|
|
|
Branding Fiasco -- Better Be Who You Say You Are!
Our experience as customers offers great instruction into the concept of branding. Come with me on a recent "experience" and you'll see what I mean. Here's the situation: I want to order an 800 number. On my AT&T bill is a customer services number....
Company Logo Watches – The 30 Times a Day Reminder of Your Business
Watches bearing your company logo are a different prospect to other corporate branded items. Their higher perceived value makes them premium items, although in reality branded watches can be purchased for less than $5 a piece, making them remarkable...
Do I really need to write articles for e-zines?
When I was first advised to start writing articles, this was the first question I asked. As I was totally freaked out at the thought of me writing for others to read. Many people subscribe to e-zines and the readers often trust the recommendation of...
How to Build a Business Website
A recent report done by Yankee Group, a Boston-based market research company, states that at the end of 2004 around 34 percent of small and medium sized businesses in North America are selling goods and services on the Internet and another 25 ...
New Uniforms Could be the Gold Charm for the Golden Arches
New designer uniforms could be the gold charm McDonald’s needs to connect their new hip marketing campaign to their fast-food restaurants. This possible gold charm for the fast-food chain has the ability to let the actual fast-food restaurants...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
How to Commit Brand Suicide
A graphic designer spoke to me last week. His graphic design firm -- let's call it XYZ Design -- was numero uno in designing labels for a large wine company. Let's call that ABC Wines. Now ABC wines had some really super wines. They loved the incomparable graphic design of XYZ design, and continued to use them for several of their major brands. This one client alone generated tons of work and income for XYZ design right through the year.
Then It Happened...
ABC Wines sold out to another wine company. This new wine company had its own in-house graphic designers. That effectively meant XYZ Design's income and work flow were severely hit, causing them to scramble for new clients to fill the gap.
"If only I had done what you said," said the owner of XYZ Design, " and not line extended into web design and other forms of graphic design and communication, I would have gone down the gurgler too"
Not true.
Line extension doesn't mean you run just one business or have one product.
No, it doesn't mean that at all.
Multi-tasking existed long before the advent of computers and the more skills you have, the better off you are in today's world. However, you have to name each 'twin' differently to give it a very distinct identity. When you do that, your client recognises the difference and chooses that 'twin' for its own individual personality and character.
How Do You Line Extend Without Line Extending
In the case of XYZ Design, it would have to work in this manner. To all wine companies, they would enter the door as a 'wine label design Specialist.' To every wine company in the country and overseas, they would be known, not as XYZ Design but more so, as XYZ Wine Design Specialists.'
This would give the wine companies a specialist to deal with. It would help XYZ Wine Design specialists to build their reputation in the wine industry to a point where if any wine company decided to design a label, XYZ Design would be one of the main contenders.
Now, wine companies don't do just labels. They do brochures, leaflets, annual reports, websites and tons of other stuff. Your question would be, how can I afford to lose out on that market?
Why You Never Lose Out On The Rest Of The Stuff
It's called backdoor entry. Everyone (including your competition) is banging on the front door, trying to get in. You, on the other hand, quietly slip in through the backdoor, pick your goodies and slip out.
This is how it works in practice. If you do really good work designing wine labels, it's almost inevitable that clients will ask you if you can design other associated material. That's when you introduce your other company, "JKL Graphic Design" and
"PQR Web Design". Same company, different positioning and certainly different brand names. What this does, is it helps clients compartmentalize their thinking. They now think you have specialist groups working on specialist projects taking extra special attention.
This Does Two Things...
1) It helps each of your businesses take on a 'character' of its own without affecting the other, much like Air New Zealand is premium and Freedom Air is budget. The public knows they're one company but still compartmentalizes them into two. You can change the character of each company, and help boil it down to the smallest possible niche, making you an expert in the category.
2) The client sees your multiple brands as different brands. When they need web design services, or when they need to recommend them, they call the web design experts. And so on with graphic design and wine labels or just about anything that you are handling.
Everyone Loves A Specialist
Would you allow a GP to work on your triple bypass? OR would you prefer a heart specialist? Even better, a doctor who does only triple bypass surgery? If you feel the difference, so does your client and to ignore this basic human instinct is to do so at your own risk.
How It Works Not Just In Business But In The Workplace Too
If you're working in a job, the same rule applies. Be known as a genius for something. Know how several things work. But branding yourself in one skill makes you the expert. Every time the company has a fire in that section, you will be known for your fire-fighting skills.
