Monday, November 30, 2009

Self Publishing Made easy!


Have you got a book in you but don’t want the expense of publishing it?

Well thanks to on-demand printers like LuLu.com and Blurb.com you can write your book, - upload it into their templates - and publish it - easily marketing it to the world on Amazon. They even give you a free ISBN number. You don’t even bear the cost of printing. When a buyer orders a book, it is then printed and shipped directly to them. You are paid a fee for your ownership.
The printers get the printing and a royalty fee.

Being an author on your business expertise, is an awesome way to reinforce your expert profile. On-demand printing pays you for the priviledge of publishing for you.

It’s a great model and you get your thoughts into the hands of potential customers.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Van Heusen, Dressing For Brand Success

Van Heusen roots go back well over a century. Innovation and insight having played a large role in it's continuing success starting g with its self-folding collar in 1929. Today the company owns and distributes many of the top selling world brands such as Calvin Klein, Geoffrey Beene, and IZOD to name a few.

Unlike many fashion brands Van Heusen has not built their success on a legacy of creative advertising. No break-out marketing efforts from this company. Their success can be tracked to retail marketing at the store level. Van Heusen has allowed the department stores to promote their brand through their own sales promotions. You know the brand because you know the department store brand as well.

Even in it's infancy, innovation was the key to moving the brand forward catching the eye of the consumer. Its brand image is middle of the road appeal with a touch of fashion to sweeten the offer. The Van Heusen website is just slick enough to portray a quality image without alienating men who really are a little uncomfortable with fashion. Van Heusen is a practical alternative to trendy or high fashion brands who sell with provocative sex appeal. This brand personality is reflected in their current product innovations positioned to differentiate them. One is the whitest shirt in the industry and a line of shirts with detachable cuffs and collars.

Building on their keen understanding at the shop floor level Van Heusen has taken to giving many of its exclusive locations a makeover and embracing relationship marketing as a way to draw its consumers into a stronger relationship. A customer who loves the brand is also an advocate of the brand. They have even taken to having coffee events at stores where good customers are drawn in for a meet and greet of sorts. These initiatives provides Van Heusen with valuable consumer feedback on its redesign and display changes. To encourage easier browsing, garments are no longer stacked but hung. Collections will now have a concerted display to help consumers coordinate their choices.

As you can see, legacy brands like Van Heusen don't get that way from following other fashion brands but by stepping out and leading the way. By identifying how their audience reacts to their products and how they want to be serviced, Van Heusen continues to retain its brand equity without losing it's focus. From every touch point, their consumer experience is the key in their positioning strategy. Van Heusen intimately understands its audience and continually refreshes it's brand to maintain that loyalty. Staying relevant within its department store distributor family is also important to the overall success of Van Heusen.

Everything in tandem makes a fantastic case history of the success of as true legacy brand.
Van Heusen roots go back well over a century. Innovation and insight having played a large role in it's continuing success starting with it's self-folding collar in 1929. Today the company owns and distributes many of the top selling world brands such as Calvin Klein, Geoffrey Beene and IZOD to name a few.

Unlike many fashion brands Van Heusen have not built their success on a history of creative advertising. No break-out marketing efforts from this company. Their success can be tracked to retail marketing at the store level. Van Heusen has allowed the department stores to promote their brand through their own sales promotions. You know the brand because you know the department store brand as well.

Even in it's infancy, innovation were key to moving the brand forward catching the eye of the consumer. It's brand image has middle of the road appeal with a touch of fashion to sweeten the offer. The Van Heusen website is just slick enough to portray a quality image without alienating men who really are a little uncomfortable with fashion. Van Heusen is a practical alternative to trendy or high fashion brands who sell with provocative sex appeal. This brand's personality is reflected in their current product innovations positioned to differentiate them. One is the whitest shirt in the industry and also a line of shirts with detachable cuffs and collars.

