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Nowadays, it is quite fascinating how companies from different industries try to constantly outdo one another. If you are not observant enough, try checking out the all the creative advertising and branding strategies they use to their advantage just to gain at least a few significant steps ahead from their competitors. Its a constant battle on who gets to most patronage from consumers, which will equate to a bigger market share that would ultimately mean generating higher sales.

The art of advertising and branding is quite complicated than an ordinary person would normally think. All concepts are painstakingly developed and deliberated, researches and endless surveys are made to determine the markets current preferences. This is all geared towards making an intelligent forecast and calculation on the consumers reactions to certain products, and what would be the most effective approach in introducing such product in the market. In advertising and branding, nothing can be attributed to simple stroke of luck or an instant, phenomenal success. Everything is a product of grueling work. That is why advertising think tanks employs an elite team of highly creative people to conceptualize and ensure a certain products success in the market.

So how can one correctly gauge the victory or failure of any advertising and branding effort? Well, its quite simple, really. You can try showing a certain image, logo, color combination, a pattern or a tag line to a number of consumers, and if they are able to properly identify the product behind it, you one can say all marketing efforts have achieved a certain degree of success.

The very first key role of advertising and branding is generating awareness and recognition of a certain product or service. The second most important thing is to actually condition the minds of consumers as to what image you would want them to associate with the product, whether its cheap, durable, dependable, etc. This is the intrinsic value of advertising and branding and can be a little harder to determine. For example, if you mention toothpastes, what brand would first come to mind to consumers? Or if you ask for a most wonderful vacation hotspot, what would be the first word they would be likely blurt out? This does not necessarily mean they have actually been to that particular place, its their perception of the place for what they have seen and heard that made them believe its actually the top choice.

However, on the other side of the coin, once having established a very strong and powerful brand name, companies will find it hard to step away from its shadows. If in the future, the company would want to project a new image, or take on a different market position, it can be a difficult task to veer away for the identity that have been established. This would take another series of powerful marketing effort to transform the image of the product. It all whole new ball game, and a very expensive one at that. This is the beauty of advertising and branding. It is certainly the most powerful marketing tool that can make or break a company.

T J Madigan has been established in online business since 1998 and is director of a number of successful online projects one of which is http://www.articles.net.au your best source for FREE articles and information.

You can choose to read about all the marketing tactics you’d like, but the first step in a healthy business is the planning part of marketing. It’s so easy to get caught up in the “marketing event of the week”. But this isn’t how effective marketing is carried out.

I used to work for an advertising company (imagine that!) who reacted to the latest marketing technique. One such technique at the time was email marketing. The results were spotty at best not necessary because of the technique but because of the this-is-going-to-get-us-all-the-business-we-want mentality.

You need a planned approach which involves goals, logical steps, a budget, and partners. Anything outside of this project management approach will be knee-jerk and over time, unsuccessful. The most effective companies manage each area of the business, and that includes marketing. For some reason, many owners feel as though marketing runs on itself. Perhaps this was true in days past where one could put a sign outside the office, take out a yellow page ad, and business would walk through the door.

But in today’s world the competitive landscape is fierce. You must be good in all areas…quality, customer service, operations, accounting, management, and of course (and perhaps the most important area of all), marketing.

I would suggest the first step is to take out your business plan and develop a marketing plan that complements the vision (if you don’t have either I would suggest that you start writing). Determine how you’re doing first. This includes the business in addition to where you are in the industry as compared to others. This would involve some industry research. Then there are marketing planning steps that are essential.

First is to narrow and define the market you want to go for…in essence your target market. Starting with your ideal customer can help you to determine that. You must understand in order to be successful that you have to narrow your view down to those who value what you offer most. It’s so easy to play into the helping-anybody syndrome, and it will pull your business down quickly. You’ve got to say ‘no’ and be disciplined about this. Next is to determine a core message that will appeal to that target market and to package your business in that way. You want everything boiled down to a simple and targeted message.

Finally, you need to determine the appropriate marketing tactics for you business (e.g. direct mail, seminars, signage, etc.). Once you have defined these, you’ll need to set a budget and get help (ie. graphic designers, fulfillment house partner, etc.)

As you can see, an effective approach is a planned one…one that involves commitment and focus.

Scott Campbell owns Impact Marketing, Inc out of Atlanta, GA. He installs a marketing system, called the “Ultimate Marketing System”, into small businesses and practices in the Atlanta, GA area.

Learn more about Impact Marketing and its solutions here at http://www.impactyourcompany.com.

