Posts Tagged ‘brands with wheels’

Branding is applied psychology and in this lays its allure and impact.  I have written extensively about branding and brand building and I believe there is a key to succeeding at branding as a function of marketing.  That key is creativity!

Well creative and innovative branding is something that definitely stands out in a milieu of products and services clamoring for customer attention.  Here are my top 8 creative brand building strategies for small business owners in 2012….

Give Your Brand a Human Face

Who are the people behind your brand?  Give your brand a human face by highlighting them to grab eyeballs and laugh all the way to the bank.  If you find this a little hard to believe then stop and think about the most prominent and successful advertising campaigns we have seen.

People…be they celebrities or real customers who feature in advertisements and promotional endeavors are really what make a successful sales appeal.  But as times change and celebs become over exposed in brand building endeavors I would say give your brand a human face.

I suggested this to a friend who runs a social venture whose flagship product is single flora gourmet honey produced by small farmers across India.  I feel her struggle to build a brand might not remain a struggle if the labels on her honey bottles have even a picture, name and one line about how producing this bottle of honey has empowered the farmer and his family.

Everyone Loves a Story

The allure of storytelling has long held audiences across the globe captive.  Story telling is a great way of educating people and getting messages across so why not use it in brand building?

A workable solution for all small businesses even if they don’t have a huge advertising budget is using puppets to tell the story of their brand.  Another way could be using You Tube to feature videos that tell little stories about your brand.

Story telling sessions by book shops and libraries have been around for a long time but there’s no reason why a short story cannot help you build a brand!

Build a Brand with a Heart

Support a cause because now and in times to come every business will have to give back to society.  In fact most economic problems we are facing today are born out of our unwillingness to create social wealth and are unquenchable thirst for more and more personal wealth.

No matter how small your business may be you can always find a cause to support it.  A bakery or restaurant that donates excess food to the poor, a venture that makes products through disadvantaged groups of people are all doing exactly what I am suggesting…building a brand with a heart.

Stand for something!  Find a cause to support today!

Think Out of the Box Promotion

Graffiti, street paintings, tribal art and traditional forms of art and entertainment like puppetry are some out of the box promotional strategies worth trying out.  Not only will they help you stand out in the crowd but they also don’t cost a lot.

Get a Business Review

Looking to make your presence felt and don’t quite know how to?  Get a business review.  Most reviews done by newspapers are free and even if some reviewers do charge they won’t cost as much as an advertising campaign.

To get your business reviewed right here, fill up the contact form.

Be Open to Interviews

Many people like to know more about who founded this business, how and why….the best way to be known for how you set up your venture, what you market and how you plan to take things further is through interviews.

If you have a creative venture and would like to be featured on my blog do contact me.  Check out the “Entrepreneur Spotlight” section to know more about how I would feature you.

Connect With People

Connecting with people is the best way to build a brand and it doesn’t have to cost a bomb…Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, free SMS platforms and blogs can be your people connect platform.

Come Up With Freebies

Give away free stuff or float a contest…I recently told a friend who is a dietary consultant that she can create a book of recipes which she can give away to customers.  Her clients are expectant mothers, fussy eaters and people with weight management issues and a recipe book would definitely help her take her brand forward.

To sign off I would say…brand building in 2012 need not cost a lot but one thing is certain…it must be creative and cutting edge.  I hope these strategies work for your small business and I would love to hear about your experiences with them!

Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2617

Brand loyalty is dead or dying out!!!  That’s why my last post listed 6 reasons why businesses should not expect brand loyalty. 

But in this post and the one I plan to write next I’ll talk about what you can do to create some sort of following for your product, service, venture or business.  I won’t say I’ll help you create or build brand loyalty, nothing so profound but yes I’ll take you through 9 things you can do to win customers and keep them coming back for more…

Know Your Customer

Customer profiling is the first step to building successful customer relationships.  There are no two ways about this…knowing your customer is the secret to business success. 

When I say this I mean drawing up a customer profile in terms of:

Age, gender, income, occupation, tastes, frequency of purchases, motivation for purchase and other factors that may be specific to your business.

I have had the same hair stylist for over thirteen years now and the reason I go to her is because she knows what I want, what my lifestyle is, just how much time I have on hand to take care of my crowning glory and what my strengths and weaknesses are in terms of facial features.  She knows me and my hair care needs that is what matters. 

For tips and ideas on effective customer profiling click here. 

Be Friendly

I was reading a short story the other day.  It was about a little boy who was at the beach with his father.  He came across a turtle and as soon as he touched it the turtle put his head inside his shell.  The little boy began poking him with a stick but the turtle refused to stick his head out.

