swilling whiskey, we were imagining today’s artists, craftspeople, designers, teachers, and builders. When we said, “Go forth,” we knew we were looking for the spirit of adventure and discovery we wanted people to feel when they interacted with the brand. This shared language was built upon the origins of the brand, yet it was contemporized and translated for today. It drew our own teams closer together and became contagious throughout Levi’s organization.
Within months we were ready to open our first Levi’s Workshop in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District, which was chosen because the neighborhood was thriving with diversity and craft. It felt like a pioneer town for new ideas.
The programming was built on collaborations with “pioneers” from the Bay Area. Right down the street from us, the writer Dave Eggers had opened his first whimsical tutoring location (themed as a pirate shop), where volunteers taught kids the value of creative writing. We partnered with them and paired the kids’ writing with artists who created original artwork for their stories. The kids got to watch the books being printed in the shop, and they were dazzled as they flipped through a book that had come to life from their story.
We brought in Alice Waters, a pioneer of California cuisine, and designed a beautiful letterpress harvest calendar that supported the work of her charity, the Edible Schoolyard Project. She hosted a small dinner in the space and signed copies for us to sell at auction, with the proceeds benefiting her cause as well as the Levi Strauss Foundation, the company’s charitable organization.
Not only did each project bring into the workshop a compelling pioneer to help create programming, but every piece of programming was designed to reach different subcultures and niche audiences in the Bay Area with authenticity.
These new traditions we were creating for the brand were building on Levi’s legacy of engaging with powerful subcultures. From gold-panning pioneers to punks on the Bowery, Levi’s has always been the uniform of the brave and status quo challenging. We built programming for the literary community, musicians, foodies, inner-city youths, and more. If you were willing to “Go forth” and try something different, we wanted you to know that Levi’s was with you.
Our work with Levi’s showed us the value of looking back to a brand’s indigenous roots and bringing thoughtful inspiration and wisdom into the present. Admittedly not every company has a brand that is more than a hundred years old, but every business does have an origin story.
Have you spent thousands of dollars on an online campaign but haven’t seen the results you have expected once the campaign is over? If the campaign was all about letting everybody know how amazing your product is and what excellent features it holds, then the reason for the lack of success is obvious. People probably did not respond well to your ads because they were focused on the brand or product. Modern market asks for a different type of approach when it comes to building up customer awareness for your business.
No matter how powerful and compelling your marketing content is, clients need more to become confident about your brand. There are new e-commerce businesses popping out almost every day so why should anyone trust the word of brand A instead of brand B? To capture the audience and create a bond between you and your client base, there must be some sort of personal relation among the two sides. The customers want to see you caring, not just thinking about how to get them into buying your product.
The best way to communicate with your audience is through social networks, as they offer the most ways to interact. This, however, doesn’t mean flooding everyone’s feed with status updates and promotional content. Your social network activities should be versatile and offer everyone a chance to speak their mind as well as bring your product closer, through creative non-sales related content. It’s less about pushing the sale and more about showing the effort and devotion put into your product.
Simply put, the audience is interested in what you have to say about your business, but what really makes the difference is what everybody else has to say about your brand. There are several ways to promote your business in a manner that doesn’t seem generic and won’t bounce people back but inspire them into wanting to know more about you. Marketing experts at College Paper went to work and created an easy to understand infographics depicting some of the best online marketing strategies. We encourage you to take a look and see how easy it is to bring your business to a whole new level by simply putting an extra effort into your social network marketing activities.
By Lucy Benton
Lucy Benton is a marketing specialist, business consultant and helps people to turn their dreams into the profitable business. Now she is writing for marketing and business resources. Also Lucy has her own blog Prowritingpartner.com where you can check her last publications. If you’re interested in working with Lucy, you can find her on Twitter.
There is one branding question I ask every client. It consists of 8 words: “Tell me why, I the customer, should care.”
No matter the answer, this is followed by one additional question consisting of 10 words: “Why do I know they’d tell me the same thing?”
Those 18 words, stop clients in their tracks, and I cover them in detail in the new episode shown below.
All of a sudden, the clouds part, the fog starts to clear, and a path (previously occluded) suddenly becomes visible.
But It All Starts With One Branding Question I Ask Every Client
It doesn’t matter if the company is global or local, decades old or a startup. In this episode, I reveal the #1 question I ask CEOs, CMOs, owners, startups, brands, founders, and entrepreneurs of all sizes and shapes.
It uncovers the ultimate blind spot of companies: being too close to “their babies” to have an objective view of what it will take to truly rise above the noise.
It’s the terrible mistake of confusing passion with an impartial objectivity that one must have to properly assess what it will take to stand out and get seen and heard.
Online reputation management is very necessary all of a sudden.
By MediaStreet Staff Writers
Businesses say they plan to allocate more resources to their online reputations in response to the growing popularity of social media and online reviews.
According to a new survey from Clutch, 40% of businesses will increase their investment in online reputation management (ORM) this year.
All this is due to the growing power of social media and third-party reviews sites, which impact businesses’ control over their online reputation.
Clutch surveyed 224 digital marketers and found that more than half of businesses (54%) consider ORM “very necessary” for success. As a result, 34% said they allocated more resources to ORM in 2018, and an additional 43% said they plan to hire a professional public relations or ORM agency in 2018.
Businesses already invest a significant amount of time observing their online reputation, Clutch found. More than 40% of digital marketers (42%) monitor their companies’ brand online daily, while 21% monitor their online reputation hourly.
According to public relations experts, businesses frequently monitor how their brand is portrayed online because they know even one negative media mention can quickly damage the public’s perception of their company.
“When people search for brands online, they tend to search for stamps of credibility,” explained Simon Wadsworth, managing partner at Igniyte, an online reputation management agency in the UK. “If potential customers find anything negative, that could end up being a significant amount of leads the business won’t get from people who are put off from using the service.”
Social media also has shifted the ORM landscape because it gives consumers free-reign to share their opinions and experiences quickly and frequently: 46% of businesses look to social media most often to monitor their online reputation.
By using professional agencies that have expertise in online reputation management, businesses can minimise losing new customers who may be dissuaded from purchasing their product or service.
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