Tag: brand

How to build an effective website and look like a million bucks: A chat with Nancy Owyang

Posted on by Red Slice

How can small business owners with shoestring budgets and even less time create a powerful and professional looking visual web presence for their brand? While your website is only one brand facet, it’s an important one. I work with clients on their brand story and messaging but how can they communicate that brand online? Nancy Owyang, Creative Director and Owner of Eye 2 Eye Graphics, is a cherished partner of mine and produces amazing, simple and elegant work. She works with small business owners to make their business memorable through meaningful, strategic, and professional graphic design.

Her mission? To provide small business owners high quality, professional brand identity design that will make them stand out in a crowd and allow them play with the big kids… all at a price they can work into their budget.

I sat down to talk to her about what people are doing wrong with their websites and how small businesses can create big brands.

RS: Nancy, what are three helpful hints you have for folks building a business website from scratch? Or put another way, what are some of the biggest mistakes that make you cringe?

NO: Hmmmm… good question, so besides my obvious 3 hints of:

  • Don’t do it yourself
  • Don’t have your neighbor’s 16 year old nephew do it, and
  • Do find a designer and programmer who work and collaborate together—it’s rare that both a programmer’s mind and a designer’s mind can live in the same body

I’ll dig a little deeper and give you maybe some less obvious hints.

Have a plan. This can be something that a client brings to the project, or we can create it together, but having a plan is important for any project, especially a web site. Web sites have a tendency to grow and evolve, which is one of the beautiful things about them, but this makes having a plan even more important. This is the foundation that will guide us to make decisions about the site to make sure we stay on track and true to the business goals—in essence just because you can do it on the web doesn’t mean you should. A few things to think about for the plan:

  • How the site will be used by current clients and potential clients?
  • Is it a place that users come back to over and over? Or is it mostly just visited when they are considering hiring you?
  • What is the experience that you want to create?
  • Does the client need to be able to easily make updates to the site?

Think ahead. You’d think that this might fall into the obvious hint category, but it’s a
good one to point out. Things to think ahead about include:

  • Timeline. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will your web site. Good site design  and development takes time. For a smaller site, expect and plan for at
    least 3 months from idea to launch.
  • How do you plan to edit the site in the future? Many small business owners want to be able to edit their site themselves: this will require the back-end of the site to be built in such a way that you can do this without learning to be a programmer in your spare time. If you’re a larger business, this may be a piece that you hire out, so the site could be built using a different back-end framework.
  • As your business grows, how will your web site change? Will you need a shopping cart? Do you want a built-in blog? Will you want to add a calendar of events? These things and more are things to think about when setting up the site initially.

Work with professionals for all parts of the site. An effective web site is an investment in your business and if planned appropriately will last you for several years with just minor updates to keep it fresh. So with that in mind, not only do you need a great designer and programmer pair, but you will also need a great copywriter to execute the voice of the site. This is important not only because this is your chance to communicate with your clients, and introduce yourself to potential clients, but this is what the search engines see too! Working in your search engine optimized keywords into the copy of the site so it doesn’t seem awkward and contrived can take some finesse. If you want to write the copy yourself, at the very least I recommend having it reviewed and edited by a professional copywriter who has experience writing for the web.

RS: What key factors do you consider when you design and develop a client website?

NO: The main thing that comes to mind is how important it is to put yourself in the seat of your website user. Who are they? Are they potential clients checking you out? Are they current clients? Are they just passing through doing research or gathering ideas? Do they come back over and over again? How do they interact with the site?

Once you know this information it will help you decide what needs to be included in the site, this will also determine how the site is updated, and how often. A site that serves more as a “brochure” site where potential clients come to check you out doesn’t need to be updated as often as a site that has an ongoing interactive relationship with the users. So it’s good to know upfront what site experience you want to build.

RS: In what ways do you see web presence as “the great equalizer” in helping small companies to compete with big brands?

NO: The amazing thing about the web is that every business no matter the size or location is available to people around the globe 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If your site is set up properly with professional design, well-written content, and search optimized
programming, your site can pop right up at the top of the search with the “big
kids on the block”. The potential client never has to know that you are a solo-entrepreneur working in your PJs out of a home office, while you have 2 kids under the age of 5 running around. You decide how big you want to be on the web and make it happen.