His father forbid him from doing that, instead he picked up the turtle and took him home where he put him by the fireplace.  Soon the warmth in the room compelled the turtle to stick his head out.  Moral of the story…People are like turtles…warm them up with affection and they will open up to you.

Use genuine warmth to draw customers to your venture or store.  Even if the customer is angry, non-cooperative and disinterested, make a genuine effort to be warm and friendly.  You never know he might just have a change of heart. 

Look for Ways to Add Value

Look for ways to add value to the end deliverable and when I say this I don’t mean spend a lot of money.  Helping a customer find a product that he needs instead of leaving him to scour shelves, offering to watch a child as a harried mother shops, offering to get your customer’s car out of parking while he gets his stuff out of the store are all small ways of adding to the shopping experience at your store.

Even something like referring a customer to a good tailor when you are only in the business of selling fabric is offering value.  Think a step ahead and you will always be able to find things to add value in the end analysis. 

Be Flexible

Exhibit a willingness to work around customer needs and specifications with regard to their budgets, tastes and preferences.  Take the trouble of talking to them and finding out what they want instead of compelling them to buy what you have.

Designers who work with fabric that the customer brings in or are ready to incorporate the customer’s designs in to their outfits find more favor with people than those who want the customer to wear what’s on the rack at their store. 

Make Customer Convenience Your Mission

Shopping today is more about convenience and personalization and less about affordability.  People are willing to pay for both convenience and personalization.  This is precisely why a kirana (small grocery store in India) finds favor in the face of competition from supermarkets.

The grocery store owner opens his store at 6 am and is open for business way up to midnight; he is happy to take orders down on the phone and will send your necessaries across no matter how small the quantity.  He will remember which brand of soap you like and tell you if there’s an offer on a certain product.  If you are in a hurry and pop in at his store he’ll give you goods even if you don’t have the money to pay him right away.

He’s teaching you lessons in customer convenience which is his mission…make it yours today!

Automate Payments or Offer Options

The best part about making a purchase is having lots of options to make payments and if there’s automation then that’s even better.  Offer your customers the option to pay:

• By Credit Card or Debit Card
• By Cheque
• PayPal
• Cash on Delivery

It just makes life a lot easier on both sides. 

Brand with Wheels

I have written an entire blog post on how brands with wheels can make a difference to a business.  Let me tell you about a recent experience that I had and how brands with wheels really do make a mark in an intensely crowded market.

I always get my clothes tailored at a certain store but recently found that the tailor always delayed delivery and gave me a poor fitting despite my numerous rounds made first to collect my clothes and later to get them altered and get them back from him.  I was fed up with the amount of time, money and effort that I was spending on getting my clothes stitched from him.

I then came across a lady who offered customized tailoring and got in touch with her through her page on Facebook.  I spoke to her over the phone, met up with her once, picked out an outfit based on my budget and preferences with regard to color, embroidery and the like, gave her my measurements and was pleasantly surprised that she always delivers outfits at the customer’s doorstep.  Though I needed some alterations she was more than happy to deliver it when she made her next round of deliveries on my side of the town.

Am I going back to her?  Yes!

To know more about how brands with wheels can benefit your business click here. 

Keep them Posted

Let your customers know about the latest happenings at your store or venture.  Strike a relationship with them through a Facebook page or tweeting on Twitter to let them know about your latest collection, a discount offer or a contest you may have organized.

Let them hear about your achievements too.  So if you were featured as one of the top 10 social ventures in your city then scan a copy of the magazine that featured you and post it on your wall.  Watch how quickly the word spreads and the kudos and compliments keep coming in.

Keeping customers in the loop is all about making them feel involved as far as your progress goes.  They after all contributors to you being there and they should know about how the world perceives you and your efforts too!

Stand for Something

We live in times that are plagued with a number of problems and social issues like poverty, education to marginalized groups, neglect of the differently abled and businesses that set out to support a social cause tend to win more brownie points than those that are simply driven by profit.

It might be a simple move like an hotelier supporting budding artists by allowing them to display at his restaurant or a courier service that employs only handicapped people or the chocolatier whose chocolates are crafted by the blind.  These are just some instances of businesses that stand for something and as such find favor with the public on account of their association with that cause.

If you can’t go all the way you could donate some part of your earnings or products to a charity like giving away surplus food to the nearest soup kitchen instead of throwing it away.  

