Brand Design Blog, News and Ideas

We are currently reforming the Monash Enterprise Centre Business Breakfast as the MEC Business Group.

The MEC Business Group is available FREE to any business owner or operator in or around the Monash Shire in Victoria, Australia.

In re-establishing the breakfast meetings we will be presenting a series of Expert speakers who will discuss very relevant issues that every small and medium business owners should be interested in.

All the up coming events can be found on our NEW website: www.mecbusinessgroup.com

The first of these events is on Wednesday 17 June 2009
“How to Avoid and Deal with Bad Debts”

Something everyone should be aware of in this economic climate.

For more information and to secure your interest visit: www.mecbusinessgroup.com

The MEC Business Group meet fortnightly for a light breakfast where they assist small business owners and operators achieve their business goals by sharing referrals, knowledge, business issues and ideas.

Well, we’re over a month into 2009 and it’s time to take stock of our Branding Messages and Presentations to make sure they fit this new economic climate.

Customers are now putting greater consideration on spending money, often looking for a cheaper option if they can’t see the value in your brand.

Other considerations touch on the technology front. Social Networks, Mobile phones and online marketing are taking even greater strides in 2009 and need to be considered in your marketing approach.

Below are the our Top 5 considerations when branding your business in 2009.

Social Networks

Social Networks such as Facebook, My Space and Twitter have finally made real impact with the public in general over 2008 and it’s time to start leveraging them.

As of September last year Facebook had over 90 Million active users which is a growing number that can’t be ignored.

Creating a company profile on any of these networks can be a great way to begin conversations with your clients and keep up to date with changing trends and customer opinion.

Consistency

Making sure that your brand message is consistent across all forms of media and customer interaction is important for customer loyalty and trust.

It’s much easier to trust someone if you have consistent positive communication. The same thing applies to your business communication with its customers.

Change scares many people. Knowing what to expect will enable customers and clients to feel comfortable when dealing with you.

Value Propositions

Now more than ever, value for money is a must. With the media screaming economic turmoil, customers need to see that they are receiving a valuable product or service for their hard earned money.

So make sure that you express the benefits of investing in your product when ever possible. Cheap does not equal value, but if the customer does not see value in your presentation then cheap is an easy alternative.

Relevance

Knowing your customers and their current situation is key in speaking to their hearts and minds.

Economic and personal situations are changing faster than ever so in order to keep up we need to be opening conversations with our customers today.

Whether through social networking, online and offline community interaction, email marketing or simply phoning to following up on a customer purchase, we need to listen to what our clients have to say, then act on any major trends we find from the feedback.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great way to keep existing and potential customers up to date.

But the key is not to ‘Spam’ people. Making sure that your emails are welcome is incredibly important part of this strategy.

First, make sure you only send email to existing customers or people who have expressed interest in receiving more informtion about your product.

Secondly, the customer needs to be in control. Making it easy to unsubscribe to your email newsletter is key to establishing trust.

Third and finally, make your email content interesting, useful and valuable to the customer receiving it.

Again, if your message is not one of value, people will stop listening.

There are many things to consider when branding your business and I only have time to cover my top 5 here.

If you have more suggestion feel free to let us know through the comments or send us an email at: admin@crimsonfox.com.au

If you would like more information on branding your business we are ready to help you on: 03 8562 2239 or admin@crimsonfox.com.au

Have you ever wanted to get your message out to a large portion of your customers all at once?

Email, has to one of the fastest and most cost effective ways to do this.

But finding the right system for Branding your emails can be a tricky business.

Quality Content = Quality Customers

Sending an email full of useful and interesting content can be one of the greatest ways to keep in touch with the people you’re aiming to serve.

Spamming a potential client with pushy sales jargon can be one of the best ways to scare them off.

So keep your emails friendly, interesting and full of products that will help customers rather than waste their money.

A quality email will help you grow your customer list, through word of mouth and ‘refer a friend’ options, which are common in many email systems today.

When looking for a system to send bulk emails to customers it pays to make sure you are using an email system that makes unsubscribing easy.

Giving customers a choice

A reader must always feel that they are in control of the email process or they begin to feel trapped or tricked into receiving your publication.

If that ever happens, your emails will quickly find their way into the nearest junk folder.

So, an unsubscribe button on your email will allow your reader the choice of continuing to receive your newsletter of whether it’s just not right for them.

Allowing people the freedom to choose in this situation will enable you to create the best list of potential customer possible. Customers who want to hear from you.

Other considerations are ease of use and an ability to manage your subscriber lists.

Easy to use email campaigns

If you find an email system hard to use, you simply won’t use it. Which, of course, will stall any email marketing momentum that you’ve begun.

