Archive for the 'Branding' Category

Business Enterprise Merchandising Requires Better Tools

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

An Oyster holder serves umteen substantial purposes. It is one of the most practical, unique and a perfect item of utility and the one that lasts really long, thus providing you to build a strong reputation for your business enterprise. It represents as one of the most efficient mthods to distribute your company content across a significant sphere to mark your audience, thus aiding you to win in a capitalist worldwide market. Oyster card wallets offer up more tractability for publicizing, and is less time squandering than umpteen of its other opposite numbers. It represents a outstanding role in getting your organisation name out there and supplies a lot of chances for advertising your brand. It makes an flawless merchandising tool for any town and is always appreciated by everybody because of its utility and strength.

1) They are elegant and cost effective items, and are obtainable in a great range of colors and sizings. Their vibrant colours will make it favorable for you to find them in your purse or brief case. They also have a logo embossed on the face. They are one of the most popular promotional products and allow for a outstanding means of raising your marketing budget.

2) Your customers will be able to journey in vogue and protect their valued oyster card or ID at the same time and remembering who gave them such an deluxe present. It can be printed in full color with a diversity of different finishes. By applying your party logo, you can suddenly shape this plain object into an fascinating stunning promotional instrument. This item can assist you to remind your customers of your company brand name, time and again.

3) These Oyster holders are double sided and constructed from functional PVC plastic. They will keep the card or picture from getting scratched or broken. These items can also be up to full colour with a diversity of unique colorings, designs and patterns.

4) Oyster card holders can help you save all of your main cards or travel passes together in one solid and convenient place. They are created from functional PVC plastic and admit credit card slots and central note pocket. They look trendy and stunning and allow a large opportunity to create an powerful impression. You can either give them to your customers, allies, deputes or work mates, for treasuring them for their work. They will genuinely make you leap out higher up the crowd and are great for your own individual use, too.

5) It is a outstanding value promotional item for your aimed audience and comes in a outstanding range of different colours and designs. It is fade proof and prepared of wet resistant and water immune textiles. Card holders will create a fantastic impact, when passed out to your business colleagues, customers, relations or even acquaintances on their special junctures.

Can You Make Crisp Words Every Time You Converse?

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

When clear speech is heard it is appealing to the ear. It is the result of optimal use of the vocal cords. Attaining clarity is is crucial when giving a lecture. It’s also important in our every day conversation. To gain mastery of use of our vocal cords requires practice. Speaking clearly is a vary important thing to have while you are making a tutorial.

Clear Speech: Exercise

  • Speaking clearly is often more clever than talking cleverly. Unfortunately well-established, poor communicators legitimise bad communication. Poor communication in high places is copied by less experienced communicators who think that what they hear and see is “best practice”
  • Two other processes can result in indistinct speech. With most of these examples, if you grasp the induce, you can know precisely the solution and master the ability to speak well

Tense Voice, Big Pitch

  • A tense voice will sound higher than our normal relaxed voice.
  • The other end of the spectrum is a distressed voice. Some have developed a habit of talking in a distressed voice as part of their normal conversation. It is hard to describe but when you hear someone do it, you will know it.
  • If you want to hear and feel it for your self, start talking or reading out loud. Keep speaking until you run out of air and would take another breath. Once you are out of air, continue to converse forcing the residual air in your lungs to come up, enabling your continued speech
  • What does it sound like? What does it feel like? That is a distressed voice. The solution is simple, just breathe. Breathe adequate for your speaking. Clear speech requires adequate lungs
  • Slurring words or running them together can be the result of a learned behavior or cultural behavior. Additionally , it contains dropping syllables indiscriminately or as a cultural norm. These need to be corrected to to communicate clearly and distinctly.

Branding Strategy – Brand Identity

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Today, in many organizations around the world, branding is treated as a cosmetic exercise only, and regarded merely as a new name, logo, stationary and possibly a new advertising campaign. But, to associate your “brand” with such superficial cosmetics is like saying that people are really only the sum of their name, face and sometimes their clothing

But branding is a thoughtful discipline that strongly belongs to the long-term strategy of an organization; brand strategy is, or should be, business strategy, and vice versa.

Smart Branding is about having a clear point of view on what an organization is about and how it can deliver a thoughtful and unique experience to its customers. Then, the execution is about organizing all products, services, and corporate operations around the customer, to close the gap between the promised and the delivered brand experience.

For example, Staples, an office-supply retailer in the US, aims at making the purchasing experience easy, as communicated in its trademarked slogan “that was easy.” In practice, it may mean training the front-line personnel in customer service processes (e.g., how to minimize issues during check-out), designing the website for instant product reviews and actual delivery time, and scheduling fast delivery of orders and pick-up of returns. All those organizational aspects thus reinforce each other and converge to the same strategic objective.

