What to Consider When Developing a Brand

by Karen Sorensen

 

Increase customer awareness by developing brand recognition.  Creating a brand for your company takes time and careful planning.  Your company could be the next icon for your particular product or service.  When you have a cut, you reach for the Band Aid® even if the bandage may be made by a different company.  Cool fruity gelatin desserts are referred to as Jello® by most Americans.  Look around you and notice the many brands around you.  What makes them so popular?

Identify Target Market

What type of customers are you trying to attract?  The success of your company’s branding efforts will rely on the customers you are pursuing.  Trendy graphics and hip hop music may attract the younger consumer, but this type of advertising might turn off the mature customers.  Cater to the interests of your potential clientele.

Legalities

Research your ideas so you do not infringe on another company’s brand.  Developing your brand is a long term investment.  Register your trademark legally to protect your company’s name from imposters and possible customer confusion.

Logo and Color Scheme

Choose simple color choices and an easy to read font for your company logo.  Choosing a graphic that says something about your business helps in creating your unique brand name.  A good example of an effective logo is the swirled red, white and blue Pepsi® circle.  The simple logo dominates the cans and bottles it is printed on and the only reading required is to determine if it is regular, flavored, diet or caffeine free.

Celebrity Endorsements

Visual stimulation will help prospective customers remember you.  Grab their attention with ads and commercials using a recognized person or character.  Hanes® sales increased when Michael Jordan became a spokesperson for their national campaign and television commercials.  Small businesses starting out probably cannot hire a famous celebrity like Michael but there are other ways to attract customers and create an identity for your business.  Create your own character.  Animated celebrities like M&M® candies have been brought to life on television and online ads.  If you are directly involved with your customers in a retail environment, you could be the face of your company.  If you are uncomfortable using actual photos, consider turning your picture into a cartoon.  There are several photo programs that can transform a picture into a sketch with the click of a mouse.  You could also hire a professional to animate your likeness and use it on all of your advertising.

Catchy Tag line or Jingle

“You deserve a break today” is not heard as often as it used to be but most people still remember that catchy jingle.  That saying became popular before there were fast food restaurants on every corner.  It was a treat for a woman to pick up dinner at McDonalds® and not have to cook.  What does your company offer that can help the consumer?  Your tag line should be short, easy to remember and send a message to your customer.  Turn your tag line into a musical jingle and your company will become the brand consumers will remember.

Three Objectives of Brand Awareness

by Lea Nathan

 

Marketing strategists agree that brand awareness in any industry gives that company an edge. Brand awareness accomplishes several objectives for companies seeking to increase sales in the marketplace. A brand awareness campaign needs to be flexible enough to grow with the company and adjust if needed. The company should seek to build customer awareness, promote its website and add value.

Brand awareness follows a certain process, although customers do not usually think through these steps when choosing a product. First, the customer has a perceived need for a product. In many cases, he will seek information on what product to buy. He will often evaluate his alternatives, although in some cases, such as in buying a drink, he may simply buy what’s convenient. At the same time, he will place a value, both financial and personal, on the product he plans to buy. After he buys your product, he will review his purchase and make adjustments. Sometimes these adjustments will be immediate; in other cases, they are long term. For example, if he doesn’t like the drink he bought, the next day, he will choose a different drink. But if he doesn’t like the vehicle he purchased, it could be two to five years until he makes a different purchase.

Build Customer Awareness

Target the desired customer base. From there, the business can more easily assess what it needs to do to increase customer awareness. For instance, a customer awareness strategy will focus on different audiences depending on if the product is toys, car products or walkers for those with mobility issues. In each case, the business will use different advertising campaigns to increase customer awareness. Every business needs to overcome certain challenges so the customer understands the benefits of working with that particular company.

Promote the Website

A website helps create a worldwide customer base. Customers no longer limit themselves to buying from a specific geographic location. A customer might research a product and then follow up with a catalog or phone order instead of a personal visit to the company location. Hiring a graphic designer can assist a business in projecting the type of image they want to portray. Coordinating business cards, marketing materials and additional advertising all further enhance customer awareness. Consistency in design helps customers connect that logo with the business and product.

Add Value

Every customer will determine value in different ways. Brand awareness can give your business that “edge” in making your customers aware of the extra value your company offers. This might be in the form of service, such as three free oil changes in a year with the purchase of a motorcycle. Your packaging might be slightly larger, which brings increased quantity. Your location might be unique and easily accessible. The business may sponsor special events, promote volunteer service or support a worthwhile organization. You will need to decide which one of these avenues will work best for your company.

Finally, give the business the time needed to develop brand awareness. In most cases, this process does not happen overnight. While the ultimate goal is for the company to identify the success level of brand awareness campaigns, the business should always continue to appreciate and track even the slightest progress.

Using SWOT Analysis to Develop a Marketing Strategy

by Business Dictionary

 

SWOT analysis is a straightforward model that analyzes an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to create the foundation of a marketing strategy. To do so, it takes into account what an organization can and cannot do as well as any potential favorable or unfavorable conditions related to the company’s products or services.

Importance of SWOT Analysis in Developing a Marketing Strategy

Often viewed as a key step related to planning, SWOT analysis is deceptively simple despite the immense value it delivers. The system combines information from the environmental analysis and separates it into two components: internal issues (strengths and weaknesses) and external issues (opportunities and threats).

This level of analysis enables an organization to determine whether there are factors present that will aid in the achievement of specific objectives (due to an existing strength or opportunity) or if there are obstacles that must be overcome before the desired outcome can be realized (due to weaknesses or threats).

What is SWOT analysis?

