The Engaging Brand

Using personalised products to enhance a brand

When prospective clients approach a company to form a partnership or to buy a product it is important that businesses provide them with the right look and feel.

Now this can be achieved on a different number of levels from the way that new customers are addressed, approached, talked to and how a firm markets its image.

For instance, it is all well and good having a great website that looks very professional and sleek but then having an office that looks run down and disorganised when the clients turn up for a face-to-face meeting or to meet the staff members who handle their accounts – it just sends out the wrong message.

One way to enhance the professional appearance of a company is to have everything look the same with the company’s logo and insignia on everything from the business cards, to letterheads, to instruction manuals, stationary and even personalised mugs.

By doing this, firms can enhance the appeal of their brand by constantly reinforcing and reminding customers about who they are, what they do, and how efficient and professional their organisation is.

It is also important to remember that creating the right looking brand to start with is imperative to delivering the right message about a company.

In fact, when it comes to Christmas, or the time for a client to renew their contract, using personalised products can be a good way to break the ice and improve the look of your firm – by providing them with gifts that have either your own logo or their company’s name on it.

Actually, this process can work well when customers attend your office as well, especially if you have a personalised mug created with both organisations’ insignia on them - which they will see when they are offered a cup of tea or coffee.

What is important to remember is that first impressions mean a lot, and each time clients are met after this as well. 

It is imperative that companies concentrate on providing their customers with the best services to increase their turnover, and by creating a professional looking brand it can instil further confidence in gaining new or keeping existing clients.

Also, having a personalised company approach to marketing helps to make organisations look more approachable, reliable and from what I’ve learnt over the years trustworthy to other businesses.

Therefore, taking pro-active moves when creating the ideal brand can have positive benefits for businesses and this should be considered by all companies large and small. 

This weeks guest post is from David Stevenson of Search Labroatory on personalised products, something very apt for the holiday season. If you want to provide a guest post just email me your thoughts!

 

4 Insights Into Social Media Innovation

In a sense there is nothing new in this world.

Communication is communication whether it is by smoke signal, telephone or blog!

So we can all shut down our computers and relax, if there is nothing new to say

..however we know that people have choice, we know that people are using the internet more and more to research and make their purchase.

So if there is nothing really new to say, why bother to use social media?

Because the new is not necessarily inventive...instead...

...it lies in the innovative way we express what we do and the innovative way we show our values -  the innovation of expression!

...it lies in the innovative way we move ourselves from the center of the universe to the putting the customer there instead - the innovation of listening!

...it lies in the innovative way we move from selling to giving them honest information from which they can make their own decision - the innovation of trust!

..it lies in the way we look at the world, not from inside our organisation out but from the outside in - the innovation of innovating!

5 Clues for Writing Social Media Blockbusters

Social media is a wonderful way to engage people. Many events and many courses highlight the technology that can help you...but the key ingredient of effective social media is the content, the writing....and we can learn a lot from writers at the top of their profession.

I am an avid student of how artists and writers can help us understand the engagement factors, factors which draw the audience in and take them from mere passive receivers of words to active listeners of the story.

With that in mind I wanted to share 5 tips on how to write a crime thriller, tips shared by Patricia Cornwell on The Book Show. 

1. Give the thriller an intriguing book title. It needs to grab the readers attention so that they want to know more...
2. The first words, the first paragraph are so important. They need to grab your reader 'by the throat' so they don't put it down until they've turned the page...because then they are hooked.
3. Create compelling characters - people who would like to sit next to on the plane. People who are 3 dimensional. (You can see how this would also work with products and services)
4. Ensure that the setting reflects the essence of the story.
5. Investigate and write not from your mind but from real experience. Experience ensures that you are living the true life that you are wanting the reader to believe.

Social media can learn so much from these tips. 

We need to grab peoples attention with the first words they see

We need to speak to their need immediately

We need to create multi dimensional stories to explain our offer

We need to design our site to reflect our values

We need to understand our business more than ever and be the No1 customer for our own offers.

Success - Whats Your Instalment Plan

I have always enjoyed listening and reading the thoughts of Zig Ziglar. It is Zig Ziglar who said

"Success is one thing you can't pay for. You buy it on the instalment plan and make payments every day."

In this modern world when we seem to be able to buy anything we want...there are at least two things that can remain elusive....love and success!

On both of these fronts it is not about the big gestures, it is about the small important matters of respect, valuing, listening and seeing that it is only with these building blocks can the foundations can support the overall growth.

For me, social media is the instalment plan. For me, social media is a way of showing how you value, what your values are and of course listening.

So the question for us today is what has been our instalment today for the success tomorrow?

5 R's of Memories

Abigail Sellen of Microsoft Research has a wonderful tool to talk about how we preserve artifacts of memory. I was reading about this in The Future of Looking Back - you can listen to the podcast interview here.

Abigail speaks of the 5 R's

• Reminiscing
• Reflecting
• Recollecting
• Retrieving
• Remembering

I like this model because I think it can be used to influence people around you. There is no better way of creating emotional engagement than by sharing memories. 

You can

• Encourage people to share them with you
• Encourage feedback to share their memories of working with you
• Give them ways to use the R's in their lives
• Share your memories, your stories to show your brand personality

10 Challenges For A Better Life

I have just finished Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom and wanted to share with you a few quotes which I jotted down as I was reading

1. Are you trying to be as human as you can be?
2. Love wins. Love always wins.
3. Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do
4. Life is a series of pulls - back and forth
5. Sometimes you can't believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel
6. Part of me is every age
7. Material things can never hug you back
8. Satisfaction comes from giving others what you have to give
9. We don't see what we could be
10. You can obey little things like red traffic lights, but on big things like how we think, what we value...you must choose the path yourself

Show 363 - Have you Higher Ambition?

