Posts Tagged ‘branding’
Monday, January 30th, 2012
Amanda Hocking is a star of the publishing world. Last year she signed a 4-book, $2 million dollar deal with St. Martin’s Press, one of the largest publishing houses in the world. While in itself, this is not unusual – authors become best-sellers every day, and publishing houses announce contracts with authors just as often, what is unusual is the road Hocking chose for her journey from high school-loner and Star Wars geek to group home worker to self-publishing royalty. Less than a year after she uploaded her first novel to Amazon, Hocking had uploaded 8 more of her novels and collectively they had sold more then a million copies and earned over $2 million in royalties. Hocking’s story is a classic tale of identifying a market need, strategically occupying a niche, and quickly building a strong brand field by a rapidly growing base of fans and word-of-mouth marketing.
Though she had been writing stories from the time she was 9 years old, and had already written full-length novels, Hocking tells of seeing a YouTube video of Mark Hoppus from Blink-182 talking with Pete Wentz of Fallout Boy. In the video, Hoppus encourages kids to follow their dreams and make them come true. It spurred her to take a passion for writing and approach it as a job instead of a hobby and to devote herself full time to the pursuit. Over the next year she made a serious study of the literary landscape, focusing on the teen paranormal-romance genre, and the market opportunity for series like the Twilight Saga and The Vampire Diaries series. Hocking settled down to work and within a year she had written 5 more novels all of which she started selling on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other e-book platforms.
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Tags: branding, copywriting, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, inspiration, marketing, pr, public relations, small biz, small business, smallbiz, social media, Strategy, writing
Posted in business, How To, inspiration, marketing, Strategy, writing | No Comments »
Thursday, January 26th, 2012
In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.
We’re very proud to feature Vinay and Asha (crowdSPRING username: Knifeonbutter) today. Vinay and Asha live and work in Goa, India.
1. Please tell us about yourselves.
We have traveled around the world, working in places as far and diverse as Fiji Islands and Dubai, not to mention all the cities across India. We now reside in Goa, dream beaches, sun,sand, coco feni, and like to pretend to work hard. Ideas fortunately , winning ideas save the day for us on sites such as yours. We just love crowdSPRING.
2. How did you become interested in writing?
We are both writers from the day we left college, and have worked with top 10 ad agency networks. It all started in school, when the teachers noticed we had a flair for writing, however, the idea lightbulbs started glowing, later on, after 3 years of hard, rigorous college education in disciplines as strange as physics and home sciences.
3. Who/what are some of the biggest influences on your writing?
David Ogilvy for sure. He was the greatest at one time. We never studied literature, so
we can’t quote Shakespeare. We are more fascinated with Adworld writers, Paul Hegarty, and creators like the Saatchi brothers.
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Tags: 12 questions, ads, advertising, branding, community, copywriting, creative, creativity, crowdsourcing, crowdspring, inspiration, interview, Knifeonbutter, marketing, social media, Vinay and Asha, weekly glance of awesomeness, writing
Posted in Awesomeness, community, crowdsourcing, inspiration, Interviews, marketing, social media, writing | No Comments »
Monday, November 14th, 2011
We write often of low-cost, high impact marketing tactics for small businesses and share tips for leveraging these. We believe that small business and startups should always be willing to experiment with marketing tactics and strategies as long as those serve a larger goal and contribute to a clear strategy.
The key to this approach is to set very specific incremental goals, carefully collect and analyze the resulting data, and be ready to do one of two things based on what the data tell you. If the results are positive, repeat and iterate that tactical experiment as long as it is moving you towards the defined goal. Alternately, if the tactic is failing, be ready to quickly terminate the experiment.
Search engine marketing is a tactic that is perfect for a lean, iterative approach to marketing. Paid search allows small business owners to easily set simple, reasoned goals and then, based on the data collected, make adjustments and decisions rationally. For instance, if you have a simple goal of driving additional traffic to your site it is easy to measure the results (and cost) of the SEM campaign. Define for yourself exactly how much traffic you wish to result from the tactic, and how much money you are willing to spend for the additional traffic. The resulting data will tell you quickly whether you have accomplished that goal.
We have provided advice on using Google Adwords as well as other platforms, and today I want to share some advice on best practices for using Facebook as an advertising platform. Facebook advertising’s greatest benefit is the network effect. If a Facebook user interacts with your ad by ‘Liking’ it, that ‘Like’ is automatically shared with the user’s entire network of FB friends. This is a powerful magnifier, not just in terms of the word-of-mouth amplification that brings your message to many more people, but because of the ‘endorsement effect’ that accompanies the word-of-mouth. Studies have indicated that as many as 90% of consumers are more likely to trust recommendations from people they know. In other words, we all take advice from our friends and if one of them ‘Likes’ a certain FB ad, then we are more inclined to try that product or service ourselves.
