Branding

I'm attracted to pithy, so-right-it-sings taglines. The kind that sum up the brand position in a way that makes me, the consumer, feel understood. The brand gets why I buy; the product was made for me. Take this tagline from Pepperidge Farm ( I was parked. I swear). It says "Good is in the details." While some of you may think there's nothing original about this particular phrasing, I think it's quite remarkable in its simplicity. It harkens back to hand-crafted foods lovingly prepared with attention...

This is a guest post contributed by Princess Jones, owner of P.S. Jones Communications. The story of your brand is a love story. It starts with a spark and you flirt with the idea of making into something more permanent. As the  relationship develops, you learn more about what works for your brand and what doesn’t. In the end, you and your brand become tied together in something that resembles a flourishing marriage. But as with every marriage, it takes continuous work to build and maintain...

Trust. Now there's a word we marketers drop like bright shiny pennies from a well-worn coin purse with a faulty closure. We say it's important, a vital part of our sales and marketing strategies. Builds a strong brand. Gain the customer's trust and we'll hold onto them with a ferocity that makes Velcro look like your weak-armed, pasty-faced cousin from Omaha. When customer trust is violated, when it's threatened or compromised through purposeful intent or inadvertent oversight, the damage to the brand...

Are you one of the cool kids with a custom short URL? I've used a particular free short URL service for awhile. It serves all my needs, from enabling multiple links for a single web page (to track reach in different sources) to respectable analytics. I recently applied for their pro-level service and was tickled to receive acceptance last week. I wanted to experience the custom short URL feature set for myself so that I might be able to advise clients about it.Set-up instructions were short, and to me that...

When you’re trying to build your company’s brand, one clear focal point is the marketplace and another is the target consumer.  An often overlooked (or under considered) leg of the stool is your work force, and subsequently, everyone those people know. Internal branding. Do your plans for steadily building a sustainable brand place enough weight on those internal audiences so crucial to your success? One of my favorite quotes related to branding is from Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com. ...

You may be familiar with the customer decision journey, if only how the idea relates to your own process of  hunting, gathering, weighing and measuring.  There have been some really interesting posts over the past 6-12 months discussing the evolution of the traditional sales funnel into a new framework that reflects information accessibility, technology ubiquity, and the manner in which our culture has rapidly shifted to actively seek and consume bits of media through myriad of channels.  Facing...

Brand development is an important part of building a business, and often relegated to a few perfunctory tactics.  Have you stopped to consider the overall image your brand projects, and effect that image has on the aggregate long term? If you're with a start-up, chances are you've had your head down in financial projections and your back end seated in chairs at the bank and the accountant's.  Your ideas are gelling and long-laid plans are emerging into a reality.  Along the way, you may have...

Is customer service a function of the sales department?  Is service delivery under the umbrella of brand?  Who's job is customer service, anyway?  Is there more to it than product returns and delivery problems?  Does the web complicate matters? More chances to serve customers in the information revolution Wikipedia defines customer service as follows: The provision of service before, during and after a purchase. Takeaways:  One - Customers are gathering intel about your brand before you even...

I had a moment of inspiration earlier this week which led me to whip up this rudimentary visual to help express my thoughts.  As a marketer, I'm continually absorbing messages and methods deployed by other companies, competitors and service providers alike.  I stop to consider their objectives, assess the efficacy of their content, reflect on the appropriateness of their use of the medium and whether the channel delivered.  There's some assuming of roles there, but it helps make sure I'm aware...

No, I'm not making this up.  This pic has not been PhotoShopped within an inch of it's life. It's the real deal, I promise. That's right, folks.  There's actually a health/beauty aid product called [drumroll, please] "Anti-Monkey Butt Powder." And they just extended the product line to include a Ladies variety, replete with - you guessed it - a female monkey sporting a pink hair ribbon. How do you start to bring this - or any CPG product, let's say - to market?  Let's assume all the requisite...