Saturday, December 5, 2009

Business Website – a Foundation Stone of Online Marketing and Branding

With drastic increase in online marketing, advertising and branding activities, the internet has become the primary avenue for business owners to show their presence and increase profitability against low cost. However, one has to think carefully and build powerful strategies for online business branding for long term business marketing and communication success.

In this scenario, the foremost requirement for online presence is to have a complete and state of the art website. There are two major reasons why you may want to be online and they are very different, and understanding them is essential if your online branding efforts are going to be fruitful.


1. In order to generate sales from your business website, you have to have a strong branding strategy. Prospective customer should understand the branding message clearly. They should understand easily about your products and services, ordering system and before and after sales services.

2. You need to convey the message through a website same as you have been doing it through traditional marketing and advertising efforts. Your message should be one regardless of how customers come into contact with you.

Your website in online world is your business model. Make it as user friendly as possible with all the possible customer support options at one place. Use your logo design as a brand identity to rightly position your products and services to create a long lasting brand.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

5 Big Brands Strategies for Small Business Branding

Before going into details, let us see what makes the corporate big brands big. Big brands have not been always big, they started with a small venture and with good marketing and branding strategies they thrive and succeeded. On one hand, large corporate organizations invest a large share of their income on research and development. And on the other hand they focus on building relationships and customer experience.


You must be wondering how a small business owner like you, who has limited budget for marketing and branding activities, can invest like corporate brands. The simple fact is that you can do it too, and you don’t need a high budget, all you need to do is to use your brain. Advancements in technology have made the communication smarter, cheaper and simpler for your company. The following points will let you know how you can brand your business effectively.

1. Establish a Position
The difficult part but the most rewarding is to rightly position your brand in the mind of a customer. First of all, know your competitors by listing down their strengths and weaknesses. Understand what they do well and what they do poor. Now, after competitor analysis make out how you can differentiate your company. Words like better, cheaper, faster and so on can help you a lot in creating a unique brand positioning.

2. Speak With a Single Voice
After developing a difference in your company and product and service, it’s time to create a positioning statement that can speak out loud about your positioning. Remember not to scattered away what you have promised. Be customer focused and provide the exact quality which you have promised in you positioning statement.

3. Reward Customer Loyalty
It is a known fact that it’s cheaper to hold an old customer than making a new one for your company. Therefore, it’s better to reward you old customer to stay loyal with rewarding strategies. Frequency discounts, gifts, value added services, thank you card, calls and letter etc. are few ways to reward your old yet loyal customers.

4. Find the Emotional Connection
In our lives we celebrate events from birth to death; your customers do it as well. Don’t overlook the opportunity to create emotional connection with your customer through these events. Never forget to greet them on every occasion to build a lasting relationship for your company.

5. Advertise Wisely & Consistently
Direct mail, public relation, sponsorships and charitable events, internet and website design, events and trade shows, newspaper and magazine are some powerful marketing and advertising channels to keep your customer informed with product and services you offer. But, strategy of consistency is imperative to create a greater and long term brand positioning.

Conclusion
These branding strategies are done by large organization, but you can do it too with limited budget. All you need to do is to think and craft a corporate brand identity strategy that can rightly position your brand in the right target market.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Marketing Experts Secrets about the Benefits of a Business Identity


"A logo is a visual representation of your company. This should look good at any size. A logo is a very important choice to make and should never be changed once you’ve decided upon a good one. Two million businesses are formed each year, and a logo will help you stand out from these." Jay Conrad Levinson, Guerrilla Marketing, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1984

"Be careful to present yourself so that others’ first impressions correspond to what you want . . . Wear your facade with pride." Richard Koch, The Natural Laws of Business, Doubleday, New York, 2000

"Realize that your company is going to project an image regardless of whether you plan it or not. That image is either going to help or hurt you." Richard White, The Entrepreneur’s Manual Chilton Book Co., Radnor, PA, 1977.

5 REASONS WHY A COMPANY LOGO IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR MARKETING



1. Your company and brand specific logo design differentiates your business from others visually, identifying the product or service you provide.

2. It creates a sweet spot, a point of familiarity between you and the marketplace.

3. It should exude authenticity. Customers crave what’s real and genuine. A logo that looks like clip art demeans your business. A unique logo design justify your business image.

4. A good corporate logo builds your brand. It’s your promise to perform. And a promise is the heart of good advertising.

5. A logo is one of the most valuable assets of your business. The more it’s used, the more equity it builds. And the more image and brand equity you have, the more valuable your business becomes. This is especially important if you plan to someday sell your company.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Business Advantages of Logo Rebranding

A rebranded business logo design will re-establish your identity

A strong corporate logo design helps your business attract new customers and keep existing customers coming back. Rebranding your business logo design can actually have your target market relate to your product or service and give a new worth to your marketing strategy.

Business logo design rebranding bring strength, reinforcement, and customer loyalty

Familiarity is the key to growing your business. Your logo design is a primary factor since your company logo design is the cornerstone of all of your marketing and promotional material. A unique rebranding of your company logo Design will not only tell people what and who you are but it will set you apart from the competition.

Create long lasting impact with your rebranded company logo design

After establishing your logo design identity, your goal is increasing consumer remembrance. An effective rebranding of your logo design can help turn your business into a household name. A logo design defines a company direction, character.

Successful Logo Design Rebranding Examples

McDonalds

The main and most recognizable example of a successful rebranding strategy was made by McDonalds. McDonalds has gone through many types of brand tastes, while maintaining loyalty and satisfaction with its customers. Not only has a rebrand of McDonalds given it even more consumer awareness it has most definitely boost sales dramatically This highlights that consumers were convinced that “A powerful brand can alter people’s perception of reality”. They still maintain loyalty and satisfaction with its customers.



