Brand Building - Page 2

3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Settling on a Branding Scheme

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Branding yourself or a business for the first time can be scary. After all, your brand is your business image and identifying feature. It’s something you should put a lot of thought into, isn’t it?

Yes. Sometimes business plans are stalled due to branding concerns, that’s how important branding can be for a business. When it comes to your own brand, you need to be just as diligent. You assert that diligence by asking important questions.

Your questions should be focused on one thing: brand completion. These questions should lead you to finalize your branding decisions, further cementing your brand as a true winner. These three questions in particular can help you develop a truly killer branding scheme.

“What would my brand look like if it was a person?”

I’ve talked about it before, but your brand has a personality. In fact, it is the representation of your business’ personality. What else has personalities? People!

If you’re trying to pin down who your business really is, actually look at it from the angle of it being a real, living person. What does your brand look like? What do they sound like? Are they in their 40s with three kids? Are they black or white, or maybe another race altogether? Are they a male with entrepreneurial goals?

Establishing a face helps you put into perspective the voice that goes along with that face. If when you finally pin down who this person is, you can further shape your business’ brand identity.

“Do I know how people will react to my brand?”

If you’ve ever seen an article about a huge branding mistake and wondered “how did they let that happen?,” it’s usually because those who create branding schemes have tunnel vision without outside perspective. When the only opinion in the room is your own, it’s easy to think you’re 100% right.

Getting outside data is always important when it comes to branding. This helps you identify the public response to your branding. It’s not always as salacious as a branding strategy being offensive or downright horrible — sometimes it’s the little things that can really make a difference. Analytic data can help you fine-tune your brand from the inside out.

“Is this a brand I can live with forever?”

Make no mistake — you can change your branding down the line. In fact, many businesses do exactly that in order to revitalize their image. However, just as many brands remain the same, or only implement small tweaks, during the longevity of their business.

You may not stick with your brand as is, but the branding strategy and scheme you choose should be one that you could feasibly use for as long as you’re in business. The biggest takeaway is that your brand scheme can’t be slapped together — once it’s final, you have to live with it.

Think of branding questions as exercises in creativity and business knowledge. Asking and answering questions like these helps you stay in touch with the heart and purpose of your business. The more thought you put into your branding, the less likely it is that your business will be a flash in the pan.

Keetria is an entrepreneur, wellness advocate, and brand strategy coach for creatives & entrepreneurs with 16 years of public relations expertise working with some of the world’s leading brands, startups, media personalities, and entertainers. If you would like to work together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

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The Most Common Branding Challenges New Entrepreneurs Face

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Branding isn’t easy. Some assume that it’s just slapping a logo onto a product and calling it a day, but so much more goes into creating a brand. A brand is a company or a person’s personality made marketable and/or tangible. When you create a new business and need to work on branding, you’re crafting a very human aspect of a business and then figuring out how that human aspect appeals to an audience.

Because branding takes experience to truly get right, new entrepreneurs can easily fall into branding traps and make rookie mistakes. Seasoned entrepreneurs can easily make branding mistakes, so how can newbies avoid these pratfalls?

The key to avoiding mistakes is knowing what they are. While branding holds a lot of mistakes specific to the brand in question, there are a variety of general mistakes that they should know about and avoid.

Going Over the Top

New entrepreneurs and small business owners have a tendency to want to go big or go home. Remember that when you’re first starting out with a business, this is your most vulnerable time — especially financially. It’s a good idea to be willing to invest a generous amount into your branding, but there’s a difference between spending a lot and creatively coming up with a lot.

A brand shouldn’t be complicated. Going all out and creating complicated branding schemas can be very detrimental to brand success, especially when the business in question is newer. Spend money, but spend money on something you think will work.

Non-Digital Integration

Some businesses have a very online presence, and that’s where they perform best. Online marketing and branding are very popular because they reach larger audiences and are often cheaper than non-digital options. However, this doesn’t mean non-digital options should be ignored.

If you have a business that has the potential to exist outside of the Internet, don’t let this possibility pass you by. Even if it’s something as simple as buying business cards with your business URL on them, invest in some sort of tangible, “IRL” branding mechanism.

Taking the Next Step

Many brands start out with a bang but end with a fizzle. Branding isn’t something that’s a one and done operation — it takes maintenance. Many early businesses make the mistake of considering branding to be something they do once and sprinkle throughout their marketing strategies, but this is completely inaccurate. Make sure to keep working with your branding, even after the initial brand launch.