This comes with a warning… since the options are potentially never ending it is important to have a plan and a target, and stick to it. Think of it this way—aim for the bull’s eye, but if you get hits on the other part of the board you still get the points!

Just because the web gives us the platform to compete with the big brands, you need to be honest and ask yourself, is that what you want? Once you have your answer, position your site accordingly using the visuals, the voice, and all the search engine optimization goodies. Your website is your virtual brick and mortar. How big do you want it to appear to the site visitors?

About Nancy:

As the owner of Eye 2 Eye Graphics, LLC, Nancy Owyang is an award-winning designer with strong branding experience. She has aided a variety of clients in rebranding their businesses, including Women Business Owners, SLN Stage + Design, Delane Engineering and many more. Clients praise Nancy’s design sensibilities and her ability to first understand an owner’s mission, and then to translate that complex identity into a graphic representation. Her branding and design solutions are practical and unique, detail-oriented, on time, and on budget. To view a sampling of Nancy’s work please visit her online portfolio.

What your website says about your brand (and how to make sure it’s telling the right story)

Posted on by Red Slice

Guest post by Seth Leonard who trains and mentors people who want to build dynamic, successful websites. 

Human beings spend their days sizing things up. Think of the last time you looked for a place to eat along a street lined with restaurants.Whether it was the well-positioned outdoor seating of a cafe or the use of neon by a deli, you probably formed almost immediate opinions about where you might want to eat based on these quick observations.

With all of the information surrounding us, we rely on these fast judgments in order to get through the day. Otherwise, we’d be drowning in a sea of data.

There is no vaster sea of data than the internet. So the snap decisions that people make about your website and what you have to offer come fast, and are most likely final.

Today we’re going to look at the key elements of your website that determine what people think of you and your brand, as well as how you can make sure these elements convey exactly what you want.

Let’s dig in. One of the first things someone looks for when they come to your website is…

A Deliberate Design
Just as you judge a book by its cover or a clothing store by what’s featured in the window, your website design is the first thing a visitor sees. It is, therefore, the first thing visitors use to assess your site.

A deliberate design indicates a brand that knows what it’s about.

And a deliberate design does not necessarily mean what some might call a “professional” design. Instead, visitors want to see a look that is in line with your brand and demonstrates that you made a choice in how to present yourself.

Take a look at http://zenhabits.net. I’ve never seen a more simple website design. Yet, for a blog that discusses minimalism, focus, and a lack of clutter, it’s a perfect representation of its brand.

Visitors want to know you made an effort, even if it’s an effort to simplify. They infer that if you put effort into your design, you put similar effort into creating something worth their time.

Tip: Find websites that you like and notice how their design reflects their brand. Whether it’s the straight lines and rounded edges of apple.com (that look exactly like their products) or the vibrant colors here at Red Slice, take note of the choices being made.

Make deliberate choices about your own design.

Evidence of Legitimacy
Have you ever been the first to arrive at a party and wonder if perhaps you should have done something else with your evening? Have you ever been the only one sitting in a restaurant and feared your food would explain why no one else was eating there? That’s because we look for others to validate and legitimize our choices. This helps us make sure we’re not alone in thinking something is a good idea.

Visitors look for evidence of legitimacy from your website, as well. Whether that’s the number of comments your blog posts are getting or glowing testimonials from past clients, they want to make sure they’re not alone. They don’t want to be the only person at the party.

A lonely website implies an unsuccessful brand.

Tip: Demonstrate evidence of your legitimacy. If you’re getting a good number of comments, make sure visitors can see that. If you have a lot of Twitter followers, make sure your “Follow Me” button includes that count.

If you’ve written guest blogs for others, include an “as seen on” section to your sidebar and display the logos of sites you’ve contributed to. If you have testimonials, get those up. If you don’t have testimonials, ask people you’ve worked with if they will write one for you.

Make sure your visitor knows that they’re not the only one at the party.

Uniqueness
There are a lot of websites on the internet. Odds are, a number of people are doing something similar to you. And more than likely, someone coming to your site has seen someone else attempt the same thing you’re doing.

We get bored when we see the same thing over and over again. I’m sure there are differences between a Honda and a Toyota, but as soon as I see a commercial for a sedan driving along the coast, I either flip the channel or head to the kitchen for a snack. I’ve already seen what they’re going to tell me.