Show 363 of The Engaging Brand business and marketing podcast is here just for you talking about social media and marketing.

This week "Sponsored By: Content Equals Money where content marketing equals conversions."

Tobias Fredberg, Associate Professor of Management at Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden, has researched and consulted on strategic change and the management of innovation. He is an author of July 2008 Harvard Business Review article, “The Uncompromising Leader” and joins Anna Farmery to talk about Higher Ambition his latest business book on leadership.

We discuss

• Ambition has historically been seen as an intrinsic part of leadership but is it now  an intrinsic part of employees to demand it?
• Is leadership less attractive in modern business?
• Is leadership more demanding or are leaders lacking the skills needed in a more transparent, social world.
• Leading through social value - synthesising social benefits rather than having social and financial competing with each other
• How one bank - Standard Chartered - has social value as its core strategy - has that helped them ride the banking storm?
• How long tenure helps diffuse strategic intiatives?
• Is it possible to change a culture or do you need new blood?
• Why do leaders find it so difficult to do simple things like listening?
  
  

If you have feedback for me on the show or topics that you would like me to cover then e-mail me at anna@theengagingbrand.com or join me on twitter, leave a message at The Engaging Brand Fan Page or join me on to discuss it on Google+  where we may get some of the authors involved!

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10 Security Fears For Today's Consumers

It seems as though security is near the top of people's minds. Security in terms of terrorist threats, online security through to financial security.

Its strange because even just typing the word makes me feel insecure! I believe it is one of those words that makes you feel the opposite when you say it?

But as businesses, as brands, as leaders we need to understand that security is an important part of decision making.

We need to understand their concerns and in doing so we can then influence their purchasing behaviour by offering that degree of comfort, by offering them security in these troubled times

1. Security that your product or service will work
2. Security that you know what you are doing
3. Security that it will deliver what you say it will
4. Security of repeatability
5. Security of not being used as a database name to be spammed
6. Security of the transaction
7. Security of resolving a problem quickly and painlessly
8. Security of being honest and truthful with advice
9. Security that they are valued and respected - and for instance new customers not treated better than existing customers.
10. Security that you will never, never stop improving your service

(Photo by http://www.facebook.com/welovesugalumps)

Trollope On Writing Emotionally

One of my favourite quotes about writing, about creating stories is from Joanna Trollope who talks about writing not being about a HUGE emotional journey but

"chronicling the daily lacerations on the spirit"

The reason I like that is social media can learn from that idea.

Social media doesn't have to be about an emotional rollercoaster....consumers live daily lives.....to create consumer engagement you need to talk about those 'lacerationsof their daily spirit', giving and showing

• Empathy and understanding of those lacerations
• A way of improving or removing those lacerations
• Hope for the future

So if I asked you what are your consumers lacerations, and asked you how you can help them....would you know your consumers that well?

Black Friday Education

Today in a guest post from the wonderful Joseph Baker, we look at the marketing implications of the holiday season. (Joe works at Professional Intern, great site for all things 'studenty' - a site I enjoy whilst doing my PhD)

My family lives in Illinois and when I go back for the holidays, I invariably find myself mired in the din and extravagance of Chicago. Though I make the trip every year, I always find myself ensnared by one of the many Chicago attractions. This was, however, the first year I decided get in on the Black Friday hype.

Considering my degrees in economics and finance, it may be surprising that this was my first foray into the consumer bacchanalia. I have studied Black Friday and its evolution as a social phenomenon and economic indicator for years, but when faced with rabid, foaming customers armed with pepper spray and reckless abandon, I turned tail and went back to my mother’s house.

Thank goodness for Cyber Monday.

Perhaps I’m not man enough to handle the rugged landscape of Black Friday. Perhaps I’d rather be around to watch my children grow up and not trampled into the dull linoleum of a Wal-Mart floor.

Whatever the case, both Black Friday and Cyber Monday are huge phenomena that have massive, far-reaching effects for the nation and its fiscal situation.

Now I work in tech and the things we can see and pull from extreme commerce into Internet marketing are astounding.

Black Friday has grown in popularity, but Cyber Monday is fast becoming the more interesting end of the Thanksgiving sales weekend.

comScore recently reported the latest numbers:

For the holiday season-to-date, $12.7 billion has been spent online, marking a 15-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. Black Friday (November 25) saw $816 million in online sales, making it the heaviest online spending day to date in 2011 and representing a 26-percent increase versus Black Friday 2010. Thanksgiving Day (November 24), while traditionally a lighter day for online holiday spending, achieved a strong 18-percent increase to $479 million.

Brick-and-mortar retailers certainly did well for themselves, but the move towards online is becoming increasingly evident with each passing year. More people are buying in more ways. Internet retailers, marketers and mobile providers must be flexible to deal with the incredible surge in traffic alone, never mind secure transactions. Cyber Monday 2009 saw retailers clock in 4 million sales per minute. That number has not only grown, but has become spread out over a diffuse stable of distribution methods: smartphones, mobile apps, tablets and traditional desktop/laptop transactions.

We’re slowly but surely moving towards a digital society. Cyber Monday is a growing barometer of America’s economic health and offers valuable insight as to how consumers are spending in variegated economic climates.

The entire technology landscape is about to change and when the wave crests, we’ll be the first to surf through it.