Part one looked at telesales, yellow pages and other directories, using mailing lists and advertising in local papers and journals. In this article I will be considering direct selling techniques, leaflet drops and internet advertising.

1. Direct Approach

You could simply cold call on a company and hope you can get to talk to somebody. My experience of this is that it is quite a daunting task and by and large relatively unsuccessful in gaining new business. A lot of time, effort and fuel can be wasted as well as damage to ones morale which could take quite a severe battering as you experience one knockback after another. Not a technique to be recommended. However with regard to builders cleans it can be successful. What this entails is visiting any building site and passing your details, normally in the form of a business card on to the site manager. You may not be successful on that site but invariably companies will hang on to your details and may contact you at some time in the future.

2. Leaflet drops

If you are targeting domestic customers then these can be quite successful at increasing your client base. They are not to be recommended for commercial companies for reasons discussed in the first article. So I will presume that you wish to target the domestic sector. In which case you have to design a very professional looking leaflet, preferably in full colour and have it commercially printed. Do not try and print them off on your office or home printer because they will look less professional. The second and most important element in achieving success with leaflets is to target your areas very carefully. Do not necessarily aim for the most prosperous areas with the most expensive houses in, these in our experience do not provide the rewards that you might imagine they would. The middle income families are the most rewarding in terms of generating new customers. Having targeted your areas and had your 10 or 20 thousand leaflets printed use the services of specialist company to carry out the delivery for you. Under no circumstances consider doing it yourself! If you don’t believe me then try it and you will soon find out why you need professional help to deliver them. Then all you have to do is sit back and wait for the calls to come in. We have in the past worked on a ratio of one in two hundred producing a customer provided the target area has been wisely chosen.

3. Internet Advertising

This could command several articles by itself, but for the purposes of this article it outperforms all other forms of advertising. So get a website, promote it, constantly update it and watch the referrals pour in! You could employ the services of a website designer and an SEO expert or you could do it yourself. How will be left to another article in the future.

David Andrew Smith is the owner of http://www.wesparkle.co.uk a contract cleaning company who specialise in the care and maintenance of natural stone flooring such as marble and limestone.

Nokia, as we all know, is presently 1 of the earth’s most large fabricators of handsets and this is when compared to other leading competitors for instance, Samsung & Motorola (as well as others). Nokia construct sets for each dominant sector and back in 07 they were voted the most valuable global brand. Their wears fall into four various sections - cell phones, multimedia, networks & enterprise solutions.

The cellphone revolution headed by Nokia is apparently irrepressible. The thickset bricks made in the nineties for instance, the Nokia 2110 that was almost 236 grams have presently been superseded with light-weight, and fine phones for instance, the Nokia 6282 that comes in at 115 g or the Nokia 7380 that weighs a mere 80 grams. All these now have the very latest in communications electronics coupled with a solid fashion sense.

Deciding on a telephone was a painless business yet considering the products possible to each of us today, it becomes slightly harder. Consumers might often buy their mobile with the thought of various extras, - might it be a statement of fashion an object which makes folk look groovy - or might it be only for the advantages that the handsets these days offer, for example, e-mail & WAP, etc. Easy to use mobile phones are Nokia’s speciality.

More technologies are also consolidating in Nokia phones to provide the customer the occasion to communicate with more than only speech. Nokia phones which include cameras are also becoming normal as is the facility to produce videos and transmit them to friends and associates through multimedia messaging. You should furthermore see full color graphics on every one of their cell phones and more than 1/2 are available with the facility to show WAP info (pages altered just for the smaller screens on a telephones). Also obtainable is the handsets which are built with radios & MP3 facilities only for listening to your favourite tunes. The price of their sets range from nothing at all up to a few hundred pounds, it mostly depends about what folk wish for.