Building on their keen understanding on the store floor, Van Heusen has taken to giving many of it's exclusive locations a makeover and embracing relationship marketing as a way to draw it's consumers into a stronger relationship. A customer who loves the brand is also an advocate for the brand. They have even taken to having coffee events at stores where good customers are drawn in for a meet and greet of sorts. These initiatives gives Van Heusen valuable consumer feedback on its redesign and display changes, as well as it's latest collections. To encourage easier browsing, garments are no longer stacked but hung. Collections will now have a concerted display to help consumers coordinate their choices.

As you can see, legacy brands like Van Heusen don't get that way from following other fashion brands but by stepping out and leading the way. By identifying how their audience reacts to their products and how they want to be serviced, Van Heusen continues to retain it's brand equity without losing it's focus. From every touch point, their consumer experience is key in their positioning strategy. Van Heusen intimately understands its audience and continually refreshes it's brand to maintain that loyalty. Staying relevant within its department store distributor family is also important to the overall success of Van Heusen.

If you want to better understand how to encourage your customers to become an advocate for your brand, you might consider studying the efforts of a legacy brand like Van Heusen.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Commitment To An Idea

Well, as you can see from all the short post-links to Brand Booster 21, Vera Raposo and I are finally finished with the series over at her blog: Small Business Branding. One thing that I learned was that 21 days flies by. When we initiated the series, I had the feeling that the 21 days would poke along. Nope.

I think we helped an awful lot of small businesses according to the stats and so these results makes you appreciate all the effort it takes to implement such a program. Vera and I put it all together back in September and launched on November 2nd. It is our intention to put together future products to help SME's attain their business goals.

If you didn't have the chance or simply weren't aware, the posts are still available to read. Like anything else in business, having an idea and implementing it are two entirely different concepts. Challenge yourself to jump into an idea with both feet and benefit from your efforts to move your business forward. I am asked regularly to join forces with other entrepreneurs to develop information based promotions. This is how I pick up consulting/coaching opportunities.

What ideas are you contemplating, but putting off for now?

DAY TWENTY-ONE: Wrap up

Vera wraps up the 21 day event with the three most popular posts and requests your input as to the effectiveness of the series.

DAY TWENTY: Brand Booster 21

Second last day at we are covering'"Public Speaking An Other Promotional Vehicles".

Friday, November 20, 2009

DAY NINETEEN: Brand Booster 21

"Get Out There And Nurture Your Brand" - thats the call to arms today in The Branding Experts' and Small Business Branding's 21 day branding lessons.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

DAY EIGHTEEN: Brand Booster 21

Everyone can benefit from Developing Their Expert Profile. Discover how you can accomplish this at Small Business Branding.com's free branding lessons.

DAY SEVENTEEN: Brand Booster 21

Find out more about "Email Marketing", in today's session.

DAY SIXTEEN: Brand Booster 21

"Blogging As A Marketing Tool." Today's topic.

Monday, November 16, 2009

DAY FIFTEEN: Brand Booster 21

Today Vera and I discuss "Branding Your Online Brand". Enjoy.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

DAY FOURTEEN: Brand Booster 21

How about we discuss "Brand Logo" today over at the Brand Booster 21 at Small Business Branding. Seven more sessions to the end of our course.

DAY THIRTEEN: Brand Booster 21

Brand Booster session today is "Brand Image." Check it out!

How To Resist The Restraints of Time



So many in the world of the SME (small and medium size enterprises) are cursed by time restraints. Every effort to reach out for new business is predicated by a desire for immediate results. Marketing programs whether off-line or on are geared for long term benefits. One of my favorite marketing media is blogging. It "absoltuely" builds my expert profile and brings me leads.

But the hard truth of the matter is it took about a full year before my blogging efforts brought me any initial response. To many entrepreneurs this is unacceptable. To these folks, the idea of planting seeds is for farmers only. They continually search for the magic bullet. That's why the desire for SEO is so appealing to many. They figure all they "really" need are the right collection of key words and phrases and the world will immediately follow google to their front door.

Of course when this doesn't happen the bemoan the money they spent and continue to search for the fast solution.

Blogging has staying power but it takes effort and patience to build your brand's profile and trust. Over time search engines love blogging because of the fluid content. Better than SEO if you only treat it as a one time effort and not a maintained effort.