Many email campaign managers come with ready to use template systems now, which make creating a quality, professional looking presentation far easier than it has ever been before.

Manage subscriber lists for targeted marketing

The ability to quickly and easily manage subscriber lists will speed up any management of an email marketing campaign, while enabling you to divide customer lists into relevant subdivisions.

Dividing customers into more targeted groups will enable you to send more relevant information, rather than a generic message.

Finding the right email system for your business is not always easy but considering that the majority of people on this earth are using email on a daily basis, you’d have to admit that marketing via email is a solid choice for cost effective customer communication.

If you’d like to see what email campaign manager we provide our clients click email marketing campaign manager for more information.

Lately, I’ve had many small business owners asking me what they should consider when branding their business and products.

As we know, branding is more than just a logo or business cards.

It’s all the little details of business life that contribute to how the public, your customers and even your staff, see, interact with, and talk about your business.

So I’ve put together a list of the various areas of your business that require branding attention.

The checklist recommends that you tick off each area once you decide a direction and then when you put your decisions into action.

Click this link to download the Branding Checklist.

I’d just like to wish all the readers a Very Happy, Safe and Successful New Year.

It looks like many businesses will be hitting some more tough times over the next year, but if you can hang in there and continue to drive sales you have an opportunity to reach even greater heights in 2009.

I’m certainly looking forward to the challenge and will be aiming to make 2009 our best year yet.

Branding your business is more than just a logo or a corporate image.

Everything your business does equates to it’s overall personality.

We can externally project an image to the buying public. But keep in mind that everything we say, promote or advertise about our business becomes a promise with our customers.

If we don’t keep those promises when interacting with these customers, before, during and after sales, that image becomes tainted and our brand takes on a life of it’s own.

You can read my article on branding your business externally vs internally here.

Feel free to lave a comment regarding your thoughts on the topic.

Over the last few years, the Console and PC Gaming industry has become big business.

With PC gaming alone, making over $10.7 Billion in revenue for 2007.

While those playing Computer Games on a regular basis have been watching this trend rise for some time, the world at large is starting to pay attention with Brand names such as Grand Theft Auto, Halo and World of Warcraft hitting prime time news this year.

With the increase in revenue, there has been an increase in spending in the marketing space.

Companies such as Blizzard (World of Warcraft) has been spending time and money on amazing trailers and pre-promotion for some time - but with their success (over 9.3 million payed subscribers last year), other game creators are starting to see the light.

The up coming ‘Rock Band 2″ is one such example. A game intro and promotion definitely worth watching (Not your average commercial).

The Computer Game industry is starting to take it’s strides up along side the Movie industry in revenue and the audience is growing so it’s certainly worth keeping your eyes on.

You can view the Rock Band intro here.

I’d love to read your thoughts about the trailer or your impressions of the gaming industry as it is today and in the future, so feel free to leave a comment.

Here’s a cute little video that helps to remind us that doing everything on our own can often feel like bashing your head against a brick wall.

Don’t forget to ask for or employ help to get the job done much faster.

You can check out the great little video at youtube.com.

Business cards are a great way for clients and customers to receive your contact details, as they usually accompany a face to face meeting.

Unfortunately, because everybody has a business card, it can be hard to stand out in the crowd.

So having a business card that grabs people’s attention and makes an impact is one of the most useful marketing tools you can have at your disposal.

Check out this list of creative and inspirational business cards over at Toxel.com.

How does your business card stand up against the competition?

Designers and their clients often have trouble seeing eye to eye.

Why is that?

Because designers are pretentious, elitist, know it alls?  Well some are…but no.

Is it because business people are paying, so what they says goes…again, somtimes - but mostly, this is not the case.

The problem is that both parties are looking at the problem from different points of view.

So what is the solution?

The solution needs to come from the designers side. When explaining design decisions, a graphic or web designer needs to put on their business hat and see the project through the eyes of their client.

If you are a designer, you need to explain your design decisions from a practical stand point.

“I did it that way because it looks good” - isn’t a good answer.

‘I designed it that way, because the style I’m using is currently reflected in our target markets popular culture (state examples). Your potential customers will be drawn to this style because of these examples, which should help increase sales” - this is an answer that a client can understand.

When you are designing, make sure to always have client problems and objectives in mind, so that when asked you can explain your design choices in a way that means something to their business.

If you’re employing a designer and the same issues crop up, make sure to take a deep breathe and ask the question - how is that going to help my business.

It will save both designers and clients a lot of time and frustration, while giving design work more potential to do what it was intended for.

You’ll appreciate how it will lead to a happy working relationship going forward.

So remember, two hats. One for your design flare and one for your business brain.