SALES & MARKETING: Top Ten Branding Tips - Do you agree?

Top Ten Branding Tips

Branding is one of the most important aspects of a strong company when it comes to securing the goodwill and trust of your customers. Newcastle Branding Specialists Urban River provides 10 Branding Tips advising how to build a strong brand that can add value to your company and ultimately generate sales.

1. Put your customers first

Identify who they are and how they think.  What are the factors that lead them to want your product or service? Now match your business offering to their needs.

2. Brand identity

A strong element of how your company is seen by your customers, your brand identity should remain consistent to reinforce your values continually.  This will help your customers make the decision to buy from you instead of your competitors.

3. Positioning

The way you ‘position’ yourself in the market will determine how customers think about your company in relation to your competitors – are you price lead or quality driven?  Whatever your chosen path, this should be reflected in your marketing copy, images and materials.

4. Keep it simple

Keep names and straplines short, simple and consistent.  Once chosen, use the company name and strapline in every possible means of communication to ensure future recognition and brand association.

5. Involve all staff

Your greatest ambassadors or your biggest weakness – how you involve your staff in branding will determine how much they can help reinforce that brand.  Keep them updated, encourage involvement and ensure a united front for the business.  A cohesive staff team will appear extremely professional and trustworthy to potential customers.

6. Develop a brand plan

Careful management of a brand on an ongoing basis will ensure the brand remains strong, clear and unaffected by outside influences.  Form a plan to maintain brand values and ensure any changes are made in line with brand values.

7. Consistency

A simple set of guidelines will ensure that everyone (internally and externally) can apply your brand in a consistent manner. This is crucial to ensure your potential customers develop a familiarity with, and trust of, your brand.

8. Different media

Keep a close eye on the use of your brand guidelines across different media such as newspapers, radio, print, website, social media and email marketing.  Size, colour and positioning of your logo is essential and the correct use of these should be ensured at all times.

9. Review

Make sure all occurrences of incorrect branding are tackled as they arise and the correct guidelines are understood for the future; nipping such problems in the bud will avoid long-term damage.

10. Involve the professionals

While it’s tempting to enter into a spot of DIY branding this is often not a good idea and can be costly in terms of time and money to address at a later date.  You may seek to employ a professional creative agency to help establish the future brand security of your company.

It’s as simple as that! For more branding and design insight why not pop in for a chat, sign up to our words of wisdom or view our portfolio.

BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION: Video marketing provides great return on investment

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Video marketing provides great return on investment

LISA OSTRIKOFF

Special to The Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Mar. 27 2014, 1:07 PM EDT

Last updated Thursday, Mar. 27 2014, 1:11 PM EDT

This is an excellent article for growing your business.  Remember to "target" your audience.  Monitor results so that you can gain more support from your executives.  

If you’re interested in the immense potential of creating, sharing and distributing digital content in 2014, consider who’s doing it best to help you achieve great results.

It’s been known for some time that online video helps businesses increase their brand awareness, generate genuine buzz, and increase sales. What’s becoming more evident is how much of a difference it makes, which is reflected in the results of the latest industry studies.

73 per cent are more likely to make a purchase after watching a video.
One of the latest, released this year by Animoto, which surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers, highlights the impact of video: 


• 96 per cent say online videos are helpful when making purchasing decisions.
• 71 per cent say watching online video content leaves them with a positive impression of the brand, service or company.

According to eMarketer, online video is one of the marketing approaches that promises the greatest return on investment.

One key business-to-consumer sector is retail, where we are seeing video used to assist a customer’s journey through the sales funnel. Videos offer a better view of products, they promote trends, they express brand culture, and they make a statement that’s much bolder than most advertising methods. From longer-form videos on YouTube to bite-sized content on Vine and Instagram, the smart brands are getting on board, and they’re seeing results.

Zappos was one of the first and it continues to be one of the most mentioned retail brands leveraging online video. Tens of thousands of videos are embedded on its website at any given time and its YouTube channel is full of products, how-tos, and company culture videos. Zappos also encourages its customers to play a role by allowing them to upload their Zappos Experiencevideos. While the online shoes and clothing shop is a huge video-hustle example, smaller retailers can start to emulate its success with a few small pieces.

French Connection is another example of a brand that regularly pushes video content to its network on YouTube and other social media. It creates and releases seasonal fashion updates, fashion tips, campaign teasers and series of short “films” that celebrate the “power of clothing.”

Most of them are short and sweet with creative fair – the company puts some of its fashions on a 360-degree moving display, which offers a more engaging experience that is trusted by consumers more than, say, digitally manipulated photos. 

