by admin | Aug 15, 2012 | Blog, Promotion, Strategy
‘What is a brand’ is still the most misunderstood and misused concept in the small business arena.
In previous blogs I have at length discussed the fact that it is not a logo, name or packaging, but the total sum of perceptions that your customers and prospects have about your business or organization.
It is what they think and feel about you and those emotions and thoughts are the result of your target audience experiences with your company.
But there is an even simpler way to look at the concept of brand, the way that the world of business looked at it before the word became a way for ad agencies to not only examine competitive strategies in their bid to sell to the mass market in the 1950s but also a way to mystify the advertising process and hence become the guardians of the ‘brand’.
So what did business people say before the word brand entered the everyday vocabulary of business media?
Here’s the way three great mean described:
“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation and only one bad one to lose it”
-Benjamin Franklin
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 min to ruin it. If you think about that you do things differently.”
-Warren Buffett
“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.
-Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com
So what is a brand?
Simple – it’s your reputation. So brand building is actually all about building and protecting your reputation. Although I hate the somewhat old fashioned and hence manipulative sounding title of the book that at one stage outsold the Bible, the message in it is sincere and well meaning and one that has not been adopted anywhere near enough. I’m talking about a book that gives us all the most basic and amazing principles of persuasion, reputation building and managing people -“How to Win Friends and Influence People”
The next 4 blogs will summarize the 4 chapters of Dale Carnegie’s must read book to effective communication and illustrate the way they directly relate to the AIDA (Attention | Interest | Desire | Action) model of advertising.
by admin | Feb 14, 2012 | Blog, Design
Seeing is Achieving
InsightGIS is an IT company that specialises in geographic information systems (GIS) and location intelligence. Our services add value to your business and information systems by merging them with locational information. You gain the benefits of visualising your data and easily accessing your information.
Logo Development
Pull up Banner
Background
Client : Insight GIS
Website: insightgis.com.au
Seeing is Achieving
InsightGIS is an IT company that specialises in geographic information systems (GIS) and location intelligence.Our services add value to your business and information systems by merging them with locational information. You gain the benefits of visualising your data and easily accessing your information.
Project Scope
Brand Strategy and Positioning
Logo redesign
Copywriting
Website Art Direction
Pull Up Banner
by admin | Dec 19, 2011 | Blog, Design, Promotion, Strategy
I am sure that you can put your hand on your heart and say that your new product or service is different and unique.
You have a point of difference that would convert a prospective customer in seconds. But how?
Here’s a checklist to ensure that you convert your prospective customers with the proper positioning strategy:
1. Look reputable:
- Have you got a logo that looks substantial?
- Do you have a tagline/slogan/positioning statement under your logo that communicates your point of difference?
- Does your website wow your customer?
- Is the content on your website relevant and proof read?
- Is all your marketing material consistent and themed?
- Do you have an office address and customer service number?
2. Build confidence:
- Do you offer guarantees and or warranties?
- Do you have testimonials from existing customers?
- Can you use the logos of existing customers to create instant credibility?
3. Get noticed:
- Do you have and regularly update a blog, to exhibit thought leadership and improve your SEO?
- Do you update your customers through email and LinkedIn/twitter/facebook?
- Do you have listings and or advertisements in business directories?
- How is your Google ranking?
- Do you do sponsored(Pay Per Click)advertising on Google?
- Do you regularly communicate through email and direct mail with your customers and new leads?
- Is your point of difference obvious and consistent in all your forms of communication?
To find out how we help our clients to play with the big boys, contact us now. We are a marketing agency and advertising agency, all in one and our website is full of information on brand identity and styling, content development and campaign development. By working on looking reputable, building confidence and getting noticed through the right positioning strategy, you’ll look just like a big player in your market, on a small budget. Remember ‘Perception is Reality’! We’ll help you to launch your brand successfully and maximise the return on your marketing investment.
![Brand design advice for start-ups and new businesses]()
by admin | Mar 8, 2011 | Blog, Design
For many small and medium size business owners, a graphic designer is the first point of call when it comes to brand design and strategy for their business.
A scenario we come across on a daily basis is one where the entrepreneur starting a business, realises the need for a business name and basic business collateral; business card, letterhead, website, brochure, etc and they seek the services of a graphic designer. This hence becomes the critical point in the development of their business, not just their business image.
You should be asking the following:
- Do many graphic designers raise warning flags with their clients if their chosen brand name is unlikely to pass the trade mark application?
- Do graphic designers explain that a properly ‘designed’ brand name can make an emotional connection with your audience, and help to build a brand that ignites the passions of your customers and propel itself through the world on its own, becoming a no-cost, self-sustaining PR vehicle?
- Do graphic designers check that the brand name achieves its key objectives:
- Differentiation from competitors
- Reinforcing a unique positioning platform
- Creates a positive and lasting engagement with their target audience
- Is unforgettable
- Provides a deep well of marketing ideas and advertising images
- Do graphic designers stop their clients and ask them for a Positioning Statement (a creative interpretation of the business USP – Unique Selling Proposition), which in most case should form part of the logo?
Of course these questions are not the expertise of most graphic designers or design studios and not really their job. It is the job of the clients’ marketing people (in a small business it is the owner) or their marketing agency or consultant. qubePartners’s truly integrated team of marketing communication specialists makes sure that the following questions are asked, checked, debated and agreed upon before developing the right solution for your business:
- How can the design better communicate the personality of the brand?
- How can the positioning of the brand be enhanced through visual communication or
- How can the brand experience be enhanced in store or on the website using visual cues that make decision making easier?
You really do get what you pay for, so think twice before “ordering your logo and collateral online” or getting your cousin’s brother to do it for you. think about how you and your company will be perceived by your target audience and whether the brand design you get will give you an advantage over your competitors or will it make you look like a one man band!
Contact qubePartners on 03 9018 7224 and see how we can make your life easier and your business more profitable.
by admin | Jan 15, 2011 | Blog
Cosmetic Dental and Implant Centre, professional and caring dentistry. Implant dentistry, cosmetic dentistry and general dentistry for adults and children.
Corporate Stationery
Background
Client : Cosmetic Dental & Implant Centre
Cosmetic Dental and Implant Centre, professional and caring dentistry. Implant dentistry, cosmetic dentistry and general dentistry for adults and children.
Project Scope
Brand Strategy
Logo Enhancement
Corporate Identity
Copywriting
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