Posts tagged as:

branding online

Even The Playboy is Expanding His Brand

by Tinu on October 6, 2009
Quote from a Hugh Hefner interview on ABCNews Online
In an interview on with ABCNews.com’s Buck Wolf, Playboy’s Hugh Hefner had some interesting thoughts to share about how the Playboy brand has changed.

From the interview as reprinted on AOL.com:

BW: Playboy has diversified. But does it bother you that some segment of your under-30 crowd is not that aware of the magazine? They think of Playboy as cable TV programming, or a Web site, or a mansion where really cool celebrities hang out.

HH: Actually, just the opposite is true. The fact that Playboy expanded into other forms is everything I hoped for. It’s no longer limited to a magazine, and that, of course, didn’t happen by accident.

With the success of the magazine, instead of expanding into other magazines, we expanded into different extensions of the brand. We were the first magazine to use TV, the first to use a Web site. These are all variations of the brand, and it keeps the brand relevant.

What’s so interesting about that last paragraph is that you can see what visionary thinking does for companies that become wildly successful. Whether you’re a Playboy fan or not, you very likely know exactly what Playboy is. Expanding from the magazine into other areas doesn’t hurt the brand – rather it expands it to new audiences, and as Hugh himself said “keeps the brand relevant”.

If you’re still using traditional forms of media exposure, how relevant is your brand?
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Permalink At 80, Hugh Hefner Is Still a Hopping Playboy
. Bunny Trail Never Ends for Maverick Publisher

Is Your Blog Consistent with Your Brand?

by Tinu on June 13, 2009
Seven questions to ask before your choose your blog platform.
In this age where the bype of business blogging is plateauing, and people are starting to realize that blogging has real, permanent benefits, it’s time to ask yourself one of two questions. 

  • Does my planned blogging vision suit my company?, or,
  • Is my current blog strategy both cost-effective and brand-effective?

So here are seven quesitons to ask yourself.

  1. Does my blog have a style consistent with the rest of my site?If most of your site is professional and your blog looks like a third-grader put it up, it won’t be taken seriously.
  2. Can my blog get wide exposure?One blog with one feed won’t do it unless you were already at the top of your industry when you started.
  3. If my blog gets popular, will I be affected by outages as my traffic increases?On some systems, it won’t even take a traffic increase for your blog to be offline for half a day. Not. Professional.
  4. Will my blog give me a break?If you wanted to go on a six week vacation could you go without leaving someone to mind your blog? Would your audience be there when you got back?
  5. Is your blog search-friendly?Some blogs can help solve your SEO problem. Some won’t help you no mater what you do to them. One can keep you consistently ranked if you know how to configure it, as long as you keep content in it. (Call us and we’ll tell you which one. No charge, honest).
  6. Your blog message and your site message – are they congruent?As important as your logo is what your site “says” at a glance. This means just as much when it comes to your blog.
  7. Who is going to buy this cow?You don’t want to give the milk away by the gallon. You just want to give free taste samples. So it’s not just about what you’re blogging with, the blog topic, or your blog template. It’s about learning the finer points of blogging, in a way that is specific to your company and brand as possible.

Your blog has got to match or enhance your brand, in appearance, message, utility and reach. A blog that brings your brand down is worse than no blog at all.