In the end I would say businesses that adopt an innovative and people centric approach do much better than those that simply churn out products and expect people to buy them.  You can turn cursory visitors in to regular customers if you follow the tips listed above and those mentioned in one of my earlier posts.  Do let me know what you think; I’d love to hear your responses!

Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2125

Brand loyalty is something that has been much debated, discussed and hankered after by marketers and business owners across the globe.  Every business big or small seeks to create, sustain and build brand loyalty but I’m going to take a slightly different stance today…Brand loyalty is a myth!

Here are 6 reasons why you shouldn’t expect brand loyalty…

Too Many Choices         

In a market that is crowded with products and services nearly all of whom (in the same class) offer the same benefits or promise the same deliverables and perks it is the customer who is spoilt for choice.  The result being the customer ends up wanting to try everything.

It’s like your favorite eatery in town which serves so many dishes and what happens when you’ve tried all of them?  Or you feel experimental on a day?  You end up going to another eatery.  You may or may not like the change but then you are open to experimentation and you decide to go out and try something different. 

Add to that the choices on offer become even more alluring when they are interesting and novel.  The same applies to customers who are drawn to other products and services.  They decide to try it out, just that one time at least and that could be the beginning of switching to another brand through exposure spurred by nothing but choices and the willingness to experiment!

The Price factor

No matter how much you love a brand and what it does for you, price becomes a critical factor when customers compare price and value.  Price is absolute and has clear meaning in terms of the amount that is payable.  What differs is the value customers assign to that price. 

For some people the value connotations of wearing designer clothes could be: comfort, style, elegance, a good fit, identification with the designers own style and aesthetics, the prestige of wearing a brand or the allure of wearing a one of a kind outfit.

The battle between value and price is an old one and the changing perceptions of value that customers assign to the price demanded by a brand are often the reason why end up switching brands. 

Branding is Applied Psychology

The reason why we like certain brands is the same as why we like certain people…they make us feel good about ourselves.  Think about why you have remained friends with someone over the years and cut off ties with others.  Most often the underlying reason will be that they make you feel good!

The feel good factor is what draws people to brands.  For instance I use a certain brand of cosmetics because they suit my skin type, compliment my complexion perfectly and are available in colors that I like.  The key factors behind my affinity to that brand of cosmetics all point out to how the brand makes me look and feel…which can be summed up as good!

Now comes the point where how good or bad we feel about anything changes over time.  Be it a person (which is why relationships break down) or a product (which we may not need or outgrow) our feelings are transient and that is why brand loyalty may continue up to a certain point or last forever or fizzle out completely. 

Branding is applied psychology and so brand loyalty is essentially a play of emotions, feelings, reactions, expectations.  None of these operate in a vacuum nor do they remain stagnant.  

Businesses Don’t Compete With Themselves

Most businesses in my opinion tend to compete with other businesses and their products.  They tend to overlook the importance of competing with themselves.  They have to change their mindset and try and outdo themselves before attempting to outdo other businesses. 

There is nothing wrong in competing with other businesses and their products and services but it is important that business owners recognize that this has been their best product or service and that is the point beyond which they need to work. 

The reason being that their previous work is the limit of the experience that they have given customers as far as products and services go and if they want people to stay with them or come back to them they need to add to the experience they have previously offered not just better themselves against other businesses!

A Lazy Approach to Reinvention

Reinvention on a regular basis will save your business from failure and stagnation if not the worst case scenario of failure per se.  Frequently revising your offerings, discounts, prices, packaging, reviving brands and introducing changes in product design, development and undertaking research will put you on the road to reinvention.

Becoming complacent is a tendency most businesses have once they are fairly established.  They feel people will come to them irrespective of the latest trends and offerings in the market place simply because they have done so in the past.  This lazy approach to reinvention spells death for most brands. 

Reinvent or your business will die is a post that I wrote some time back and I think anyone who is looking for reasons to reinvent and for reinvention strategies should read it. 

Sheer Boredom

People tend to get bored with things and repeated purchases of the same product could also result in boredom on the part of customers.  This is one factor marketers fail to consider. 

At some point of time you do get fed up of buying the same toothpaste, eating the same biscuits, bathing with the same soap.  The only things you may not get bored with are products or services that are of high value and those which you spend time and effort in coming to purchase decisions. 

All in all I would say, in an intensely competitive market brand loyalty is becoming increasingly scarce.  Marketers who make it their primary goal will have to really get their act together to achieve it.  The starting point in this regard is knowing why you shouldn’t expect brand loyalty.  Once you’ve figured that out, you know what you can do to create and build brand loyalty. 

 Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2125