Apple Computers

Apple has gone through many types of brand tastes, while maintaining loyalty and satisfaction with its customers as well. For whatever reason Apple Inc. had to revamp its corporate logo design, the new Apple logo got a hearty endorsement by the customers and critics around the world. It can widely be seen on all Apple products and retail stores; and has become one of the world’s most renowned brand symbols.




Kentucky Fried Chicken

KFC is a traditional old world brand faced the challenge of connecting with new food values. They disconnect between brand and audience in this case they went even further - the ecological insensitivity already often associated with brands, especially fast food brands was played out, quite literally, on a world stage which bought the rebranding of the KFC logo to the world in a big way. KFC still maintains loyalty and satisfaction with its customers.




Business Logo Design Re-Branding and Its Hazards

Understanding the power of first impression, with this in mind; logo branding is a vital factor that every business either corporate or small should consider carefully. The message that your business logo design sends out - through its shape, color, size etc - should reflect your company's image efficiently and instantaneously.

Process of business logo design rebranding will energize the visual impact on your potential customers, at the same time ensuring that you really stand out from among the healthy competitors with an unforgettable logo design which will instantly identify a business.

But logo rebranding or redesigning or repositioning contain some risks but before launching on to them we must dealt some light on what is really a rebranding term means;

Rebranding is the process by which a product developed with one brand is marketed or distributed with a different identity. Rebranding is not just about giving an existing product or service; a new name, a new business logo design, devising a snappy slogan or changing the corporate colors and expecting the sales to roll in.

It’s about challenging the huge values of an organization, whether you’re operating in a specialist niche market with a handful of employees or managing a ‘mammoth size brand’ within a global corporation.

Risks Attached With the Re-branding Process

Re-branding is important and it can take the form of change to the identity, position or execution of a brand. However, these changes can be expensive and potentially damaging if done badly and at best, are disruptive to business. Whatever the level of change, careful consideration must be given before embarking on this course of action.

By rebranding your company logo design, you may risk losing your supporters, clients that are already familiar with your products and services, your popularity or respect. You can, however, clean-up your business logo design or update it with a lot less risk.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Online Advertising + Unique Logo Design + Social Media Marketing = Successful Small Business

After the successful launch of the internet, the global scene of advertising and marketing took a very sharp turn. Prior to all this, the field of advertising was limited to electronic and print media coupled with outdoor forms of publicity. The induction of the internet gave us another medium of marketing and promotion, Online Advertising.

Further advancements in the internet gave birth to social media or on net social networking. The growth of social media was a very fast process due to its popularity among the masses. This eventually introduced to us yet another highly potential variety of marketing, Social Media Marketing.

Social networking for fun is now a thing of the past. In this day and age, social networking is more of a promotional stunt rather than just the means for mingling. In lieu of these undeniable facts, the best ways to promote one’s self image or business identity pass through social media networking. That is why this approach is more commonly known as social media marketing.

At the present time, small business enterprises are in the predicament of successfully making an identity and promoting their products and services throughout the globe. This problem can now easily be resolved by following a simple formula given below.

Online Advertising + Unique Logo Design + Social Media Marketing = Successful Small Business

The first two parts of the formula are being practiced upon quite effectively but the middle part which is the most important element supporting the other two is facing criminal negligence. In this article we would openly discuss the importance of a creative and unique logo design in online advertising and social media marketing.

Before we delve further in to the subject in question, there is a dire need to understand the meaning of a creative logo design. A logo is by far the identification mark of a person or business for that matter. It carries a lot more meaning to it than being a mere trademark. Having a creative logo design has to be the first priority for entrepreneurs and individuals before they even think of starting a social or any other marketing campaign. It will also not be out of place to mention here, that a creative logo design should in turn possess the extra characteristics of being unique in its kind. It’s the charisma of a unique logo design that attracts potential customers or followers.

It did not take a million years for successful online advertisers and social media marketers to become aware of the sheer importance of a unique logo design. You may witness the fact that a huge majority of businesses and individuals are now turning to get their unique logo designs developed before they embark on the journey of marketing.

This article came up in the wake of an interview with a creative logo designer and consultant.

End Note: The contents are the view points of the author and questions/responses are MORE than welcome.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Small business logos - worthy or worthless!


Small businesses have always been facing the problem of recognition as they are not related to such bingo things which make them renowned in the market in a huge manner. The name of a business itself can’t really project what’s the real product or business worth is, that’s why an affordable logo design representation can create an immediate and immaculate role to make a small business recognized and take it towards the popularity.

When you are in such a business how you do usually get publicize your business? By marketing and advertising of course. This is where business cards come in handy but in order to create a strong mark in the market that stands out and catches the other person's attention, you need a small business logo that is startling.

Let’s talk about what is really a logo is and how it makes your business/ brand popular and distinguished in the market. Logo is basically a graphical element or a symbol/ sign that is uniquely set and arranged for a commercial business or brand. Typically, a logo's design is for immediate recognition. The logo is one aspect of a company's commercial brand, or economic state.

Small business logo design should be created in the initial context of the brand or product, highlighting the main stream properties of it. So a buyer can easily understand that what the quality of a product is?

Always prefer professional logo designers to create your exceptional logo because an amateur logo can cost you harm in your future business and promotion. The reason behind it is if u opts for a cheap logo that doesn’t have a glimpse of your product will not only cost you on your sales but also messes up your credibility in the market.