Leveraged Promotion » ebranding

Interesting Article on Branding

Tinu — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:09:16 +0000

Guy Kawasaki tells us about “The Art of Branding”

I found this once through MSNBC’s Clicked, and realized that I didn’t get a chance to re-share it. It’s from Let the Good Times Roll by Guy Kawasaki called the Art of Branding.

In it he says:

“Focus on PR, not advertising. Many companies waste away millions of dollars trying to establish brands with advertising. When it comes to branding, too much money is worse than too little because when you have a lot of money, you spend a lot of money on stupid things like Super Bowl commercials. Brands are built on what people are saying about you, not what you’re saying about yourself. People say good things about you when (a) you have a great product and (b) you get people to spread the word about it.”

(Emphasis Mine.)

While I don’t necessarily think a Super Bowl Ad is a bad purchase (ask Bob Parsons), I agree wholeheartedly that you can’t buy a brand… or else every company with the moolah would have a successful one.

It fits so smoothly into the mission of a blog as well. Definitely worth a read.


	Link to Main Page of Guy’s Blog

	http://blog.guykawasaki.com/

	Drag this link into your reader to subscribe to Guy Kawasaki’s Blog

Even The Playboy is Expanding His Brand

Tinu — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:42:22 +0000

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?


	At 80, Hugh Hefner Is Still a Hopping Playboy
	Bunny Trail Never Ends for Maverick Publisher

Online Branding Resources

Tinu — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:42:29 +0000

Links to a few sites where you can read more about online branding

Our coverage of ebranding is meant to be a collection of specific online branding tactics as they related to website promotion.

Here are some additional resources online for in-depth study:

BrandingBlog.com Dave Young talks about branding and points to resources in other blogs (see his siebar).
Corante’s BrandShiftGroup blog reminiscent of a magazine style, compelte with an editor. Discusses “the evolution of branding”.
Small Business Marketing and Branding Yaro Starak, who also runs Entrepreneur’s Journey, blogs about “how to build a small business brand in the digital age”.

ebranding Techniques :: Is there too much Branding Hype?

Tinu — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:42:34 +0000

Fast company article takes a candid look at the amount of brand literature available offline today.

In a recent article called “Obessive Branding Disorder“, Lucas Conley writes about the common sense approach to branding, and speculates that there may be a bit too much chatter about branding and not enough actual common sense implementation.

“Smaller companies aren’t the only ones delivering high-quality products at good value that people love. Disney and Apple spend millions telling people who they are, but why? They’re strong brands because they offer distinct products and services. And they’ve done so for decades. When Disney and Apple have struggled, the root cause has always been that their products weren’t as good, service slipped, or they weren’t living up to customer expectations. Diverting attention away from business problems by calling any of it by a new name wasn’t going to fix it.

Remove the hype, and branding is just commonsense strategy, rebranded. To successfully build a brand, says INSEAD marketing professor Amitava Chattopadhyay, "is to communicate your key value proposition to the key customer segment, and do so in an integrated and consistent way." In other words, Business 101.”

While that message rings quite true, it seems that branding has not hit home the same way for entreprenuers and small to medium businesses as it has with large corporations. In bigger organizations the company identity is established long before the hip, young execs hit the door, where in smaller companies, the idea is being molded as the company grows and changes, often from a one-man entrepreneurial shop to a company with 25 – 2500 employees.

So just as in the self-improvement industry, which the author alludes to later in the article, the need exists to out-source the R & D on branding. And as long as that perceived need exists, common sense though it may be, people will reference those who have built their brands on business-know how in general, like Fast company, or those who have built brands specifically on the knowledge of branding, for answers.

Tinu Abayomi-Paul


	Fast Company :: Obsessive Branding DIsorder
	The simplest branding advice from an article that says there’s too many branding books being written.
	http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/99/open_essay.html?partner=rss

	Ask Us How the Right Blogging Choices Help Shape Your Brand
	One type of blog makes the statement “I’m only looking for search engine results, and my potential clients are an afterthought”. Another type of blog says “We’re the professionals who will provide the best solution”. No blog at all says “We’re behind the times.” What does yours say? Ask us how we can help you tweak your message – or create a new one.

eBranding Techniques :: Bob Baker on Branding

Tinu — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:42:44 +0000

Superb branding article I discovered through our briefing channels.

Bob Baker, author of Branding Yourself Online, has an excellent article posted to his site, entitled “9 Ways to Create a Rock-Solid Brand Identity Online“.

