Category: Brand Strategy

Why Branding is so Important

Your brand is the core of your business.

Company Branding

As I have written in some of my other posts, maintaining brand consistency extremely important to customer relationship management, marketing, product development, advertising, company relationship with employees,and basically every facet of your company.

This article by Ben Erickson is a perfect breakdown of why maintaining your brand should always be at the top of your list. He does a great job of explaining how branding is important to your customers, differs by business size, and the team you will need to maintain it all. I highly recommend checking out his post What is Business Branding?

Image: KROMKRATHOG / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

9 Steps to Creating a Personal Brand Strategy

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Check out this great infographic below on 9 ways to create your personal branding strategy.

You can’t just create a LinkedIn profile and hope for the best, a lot of thought and work goes into creating and maintaining a personal brand. When creating your personal brand strategy, you need to determine who you are versus how you want to be perceived, or more who you want to become. Changing that party image to one of professionalism and experience. A few tips are:

  • Define who you are
  • Set specific goals
  • Be original, don’t just be your job title
  • Connect with those in your industry, create a network
  • Start conversations and monitor your online personal brand

9 Steps to creating your personal brand strategy infographic

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How Colors Affect Purchases

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Does color affect a customers’ purchase experience? Will it increase the chances that a customer will by your product?

The answer to both of these questions is YES! Color is one of the most important factors that a customer considers when making a purchase, both consciously and unconsciously. Check out the infographic below on how colors affect purchases.

Here my 3 favorite facts:

  • 85% of customers say that color is one of the primary factors that they consider when choosing to buy a product.
  • Color can increase brand recognition by 80%.
  • Colors can even entice the right “type” of customers. Using orange in your ad will entice impulse shoppers, so use shades of orange for big sales. Budget focused shoppers respond best to navy blue and teal.

Also, check out below what emotions your brand’s colors invoke when your customers see your logo or product. The infographic also breaks down how time, overall design, and words can impact purchase decisions.

In the comments below let me know what you think of the infographic and/or if color has ever swayed your decision to make a purchase.

How do colors affect purchases

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Top 5 Tech Trends from SXSWi 2012

There are a lot of blogs out there right now about SXSW Interactive 2012, but this is one of my favorites. It gets straight to the point and breaks down the 5 tech trends that were getting the most buzz:

  1. Path – Personal social journals. Not sure if I want to know more about people than I already do through Facebook. Do you have a personal social journal?
  2. Social Discovery Tools – GPS enabled apps
  3. Mobile Payments – I haven’t tried Mobile payments yet, but I can definitely see using them in the future.
  4. Interface is King – Connecting design themes across platforms
  5. Beautifying the Web – Photo Sharing
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10 Ways To Generate Trust With Your Landing Page Copy

Via Scoop.it – Being Your Brand

Demian Farnworth of The Copybot describes ten ways to generate trust with your landing page copy.

10 Steps To Creating Great Copy

  1. Match Ad Copy with Landing Page Headlines
  2. Write Seductive Headlines
  3. Create Compelling Landing Page Copy
  4. Display Impressive Numbers
  5. Supply Endorsements
  6. Highlight 3rd Party Certification – are you an accredited business? If so, flaunt it!
  7. Display Press Mentions
  8. Don’t Skimp on Design – if your design looks cheap, it doesn’t matter how great your content is because no one will stay on your site long enough to read it
  9. Tone Down Those Terms and Conditions
  10. Testimonials – Customers trust other customers more than they will trust what your company says

Check out the whole article to find out more about the 10 ways use content to build relationships with your customers.

Via blog.crazyegg.com

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Hunger Games Social Media Strategy Breakdown

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The promotion of the upcoming Hunger Games movie is a great example of a multidimensional online campaign incorporating an interactive website and social media. Fans are not located on just one social media platform, so it is important to develop a multi-platform strategy. The strategy should also include ways to drive traffic across platforms and ultimately to the main website. The online promotion of the Hunger Games movie has successfully integrated multiple platforms, driven traffic across platforms and to the website, built a community, and created an on-going conversation about the movie. Below is a breakdown of the four social media platforms incorporated, how each was used, and how they connect to each other.

Facebook

A Facebook page has been created for each of the 12 fictional districts of Panem. Each page includes the following:

  • Information on the tributes selected from each district
  • Possible opening ceremony costume designs for the tributes
  • Information on the district

Check out the District 12 Facebook page here!