Here is a short tutorial for getting your Facebook campaign going:
Set goals. Be very clear with what you are trying to accomplish with your Facebook campaign. Is it to gain fans for your business’s FB page? To drive traffic to your own site? To generate sales and revenue? It is crucial that goal definition include conversion definition. For instance is a visit to your site what you would consider a conversion? Is a user registration or harvested email address a conversion? Or does it have to be an actual sale for you to consider it a conversion? Define what a conversion is and be clear on how much you are willing to pay for each conversion. The only way to measure the campaign’s success is to articulate for yourself how you define success and to measure the data against that definition.
Target effectively. Facebook allows you to target your ads to very specific segments and demographics.You can segment by a user’s location, language, or by the industry the user works in. Alternatively you can target by personal demographics like age, relationship status, education or even by birthday. For instance you could target your ads only at people in California, who are single, and who’s birthday it is today. You could even choose to target only people who’s 37th birthday is today. This ability to slice and dice by the audience you want, and not just be those searching for specific words or terms can be incredibly powerful.
Determine ad type. You will have to choose between to approaches with your Facebook ads – CPC or CPM. CPC is the cost-per-click model and with this you will only pay for the actual click-throughs that your campaign generates. With CPM (or cost-per-thousand views), you are paying for the number of impressions, or actual people, that see your ad appear on a FB page they visit. This choice should be driven by your own goals; if the objective of the campaign is to drive traffic to your site, then CPC will be a more measurable choice. If, alternatively, you are trying to raise awareness of your brand or service, then a CPM approach might make more sense.
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Tags: ads, advertising, branding, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, facebook, inspiration, marketing, small biz, small business, smallbiz, social media, start-up, startup, startups, Strategy
Posted in business, How To, marketing, social media, start-up tips, Strategy | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
Interbrand has released its annual ranking of the world’s best brands: Best Global Brands 2011 report. Interbrand’s report is considered to be one of the most influential benchmark studies on brand value.
Let’s first look at some of the highlights from the report, and then look at some of the important trends and lessons startups and small businesses can learn from the world’s best brands.
If you’re not certain you understand the meaning of “brand”, here’s a quick primer from Branding Secrets of the World’s Best Brands:
A brand is the sum total of the experience your prospects and customers have with your company. A strong brand communicates what your company does, how it does it, and at the same time, establishes trust and credibility with your prospects and customers. Your company’s brand is, in many ways, its personality. Your brand lives in everyday interactions your company has with its prospects and customers, including the images you share, the messages you post on your website, the content of your marketing materials, your presentations and booths at conferences, and your posts on social networks.
The Highlights from Interbrand’s 2011 Report
Coca-Cola is the world’s best brand, according to Interbrand (for the 12th consecutive year). Apple, for the first time, made the top ten (Apple’s brand value increased 58%). Apple’s growth is most impressive – especially when measured against the growth of other brands in the top 10 (below) and when one considers the challenging economic conditions around the world.
Technology brands continued to dominate the top 10 (IBM, Microsoft, Google, GE, Intel, Apple and Hewlett-Packard). This was also true for four of the top five biggest risers in the top 100 (Apple, Amazon, Google and Samsung).
It’s not surprising that North America dominates the ranking (Germany, with 10 brands on the list, comes in second). But there are always interesting outliers. In 2010, Mexian brand Corona made the list; this year, HTC from Taiwan made the top 100.
How brands use mobile changed significantly in 2011:
- 91% of major brands today offer a mobile application (a huge increase from 18 months ago, when only 51% of brands offered a mobile application)
- Only 23% of brands offer apps on the Blackberry platform (and just 9% offer apps via Nokia’s app store). These platforms are effectively dead.
- 59% of brands have Android applications and 86% offer an iPhone app.
- The vast majority of brands (73%) offer free applications.
Lessons for Startups and Small Business
What can startups and small businesses learn from the world’s best brands and the Interbrand report?
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Tags: best global brands 2011 report, brand, branding, interbrand, small business, smallbiz, startups
Posted in business, marketing, social media, start-up tips, Strategy | 5 Comments »
Monday, October 31st, 2011
Many small businesses are handed down from generation to generation, with each succeeding operator leaving their own stamp on the family business. Some do better and others do worse, but every so often an heir comes along who profoundly changes the way that business is operated and leaves a meaningful legacy for the family to build upon further.