Other top retail YouTube channels includeHome Depot – with a variety of cool DIY project tutorials – Bed Bath and Beyond “product of the week” segments, and Best Buy how-to videos and “latest technology” news.

With mobile traffic set to increase 13-fold by 2017, retail brands have been quick to experiment with short-form video platforms such as Vine and Instagram. From Ford to H&M, Reebok, GoPro, Ralph Lauren and Tide, there’s even a mashup of the top branded short-form videos of February, 2014. From informative content to entertainment to shock value, there’s no shortage of creativity and unique approaches.

Strategically, it’s about honing in on content a retailer’s target demographic would find intriguing, engaging, informative and helpful, all of which contributes to brand awareness and increased sales. Most brands take a similar strategic approach to video, though the content, of course, is quite different and tailored specifically to their audience.

Not convinced yet? Here are a few more stats from the initial study mentioned:

• Video plays an impressive role in consumers’ lives with 94 per cent watching it at least once a week from their desktop.
• 76 per cent of smartphone owners watch videos at least once a week on their devices.
• 89 per cent are likely to share a video if they consider it educational.
• 86 per cent are likely to share a video if there is an incentive, such as a promotion or discount.

Roll and record, retailers. 
This is your year to make an impact with online video.

Lisa Ostrikoff is a TV journalist and anchor-turned-creator of BizBOXTV, a Canadian online video production, advertising and social media marketing agency. You can find her on Twitter and Facebook .

IMPROVING BUSINESS EARNINGS PART 1: 3 things marketers could (and should) learn from anthropologists

3 things marketers could (and should) learn from anthropologists

Mitchell Osak | March 4, 2014 8:00 AM ET
More from Mitchell Osak

Ivan Garcia/AFP/Getty ImagesAnthropologists -- who study humankind both in the past and present -- use a rigorous, non-presumptive method of doing research that could improve marketers ability to reach deep into the recesses of the human unconscious.

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Many companies prioritize learning customer needs above any other marketing activity so that they can create better products and service experiences. Typically, marketers will use traditional qualitative techniques like focus groups, surveys and one-on-one interviews. Unfortunately, these tools often fail to generate breakthrough insights. Standard qualitative methods are good at telling firms what is happening but not the why it’s happening. To get to the root cause of a consumer’s actions, marketers need to explore the recesses of their mind to identify subconscious drivers of behaviour. Anthropology is a very effective way to do this.

Simply put, anthropology is the study of people and civilization, past and present. It incorporates teachings from a wide range of disciplines, from psychology and biology, to the humanities and sociology. Anthropology is increasingly being used by companies (Starbucks, Lego, Herman Miller and Nokia are pacesetters) to better understand latent consumer needs and as well as societal and religious influences on their behavior.

In action

The following example shows anthropology in practice. A firm in the spa industry engaged us to help redesign its customer experience and service offering for female patrons. The client wanted to address any unmet customer needs and better differentiate their customer experience. Conventional research techniques regularly produced muted feedback, which led to copycat store designs and products. We wanted to go deeper into the consumer’s subconscious to find unmet needs and drivers that triggers behaviour.

Freya Ingrid Morales/BloombergBrands like Lego, Starbucks and Nokia have already realized significant marketing success using anthropological techniques.

To get there, we employed anthropology to probe fundamental beliefs and values around their body image and wellness as well cultural influences. For example, how do women define beauty?  What role does human touch play? And, how can a spa experience help satisfy a women’s intrinsic needs? Our findings upended conventional thinking and led to a revamping of how the facilities were designed and how the services and benefits were communicated, resulting in higher client retention, an enhanced brand image and increased rates of cross selling.

Conventional qualitative research techniques take people at their word. This can be risky for brands.  At their core, consumers are often irrational, driven by motives or external influences that are unseen even to themselves. Using anthropology as complementary research can produce a more holistic and penetrating view of the consumer in their real life condition. Likewise, anthropology’s rigorous, academic-driven methodology preempts the emergence of erroneous assumptions around a customers’ behaviour that could have been shaped by a firm’s culture, the bias of its managers, or increasingly, the large but imperfect data stream flowing in.

Anthropologist have a number of data-collection instruments at their disposal including artifact analysis, quotidian diaries, and observational studies. Importantly, practitioners approach their research without hypotheses, gather­ing large quantities of information in an open-ended way, with no preconceptions about what they will find. The collected data is raw, personal, and first­hand — not the incomplete or artificial version of reality that is generated by most market research tools.

Anthropology is particularly helpful in understanding the dynamic world of social media. “Companies are beginning to use anthropology to understand the stream of consciousness within social medial that flows with ‘here’s what I’m doing/thinking/wanting now,’” says Lynn Coles a leading marketer. “Anthropological research helps us better understand and inhabit the social communities to identify behavioral patterns as well as the emerging dialect within a particular community so we can better communicate with our target consumers.”

