Posts Tagged ‘branding’

photo courtesy of waffrie on flickr creative commons

I live in the Charleston, South Carolina area. A few years ago the old bridges spanning the Cooper River were torn down and a new breathtakingly beautiful bridge was built. The Arthur Ravenel Bridge is a suspension bridge that is a pleasure to drive over because of its architecture and ability to carry a large volume of traffic between Mt. Pleasant and Charleston.

Now as much as I like the bridge, it’s never occurred to me to use it as a component of my corporate identity, logo or in my advertising, but I think I’m in the minority. It seems that 8 out of 10 companies use the Arthur Ravenel Bridge, its towers or other features in their advertising. Now it makes sense for the Cooper River Bridge Run to use it in their advertising, but for a home oxygen supplier?  It makes more sense for the Yarborough Applegate law firm because the letters of their names form an impression of the bridge’s superstructure and it fits for The Bridge 105.5 radio station to use it in their advertising. But I’ve seen the bridge used in real estate ads, restaurant ads and business consultant’s ads. Just get over it!

If you do business in the Charleston area, I suppose you may want to use the bridge to give a sense of place in your logo or advertising, but wouldn’t you rather have imagery that depicts or speaks to how your customers use your products or services?

Your logo is a visual communication between your company and your customers. It should be distinctive. Individual. When customers see your logo, they should comprehend your brand qualities or understand the benefits of doing business with you. It’s lazy to use the most iconic image for your business sector or locale; the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, the Eiffel Tower in Paris or a scale for a lawyer’s office or a chef’s toque for a restaurant.

When developing your logo and corporate identity, use a brand development process that clarifies your brand promise, qualities, benefits and features. Then your graphic designer can use this material to develop the best corporate identity materials for your company.

When your logo is developed, you’ll be glad yours is as individual as you and your company are.

Developing A Personal Brand

Workshop Cost

Members $22.00 Guests $27.00

Professional Development Seminar on personal branding offered by the American Business Women’s Association

Sept. 19th, 2009 — Summerville, South Carolina – The Summerville chapter of the American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) invites the public to a seminar on personal branding on October 12, 2009 at the Westcott Plantation Clubhouse at 5000 Wescott Club Drive in Summerville, SC, 29485.

The seminar, to be held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., will be presented by ABWA members Shauna Heathman of Mackenzie Image Consulting and Cheryl Smithem of Strategic Marketing & Charleston PR, experts on personal image, strategic marketing and public relations. They will be discussing the significance of building an effective and appealing personal brand to help you reach your professional career goals.

The seminar is the first installment of the quarterly professional development series put on by the ABWA Summerville chapter. Each quarterly workshop will feature programs designed to educate women with regard to relevant business practices, provide networking opportunities and offer the tools and skill sets to start and/or grow a company.

Workshop admission which includes dinner and iced tea or water is $20 ($22 when paying by credit card) for ABWA members and $25 ($27 when paying by credit card) for non-members. The deadline for RSVP is Saturday, October 3rd. To reserve your spot, RSVP to ABWA President, Kathy Berman at 843-795-9751 or kathy.berman@psgltd.org. Send checks or cash to PO Box 32338, Charleston, SC 29417 care of ABWA – Kathy Berman.

American Business Women’s Association, Summerville Chapter:

The Jessamine Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association’s Mission is: “To bring together businesswomen of diverse occupations and to provide opportunities for them to help themselves and others grow personally and professionally through leadership, education, networking support and national recognition.”

Mackenzie Image Consulting:

Would you like to improve the way you’re perceived?

People often think that creating a compelling image requires a great deal of time and money, but that isn’t so. We focus on bringing your personality to the fore in a way that feels comfortable and contributes to your success personally and professionally… and we can help you boost your bottom line not only by enhancing your success but by showing you how to utilize your wardrobe most effectively now and best invest your clothing budget later.

We can help guide impressions in ways that go beyond clothing, too. From nonverbal communication to executive-level skills like business etiquette and knowing how to speak to the media, we can help you mold the first impressions others form when they encounter you. Whether you’d like to enhance your image for personal reasons or find greater success in your career utilizing the services of an image consultant can help you achieve your goals. http://www.mackenzieimage.com/

Strategic Marketing & Charleston PR:

Strategic Marketing & Public Relations develops communications that motivate and connect.

Creating compelling, highly successful messaging that engages consumers and translates into greater revenue is what we do.

Our varied experience includes brand research, development and management, strategic planning, media relations, public relations, development and implementation of marketing and communications strategies and plans. http://www.CharlestonPR.com

Twitter is hard for many to grasp. The idea of sharing online what are seemingly inane comments about your life and work mixed-in with thoughts about your business or products seems like a waste of time. But remember the old adage? “People buy from people?” Well, that’s true here.

Used well, Twitter humanizes people in corporations and behind brands. Just ask the folks @Zappos shoes.

Twitter is a very effective tool to shape brand perceptions. There are a crop of articles and examples of how Twitter is helping PR pros and companies.

MediaBistro which is a great resource for publicists and writers posted an interview with Robert Quigley, Austin American-Statesman Internet Editor that includes how he has used Twitter to increase audience and develop new audiences for that publication.

AdAge has a great article from @TomMartin regarding how he demonstrated the ability of Twitter to reshape perceptions of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. His research before and after his Tweets regarding the festival demonstrated attudinal change.

Closer to home @webprgirl Lyn Mettler is using Twitter to promote a virtual Myrtle Beach Blast. Not only will she reshape awareness for the participating hotels, she will plant the idea of Myrtle Beach in the minds of people at the right booking time in the year. It will be interesting to compare and track bookings at each hotel before and after the event.

Tweet on! I’m @Cheryl_Smithem on Twitter and I look forward to learning about your business and how you use Twitter. Share your experience. Write up how your company is using Twitter and I’ll post with your byline.

Today’s post in HubSpot’s blog which includes suggestions on naming a product or company is spot on. Read it and you can learn volumes about naming your new product or business and perhaps prevent many headaches.

Particularly important is the admonition to “keep the size of your naming team small.” As a veteran of many naming (brainstorming) sessions, you want to be sure to keep focused and HubSpot is correct, too many cooks do spoil the soup. Branding by committee doesn’t work.

The other point that is important and bears further thought is, “What are the most important ideas you want to get across to your target market?” Jeff Taylor of Cognetix Advertising and Marketing and I were talking about this just the other day. We were talking about it in the context of the many websites that allow new business owners to get a logo for a flat fee from a web-based service. Jeff’s point is that many of these services and sites will create an interesting logo, but bottom line, does that logo deliver the message of who and what your business is and who it serves? Does the consumer recognize their needs and wants in it? Does the logo fit the brand that you are trying to create? Our concern is that as graphic design becomes more of a commodity, there is less focus on message.

Juliet:
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)