Discover why a well defined brand will attract the right customers

When you think about a brand, one thing you need to consider is positioning.  What do I mean by positioning?  Positioning is where your business sits amongst the competition.  And where your customers are looking.

Ask yourself this – what does your business or brand aspire to? Who are your customers and what are they looking for? Does your brand sit amongst the budget, mid range or luxury markets for instance, i.e. cheap and cheerful, affordable quality or shameless exclusivity?

Does your brand fulfil its promise?

Why is a well positioned brand important?

When your brand is positioned in the right market place it demonstrates that…

1. You know what your customers want
2. You talk their language
3. Your customers are comfortable and confident buying from you

Therefore you won’t need to work so hard because your brand is targeting the right audience

So what does your brand say?

Think about cars for a minute

Picture a Mercedes – Mercedes is a car built on ambition.  It has a century of innovation behind its design, safety features and engineering.  Their slogan is “The Best or Nothing”.   A Mercedes is the ultimate status symbol and a statement that says “I’ve made it”.   What kind of person drives one of these cars?  It appeals to fashion Icons, world leaders and captains of industry who usually choose to be chauffeur driven in style in a Mercedes.  But even if you are on your way up and not quite circulating in the upper echelons of society, a Mercedes parked on the drive can help boost your ego (or your client’s confidence in you.)

Let’s consider an alternative.  What do you normally associate with a Skoda?  An economically priced, well built car – a Skoda driver isn’t necessarily after the limelight, but would rather own a functional car that gets them from A to B safely.  The customers who buy them don’t want a status symbol.

You wouldn’t call a Skoda sexy, seductive or in the least bit racy – but a conventional consumer with conservative tastes would be happy to own one. Not everyone wants world fame, global domination or a flash car in the garage.

Or what about a Mini? The Mini appeals to consumers who want a funky car and a thrilling driving experience. It’s strongly associated with the mini-skirt, ‘The Italian Job’ and Pop Festivals.  The creators were famous for creating space on the inside whilst saving space on the outside with their innovative, 10 foot car.

The Mini was the answer to a crowded busy world with more cars taking to the roads. It is still an affordable but practical set of wheel and continues to attract unconventional younger drivers who want a stylish car that’s fun to drive without breaking the bank.

Now think about your business and your brand. Take a step back and reflect. If your brand was a car which car would it be.  Does it appeal to your customers?  Do they want to be associated with your brand?

A brand talks silently about your business.  If your clients have to think before buying from you, the chances are your brand is sending out the wrong signals.  Therefore is it time you gave your brand a test drive…?

However, as your business grows you may decide to take a closer look at branding.  And the more customers you acquire the more sensitive you could become about your own brand and what messages it’s delivering.  This is when many companies move into the realms of Aspirational brands.

It’s time to graduate from the hurriedly devised effort brainstormed on the kitchen table to engaging the services of a specialist brand agency.

Now a good agency takes an approach that introduces additional elements such as the language of colour, fonts and customer focussed messages.  They look at the beliefs that underpin your company ethos.  This is real in depth stuff. We are talking high church.  A branding expert will take you on a journey, which can be a revelation.  And sometimes it can result in the total renaissance of your business.

When considering graphics for example, to be fair, a designer does need some inspiration.  They might commence with some research into other similar brands and check out your competition.

They may even start with an idea borrowed from another brand, but eventually this will evolve into a matchless design without equal. The one and only of its kind. Or so you’d think…

But are all brands really THAT original?

An agency’s remit is to create something distinctive based on an in depth analysis of you and your business.

Your brand should be a reflection of what you stand for; a combination of specific ingredients, which creates the perfect loaf, baked just for you.

Now a strongly defined brand helps consumers identify very easily with your business. It communicates the right messages.  It speaks their language, instantaneously.  It should be so powerful, that they don’t even blink when they see it.  They get it.

But occasionally during the branding design process, mistakes are made.  Particularly if an agency designs a brand which is almost identical to another one!  Here are two examples.  Can you spot the difference?

Amazingly the brand on the left was created by Pyxis Media Ltd in 2009 for a business consultancy firm based in Ipswich, while the one on the right was created in 2011 for a PR and brand reputation agency also based in Ipswich.

Imagine if you’d paid an agency a lot of money to rebrand your business, thinking what they’d created for you was completely unique, when in fact it wasn’t?

This can cause confusion within the market place and dilutes your brand.  People might assume you’re both part of the same company!  You may even find yourself having to explain the discrepancy.  Which all detracts from what you’re brand should be doing. Promoting you!

Take another example

The logo on the right was designed by the London agency Milton Smith Ltd in 1989 as a rebrand for the UK confectioners Rowntree Macintosh PLC, who had recently been acquired by Swiss confectioners Nestle. While the one on the right is a recent rebrand of an Ipswich based solicitors.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  But in the world of branding, sameness is the kiss of death.

So when you go in search of an agency to rebrand your business – here are several things to consider before you sign on the dotted line…

• Ask to see examples of their work
• Make sure your agency does their homework and thoroughly researches your competition
• Ensure that they base your brand on an in depth understanding of your business
• Be aware that a one size fits all approach doesn’t work and causes confusion
• Get 3 x quotes before you decide who is best for you
• What questions are they asking you – do these questions convince you that they are designing a brand based around you and what you stand for?

What do you think?  Does being totally original really matter?

