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Branding

Grabbing Your Attention

chrisbrogan · March 9, 2006 ·

What makes you pay attention? Which advertisements resonate with you? If you interacted more with a brand, would it feel more like YOURS?
NPR’s OnPoint with Tom Ashbrook spoke with Robert Greenberg, the man who, among other things, brought you the ability to change the colors and designs on a 20-story tall shoe in Times Square by sending it a text message, and shoe stores that offered personal fitness trainers while sneaking in some accessorizing.
Microsoft recently successfully played the hype game with their new Origami project, while oddly, Apple kind of botched it with their recent lackluster announcement about a goofy white boombox and the not-so-feature-rich Intel Mac Mini. It’s getting harder and harder to know what will work with people and what won’t.
Banner ads don’t work. Text ads *seem* to work. TV commercials don’t work often, except when we sit there explicitly to watch them (Superbowl in the US). Product placement is frowned upon, and yet, we are living product placement.
I think what grabs MY attention or makes ME happy is when I can make an experience mine. I like when I stumble across something that I like, interact with it, and then share with others what I liked about it. Word of mouth advertising is still the best game in town. You want to get me gabbing about your thing? IMMERSE me in it. Give it to me. Let me do something with it and decide.
When someone announces to you or your company that you’re a fan, do you just smile politely? Do you acknowledge it and go back to your day job?
Not if you’re smart.
If you’re smart, even if you’re not in the marketing department, you’d be best served to EMPOWER that appreciation. Do something to enhance it. Send the person some stickers, or give them a free something branded. Whatever. Post them prominently on your website’s page for a day. Who cares? Just give that fan a full blown EXPERIENCE with your brand.
**EDIT: Seth Godin’s thinking about it, too. Funny timing.
I promise you that it will launch more value into the buzz around your product or company than any dollars spent on Flash animation or celebrity endorsements.
Do the opposite? Plenty of people can tell you about what happens then.

[email]

Tags: promotion, advertising, endorsement, wordofmouth, brand, branding, viral, buzzmarketing

Branding, Marketing

What is YOUR Brand? What is YOUR Trademark?

chrisbrogan · February 20, 2006 ·

Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media has a great post at his site entitled Brands as Standing Waves. In it, he talks about the fact that copyright might not be nearly as important in the coming years as Trademark. If you read his post, you’ll get the full effect of that statement, but here’s my precis:
Your brand name (your company, YOU) is the conduit through which content flows. Some of your content lives on its own, but it is also largely leveraged against your brand. Thus, you get the countless, “If you like Stephen King, you’ll love _____” type comparisons out there.
The Brands You Trust
First, think about the brands that you trust and love. Are there any? I have a few, in no particular order.
Apple. Firefly (Joss Whedon’s Series). Amazon. Saturn. Seth Godin. Tom Peters. Wacom. Olympus Cameras. Old Navy clothes. Berol markers. Moleskine books.
See how I’m naming brands and not their products. Sure, I love the iPod, but I also have an iMac, and plan to buy a Mac Mini by fall. That’s the gist of this.
YOUR Brand As-Is
If your company were going to look at the sum of you, what would they be saying about your brand. Are you the boss? Are they saying, “I know when ___’s on the job, our missions will be reached.” Are you part of a team? What message is being conveyed by your brand.
Brand Consistency
Are there “product lines” in your brand that are confusing people? Do you do X-Y-Z good thing, and then 1-2-3 other things that people just keep wondering why you’re doing it? (I’m probably guilty of this for mixing my digital illustrations with my self-improvement stuff. I certainly lost my original readership of fitness friends when I stopped writing daily about running and exercising).
People hate change. I can tell you that. Look at EVERY food product redesign and you’ll see: “New Look. Same Great Taste!” Every single one. Know why? Because people want you to stay a one-trick pony. Oh, but they also want you to stay fresh, change it up, and move with the times. Easy. Right?
Sell The Experience, Not The Product
What can you add to the mix that will stay consistent with what you’re trying to tell the world about you? How can you go beyond creating “products” and help others use what you do/make/say/are to improve THEIR experience? Because here’s the secret of all the brands I mentioned above:
It’s all about me.
Why do I love Apple? Because I like what I do with it. Why do I watch Firefly? Because it makes me happy. It’s all about memememememe.
Look at yourself, at the “brand” you’re providing to the people around you (at work, at home, at your organization of choice). What can you do to make it about THEM. (Your turn comes later).
Branding Bullets