Basic approach

1. Frame the issue

Anthropology requires the marketer to frame the problem in human — not business — terms. Doing so gets to the core of how a customer experiences a service or product. For example, a business problem could be:  How can a wireless provider reduce churn? The corresponding anthropological issue would be: How do our customers experience our service, and why are they leaving?

2. Assemble the data

The raw data is codified in a form of carefully organized diaries, videos, photographs, field notes, and objects such as packages. Although this open-ended data collection casts a very wide net, it requires a disciplined and structured pro­cess that needs to be overseen by anthropologists skilled in research design and organization.

3. Find patterns, insights

The anthropologist then undertakes a careful analysis of the data to uncover themes or patterns. When organized in themes, a variety of insights will emerge about how a customer feels, their goals and what drives their actions.

Of course, traditional quantitative and qualitative research methods have their place and should remain part of a marketer’s analytical tool kit. However, anthropology will play an increasing role in uncovering the consumer’s subconscious needs as well as societal/religious behavioral drivers, areas that are largely impervious to standard qualitative techniques. Producing this holistic view will allow marketers to design more relevant products and services that deliver higher value.

Mitchell Osak is managing director of Quanta Consulting Inc.  Quanta has delivered a variety of strategy and organizational transformation consulting and educational solutions to global Fortune 1,000 organizations.  Mitchell can be reached at mosak@quantaconsulting.com

BUSINESS SUCCESS: Gourmet burger chain relishes a global roll-out, starting in Canada

Gourmet burger chain relishes a global roll-out, starting in Canada

Quentin Casey | 19/10/13 | Last Updated: 28/10/13 8:17 AM ET
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Andrew Meade for National PostRivers Corbett co-founded Relish Gourmet Burgers, three years ago in Fredericton, N.B. and the chain now boasts locations in Saint John and Moncton, N.B., St. John’s, N.L., and Halifax.

Rivers Corbett hates to cook, yet he’s fully immersed in the restaurant industry and is working to push his regional restaurant chain across Canada and around the world. He co-founded Relish Gourmet Burgers, three years ago in Fredericton, N.B. and the chain now boasts locations in Saint John and Moncton, N.B., St. John’s, N.L., and Halifax. A second Fredericton location is slated to open in late November. Mr. Corbett, the University of New Brunswick’s entrepreneur-in-residence, says he is in talks with a Dubai-based investment group about a funding plan that would fuel a major Relish expansion. If completed, the deal would lead to the construction of 54 Relish locations across Canada in just two years. A similar expansion is being discussed for the Middle East and the United Kingdom. Construction could start this spring. Mr. Corbett would like to see up to 400 Relish restaurants within five years — a combination of corporately owned and franchised locations. He recently discussed his lofty expansion goals — and the accompanying challenges — with Quentin Casey. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Q Are you confident this deal will be completed?

A It ain’t done until the money is in the bank. But I can tell you the dialogue gets more encouraging. They’re extremely interested in making a deal happen, it’s just a matter of the finer details. It’s not a done deal. But the dance is definitively turning into a waltz.

Q Why did you go into the burger business?

A That’s a really good question because I swore I’d never be in the restaurant business. My business partner, Chef Ray Henry, exposed me to the gourmet burger opportunity. We made a business plan and like most stupid entrepreneurs, we said, ‘Let’s just give it a try. Let’s spend $75,000 and see what happens.’ The community embraced the first one. It was an instant love affair. I said, ‘OK, this works. Let’s go do another one.’ That started us on the journey.

Q The gourmet burger industry is growing. Smashburger, in the U.S., has more than 220 restaurants around the world, and expects to open 50 locations in 2013. They recently reported three-year sales growth of 254%. What explains the popularity of the gourmet burger market?

A The first thing is our aging population. There’s a heightened interest in quality food versus quantity. As the population gets older, people are much more selective about the type of food they’re eating and how it’s prepared. Plus, the burger has passed the test of time. From the time of Ray Kroc [the builder of the McDonald’s empire], the burger has been through recessions, wars and so on. The popularity of the burger remains consistent.

Rodney MannRelish Gourmet Burgers' California Dreaming burger.

Q What do you put on your burger?

A I’m a Big Texas guy. That’s the one I like. It has barbeque sauce, crispy onion frites, pepper jack cheese and bacon.

Q What’s your biggest challenge?

A Finding the right people to run the franchise locations. You need people to embrace the culture and vision of the business. They also need to realize that they’re buying into a system and that they really shouldn’t mess around with it. Franchises are about following a system. We want people to say, ‘Show me the way and I’ll follow it.’

