poolmarks | asia

Marketing, Image and Branding

2014-09-23T13:06:00.007+07:00

Marketing, Image and Branding

This section of the toolbox uses market information gathered in Part I, “Understanding the Market,” to learn about your downtown’s key consumer groups and how to reach and serve them better. This includes understanding their perceptions of downtown as a place to live, work, shop and play. With knowledge of these consumer groups, an appropriate brand for the district can be created along with effective marketing programs that communicate downtown’s distinctive qualities.

Three uses of the market analysis are described in this section:
Defining Your Key Market Segments and Market Position
Improving the Image and Developing a Brand for Downtown
Implementing Marketing Programs

CEOs for Cities, Branding Your City

This section of the toolbox is not intended to be the sole resource for your district’s marketing efforts. It only scratches the surface of marketing planning. Instead, this brief overview is intended to explain how market analysis data can be applied to selected examples of image development, branding and marketing.

1. Defining Your Key Markets Segments and Market Position
Market Segments

How would you describe your current customer groups? Who are they? How do they behave? What are their attitudes about downtown? You can use your market analysis to better understand your downtown’s current and potential customers. The analysis can help answer questions about their shopping behavior, preferences, and attitudes about downtown. Specific target market segments that have been identified in your market analysis may include, but are not limited to:
Downtown residents
Downtown employees
College students
Medical center visitors
Leisure Tourists
Business Travelers
Recreational and second homeowners
Young professionals in area
In-Commuters
Thru-Commuters

Typically a downtown district will serve numerous segments. By knowing the demographics and lifestyles of each, you can look for more customers like them. Understanding their buying behavior will help you deliver what they want when they want it. By understanding their attitudes, you will know what they like and dislike about downtown; fix what they don’t like and provide greater value that will distinguish your downtown from competitive commercial districts.
Competition

Who are your competitors? How do your competitors deliver value to their customers – to your customers? What do they do better than you? What is your competitive position? It is important to understand the competition to know what might be drawing consumers away from your downtown. Use your market analysis to develop a clear understanding of the competition and how your downtown can gain competitive advantage over them.

Gaining competitive advantage is difficult. Over time, your downtown district can more effectively compete by consistently providing the following to one or several customer groups underserved or not served at all by competitors:
Variety
Uniqueness
Value
Service
Experience and “sense of place”

Use your market analysis to help answer questions about how well competing commercial centers serve their customers. It is important to understand the competition to know why they might be drawing consumers away from your downtown. To gain a competitive advantage, it is important to find an underserved customer segment(s) that your downtown can serve better, and provide them with a unique variety of products, services and experiences not offered by other districts.
Market Position Statement

With a research-based understanding of your customers and competition, a “market position statement” for downtown can be developed. This statement includes two components: primary goods and services offered, and the primary consumer segments served. The market position statement includes the tactical steps that you will take to achieve your goals including realistic development opportunities and the desired business mix for the district. According to Todd Barman of the National Trust Main Street Center:
A market position statement describes where downtown is or should be “positioned” based on market information, community desires, and realistic expectations.
It identifies a downtown specialization or niche based on a primary consumer segment served or a primary set of goods and services offered.
It distinguishes downtown’s competitive advantage versus surrounding commercial centers.
It includes a synopsis of the downtown’s major market groups and a description of its opportunities for growth.

Sample Market Position Statement: Downtown Springfield, the center of state government and a regional medical complex, benefits from a large, stable employee base that supports the convenient retail shops and services, as well as the restaurants and entertainment businesses. Many people live downtown in historic renovated buildings and adjacent neighborhoods. Downtown is an interesting and attractive historic environment for tourists, focusing on Abe Lincoln sites and other heritage attractions. The convention business is also flourishing. The visitors support tourism-related retail shops and restaurants. The growing number of dining establishments, night spots with live entertainment, the arts center, and arts-related businesses are a regional draw. Source: Todd Barman – National Trust Main Street Center

Use Your Market Analysis Findings to Answer the Following:
What is my geographic market?
What are my target market demographic characteristics?
How is my consumer market changing and how can businesses effectively respond?
What customer segments am I currently attracting and which ones offer potential?
Who is my competition?

To answer these questions, use the findings from your work in Part I of the toolbox: Understanding the Market.

2. Improving the Image and Developing a Brand for Downtown
Image

Different people have different images of your downtown. It is important to understand what your current image is in order to assess if there is a need to change it. The image that business operators hold may be different than that of local consumers. Market analysis may show that there is disconnect between these two groups. Business operators may hold a positive image of their downtown while shoppers may feel downtown is unsafe, boring or too loud. Regardless of whether this is true or not, you must address shoppers’ sources of dissatisfaction or risk loss of their business.

It may be necessary to try to change or even build an image of the downtown in both current and potential consumers’ minds. This may require communicating your new vision to target market segments. Market analysis findings should point to attributes that set your downtown apart from other places. These attributes can become part of a brand for your downtown.
Branding

Branding is the process of selling a positive image of your downtown. The brand is a unique set of emotional connections and positive expectations in the minds of residents, visitors and others. Branding fosters the sense of community that keeps key market segments interested in downtown and that makes the community an attractive destination for various market segments.

Branding is more than the words and images used along with a place name; those things can change over time. The slogan, logo and design are simply tools to help change current perceptions, by appearing not only in printed materials but also in physical promotions such as your downtown way finding system, signage, and street-scaping. It is a core promise that is made to the customer.

According to CEO for Cities, “A brand — clear, compelling and unique — is the foundation that helps to make a place desirable as a business location, visitor destination or a place to call home. Development of a brand strategy for a city or downtown leverages the features of that place to provide a relevant and compelling promise to a target audience. It is not an ad campaign or a tagline. Rather, the branding strategy is a deeper, more emotionally shared vision that influences actions.”

There are many reasons why it is critical for a place to have a brand strategy, but the most common is to stimulate economic growth. That’s because a strong brand can:
Shift the perception of a place that may be suffering from a poor image.
Create a common vision for the future of the community and its potential.
Provide a consistent representation of the place.
Enhance its local, regional and/or global awareness and position.
Shed unfavorable stereotypes associated with a place and make it more appealing.

If your city wants to initiate a brand strategy, the following questions have to be answered honestly and completely:
What does the downtown district stand for today – both its strengths and weaknesses?
What can and should the place stand for in the future, and how do we articulate that?
What will make the place unique, valued and attractive to target businesses and consumer audiences?
How will we make this new positioning a reality?
What role do key stakeholders and community groups have in bringing the brand to life?
How will we measure success of the brand strategy?

A successful branding process is neither easy nor quick. It involves research, design, education and maintenance. If done well, branding can boost retail traffic; attract residents to the downtown area; and aid downtown and community organizations by increasing volunteerism, giving and credibility.

3. Implementing Marketing Programs

Marketing programs can implement the brand strategy and encourage key market segments to increase their use of downtown as a place to live, work, shop and play. By marketing the district’s unique characteristics, consumer and investor confidence in the district can be strengthened resulting in increased commercial activity and investment. It is important to remember to place adequate marketing focus on actual downtown activities, and not just on downtown as a place. People come downtown to participate in activities, to take advantage of sales, and to have an enjoyable experience.
Marketing Goals and a Communication Plan

You have to know what you want to achieve in your downtown in order to know what marketing programs are best. Marketing goals will likely be different for every downtown. Example goals are listed below:
Increased consumer spending
Increased visitation and sidewalk traffic
Increased usage of downtown by specific market segments
Increased attendance at downtown events

A key part of marketing downtown is having a communications plan. Regular communication – with the press, the public and with downtown business is essential to maintaining your brand image. Much of your marketing success for the downtown depends on maintaining coordination. Merchants, organizations, residents and visitors all must be able to recognize, relate to, and promote a consistent brand message. It is important to keep branding design and education efforts up-to-date, while sustaining the organizational partnerships that support the community. Your communications plan should outline the types and frequency of communications that the downtown organization will produce throughout the year. This will include advertising and promotion, public relations and special events.
Advertising/Promotion

Advertisements are the messages that you design and for which you purchase time or space in media. For example, cooperative advertising for retailers or event promotion flyers and brochures are advertisements. Advertising also includes merchandizing, in which your downtown logo and/or slogan are put onto bags, tee-shirts, balloons, etc. Promotions involve disseminating information about a downtown in other ways including sales promotions, new resident packets, merchandising, direct mail, personal selling, and trade shows.

After you know who you want to specifically target and what messages you want to send, you need to know the vehicles for messaging. Several methods of advertising and promotion can help to peak consumers’ curiosity and lure them downtown. Use your market analysis findings to assess the likely return on investment from various types of advertising and promotion initiatives.
Public Relations

Public relations is indirect promotion and often requires a more coordinated, long-term communications plan. Public relations seeks positive press coverage and involves convincing editors and reporters that your downtown is worth writing about. Media coverage of your downtown is often more effective to promote via a supposedly objective third party than directly via advertisements. However, free publicity means you cannot control the message as you can with advertising.
Special Events

Activities and programs are valuable methods to showcase what’s going on downtown and improvements taking place. These events should cater to the specific market segments that your downtown is currently attracting or hoping to attract. Events can bring people into an area to experience the new brand, and to have a positive and memorable experience. Events (and downtown sponsorships) can create relationships between downtown business and consumers through activities that draw interest groups downtown. They can help reinforce downtown’s brand identity. Example events include car shows, sidewalk sales, music festivals, college student/parent activities, employee appreciation programs, and countless other activities that reflect local interests.

Events also need to fit the needs of the business community. Some businesses seek more foot traffic, while others would prefer actual purchasing incentives. Some business will want events to attract business at a particular time of day, while others may be more interested in events that encourage repeat business.

An article published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street Center recommends the following: “Before you create any special event as a part of a campaign, ask yourself: What is the purpose of this event? Which of the largest market segments will the event attract? Most importantly, how does this event support and reinforce the image you are creating? Until these questions are answered, any special event produced can do as much to thwart the image strategy as advance it.”

About the Toolbox and this Section

The 2011 update of the Downtown and Business District Market Analysis toolbox is a result of a collaborative effort involving the University of Minnesota Extension, Ohio State University Extension, and the University of Wisconsin Extension. The updated was supported with funding from the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development.

The toolbox is based on and supportive of the economic restructuring principles of the National Trust Main Street Center. The Wisconsin Main Street Program (Wisconsin Department of Commerce) has been an instrumental partner in the development of this toolbox.

This section was summarized by Bill Ryan of the University of Wisconsin-Extension and is based on expertise offered by: Christopher Johansen, Market Knowledge, Wilmington DE, and Dale Erlandson, graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Selected content was based on the publications by CEOs for Cities and The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street Center.

Brand Analysis, Strategy, Systems: What do You Need?

2014-09-23T13:04:00.003+07:00

Brand Analysis, Strategy, Systems: What do You Need?

Marketing and branding providers like Distility will recommend all kinds of solutions. But what do you need?

Behold our three part menu of products: Brand Analysis, Brand Strategy, and Brand Systems. What to make of this? Well, first know that these are in chronological order, or if you will, business development order. While you might not need all of these things, and you might engage in these activities at different times according to your business needs, there is a certain value to thinking about them as a series of steps.

Brand analysis is where you are. Strategy is where you’re going. System are how you’ll get there.