On an ordinary basis, most employees are not known for any particular skill and wonder why they are on top of the redundancy list. Bosses don't know what you do and why you're special, because you haven't been doing the 'branding bit'. It's better to be a specialist than the 'safe unknown.'
As Dire Straits sang in one of their songs, "Sitting on the fence is a dangerous course: You could get a bullet from the peace keeping force."
Funny (But True) Phrases When You Forget To Obey The Rules
Jack of all trades, master of none. A bird in the hand, is worth two in the bush. And the best one of all: Keep it simple, stupid!
Keep putting these principles in action and you will see a marked improvement in your business.
About the author:
Wouldn't you love to stumble upon a secret library of small business ideas? Find simple, yet electrifying ideas onmarketing strategy,psychological tactics and branding. Head down to http://www.psychotactics.comtoday and judge for yourself.
|
|
|
|
|
| Brand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| The brand, and "branding" and brand equity have become increasingly important ... From the perspective of brand owners, branded products or services also ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| Branding - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Livestock branding, the marking of animals to indicate ownership; Human branding, ... Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branding" ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| AllAboutBranding.com : Home |
| Provides resources and opinions on branding. Includes brand development, management and communications. |
| www.allaboutbranding.com |
|
| brandchannel.com | branding resource produced by Interbrand | brands |
| An international online exchange and resource about brand marketing and branding. |
| www.brandchannel.com |
|
| Branding Company Corporate Branding Internet Brand Identity ... |
| Brand Identity Guru Inc. creates, develops and promotes powerful brands. Our clients enjoy an array of innovative, creative and powerful branding solutions ... |
| www.brandidentityguru.com |
|
| Branding Blog |
| Branding and positioning news and opinion. |
| www.brandingblog.com |
|
| Branding Asia |
| Free articles, news and columns on branding in Asia. Market research and Asian marketing. |
| www.brandingasia.com |
|
| Pages tagged with "branding" on del.icio.us |
| All items tagged branding ??? view popular ... industrie./design and branding consultant specialists./ · save this. by kittim to design branding graphic ... |
| del.icio.us |
|
| The Brand Called You |
| Big companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the Age of the Individual, you have to be your own brand. Here's what it takes to be the CEO of ... |
| www.fastcompany.com |
|
| Branding: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
| See all blog posts tagged with branding on Technorati. |
| www.technorati.com |
|
| Mozilla Branding |
| The purpose of this document is to describe mozilla.org's branding strategy during and after the release of what has generally been called Mozilla 1.4. ... |
| www.mozilla.org |
|
| What Brand Are You? A branding viral by The Design Conspiracy |
| What Brand Are You? has since been picked out as Site Of The Day by the likes of the Financial Times, Yahoo, USA Today and BBC News, and has received more ... |
| www.whatbrandareyou.com |
|
| Julie & Company: Affordable branding, web design, graphic design ... |
| Julie & Company creates stellar branding, integrated marketing, advertising, web design, web development, Flash, trade show booths - all at affordable ... |
| www.julieandcompany.com |
|
| Forty Media - Web Design, Web Development, Branding, Great Websites |
| a professional web design agency based in Phoenix, Arizona. |
| www.fortymedia.com |
|
| Branding - Yahoo! Small Business |
| Find information to help grow your online business with business plans, Thomas Register, news articles and more. |
| smallbusiness.yahoo.com |
|
| Lexicon |
| Lexicon Branding appears on KTVU News; Lexicon Branding creates Ridgeline for Honda, Viiv for Intel, and GameTap for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. ... |
| www.lexicon-branding.com |
|
| Branding and Usability |
| We're finding that a site's usability can dramatically affect branding. ... There are two basic techniques for branding: direct experience and indirect ... |
| www.uie.com |
|
| iMedia Connection: Research & Metrics - Branding |
| Majority of marketers feel branding opportunities -- online and offline -- aren't ... IAB case studies prove real-world power of online in branding mix. ... |
| www.imediaconnection.com |
|
| Small Business Marketing And Branding |
| Small business marketing and branding advice and how-to guides for small business owners. Learn how to start and grow your own successful business. |
| smallbusinessbranding.com |
|
| Beyond Branding |
| Beyond Branding, published in hardcover in 2003 and paperback in 2005, presents innovative business models for the survival of 21st century organizations. |
| www.beyond-branding.com |
|
|