Approach branding as a business strategy, is to view how all products, services and interactions with the consumer under the brand name become building blocks of bedrock of trust derived from their customers’ experience; For instance the iExperience that the iFamily of Apples’ iProducts deliver to its iFanatics.

To be successful, Smart Branding has to be seen as an important part of the corporate strategy, something that will deeply influence the entire organization. That’s why Smart Branding initiatives need to be aimed not only to the external costumer but also has to be directed to the inside of the organization, transforming the figure of the CEO into the brand champion who drives the brand and everyone in the organization; Think Howard Schultz, Steve Jobs or Richard Branson

To truly become and act as The Brand champions, CEO’s need to take all their decisions based on three premises:

1. The brand is the most important organization asset

2. The most important source of income is the customer, and

3. Branding is about business planning.

These three premises will help CEO’s follow the most important rule of the marketing game: If you don’t sell, you aren’t in business.

This CEO level approach to branding, allows brands to have an aided recognition that can result in premium pricing and extension opportunities, which ultimately will increase customers’ loyalty. It also provides management tangible metrics to assess initiatives, which eventually can be transformed into tangible brand equities.

Scott White is President of Brand Identity Guru a leading Corporate Branding and Branding Research firm in Boston, MA.

Brand Identity Guru specializes in creating corporate and product brands that increase sales, market share, customer loyalty, and brand valuation.

This Article may be freely copied as long as it is not modified and this resource box accompanies the article, together with working hyperlinks.

Over the course of his 15-year branding career, Scott White has worked in a wide variety of industries: high-tech, manufacturing, computer hardware and software, telecommunications, banking, restaurants, fashion, healthcare, Internet, retail, and service businesses, as well as numerous non-profit organizations.

Brand Identity Guru clients include: Sun Life Financial, Coca Cola, HP, Sun, Nordstrom, American Federal Mortgage, Franklin Sports and many others, including numerous emerging growth companies.

The Keys to a Great Logo

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Logo, graphic, icon, logotype, typogram, logoform, image…call it what you will, a logo by any other name is the group of letters and/or symbols used in a consistent and unique way to identify a company. It is the most prominent and stable element of marketing, and should be planned carefully to fully reflect your brand. Understanding the key aspects of a logo will help in developing a durable, on target identity.

Format

There are three common formats for a logo:

  • Image & Type — Includes a literal or symbolic graphic with the company name positioned close to but separate from the graphic.
  • Type-based — A specific font in a specific color is used for the company’s image. Creating a type-based logo or “logotype,” requires more than selecting a font and typing a name. In these logos, letterforms are adjusted and spaced in a unique combination and treated as art.
  • Integrated — A one-piece logo, incorporating graphics and type together so the name and graphic become one unit. Companies that use only initials frequently employ this format.

Direction

Design development of the logo generally follows one of three directions:

  • Graphic — Literally describes the company’s activity, such as choosing a tree or a shovel to depict a landscaping company.
  • Conceptual — Conveys an abstract quality of the company, using geometric or symbolic shapes to express a non-tangible aspect.
  • Neutral — Relies on font choice, weight, shape, spacing and color rather than imagery to convey the message.

Style

Color, font and format choices assist in building an impression.

  • Traditional — Achieving a classic image calls for timeless shades of red, navy and forest green. Choosing an elegant script or serif font like Vivaldi, Times or Palatino, as well as creating a balanced layout reflects a traditional image.
  • Modern — Companies looking for a contemporary image should consider modern elements. Sans Serif fonts like Helvetica, Myriad and Eras offer clean lines and simplicity. Brighter colors, unusual combinations and multiple hues are appropriate. Modern designs are often structured and grid-like, or asymmetrical.
  • Casual — When a relaxed image is called for, a casual style may be needed. Fonts that mimic handwriting, script or graffiti, such as Papyrus, Curlz and Comic Sans are in this category. Casual styles avoid a stiff, formal corporate image, using vivid hues to warm tones.

Uniqueness

It is important to be aware of the images around you. Creating a logo that is inappropriate for your industry, too close to a competitor’s, or reminds viewers of another company can sabotage communication. A logo should be like a fingerprint, one of a kind.

Logos have many elements that can be coordinated to deliver maximum impact. When developing an image to reflect a brand, consider these key points for aligning visuals with the verbal and experiential message of your company.

About The Author

Beth Brodovsky is the president and principal of Iris Creative Group, LLC. Brodovsky earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design from Pratt Institute, New York. Before launching her own firm in 1996, she spent eight years as a corporate Art Director and Graphic Designer, providing a sound foundation in management and organizational standards and structure. Iris Creative specializes in providing marketing and strategic communication services to clients in service industries and small businesses. For more information contact Beth at bsb@iriscreative.com or 610-567-2799.