Breaking it down this way explains why some companies want to jump the gun and jump straight to systems – they’re very eager to get moving. It also explains why this may be a very bad idea. As the wise old timers say, if you don’t know where you are, and you don’t know where you’re going, then any direction will do.

Let’s take a closer look at each one.

Brand analysis pins down what state your brand is currently in, who your customers are and what they’re looking for, what your competitors are doing, and so forth. Often companies won’t need our help with this. If your company already has a strong marketing team that is tracking this kind of data, or you are engaging the services of a market research company, you’ve got it covered already. Often times start-ups will have done a great deal of this work in preparing their business plans.

You will need some brand analysis work if you haven’t taken a hard look at your market and competition in a long time. Or you may be rebranding, perhaps after a merger, and need to take a step back and a deep breath to look at your own brand. In this situation it really helps immensely if you can get outside eyes to see where things are at.

Brand Strategy is often overlooked but it’s something that can mean the difference between success and failure as you move forward into brand systems. Strategy encompasses all the intangibles that really animate a brand – personality, promise, and position. It also includes making some fundamental choices that will guide your brand for years to come.

For instance, you must make a choice on brand architecture. Will you brand every product you sell, or will you give them descriptive names under the corporate brand? Will you promote both corporate brand and product brand together? Each can be a legitimate choice in the right circumstance, but choosing the wrong brand architecture can lead to needless expense, underperforming brands, and potentially an expensive rebranding exercise when the mistake becomes clear.

Brand Systems are where everybody wants to be. Often the first thing you think about when someone mentions the word brand are the systems – the name, the logo, the tag line. You dream of having a brand like Nike – the name, the swoosh, the “Just Do It” tag line. But of course, those are built on thorough analysis and rock solid strategy.

So what do you need? We can’t tell you. But we can help you tell us. Try our Are You Ready exercise to find out.

How to analyze your branding strategy

2014-09-23T13:03:00.006+07:00

How to analyze your branding strategy

If you are a brick and mortar facility, there are 4 big pieces to your branding:
The store (what it looks like, how it is organized, the people who staff it, the products available, etc)
The website (whether or not you sell online, you must have a kick butt site for people to visit)
Social media (everyone and every business can benefit from using some pieces of social media)
Customer service (in person, over the phone, via email)

If you are solely an online retailer or a business which doesn’t need a physical location, you still need to consider #1 (people, products and how you are organized). The only difference is #1 & #2 are combined into one thing.

With this in mind, I decided to analyze a store that I found through Cracked.com’s list of Images you won’t believe aren’t photohopped (it’s #14).

Located in Southampton, UK, this is the actual store front for The Guitar Store. Surrounded by the traditional lift up store gates with simple signs declaring the store name, this store captures audiences attention – even if they aren’t in the market for music. Because of their unique store, I figured they would be a perfect company to look at their branding strategy, and how you can do it for your own business.

Following the above branding guidelines, we will start with #1: The store. First impression, obviously they are doing something right as they have immediately differentiated themselves from any other store on that road (and probably any other store in the UK). Secondly, they got themselves noticed by Cracked.com, which spread their name worldwide. Finally, (after visiting their site) I was able to see some photos of the interior…they have definitely created a beautiful musical haven. Unfortunately without a trip to the UK (hmm…wonder who I could bribe to get me there? lol) I can’t speak for their staff, but with the pictures and the obvious involvement of the owners, it seems they are probably doing okay.

Onto the second step, the website. When I visited the site, I was definitely surprised, as most companies I have seen fall short of “continuity with branding”. Their site not only matched the store front, but improved upon it (click on the image to visit the site, and mouse over their nav buttons…)! The copy is to the point, honestly written and shows the dedication to true music. I found it easy to use, fun to navigate and it to be well done overall. What I didn’t see was any social buttons, or a quick way to reach them via email (without a form). Which leads us to the next step was to check out their social media strategy…

As I mentioned above, there are no social buttons or blog links. After some searching, I discovered that they do have both a Facebook page (2 weeks old) and a twitter account (with only 1 tweet). There is no blog. I will give them small credit for setting up facebook and twitter – and for the small amount of activity on FB. But, these strategies could be expanded tremendously and could bring in some serious attention. As far as the missing blog – I am a little surprised. I would assume that this would have been one of the first marketing tasks they tackled. Creating a blog that covered tips and tricks, featured unique guitars and even short video lessons would not only gain a lot of attention but would be helpful for the music community as a whole. I think that if they were to simply add a strong social media presence, they would immediately notice a difference.

Finally we reach the discussion of #4, their customer service. Again, not being able to visit the UK it is tough to decipher if they are doing this properly. They do have their number listed prominently, and their location easy to find (two pieces that lead to a great start). What they do need to add is easier access to their contact form and/or email addresses. Also, twitter is a huge customer service tool, being able to answer questions and connect with musicians both in the UK and throughout the world. I think without improving access to their email and their conversations through social media, they are definitely falling short in customer service.

Now, onto your task: When is the last time you looked at the 4 pieces of branding for your business? Do they all work together or are you missing important pieces? Feel free to respond with your thoughts on your own company in the comments – or ask other questions!

Let’s get talking!

Brand Analysis

2014-09-23T13:00:00.002+07:00

Brand Research Fundamentals: Part 6 – Brand Analysis

Companies invest money in creating logos, ads, marketing materials, packaging, and so on and then wonder why they’re not getting the results they expected — or they might assume that they can’t get better results. However, had they invested in brand research along the way, their stories could have been quite different.

It’s safe to assume that you don’t make other types of business decisions without data to justify those decisions, so why would your brand decisions be any different? They shouldn’t be. That’s why it’s so critical that you track your brand’s growth and performance by following the steps provided in Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 of the Brand Research Fundamentals series.

With that hard data in hand, you can closely analyze target audiences, growth trends, marketing tactics, brand awareness levels, sales history, and so on, and apply those learnings to your future brand strategy decisions. However, it’s easy to get caught in what I call information paralysis where you have so much data at your fingertips you’re incapable of making a decision. That’s a dangerous place to find yourself in, particularly as it applies to branding because so much of branding is based on consumer emotions and requires subjective analysis in addition to traditional objective research data analysis.
Researching Brand Emotions

You can easily measure and analyze sales data, but how do you measure subjective brand sentiment accurately? How do you measure consumers’ emotional involvement in your brand? Both of these factors are essential to brand and business growth and success, but few companies actually understand how to gather data to guide in the strategic brand decision-making process.

It is a fundamental truth that when consumers are highly emotionally attached to a brand, their loyalty and advocacy of that brand knows no bounds. Harley Davidson brand loyalists provide the perfect example, and as such, the Harley Davidson brand is one of the most powerful relationship brands in the world.

You can’t buy that level of brand emotion through clever marketing messages, but you can create it through brand consistency, persistence, and surrounding consumers with branded experiences where they can choose how they want to interact with the brand. Harley Davidson offers online forums, clubs, events, and much more for enthusiasts to enjoy the brand together. The brand stands for something in consumers’ minds, and that something is very important to them such as freedom, camaraderie, rebellion, and self-expression.
Subjective Brand Research

All of the objective brand research data you collect is incomplete if you cannot tie subjective analysis to it. That’s because consumers don’t always act the way they say the will. Qualitative and quantitative research results about buying propensity and brand preferences can be misleading if they are viewed without subjective context.

In fact, many consumers simply don’t know what motivates them to make buying decisions, particularly when a brand elicits little emotional involvement. Is there a reason why you buy a specific dish washing detergent, or is it just the one you’ve always bought?

Furthermore, research respondents often provide researchers with the answers they think the researchers want to hear or the answers that don’t embarrass them or reveal personal information, thoughts, and feelings. That’s where you need to get creative with your brand research techniques to draw out underlying motivations and feelings from consumers.

Following are several tricks to gather subjective data in a more reliable way than objective research questions might provide:
Use word association and sentence completion questions to encourage respondents to provide their own words to describe your brand.
Ranking, sorting, and grouping questions can be used in a multitude of ways to gain insight into consumer brand preferences.
Analogies offer an excellent way to learn how consumers feel by asking them to compare the brand to unrelated things. For example, ask respondents, “if the brand were a celebrity, who would it be and why?”
Storytelling works well to draw out underlying emotions and thoughts about the brand. Ask respondents to tell a story about the brand (it could be based on a real experience or fictitious).
Role-playing can be used to have consumers act like the brand or try to convince a friend to purchase the brand.

The important thing to remember when you’re gathering subjective brand research data is to always ask consumers why they respond to questions and prompts in the way that they do. Look for conscious and subconscious reasons, but don’t lead respondents. You need to let them talk without your influence, which could inadvertently affect their responses.
Brand Research Decision-Making

Your brand research is never done, but it can help you make intelligent decisions rather than assuming you always know what your customers want and need and what the market will bear. If everyone had that kind of knowledge, we’d all be successful billionaires with globally recognized and powerful brands. Until then, there is still brand research to be done, data to gather, emotions to analyze, and decisions to make.

If you missed any of the previous parts of the Brand Research Fundamentals series, you can follow the links below to read them now.
Brand Research Fundamentals: Part 1 – Brand Development and Strategic Planning
Brand Research Fundamentals: Part 2 – Brand Creation
Brand Research Fundamentals: Part 3 – Brand Promotion
Brand Research Fundamentals: Part 4 – Brand Perception and Equity
Brand Research Fundamentals: Part 5 – Brand Growth and Change

BRAND ANALYSIS & BRAND DEVELOPMENT

2014-09-23T12:59:00.002+07:00

BRAND ANALYSIS & BRAND DEVELOPMENT

You only have one chance to make a FIRST IMPRESSION. Your brand image creates that impression, and reinforces that message each time your client interacts with your Brand. Our Creative Department can help you design a Branding Strategy for your business that creates the image and lasting impression that you need. Adding your Brand to promotional merchandise is a subtle, yet effective way to drive repeat impressions and awareness of your Brand. Well-placed branded merchandise often stays in front of your clients for many years, and can offer the lowest cost per impression marketing available today. To achieve the highest level of Brand Control and Innovative Style, we can work with your team to create Custom Merchandise to perfectly reflect the image you want to project to your clients. We work with a proven team of domestic and international designers & product manufactures to ensure that your custom products deliver the style, performance and cost-structure that you demand.

Creating a Strong Brand:
Brand Analysis: Does it send the message you want?
Brand Creation: Have you achieved a Professional look?
Brand Consistency: Is your marketing consistent across all mediums?

In-House Brand Analysis

Everything starts with a Strong Brand. Your Brand Image createsyour First Impression and reinforcesyour message each timea client interacts with your Brand. Your Brand tells a story about quality, reliability, innovation & style (good or bad). Our creative department willwork with you to review your Branding Strategy and to make sure the story your Brand tells is the one you want the world to hear.

In-House Brand Creation

Our creative department will help you design a Branding Strategy for your business that creates the image and lasting impression that your business needs. This service may include logo development, graphic design elements & layouts for your Web Presence, Marketing Materials, Newsletters, E-mail and Branded Merchandise.

Brand Consistency

Our creative department will make sure that your Brand is used consistently and appropriately across all of your marketing mediums: Web-Based, Printed Materials & Branded Merchandise. This will answer questions of “where” and “how” do I use my Brand to reinforce my message.