Visitors value uniqueness, something new. They want to know that they’ve found something different, something ground-breaking.

Uniqueness is the hallmark of a ground-breaking brand.

Tip: Exhibit something unique about yourself, your style, or your offering. On every page. Whether it’s an attention-grabbing tagline or framing your work in a way that no one else does, make sure you have something that stands out from the crowd. Imagine your visitor is going to tell their friends about your brand. What unique element of the work you do can they share after just ten seconds on your website?

Promise of Value
To overuse my party analogy: when attending one, people want to know that they’re going to gain something out of the evening’s festivities. If you walk into a friend’s house with lovely decorations and a great stereo, but are not convinced that you’re going to walk away having had some good conversation or good food, you’re going to looking for an exit.

Even if you design an attractive website with evidence of legitimacy, you need to exhibit the value you can provide. People appreciate what they might call a “good” website, but they stay for what they know is a valuable one.

A strong brand is synonymous with what it actually delivers.

Tip: This one is easy. Promote your value, not yourself.

Make sure the brand you develop speaks to the value you provide, not just how cool you are. Make it obvious what your visitors are going to walk away with.

Putting it All Together
Your unique brand will determine how to best put all of these pieces together. But it is critical that you think about all of them as you develop your website. Step into your visitor’s shoes and try to look at your website from their perspective. What do you see? What are your first
impressions?

If you have a hard time doing this, ask others for help. Ask your friends what they see when they look at your website. (Editor caveat: Always wise to get an objective opinion, but take with a grain of salt if they are not your target market!)

And remember that not everyone comes to your website through the homepage. Make sure that the branding efforts you make are apparent on every page of your site. A visitor finding you through a single blog post should pick up on the same strengths of your brand as those that come in the front door.

I almost turned that into another party analogy, but I didn’t.

What do you want your website brand to be? What changes can you make to ensure that it’s obvious to your visitors? Let me know in the Comments.

Shared purpose and animated pigs that make you cry

Posted on by Red Slice

Can an animated ad touch your heart and make you weep? It happened to me during the Grammy Awards last week. Everyone’s been talking about the Chipotle 2- minute long commercial that aired. My husband and I were literally turning the TV off and going to bed when it came on and stopped dead in our tracks in silence to watch the whole thing.

The killer choice of the mournful Willie Nelson song didn’t hurt, either.

Chipotle has built a brand around offering fresh, nutritious food in a convenient way. They have bucked the trend that fast-food needs to taste like crap – and be just as bad for you.

Lynn over at Power Chicks International did a great video interview with business coach Tara Gentile and they briefly talked about this ad. What I loved is Tara’s theory that this ad works because it’s about shared purpose. Chipotle communicated that they were on the same side as their customers, that they were after the same goal. As Tara states, if a multi-million dollar company can make you root for them, than any business can do the same thing.

But it comes down to a strong brand strategy and living that brand out in your actual operations, products and services. If it turns out Chipotle’s suppliers are actually mistreating animals and injecting them with all sorts of homones in horrible living condititions, then they will have a huge brand crisis on their hands. But I am an optimist – and I’ve also eaten their delicious food – so I hope not.

The reason I work with branding clients on their mission statement is that it’s the linchpin of your brand. It concisely articulates what you stand for, what you believe and gives you a guiding light for running your busines.  But it also gives your customers a shared purpose to support.

Watch the ad above. Then please tell us what you think about it in the Comments below and get some link love back to your site!

Photo: AnimationMagazine.net

 

Reboot and Reframe: Branding lesson for life #6: FACE THE FEAR

Posted on by Red Slice

jump_fearBuilding a business is scary. And building a breakthrough brand is even scarier. An in other breaking news, spinach is green and red lights mean you should stop.

Everybody wishes they were Apple. They wish they could just be so hip and cool that no matter what new products they roll out, people will line up for miles just to own one. They wish their own brands would have that “hipness halo effect.” But I’ve noticed in my years of marketing and branding, that there is one common trait across many of these companies:

They don’t want to take the risks and they don’t want to do the work.

They think they can just revamp their website and update their colors and all of the sudden people will think they are “cool.” They forget the fundamentals of brand – and that they need to revamp their company, culture, innovation inside and out. And that takes balls, to be frank. You have to be willing to lead, to say “black” when all of your competitors are saying “white",” to take the road less traveled or try not to use the same old industry jargon in al of your marketing campaigns. To differentiate and stand out, you have to DIFFERENTIATE AND STAND OUT.