Nokia, as was stated, continues to be the the globe’s #1 maker of phones, despite some who reckon that Nokia’s top rank might be under pressure especially by Sony Erickson. Even so, Nokia are backed by the advantage of a lot of of experience in mobile phone assembly & has incredible loyalty from its mainstream consumers allied with with their reputation only for reliability & user friendliness.

As emerging technologies become even more crucial in today’s handsets, the space between Nokia and all of its competitors will become extra obvious.

The Nokia business is an inter-continental tele-communications corporation, concentrating on the major growth markets of wired & wireless telecommunications. Nokia is currently the globe greatest fabricator of mobile telephones, with a world-wide handset market share of about 38%. Nokia puts together mobile phones for every major market piece and protocol. The business also puts together telecoms network apparatus for applications, for instance, mobile and fixed line voice telephony, ISDN, broadband access, voice over IP, and wireless LAN.

Nokia plays a markedly major role in the economy of Finland. Nokia is unequivocally the largest Finnish company, making up just about 1/3 of the market capitalization of the Helsinki Stock; an unmatched situation in a first world country. It is an important employer in Finland and various small firms have mushroomed into major ones as Nokia’s subcontractors.

Nokia enlarged Finland’s GDP by over 1.5 % in ninety nine alone. Back in 04 Nokia’s portion of the Finland’s GDP was calculated as three and a half % and made up more or less 25 percent of Finnish exports in 2003. Back in 2007, Nokia turned over turn over that exceeded the state budget of Finland. This has led some to refer to Finland as “Nokialand.”

Finns have named Nokia, lots of times, as the pre-eminent Finnish brand and employer. Nokia is known to be the fifth most valuable brand in the world in BusinessWeek’s Best Global Brands compilation of the 20 most esteemed businesses world-wide in Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies.

Nokia’s Mobile Phones branch serves the public with mobile voice and data products around a wide selection of mobile devices. The branch strives to home in on mostly high volume sales of mobile phones and devices, with the general public being the most decisive customer segment.

Nokia reckons that design, brand, ease of use and price are general mobile’s most significant deliberations for customers. Nokia’s product catalogue includes camera mobile phones with special features, eg, megapixel cameras and MP3 players that engage the mass market.

During the first quarter of 06 Nokia unloaded more than 15000000 MP3 mobile phones, which means that Nokia is not only the planet’s foremost fabricator of cellular telephones and digi cameras (as the majority of Nokia’s cellular sets have digital cameras, it is also believed that Nokia has recently overtaken Kodak in camera fabrication, making it the biggest in the world), Nokia is today also the foremost fabricator of digital audio. Nokia aims to sell 80000000 music enabled phones by the end of 2007, outpacing sales of devices such as the iPod from Apple.

So you’ve decided to go for it—you’re ready to choose a design company to create your logo and other marketing materials. It seems easy enough. After all, when you make a purchase online of, say, a book, you simply go to an online bookstore. You already know what you’re buying. But now it’s not so clear. You do a search for “design companies” and hundreds of names pop up, all claiming that they are the ones who should do your logo.

Welcome to the virtual design world—beyond the fancy Web sites and fancier claims, some do not even have a portfolio, a pricing policy, or a work philosophy. The virtual world is a place where traditional gestures of trust—a handshake and looking-in-the-eye—don’t exist. You want to proceed with caution. So what should you do?

To help you along, read the following points. They’ll help you figure out which companies you might want to consider.

1. A design company must be creative.

Creativity does matter. It seems obvious, but many firms lack the creativity and originality it takes to keep their work fresh and interesting. Which is what gets and keeps customers interested. Without creativity, a company is not a design company but merely a place to shop for tired old logos.

2. Look at the portfolio. It tells you a lot about what the firm is all about.

Yes! There is intelligent life beyond those Nike swooshes. Lots of thought goes into good design. If a company has a versatile and varied portfolio, you can get a good idea of whether it’ll be a good fit to your business. Even if the portfolio doesn’t contain a piece that directly relates to you, it can tell you what the company is capable of doing.