Promotional Products/Branded Merchandise

Branded Merchandise is a subtle, yet effective way to drive repeat impressions and awareness of your Brand. Ace has invested in the training and technology to ensure that we provide targeted product options that consistently reinforce your brand image. Our delivery systems ensure on-time delivery, cost-effective pricing, high-quality and innovative design.

Defending Your Brand

2014-09-23T12:47:00.006+07:00

‘Defending Your Brand’,Buku Bagus Bagi Para Marketer

Merayakan Hari Buku yang jatuh di hari ini, kali ini Marketing.co.id memberikan rekomendasi buku yang menarik dan layak dibaca oleh para marketer handal. Defending Your Brand, karya Tim Calkins, adalah buku yang memenangkan kompetisi Marketing Book Of the Year 2013 yang diadakan oleh Expert Marketing Magazine (EMM).

Seperti halnya nyawa, citra mereklah yang menentukan hidup dan mati suatu produk atau jasa dari sebuah bisnis. Sayangnya, dunia bisnis tidaklah mudah untuk dijalani. Persaingan adalah hal yang tidak bisa dipisahkan dari dunia bisnis.

Apabila seorang pengusaha gagal mengembangkan usahanya, ia mungkin akan kehilangan tujuan dari bisnisnya. Tapi, jika seorang pengusaha gagal dalam mempertahankan mereknya, ia bisa kehilangan segalanya.

Buku ini berisi petunjuk membuat strategi bisnis yang defensif. Strategi ini bertujuan untuk mendorong kompetitor tersingkir dan menyerah dengan ide-de mereka. Strategi seperti ini bukanlah strategi yang cantik, namun strategi defensif yang tepat bisa membuat merek sebuah produk atau jasa bekerja efektif dalam persaingan bisnis.

Calkins berpendapat bahwa setiap pengusaha membutuhkan pemahaman tentang bagaimana cara ‘bertahan’. Dan buku ini mengajarkan para pengusaha dan marketer bagaimana mereka memastikan merek mereka yang berharga terlindungi dengan baik.

Dalam buku Defending Your Brand, Calkins menunjukkan cara bagaiamana menciptakan dan mempertahankan strategi defensif termasuk: bagaimana memahami dan mendapatkan kecerdasan kompetitif, bagaimana menentukan apakah merek atau perusahaan sedang berada dalam krisis, bagaimana membuat strategi bertahan, mengurangi risiko dan masih banyak lagi.

Selain ditulis dengan bahasa yang lugas, buku ini juga merangsang para pembacanya untuk membuat strategi defensif yang sesuai dengan bisnisnya. Bagi para marketer yang ingin menambah pengetahuan tentang branding strategy, buku karya Calkins ini wajib dinikmati.

Saat ini Defending Your Brand sudah tersedia di Amazon, iBooks, dan eBooks.com

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Nama Brand yang Multitafsir

2014-09-23T12:40:00.001+07:00

Branding
Nama Brand yang Multitafsir

Brand Name adalah Sebuah nama yang dimiliki oleh merek atau brand tertentu. Brand Name menjadi penting, karena dengan brand name konsumen bisa memanggil dan mengenali produk yang di pasarkan.

Salah satu bagiaan tersulit dalam memulai usaha adalah pemberian nama atau brand pada produk yang kita jual. Biasanya melalui sebuah riset akan dipilih nama brand yang medah diingat dan memiliki arti yang baik bagi produk tersebut. Namun karena begitu banyaknya bahasa yang ada di bumi ini, tidak jarang nama-nama tersebut hanya terdengar baik dalam beberapa bahasa tapi justru memiliki arti yang memalukan dalam bahasa yang lain. Berikut ini beberapa contoh brand yang memiliki arti yang konyol dan memalukan dalam bahasa tertentu.

1. Osram

Kebanyakan dari kita pasti mengenal brand yang satu ini. Osram adalah salah satu raksasa dalam bisnis produsen lampu. Mereka memiliki pabrik di sekitar 42 negara dan menjual produknya di lebih dari 150 negara. Nama Osram sendiri merupakan gabungan dari kata Osmium dan Wolfram, keduanya merupakan elemen penting dalam pembuatan lampu. Sayangnya nama Osram akan jadi sangat memalukan jika anda menhyebutkannya di Polandia. Dalam bahasa Polandia Osram kira-kira memiliki arti, maaf, saya akan buang hajat di tubuhmu. 2. ColgateColgate merupakan salah satu brand pasta gigi yang cukup ternama di dunia. Akan tetapi brand yang produknya juga dijual di Indonesia ini konon kabarnya tidak mendapat respon yang baik dan kurang laku di negara-negara yang menggunakan bahasa Spanyol. Hal ini mungkin dikarenakan dalam bahasa Spanyol, Colgate memiliki arti ayo gantung diri.

2. Dasani “Spunk”

Spunk merupakan nama dari produk air mineral dalam kemasan produksi Coca Cola. Secara global sebenarnya produk ini diberi nama Dasani, hanya saja entah kenapa saat dijual di Inggris namanya disebut dengan Spunk. Secara harfiah spunk dalam bahasa Inggris bisa diartikan sebagai semangat, itu sebabnya produk ini memiliki slogan “Can’t live without Spunk”. Namun sayangnya dalam bahasa Inggris slang atau prokem kata Spunk bisa diartikan sebagai, maaf, sperma. Peluncuran produk ini di Inggris bahkan diberi label “bencana”.

3. Pajero

Pajero merupakan salah satu produk kendaraan roda empat keluaran Mitsubishi. Saat produk kendaraan ini coba dipasarkan di Spanyol, pihak Mitsubishi harus merubah namanya dari Pajero menjadi Montero. Hal ini dikarenakan dalam bahasa Spanyol Pajero memiliki arti, maaf, tukang masturbasi. Tapi nama Pajero sendiri sudah terlanjur terpublish di Spanyol dan jadilah mobil ini mendapat julukan “wankermobile” atau “mobil tukang masturbasi” di Spanyol.

4. SEGA

Nama SEGA merupakan kependekan dari Service Game. Perusahaan yang dikembangkan oleh David Rosen pada tahun 1954 ini akan menjadi sangat menggelikan ketika dijual di Italia. Dalam bahasa Italia SEGA berarti, maaf, alat masturbasi bagi pria.

5. Vergatorio

Vergatorio adalah produk telepon genggam keluaran Venezuela. Nama Vergatorio sendiri diberikan oleh sang Presiden Hugo Chavez. Kata Vergatorio menurut Chavez adalah sebuah kata baru yang menggambarkan kesempurnaan. Tapi dalam bahasa Spanyol yang biasa digunakan di daerah Amerika Latin, kata verga sendiri berarti, maaf, alat kelamin pria.

6. Honda Jazz

Nama Honda Jazz digunakan oleh pabrikan Honda saat mulai memasarkan produk ini di Eropa dan kemudian terus digunakan di negara-negara lainnya termasuk Indonesia. Pada awalnya kendaraan ini memiliki nama Honda Fit saat pertama di pasarkan di Jepang dan Thailand. Nama Honda Fit harus diubah menjadi Honda Jazz karena dalam bahasa Skandinavia namanya mirip dengan penyebutan, maaf, alat kelamin wanita.

7. Ford Pinto

Ford juga pernah “bermasalah” dengan nama produk kendaraan roda empat keluarannya. Pada sekitar 1971 Ford pernah mengeluarkan sebuah varian mobil yang diberi nama Pinto. Sayangnya jika di Brazil produk mobil ini memiliki arti yang tidak menyenangkan karena dalam bahasa slang Brazil, Pinto bisa diartikan sebagai, maaf, alat kelamin pria.

8. Silit

Silit adalah produsen peralatan memasak yang berasal dari Jerman. Nama yang mereka gunakan mungkin hanya akan terasa menggelikan bagi kita yang mengerti bahasa Jawa. Dalam bahasa Jawa, silit bisa diartikan sebagai, maaf, pantat atau dubur. Bayangkan jika anda menyajikan makanan pada tamu yang berasal dari Jawa dan kemudian anda mengatakan dengan bangga bahwa makanan itu anda masak dengan Silit, mungkin anda akan langsung ditampar oleh tamu anda .

9. SyFy

SyFy adalah sebuah saluran televisi yang tayang di Amerika Serikat, Inggris, Jerman, Perancis dan negara-negara Eropa lainnya. Awalnya saluran televisi ini bernama Sci Fi, namun seiring perkembangan diubah menjadi SyFy. Sayangnya nama baru ini justru kemudian “bermasalah”. Dalam bahasa Polandia SyFy bisa diartikan sebagai sifilis.

10. Siri

Siri (dibaca sɪri ) adalah asisten pribadi cerdas dan navigator pengetahuan yang bekerja sebagai aplikasi untuk iOS (Apple) yang awalnya dikembangkan oleh Siri Inc. Pihak Apple mengklaim dengan menggunakan Siri kita akan merasa seperti memiliki seorang asisten pribadi. Sayangnya nama ini sedikit menyinggung bagi orang Jepang. Dalam bahasa Jepang Siri berarti, maaf, pantat.

11. Nokia Lumia

Lumia merupakan salah satu ponsel andalan dari pabrikan Nokia. Sayangnya nama ponsel ini jadi sedikit memalukan di Spanyol. Dalam bahasa Spanyol Lumia bisa diartikan sebagai, maaf, pelacur. Jadi setiap orang yang punya Lumia bisa dianggap sebagai mucikari oleh orang Spanyol.

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Akuilah Kehebatan Visual Branding

2014-09-23T12:39:00.002+07:00

Branding
Akuilah Kehebatan Visual Branding

Strategi pengelolaan Brand yang baik akan membuat sebuah brand bisa dikenal oleh publiknya. Proses brand building membutuhkan waktu yang cukup dan harus dikerjakan dengan sistematis dan kontinyu.

Visual Branding adalah pengaruh yang diakibatkan oleh suatu bentuk visual untuk mendifferensiasikan brand. Differensiasi artinya membedakan brand tersebut dari brand competitor, sehingga dapat terlihat dan dirasakan menonjol disbanding yang lain dan paling diingat oleh publiknya.

Adapun elemen-elemen terpenting dari sebuah visual branding terdiri dari :

1. Brand (merek, logo) yang bisa berbentuk visual, teks, atau keduanya.

2. Warna (produk, korporat)

3. Komposisi semua elemen penyusunnya.

Dan tiga hal tersebut lalu diimplementasikan dalam Brand Identity sebuah perusahaan atas sebuah produk, yang bisa kita lihat di media lini atas (above the line) maupun media lini bawah (below the line). Selanjutnya, kita bisa saksikan parade kampanyenya di iklan teve, iklan Koran, leaflet, brosur, billboard bahkan event-event off air. Tujuannya jelas, agar brand tersebut bisa dikenal oleh publiknya. Pertama bisa diingat secara visual, selanjutnya bisa diterima di hati.