Not Paying Attention to Analytics

Online branding is something that should be paid attention to in the context of analytics. If you send out a tweet that’s relevant to your branding strategy, assess how well that tweet is doing. How many interactions does it have? What’s the retweet to interaction ratio?

Paying attention to branding analytics is one of the easiest ways to tell whether or not what you’re doing is succeeding or failing miserably, or even somewhere in between. Whether you use free analytics resources provided by social media and Google, or you pay for your analytics tools, one thing is for certain — analytic data is necessary for branding success.

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Ways to Grow Your Small Business with Your Friends

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Ways to Grow Your Small Business

Growing a business is hard work on your own, and that’s why you hire employees to help. It’s often, though, that businesses in their early stages are generated from a lot of pro bono help and nourishment. Entrepreneurs often get their friends and family to help volunteer for advertising, product making and other tasks that need to be handled when there’s not enough money to pay yourself, let alone an actual workforce.

Your family might be an easier sell, but your friends could use some warming up to. Some friends will jump at the chance to help, but you can’t blame someone for wanting something a little more. There’s an art to convincing your friends to go in with you on a business venture, even if it’s just in the capacity of handing out fliers.

Work the Tit for Tat Angle

Not many people are willing to give something away for free. In this exchange model, your friends are giving away their time for you. What are you going to offer them in return?

Whenever your friends help you out, give them something in exchange. It can be free product, a future cut, or even something more creative, like naming a future product or service after them. When you give someone an incentive to help, they’re more likely to do so.

Make it Fun

Sometimes all you need to do to entice someone to help you with your business is give the activity a competitive edge. Get your friends to all try and refer people to your business. Whoever gets the largest number of referrals wins free product, and everyone gets to have a night of drinks to celebrate the success.

Word of Mouth

One area of marketing that people don’t focus enough on in this digital age is the power of the word of mouth advertisement. Your friends have friends, and that’s something you can use.

Tell your closest friends about your business venture, and all you ask of them is to tell their friends. This kind of pyramid, trickle down advertising is how early grassroots movements got started, and the same can be said for your new small business.

Capitalize On Togetherness

Being with your friends is a fun experience in and of itself. When you want to do something for your business, involve your friends not only to help you work, but also to have something to do together. People are often happy to organize fundraisers, make product and commit to other business activities if that’s what they think of it as – an activity.

Ask for Advice and Opinions

When you have friends, you have the perfect opportunity for case studies and beta testing free of charge. For instance, say you have an ad campaign you want to start running. Shoot it by real people you know first before taking it out of the family to market to others. Ask for their real opinions. They may be more likely to be frank with you than a stranger.

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Question: Is it Really Important to Develop a Lifestyle Brand?

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Is it Really Important to Develop a Lifestyle Brand
What exactly is a lifestyle brand? On one hand, a lifestyle brand is a brand identity that focuses on the ideas, rituals, interests and attitudes of a particular culture or hobby, thus the term lifestyle applies. Lifestyle brands market and sell products and services to consumers that focus their lives and interests around a certain topic or activity.

On the other, any brand can market their advertising campaigns around a lifestyle if they choose to do so. Any product can be targeted toward lifestyle-focused consumers, and some products and services can be marketed to many different consumers with many different lifestyles.

One of the benefits of branding focusing on a lifestyle is that the importance and necessity of the product itself is already described and associated with something important in the life of the consumer. Lifestyle-infused products can sometimes market themselves – marketing teams just need to add a selling point and they’re good to go.

But the importance truly lies in brand consistency – a brand based around a lifestyle is one that has to stay consistent with that lifestyle and cater to the needs of its consumer. Developing a lifestyle brand, no matter what that lifestyle may be referring to, is an important step in the branding process, namely for three important reasons:

  1. Lifestyle, Consistency, Loyalty

Many consumers who use lifestyle brand products commit to one company or one set of products that suit their needs best. Lifestyle branding and marketing is largely centered on convenience and effectiveness – for instance, consider the world of athletics apparel. Active women usually purchase active wear from one company that they trust based on experience. If one pair of jogging pants works very well for them from one particular company, they’re more likely to buy that matching jogging jacket and those athletics shoes made by the same brand.

This can also be applied to the branding itself. When a brand is focused on a lifestyle and consistently shows consumers that it understands that lifestyle, it’s more likely to be successful.