3. Read the testimonials

It’s not the amount of testimonials presented, it’s whether or not they’re for real. Anyone can put 300 testimonials on their Web site and claim they’re from actual clients.

The only testimonials that count are ones that come from real people whom you can e-mail to check references.

4. Does price matter to you? Read between the lines.

Here’s another tough question. What is cheap, and what’s expensive? To come to a conclusion, you must know exactly what the companies you’re comparing are offering. Some may charge $20.00 but are selling templates: logos that are pre-designed that no one owns the rights to, and therefore can be copied. Is that what you want for your business?

5. Experienced designers?

No one can measure a designer’s experience simply by years. The amount of time matters, but the designer must have a strong aesthetic sense when dealing with fonts, colors, and illustrative elements would be qualified to say what’s the best solution for you.

6. Can I trust this company?

Whether in the virtual or real world, if you do not trust a person or company you will not do business with the individual or company. Send inquiries, view their portfolio, give them a call, read their testimonials, and check references. Then ask if their prices and portfolio are a good fit. If everything checks out, then perhaps they’re the one for you.

7. Relationship: The secret to a successful design project.

You’ve decided to hire a design company to develop your logo because you want to hear ideas. Real ones, not ones dreamed up by a brother-in-law of neighbor who happens to be a computer nerd. You deserve better than that. You want a design firm with courteous service, technical know-how, and professionals who listen to you and understand your needs.

About the author:
Eduardo Pereira is Creative Director
and Project Manager at ImageLogos.
For 15 years he has provided services to ad agencies and printing companies and has served as an online design consultant.
Contact:design@imaginelogos.com

One of the prime motivating factors in the purchase decision making process is “trust”. A consumer will at some point for however long or short of a time, ask the question, “Can I trust this company/person/product?”

In today’s ever-changing world of marketing, electronic media, email, and advertising innovations and intrusions, companies, and businesses are marketing to an ever increasingly suspicious consumer, who is conflicted between their desire not to be “sold” to and their desire to consume. They are looking for ways to establish believability, credibility, and trust.

According to a paper by the Peppers and Rogers Group (2004), 36% of major U.S. corporations view privacy as an important part of the company’s brand image.

It is my belief based on consumer thinking that one way to develop a competitive edge in the marketing world is to place greater emphasis on tying privacy policy to brand. This strategy places a direct link between trust and purchase while developing the beginnings of long-term relationship.

I suggest highlighting your privacy policy in all your marketing in a way that makes privacy, trust, and your brand synonymous. Let the consumer know that here is a business that will respect your privacy. Let them know that your communication with them will be relevant to their consumer needs. And you can let them know that information they share with your business will be used to better meet their needs and will not, knowingly be used against them, sold, or given to third parties.

It might even be smart to develop a short marketing campaign that focuses on your commitment to your customer’s privacy, instead of simply stating that you have a privacy policy or stating your policy in unreadable font at the bottom of your literature.

About 50 % of consumers today have little more knowledge than brand or product recognition and have little desire to acquire extra information about a brand or product, so it behooves the marketing community to link recognition of their brand to trust, safety, and advocacy. Instead of selling to consumers, target your marketing to help them believe that you are making them safer and more secure by purchasing your brand and then back it up!

copyright 2004

Darrin Coe holds a masters degree in professional psychology specializing in consumer thinking. He publishes The Darrin Coe Ezine. You can subscribe at http://www.consumer-thinking.com/dcezine.html.

Visit Consumer Thinking.com at http://www.consumer-thinking.com.

Companies have been branding their collateral materials such as letterhead, envelopes, business cards, etc. for years. In fact, we often identify a company by its familiar logo or special color scheme. Branding works!! At the same time, many companies send customers and vendors large files, proposals and presentations on CD-Rs. Since CD-Rs have become the “new and more efficient” way of exchanging important information, it would seem that more companies would find it valuable to brand their CD-Rs also.

