You may have seen the latest branding faux pas in the headlines the past several days. You know. The clothier who pulled a Tropicana – now a buzz phrase for brand design flops. Since Gap revealed its new logo on October 4, the new mark designed by Trey Laird and his team at Laird and Partners has created quite a stir among brand loyalists and designers.
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Gap’s Short-Lived Logo Revamp
Tags: Branding, creative thinking, Design, identity, strategic 6 Comments
Authenticity – It matters now more than ever
Authenticity isn’t a new term in marketing. Communicating authentically with your audience has always been important. Customers are savvy people, and sooner or later they uncover when companies are pretending to be something they aren’t.
With the explosion of social media, authenticity has become even more crucial. The perceived personal connection established through social media is very different from the somewhat faceless, one-way communication of traditional media. The personal, direct format of social media comes with the expectation of an honest, sincere exchange. read more
Tags: Social Media No Comments »
Using Social Media to Create Transparent, Accessible Government
The Governor of Rhode Island, Don Carcieri, and his staff spent $2,670.30 on cell phone charges last quarter. How do I know? He told me right on his website. Visit www.RI.gov, the website of the Rhode Island state government, and you’ll see a brave use of social media to create remarkable transparency and access. Here’s a taste. read more
Tags: Social Media No Comments »
Mining for Content – Internally
Let’s face it – feeding valuable content on an ongoing basis to your website, blog and other social media outlets can be a challenge. But there’s a resource at your fingertips you may not have considered. In working with clients, we find that marketing teams can be unaware of useful content generated and stored in other parts of their organization. Sales presentations, training programs, internal communications videos and other valuable content can be modified and reused to get more return on your investment. Here’s how to start mining: read more
Selling Fear
What are you afraid of? Losing your job? Becoming insignificant? Facing something you’ve never done before? Falling out of (or in) love? Threats to your family’s safety? Becoming old and alone?
Read that paragraph again. Most of us have a strong emotional reaction to those threats. That reaction causes physical changes. Our pupils dilate a fraction of a millimeter. Our heart rate quickens. Blood flow increases.
You know what that means? We’re engaged. We’re paying attention.
As marketers, that’s exactly what we want from our targets. read more
Tags: Advertising, Marketing 1 Comment
Social Media – Shows You the Money
Social media continues to be the quintessential hot topic that has people buzzing. Facebook and Twitter are household names and are often considered the primary online channels for businesses to reach consumers from a branding and marketing perspective. However, some companies are still cautious about entering this dynamic digital forum because it’s not directly answering that age-old question, “How can social media increase my company’s revenue?” read more
Tags: Social Media No Comments »
The Little Things
When I walk through stores, eat at restaurants, or shop online, I notice the little things which influence me positively or negatively. Businesses make substantial investments to build their brands, but far too often the brand message doesn’t make it to the front line.
The Buzz About Buzz Marketing
At the end of a recent seminar, I was asked to define “buzz marketing.” I believe my response was something to the effect, “It’s viral marketing. It’s getting people to talk about your product or service. Buzz marketing is creating buzz.” I thought my definition helped to answer the question at the time, but when I got home that night, the question lingered and I thought, “How do other marketing professionals define buzz?” So I went to my bookshelf and pulled out one of my old MBA consumer behavior books and looked it up.
The best definition I found was from professors Del Hawkins of the University of Oregon and David Mothersbaugh from the University of Alabama. They defined buzz as “the exponential expansion of word-of-mouth” communication. Buzz is the result of specific marketing activities that creates conversation, excitement, and anticipation around a brand, service or product. It’s “Hey, did you hear…? Hey, did you see…? Hey, did you buy…?” Buzz can be positive or negative. Of course, the goal of marketers is to create positive buzz surrounding their brand. read more
Colleges and Universities Must Compete and Win on Brand Strength
Colleges and universities today find themselves in a hyper-aggressive competition to attract and retain students. Adult learners and traditional students see themselves as “buyers” of a higher-education product. They have different demands, different expectations. They want colleges and universities to serve their individual needs in curriculum, degree offerings, facilities and extracurricular activities.
To compete and win, colleges and universities must embrace a business mindset. They must focus on building world-class brands that speak to targeted students in a meaningful, relevant way. They must address three fundamental challenges—and opportunities—in developing their brands: read more
Tags: Brand, Higher Education, Marketing 2 Comments
The Social Overlay takes integrated communications to new level
Many of us follow certain planning models or methodologies when developing our integrated communications programs and campaigns.
The fundamentals of best-practice strategic planning remain constant. But how we construct and choreograph our communications effort is changing.
Our programs today must drive a bi-directional conversation. We know that creating engagement and collaboration with your prospects and customers via social marketing is key to sales and retention success. read more