Branding Question?

Here's a simple test. Ask ten people on your staff what your company stands for. If you don't get the same answer, you have a brand problem.

Ask ten customers what your company stands for, if you don't get close to the same answer, you have a brand problem. Visit us at bizimage.net to creating brand power.

Brand Building

By Betsy Jordan of Accelera Consulting. A Windermere Design consulting partner.

The other day I had to buy a gift for my daughter to take to a classmate’s birthday party. I was seeking a gift that would provide the maximum value for my money. But I drove 20 minutes out of my way to go to Target, although there is a Wal-Mart on my way home.

I started to ponder the rationality of my decision. My targeted purchase was a Barbie, which I knew was a dollar more at Target. In addition to the dollar, I spent extra money on gas by going to Target. Plus, the extra 40 minutes I spent in the car was time I could have invested in doing something useful. Despite all this, I felt like I got a good deal and a positive price/value. So why did I go to Target? I went because of their brand.

What is a brand?
A brand is a promise that you make and consistently deliver to your customers. Your brand includes both the tangible and the intangible aspects of who your organization is from the perspective of your customers. It is what causes them to position you in the marketplace. Target and Wal-Mart are both in the volume-discount retail business. However, their target markets, store personalities and customer experiences are quite different. The difference is in their branding, which can clearly be seen in their advertising, store layout and design, product choices, corporate partnership choices, employee apparel and many other significant strategic decisions.

Why is branding yourself essential to long-term success?
If you don’t take charge of your brand, it will be done for you. Your organization will be positioned by your customers, which means that their impressions of you may:

1. Not be what you intended.
2. Not be relevant to them, and thus cause a barrier to their considering your products/services.
3. Be so unfavorable that any future business you want to do will be inhibited.
4. Be so undifferentiated that you will not be able to compete effectively.

For example, Target’s brand is aimed at the yuppie market, which wants good value without sacrificing style. Wal-Mart, on the other hand, goes after middle-class Americans who want low prices and approachability. But what about K-Mart? If asked, most people would have a hard time explaining just who it is K-Mart seeks to serve and how that chain is unique. For this reason, K-Mart wasn’t even on my radar screen when I was seeking to purchase that Barbie. And I am not alone. Data collected on this subject shows that K-Mart lags significantly behind Target and Wal-Mart in terms of market share and revenue.
If you do take charge of your brand, it will yield incredible results over the long term. For example, it is estimated that Coca-Cola’s brand equity is valued at over $67 billion – making Coke the number-one brand in the world. This is amazing, considering that the company doesn’t do much more than sell sugar and water in a can. Another example is the Disney Company, which is fanatical about protecting the value of its brand. And, without even knowing the numbers, it is easy to see the value of a brand when most people consistently ask for a “Kleenex” as opposed to a “tissue.” In the short-term, a well-defined brand makes it easy to deliver a positive customer experience, which means that customers experience what was promised to them or what they expected. And in the long term, it is these brand lovers, customers who are loyal to your brand, who provide the base for brand longevity and exponential results.

What are steps involved with branding?
There are four basic steps to Branding:

1. Market Research and Environmental Scan
2. Completion of the Strategic Brand Profile
3. Translation of the Strategic Brand Profile into Brand Charter Statements
4. Organizational Alignment to Brand Charter

For market research and environmental scan, you need to be able to answer the following questions:
How are we perceived by our consumers?

• What is their awareness of who we are and what we do?
• What business do they think we’re in?
• How would they characterize our corporate personality?
• Is their impression of us favorable or unfavorable? Why?
• Are they motivated to try our products and services? Why or why not?
• If they have tried our products and services, how motivated are they to repeat their usage and recommend our products and services to others?
• If we came up with a new product or service, would they be interested in working with our organization again? Why or why not?

What do we know our about our consumers and the marketplace?

• How would we describe our consumers? (This includes demographics, income level, education, etc.)
• What are the expectations of our consumers? What is important to them?
• How do we see our consumers changing and evolving over the next 10 years?
• What choices do our consumers have that are in competition with our products and services?
• What do we have that appeals to our consumers? What do others have that appeals to our consumers?
• What are the trends in our industry that we need to be aware of? Which trends do we want to lead, be the middle of or lag behind?