Strategi Visual Branding

Marty Neumeier dalam bukunya The Brand Gap membeberkan strategi visual branding menjadi 5 (lima) tahap, diantaranya adalah : Differensiasi, Kolaborasi, Inovasi, Evaluasi, dan Manajemen.
Differensiasi : Untuk berhasil, sebuah produk harus mempunyai pembeda yang unik dengan produk lain. Pembeda tersebut bisa berasal dari kategori produknya sendiri, segmentasi, kualitas, atau packaging-nya.
Kolaborasi : Brand Building tidak bisa dikerjakan semuanya oleh produsen. Produsen Design harus berkolaborasi dan saling berinteraksi dengan konsumen untuk menentukan design yang baik dan tepat sasaran, sehingga brand mereka bisa menjadi Top Of Mind.
Inovasi : Brand yang tidak diremajakan dan direvitalisasi akan lenyap ditelan waktu. Sebuah brand perlu berinovasi dengan perubahan-perubahan yang baru. Perubahan yang dilakukan harus sistematis dan tetap menjaga benang merah komunikasinya.
Evaluasi : Tingkat penerimaan target audiens atas sebuah brand harus dilacak dan diketahui. Biasanya survey dilakukan untuk mendapatkan tingkat akseptabilitas (penerimaan) khalayak. Akan lebih baik jika hasil evaluasi dijadikan referensi untuk menentukan strategi branding berikutnya.
Manajemen Brand : Brand yang bisa bertahan lama, perlu menjalankan metode manajemen yang baik dan sistematis. Oleh karena itu, manajemen dibutuhkan untuk menguatkan brand dari waktu ke waktu dan membentuk brand agar memiliki visi ke depan.

Sumber : M. Arief Budiman. Jualan Ide Segar. (Yogyakarta : Galang Press. 2008). Hal. 93-98

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Mengartikan Kata Iklan

2014-09-23T12:38:00.001+07:00

Yuk Mengartikan Kata Iklan

Iklan yang kita ketahui selama ini sering kita sebut dengan sponsor, padahal makna dan arti iklan sendiri lebih besar dari kata sponsor. Iklan tidak hanya sponsor tapi sponsor sudah pasti iklan. Yuk cari tahu makna dan arti kata iklan yang sebenarnya. Penjelasannya ada di sini.

Istilah “iklan” (bahasa melayu) berasal dari kata I’lan (bahasa arab) yang artinya meneriakkan secara berulang-ulang. Istilah lain dari iklan adalah “reklame”, pengaruh bahasa perancis reclame yang asalnya dari bahasa Latin reclamare, artinya menyerukan. Di masa lalu banyak orang Indonesia menyebutkan “advertensi”, terpengaruh bahasa Belanda advertentie. Saat ini orang lebih akrab dengan istilah advertising (bahasa inggris), berasal dari bahasa Latin advertere yang artinya berpaling, memusatkan perhatian kepada sesuatu. Jadi, secara sederhana iklan dapat diartikan menyerukan informasi atau membuat audiens berpaling, memperhatikan pesan.

Dalam perkembangannnya, iklan memiliki makna yang lebih luas. Menurut Rhenald kasali, iklan adalah pesan yang menawarkan suatu produk yang ditujukan kepada masyarakat lewat suatu produk yang ditujukan kepada masyarakat lewat suatu media. Bedanya dengan pengumuman biasa, iklan lebih diarahkan untuk membujuk orang supaya membeli produk atau jasa yang ditawarkan. Sebagaimana yang dikatakan Frank Jefkins,”advertising aims to persuade people to buy.” Artinya, iklan bertujuan membujuk orang untuk membeli. Sementara itu menurut William F. Arens, “advertising is the structured and composed nonpersonal communication of services, and ideas) by identified sponsors through various media”. Pernyataan tersebut dapat diartikan, iklan adalah struktur dan susunan komunikasi nonpersonal mengenai informasi produk 9barang, jasa,ide), umumnya dibiayai dan bersifat membujuk, dilakukan oleh sponsor yang teridentifikasi melalui berbagai media.

Iklan merupakan salah satu alat marketing untuk memperlihatkan dan menjual produk dari perusahaan kepada masyarakat tertentu (target audience) menggunakan elemen-elemen verbal dan visual melalui media yang dianggap efektif. Meskipun ada iklan yang bertujuan menciptakan awareness agar tetap dikenal masyarakat, namun tujuan akhirnya tetap showing and selling the product.

Namun di luar itu, ada jenis iklan nonkomersial yang bertujuan menyampaikan informasi atau pesan kepada masyarakat, tanpa mengharapkan keuntungan finansial, di Indonesia, iklan public service ini disebut Iklan Layanan Masyarakat (ILM), dalam bahasa inggris disebut public service advertising (PSA). ILM ini umumnya berisi demi kebaikan. Sebagai contoh, imbauan untuk mengenakan sabuk pengaman, anjuran memakai helm, ajakan membeli produk dalam negeri, larangan merokok di ruang publik, larangan mengonsumsi obat terlarang, dan sebagainya.

Secara umum, iklan bisa muncul di mana saja, menggunakan media apa saja yang bisa mengusung informasi penjualan kepada target audiens secara efektif. Kita bisa menemukannya di bus, jaket, T-shirt, topi, bolpoin, shopping bag, payung, di tepi-tepi jalan raya sampai pinggir lapangan sepak bola.

Di luar itu, masih ada iklan radio,televise,internet,megatron (papan reklame yang menampilkan gambar bergerak), dan media lainnya. Pembahasan iklan dalam buku ini dibatasi pada jenis iklan media massa, terutama iklan di majalah dan surat kabar.

Berbeda dengan media audio(radio) dan audio-visual (televisi),iklan media cetak (print ads) hanya mengandalkan elemen-elemen visual yang statis, tidak bergerak dan tidak bersuara. Karena sifatnya statis maka anda harus kreatif menciptakan unsur-unsur visual agar mampu merebut perhatian pembaca. Selain menggunakan huruf dan ilustrasi, anda dapat mengeksploitasi warna, garis, tekstur, dan elemen grafis yang atraktif.

Sumber : Rakhmat Supriyono, Desain Komunikasi Visual, (Yogyakarta: Andi Offset, 2010), hal. 127-130

Mengevaluasi Efektivitas Merek

2014-09-23T12:36:00.005+07:00

Branding
Mengevaluasi Efektivitas Merek

Mengevaluasi Efektivitas Merek

Young dan Rubicam (Y&R) salah satu biro iklan terbesar di Dunia mengatakan bahwa merek-merek yang sukses memiliki dua kualitas : vitalitas merek (brand vitality) dan ketokohan merek (brand stature). Masing-masing kualitas ini terbentuk dari dua kualitas lainnya. Suatu merek dikatakan memiliki vitalitas merek bila (1) berbeda dari merek-merek lain di benak konsumen dan (2) bila perbedaan tersebut relevan dengan kebutuhan konsumen. Merek memiliki ketokohan (stature) bila (1) sangat dihargai dan (2) sangat dikenal pasar dan sasarannya.

Menggunakan dimensi-dimensi tersebut, Y&R menarik beberapa kesimpulan dalam mengevaluasi suatu merek :
Merek yang sangat dikenal tetapi kurang dihargai adalah merek yang bermasalah. Kualitas atau fitur merek tersebut perlu diperbaiki sebelum diiklankan. Periklanan yang gencar justru dapat mempercepat matinya merek yang kurang dihargai.
Merek yang disukai tetapi kurang dikenal merupakan kandidat utama untuk dikampanyekan secara besar-besaran.
Merek yang memiliki vitalitas tinggi tetapi ketokohannya kurang merupakan kandidat berikutnya untuk diiklankan secara gencar.
Merek yang diferensiasi dan relevansinya merosot akan segera kehilangan penghargaan dan kemudian keterkenalannya.

Sebagian besar pekerjaan seorang manajer merek adalah membangun citra merek. Namun, pekerjaan manajer merek tidak berhenti sampai di sini. Manajer merek perlu memastikan bahwa pengalaman merek (brand experience) sesuai dengan citra merek (brand iamge).

Oleh karena itu, membangun merek menuntut lebih banyak daripada sekedar membangun citra merek. Ini mengharuskan pengelolaan setiap kontak merek dengan pelanggan. Karena semua karyawan, distributor, dan penyalur dapat memengaruhi pengalaman merek, tantangan bagi suatu merek adalah mengelola kualitas semua kontak merek (brand contacts).

Sumber : Philip Kotler. Kotler On Marketing. (Tangerang: Karisma Publishing Group. 2010) Hal. 120 – 122

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10 Aturan Branding yang Wajib Dipatuhi

2014-09-23T12:35:00.002+07:00

10 Aturan Branding yang Wajib Dipatuhi

Berikut ini adalah 10 Aturan Branding yang ditulis oleh Jacky Tai dan Wilson Chew dalam bukunya Transforming Your Business into a Brand dan disimpulkan kembali ke dalam buku Brand Management – 13 Strategi Untuk Mengembangkan Merek Anda.

Aturan Pertama : Persepsi adalah Kenyataan

Branding memiliki tempat di benak konsumen, bukan di dunia nyata. Apa yg dianggap benar oleh pikiran adalah kebenaran, dan Anda tidak dapat membantahnya. Persepsi adalah Kenyataan. Branding bukanlah pertarungan untuk menentukan siapa yang dapat membuat produk yang lebih baik, tapi branding adalah pertarungan untuk menentukan siapa yang dapat menciptakan persepsi lebih baik.

Aturan Kedua : Keberuntungan untuk yang pertama

Menjadi yang pertama lebih baik daripada menjadi yang lebih baik. Hal ini penting, walaupun bukan jaminan kesuksesan. Menjadi yang pertama memberikan Anda kesempatan untuk memantapkan merek Anda dalam benak pelanggan sebelum ada pesaing. Apabila Anda tidak memanfaatkan kesempatan ini, Anda akan kehilangan keuntungan.

Aturan Ketiga : Buatlah Kategori Baru

Apabila Anda bukan merek pertama atau kedua di pasaran, masih ada harapan bagi anda untuk menjadi yang pertama diingat. Buatlah kategori yang menjadikan merek Anda sebagai yang pertama di dalamnya. And akan perlu mempromosikannya dengan agresif, tapi merek Anda akan berkembang seiring berkembangnya kategori tersebut. Anda akan dipandang sebagai merek juara karena promosi yang Anda lakukan.

Aturan Keempat : Fokus Anda

Ketika Anda focus, merek Anda menjadi kuat. Hal ini terjadi karena dalam pikiran mereka – orang hanya mengasosiasikan merek Anda dengan satu hal. Akan tetapi anda harus berkorban untuk melakukannya. Visi untuk menjadi yang pertama dalam satu hal menggerakkan merek terfokus. Walaupun demikian, merek terfokus cenderung menghasilkan lebih banyak uang dalam jangka panjang, dibandingkan merek tidak terfokus.

Aturan Kelima : Diferensiasikan Atau Jual Murah

Anda tidak mungkin membangun merek kuat tanpa diferensiasi. Apabila pelanggan tidak dapat membedakan produk Anda dari produk pesaing Anda, mereka akan membeli yang berharga lebih murah – yang mungkin saja bukan produk anda. Anda harus bersaing dalam harga jika anda tidak terdiferensiasi, dan Anda mungkin tidak dapat mempertahankan keuntungan itu dalam jangka panjang.

Aturan Keenam : Gunakan Hubungan Masyarakat (Humas) Untuk Membangun Merek.

Iklan adalah apa yang Anda katakana tentang diri Anda, dan Anda – tentu saja – cenderung mengatakan hal-hal baik. Oleh karena itu, iklan memiliki sangat sedikit kredibilitas. Humas adalah apa yang media katakana tentang Anda dan, karena media adalah pihak ketiga, pendapat mereka akan menyerupai kebenaran. Humas memiliki kredibilitas yang tidak dimiliki oleh iklan, tetapi Anda tetap membutuhkan iklan untuk memelihara merek anda.

