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6 Steps To Laying Out Your Competitive Strategy
Why do so many companies languish and watch as their business turns into a zero profit zone, while others seem to thrive?
When you look at your business, whether it’s a new venture or a company with a long history, can you answer the...
Business Exit Strategy
After a few years, you might find yourself with a successful
home business. After a few more, you might find yourself sick of
it and ready to retire, only to realise that you have no idea
what to do with the business and all the customers who...
Growing your Company in today's Chaotic Market!
I think we've all heard enough bad news to last us few months to last us several lifetimes! Our mantra for clients is "get over it" - cut your losses when where you can and focus on the basic building blocks to grow your business. Here are some...
Real Estate Post Card Marketing; Million Dollar Mailings
Real Estate Post Card Marketing is an underutilized real estate
marketing strategy known by many, but used by few. The test? How
many agents do you know market real estate with postcards. Not
many - that's what I thought!
Yet, those that do...
Want More Money and Less Stress?
At 2pm last Wednesday, I got a call from one of my clients. Before I could barely utter my "hello," she launched headlong into her story - "I am so frustrated! I have this client who has been dragging her feet at every stage of our...
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More Than Just a Logo: Creating Your Company's Corporate Identity
A client of mine once called after I had given a presentation to
him about his company's brand. He was calling to say we needed
to change the shade of taupe we had all agreed upon for the
firm's logo.
I was surprised to hear this busy man talking taupe, convinced
he had more important things to attend to. I found it
particularly strange because just that day, he had approved the
color scheme.
As the conversation progressed, he confessed that his wife
didn't like the color. She had experimented with that very shade
of taupe for their living room curtains and hated it. Ignoring
our strong suggestion to the contrary, the color was changed.
What does this 20 year old story have to do with anything? Most
people think of branding as a pretty logo. Instead, branding
embodies the entire customer experience, with the logo merely
acting as the visual mark.
The brand experience should reflect the soul of the company.
More important than whether or not you "really like" everything
about it, your brand should represent your company's "image
attributes."
Image attributes are adjectives and descriptive phrases that
capture the essence of a company and their creative project.
They describe the core values of an organization, the feeling
that a brand should evoke or the essential goals of a Web site.
At the start of a project, I work with my clients to elucidate a
set of brief terms to identify the basic precepts of their
project. These image attributes become a list that we can all
agree on, easy-to-remember reference points that help everyone
on the team, both client and developer, stay on target
throughout the process.
Developing them may be the most important exercise of the
project, because it helps ensure that the final result--the
brand identity or Web site--embodies those descriptors. For
every project, I have many levels of goals, but as long as my
work reflects the image attributes on presentation
day, I have
done my job.
So what do image attributes have to do with my client's wife who
doesn't like taupe? One of the most common mistakes in
purchasing creative services is that clients judge results based
on personal likes and dislikes.
Unlike choosing a curtain color for your living room or buying
artwork for the space over your fireplace, creative choices
related to business have nothing to do with your (or your
spouse's!) personal preferences. They have everything to do with
solving your business problems and improving your customers'
experience.
Many clients think they have to "like" the artwork that creative
services firms produce for them. But what if those clients'
likes and dislikes don't line up with their corporate needs?
What if they aren't qualified to determine what works visually
for their firm? By agreeing on image attributes that will guide
and gauge the outcome of an assignment, we assure ourselves that
the end result achieves the business goals that we set at the
beginning.
Look at brands that work: Coke, Nike, Apple Computer; their
brands on packaging and products, Web sites and brochures, carry
a simple, compelling visual message that elicit very specific
feelings in their audience. Whether or not people like the red
used in the Coke lettering or the simple apple icon used by
Apple Computer, they are compelling and significant icons that
evoke strong recognition and often positive feeling.
That's what a brand is about: embodying the attributes of your
company or product. Everything else is window dressing.
About the author:
Kara Brook is the President and CEO of Brook Group, LTD, a
full-service Web design firm near Washington, DC. More articles
by Brook can be found at www.brookgroup.com/res
ources and www.usabilityandbrandin
g.com.
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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 |
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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 |
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AllAboutBranding.com : Home |
Provides resources and opinions on branding. Includes brand development, management and communications. |
www.allaboutbranding.com |
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brandchannel.com | branding resource produced by Interbrand | brands |
An international online exchange and resource about brand marketing and branding. |
www.brandchannel.com |
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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 |
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Branding Blog |
Branding and positioning news and opinion. |
www.brandingblog.com |
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Branding Asia |
Free articles, news and columns on branding in Asia. Market research and Asian marketing. |
www.brandingasia.com |
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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 |
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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 |
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Branding: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
See all blog posts tagged with branding on Technorati. |
www.technorati.com |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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Forty Media - Web Design, Web Development, Branding, Great Websites |
a professional web design agency based in Phoenix, Arizona. |
www.fortymedia.com |
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Branding - Yahoo! Small Business |
Find information to help grow your online business with business plans, Thomas Register, news articles and more. |
smallbusiness.yahoo.com |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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