My new blog is at TheBrandDharma.com
I’ve moved over to WordPress to create my new blog. It’s The Brand Dharma where I’m posting stuff on branding and marketing to support the design professionals I collaborate with.
Please check it out!
verb(media)
"When a business launches a new product or service, I help create their marketing strategy by defining: What do you offer that’s really different? Why is that important? How can we connect emotionally with your customers? We take those answers and create brochures, websites, videos or live events. The result is a strong brand that genuinely builds their business."
Contact me, ROBERT HYNDMAN, at Robert@verbverb.com, or call 949.497.3179.
Contact me, ROBERT HYNDMAN, at Robert@verbverb.com, or call 949.497.3179.
Dec 21
Nov 19
“ When you start your new business, especially one in an area of high competition like writing or design, you need to think beyond the product you sell. Before that product hits the virtual world shelves, you have to decide on the image you’re going to portray to the public. If your image is boring, dull, or average, who will buy? Who wants to pay money for that feeling? You have to offer people more, a fantasy of emotions. You need to give customers an experience, not just a product.
— Harry McLeod in his Men with Pens blog entry
Nov 17
Until I get my photos straight from my two weeks in China, this is a favorite image of Beijing. To me, it says so much about China — the “exotic” food displayed for the gawking tourists … the surgical mask worn as much for food handling as for self-defense in the polluted air … and, most of all, the weary disillusioned look on his and so many migrant workers’ faces in the New China.
Oct 29
“ Marketing is everything you say to customers, whether you say it in words, images or actions. Marketing is the way you listen to what they say in return.
— Sonia Simone in her always-insightful blog, Remarkable Communication.
Oct 28
Four steps to persuasive branding
At a recent conference, Cheryl Heller of Heller Communication Design reminded her audience that a good brand expressed an identity - it communicates who we are and what we do. But GREAT branding should convey a promise.
Heller said that brand promise “indicates to your audience what they can expect to get from your company in exchange for their money and time — whether they are a customer, partner, investor or employee.”
It’s a smart point about including employees. Without their involvement, the promise cannot be delivered.
Heller’s tips on persuading your audience to behave in a certain way:
1. Be brief. Be clear. “Clarity and brevity do not come naturally to entrepreneurs with a mission,” Heller said.
2. Don’t clutter your brand promise with references to how you differentiate yourself.“Who you are and what you do is core to your brand promise,” Heller said. “How you do it, that changes as you grow.”
3. Avoid common words used by other companies. Heller’s examples: strategy, core values, mission, vision, operational excellence, efficiency, value-added, character, integrity, positioning, sustainability, corporate citizen, cause.
4. Speak to all your constituents: customer, partner, investor, or employee.
Oct 27
“ Marketing is never about a hammer hitting plate glass. It is almost always about the accrued power of a thousand drips, drips that accrue, drop by drop until they overwhelm the status quo and break through, starting a flood.
— The so-often eloquent Seth Godin in his blog.
Oct 23
Terrific promotional idea from 1955. “Revenge of the Creature” was apparently the sequel to “The Creature from the Black Lagoon.”
Oct 22
“ A really good idea is simple, unexpected and relevant. And it unites extremes: it should risk a lot but nevertheless be easy to implement. Everyone should talk about it, but existing customers should not be irritated by it.
— Nadja Schnetlzer, co-founder of BrainStore,
Oct 20
“ Having great taste is one of the most important characteristics of designers, programmers, and managers alike. Being able to discern what’s good from that which is bad. Which of the thousands of possible little details are key to make whatever you’re working on just right. … I think taste is mostly about developing an eye for the details that matter and that it’s absolutely something that can be learned. The best way to learn what details that matter is to examine the details of great and not-so-great work and contrast and compare.
— Igor Asselbergs in his blog entry for 37signals
Oct 14
No more brochures
Most small businesses don’t need a brochure at all.
That’s the take of Sonia Simone of Remarkable Communication who rants about the ”things big dumb companies do that you can’t afford (especially now).”
“Brochures are typically “me-me-me” communications that talk about how great your business is. No one cares.” she writes. “They are inherently unremarkable. Brochures are created and printed to satisfy the ego of the business owner–and that’s a big dumb mistake you can’t afford.”
Sonia suggests that if you really want to give your customer something physical, assemble something like a media kit — a folder containing separate inserts that are relevant. These may be case studies, lists of resources, white papers and how-to worksheets, etc.
“Your folders might cost as much to print as those brochures do,” she says, “but now you have an infinitely flexible, configurable piece that allows you to start a meaningful relationship with that individual customer.”
Good idea. For more of her rants, click here.