Awareness advertising works on patience as well. Consistent messaging builds trust and recognition. Continuing effort breads familiarity and then potential for leads is the result it delivers.

Friday, November 13, 2009

DAY TWELVE: Brand Booster 21

Today we are discussing one of my favorite mantras - Consistency. Consistency can save you money when you take it seriously with your brand. For more details drop into the sessions for a read. Brand Booster 21 ends in 9 days!

DAY ELEVEN: Brand Booster 21

Today we are discussing Differentiation As A Strategy.

We are more than half way through our 21 day branding instruction marathon over at Small Business Branding.com Subscribe to the feed and see each day's lesson.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

DAY TEN: Brand Booster 21

Today we are discussing Competitive Analysis.

DAY NINE: Brand Booster 21

The eigth day's session is on Targeting Your Audience.

Monday, November 9, 2009

DAY EIGHT: Brand Booster 21

Today's session is on "Stake Holder Perceptions Of Your Brand".

Sunday, November 8, 2009

DAY SEVEN: Brand Booster 21

Today's session is about "Unique Selling Point/ Brand Positioning".

Saturday, November 7, 2009

DAY SIX: Brand Booster 21

Today's session is on Validating the work done to date.

DAY FIVE: Brand Booster 21

Today's session is about your Brand Promise.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

DAY FOUR: Brand Booster 21

Today's session is about determining your brand's personality.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

When To Know When It's Time To Re-Brand.


Re-branding. It's a term that you hear a lot these days. When you hear the term in relation to changing one's logo, this is an incorrect use of the term. Changing the logo won't re-brand anything. If you understand that your brand is essentially your reputation and is the result of every touch point in your company. If you’re merely change your logo without addressing the core issues for the re-brand then changing the logo changes nothing.

To help you determine if re-branding is for you, let's look at some brand viruses and see what we can do for them:

• Prospective customers don't know what we do.
Over time, you become known for doing so much for people that they have trouble putting their finger on your one big specialty. This results in your becoming a commodity. If they could focus on one great thing about you, they are more apt to knock on your door for that one compelling thing. The differentiator is your door opener.

• Your image is dated.
Your noticing that your customers are getting older and older. The younger skew doesn't even have you on their radar. Your logo looks as if it were designed in the sixties or seventies, and you are supposed to be a progressive company. Updating your logo and corporate palette freshens up a tired image.

• Sales are flat, and the sales staff are not motivated as much.
Chances are that they have no compelling story to tell. Going to market with a unique positioning strategy making you the leader in something, or the only distributor of something reinvigorates the sales staff. They have a focus and are embolden to drive the message home, especially if the positioning strategy is a powerful one.

• Advertising isn't effective as expected.
Many B2B advertising is simply all about the wrong person. Grab a trade magazine and you will notice the advertisers bragging about themselves. They show a picture of their building, tell a great story of how successful they are in your field, and show pictures of work similar to yours that they've done. What they (or you) are not doing is explaining how you can take their pain away. Your goal should be to remove the barrier that keeps them awake at night. It shouldn't be about you; it should be about them.

• You're a little out of touch.
Remember when you started your business, you used to attend all the Chamber functions and networking events, but over time you fell away from it? Well as younger businesses came on stream, your brand fell off the screen with each generation. It's time to reconnect with your business community. Get out there and share your knowledge. One thing great about graying hair - it represents wisdom.

Over all re-branding your company should involve an overall strategy that juices every stakeholder in the company. It is a wonderful opportunity to start over and position the company for growth in the emerging economy.

DAY THREE:Brand Booster 21

Today's session article is about Brand Values.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

DAY TWO:Brand Booster 21

Today's session article is about assembling your branding team.

Monday, November 2, 2009

DAY ONE: Brand Booster 21!


Today is day one of Brand Booster 21 over at Small Business branding.com. Authored by Vera Raposo and I to help small to medium sized business to focus their brands and give them a leg up on their competiton. It's free and and new step appears every day for the next 21 days.
 
More blogs about http://brandcorral/blogspot.com.