  1. Lifestyle Branding is Consumer Focused

It’s been mentioned before, but branding focused on a lifestyle puts the consumer in the spotlight. Lifestyle brands are there to help consumers make their life easier or more valuable. Revisit the active wear example. An athletic clothing line can be branded in a way that appeals to a consumer that wants to improve their exercising and athletic activities while looking fashionable.

This branding technique appeals to a consumers need for value. Lifestyle branding puts the consumer first and shows them time and time again that they’re there to help.

  1. Lifestyle Brands Show Off Experience

There’s also a certain level of expertise to be shown from lifestyle branding. Marketing lifestyle and lifestyle-based products and services is something that requires a specific focus – there’s no room for general marketing here. Lifestyle brands and marketing strategies hone in on a specific group of people and shows them that they understand the lifestyle AND how to improve it.

This requires intimate knowledge of the purpose and lifestyle being targeting, and this kind of understanding and expertise is something that consumers trust. Lifestyle branding allows businesses the opportunity to connect with consumers in a way that shows them they know what they’re doing and they’re willing to share that information wealth with them.

Lifestyle-focused brand development is something that should be considered carefully, but it’s no less important than other branding and marketing forms. In fact, your lifestyle branding can be your ticket to success – when your consumer trusts your brand, you both win in the end.

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These 3 Brand Success Stories Will Inspire You to Greatness

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These 3 Brand Success Stories Will Inspire You
Is your brand stagnating? Are you having trouble getting your branding to a place where you want it to be? Maybe you’re just uninspired so your creative branding brain is suffering. This is normal in business. We can’t be on all the time, so don’t stress too much.

Instead of focusing on your anxiety, instead focus on getting inspired. Sometimes what you need to get your branding mojo back is to simply looking to others for ideas and inspiration. Influential branding success stories are out there – in fact, there’s more than you can ever imagine. Here are three branding success stories that may just inspire you to make your own brand greater than ever possible.

Shopulse

Have you ever heard of the phrase “branding is so easy, even a kid could do it?” Probably not, but that doesn’t mean it’s not something that’s impossible. If you’re familiar with the shopping site Shopulse, you’ll know it’s a site famed for its great flash deals, but what you may not know is it’s the brainchild of a 16-year-old boy.

Raphael Paulin-Daigle is a teen from Moncton, Canada that’s had business aspirations since they first reached the double-digit age bracket. Over the years, he considered the problem that many retailers face: inventory management. Shopulse takes excess inventory from suppliers and uses this acquisition concept to sell goods cheaper to consumers while eliminating the back-stock problems of other businesses.

This kind of brand concept is attractive to consumers who want value both from the financial aspect of their products and the purpose of selling them. It’s also important to note that it’s impressive that Raphael has accomplished so much for someone so young. This is another lesson to learn – the more unlikely your success story, the more consumers will root for you.

 

Hootsuite

One of the best ways to brand yourself is to attach your own image to a popular trend. Not only does this boost the searchability of your campaign, it also infuses some personality and humor into your brand and business. When you show that you’re conscious of pop culture and can take a joke, your business is seen as more personable.

Take Hootsuite’s lead – after they noticed the huge popularity of the HBO drama “Game of Thrones,” the social media management company rebranded the trend as a viral video, “A Game of Social Thrones.” This video focuses on business value while still being humorous and light.

 

Disney

Maybe Disney has a head start with brand image and loyalty compared to other companies, but it doesn’t mean that they can fall asleep on the job. You may not have looked at it like this before, but Disney is one of the largest lifestyle brands in the world, they just don’t sell services or products that offer a tangible help – they sell experiences, magic and family happiness.

This isn’t just something that they do through their cruises and Oscar-winning films, either. Disney offers blog posts and other online content that furthers their family-friendly and experience-heavy brand. What can you take from this? Three things: brand consistency is key to customer loyalty, lifestyle branding is something you should focus on and promote this brand across a variety of mediums.

When you look to other brands for inspiration, always keep these questions in mind: what is this brand doing that could be valuable to me, and how can I take this success and turn it into my own?

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Building a Killer Lifestyle Brand Following Without Breaking the Bank; Every Entrepreneur’s Dream

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Once you’ve discovered the potential of your brand, perhaps patented, or built; your optimal dream would be to have a following begging for what you have concocted. Social media traffic buzzing in circles, the new order phone line and website busier than the complaint department, and revenue pouring in would be stellar. While sometimes due to the market or competition you may feel that there are no shortcuts, at least there are some streamlined ideas you can focus on to help you get to your goal.