Tumbler

An online Capitol fashion and culture magazine was created using the social media platform Tumblr. The online magazine is called Capitol Couture and is meant to be a realistic representation of what a Capitol fashion and culture magazine would be. It includes pictures of the extravagant shoes, clothes, and hairstyles that would be all the rage in the Capitol. Hunger Games Tumblr Capitol CoutureArticles about different characters such as Effie Trinket, Cinna, and President Snow, as well as articles predicting what the tributes will be wearing in the opening ceremony cover the pages of the site. The writing has both a superficial and light-hearted tone, just as you would expect from a fashion news source in the Capitol of Panem. As expected, all the articles are pro-Capitol and make sure to portray life in the Capitol as fabulous. All the authors write as if they are actual Capitol citizens, and as if the games have not yet happened. There are even articles on how to throw a “capitol style” party to watch the opening ceremony. The content writing is perfect at creating a realistic world. This is exactly what one would expect to find Katniss’ prep team, Octavia, Venia, and Flavius, to be reading as they wait for the tributes to arrive in the Capitol. As this is a multidimensional social media strategy, the Capitol.PN Twitter feed has been incorporated into the page to drive cross platform traffic.

Twitter

Twitter campaign is probably the most complex component of the social media strategy. Twelve Twitter users have been assigned as the twelve district recruiters and tweet daily about Hunger Game topics and news. Twitter fans can follow each of the twelve district representatives, as well as the main District Discussion RatesCapitol account @TheCapitolPN.

The list of district representatives can be found here.

Hashtags have also been assigned to help fans follow the Hunger Games on twitter:

  • #District1PN (corresponding hashtags for each district)
  • #HungerGames12
  • #HungerGames24 (Tweets including this hashtag are displayed in a “Panem Citizens Discussion” feed on the Capitol.PN Network website)
  • #LookYourBest

Twitter followers can also check out the Capitol.PN Network website to see a chart depicting the current discussion rate of each district. The discussion rate is based on the usage of each districts’ hashtag (example: #District12PN). I think that this strategy is more complex than that of the other platforms because there are 13 Twitter handles and multiple hashtags to monitor, in addition to it being a 24/7 real time feed.

YouTube

There are two official YouTube Sub-Channels for the Hunger Games: Capitol TV Productions and the District Citizens Reel. Capitol TV Productions includes all the official videos of the movie, including the official trailers and scenes. The page even states, “These videos have been officHunger Games YouTube Channel CapitolTVially sanctioned by the Capitol for the consumption of District citizens”. The District Citizens Reel includes only user-created videos that are related to the Hunger Games and include the tag “CapitolTV”. The District Citizens Reel gives the illusion that the videos were created and uploaded by the citizens in the twelve districts of Panem. They have created a great balance between the Official/Propaganda tone of the Capitol channel and the authenticity of the Districts channel. Each channel also connects users to the each of the twelve district Facebook pages and the Capitol.pn Network website. Keeping with the basic purpose of social media, to create a conversation, a question is included below the videos for users to comment on. I really like the idea of posing a question instead of just asking for comments. Sometimes it is difficult to decide what to include in a comment, but a question opens up the conversation.

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Hunger Games Website Strategy

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Like many others, I have read and fallen in love with the Hunger Games trilogy. Upon finishing the last book, and with the knowledge of the upcoming movie, I decided to check out the movie’s website to watch the trailer. As I dug deeper, I found much more than just a website full of information about a movie. I found a multidimensional online campaign incorporating an interactive website and social media. The Hunger Games online marketing campaign has not only promoted the movie; it has created a world in which it feels like the country of Panem actually exists. In this post, I want to break down the official Hunger Games websites that serve as the core of their online marketing strategy.

Hunger Games Website Design & Strategy

As with other movies, a general Hunger Games movie website was created that features the movie trailer, photos, posts, countdown, and more.

http://www.thehungergamesmovie.com

Digging deeper into the site, I noticed that they had created an online world around the idea of a real country called Panem. A separate site connected to the main Hunger Games movie website called the Capitol.PN network was created.

http://thecapitol.pn

Hunger Games Capitol Network Site

Upon entering the Capitol Network Hunger Games website, I noticed that I did not recognize the top-level domain. My first thought was “what in the world is .pn?” After doing a quick Google search, I discovered the top-level domain.pn stands for the Pitcairn Islands. This domain is only used in a hand full of other URLs, including ESPN and Groupon.

So why was this uncommon domain picked? It actually seems like a VERY smart choice. They are creating a world in which it seems that this website is the official website of the Hunger Games (not the book but the actual games) created by the Capitol of Panem. This may seem like a very miniscule change, but this was actually a highly significant decision because the URL is on all promotional materials, both online and offline.

Upon entering the Capital.PN Network, users must register as citizens of Panem. Registration can be completed by using your Facebook or Twitter account. After registering, each “citizen” is assigned to a district (this will be pivotal to the social media strategy).