Strategic Brand Profile
The table below is a strategic brand profile. When each box is filled out, the emotional and rational aspects of a brand are captured.

Translating the Strategic Brand Profile into a Brand Charter
Once decisions have been made on the Strategy Brand Profile, the concepts can be captured into a brand charter. There are four separate statements that comprise a brand charter:

• Vision Statement: This statement describes the ongoing state that the organization ideally wants to achieve.

• Essence Statement: This statement is written from the perspective of the customer/client and reflects how the organization wants its customers to feel when they are experiencing products/services.

• Positioning Statement: This statement is primarily used by individuals who create advertisement and printed collateral, and focuses on three things:
  • Especially for Brand Lovers
  • Our organization, product/service is the Frame of Reference
  • That Product Difference

• Mission Statement: This statement clearly gives marching orders to the organization on what it needs to do, for whom and to what end, in order to deliver on the Vision Statement.

Organizational Alignment to the Brand Charter
Once the main strategic decisions have been made and articulated in the brand charter, the rest of the organization should be brought into alignment to support the strategy. Again, a brand is a promise that is made and consistently delivered. More often than not, this is where branding efforts fall apart. Promises are made, but they are made inconsistently. And, worse, promises are made but aren’t delivered on.
In terms of aligning external messages that are delivered to customers, review the following to ensure alignment:

• Website
• Products
• Services
• Atmosphere
• Printed materials
• Other customers
• Packaging
• Consumer messages in advertising

Review the following categories in terms of aligning your internal organization to support delivery of brand promises:

• Organizational structure Is work divided up in such a way that it supports strategic intents?
• Leadership Do your leaders understand and embody the brand?
• Processes Do processes support delivery of brand promises?
• Recruiting and Hiring Are the right people sought after and hired?
• Training Are employees trained on how to deliver brand promises?
• Compensation and Rewards Do these systems reinforce behaviors that support brand delivery?

The Bottom Line
During tough economic times, don’t cut your organization’s efforts to build an effective brand. You should never ignore your brand when you are “tightening your belt,” as tempting as it may be. Rather, that is the time to focus your resources on improving the touch-points between your organization and its customers.
You need to do more than make promises; you need to ensure that you deliver on them. You also need to do what it takes to ensure that your brand and strategic intentions are decision-making filters for employees at every level in your organization. Brands are defined by actions, not just words. What your organization does in bull and bear markets must reflect your brand identity in order to ensure long-term success.
Do you need to take greater charge or your brand?  Give us a call at 407.235.8250 for a free consultation. 

How the Brain Processes Information

Research has shown us that the brain processes information using two channels—visual and auditory.

When information is presented using both channels, the brain can accommodate more new information. By taking advantage of this multimodal processing capability and technology-based tools, we can dramatically enhance audience comprehension and recall through multimedia.

We are at the beginning of a revolution in neuroscience, and yet we know more about how the brain processes information than ever before.

How we process information 

Our ability to process information is a multi-step process that involves the 

perception, attention, selection, organization and integration of information 

(Sweller, 2003).  At the center of this process is long term memory.  As the 

name implies, our long term memory stores our accumulated knowledge.  Our 

accumulated knowledge is organized into ―chunks‖ of information in what are 

known as schema.  Schemas allow us to organize information in meaningful 

ways and help us integrate and organize new information (Chi, Glaser, and Rees, 

1982).  In short, our long term memory is where what we know is stored and 

where we integrate new information.  If information does not find its way into 

long term memory, it is lost.  Learning can be thought of as change in our long 

term memory. 

The limitations of working memory 

Before information can be integrated into long term memory it must be received 

and processed by our working memory.  Working memory is very limited; it 

can only handle small amounts of information before it has to be integrated into 

our long term memory or lost.  In his landmark article on this subject, George 

Miller (1956) suggested that we can only process about seven pieces of 

information at one time.  And, we must do so quickly, as working memory can 

only keep information for about 20 seconds.   

Multiple channels for information processing 

Researchers now believe that there are multiple channels in working memory.  