Dario Cecchini inherited his family’s 250 year-old butcher shop in Panzano, Italy 30 years ago and has turned a small shop into a mecca for foodies, built a brand which is now recognized internationally, extended the business into other areas, with restaurants and branded packaged products, and become a star of the international media and in the restaurant world. He has been featured dozens of times in the international media, with outlets from the New York Times, to Atlantic Magazine, to the New Yorker singing his praises and waxing lyrical about his butcher shop, his restaurants and his philosophy. A quick YouTube search turns up more than 175 videos, including this great episode from Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations on the Travel Channel.
Dario is a philosopher as well as a chef and a butcher, but more than anything he is an entrepreneur who has taken a passion for traditional methods of butchering and food preparation and turned these into a thriving small business in the heart of Tuscany. The Cecchini brand stands for humanity, quality, and tradition and these values have resonated across the world of restaurants, business, the locavore movement, and the internet.
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Tags: branding, creativity, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, facebook, inspiration, leadership, marketing, pr, public relations, small biz, small business, smallbiz, social media, start-up, startup, startups, Strategy
Posted in business, How To, inspiration, marketing, social media, start-up tips, Strategy | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.
We’re very proud to feature Dragan Lončar (crowdSPRING username: draganfly) today. Dragan lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia.
1. Please tell us about yourself.
Hi everybody! I am Dragan. I finished graphic design at Belgrade University some fourteen years ago and ever since this is mostly what I’ve been doing, getting to the level of jobs like Art and Creative Director. Apart form my inherited immediate family, I have another family, consisting of my fellow human rights defenders, and the youngsters that need some support in building self-esteem and major encouragement, since it is very difficult to be gay in Serbia. I also have enemies, but I assure you that I never did anything to turn them against me, except for my liberal sense of humour and their unfounded envy. I lived almost a year in Helsinki, Finland, and over six years in London, UK, where I had various experiences in fast paced market, even to the point of being a Creative Partner in my own company that was buried after several unpaid pitches, just after a half million pounds budget branding and launch campaign. Somebody would say that I was never bored in my life as sometimes I cannot recall all the details. Also, because my design interests and experiences are so diverse. I practice Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism as the tool of global peace movement through the SGI organisation, changing my karma and doing something what is called ‘the human revolution’. I am one of the leaders in SGI Serbia. I love cooking the mix of Mediterranean, Scandinavian, Japanese and Thai food, and love swimming and jogging. All of that, of course, when I can grab some time from super needy clients and horrible socio-political situation in Serbia. Currently I count 38 years of age, but who’s counting… I intend to stay forever young!
2. How did you become interested in design?
When I was a child, my parents were not really poor but we lived very modestly. I was never bribed with toys, or I always wanted the most expensive ones which they couldn’t afford. I was always inclined toward quality rather than quantity. Since my sister is much older than me, I could be considered as a single child who was often alone. So I spent time making castles of playing cards, or I would recycle any packaging that would come into my hands, and make furniture, cars, or anything that I could resemble or that took my fancy at given moment. Later, I don’t see if I really had a conscious choice. It was more an inclination that had to be fulfilled.
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Tags: 12 questions, ads, advertising, blog, branding, community, creative, creativity, crowdsourcing, crowdspring, design, designer, Dragan Lončar, draganfly, graphic design, graphics design, graphics designer, inspiration, interview, marketing, package design, packaging design, weekly glance of awesomeness
Posted in Awesomeness, business, community, crowdsourcing, design, inspiration, Interviews, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Monday, September 19th, 2011
This week I will be speaking at Ad:tech London with our friend John Winsor, the CEO of Victors and Spoils. We will be discussing the future of the agency, the current business climate, crowdsourcing and the new models for delivering creative in the post-agency world.
Among other questions, we will be discussing the economic impact of the new models (who benefits, who gets hurt, and who cares?); the institutional aversion to change in the agency model: client resistance to the new models and how companies like V&S are helping to break that down; small business economics and access to great creative via the crowd; small agencies and how they can compete effectively in the new models; and new media models, information democracy, and the DIY economy.
