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Happy Blog Day!Friday 29th August 2008 This Sunday is BlogDay! The idea was hatched with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. Bloggers are to recommend other blogs to their visitors. With the goal in mind, on this day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. This way, all blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs, celebrating the discovery of new people and new bloggers.
BlogDay posting instructions are:
Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2008 Write a short description of the Blogs and place a link to the recommended Blogs Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) Oh I almost forgot, here are mine:
Be A Smoothie CopywriterThursday 28th August 2008 I really enjoyed this blog today from the Copywriter's Crucible:
"Standing out from the crowd is difficult in any marketplace. One of the ways they (Innocent) differentiated themselves, from all the other brightly coloured labels, was through their copywriting. Their copy presents them as fun, quirky and witty. They were the plucky upstart taking on the big corporate brands, with a new approach to business, and people loved it.
Innocent drinks now dominate the UK smoothie market, and it’s in no small part due to the personality of their copywriting. So what’s your copywriting’s personality?"
Read more at http://copywriterscrucible.com/whats-your-copywritings-personality/ Colour My WorldWednesday 27th August 2008 Colour can be a significant asset and form a distinctive part of your brand’s visual style. Care should be taken to maintain colour consistency across all applications and to avoid variations in shade and density on different printing surfaces and through different printing methods. Pantone, CMYK, RGB and web colours should be specified in your corporate identity guidelines. All sound advice, however, the colours you choose could be telling your target audience far more than you think:
Pink is always in touch with its feminine side and evokes innocence, softness and health. In business, be aware of its feminine implications and associations. Orange is all about feelings of fun and warm exuberance. In business, orange is ideal as a highlight and shows a positive approach. In business, it appeals to intellectuals and early adopters and is excellent for accenting things. Too much can be unnerving. Green evokes tranquility, health, freshness, sustainability. In business, its deep tones convey status and wealth; its pale tones are soothing. Blue conveys authority and dignity. In business, it implies fiscal responsibility and security. Plus it is universally popular, one one hand an advantage on another, a differentiation issue. Yellow is an optimistic colour that almost always evokes a positive response. Yellow spurs motivation; it stimulates creative and intellectual energy; it's cheerful and easygoing. Purple evokes sophistication, spirituality, costliness, royalty and mystery. In business, it's the ideal choice for reaching both high net worth individuals and creative audiences. Brown conveys a sense of utility. In business, it signifies less important items in documents. White represents purity, truthfulness, being contemporary and refined. In business, it enlivens dark colors and can be refreshing or sterile. Grey stands for authority, practicality and a corporate mentality. In business, it works well for conservative corporate and professional audiences. Black is a serious shade. It can also be distinctive, sophisticated, bold, funky and classic. In business, it creates drama and often makes for a striking background.
Keeping an eye on corporate colours seems like a very bright idea.
Creating Logo SpaceTuesday 26th August 2008 It's always interesting when briefing new designers. I have found that some issues are handled with ingenuity, freshness and innate creativity and others are lost along the way - usually when it comes to identity stewardship. Brand guidelines are extremely important in providing consistency in the visual representation of the brand and in building a uniform corporate identity. Adherence to guidelines ensures that the visual design elements of the corporate identity are applied correctly in all applications. It is extremely important that the standards are strictly followed, especially in regard to those of the logo. But what happens if there are no brand guidelines? Recently, I was involved in briefing a project where there were no establlished guidelines. The designer, in response to my brief, created a clear, crisp design yet the logo was (there's no other way of putting this) 'interfered with' by a large clump of foliage! This made the logo indistinct in favour of other graphics on the page. That is why designers should apply The Corporate Mark Clearance Zone. It sounds dramatic and all very 'logo police' but then it is vital to maintaining a clear consistent identity. The protective clearance zone is created to maintain the integrity of the corporate mark and to avoid distraction of the corporate mark from type, photographs and illustrations. Nothing should enter the clearance zone. Any logo mark should always have a minimum clearance zone of 10mm around it. This ensures clarity of communication and prevents the mark from becoming lost or crowded. Love your logo and create your own space around it! Web Site Audits - Top 10 FindingsMonday 25th August 2008 I have been looking through recent web site audits requested by financial firms. Here is my top ten list of the key issues that crop up time and time again. 1. Stand Out 2. Watch Your Fold 4. Over-Use of Flash 5. Call to Action 6. Underline Links 7. Refresh 9. Contextual Links 10. Add a Site Map The golden rules are: First be found, then be found interesting. What’s the Big Brand Idea?Friday 15th August 2008 Here are some of the criteria that Strand Financial believes can create market space for its financial clients:
These are the ideas that we feel should be avoided and they form a useful filter:
Consistency In ConsolidationThursday 14th August 2008 During periods of market consolidation, it is inevitable that there will be a shake-out of people, including some highly skilled and experienced senior players. The ability to handle these changes successfully is vested, to no small extent, in the consistency of brand delivery, sales process and customer experience. Consistent rituals and familiar encounters that reassure customers are critical at this time. Without them, financial organisations are more exposed to key salespeople leaving with their clients and muddied messages clouding what should be a clear brand promise.