Baddeley (1992) proposes an auditory and a visual channel. The auditory 

channel handles information that is heard, while the visual channel processes

information that is seen.  Text seems to have unique processing requirements, 

with words initially captured by the visual channel and then converted to sounds 

in the auditory channel (Mayer, 2005)

Research suggests that the visual channel handles less information than the auditory channel (Miler, 2005).  However, when information is presented using both the visual and auditory channels, working 

memory can handle more information overall.  Using multiple channels can increase the amount of 

information that the brain can process (Sweller, 2005).  But, there is still the risk of cognitive 

overload.   Too much information delivered in an ineffective manner can interfere with the brain’s ability to successfully integrate information into long term memory.   visit bizimage.net

Logical Vs. Intuitive Processing

The left brain processes in a linear, sequential, logical manner. When you process on the left side, you use information piece by piece to solve a math problem or work out a science experiment. When you read and listen, you look for the pieces so that you can draw logical conclusions. If you process primarily on the right side of the brain, you use intuition. You may know the right answer to a math problem but not be sure how you got it. You may have to start with the answer and work backwards. On a quiz, you have a gut feeling as to which answers are correct, and you are usually right. In writing, it is the left brain that pays attention to mechanics such as spelling, agreement, and punctuation. But the right side pays attention to coherence and meaning; that is, your right brain tells you it "feels" right.  Visit bizimage.net

THE BENEFITS OF MULTIMEDIA

The two main benefits to multimedia are Clarity and Interaction

Images, animation and video can be used very effectively to emphasize a point. A picture can speak a thousand words, so the saying goes (just make sure that it is saying the right words). By combining a number of media together you can make the overall effect much more appealing. This helps to maintain the attention of your target audience. Video in particular has a very powerful effect on people, lending a perceived credibility to your message which is often otherwise missing. This is thanks, in part, to the saturation of television in modern culture.

As mentioned earlier, interactivity allows the end user to concentrate on the areas of most interest to them without having to wade through extraneous material. People do not tend to think in a linear fashion, but rather tend to jump from point to point and not necessarily in any discernible order. If your product caters well to the non-linear thought processes of your target audience then it becomes more user friendly and consequently more successful. Interactivity, if implemented correctly, can also provide users with the ability to query the information provided to them, asking for further clarity or requesting related information. more... visit bizimage.net

WHAT IS MULTIMEDIA ?

When people talk of multimedia in this day and age, they are usually referring to CD/DVD Rom packages. These use a range of types of media including text, sound, images, video and animation.

Interactive multimedia allows users some level of control over how and when the information or data on the CD Rom is presented to them. In this way it differs from linear presentation systems such as video. However, multimedia in it's purest form has been with us since we first learned to talk and point. Imagine a class room in which the teacher talks to his class and writes on a chalkboard.

This is multimedia using text and sound. If the teacher is generous enough to answer questions during his lesson then we have interactive multimedia. The teacher could just stand there and talk to his students, but chooses to use the written word to enhance his lesson and takes questions in order to ensure that his students get more information on points unclear to them.

Clarity and Interactivity.  These are the driving factors behind modern multimedia. It is merely using newly available technology to enhance traditional ideals.  http://bizimage.net/multimedia.html

Multimedia in Legal Proceedings

From the day a client walks through the door, the focus is to obtain a favorable result. As an advocate, you must demonstrate to whomever is deciding your case the strength of your position and the weakness of your opponent’s case. To prove your case, you need to persuade the factfinder using witnesses and exhibits that demonstrate the merits of your case.

One of the most effective and important methods of persuading the factfinder is through the use of multimedia aids. Seeing and hearing is believing. Our society, including judges, expects to be entertained and taught through multimedia. The preparation of multimedia visual presentations can be calculated to be persuasive of a particular position and to assist in convincing the trier of fact to reach a decision in your client’s favor. Visual aids summarize, supplement and assist in conveying your message to the trier of fact.

Common sense and a substantial amount of research dollars demonstrate that advertisements, TV ads, and movies all stimulate and persuade us. Millions of dollars are spent on advertising campaigns to convince us to purchase services or products. The latest visual techniques ? including color patterns ? can be observed on TV on a daily basis. When you see commercial ads, use your imagination to see if they can be applied to a case. For example, the show "60 Minutes" uses persuasive techniques to highlight documentary evidence to influence you.