He leads in with a short summary of effective branding:

Effective branding is all about telling customers who you are, what you do and how you do it. Despite a sluggish economy and uncertainty throughout the world, more people are spending time and money online than ever before. That’s why it’s vitally important for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs alike to use the Internet to make an impact.

The strongest point he makes later in the article is bullet number four, in which he states ” Develop a fan-club mentality.”

That seems like it would not apply to an online brand, or only to consumer-focused items at first. However, with a little extra thought, you can probably remember purchases in your business and personal life that you made due to an emotional connection and later justified with logic.

Taking that strategy a little further leads right into the fan mentality.

It’s human nature. We buy books on self-advancement, for example, spending hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars a year improving ourselves or our businesses. And why do we want to go to their conferences, buy all of the author’s books, follow their “work”?

Because we’re fans.

And yet, we don’t think of them as a business, we think of them as people who fill the need for an area of our business, or a want for improvement, better than anyone else.

So why can’t we create fans in our businesses? Better yet, how can we?

We’ll revisit this question in the next segment.

Tinu Abayomi-Paul
www.leveragedpromotion.com




	Bob Baker’s Branding Site
	From the home page: “Big companies understand the importance of brands — if the product is recognizable, customers are more likely to embrace the idea behind the product and buy it. The same holds true for individuals. People not only listen more intently to a familiar voice, they become raving fans for life.”

Your Brand needs a Face

Tinu — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:08:55 +0000

The heart of branding is often visual.

When I first started out online, the one thing I was irrationally terrified of was having any part of my physicality associated with my business. I’m quite shy in real life, so I wanted to be a post office box with a pen name.

But one day I realized that every person I bought from on a regular basis… was a person to me, not a company.

I don’t shop at Walmart – in my mind that’s where the funny lady with the pigtails works. I don’t buy music, I get the latest Beyonce CD. Even with brands like Amazon, I’m going there in search of something within the collection of brands they resell. I want the next Toni Morrisson novel, not just some book by anyone.

I started becoming really successful online when I tossed away the shield of anonymity, and displayed my personage, flaws and all. If I can publish a picture with my articles, I’ll do it. When I can share my voice on audio, even better. Haven’t worked my way up to video, but I’m getting there.

And watch out when I do…

Sometimes, with larger, corporate brands, the “face” on the company isn’t a person’s. It’s a logo that invokes a personality trait. IBM has a certain personality. So does Dell, Gateway or HP.

If you’re running a smaller business, you’re not exempt from the need for a brand. At some point you must create an association between yourself and the person you want to influence, the results they want to have.

Smaller businesses especially need not just a face, but a voice. It’s part of why blogging is so successful. People buy from people, not from vague entities.

Your brand needs a face, a representative, a personality. Develop a brand and get closer to your clients.

Is Your Blog Consistent with Your Brand?

Tinu — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:08:58 +0000

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.

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.
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.
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.
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?
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).
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.
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.

And the “eBranding Oldie but Goodie” Blog Post Award goes to…

Tinu — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:09:07 +0000

In days to come, I’m compiling lists of branding resources. This series of posts on “self branding” has to be number one on the relatively-recent-and-relevant list.

Lea Alcantara’s blog often gives a light-hearted yet still serious view of many issues online businesses are concerned with, one of which is ebranding.

I am compelled to give her the “eBranding Oldie but Goodie” Blog Post Award for this post, called the Art of Self-Branding, Part III. Tongue-in-cheek but still true-to-life. Even comes with a free worksheet. Extra points for poetic license on the word “striven”.

See the link section below for a short quote.


	The Art of Self-Branding: Part Three
	“With the Art of Self-Branding series of posts, I?ve striven to shine some light onto how to evaluate your own brand.”

eBranding Techniques :: How Do You Become the Default Choice?

Tinu — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:09:24 +0000

With a successful brand, you are often THE “go-to” solution – how is this achieved online?

In establishing an online brand, you want to become synoymous with a common solution to a problem. So how is this achieved online?

Identify your marketIf you don’t know who you’re talking to, you’ll have a hard time figuring out how to communicate to them.Who is your market? Just becuase you’re online doesn’t mean it’s the whole world. Think about who your ideal client is, and be where they are. Talk to them in forums and through your blog. What do they want? Why are you the beet choice to give it to them?
Find out what positive solution you want to represent Once you know who you’re targeting, you’ll realize what their problems are. And if you’ve done your market research during product development or the planning of your service offerings, you know what problem you’re solving.So all that remains is finding out what the conversation is, and where it’s taking place, then tying your solution to the conversation about the problem.
To sum it up in one sentence – what benefits do you want to become known for?