Many people say that the key to succeeding in business is through constant improvement and innovation, the ability to keep up with the ever-changing trends in the industry. So if you ever notice why some of your competitors enjoy more attention and interest than you do, you better move fast and find out the answer before its too late. Complacency has certainly no room in the highly aggressive world of business.

In marketing and advertising, branding goes beyond just merely creating a strong company name, it should also ensure that people would be able to easily recall it and would stay in the periphery of the consumers minds for a long time. A powerful brand would be able to differentiate your companys products and services in a highly positive way. In effect, this will create a lingering effect on consumers, thus making them potential buyers of your products or future clients that will seek your services. The company logo is unquestionably one youre your major marketing tool to get across the message that you would want to send out.

So what makes an effective corporate branding logo design? Contrary to what others believe, a logo is not just an ordinary symbol that represents your business. Such assumption could potential render the conceptualization of company logo as ineffective. To be able to maximize it to its fullest potential, a corporate branding logo design should be treated as an important communication tool that you can use to interact with consumers. Use your company logo to convey your companys message, to project a competent and highly capable company and most importantly would efficiently educate the consumers what is the nature of your products or services.

So here are some useful tips that could help you in creating a powerful corporate branding logo design:

Direct and concise – a logo usually comes with a tag line. It would be ideal to create a short one that would easily be recalled even by children. Avoid using flowery or elaborate words, as this would only defeat its purpose and confuse your consumers.

Distinctive and bold – a strong corporate branding logo design should be visible easily be seen even from afar and should not be confused with any other establishments. Being distinctive does not it has to be really a complicated design, this will only alienate and confuse consumers.

Graphic Imagery – Needless to say, if you are using an image for your logo it should complement the companys name and the nature of the business. Consistency is the key here since you wouldnt want to send out mixed signals.

Suffice it to say that brand name and brand logo is the primary tool in reaching out to consumers and developing consumer awareness. Anyone who sees a distinctive crown logo would readily associate it with Hallmark. So in conceptualizing your very own logo design, make sure to incorporate all the marketing and advertising elements to make it more effective.

T J Madigan has been established in online business since 1998 and is director of a number of successful online projects one of which is http://www.articles.net.au your best source for FREE articles and information.

The business world is all about first impressions. If a customer likes what they see right away, they are likely to engage with your internet marketing efforts. That first impression is the essence of your brand message. It’s the promise of what a consumer will encounter when dealing with your company. Create a compelling message, and you will entice potential customers to dig deeper and explore what your company has to offer.

How to Develop a Strong Brand Message
Begin by identifying your target market. Your branding strategy will depend heavily on this factor. Obviously, you will choose different messages depending on whether you are marketing to wealthy, retired men or adolescent girls. Your brand message goes even deeper than that. Your brand message is, in essence, a promise to your audience. Your brand message is the entire experience a consumer has with your organization.

So how does this promise tie into brand development? The spending habits, interests, age, gender, education level, and many other factors will play into your branding plans. If a hefty portion of your potential customers read the New York Times, the promise of your brand will be an upscale, intellectual experience. If they are a more tech-savvy bunch, making your brand hip, fast, easy and one step ahead of everyone else will hit the mark there.

Once you know who you are trying to speak to, you have to figure out what you will say. Decide what makes your company unique. What distinguishes you from the other guys? What compels a customer to choose you instead of the competition? Developing those unique selling points (USPs) will help you put a face to your company. Choose those stand-out qualities and focus on them in the branding process.

Getting Your Brand Noticed
Your brand, the promise of your company experience, exists only in relation to your consumers. There are two primary ways to realize this relationship: the visual approach, and the verbal approach. The visual approach involves the “look,” a strong visual identity that will be recognized no matter what the context. This includes logos, colors, layouts, images, any graphic representation of your brand and its message. Remember: what the eyes see, the brain remembers. Whether it be an identifiable font or a memorable graphic, the visual side of branding has become increasingly important in our media-saturated culture.

The verbal aspect of branding is directly connected to the visual. It also needs to stand on its own; especially in the context of article marketing, where the visual aspect is largely absent. The verbal message of your brand becomes even more importance when separated from the visual.

Establishing a strong voice and style for your company is critical. Everything you write — whether articles, press releases, site content, emails to your affiliates — is written in the same voice and style. Once you’ve established a strong verbal identity, consumers will begin to intrinsically know that they are reading something from your company.

The verbal brand often includes trademark phrases, a standard lexicon for job titles and departments, and an overall tone in everything your company puts into words.

A tagline is another effective way to solidify your brand message. Think of Taco Bell’s recent tagline, “Think outside the bun.” A strong tagline presents a vivid summary of the USP of the company. Something clever or catchy will stick in the memories of customers the same way an attractive logo will.