How important is branding to your business? Does your brand work for or against you? Are you unwittingly turning prospective clients off by sending out confusing messages?

Picture the following three scenarios:

a) A leadership coach talking about the importance of communication. Her audience are distracted (and ever so slightly irritated) by the collection of jangling bracelets that rattle every time she waves her arms. They are not paying attention to anything she is saying.

b) The nutritionist stressing the importance of a healthy diet – except she looks so unwell, she could do with a big plate of steak and chips

c) The compliance specialist who talks eloquently about his services, but his PowerPoint Slides look unprofessional and his business cards look home made.

What’s happened here? What damage have they just done to their business?

These companies were memorable, but for all the wrong reasons! In the realms of branding it’s important to bear in mind what lasting impression you are leaving on others. You might use all the right words to describe what you do but sometimes words are not enough. There could be other give away clues that are subtly undermining your message.

Your customers might remember you, but not necessarily because they want to come back or use your services. A poorly defined brand could make your business memorable, but for all the wrong reasons.

A brand isn’t just about a logo.

Branding covers everything from your website, choice of colours, logo, key messages, and how you deliver those messages. If you get it wrong all your efforts will be wasted.

For example, if your brand has to compete with your clothes or your body language for example your audience will focus on that instead of your key message.

Granted some business owners are reluctant to ask for advice about their branding… “But it’s my business, I built it – I don’t want anyone to interfere or tell me what my brand should look like”! That could be a fatal mistake because if you’ve not pitched your business at the right level with a strong brand, you could lose customers completely unintentionally. If you get your brand right, you will attract the right type of clients.

Here are 3 steps to develop a strong and consistent brand:

1. Identify your perfect client
2. Create an image that meets your clients expectations
3. Build the brand to bring the results

So what’s your brand saying about you?

If you want your brand to be remembered for the right reasons, come along to the Branding for Results workshop on 10th May 2011. This is a specially designed one-day workshop which focuses both on personal and company branding to create a strong and consistent message to your clients.

For more information click here www.brandingforresults.co.uk

In order to have a popular site, you’ve got to offer something to the user: information, interactivity, fun or freebies. Original content is important. Users may come to your site once, but to keep them coming back you’ve got to have fresh original content.

Most people will not read beyond a first sentence or a paragraph on the Internet; in-fact research suggests that suggests that the average user only reads 28% of text on a web page. People scan for the main points and then move on, therefore, content must be clear, concise and to the point. Try to reduce your content by half, and then by half again. You need to be ruthless.

After original content, another important feature a website should have is interactivity. The Web is an interactive communications medium that your website should reflect. Sites that involve the user and have a sense of fun or adventure will get more hits.

Another advantage of interactivity is self-generating content. By allowing your visitors to interact with your site they actually create content for you. News blogs and forums allow visitors to share information through stories they submit, and can help shape your site to better serve their needs.

Web users have short attention spans, so keeping the design simple is important. If the website does not immediately attract your customer and tell them what they want, they will move on in frustration. Provide room to breathe; make room for white space on the page through a combination of imaginative layout and typography.

Distractions on the page should be avoided. A home page that takes time to load and then has no information except a clever graphic, is time wasted. A website should be simple to navigate, easy to understand and above all, intuitive.

1. A strong portfolio
The imagery should be memorable as well as appropriate for each project. The designer should be able to clearly articulate the goal of each piece and how it reached its audience. Remember – pretty images are easy to produce – good design communicates and motivates; it does not merely decorate. Designers should be able to tell you how their work translated into higher sales figures, greater attendance at clients’ events, or some other concrete result of their work.

2. Excellent business skills
A good designer stays on top of all the details of your project and makes the best use of your time and money.

3. Formal education in graphic design, not just software skills
Graphic design is an art and craft with fundamental principles that have a direct impact on the effectiveness of printed and online communication. A designer’s software skills have little impact on their ability to translate your brand.

4. Personable and professional demeanor
Since you choose whom you’ll work with, hire someone you’ll enjoy partnering with and who provides professional service.

 While it can be helpful if a designer has experience with the particular product you envision, it is not always necessary. Good design skills can transcend most media and good designers will tell you up-front if they aren’t right for the job.

A logo is not just a mark – a logo reflects a business’s commercial brand via the use of shape, fonts, colour, and/or images.

A logo is for inspiring trust, recognition and admiration for a company or product and it is our job as designers to create a logo that will do just that.

Now that you know what a logo is suppose to do, and what it should represent you now must learn what makes a great logo. Or, the five principles of effective logo design.

1. A logo must be simple
A simple logo design allows for easy recoginition and allows the logo to be versatile & memorable. Good logos feature something unexpected or unique without being overdrawn.

2. A logo must be memorable
Following closely behind the principle of simplicity, is that of memorability. An effective logo design should be memorable and this is achieved by having a simple, yet, appropriate logo.

3. A logo must be timeless
An effective logo should be timeless – that is, it will stand the test of time. Ask yourself will the logo still be effective in 10 or 20 years?

4. A logo must be versatile
An effective logo should be able to work across a variety of mediums and applications. For this reason a logo should be designed in vector format, to ensure it can be scaled to any size. The logo must also work in just one colour.

5. A logo must be appropriate
How you position the logo should be appropriate for its purpose. For example, if you were designing a logo for a children’s toy store, it would be appropriate to use a childish font and colour scheme. This would not be so appropriate for a firm of solicitors.