The rest of the world expects presentations that provide multi-sensory stimulus to learn and decide the merits of products and services, why not disputes? There are many important benefits to using computer technology in your case during legal proceedings:

Increases juror understanding and the trier of fact remains focused on the case - The trier of fact wants to learn and be involved in the presentation of the case. The trier of fact wants a visual presentation. It brings a case to life. It provides variety, keeps them interested, and increases their understanding of the factual and legal issues in a case.

Controlling the flow of your case - Presenting digitally allows you to control the pace and flow of your case. You have the capability to rapidly present successive documents to a witness during examination and not be interrupted by paper shuffling with the witness or jury. For example, it is much easier to present a direct examination of your witnesses, since they can see beforehand on the computer monitor highlighted portions of documents that they will be testifying about.

Simplifying complex issues - Demonstrative evidence can simplify voluminous and confusing facts for the benefit of a jury. The old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” definitely applies in all of your legal proceedings. Properly used, technology with graphics and other multimedia can simplify the issues and provide the tool for jurors to understand your case.  Visit  us at http://bizimage.net

Social Media?

Social Media?

Are you wondering how you can get more leads and prospects into the sales funnel?

If you haven't tried social media, that might be your answer. More and more people are using the Internet these days, and most of them are regular users of social media sites such as Twitter, Linkedln, Facebook and You Tube. In fact, Facebook was declared the most visited site on the Internet in 2010. Since so many people are on these social networks, why shouldn't your business be?

Creating social media profiles for your business adds more channels to your multichannel marketing plan. We all know that you can't expect to reach your entire audience by using a few marketing tools, because you have to reach them at different times and places with a variety of information. Social media will give your business the opportunity to do all of those tasks online.

Why are social media sites so beneficial to businesses who want to get the word out about what they offer?  One reason is because the sites are all free and easily accessible, which is why more and more people join every day. Another benefit is that everyone would have access to every piece of information you publish at all times.

A Few of the Whys

This list isn’t exhaustive, but here are a few reasons why  your business should be using social media.

Need a blog to:

§  improve your search results in Google

§  showcase your skills, services and products

§  show visitors to your site who you are and what you do by being open

§  engage in conversations

Need a Facebook Page to:

§  chat more informally about your services and products

§  listen to your customers

§  share help and advice related to your business

§  drive visitors to your homepage / blog where there are calls-to-action

§  learn more about your audience

5 Keys to Powerful Marketing

We need to make an impact and cut through the clutter.

Here are five tips to help you cement a lasting impression:

1 Give Your Marketing the "So What" Reality Check:

If you can answer "So what?"

to any of your selling points ... you need to go back to the drawing board before

you launch a campaign.

2) Make Sure the "Fluff and Substance" Are Balanced:

On one hand, if you deliver a message that's entertaining but lacks substance, you create a Red Bull adrenaline rush

with the debilitating crash. On the other hand, if you have great ideas, but bore your audience,

you lost them at hello. Make sure you have equal measure of both.

3) Don't Just Say It, Prove It: 

Is it possible, that buyers have a natural, built-in doubt mechanism, when it comes to offerings? Consider using evidence such as video testimonials, demonstrations, tours, statistics, facts, analogies and examples to help erase that doubt. Hint: proving things proactively (i.e. before someone asks you to prove it) adds to your credibility.

4) Make Your Intangibles Tangible:

Let's say your company has an awesome quality control program or your firms partners are Board Certified, you would obviously want to bring this to life.  That's where that intangible thing comes into play.   What does quality control look like? How do you flush that out? Instead of just talking about it, perhaps you could show them by taking them on a plant video tour to bring the quality control program to life. Make sense? Take a look at all the intangibles you offer and utilize multi-media to bridge the gap so your prospects can see and experience them.

5) Make It Interactive and Engaging: 

Nobody likes a lecture, so make sure your engaging and making it interactive. You make it interactive by knowing your audience and their needs. Many times we ask the same old questions and we don't sound like we are genuinely interested in knowing more.

Multi-media...

A better way to do business.

The delivery of clear, concise and effective business communications is your goal.   Multimedia solutions is our expertise…http://bizimage.net