  • Consistency of Offering.
  • FRESHNESS of Offering.
  • Experience not Product.
    Get back to me. What does this do for you? What do you think?
    [email]

    Filed in: oreilly, brand, branding, messaging, communication, marketing, self-improvement, productivity
  • Branding, Marketing

    What's In A Name?

    chrisbrogan · February 1, 2006 ·

    Google knew it. Seth knew it. I’m sure Dave knows it. I’m only just learning it. And I’ve heard from Rob and Dan in the last week about it.

    A Website or Company Name Matters

    In simplest terms, it becomes important to get the name into people’s heads. Why does EVERYONE know the name, “Google?” Partly because it’s a great product, but also because it sounds interesting when we hear it and say it. (Ditto Yahoo, Squidoo, and other vowely names). Those are on the unique side.
    On the other side of the name recognition game is making sure you name something keyword-a-riffic. For example, in my town there’s T—‘s Florist and there’s Greenery Design. One has the word “florist” in the name. The other, which is an amazing place with top quality arrangements and unique things for the home, has chosen a name that doesn’t get them found simply via searching. Why? Because if you’re not looking for that specific business, you’re looking for what that business DOES. Flowers. So, the name Florist in the other company’s name keys you in.
    Websites are tricky that way. I chose chrisbrogan.com years ago for vanity reasons. I wanted people to be able to find the guy writing all those neat short stories. Later, I wanted people to be able to find the guy writing all those running posts. Now? Self-improvement. Tomorrow? Who knows. But vanity names don’t work exceptionally well, because, there are gazillions of them. You’re competing against everyone else’s name, too.
    So, what to do? What to do?
    I think it depends on how much of a “customer base” you eventually want to have. If you’re thinking there’s a potential to grow your business or site into the biggest thing the world has ever seen, then I’d go with the weird and original name that gets people coming back (37Signals, Digg, Flickr).
    If you’re shooting for more than 20, but less than 2 million, I’m not so sure naming your business or website after yourself works. If someone is out there and they’re thinking, “I’d like to be really well informed about the best in nutrition news,” are they really going to think, “I’m going to Google and I’m going to enter into it: Jim Richards.” I doubt it.
    Co-branding
    I think (especially with a website) one might want to trend towards a name people will remember, but THEN, you should keep the site co-branded with your own name. So, Jim Richards launches EatMoreNuts.com with Jim Richards! Or brought to you by… or … you get the idea. That way, you have the potential of trying to bring up more than name at a time.
    Franchising, Placement, More
    I’m big on the idea of getting your name out there in as many ways possible. Look at Ebay, powered by Sun. Sun’s out there saying: “look at me!” because they NEED to be saying that. They’re saying, “When you think about these big great internet sites, think of me.” Think of “Intel Inside.”
    McDonald’s just swapped out coffee to feature Green Mountain’s Newman’s Own Organic blend. Why? To compete with Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks for that morning addiction fix money. Imagine being Green Mountain? They must be screaming woo!
    Think of folks who are buying targeted search ads. They’re paying Google for the right for their site to come up high on the search list when someone looks up lightbulbs or broccoli, or whatever.
    Final Thought
    The creative economy is the attention economy. There are more blogs out there than humans (actual stat). Hell, I’m writing for several now, myself. To that end, if you’re looking to capture some amount of attention for whatever reason (my goal is to get folks to collaborate on self-improvement efforts), then you’ve gotta come up with a way for them to find you, to share you, to remember you, and to bring that home with them.
    Name yourself wisely. And often!
    [email]

    Tags:

    • branding
    • business

    Branding, Business, Internet

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