Aturan Ketujuh : Temukan Nama Yang Hebat

Bisnis sudah cukup sulit tanpa harus dibebani oleh nama produk yang gampang dilupakan. Anda telah setengah kalah dengan memilih nama yang jelek, jadi bekerja keraslah untuk memastikan Anda memiliki nama merek yang unik dan mudah diingat. Lagi pula, merek Anda hanyalah sebuah nama dalam jangka panjang. Ide-ide hebat yang Anda miliki sekarang dapat, dan akan, ditiru oleh pesaing Anda. Namalah yang akan tersisa untuk membedakan anda.

Aturan Kedelapan : Selalu Konsisten

Tidak ada orang yang suka berada di sekitar orang berkepribadian banyak karena mereka sering dianggap gila. Hal serupa berlaku bagi merek gila, karena itu merek Anda harus sepenuhnya berperilaku secara konsisten. Apabila merek Anda berubah-ubah, pelanggan Anda akan bingung dan mulai membelot pada saingan anda.

Aturan Kesembilan : Carilah Musuh, Bukan Teman

Untuk membangun merek kuat, Anda perlu membrikan alasan keberadaannya dan membuktikan kepantasannya untuk tetap ada. Oleh sebab itu, Anda perlu mencari musuh. Ketika Anda memiliki lawan yang kuat, merek Anda mendapatkan alas an untuk diterima dunia. Musuh Anda tidak harus berupa merek lain, melainkan dapat berupa kemacetan, polusi lingkungan, atau kemiskinan.

Aturan Kesepuluh : Tahu Waktu yang tepat untuk Meluncurkan Merek Kedua

Merek Anda tidak dapat mewakili segalanya. Ia akan memasuki kategori baru. Ketika saat itu tiba, lebih baik Anda memperkenalkan merek kedua daripada memperluas merek pertama dan mengaburkan maknanya. Akan tetapi, kami sarankan Anda melakukan hal ini ketika merek pertama Anda telah menjadi merek juara dalam kategorinya. Apabila anda harus berusaha keras meningkatkan penjualan di kategori yang anda kenal baik, bagaimana anda dapat melakukannya dengan baik di kategori yang tidak Anda kenal baik?

Sumber : Jacky Tai dan Wilson Chew. Brand Management. (Jakarta: PT. Indeks. 2012) Hal. xiii – ix

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Contact Us

2014-09-21T22:16:00.004+07:00

Contact Us
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The 20 biggest logo design trends

2014-09-21T21:09:00.004+07:00

The 20 biggest logo design trends

Logo design is one of many areas of design that looks easy but is damned difficult to pull off successfully. Last year's aborted University of California rebrand shows just how difficult it is to please all of the people, all of the time - especially when remaking an existing much-loved identity. But even when you're designing a logo for a new company or brand, it's a huge challenge to create something that will grab attention - in the right way - in a crowded marketplace.

Part of the challenge is looking current and contemporary without shortening your logo's shelf-life. In other words, you don't want it to look old-fashioned, but neither do you want it to look so 'of the moment' that it will quickly date.

To help guide you through, we've rounded up 20 of the biggest logo trends at time of writing. Don't blindly follow them, but being aware of them can help you strike that perfect balance that will lead to a logo that's memorable and impactful without needing a redesign come 2014...
Read all our logo related posts here
01. Black & White Brooklyn's non-profit dance company has a classic, bold type-based logo

A sufficient logo should always hold its own in black and white. And sometimes that's all you need. The classic combo of black and white will be a big trend throughout 2013 as designers stray from vibrant colours to stand out with bold typographic treatment. The commanding use of black and white may be one of the oldest traditions but done in the right way, it's far from boring and out-dated.
02. Simplification Harvard University reduced its fussy emblem last year to this starkly simple logo

From Microsoft to Harvard University, many re-brands have appeared lately baring their bones. It could be argued that logo design has always followed this path - simplify a well-known logo over time as it becomes more familiar. But it certainly seems to have intensified recently, with more and more logos paring their design down to almost nothing.
03. Mosaic patterns WebMynd makes personalized search apps for the browser

Mosaic patterns are becoming more popular in logos, used to represent such concepts as 'growth', 'values', 'coming together', 'strength in numbers' and 'multicultural'. Logos are incorporating a mosaic pattern in an increasingly sophisticated manner, using only a small number of elements to structure the arrangement. This allows the logo to work in multiple size formats and does not become blurred once at a smaller scale.

The colour palette makes a considerable impact on the mosaic itself; organic colours, from sky blues to grassy greens to muted browns, are becoming increasingly popular.
04. Energetic The Rio Olympics logo conveys the vivacious spirit of the home of carnvial

In contrast to trends 01 and 02, there's a parallel surge of energetic logo designs. The Olympic Rio 2016 logo's vibrant and charismatic identity is a great example - but this kind of visual impact isn't easy to create. To learn more, check out the video below, showing the immense level of research, thought and passion that went into its development.
05. Serrated edges We're expecting to see more serrated edges in logo design this year

If you thought it was a relief to finally shake off the Olympic London 2012 logo, be well prepared for abstracted geometric shapes in 2013. Take this unofficial logo for next year's Transformers 4 movie; whatever you may think of the franchise, the harsh serrated edges of the logo work brilliantly here to grab the attention.
06. App Store influence Logo for www.studio7designs.com/about/

App design has become so popular, it's not surprising that the highly crafted, slick icons that dominate the app store and populate your digital devices have moved into branding and, specifically, logo design.
07. Airline/international Familiar 'air freight' style and colours helps reinforces this brand's values

Timeless and clear is one way to describe this trend. Specifically, 'Airline' refers to an international aesthetic, a truly modern look, and simple designs with bold colours. Take Anagrama's work for Bricos - a hardware store rebranding as a global construction material supplier - as an example. Bold red, white and blue stripes makes the brand feel very international and is a strong corporate identity.
08. Transparent overlaps Transparent overlaps (or links) have become popular

Transparent links, or overlaps, is a new technique that's become very prevalent over the last year or so. You can see this in Jessica Walsh's - of Sagmeister Walsh fame - identity for EDP, where shapes are expertly fused together using subtle gradients to produce a slick logo for the leading renewable energy supplier.
09. Honest and simple Homemade, natural look for this healthy brand keeps things honest and simple

Homemade and thrifty is very in - just look at popular lifestyle magazine The Simple Things for instance. & Smith - a studio describing itself as 'dedicated to the craft of design' created this identity for Honestly Healthy: a badge approach which sums up this trend in logo design perfectly.
10. Focus Selective focus can lead to eyes lingering on a logo

Who says logos have to be crisp and sharp? Selective focus can be used to create subtle misty qualities that bring a logo to attention by fading it into the background. The example here shows the soft edges of the mark appear to vanish into the surface, creating a gorgeous dream-like quality.
11. The reveal The reveal is a cheeky and clever way to create a logo

Rebranding a huge company such as DC is no mean feat - and one that Landor Associates were brave enough to tackle. The beauty of this method is that it reveals the C from a D - a clever and simple mark that you immediately get.

The logo - or the 'reveal' - could be applied to multiple DC properties, such as The Green Lantern, Watchmen and more, with the 'D' peeling back to reveal hints at the different superheroes.

"We were looking for a living, breathing identity that could celebrate everything that DC Entertainment is about, but which could also be forward-looking, bold, provocative and allow us to celebrate the owe of our stories and characters," says Amit Desai, SVP of Franchise Management at DC.
12. Tessellation More4's logo design combines the geometric approach and the aforementioned reveal

Tessellation essentially involves mosaic-like patterns. A good example is the rebranding of Channel 4's sister station More4 by ManvsMachine. A particularly nice use is in the More4 idents where the triangles flip to reveal different colours (see 'The reveal', above).
13. Incomplete Incomplete fonts create an illusion to give a sophisticated look how to logo design

Missing links and simple illusions can result in very sophisticated branding solutions. A good example is Johnson Banks' logo for market research company Basis (above). Another example of logo design like this is Anagrama's subtle branding for architectural firm MTLL – in which the studio removed many elements for the branding in order to communicate the firm's dedication to finding simple solutions. Also check out Founded's work for SKIRT.
14. Splatters and watercolor Watercolor is undoubtedly one of the major trends in logo design

Watercolor is one of the big logo design trends of the moment. A great example is Helsinki based studio Bond's work for Oivi, a Finnish independent brewery. Working with Stina Persson it created a beautiful, stylish identity for one of Oivi's ciders. See this excellent blog for more details.
15. Moiré Another type of optical illusion here: Moiré is proving a popular way to brand a logo

Moiré patterns - the kind of optical illusions created by converging and colliding grid-like patterns - are becoming more and more popular within branding and identity design. Good examples include Mexican design agency Burocrata's work for ABO and Daniel Feytag's stunning work for motion studio The Guild.
16. Basic shapes Stark basic shapes in monochrome

Basic shapes can create incredible impact in logo design. Simple silhouette-like identities can pore to be extremely stylish. Take the Red de Cátedras Cerámicas logo by BOSCO for ASCER. The simple geometric 'AS' shape standing alone without text is striking and efficient.
17. Abstract and sharp type Sharp, angular type is legible but fresh

There's something about modern, sharp, handcrafted typographic logos that really hit the spot. This identity work for a café and restaurant in Tel Aviv by Morey Talmor is the perfect example of how to brand a logo in an eye-catching design that is immediately legible but extremely fresh at the same time.
18. Word search Word search trend is fun and makes you think

'Word Search' is about having fun with logos, turning them into codes or puzzles by cutting them up, inverting them or hiding parts of the identity. Hort's work for TEMAConsult is a prime example of how to brand a logo using this trend.
19. Script/retro Classic script logos are back in a big way

Retro/script fonts always have a certain appeal due to their air of fun combined with classic aesthetic. One fantastic example is BrandOpus' work for Willie's Cacao chocolate. Sketched on paper before being finalized in Illustrator CS6 and Photoshop CS6, the result is a beautiful script logo that accentuates the tastiness of the goods inside the packaging.
20. Grown up eBay has controversially turned its back on playful in favour of a more grown-up logo

With eBay's new logo, many are saying that designers are taking the fun out of tech companies. The new eBay logo is, admittedly, a rather bland logo design compared to its old, very recognizable quirky marque. But that was probably the point.

2014 Logo Design Trends & Inspiration

2014-09-21T21:04:00.004+07:00

2014 Logo Design Trends & Inspiration

Logo Lounge for the past eleven years, has posted annual logo design trend reports and they have just released the 2014 logo design trends report. I would love to hear your thoughts on the showcased trends.

Do these identity / branding trends affect you or your process? Do you agree with these suggestions? Have you noticed any other trends?
Logo Lounge:
2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003
Discussion on Just Creative: 2013 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009
Disclaimer

On this topic of trends, one should not follow trends for the sake of following them. As Bill Gardner points out:

Every year, it’s worth noting that this is a report on trends, not a recipe book of styles. It is also not a finite list: There are other valid trends out there that are not mentioned here.