Marketing With Confidence
A devotion to the promise of your brand displays a devotion to your customers. It also shows that you have confidence in your product. Consumers will perceive that confidence and subconsciously internalize a feeling of trust for your brand. That positive gut-reaction is the sign of a successful brand. A creative, confident brand is generally the face of a creative and confident company, and that is something any customer will appreciate!

Carol Palmatier is the brand manager at Article Marketer, a highly popular article distribution service. Take advantage of the power of article marketing to build your brand identity.

http://www.articlemarketer.com

It was the famous publicist PJ Barnum who said in 1855 “I do not care what people say about me but get my name right”.

In today’s international marketplace, getting names right is vital.

Marketers and brand managers are becoming more and more concerned that their newly created name will be inappropriate in their target markets.

We’ve all seen middle aged marketing executives embarrass themselves when trying to appear trendy to the youth market but things get even worse when attacking overseas markets.

What many people don’t realize is that innocuous English product names often do not travel well. So called, ‘bad’ names, names which embarrass, offend or are just plain unsuitable, are profligate.

Bad products names, bad brand names and even bad company titles, are continuously spawned and the headlong drive towards globalization has given unwelcome publicity to all of them. There are many instances of where things have gone awry, most of them too rude to mention in this article.

It’s not just names which need careful attention, straplines can go just as wrong. Take for example, Electrolux, the Swedish white goods company, who used the strapline “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux” to great effect when promoting a vacuum cleaner across Europe. Unfortunately, when they used the same line for the US launch they became a laughing stock as ‘sucks’ means something is ‘very bad’ in America.

Bad translations on apparel can also convey the wrong message. Take the slogan “I saw the potato”, instead of the correct Spanish translation of “I saw the Pope,” used on promotional T-Shirts for the Pope’s visit to Miami.

The cost of such a damaging event cannot easily be counted. The very fact that a product might have to be hurriedly withdrawn, or quickly re-badged can have a catastrophic effect on the image, position and value of the brand and, of course its owner.

How can one put a value on that? The cost can be enormous, with the repercussions leaving careers in tatters. It seems almost ridiculous to many outside the marketing business that there are still organisations that undertake no due diligence and take a chance on it being ‘alright on the night’.

Most sensible people take out insurance to cover them for almost every event and occasion, yet when instances of such obvious potential devastation occur, it is always too late to do anything about it.

Traditional remedies such as expecting your advertising agency to provide such a service is, with some exceptions, a waste of time. It’s like asking your dentist to give you a diagnosis in respect of a pain in your toe.

You might expect your translation agency to offer this service but, unless they are very experienced and have regularly handled the needs and demands of checking words worldwide, again you could be wasting your money. Proper checking involves much more than whether the word means something contentious or just risible in a foreign language.

So, what can be done to reduce the risks of things going wrong? Fortunately, there are a few simple but highly effective precautions which can be taken:

1. Remember names change with speech

There’s a world of difference between the written and spoken word. Accents and dialects play havoc with the pronunciation of English words and vice versa.

Most of have had an experience of the way our own language is treated by foreigners. We sound similarly strange to foreigners when we try to speak in a language which isn’t our own. Before deciding on a name, simply ask a native speaker of the target language if it sounds OK to them.

2. Avoid names that can’t be pronounced easily, or at all

Although this sounds like another blatantly obvious point, it’s something which many people forget completely. Many languages have an alphabet and a way of speaking which makes the reading of English words difficult or, in some extreme cases, practically impossible.

For instance, all words in Japanese end in either a vowel or the letter ‘n’ so it makes sense to chose a name which follows this convention. By doing this, you can be confident that your Japanese customers will be able to pronounce it without difficulty or embarrassment.

3. Avoid names that confuse

A name may meet every other criteria but due to culture, product qualities or its position in the market place, it may still confuse its intended consumer. This fault will seriously endanger product positioning and so clarity must be established.

Many years ago the then President of the USA, John F Kennedy was making a speech close to the Berlin Wall. He finished off in an effort to try to identify himself with the long-suffering inhabitants by announcing to his audience “Ich bin ein Berliner”. Unfortunately, and unknown, to the President he was telling everyone that he was a doughnut; a Berliner being the popular name for a local pastry.

I am often amazed that companies spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars launching a product with a name which is so obviously wrong that it would have been flagged as inappropriate immediately had they undertaken proper checking.

The cost of checking is tiny compared to the damage caused by not doing so.

Peter Bennett is CEO of London Translations Limited which specializes in international name checking and linguistic assessment: Download his FREE report “International Brand Disasters and How To Avoid Them” from:

http://www.london-translations.co.uk/validata