Q The location in Miramichi, N.B., flopped. What did you learn from that experience?

A The community has to embrace the gourmet food mindset and a premium price. It has to be more than a meat-and-potatoes type of community. Miramichi wasn’t ready for a gourmet burger experience. And we ran after the money, versus running after the right team.

Q So you chased the franchise money too eagerly?

A We were in growth mode. We were in a mode of excitement and enthusiasm. We had four locations in two years and everyone was telling us, ‘You’re growing so fast. It’s fantastic.’ We were king of the hill. So we said, ‘Let’s go in and do the Miramichi.’ We got excited by the momentum. You get caught up in the moment and you forget about the true fundamentals of what’s needed to make the business work long-term.

Q You have five locations now and you’re talking about hundreds more. Isn’t it a bit crazy?

A Yeah, it’s nuts. It’s absolutely wild. But that doesn’t mean it’s not plausible. I’m 50 years old now. I want to go on an adventure. I want to have some fun. It’s crazy, but I’ve done a lot of crazy things.

Check out my latest e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain"

The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1

Thanks for taking the time

Business Branding: 4 Ways To Set Your Social Media On Fire

Here are 4 steps to set your social media up towards a viral mode.  Enjoy!

Scott Levy, Contributor

Today, just about every brand has a social media presence, usually Facebook& Twitter.  Most are boring, bland and self-fulfilling and built with advertising in mind. You have to ask yourself why would anyone want to subscribe, follow or have that feed coming up on their screen on a daily basis? It’s more important than ever to be interesting, entertaining, and most importantly real. Society has become pretty good at sniffing out fake personas and company images; we tend to shun these and reward the authentic. Here are some ways to kick start that

Be Transparent

Transparency is VERY sexy for brands. People want to talk to & listen to REAL people behind real brands – Not Big Bad Corporate Logos. Social Mediatransparency can mean a lot of different things to many different people. But to my social media firm & myself it means letting your personality shine, engaging with people, being cute or funny, and sometimes putting it out there.  People love fun, exciting and real and are far more likely to tune in and even engage with you if you are. If you like something as a brand or as a whole and it’s not political or really controversial then put it out there. If someone tweets your brand something funny, don’t be afraid to retweet it or share it. People also appreciate humility, admitting mistakes or saying you can do something better goes a long way towards being authentic as well. Always remember you’re real people behind the company & username and people will appreciate that.

Engage, Engage, Engage

There is nothing more important than letting your audience know you’re listening. How do you do that, by engaging with them! There isn’t a bigger turn off for me right now than shooting a tweet or a Facebook post over to a brand and getting zero response. It essentially says hey we don’t care.  Yet on the other hand when it elicits a response it makes you feel warm and fuzzy about that brand. A simple thank you, or an answer about a product or service can go a really long way.  Providing customer service via social media is a must today but that’s a whole other post which I’ll get around to at some point J. Bottom line you Must engage with people if you want to build a fan base and brand champions.

Get to know your audience

So you have Friends, Likes or Followers but what does it all really mean if you’re disconnected from them?  No matter who you are a Celeb, Joe Schmo, or a Fortune 500, take some time to get to know your audience. Ask them what they think about topics, or decisions you’re going to make. Show them their opinion matters. Provide feedback and replies to their engagement with you, show them you’re listening. Lastly pick a few each day or week to actually get to know. Find out where they live, what they do for a living, and how they’re doing. It’s an amazing way to create brand champions and fans. They will genuinely appreciate you.

Be Interesting

As I’ve stated many times before Social Media is just that a form of media just like TV, Movies, Magazines, etc.  If it’s not entertaining, informational or intriguing nobody is going to stay tuned in. You need to create and share quality content if you want people to follow you, engage with you which in turn grows your branding and exposure. If you’re an expert at something share tips, ideas and info on that topic in an interesting and fun way.  If you’re funny then be funny, if you’re a brainiac stun us with fascinating concepts or info, challenge people. If you have a good grasp on things, then inspire & motivate people loves and appreciate that.  Boils down to be interesting or they will not only change the channel but they’ll never talk about you either.

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Feel free to Follow me on Twitter to stay tuned in: @FuelOnline or Contact me about Social Media or SEO via FuelOnline.co

Check out my latest e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain".  

The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1

Written by Bruce MacDonald, a 30 year veteran of the Agri-food industry, in "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain", Bruce applies his background and expertise in Agri-foods and social media to the latest trends, tools and methodologies needed to craft a successful on-line campaign. While the book focuses on the Agri-food market specifically, I believe that many of the points Bruce makes are equally applicable to most other industries.