As mentioned above, the process of SWOT analysis evaluates your company’s strengths, weaknesses, market opportunities and potential threats to provide competitive insight into the potential and critical issues that impact the overall success of the business. Further, the primary goal of a SWOT analysis is to identify and assign all significant factors that could positively or negatively impact success to one of the four categories, providing an objective and in-depth look at your business.

Highly useful for developing and confirming your organizational goals, each of the four categories provides specific insights that can be used to cultivate a successful marketing strategy, including:

• Strengths – Positive attributes internal to your organization and within your control. Strengths often encompass resources, competitive advantages, the positive aspects of those within your workforce and the aspects related to your business that you do particularly well, focusing on all the internal components that add value or offer you a competitive advantage.

• Weaknesses – Factors that are within your control yet detract from your ability to obtain or maintain a competitive edge such as limited expertise, lack of resources, limited access to skills or technology, substandard services or poor physical location. Weaknesses encapsulate the negative internal aspects to your business that diminish the overall value your products or services provide. This category can be extremely helpful in providing an organizational assessment, provided you focus on an accurate identification of your company’s weaknesses.

• Opportunities – Summary of the external factors that represent the motivation for your business to exist and prosper within the marketplace. These factors include the specific opportunities existing within your market that provide a benefit, including market growth, lifestyle changes, resolution of current problems or the basic ability to offer a higher degree of value in relation to your competitors to promote an increase in demand for your products or services. One element to be aware of is timing. For example, are the opportunities you’re catering to ongoing or is there a limited window of opportunity?

• Threats – External factors beyond the control of your organization that have the potential to place your marketing strategy, or the entire business, at risk. The primary and ever-present threat is competition. However, other threats can include unsustainable price increases by suppliers, increased government regulation, economic downturns, negative press coverage, shifts in consumer behavior or the introduction of “leap-frog” technology that leaves your products or services obsolete. Though these forces are external and therefore beyond your control, SWOT analysis may also aid in the creation of a contingency plan that will enable you to quickly and effectively address these issues should they arise.

Turning SWOT Analysis into a Strategic Plan

Once you’ve established specific values related to your business offerings within the four quadrants of SWOT analysis, you can develop a strategic plan based on the information you’ve learned. For example, once you’ve identified your inherent strengths, you can leverage them to pursue the opportunities best suited to your organization, effectively reducing potential vulnerability related to threats. In the same way, by identifying your organization’s weaknesses with regard to external threats, you can devise a plan that will enable you to eliminate or minimize them while improving defensive strategies related to your offerings.

It’s important to remember that SWOT analysis can be influenced (and often quite strongly) by those who perform the analysis. So it’s a good idea to have an outside business consultant review the results to provide the most objective plan.

Marketing Basics for the Novice Entrepreneur

by Leo Sun

 

For the budding entrepreneur, marketing a finished product can be a nightmare. The manpower and capital required to successfully market a product can be impossible for a tiny start up. How can a novice entrepreneur gather the resources necessary to successfully market a product?

Initial Steps

The three initial goals of marketing should be clear to the entrepreneur.

• Establishing and increasing the customer base
• Increasing the product sales per customer
• Increasing the sales of more expensive, higher margin products per customer

Develop a Marketing Plan

Large companies usually tackle the first hurdle through expensive advertising campaign. But let’s assume you don’t have the millions necessary to launch large scale television, print and online media campaigns. We have to start small, with a basic marketing plan. A good marketing campaign should consist of the following:

• Target demographics
• Seasonal demand
• Advantages over competitors
• Product pricing and margins
• A simple message delivered via an effective advertising strategy

If you have trouble drafting a coherent marketing plan, you can conduct public surveys to gauge the public reaction to your products or services. Make sure you survey is given to a diverse group – in ethnicity, gender, age, income and education level – to get the best sample. These are separated into two kinds – quantitative and qualitative. Do you want quality over quantity, or vice versa? Both have distinct advantages.

Quantitative surveys are fixed questionnaires which can be conducted face-to-face, through e-mail, or over the phone. Try to collect a large number of surveys to gauge the customer response as a kind of vote. Quantitative surveys are good for graphs and estimates.

• Qualitative surveys focus on a smaller number of people, without fixed questions. They are usually conducted as face-to-face interviews, conversations or focus groups, where the participants engage in free-form discussion about a topic. Qualitative surveys can help you get a better, more detailed response regarding your product, but can also be extremely time-consuming.

Most successful businesses use a combination of both for the best results. However, if you are pressed for time (and patience), a quantitative survey can be faster and offer similar results with far less manpower and time.

Determine Advertising Mediums and Budget

Now that you have drafted a marketing plan, calculate your advertising budget. If you’re a small business, that total is likely to be unimpressive. Here are some ways to clear that hurdle:

• Call local television and radio news stations to attempt to gain free publicity. This can be effective if you are offering a new, innovative product that hasn’t been produced before.                                       
• Spread the word through social tools with Twitter, Facebook and Youtube ad campaigns. If you make an interesting video to advertise your product, uploading it online and allowing it to spread like wildfire can be extremely effective. Best of all, this method is mostly free.                                            
• Contact vendors and associates to participate in co-op advertising, in which the advertising fee is shared.
• Advertise via Google AdSense or a similar ad program – these are cheaper than other forms of advertisements, and are selected intelligently based on the computer user’s search preferences – which will give you a highly targeted audience.                                                                                    
• Award customer referrals with cash, discounts or prizes, in order to publicize your products.

These are just some ideas to help you, as a novice entrepreneur, get started in the complex world of marketing concepts. As your business expands, you can hire dedicated PR, sales and marketing teams to help you create more complex plans.