Sections within the Capitol Network site include

  • Opening Ceremonies – This section includes information on how to watch the live broadcast of the red carpet premier.
  • Reserve seats – Where you can purchase tickets to the movie.
  • District Tributes– where you can view the profile of each tribute along, which includes specific QR code for more information. This information would be beneficial in Panem for betting purposes. A live feed of Capitol updates is also located in this section.
  • Capitol TV – This section features only the official trailers for the movie, or in relation to the book, these are the Capitol sanctioned videos.

Here is the Citizen of Panem ID card I was issued during registration:

It is the small details make this online marketing strategy that make it intriguing. For Example:

  • On the Reserve Seats page, there are several mentions  “Attendance is Mandatory”
  • The Capitol Updates feed on the District Tributes page makes sure to mention “Your Trusted Source for News”
  • The Capitol TV page refers to the trailers as Official Capitol TV Productions.

Though small, each of these things helps to create a more real and concrete world.

Both the design and layout of the site do an exceptionally good job of portraying the culture and control of the Capitol. Almost the entire site is designed using shades of gray, which may represent the cold control the Capitol holds over the districts. The only other color included in the design is gold, which may represent the power and importance of the Capitol. The style of the layout is highly formal and technical; it reminds me of what I imagine a website that a secret organization used would look like. I think that the design and layout of the Capitol.PN Network site does a perfect job of portraying the control and unemotional rule of the Capitol over the fictional country of Panem.

Check out my other post just about the use of social media for the promotion of the Hunger Games movie. I breakdown how using multiple platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube) helped to drive site traffic, build a community around the movie, and sustain a conversation. Hunger Games Social Media Strategy Breakdown

What do you think of the Hunger Games website?

Check out my other  information on website strategy and design:

Predicting Social Media Outcomes

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There are a lot of unknowns in social media, because it is frequently changing and we are still in the learning phase. When you start using social media, it is important to have realistic expectations regarding how much time is necessary to manage it and what the outcome will be. Nick Martin wrote a great blog on “Predicting Social Media Outcomes”.

Here is little snippit, but check out the full posting to find out more about the what to consider before you start using social media, to ensure it is a success.

  • Understanding your audience
  • Understanding your brand
  • Content
  • Context
  • SEO
  • Influencer engagement
  • Resources
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Top 10 Favorite Takeaways from SXSWi

This week, my twitter feed was full of quotes from SXSWi. I was not able to attend the conference myself, but agencies from all over the country have been tweeting and blogging about their experience there, so… I thought I would share some of my favorite takeaways that they have shared.

Agencies

  • Moosylvania – an independent full-service agency in St. Louis.
  • 4orce – a digital agency in St. Louis
  • Big Fuel – a social media and branded content company in New York

Top 10 SXSWi Takeaways

  1. Look forward to scary awesome targeting of ads – Moosylvania
  2. It’s becoming even more vital that brands focus on additional value and continued relationships with their customers. It’s all about the experience, and the ways a brand engages on an emotional level. – Moosylvania
  3. Social media ROI discussion haven’t evolved. Ever. Your social ROI comes down to determining which KPIs are important to your brand and what you need to measure to determine success, there isn’t a magic bullet ROI formula that works for all brands. – Moosylvania
  4. Agencies must migrate away from vertical hierarchy to horizontal hierarchy… Resist large teams at all cost. – 4orce
  5. ROI metrics are to validate not to justify social media spend. 4orce
  6. Lots of debate and confusion regarding social media ROI. Bottom line: we should measure results against upfront benchmarks. 4orce
  7. So your brand is sharing content, but is it also capturing content? Makes it less promotional & more authentic – Big Fuel
  8. Think of your brand as a host to a conversation. Morph and change with it. – Moosylvania
  9. Providing value on an ongoing basis creates relationships. Be authentic, be relevant, but don’t be creepy. – Big Fuel
  10. Products are the new marketing. We’re seeing a shift in leading-edge agencies understanding that to succeed they need to be creating digital products that benefit consumers, clients, and the agency, not selling services. Brands are starting realize this too. – Moosylvania

What have been some of your favorite blogs or quotes from SXSWi?

Social Media Content Strategy: 3 Tips To Make Your Tone Less Brand-Centric

Takeaways

This is a great blog on how to perfect your tone when writing content for social media. Social media isn’t about sounding like a brand or company, it is about making a personal connection with your customers. Don’t try to sell your customers constantly through social media. Your customers are not following you on social media to find out every single detail about your product, they can do that on your website. They follow you to connect and build a relationships with the brand. Check out the article for more tips! Social Media Content Strategy: 3 Tips To Make Your Tone Less Brand-Centric