The report should serve you as an ongoing view of where logo design is headed. The word “trends” in itself can have a very negative cast, but in truth, trends aren’t bad. They reveal our growth. It’s our take on them that allows us to move even further forward.
Mono Crest

Letter Stacks

Hand Type

Dazzle

Flat Facets

Geo Wires

Trans Menagerie

Waves

Hexagons

Geography

Pompons

Knit

States

Links

Motion Lines

Do these identity / branding trends effect you or your process? Do you agree with these suggestions? Have you noticed any other trends?’ © Artwork shown is copyright of their respective owners. Designer’s names & clients are below each logo. Original compilation by Bill Gardner.

99 Creative Logo Designs for Inspiration

2014-09-21T20:45:00.005+07:00

99 Creative Logo Designs for Inspiration
Picking out the latest trends in branding, identity and logo design in 2012.

Achieving a well designed logo requires really hard work and being up to date with the latest trends in design. It's probably the best way of establishing brand identity, making an impact on customers and ensuring that they'll remember your site and come back for a second visit. Most logos communicate ideas, for instance the kind of quality services a company can provide for its customers.
Today we've gathered 99 creative logo designs for your inspiration, hope you find them useful.
Take a moment and let us know which are your favorites in the comments below.

Podarko.ru

Greek Whole Food

Shop Wise Logo

Cribys

Spartan

Fish food

Tomot

The Lucky Ones Brand

Motion Animation Studio

Fuel

Wavy Cafe

Addicted - Game bilding

Milky Mug

ChocoPie

Yarn Crate

Twins

Utopia

UP

Brand

Kittypic

BarCode

Go-tickets

Antarctica

Union of Moscow Architects Brand

Data Arms

Sayulita

Bird & Worm Creative Agency

Half Badger

Commuter Network

One

Wave

Cook Finder

iGadet Lopotype

My Indian closet Brand

Killed Productions

Colour Fruit

Happy Sticks

Crown

Barknews Media

Silfver Creations Photography

Thread Me

Knife

500 Stars

Subtle Yoga

EDN

Le Cafe Chat Noir

Sushi

FHOKE

Oficio by Estudio Cercle

Bendy You Photography

Freelancer

Artists United

Girls Talkin Smack

Doodie Call

Cook eat Love

Premium Design

On Wine

Dug

Anti Particle

Electric Elephant

Bison

Blue Elephant

Martini House

Elena Alexeeva

MORE

Ed's Electric

Wiesinger Music Piano Service

Bread

Snap

White Rabbit

Vesta

1Kids

Myëukon.po

Mushroom

Jennifer Dawe

Page Fold

Green Labs

Horror Films

Pencil

Paper Clip

Spartan Golf Club

LOOK

IDEA

Human

David

Silvia

101 Princess St. Inspired - Office Environment

Five

Webankor

Seven Sparrows

Flightning

Message

Water Drop

Six Base

Boundary

Zip

Music Dog

Stink

Makes The Best Logos

2014-09-21T20:40:00.002+07:00

Expert Explains What Makes The Best Logos So Good

Every day consumers are confronted with countless logos, mostly unaware of how these icons are constantly transmitting a slew of messages aimed at the subconscious.

“A company’s logo is its shorthand, a visual cue that tells a story of the brand’s culture, behavior, and values,” said Su Mathews Hale, a senior partner at the New York brand-strategy and design firm Lippincott. Because a logo may only have a second to tell this story, creating one “can sometimes be the most difficult aspect of branding,” she said.

We had her guide us through some of her favorite projects she’s worked on, as well as some of the corporate logos she most admires.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc

Walmart

In 2005, Wal-Mart recruited Lippincott to reimagine its brand. It wanted to shed its image as a big corporate outlet for cheap products and become seen as a place where people could wisely save money and buy premium groceries. Wal-Mart debuted its new logo in 2008.

Mathews and her team felt that the old logo’s all-caps, dark blue letters screamed “corporation” and had become inextricably linked to the popular view among critics who saw Wal-Mart as a malevolent giant crushing small businesses across the country. They deemed the star serving as a hyphen generic and forgettable. They also believed that businesses with hyphenated “mart” names conjured up images of corner stores and cheap outlets.

They decided to keep the color blue, which Mathews said is the world’s favorite color, but go for a brighter hue they believed evoked modernity and trustworthiness. They replaced the sharp angles of the original letters with “a more humanistic font.” Finally, they decided on an asterisk-like symbol they wanted to look like “a lightbulb going off in your head,” a metaphor for Wal-Mart shoppers being smart for taking advantage of affordable, quality products. They chose a hue of yellow that appeared hopeful but didn’t make it too bright because “bright yellow is associated with low-cost items in retail,” said Mathews. She was happy to find that focus groups also interpreted the spark as a sun or flower, both positive associations.
eBay

eBay

In 2012, eBay basically had the inverse problem from Wal-Mart: It wanted to finally grow up, and its playful logo was getting in the way of its ambition. Mathews said that when Internet companies have electric, jumbled logos, they conjure up memories of the companies that died when the dot-com bubble burst. So, for eBay, she and her team stuck close to the original design but refined the typography, toned down the colors, and put the letters on the same baseline. The resulting logo is “more grounded” and better suited for a company that takes business seriously.
Hyatt Place

Hyatt

Hyatt Hotels Corporation bought AmeriSuites in 2004, and Lippincott was responsible for rebranding the chain as Hyatt Place, which launched in 2006. Hyatt and the designers believed that AmeriSuite’s affordable business-suite market was beginning to be seen as boring, cheap alternatives to upscale hotels, and that the way to turn it around would be to turn it into the option for younger business travelers who may not be very wealthy but still appreciate luxury.

A fundamental component of the relaunch was to give every Hyatt Place an attractive, engaging lobby. The final logo combined two different shapes: In design, said Mathews, “a circle tends to be seen as modern and approachable” and “a square tends to be steadfast and disciplined.” The design team chose vibrant colors for seven of the circles and picked black for two. When Hyatt Place signs are illuminated at night, the colored circles create an “H” for “Hyatt,” which Mathews finds to be a fun, extra dimension of the logo.
Starbucks

Starbucks

Over the past several years, Starbucks has grown into a global powerhouse and has been heavily promoting its non-coffee products, like pastries, sandwiches, and teas. In 2011, it decided it wanted a simpler logo not tied to the word “coffee.” Mathews was not involved in the project, but her Lippincott colleagues were.

The redesign started with a basic premise. When focus groups were asked what color Starbucks’ logo was, explained Mathews, participants almost universally said “green.” But the thing is, only the ring around the former logo was green — the siren character was outlined in black. Mathews said the designers freed the siren from her constraints and imbued her with the color with which customers were already associating the brand. They nixed the word “coffee” and brought the text outside of the circle, since the siren had become iconic enough to stand on her own.

“It’s a great example of how a logo can evolve,” said Mathews.
NBC

NBC

Lippincott has not worked with NBC, but Mathews said the NBC peacock is one of her favorite logos. She thinks the logo has improved over time as it’s gotten simpler, and that even though the peacock’s colors originally celebrated the advent of color television, the array of colors still transmits feelings of joy and energy.
FedEx

FedEx

FedEx’s logo is another one of Mathew’s favorites. As shown by her work with the Hyatt Place logo, she likes images that have surprises in them, and the arrow formed by the “E” and “x” in FedEx is one of the best-known hidden designs. She also appreciates the timeless nature of the logo. “It could have be designed in 1970 or it could have been designed yesterday,” she said.

It was actually created in 1994 by Lindon Leader, and it has won more than 40 design awards, partially for the reasons Mathews mentioned.
Apple

Apple

Mathews thinks that Apple’s logo is a perfect example of how a logo needs to adapt to the changing direction of the company it represents. One of Apple’s co-founders, Ronald Wayne, designed the first Apple logo, a weird, detailed etching of Sir Isaac Newton that was supposed to represent the way Apple was an ambitious outsider. That same year, Steve Jobs hired Rob Janoff to replace it with something more modern. Janoff came up with the now iconic image of an apple with a bite out of it, and Jobs decided Apple’s unique approach to computers would be represented by making it rainbow-colored.

It became monochrome in 1998 to fit into the clean, simplistic designs that the company decided to pursue.
Regarding trends and presentation

When tackling a branding project, Mathews differentiates between the “true and new.” She say a logo needs to be “true,” in the sense that it should not be fundamentally tied to a trend, the “new.” The trendiness is more appropriate in supporting elements of branding, like store experiences or website interfaces. That said, a logo should be fundamentally sound but also be adaptable to the ways it will be presented.

“Logos used to have to be recognizable down to the size that they would be represented on a business card. Now they have to work at much smaller sizes, because they’ll be seen on mobile screens,” Mathews said. That’s actually the reason why so many logos have become “flatter,” in the sense that they’ve been stripped of techniques like shadowing that add a dimension of depth or movement.

Here’s an example of how Google went flat last year:

Google

“I personally like more simple designs,” said Mathews. “Gradients are my worst nightmare.”

Market Research

2014-09-16T12:34:00.001+07:00

The market research process consists of six discrete stages or steps. They are as follows:

Step 1 - Articulate the research problem and objectives
Step 2 - Develop the overall research plan
Step 3 – Collect the data or information
Step 4 – Analyze the data or information
Step 5 – Present or disseminate the findings
Step 6 – Use the findings to make the decision

In the market research process, the fourth step is: Analyze the Data or Information.

The amount of data that can be collected and assembled in a market research study can be astronomical. Data organization and data reduction are two very important aspects of data analysis that is seldom highlighted. Yet, these steps are crucial to the ability to make sense out of data and to the ability to make cogent and insightful data interpretation. An impressive array of methods for data organization and data reduction are available.

A market researcher may tabulate data or compile frequency distributions. The means or averages and other measures of dispersion are common ways of analyzing data for which frequency distributions are available. Very often, advanced statistics and decision models are used to maximize the information that can be extracted from research data. The following section provides a brief description of several commonly used statistical tools, decision support models, and optimization routines

Quantitative Market Research Decision Support Tools

Statistical Methods
Multiple Regression - This statistical procedure is used to estimate the equation with the best fit for explaining how the value of a dependent variable changes as the values of a number of independent variables shift. A simple market research example is the estimation of the best fit for advertising by looking at how sales revenue (the dependent variable) changes in relation to expenditures on advertising, placement of ads, and timing of ads.
Discriminant Analysis - This statistical technique is used to for classification of people, products, or other tangibles into two or more categories. Market research can make use of discriminant analyses in a number of ways. One simple example is to distinguish what advertising channels are most effective for different types of products.
Factor Analysis - This statistical method is used to determine which are the strongest underlying dimensions of a larger set of variables that are inter-correlated. Where many variables are correlated, factor analysis identifies which relations are strongest. A Using factor analysis, a market researcher who wants to know what combination of variables or factors are most appealing to a particular type of consumer can use factor analysis to reduce the data down to a few variables are most appealing to consumers.
Cluster Analysis - This statistical procedure is used to separate objects into a specific number of groups that are mutually exclusive but that are also relatively homogeneous in constitution. This process is similar to what occurs in market segmentation where the market researcher is interested in the similarities that facilitate grouping consumers into segments and is also interested in the attributes that make the market segments distinct.
Conjoint Analysis - This statistical method is used to unpack the preferences of consumers with regard to different marketing offers. Two dimensions are of interest to the market researcher in conjoint analysis: (1) The inferred utility functions of each attribute, and (2) the relative importance of the preferred attributes to the consumers.
Multidimensional Scaling - This category represents a constellation of techniques used to produce perceptual maps of competing brands or products. For instance, in multidimensional scaling, brands are shown in a space of attributes in which distance between the brands represents dissimilarity. An example of multidimensional scaling in market research would show the manufacturers of single serving coffee in the form of "K-cups." The different K-cup brands would be arrayed in the multidimensional space by attributes such as strength of roast, number of flavored and specialty versions, distribution channels, and packaging options.