While the ad industry continues to grow, this is a time of dynamic change: the rise of digital capabilities and smaller agencies built specifically around these are posing a great challenge to the traditional incumbents. For instance, Ogilvy & Mather has been in business for almost 7 decades and employs over 16,000 people in 125 countries. Victors and Spoils has one tiny little office in Boulder, Colorado and a tiny staff, but are leveraging the global creative crowd to service clients like Dish Network and Harley Davidson. Can a slow-moving behemoth like Ogilvy compete effectively against nimble newcomers a fraction of its size? Can great ideas come from places other than the traditional agency? There has been lots of discussion on this general theme and many have been writing about it for the past few years; I wanted to share a few great posts on the topic and get the juices flowing prior to Ad:tech!
Mike Carlton: The Nimble Agency ”It wasn’t so long ago that when someone wanted to learn about an agency the first question asked would be, ‘What are their billings?’ The underlying issue was, ‘How big are they?’”
Edward Boches: Five things ad agencies have to get good at ”Ad agencies are really good at certain things. They’re masters of simplifying and focusing. They’re great at creating – or better yet revealing – a brand’s story. They know how to get attention.
John Winsor: “The Future of Advertising“ The question for creative agencies is whether they can wake up, react to what’s going on, engage the crowd, and make themselves a part of the new reality.
David Armano: Agency Ecosystems ”I started to think about how experience design fits into the bigger picture within the agency setting”Image: crowdSPRING
Tags: ad:tech, ads, advertising, agencies, branding, copywriting, creative, creativity, crowdsourcing, design, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, future, inspiration, leadership, marketing, social media, Strategy
Posted in business, crowdsourcing, design, marketing, social media, Strategy, Technology | 8 Comments »
Monday, September 12th, 2011
Building and managing your brand, its identity, its name, and its reputation is critical to your company’s ultimate success. How (and when and where) you connect with your customers is determined in large part by your branding and by how your audience relates to your brand. markets are more competitive than ever, and the quality of products and services more consistent so, in many cases, your branding will become your strongest differentiator in the marketplace.
Today I want to discuss the three types of brands, what distinguishes each, and some thoughts on how this can help you to determine the optimal marketing mix of strategy and tactics.
1. Functional brands.
A functional brand is typically bought to satisfy a functional need on the part of the consumer. Automobiles, cell phones, and dish soap are examples of functional brands. Functional brands are tied in the consumer’s mind to specific product categories and typically share the user’s associations with other brands in the same category. For instance, all automobiles share in their basic functionality; they are designed to transport passengers from point A to point B and they all do the same thing in essentially the same manner. Because of this, functional brands must differentiate from their competitor’s brands by stressing either better performance or better economy.
Performance: BMW is an automobile brand that maintains category leadership by spending heavily on product research and design to produce cars that are faster, more luxurious, and with greater cutting edge design relative to the competition. BMW cars are known for their sophisticated and elegant styling as well as their high-performance components and when BMW launches a new model, it is positioned based on these qualities and BMWs marketing.
Economy: Kia is a South Korean automobile company which also produces many models sold in the US and around the world, but this company competes based on perceived economic value. Kia also spends a great deal of money on R&D, but the focus is on finding ways to reduce cost through increased manufacturing efficiency, simpler design, and more modest features. Kia has become a leader in the market, based on their ability to introduce products at a price point that is attractive to many automobile buyers. Kia competes by striving to produce a high-quality car at a low price.
Building and managing a functional brand is dependent on focusing the marketing mix on either the product itself (for superior performance) or on place and price (for superior economy). Advertising and messaging must support the connection between the brand and the category. but must also stress what it is that makes the brand superior, either in functionality and features, or in price and overall value.
2. Image brands.
Image brands create value by building specific perception in user’s minds. Certain fashion, food, and liquor products are image brands and they differentiate themselves because buyers perceive them as offering a unique association or image. For instance, while clothing is typically a functional product, many huh-end fashion brands are marketed based on the image used to differentiate it from the competition.
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Tags: brand, branding, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, marketing, small biz, small business, smallbiz, start-up, startup, startups
Posted in business, marketing, start-up tips, Strategy | 2 Comments »
Monday, August 22nd, 2011
A marketing channel can be defined as a system used to make goods, services, or concepts available for consumption. The very best businesses are adept at managing their marketing channels and can effectively transmit goods and services from the points of conception, extraction, or production to their customer and can gain significant competitive advantage in the process.
Important to this discussion, is the concept of the “value chain.” Michael Porter first described this concept in his 1985 book, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. In it, Porter describes a “chain” of activities, each link in the chain adding value to a product, ultimately giving it a greater total value than the sum of the links. The elements of a product value chain typically include inbound logistics and transportation, production (or operations), outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service or maintenance.