And that scares the bejeezus out of most risk-averse CEO’s and the people who work for them.

As I state in today’s video, sometimes you have to face the fear if you want to advance. I was scared of so much during my brain injury recovery, but I just kept at it. I “faked it until I made it.” I could choose to crawl up into a ball and hide from life – but I chose to take a deep breath and plunge myself back into my life again over and over until one day, it felt comfortable again.

It’s the same with brand.  Innovative leaders don’t get there by doing what everyone else is doing. They do it by taking chances, by standing out. They face the fear.  I’m not advocating doing this willy-nilly, but if you have a well thought out brand strategy, you can make smarter choices – and smarter risks. And part of that brand strategy should include doing things differently from the inside out.

View the juicy video for Lesson #6  here.

Which risks have you taken that have paid off in your business? Which risks are you less willing to take and why?

BACKSTORY TO THE SEVEN LESSONS: What do recovering from a  brain aneurysm and branding have in common? Quite a bit, it turns out. Recently, I got the wonderful opportunity to share my dramatic story at a Women Business Owners luncheon and I promised I’d post the lessons here for everyone. This is a seven-post series.

Lesson #1: Focus (and backstory to the series)

Lesson #2: Be Authentic

Lesson #3: Count on Your Tribe

Lesson #4: Practice Patience

Lesson #5: Learn to Say No

Reboot and Reframe: Branding lesson for life #5: LEARN WHEN TO SAY NO

Posted on by Red Slice

say_NODo you constantly say “yes” to all the wrong things, leaving you absolutely no time or energy when the right opportunities come along?

If you’re an entrepreneur and you can’t relate to this, I’d love to meet you.

We all worry about saying “no” to business, partnerships and even advertising opportunities. What if this is my one chance to attract a boatload of customers? What if this is the only client I get this quarter? That old adage, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” is definitely a truism…..sometimes.

If you constantly accept clients who don’t fit your ideal profile or the type of work you want to be doing, how can you free yourself up to attract a better, more profitable client for the long run? Understanding your brand in clear detail will help you determine if someone is a good fit. It will help you say no to marketing opportunities that seem seductive at first (“Wow! This event attracts 5000 women!”) but in reality, turn out to be a waste of time and money (“Oh, those 5000 women will never be the ones who will buy from me!”)

As I learned to adapt to my new reality post-brain injury, I couldn’t say yes to as much as I would have in the past. I had to be selective in which clients I accepted and how I spent my time. This meant turning down some work that, while intriguing and interesting, was not going to be a good fit for me. And you can do this in an elegant and tactful way. You can explain that you don’t have bandwidth right now with your current client load, or you can recommend another resource that might be a better fit for their needs.  With partners, you can gently say the opportunity looks fabulous but you think you might be going after different target markets. With an advertising opportunity – well, this is business after all, and you can simply say, “We don’t see this as a valuable way to spend out money, but thank you for thinking of us.”

Remember, your clients and partners say something about your brand. They are your advertising.

By focusing on what you want, what you’re good at and what you can realistically deliver, people will appreciate your honesty more than they’ll appreciate you not having the time or mental energy to properly serve their needs.

View the juicy video for Lesson #5  here.

How do you determine which work to take on and which to pass up? Any tips or fun stories about times you have turned down opportunities?

BACKSTORY TO THE SEVEN LESSONS: What do recovering from a  brain aneurysm and branding have in common? Quite a bit, it turns out. Recently, I got the wonderful opportunity to share my dramatic story at a Women Business Owners luncheon and I promised I’d post the lessons here for everyone. This is a seven-post series.

Lesson #1: Focus (and backstory to the series)

Lesson #2: Be Authentic

Lesson #3: Count on Your Tribe

Lesson #4: Practice Patience

Any Open Letter to restaurants: Stop tarnishing your brand at Valentine’s Day

Posted on by Red Slice

Oh, how I wish there was a forum to send a message to every restaurant owner in the country and know it would get read.

Just like my open letter to business owners, this one goes out to any restaurant, bar, or eatery that serves us on Valentine’s Day. STOP. TARNISHING. YOUR. BRAND.