You can explore more data reduction and decision support models that are used in step four of the market research process. Or you can move on to Step 5. Present the Findings.

Sources:

Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing Management (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., Prentice Hall.

Lehmann, D. R. Gupta, S., and Seckel, J. (1997). Market Research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Analysis of Your Digital Brand

2014-09-16T12:28:00.002+07:00

10 Steps For a DIY SWOT Analysis of Your Digital Brand

As marketing continues to evolve some older practices still work, one of those is a S.W.O.T. Analysis. This time lets conduct one for your digital brand.

First off, what exactly is a digital SWOT Analysis?

A digital S.W.O.T. is a strategic analysis of your business to help identify your brands online STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES and your THREATS. By going through this process you will have a better idea of of how strong your brand’s online presence is and where you have opportunities to improve. This process also helps you identify untapped resources, and opportunities to better optimize your content for increased search results. The threat part of the process helps with competitive analysis and preparing your brand for threats from competition and from the Internet such as Google algorithm updates which are occurring more regularly as the web continues to evolve.

While the power of the Internet continues to grow, so does the competition. At the core a strong digital foundation for a brand starts with an easy to navigate, content managed website. From there you need to layer in social media networks, blogging, content creation and content curating to utilize as a promotional channel for your online brand. The more focused, targeted and relevant the content the more effective you will be in building a relationship with your consumers.

As the world of advertising and marketing continue to change creating conversational content is important. But before you can be effective no matter how awesome your content is you need to have a strong, interconnected digital foundation.

Before, I proceed with a new client it is required to conduct a digital SWOT analysis of the brand to set a foundational benchmark. Huh? Successful digital marketing requires checks and balances, well if you don’t have a starting point then how do you know if your marketing efforts are successful?

Before a strategy and a plan is formed it is important to review your online portfolio, social profiles, website and listings. You would be surprised how effective you can be with just making some minor tweaks and updates. As the web and social media networks have made updates the tools and options available make it important to check on a regular basis.

Why is it important to review your online listings and profiles? Many brands may have jumped on social networks and filled out profiles on industry listings, however when was the last time you reviewed and updated those profiles? First impressions may actually occur more often on-line then in real life. And for those that take place in real life, you best be aware of what customers and guests are saying about you.

Let’s see if we can turn some of those WEAKNESSES into STRENGTHS.
How Do I Conduct a Do-it-Yourself SWOT Analysis of My Digital Brand?

Step 1 – Search Engines

1. Search for your brand using search engines, don’t just stick with Google try Bing, Yahoo, MSN, etc. Make sure you sign-out if you are logged in or you can use Google Chrome’s Incognito mode so that your activity and connections don’t compromise the search results.
Step 2 – Review Your Social Branded Company Pages

2. Facebook – Check to make sure you have filled out the “About” section on your brand page, this of course assumes that you have a company page. Hello WEAKNESS. Did you include links to your website, blog and other social profiles? Include all contact info under “Basic Information” be sure to choose your categories from the drop down menu. This is important as Facebook rolls out Graph Search, Is Your Business Ready for Facebook Graph Search?

3. LinkedIn – You do want your business to get found, right? You will notice the pattern with all of these social profiles that allow companies and small businesses to create and manage branded pages, even if it benefits them by driving traffic to their network you have an opportunity to gain additional search listings. Invest Time in LinkedIn by filling in all of the required fields with keyword rich descriptions. Make sure the copy is consistent with how you market your brand elsewhere. We will touch on this later but make sure your employees are linked to the company page. And yes, you should be sharing content on your page, especially your content.

4. Google+ – I consider Google+ an OPPORTUNITY for most brands, as it is one of the newer and lesser utilized social networks. Most brands have yet to realize the true value of Google+ with seamless YouTube integration to Google Local, Reviews, Hangouts and so much more.Google Authorship in and of itself is worth the price of admission (which is free by the way).

5. Twitter – Of all of the social networks I see more mismanaged and abandoned Twitter profiles then on any other social network. For some reason Twitter still remains a foreign language to many brands, but the benefits should not be ignored. Did you include your website link on your profile? How about those precious keywords in your bio, you did fill out the bio right? Include a profile image and a background image. The background image has valuable real estate that you can use, tips on how to create the perfect Twitter profile.

6. The rest of the lot: Pinterest, Instagram, Foursquare, Tumbler and so on… Make sure that all of these profiles are merchandised on your website (include visible links to connect to your profiles), and that the branded content is consistent. Use the same brand elements; logo, colors, brand voice and images.

Tip: Make sure that when you use images that you are optimizing them for search results. It doesn’t matter if the images are on your website, blog or social networks if you don’t include image alt tags and descriptions you are missing a great opportunity to be found. Ever do an image search on Google? Exactly.
Step 3 – Your Employees

7. Follow the same process in Step 1 and do a little check on the people within your organization. Yes, I am talking abou doing a background check to see what comes up on your staff and employees. You might just be surprised to see what you come up with, lets hope it’s all good.

8. On a positive side, lets assume all of your employees are model citizens and let’s make sure you are using their social graph for the benefit of the brand. This means to check your employee social profiles and confirm that they are pointing towards your companies pages and listings. Even if your employees aren’t sales people they still are extensions of your brand, and they should be one of your greatest marketing assets. At the very least make sure they list you as their employer on LinkedIn.

Caveat: Make sure that you have an employee social media policy in place.
Step 4 – Owned Digital Media – Your Brand’s Blog and Website

9. Your Company Blog – If you are blogging then go ahead and pat yourself on the back, as this most definitely becomes a STRENGTH. However, many brands don’t take the extra steps to optimize their writing content for search, 10 Tips for Writing Content that Ranks.

10. Your Central Marketing Hub is also known as your website – I left the most important digital asset for last, this is by far the most under appreciated and under utilized asset in most brands marketing arsenal. Why? Because believe it or not most websites are often ignored and left unchanged for far too long. Two pieces of advice optimize the heck out of your website and make sure it is content managed so that you don’t go years (heaven forbid decades) without updating, improving and regularly adding new, relevant content.

Today websites are about performance, and if you have been following many of the tips here they revolve around being found on search engines. You should start by performing an audit for your website’s SEO.

Now of course this is a lot of work but if you require any help with this process feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line. The important take-away is that digital content can and should be monitored, checked and updated on a regular basis.

How often do you Kick the Tires on your Digital Brand? Any tips of suggestions please add them in the comments below.

This article “10 Steps For a DIY SWOT Analysis of Your Digital Brand” first appeared on Brand Education

BRAND MARKETING JOB PROFILE

2014-09-16T12:11:00.006+07:00

BRAND MARKETING JOB PROFILE

Brand marketing jobs are more popular in today's job market; this is the reason that jobs in brand marketing are becoming more and more appealing to job seekers in the market.
BRAND MARKETING

Brand marketing - involving the promotion of any brand activities and strategies to establish and maintain the presence of a brand in the market is known as brand marketing.
BRAND MARKETING MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTIONBRAND MARKETING MANAGER is a person who has marketing responsibilities to develop and execute marketing programs that increase brand identity and brand awareness of a company or product.
Role and Responsibilities of a Brand Marketing Manager

Plan, strategies and execute marketing designs and activities to establish and maintain brand presence in the market
Define product strategies and road maps
Research and determine product weaknesses and areas to be modified
Develop sales tools and collateral's
Develop effective product positioning in the market
Conduct competitive strategic analysis, consumer segmentation, and consumer insight development
Develop mid-term plan and financial analyses
Brief and train sales personnel
Launch and oversee advertising and media planning
Coordinate activities of specialists involved in the brand positioning of the products
Undertake package development strategies.

If any body wants to secure brand manager jobs, he must be able to show his ability for new product development. A brand marketing manager must also have a good grasp and understanding of consumer insights and needs. Strategic thinking and leadership skills are useful in securing brand manager jobs.

One of the primary requirements for brand manager jobs is excellent communication skills both in verbal and written forms. People skills are also essential for brand manager jobs.

Branding

2014-09-16T12:11:00.004+07:00

Branding
Definition: The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other product

An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. But what exactly does "branding" mean? Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.

Are you the innovative maverick in your industry? Or the experienced, reliable one? Is your product the high-cost, high-quality option, or the low-cost, high-value option? You can't be both, and you can't be all things to all people. Who you are should be based to some extent on who your target customers want and need you to be.

The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and promotional materials--all of which should integrate your logo--communicate your brand.

Your brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages. Where you advertise is part of your brand strategy. Your distribution channels are also part of your brand strategy. And what you communicate visually and verbally is part of your brand strategy, too.

Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your company's products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand than what identical, unbranded products command. The most obvious example of this is Coke vs. a generic soda. Because Coca-Cola has built a powerful brand equity, it can charge more for its product--and customers will pay that higher price.

The added value intrinsic to brand equity frequently comes in the form of perceived quality or emotional attachment. For example, Nike associates its products with star athletes, hoping customers will transfer their emotional attachment from the athlete to the product. For Nike, it's not just the shoe's features that sell the shoe.

Defining your brand is like a journey of business self-discovery. It can be difficult, time-consuming and uncomfortable. It requires, at the very least, that you answer the questions below:
What is your company's mission?
What are the benefits and features of your products or services?
What do your customers and prospects already think of your company?
What qualities do you want them to associate with your company?

Do your research. Learn the needs, habits and desires of your current and prospective customers. And don't rely on what you think they think. Know what they think.

Once you've defined your brand, how do you get the word out? Here are a few simple, time-tested tips:

Get a great logo. Place it everywhere.

Write down your brand messaging. What are the key messages you want to communicate about your brand? Every employee should be aware of your brand attributes.

Integrate your brand. Branding extends to every aspect of your business--how you answer your phones, what you or your salespeople wear on sales calls, your e-mail signature, everything.

Create a "voice" for your company that reflects your brand. This voice should be applied to all written communication and incorporated in the visual imagery of all materials, online and off. Is your brand friendly? Be conversational. Is it ritzy? Be more formal. You get the gist.

Develop a tagline. Write a memorable, meaningful and concise statement that captures the essence of your brand.

Design templates and create brand standards for your marketing materials. Use the same color scheme, logo placement, look and feel throughout. You don't need to be fancy, just consistent.

Be true to your brand. Customers won't return to you--or refer you to someone else--if you don't deliver on your brand promise.

Be consistent. This tip involves all the above and is the most important tip on this list. If you can't do this, your attempts at establishing a brand will fail.
Branding
Definition: The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other product

An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. But what exactly does "branding" mean? Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.

Are you the innovative maverick in your industry? Or the experienced, reliable one? Is your product the high-cost, high-quality option, or the low-cost, high-value option? You can't be both, and you can't be all things to all people. Who you are should be based to some extent on who your target customers want and need you to be.

The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and promotional materials--all of which should integrate your logo--communicate your brand.

