Survey Your Team Podcast

This week's podcast discusses speaking to brand stakeholders.

Fix It. Brand It. What Comes First?

The title of this article is rather a trick question. The fact is you have a brand already. Everything does. If your brand is essentially your reputation, then your brand is created through the relationship it has with it's audience. Small businesses don't consider their brand unless they think there may be a problem, and something is holding them back.

Issues like:
• an unmotivated staff • lack-lustre sales • poor customer service • a tired brand image • bad PR
... to name a few.

In order for your brand to grow strong you have to fix the broken parts. Taking a hard look at what your brand stands for and determining what your differentiator is will correctly define your brand. Leaving it broken compounds the problems. So to answer the question posed in the headline, I'd recommend a little of both, because they really can't be separate issues. Solving one, strengthens the other.

Radio As A Branding Channel

Guest Author: Tim Fenn

Radio has been proven time and time again as one of the best mediums for branding due to the intrusive nature of sound as opposed to the passive nature of visual mediums.
 
You have to look to see, but don’t have to listen to hear.
 
This is why might typically pay little attention to a print ad unless you are in the market for a product or service.
 
It’s the reason you have committed to memory the words to hundreds of songs without trying, yet can’t tell me the colour of the car in the driveway 5 doors down, though you pass it several times a week.
 
Therefore, radio is better at creating a pre-disposition for your product or service, winning hearts and minds and “branding”  BEFORE a consumer is in the market for the product. Brand awareness.

www.blackburnradio.com
 
My question is this:
 Why isn't radio part of your marketing mix?

Brand Trust...

Do you have a trusted brand? Listen in on this week's tip for more on this...

Photography Can Be Hurting Your Brand

Guest Post by Mariano Pastor

Vision is the most advanced of our senses. We understand the world through our eyes and images play an exceptional role in human perception-we evolved to make fast decisions based in what we see. To determine friend from foe at a glance.

In the modern world we grow looking at sophisticated images created by the entertainment and advertising industries. By the time we leave college we had been exposed to millions of these pictures and they become the criteria to cast opinions - in a blink of an eye - about what is good or bad. inferior or excellent. To purchase or to take a pass. There is no underestimating the power of first impressions.

The photography you use creates an immediate impression as to where your company stands in terms of professionalism, attention to detail and quality control. Or whether you employ inferior standards in return for lower costs.

When determining the price of creating the photography that helps you sell your product, step back for a moment and consider the larger picture. Does the image you use reflect the way you want customers to perceive your brand?

In this belt-tightening economy, it’s easy to fall to the temptations of using cheaper alternatives anywhere we can. Cheap stock photography floods the web, technology makes possible to have your own in house studio and employ a staff that will crank out pictures. You may even consider doing it yourself.

But does doing things cheaply have to mean cheapening your brand?


About the Author:
Mariano is an advertising photographer based in NYC. He is also the founder of Via U!—a revolutionary online photography studio that delivers quality photography at extraordinarily affordable prices.

How 5¢ Blemishes A Brand

The shopping experience today is getting greedier on the alter of the green environment. I take offense to this change in service. The #1 perpetrator is the grocery store. Not long ago, it used to be that you paid your money and the check out person and/or "bag boy" would pack your groceries into multiple paper or plastic bags - your choice.

NOW they charge you 5¢ per plastic bag (no paper available) AND you now have to scramble and pack them yourself before the next person's groceries starting piling up. They say it is for a greener planet - I say it's greed - pure and simple.

5¢ bags deliver a new revenue stream where before it was a cost of doing business, (but still rolled into the end price). Due to their volumes, those bags cost them a fraction of a cent each, so at 5¢ that's quite a money maker across the entire chain.

This evening I was at a (Swiss-Chalet) rib and chicken chain take-out where they put on the counter multiple packages. Now they asked the patron if they wanted a plastic bag? People just looked at the girl with a puzzled look - because if they say no, how does the restaurant honestly expect them to cart the food home without dropping everything? I say just roll the 5¢ into the price. Don't rub it into our face using the green excuse. The reality is you love this new revenue. Greed - pure and simple!

With Swiss Chalet, if they really cared about the environment, then why are ALL of their containers plastic, their cutlery is plastic and their now 5¢ bags are plastic.

I think all these greedy stores would look more sincere if they offered a paper bag for free as an additional option. But of course there's no money in that. Why they tossed out service with the bag is a black spot on their brand and that's a shame.

A Mentor's Advice

I happen to mentor as part of the organization, "New Canadian Centre of Excellence." This group helps newly emigrated entrepreneurs find employment or assists them in starting new businesses. The recipients come from every corner of the world. My current mentee is a bright young woman from Singapore. We had a nice meeting at Starbuck's the other day, to commence our journey.

In discussing job seeking opportunities, we both had our doubts as to the effectiveness of resumes. You are just one of hundreds of sheets of paper. I told her my belief is that get better opportunities networking. You also get to build your personal brand. So, that is going to be our focus. I am currently arranging a meeting with a local Athena Group. Athena is an international organization of professional woman. This will be a great starting point for her. She need only build on this. Networking is the life blood of business and as such a terrific spring board to new relationships.

If you are job seeking and relying exclusively on your resume, you should step out of your comfort zone and meet people who can positively influence your future.