The first step is to visualise the kind of customer experience that would be true to the core essence and UVPs (Unique Value Propositions) of the business. For example, if your target clients value the core brand promise of "Inspiring Confidence, describe the conversations that would lead your customers to experience this. Then, define the sales processes and activities necessary to create and support the ideal customer-preferred, brand-aligned customer experience every time.
I Can't Get No Satisfaction (Without Differentiation)Wednesday 13th August 2008 Poor problem resolution, long wait times and additional fees all contribute to an overall decline in customer satisfaction with retail banks, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Retail Banking Satisfaction Study. The study, now in its third year, finds that overall satisfaction with the retail banking experience has decreased considerably since 2007—down 26 index points on a 1,000-point scale to 737 in 2008. In particular, dissatisfaction with fees is the most commonly reported problem by customers, as well as the second-most common reason for switching financial institutions. In addition, a rise in the number of problems experienced and problems that go unresolved, increases in wait times to see tellers or speak to phone representatives, and declines in the ease of accessing branches all contribute to the drop in satisfaction. “Many retail banks are experiencing a decline in their brand image, especially in the current economic climate, where many consumers hold banks responsible for the current housing and mortgage crisis,” said Rockwell Clancy, executive director of financial services at J.D. Power and Associates. “With customers experiencing more problems, longer wait times and more fees, that negative view is intensified.” The study also finds that retail banks that provide high levels of customer satisfaction have more highly committed customers, which are essential to financial growth. Increasing by even 5 percent the number of customers who are highly committed can lead to incremental deposit growth of 3 percent annually. “As banks struggle to meet shareholder demands, the common reaction is to focus on short-term financial gains by increasing fees and reducing staff - leading to longer wait times and poor problem resolution,” said Clancy. “But now is the time for banks to really differentiate themselves from competitors by focusing on customer service and convenience. Banks with higher levels of customer satisfaction will generate higher deposit growth and achieve better financial results over the long term.” Travelator CommentatorMonday 11th August 2008 If you've been on the travelator at Bank tube station recently, you can't have failed to notice Grant Thornton's first international advertising campaign. Based around the insight that ‘big decisions follow you around’, the ads feature people in a range of scenarios outside the office, wrestling with tough business dilemmas. These thought leadership ads are all headed with 'big questions'. It gets pretty interesting when you answer these dilemmas with some 'Create Your Own Space' thinking: Half the board say now, half the board say wait. Which is the riskiest option?
Everyone says that we are interesting times and most will sit there and watch their competitors to see ‘what shakes out’. The biggest risk lies in doing nothing allowing your competitors to take the lead. These are opportunistic times - don’t wait to differentiate your brand. Take action by finding your unique core essence now and build your brand from there.
Expanding abroad is attractive. How do we make it happen? We've missed our target two years in a row. What should I do if we miss it again? We have to reduce costs. What are the options this time? Pick An Attribute, Any One!Sunday 10th August 2008 I'm often asked by financial marketers how to go about selecting which attributes are right for the business and how these should be prioritised. In theory, this is straightforward - choose attributes that map to the core essence of the brand - the closer these are to the brand essence the higher these are ranked.
Whilst I stand by this approach, to prevent your branding programme becoming a purely touchy-feely exercise as far as the board is concerned, it is helpful to think about your brand attributes in terms of proportionate share of wallet. Brainstorming is just part of the equation. The fundamental objective of determining brand attributes is to identify which are most closely linked to customer attraction/ acquisition and loyalty / referral and to try to quantify the advantage.
By examining which brand attributes are working most successfully, we recommend conducting a survey with your highest spending and most loyal customers. In this way, you will gain compelling evidence of the relative importance of these attributes to your business.