We all know Valentine’s Day is a money maker for you. And it’s so easy to say, “Let’s pack in as many people as we can and do a fixed menu so we can cycle them through faster!” I know margins suck in the restaurant business. I know it’s a tough industry in which to be successful. But do you understand what you’re sacrificing for the quick buck?

The last few Valentine’s Days, my husband and I were so annoyed at pre fixe menus. Like cattle, we were herded into what were supposed to be some of the finer dining establishments and crammed into obviously-added tables, elbow to elbow with the patrons next to us. We were given 3 entrée options that were mass produced and only allowed to select certain wines.  It sucked. Many of these restaurants were ones we were trying for the first time (hello? new potential loyal customers?!) and we were so disappointed with that experience, that even though we know it probably isn’t always like that, we have never gone back. The experience soured us on their brand.

My question is: Is ruining your brand for the long-term really worth it?

Just like I don’t understand why churches pack people into hot, sweaty, standing-room-only situations at Christmas and Easter rather than adding new masses – and in the process, making anyone coming for the first time in a while vow never to come back again – I don’t get how you can squander this opportunity to showcase your brand in it’s best light. This is a prime chance to turn first-timers into loyal customers.

We tried to avoid the chaos this year. Thinking we were smart, we went out on Saturday night instead to a place we were so excited about.  But they were crafty: they knew people would be going out over the weekend, and therefore had a pared-down Valentine’s menu (albeit with many more choices than a pre fixe) for the whole darn weekend. The food was good, but we felt we didn’t get to try some of the more traditional options we would have liked.

I know you want to make as much money as you can in one night. But at what cost? Do you really want my first impression of your place to be chaos and lack of choice? How likely am I to return? There is a great restaurant here in Seattle that we tried on Valentine’s Day last year. It gets great reviews. The regular menu looked amazing. But we won’t go back. We feel annoyed and gypped by that experience.

Is your long-term brand reputation and increase in your loyal customer base worth sacrificing for one good night of sales? I guess I would ask that questions of anyone who trades brand building for short-term gain.

Back to Brand School Contest: Are you in?

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Summers winding down – is your business ready to get back to school? I’m officially declaring August 31 “Back to Branding School Day.” We’ve got connected folks all over the social media sphere promoting this day and offering some goodies. Myself including….read on!

To celebrate the rolling success of Branding Basics for Small Business, I’m offering a little contest. Best answer receives a free signed copy of the branding book to help them craft a strong brand strategy for themselves, stand out and attract rabid fans. Here’s what Midwest Book Review had to say:

What makes your business unique, something that stands out from the pack? “Branding Basics For Small Business: How to Create an Irresistible Brand on Any Budget” is a guide to branding and how it can literally be the deciding factor on the success of business. Brands make connections with customers, keep your product in mind, attract employees, and keep a business strong. “Branding Basics for Small Business” is a wise and recommended read, not to be missed by any small business.”

To win, answer this question in the comments: What is the best piece of branding advice or branding lesson you have learned and why? If there is story behind this, please share. Sharing such lessons helps us all learn how to build better businesses. You don’t even have to be a business owner but perhaps a marketing professional or corporate employee.

Best answer wins a book! Enter by midnight PST on Wed, Sept 1, 2010.

The brand book is coming! The brand book is coming!

Posted on by Red Slice

Whew! (Hopefully) final manuscript edits sent to the publisher on Thursday. Now we deal with layout and all of that….can’t wait to get this juicy, practical guide into all my favorite entrepreneurs’ and marketing professionals’ hot little hands. Branding Basics for Small Business: How to create an irresistible brand on any budget should be printed and ready to order online in June 2010. (#brandbook if you want to play along on Twitter). I’m so excited for you to read all the case studies from small businesses all over the country who are doing amazing things with their brand. Check out this succulent little promo video to get the juices flowing. Oh, and I’m starting to schedule radio, podcast or article/blog interviews now, so just let me know (maria@red-slice.com) if you’d like me to speak to your community about creating an irresistible brand.

Branding Basics for Small Business: Book Coming June 2010 from Maria Ross on Vimeo.

Top 10 Tips for Effective Branding and Messaging

Posted on by Red Slice

A helpful primer with some top branding tips I’ve culled over the years. Have some others? Would love to see them in the comments!