A lot of brands that have the following desired DID break the bank to get there, mostly with advertising on prime cable TV networks and even billboards in large cities like LA, New York and Houston. In a time where what really can raise your blood pressure most is the notion of spending more, we’ll try to explore avenues that will help certain buying circles take notice; and hopefully keep that notice on your brand in their high priority inbox.

YouTube Promo Video or Commercial

As hard as it can be to organize and get to the finish line, the first tip to branding on a budget is going with what you have got. If someone in your entourage happens to already have Twitter with 20,000 followers or real prowess in the video department, grab on and don’t let go. In the video area is where we get to some really important “meat and potatoes” of marketing. A lot of people fear video because they think it is going to be very expensive. HD cameras have changed that. If you really wanted to, you could shoot a video on a smartphone, I may not recommend it; but just for a simple testimonial it gets the point across.

Let’s say you have created a shoe brand and started small. If you know someone with an HD camera, you can have close-ups of the shoe, some music, people perhaps playing sports or skateboarding, and use an editing program to make some slick transitions. Then, you can put the video on You Tube, and invite customers who like the product to comment. Also, putting the video on your Facebook page will show users what the product is like.

Many business owners are afraid to shoot commercials because they feel that they won’t look like the ones on television. That’s ok! As long as the camera is steady, the talent seems genuine, and the brand is shown clearly, it’s a start. Maybe later you will have an awesome budget to make a better video.

Web Templates for Online Presence

Another form of buzz that we have been hearing about bang for the buck in branding is regarding the use of templates. There is a lot of information that steers you away from pre crafted templates, websites like Squarespace can give you an online presence for folks to see while you are building your staff and your business in general. And blogging templates can be a great way to at least get your feet wet and spread some articles around about your product. Another important thing to remember is that they do not always have to be articles about your product, they can also

Create a Sense of Urgency and Excitement

Another way to really build your brand without breaking the bank is by peaking curiosity. This is difficult, but Pinterest did it by being exclusive, as a member’s only service. If you craft your words and product carefully, you may be able to build hype about your upcoming brand that people will be waiting on the edge of their seats for.

Depending on the kind of brand you’re introducing, the way that this has been done in the past is by creating a “holding” or “coming soon” page, and directing traffic towards it with videos about people asking questions, or the promise of revealing something big. We know this is difficult, but if you do it with just the right amount of finesse, it works. And this method, if not done perfectly, will still leave SOME curious customers milling around your holding page waiting for the revealing moment.

There are also design focused web communities like Dribble where you can acquire talented designer that may not be as much in the money department as local designers. It should be noted that in the graphic design realm, this is one area you don’t want to skimp, as this is your “logo for life”. However, if you are on a time crunch and you need something that is not too deep (as in 3d rendering and technology) that can still convey a message, you may get a completely acceptable logo for 99 dollars or so.

Excellent Customer Service

The last sentiment of branding and getting the word out has to do with the fast paced culture of today; everyone is in even more of a hurry than they were during the tech boom. To get your brand name on people’s lips, having someone truly outstanding in the customer service department is an asset. In today’s world of productivity reports, spreadsheets, and getting people off the phone as soon as possible, someone who is there to give extra time is appreciated.

The best customer service professionals who have multiple awards are always in demand. Breaking the bank is absolutely frightening in the beginning of a brand development process, and hopefully with a few of these guidelines you will be able to develop more of a following on a budget.

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Self Marketing and Events; How to Present Yourself In Meet & Greets, Career Fairs and Workshops

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Even with the economy still not fully mended, depending on the size of the city you live in, there are lots of opportunities to present yourself in large groups, seminars and career fairs. If you are a job seeker, you are most interested in the career fairs to land an hourly and paying job; not the easiest task in the world these days. If you are an entrepreneur offering contracting services, construction, consulting, or a third party vendor for a product, you are concerned most with networking to other business owners. They are two totally different arenas of presentation, and we will look at both. If you are the entrepreneur, you have a bit more power and can emulate a little more calm. If you are the job seeker, you need to seem available, diligent, and like you would fit the mold. We will look at the small business owner first.