Once you answer that question, create a consistent way to convey it. The slogan, the logo, the mantra, everything that markets your site should evolve from the chosen brand identity.
Discover that conversation online and enter it in a bold waySome of the greatest blogs to read either start a new conversation or have a fresh angle on the solutions. But it’s not just about the blog.It’s about the main website, the publication, the logos, the product, the blog, the podcasts, the articles – everything that comes from your company, whether that is through your actualy website or not.
You want to say something different – and you want to be as distinct from the next guy as you can be. If they aren’t blogging, you can be the first. If they are, you can integrate podcasting, or add more RSS channels.

Use pictures in your blog, use color. Use sound or video by podcasting. And as your idenity is established, deliver those messages in a way that is consistent with your chosen brand idenity.
Go deep then wideHere’s a common mistake made by people who are branding themselves but don’t realize it. It stems from the failure to choose your branding message consciously.That mistake is trying to “be” two unrelated things at once. I’ll give you a fictional example that I often see in Internet Marketing.
Shoeford writes a book about setting up an internet ebook business. He becomes known as the internet ebook guy. Whenever you see his name, you know you’re going to learn something new and useful about internet ebooks.

Then suddenly, without any warning, Shoeford decides to start telling you about how to sell on ebay. You subscribed to hiss blog to hear when his new internet ebook products are coming out – not to read other people’s articles, or for ebay tips. So you take his feed out of your reader.

What could Shoeford have done better to avoid this?

If he knew with any foresight that he was going into that area, he could have branded himself as the ebooks sales guy. Then after a purchase about selling ebooks, a book about selling ebooks on ebay might have made sense.

If he didn’t know? He could have announced a whole different blog to his current audience and got some crossover traffic, instead of alienating his core audience.

The lesson? Choose a brand that can be expanded. Brand deep within the market you originally chose. When you’re ready to go into another area, find a common ground between where you started and where you want to go next.
Amplify your brand statement in as many ways as you can We talked about how your ebrand has to do with every message that comes out of your company, such that it can be expressed or referenced online.Once you’ve begun to show that you’re different, you’ll want to say how you’re different. You may want to illustrate the reactions to your successful implementations with testimonials.
Or maybe you just need to add another promotional vehicle. If you’ve been getting your message out through article marketing, then perhaps it’s time for a podcast. Once you’ve been blogging, you may start to see that you’re not fully utilizing your RSS options.

The more ways you find to spread your message, the more of your target audience you may reach. Some people who won’t read your message might listen to it. Those newer to the net might find you in an article. More sophisticated – and often wealthier – net users are likely to run across your RSS feed.
Monitor brand awareness and reactionBeing a blogger, and learning to use the tools of the blogosphere starts to show you conversation trends.You may start to find places where you are referenced and discussed. Once the message your brand sends starts to spread, you’ll also start to see the reaction to your message. Reviews may pop up. Questions may show up in forums, or in other blogs.
You can use those external discussions to spark dialogue in your own blog.

This isn’t a full picture of developing an online brand, and assumes, that to a certain point, you’ve done research on your product line or services, with particular focus on how they will be received online. However, it hits on the major points and can help you figure out what area you might need to revisit.




	How to Avoid the Mistakes of Online Branding
	Article at Click.com tells you what some common branding mistakes are and how to avoid them.

ebranding Tactics :: Is Reality Branding Ahead of the Curve?

Tinu — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:09:19 +0000

The 40 year Social Pendulum is swinging says Steve Jackson.

There’s an excellent article at the Internet Search Engine Database called Reality Branding that speaks very eloquently to the way online brands need to shift with the times.

Here’s a short quote:

We”re switching from an idealistic society where it is Ok to dream, to a social society where getting things done is more important. The shift in society will have profound effects on branding and advertising over the next 20 years at least.

You”re now in a generation that doesn’t respect individual achievements, rebellion or going it alone, mocks hype and doesn’t think James Bond is da man!

You”re now in a generation where people are tired of hype, tired of dreams and want to work together to get things done. Your peers want to do things that make the world a better place to live in rather than just dream about it. They recognize the problems around them and seek solutions to make things happen.

The author goes on to discuss how this relates to the way long-standing company brands must adjust to address the swinging social pendulum. Really intriguing material, give it a read.


	Reality Branding
	“Understanding this shift in social attitudes is the good news because now you can apply that to your own business.”
	http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1277/

	Business Blogging
	How will your company blog address the reality of the times? Is one channel of data really going to address your clients needs – or even reach them? Contact us for a 15 minute phone consultation, and find out more about what you need to know about web marketing 2.0.