A classic example of a value chain is the manufacturing of a complex product: the automobile. Tons of raw materials, thousands of individual parts and components, literally hundreds of suppliers and vendors, vast logistics, acres of production plants, and thousands of workers are involved in the production of a car or truck. More logistics are involved in the outbound sees of the completed product, as well as marketing efforts, direct sales, and finally service and maintenance. The value of that car or truck is indeed greater thank the sum of the various parts that went into its creation.
Companies that deal in digital products and services, can leverage the concepts of marketing channels and the value chain to enhance their own offerings, build valuable relationships with their customers, and find efficiencies in their own processes. A powerful marketing channel available to digital businesses is the social media and platforms like Twitter and Facebook. SM can be leveraged to engage your customers, gain an understanding of their requirements, and strengthen communications and collaboration with their channel partners. Indeed, effective use of social media can be to digital companies what a well-designed logistics hub can be to a wholesaler of packaged goods.
Here are 5 tips for understanding and managing a specific marketing channel: the social media.
1. Engage your audience and your partner’s
If your goal is to make your product or service easily available to your targeted consumers, social media can provide a great channel for doing so. SM platforms can act as tools for aligning the interests of social media participants. When SM participants act as channel “partners” they can add great value to your messaging and your company’s reputation while at the same time promoting their own interests and extracting their own value. Re-tweeting a message on Twitter benefits both partners, by providing value to each and enhancing both partner’s reputations.
2. Understand what your customers want
Whether you are aware of them or not, your customers each have their own “service output demands.” These SODs make up a person’s requirements around the purchase of your product or service. SODs typically consist of a mix of factors, including expedience (“I want to purchase a service that is convenient for me”), pricing (“I want to pay the lowest price available”), and qualitative elements (“I need a well-trained salesperson who can educate me on using this service”). Using social media to listen can help you to understand your customers SODs by giving them the ability to talk back to you – just ask them what they value and they will tell you. Simple, right?
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Tags: branding, creative, crowdsourcing, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, facebook, marketing, product design, small biz, small business, smallbiz, social media, start-up, startup, startups, Strategy, twitter
Posted in business, How To, inspiration, marketing, social media, start-up tips, Strategy, Technology | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 15th, 2011
Several weeks ago I wrote a post on branding a business in tough competitive environments. I discussed the importance of defining a frame of reference, leveraging points of parity, and articulating your brand’s points of differentiation. Today I want to talk about some of the pitfalls a business can become victim to when establishing a brand. Great positioning requires that your offering is clearly associated with a product category the consumer explicitly or implicitly understands, and then distinguishing your product from others in that category. This is a three-step process: 1) establishing category membership, 2) clearly defining how the product fits into the category (determining those all-important points of parity), and 3) rising above the crowd by exclaiming the exclusive benefit(s) of the product that are unique and that the competing products simply don’t offer. Dangers abound in this process and many brands have failed to execute the strategy effectively. Brand positioning can be a slippery slope, so here are 5 potential pitfalls to consider as you analyze your own brand’s positioning.
1. Establish your brand position first, build awareness second. Establishing a strong brand position is an internal exercise that starts at product development and continues through rollout. Companies can easily fall ion the trap of working to build awareness of their product or brand without first positioning carefully. Understand and create your positioning before building awareness.
2. Care about what your customers care about. Promoting attributes that your customers don’t care about can serve to erode your brand, damage your positioning, and allow competitors to establish market share ahead of you. Listen to customers, research the competitive landscape, and build or enhance products that consumers want. 37signals does a great job at this – their products such as Basecamp are developed to solve problems for customers through aapproach that values simplicity and ease of use.
3. Remember, your competition is watching. Investing too heavily in points of difference that can be easily copied should be avoided at all costs. This is not to say that you shouldn’t introduce value in features that can be easily copied, but rather that your most significant brand benefits should be unique and difficult to re-create. Among other strategies, this can be accomplished through patenting and trademarking of intellectual property, but also by establishing certain bona fides in the marketplace, For instance, Apple has a strong reputation for creating truly gorgeous products and while their competition works hard to achieve the same, Apple has done a great job of cornering the market on that consumer benefit. (more…)
Tags: advertising, branding, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, inspiration, marketing, product design, small biz, small business, smallbiz, start-up, startup, startups
Posted in Awesomeness, business, How To, inspiration, marketing, start-up tips, Strategy | 2 Comments »