For the sake of example, let’s use someone who provides services of designing smart phone applications. It is very in demand; however you have just started in business and desperately need clients. Believe it or not, your first step is designing business cards. Yes, those old fashioned, 8 track, analog seeming, physical business cards. Here’s why: sometimes your encounters with potential clients are so brief that you do not have time to take out smartphones and exchange web pages or phone numbers. Even though our sample entrepreneur provides a very high tech service, if his encounter is too brief, he needs to leave the potential customer something with his phone number. It’s a common mistake that some make; they think that people don’t like those clunky space consuming business cards in this modern age. Even if they don’t, when your service offered is something they want bad enough, they WILL save your card and call you back.

The second step in the situation of an entrepreneur is confidence. It can sometimes be very difficult when you are bleeding revenue, are in the red, or maybe do not have a single client yet. If the bills are going unpaid, if your life is falling apart, and the stress is eating you up; you’re going to have to suppress it. After reading around the web a lot we have found that one of the easiest ways to do this is when you are talking to a new person who may be a potential client, pretend that they have already paid you and you are thanking them. Everything is great, your smart phone apps are the best in the business, and you are getting ready to go cash their check. If you don’t, they will see your insecurity and may not be willing to hire you. It’s a vicious environment out there, and no matter how friendly people may seem on the surface, they are inwardly judging you at every second. Instead of saying “I really need the work, I hope you contact me”, try saying, “Excellent, I do believe that I am free, hope to hear from you soon”. Desperation is sensed, and fighting the urge to look desperate at the workshop or meet and greet is going to be your biggest asset in the battle of selling your own business.

As eager as you are to tell people that you create the coolest smartphone apps on the market, remember it is also key to listen. The bubbliest of personalities can really shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to presentation. If you know that the person you are speaking with at the workshop or expo is potentially one of the biggest purchasers of your apps that you make in the state; don’t bombard them; it is more important than ever to let them speak about what they want to speak about first, even if it is their vacation to Idaho to see potato fields. Then after some obligatory listening, you can let them know that you just launched your app creating venture. The client you want to land most may take some time, it will be important to have smaller jobs to tide you over. This is a very difficult time of any business, as some of the smaller clients may literally treat you worse and with less respect than the big fish you are after. You just have to handle these situations with grace, and you WILL know when it’s time to cut them loose. However they are invaluable to pay the bills on your way up.

If you are a job hunter seeking an hourly wage job in the world out there, no matter what anyone says, it is still like walking in a field full of landmines. One good word of advice is that even though we hate to say it; these days if an employer is just desperate to sign you up and have you start tomorrow; they may not be telling you what the job entails. Right now employers get their pick of talent no matter what the media tells you, and if they are hurriedly filling a position, it may be getting ready to be outsourced soon or simply be a very toxic environment.

Another thing to know is that we have been told over the last month that some employers are now taking their applicants through as many as SIX interviews, when the standard used to be 2 or 3. Yes, this can be very demoralizing; and you also have to answer questions from multiple people firing them at you. It is best as always to just be yourself, as cliché as that may sound. The main thing that your objective to let employers know about you is that you are going to help save them money. They do not care about your violin lesson teaching on the side, or softball league through church. It’s only the bottom line, and it will be this way for quite a few more years. As far as the current climate, without trying to sugarcoat anything; another tactic is that when the interview is over and the hr manager is thanking you for your time; you can always say outright, “Well I am interested in the position; is there any way to move things forward at all?” what happens is that when the interview is over, the applicant leaves, and sometimes the hiring manager has no idea if the applicant really wants the job. We live in a world where everything in life is full of headgames; swashbuckling your way through them is really more of a battle than doing the job every day once you land it.

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Brand Building, A Motivational Outlook

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I’ve come to the conclusion that what’s good for the goose isn’t necessarily as good for the gander. In an ever-changing world full of uncertainty and evolution, the one-size fits all theory, simply doesn’t exist. And yet, you can apply the same concepts and ideas as the next person however, it’s the individuality behind that idea that ultimately prevails. I just recently had a conversation with a great friend of mine who insisted, “no one can do it like you do it,” and this is especially true. And the same phrase needs to auto repeat in your mind when brand building. Yes, the competition is always fierce and will stay that way but a couple things to remember: 1. be unique, the competition is not you (vice versa) 2. the competition doesn’t have your game plan, strategies, capabilities, connections or drive. So forget playing the comparison game and continue right along. In the end, the sole purpose of building a brand is to stand somewhere away from those areas already flooded with the same type of people, and their ideas.

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