Brand identity is a big word for your logo. People can get obsessed with their logos but many people are looking for a steal. A great logo will last the company decades and become iconic. A bad one will become wallpaper. The following article clarifies what not to do with your logo. I applaud this article for making it so simple to say yes to good design without being snobbish about it. I cringe when I see these mistakes in practice but hope that the democratization of design will result in more lil' guys getting design (not decoration) to work hard for them.
http://tinyurl.com/logomistakes
Friday, June 26, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The end is near marketing journalism...
There is some truth in the article below about what medium owns the big idea and the battle between the agencies,etc. This is one of many articles out there right now that preach the end is near for marketing and marketing departments. The end is near for a few things: big budgets, agency turf wars, and petulant creatives. Their time was up anyways.
There are more opportunities in this down economy than these types of articles allow you to think. There is the opportunity to ditch your overpaid big agency for a small integrated shop that is used to hustling and delivering to clients on time and on budget. There is the opportunity to reach out to your consumers and shoppers in more organic ways that cost less. Also, teamwork is very frugal, the more your team is working together the more you are saving. If you think about it, when is the last time the marketing guys sat down with the money guys and worked through their product portfolio to understand the success of each product? Remember that simple exercise from college with the four quadrants of a product life cycle? Yep, dust it off and analyze how your products match up. I think that a back to basics approach for some of these CMO is in order. You would be surprised by what you find.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Top 11 Twitter Tools and Twitter Best Practices - Brandhackers Presentation
This presentation is a wonderful introduction to Twitter and how to use it from a business perspective. You have to think of Twitter as an active medium to engage consistently. It is not a place to push out a message only. Think a daily:"Time to make the donuts." Instead, you can search, engage, and participate with the on-going conversation on topics of your choice. It may not be right for every business but there are ways to use it that make sense. Stay true to your marketing mission and the usage will become clear.
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Tough times. What is a marketer to do?
Times are tough for every person with a product to sell and a profit to make. Times are tough for every consumer out there making hard choices about their dollars. How do you, the marketer, win the consumer over and get their hard earned dollar? This is the new alchemy, the traditional search for remedies to create gold. The million dollar question. Marketers wrestle with this daily. Agencies are trying to figure out how to profit from this. The consumer is trying to scrimp and survive. Where is the middle ground? In this immediate moment, I believe the answer is in relevance or what my marketing professor called salience. I like the term relevance because it is easier to understand for the everyday person. Essentially, I define relevance as "Why is this important to me?" it helps differentiate items for the consumer. Items meaning brands. When consumers have locked down their spending, relevance will help them spend just a little where it is important to them.
An example of a relevant campaign right now, is Boarshead "Take back lunch" campaign which promotes brown bagging lunch and making sure your families are eating well at lunch. Simple idea. Contrary to their past campaigns which featured exploding turkey deli meats and other gross items in a comical fashion. This brings them to the same wholesome food place but with the soccer mom as the focus. The matriach revisited. The mom is in charge and trying to make sure her family is eating well and on budget. Times are tough. Lunch is an easy place to save money. This campaign is a natural fit for Boarshead. I think it does a great job of bringing the brand into the modern era of lunch. Why is lunch important to me the consumer? Well, I need to eat everyday. And now there is a smarter way for me to have a good lunch. Eureka!
I would say this is a great simple strategy. I googled it. Yikes, the hate that bored bloggers had for it surprised me. Who do you believe? I think the backlash means that the campaign is on target. Angry bloggers who think they are going to have to start eating better, obviously their wifes are setting their sights on it.
What advice can one glean from this blog entry or lesson on relevance? Well, captain obvious, relevance is important. Find out what is relevant to your target audience. Use the modern times as a backdrop. Think about how your product can be important or take your consumer to the next level. Finally, turn down the haters that are outside your target audience. Yes, bloggers, I called us haters. We rant and write. Maybe we are right. But your target audience life experience holds the true answer.
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