First, segment your customer base in order of contribution to profits. Next, use the survey to establish share of wallet by asking those customers what proportion of total business they place with you. Finally, ask your clients to rate on a scale how much they agree or disagree with various statements about your company or website, where each statement focuses on a single brand attribute.
This is also a great opportunity to test off-brand attributes as negative statements. For example, a strong negative score on 'complexity' could mean that 'simplicity' is a powerful brand attribute. These assumptions require careful scrutiny. That's why as well as scoring the attribute itself, we recommend asking a second-tier question to determine whether or not the specific attribute is actually of importance to the client.
Don't Get Stuck In NeutralThursday 07th August 2008 At Strand Financial, we are starting to seriously dislike the phrase, Media Neutral Planning. It’s simply that we don’t ever want to recommend a strategy to our financial clients that we feel either 'neutral' or 'agnostic' about. Of course we believe in using the right media, with the right message at the right time to communicate with each customer segment - it's just that th terminology doesn't sit well with a creative agency.
We always operate in the best interests of our clients and their stakeholders by carefully analysing the media with our planners and buyers. We like to call it Space Planning, the vehicle by which our clients can Create their Own Space. Get into overdrive!
Internal RealityWednesday 06th August 2008 I read this today and I felt that the call for internal reality was clearly articulated:
“An organisation can only ‘walk the talk' when its managers deliberately shape its internal reality to align with its brand promise…(the brand's) values must be internalised by the organisation, shaping its instinctive attitudes, behaviours, priorities, etc.”
Alan Mitchell, “Out of the Shadows” Journal of Marketing Management Snail MailTuesday 05th August 2008 I never cease to wonder at the sheer volume of snail mail I receive from banks, nor how similar these pieces are. I decided to collect them and read through in detail. Rather than cluster by brand attributes, the communications focused around the well-travelled but unremarkable trail of product and service features. In order, offers focused on the following: 1) better rates
2) higher returns 3) personal service 4) fast turnround 5) product specific benefits - including insurance, identity protection, travel benefits
6) affinity programmes - sport, holidays etc The majority of these feature happy families, happy employees and serious bankers - oh and the colour blue! In other words, corporate wallpaper. Come on banks, it really is time to accelerate your marketing and Create Your Own Space!
The Heat is OnMonday 04th August 2008 Everything we do as an agency is concerned with getting brands to boiling point:
First we boil everything down to a brand promise that matters to your target audiences; creating relevant differentiation.
Next, we ignite imaginations by communicating the brand promise, increasing awareness in a way that is memorable and measurable. Then, we increase the heat and velocity of delivery - living the brand promise and gaining brand traction.
Heat bonds, strengthening your brand promise; enhancing your brand, and its value, over time
Single-Minded MarketingFriday 01st August 2008 In the marketing classic, 'Positioning' by Al Ries and Jack Trout it says, in essence: - Position yourself in the prospect's mind I agree with the first point entirely - space is first created in the mind before it can ever be created in the market. On the second point, I also concur that you will gain by standing for one attribute that will give you competitive advantage. However and this is a big 'however', there is also a valid point that could be argued that in this era of hyper-competition,'bundling' can also form a powerful Unique Value Proposition with multiple attributes culminating in a single proposition. So, the first three get my vote, with perhaps some adjustment. I have to say that the fourth assumption leaves me cold and from my experience I believe it to be fundamentally wrong on every level. The principle of sacrifice, of potentially missing out, has left countless financial services marketers reticent to use a distinctive single-minded proposition that, if applied, would doubtless prove highly successful. Here's my point and one of the main secrets of branding success: Just because you are known for and exclusively focused on one attribute doesn't have to mean that you have to give up all others. How can that be? Consider the following real-life example from the world of financial marketing: A large regional accountancy firm that has earned an unrivalled reputation for delivering complex M&A work has won more standard audit work from clients than its competitors. The key is held in the thought-process of the prospect themselves. It follows that if the firm can handle work that is that complex and exacting, the attributes of expertise, added value, professionalism, timeliness, accuracy etc will be applied to the entire brand experience and specifically the approach to the audit. It's a view that flies in the face of commonly accepted marketing theory, that by becoming even more focused, you actually gain greater diversity of opportunity in your market! We are true believers and living proof. After all, Strand Financial is known as the specialist financial marketing agency!
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