1. Know yourself, know your business

A good brand stems from authenticity. This means being consistent in messaging, visuals, and experience and not just giving lip service. If you claim customer service is your most important differentiator, then return calls and emails in a reasonable amount of time and don’t leave people in an automated telephone maze to get the help they need. If you claim quality, you had better make sure your goods are up to snuff. No one likes to be lied to and no one likes when their experiences fall short of expectations. Apple’s hip brand works because of their quality, design, and cutting-edge products that set trends and push the boundaries. They deliver on their brand promise.

2. Make your customer real

Determine your ideal customer and market to that person. Don’t aim for some amorphous blob of people out there – make it about one customer (or a persona for all the different customers you serve) and pretend you are talking to that person. Know their likes, dislikes, where they live, where they work, what magazines they like to read. The more detail you can put around this picture, this persona, even if you have a few different customer groups, the more relevant and on-target your marketing and communications will be. When you try to reach everyone, you become relevant to no one because you are too generic and vanilla.

3. Invest your marketing dollars wisely

Only invest in marketing programs that make sense. Duh – this seems obvious, but don’t buy that booth at the show unless you know your potential customers will be there. Even if it costs just $200, it’s a wasted $200 if the 5000 people in attendance will never buy your product. Do the research, ask the questions. Go where your customers are, don’t expect them to come to you just because you think it would be “cool” to be at that event or produce that radio spot. If your ideal customers don’t have time to watch TV, don’t invest in producing that ad.

4. Give meaning to your “look”

Work with a brand strategist or gifted designer who understands how placement, typography, and color all work together consciously and subconsciously to communicate a message. Ensure you really map out the message you wish to convey before you create the materials or graphic elements to convey it.

5. Give brand marketing a chance to work

People need to experience things multiple times before they stick. Be clear but be consistent – they need to see your message about 7 times before they remember it. The Nike swoosh did not create meaning overnight but Nike spent years and lots of money making that mark mean something to people. Don’t expect one ad to get you to your sales targets, or a website to get you all your customers. Branding is not the same as direct response marketing – it takes time and it should be integrated across all your customer touch points. Of course, if you need to course correct if it’s not working, you can do that, but don’t change it up every month – you may be sick of your own messaging after 2 months, but others will not have had a chance to absorb it. Do the work upfront to make sure your message is on target and stick with it.

6. Be realistic

If you can’t afford to produce luxury goods or services, don’t market them as such. People still need cheap, efficient, no-frills products and services on certain occasions. Just find your audience niche and market to them only what you can provide realistically to them specifically.

7. Create a style guide

When you design a website or a logo, ensure the designers leave you with a Style Guide that has all your colors used (in PMS, HEX, CMYK), font types and sizes, any copy guidelines (ie, we never use contractions, we use a very playful, snarky tone), layout guidelines, graphic guidelines (do we use photos or illustrations?) etc. This will help you maintain consistency when you either need to do things yourself or have others step in and make changes, do other projects, etc. This should be part of your operational guidelines and shared with any employees or partners who do visual/written work with you.

8. Understand trademark and copyright

Anything you put in a fixed form is automatically copyrighted by you, whether you file for the copyright or not, as long as you can prove when they were first used. This means copy, presentations or articles. But names or logos might need to be trademarked. If you come up with any branded product or service names, at least do an online trademark search at www.uspto.gov – this includes company name and taglines. Doesn’t mean you have to necessarily file for a trademark, but at least you will know what is already in use to avoid getting sued or being asked to cease and desist. And always consult a trademark lawyer on whether you should or should not trademark certain things. Better to spend some time and money to check up front on usage before investing lots of money on naming or design, only to be told to cease and desist by someone already using those things.

9. Keep the end in mind

When getting a logo designed, keep in mind how you will use it. This can save you money in the long run. Will it always be shown in digital format, or do you plan to print it out or place it on promotional items? This will help you determine if you need a 4-color logo or 2-color logo. It is often more expensive to print 4-color than 2-color or even black and white. Also, ensure you are using mostly standard PMS or CMYK colors so as to avoid needing to pay extra for custom print colors. And think about how your logo will show up at both big and small sizes. A very minutely detailed logo may not reproduce well on websites or in event programs at a very small size.