Your brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages. Where you advertise is part of your brand strategy. Your distribution channels are also part of your brand strategy. And what you communicate visually and verbally is part of your brand strategy, too.

Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your company's products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand than what identical, unbranded products command. The most obvious example of this is Coke vs. a generic soda. Because Coca-Cola has built a powerful brand equity, it can charge more for its product--and customers will pay that higher price.

The added value intrinsic to brand equity frequently comes in the form of perceived quality or emotional attachment. For example, Nike associates its products with star athletes, hoping customers will transfer their emotional attachment from the athlete to the product. For Nike, it's not just the shoe's features that sell the shoe.

Defining your brand is like a journey of business self-discovery. It can be difficult, time-consuming and uncomfortable. It requires, at the very least, that you answer the questions below:
What is your company's mission?
What are the benefits and features of your products or services?
What do your customers and prospects already think of your company?
What qualities do you want them to associate with your company?

Do your research. Learn the needs, habits and desires of your current and prospective customers. And don't rely on what you think they think. Know what they think.

Once you've defined your brand, how do you get the word out? Here are a few simple, time-tested tips:

Get a great logo. Place it everywhere.

Write down your brand messaging. What are the key messages you want to communicate about your brand? Every employee should be aware of your brand attributes.

Integrate your brand. Branding extends to every aspect of your business--how you answer your phones, what you or your salespeople wear on sales calls, your e-mail signature, everything.

Create a "voice" for your company that reflects your brand. This voice should be applied to all written communication and incorporated in the visual imagery of all materials, online and off. Is your brand friendly? Be conversational. Is it ritzy? Be more formal. You get the gist.

Develop a tagline. Write a memorable, meaningful and concise statement that captures the essence of your brand.

Design templates and create brand standards for your marketing materials. Use the same color scheme, logo placement, look and feel throughout. You don't need to be fancy, just consistent.

Be true to your brand. Customers won't return to you--or refer you to someone else--if you don't deliver on your brand promise.

Be consistent. This tip involves all the above and is the most important tip on this list. If you can't do this, your attempts at establishing a brand will fail.

Top 5 Marketing Book of the Year 2014

2014-09-15T19:59:00.003+07:00

1. The Big Lie – Christophe Jouan, Meabh Quoirin and James Murphy

2. Customer CEO – Chuck Wall

3. The Meaningful Brand – Nigel Hollis

4. Digital State - Simon Pont

5. Return on Relationship - Ted Rubin and Kathryn Rose

Top 5 Marketing Book of the Year 2013

2014-09-15T19:57:00.003+07:00

1. Defending Your Brand – Tim Calkins

2. The Conversation Company – Steven Van Belleghem

3. The Shopper Economy – Liz Crawford

4. Good Works! - Philip Kotler, David Hessekiel, Nancy Lee

5. All Eyes East - Mary Bergstrom

Top 5 Marketing Book of the Year 2012

2014-09-15T19:41:00.003+07:00

Top 5 Marketing Book of the Year 2012

1. How Cool Brands Stay Hot – Joeri Van den Bergh, Mattias Behrer

2. Wikibrands – Sean Moffitt, Mike Dover

3. Look at More – Andy Stefanovich

4. Brandwashed – Martin Lindstrom

5. Creative Genius – Peter Fisk

20 Best Marketing Books Of All Time

2014-09-15T19:17:00.002+07:00

20 Best Marketing Books Of All Time

What are the best marketing books of all time? It's a question that I get asked, multiple times per week via email. It seems like people just coming out of school or professionals looking to up their game want to know not just what the latest and greatest books are, but which ones would be considered the seminal books on the subject of marketing. So, if I were putting together a MBA program with a focus on marketing, and was gifted the privilege of providing the reading list, these would be the ones that make the final cut.

The 20 Best Marketing Books Of All Time (in alphabetical order):

The Anatomy Of Buzz by Emanuel Rosen. Before word of mouth marketing became a profession unto itself, Rosen was busy trying to figure out why certain brands get attention and how they do it. This is one of those classic business books that every marketer should read.
The Art Of The Pitch by Peter Coughter. If you are in marketing, you will have to get good at presenting and selling your ideas. I've read countless books on the topic, and this is the only one worthy of reading, studying and applying. Woe the marketer that doesn't heed these words.
The Cluetrain Manifesto by Chris Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger and Rick Levine. If you could point your finger at one book that changed the face of marketing, it would be this one. The entire social media movement came out of this book. Long before Facebook and Twitter, this visionary book told the tale of everything we believe and hold dear in these times of inter-connectedness.
Seth Godin. I am cheating here (so, sue me). Not only could I not choose just one book by Seth Godin, but I found it hard to choose only five. So, I made my life easy by doing this. Buy and read everything Godin has published. Permission Marketing? Yes! Purple Cow? Of course! Unleashing The Ideavirus? You better! Linchpin? If you're interested in a future, yes! The Icarus Deception? How could you not? I could go on and on (The Dip!), but I'm hopeful that you get the idea. Buy all of his books. You won't regret it!
Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky. This book is not for the timid. Shirky is more academic than fluff, and this book dives deep into technology and social media with beautiful and high-brow writing. So well written and researched. It is a gem.
Hey Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan. When was the last time that you read a business book and laughed out loud? Yes, this book is that funny, but it's also one of the best books out there on what makes an ad great, and how to push yourself to create a great one as well. Written by a copywriter, this book demonstrates the power of words and the power of spending the time to find the right words.
Influence by Robert Cialdini. An incredible book about how we make decisions and what influences them (hint: it's not what you think)... and this was published long before behavioral economics became so very cool. This is profoundly powerful because of all of the science and research behind this book. Most marketers haven't paid any attention to this book, and it shows in the vast majority of terrible work that we're exposing the public to.
The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen. Marketing isn't just about the ads. Marketing is also about the product and how to bring it to market. So many companies do everything right and yet still lose market share. If you're interested in marketing and you haven't read this book, it is a must-read.
Life After The 30-Second Spot by Joseph Jaffe. Another one of those seminal books that you can look back at and marvel at just how prescient it was. This one is almost a decade old, but still resonates with some very deep thinking about where advertising is going.
The Little Red Book Of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer. Don't be fooled by the title. This simple, fun and short book is full of how to better position, market and sell both yourself and the products and services that you represent. In fact, anything by Gitomer is well-worth your time. This just happens to be one that I re-read each and every year.
Made To Stick by Chip And Dan Heath. There have been countless books written on viral marketing and how brands should tell a better story. None of them hold a candle to this one. Perhaps one of the best books ever written on how a brand can (and should) tell a story (and how to do it).
Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. A key component to better understanding the power marketing is to learn about how to network and connect with others. I devoured Never Eat Alone when it first came out, and recommend that anyone trying to figure out how to better market themselves pick up this book. Stop eating lunch at your desk and get out there!
The New Rules Of Marketing And PR by David Meerman Scott. This book has been updated by Scott many times over. If you're looking for the ultimate primer on social media, what it means and what it can do, this is the perfect book to bring you up to speed.
Ogilvy On Advertising by David Ogilvy. What would a list like this be without a nod to one of the most well-known Mad Men of our time? David Ogilvy had a passion for advertising. He believed that it was a noble pursuit and a profession that should be taken seriously. This book is a great example of how to think like an advertising executive whose sole purpose it was to help brands sell more. Sometimes, in our digital times, it's fun to read books like this and re-think all of the analytics and optimization talk we have and get back to the advertising as a form of art.
Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout. This is one of the "must have" books if you're in marketing. It covers a ton of space on the topic of how to brand products and services and how to place them both in market and in the mind's eye of the consumer. This should be the first book that anyone reads when they enter a Marketing 101 course.
Re-Imagine! by Tom Peters. Not exactly a full-bore marketing book, but still Peters delivers in spades with this one. It's also beautifully designed, which makes it fun to read. There are countless brand stories about excellence in this one.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. A wise individual once said to me that Gladwell has a knack for writing books that business leaders feel stupid for not having on their bookshelves. Pretty poignant and true. The Tipping Point is great because it helps marketers better understand the inflection point that happens when a product is ho-hum and how it then takes off like a rocket. It's not really science so much as cultural, but it's fascinating.
Waiting For Your Cat To Bark? by Bryan and Jeffrey Einsenberg. The Eisenberg brothers posses an expertise unlike any other. They are experts at understanding and explaining the power of marketing optimization. Sadly, this is one of the most important aspects of the marketing sphere that most professionals spend little-to-no-time working on. This book is chock full of practical and powerful advice about consumers and how to help them by making your marketing easier to follow.
Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kaushik. If you have spent more than two minutes reading any of my content, you will know that I am an unabashed fanboy of Avinash Kaushik, the digital marketing evangelist at Google. In fact, the notion of Sex With Data from CTRL ALT Delete was heavily inspired by Kaushik's work/thinking. Most marketers eyes glaze over when they hear the word 'analytics,' but thankfully Kaushik is here to help make it fascinating and important. This book is packed with ideas about how to think better about your marketing and what it's capable of doing.
Where The Suckers Moon by Randall Rothenberg. Most people in my world know Rothenberg as the President and CEO of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau). What most people don't know is that in 1995, he authored this book. A book that is, without a doubt, one of the best books on the advertising industry.

Blue Ocean Strategy

2014-09-14T19:22:00.002+07:00

Jika Anda telah puas dengan kondisi bisnis Anda yang sekadar bisa bertahan hidup, jangan membaca buku. Namun, jika Anda ingin melakukan perubahan, menciptakan sebuah perusahaan bermasa depan menguntungkan bagi pelanggan, karyawan, pemegang saham, dan masyarakat, bacalah buku ini. Sejak dulu, perusahaan-perusahaan terlibat dalam kompetisi-langsung satu sama lain demi mengejar pertumbuhan yang langgeng dan menguntungkan. Mereka bertarung demi keunggulan kompetitif, berebut pangsa pasar, dan berjuang menciptakan diferensiasi. Padahal, dalam industri-industri yang padat penghuni dewasa ini, berkompetisi langsung tak lain hanya menghasilkan "samudra merah" berdarah-darah dari perebutan para rival atas genangan laba yang menyusut. Buku berkerangka perubahan ini menantang perusahaan—besar maupun kecil, pemula maupun papan atas, publik maupun privat, berteknologi tinggi maupun rendah—untuk keluar dari status quo, menciptakan strategi masa depan yang gemilang, dan menerapkan penjauhan diri dari kompetisi dengan biaya rendah. Ia menekankan penciptaan ruang pasar yang belum ada pesaingnya, fokus pada penumbuhan permintaan dan gerak menjauh dari kompetisi, serta upaya memaksimalkan kesempatan sekaligus meminimalkan risiko. Dengan menjungkalkan pemikiran tradisional tentang strategi, Kim dan Mauborgne telah memetakan "sebuah jalur baru dan berani untuk memenangi masa depan." Mereka menawarkan enam prinsip yang dapat digunakan oleh setiap perusahaan untuk merumuskan dan menerapkan strategi samudra biru dengan sukses. Keenam prinsip itu menunjukkan cara merekonstruksi batas-batas pasar, berfokus pada gambaran besar, melampaui tuntutan yang ada, merancang rangkaian strategi dengan benar, mengatasi rintangan-rintangan organisasional, dan mengintegrasikan ekskusi ke dalam strategi. "Ciptakan ruang pasar tanpa pesaing dan biarkan kompetisi tak lagi relevan"