10. Use known analogies

If you are introducing something new or unfamiliar to your target audience, try to use analogies to help them make the connections more quickly. Take what it known and convey that meaning for quick comprehension. Here’s an excerpt from the fabulous book Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath:

“When the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) was trying to convey that movie popcorn was unhealthy, all their statistics and facts caused most people’s eyes to glaze over. So the CSPI called a press conference on September 27, 1992. Here’s the message it presented: “A medium-sized ‘butter’ popcorn at a typical neighborhood movie theater contains more artery-clogging fat than a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and a steak dinner with all the trimmings — combined!”

The folks at CSPI didn’t neglect the visuals — they laid out the full buffet of greasy food for the television cameras. An entire day’s worth of unhealthy eating, displayed on a table. All that saturated fat stuffed into a single bag of popcorn.

The story was an immediate sensation.”

 

When Brand Advertising Goes Bad

Posted on by Red Slice

Catching up on some football this weekend, a TV ad provoked such ire in me, that I had to share.

Before I reveal it, let me defend why I have such strong feelings. Marketing and branding has rceived such a bad rap over the years as litle more than “pretty pictures” and wasted budget. OK, this might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I’ve never not had to fight and claw my way through an expenditure justification meeting with a CFO. And I get it, I really do. There has been such misguided marketing shoveled out over the years (and I admit, I shoveled my share of it, too). And you can’t just spend money with no ROI – you need to be able to track and manage ROI on any investment you make. That’s just sound business, and while I might be in marketing, I did earn a business degree so I understand that the name of the game, at the end of the day, is revenue.

So I have spent my career learning to be a diligent “measurer.” Whether that’s tracking website visits, leads, conversion rates, unaided recall, PR hits, focus groups, etc. the Type A in me has always enjoyed the challenge of proving that marketing – when it’s done right – should affect the bottom line and is not all fun and games. It takes a lot of skill to tap into people’s needs and prompt them to act. Yes, sometimes it still all falls down because of product quality, a flawed business model or some sales reps who can’t seem to close the deal – but you can only control what you can control, right?

And then, I see advdertising like I did this past weekend. And I want to slap somebody. Hard.

Pacific Life is running a TV ad that I’m sure cost a pretty penny. It’s an ad showing dolphins jumping up out of the ocean, set to an epic soundtrack. Then, the Pacific Life product categories (annuities, etc.) flash across the screen for about a second and the commercial ends. Someone feels so smug about this ad, they actually have it on the home page of their website, titled Dancing Whales.

What the…..?!

Yes, the logo has a whale on it. Yes, whales are cute and I like watching them. Yes, I believe that not all ads should be dry, feature-function-benefit informercials, but can showcase a lifestyle or an attitude. But whose idea was it to say, “Hey, our logo has a whale! Let’s spend money on a 30-second spot with jumping whales and that will definitely show people a) why we’re different from every other financial services company out there; b) will help people get to know our values; and c) entice them to contact their Pacific Life rep today!”

This is indeed what happens when people that think marketing and advertising are easy make decisions. OK, maybe I’m being harsh for comedic effect, but truly: how does this ad in any way help them differentiate, tell their story, show me what value I get from being their customer, or all of the above?

I call this the “Perfume ad conundrum” You know how some perfume ads have gone so far down the lifestyle branding path that their abstract ads are now mocked for being pretentious and nonsensical? That’s a result of someone saying, “Consumers are dumb, If we just put 30 seconds of (enter adjective here) up onthe screen, will associate us with (insert same adjective) and we will be ‘branded’.”

Uh uh. Not how it works. A good branding campaign does not forget the fundamentals of communication and marketing: value propositions (even if you just focus on 1 per ad, as Apple doesso well), differentiation (how can only this company provide what they are promising?), and clear mssaging (can I understand exactly what they are telling me?)

Ok, you could argure that I remembered this ad and am ranting about it, so didn’t it work? Um, not all talk is good talk that makes people buy your stuff. Many “water cooler” ads are ones in which the gossipers can’t remember which company they were even for, so how does that help people spend their money on you?

So, yes, I get a little out of joint when I see millions of dollars being spent by big companies that should have experienced marketing professionals who know better. Otherwise, it just makes it that much harder for those of us who value the depth and discipline of marketing to get our budgets approved. It’s bad enough that brand marketing is cited as pretty fluff (when execs are being kind) and a money sinkhole (when they are not) – can’t those of you blessed to get your budgets approved practice it at a more worthy level that positively impacts the bottom line?