Most CD-Rs purchased by businesses come from retail office supply stores. These generic CDs usually have the logo of the retail store or disc manufacturer printed on the label. So why promote the store that sells the media? Companies are missing an excellent opportunity to brand themselves in this manner!

Another positive to branding with this type of media is in the perceived value of the media itself. People tend to keep CD-Rs because they are perceived as something of value.

To make sure that you don’t miss this important branding opportunity, here is the solution! Find a CD duplication vendor who will provide your company with branded media. Yes, you too can brand your company by arranging to have your logo screen printed on each piece of blank media you purchase (ours is pictured above). Also, the quality of the media will be much higher than the media you purchased at the retail office supply store.

When artwork for your company logo is created for CD-Rs, enough room should be left on the disc to write specifics about the disc’s contents, such as version number, serial number, a date, a person’s name, etc. A process called Perfect Printing is an option for customizing this information after your company logo has been screen printed on each blank disc. The combination of your screen printed logo and the Perfect Printing of specific content will give your media a more professional look. Furthermore, anyone looking at your discs will see your company name over and over again.

So, what are you waiting for? Start branding your media today!!!

To find out more information visit on how to brand your CD-Rs visit www.spinergymedia.com.

Article by:
Adam Platzer
Spinergy
CD Replication, CD Duplication, DVD Replication, DVD Duplication, CD Screen Printing
Phone: 800-333-1428
http://www.spinergymedia.com

Q: What makes branding unique for business-to-business companies and is it as important for them as branding is for consumer product companies?

If your business provides products and services to other businesses, you can achieve the benefits of a strong brand identity in customer loyalty, buying preferences, and referrals to other customers. However, the relationship with your customer is far more complex than when compared with consumer product relationships. Business to business service companies must go above and beyond just satisfying the client’s transactional needs to create positive brand loyalty over time. Business to business brand loyalty has less to do with spending money to build awareness than being committed to a complete and systematic and relentless dedication to an idea that is expressed in every way that touches a customer by every employee, consistently across all communication channels, and sustained over a long period of time. Business to business companies often stumble when they fail to align all of their customer facing operational processes and people with the brand promise of the company.

Customers of business to business firms believe that every form of communication they receive from your business, and every interaction that they have with your company, of every type, all combine to form the sum of their customer service experience. Moreover, this experience endures over time, such that errors committed in the past will always remain part of the customer’s perception of their experience with the business, regardless of how well the business may be performing at present. Many companies mistakenly assume that as long as they have highly responsive customer service centers responding to customer calls and resolving issues quickly, then customers will be happy with their business overall. Recognizing the importance of delivering an experience that is consistent with your brand promise across every touch point with customers is the first step to truly differentiating your business. When all those communications channels are aligned and delivering a consistent experience and message to your customers, then you will have achieved a high level of brand efficiency. When any of these channels fails to deliver on the brand promise, then your brand efficiency decreases. When efficiency decreases, there are direct consequences in customer satisfaction and retention, willingness to buy, direct costs required to repair or rework, and in overall financial performance as vital energy in the form of human and financial capital are redirected to address the deficiencies. When brand efficiency is high, then all systems and people in the company can focus most of their energy to serving the customer better, innovating new solutions, beating the competition, and moving the bottom line up.

Q: How do business-to-business companies go about establishing their brand identity and loyalty?

Businesses commonly assume that their marketing department will communicate their brand through advertising, literature, and promotional activities. While these are important, they are just one small dimension of the totality of communication and interaction that defines the overall customer experience. Indeed, if this was the only effort to implement and communicate a brand identity and build brand loyalty, then by definition it will conflict with all the other communications systems that already exist in the company. This will contribute new sources of communication inconsistencies (“noise”), add new costs to overcome them, and reduce the return on the investment in defining and developing the brand identity in the first place. Clearly the brand promise should be defined and measured across all of the communications systems of the company, including internal reward and recognition systems to encourage employee behavior in accordance with the brand values.

For example, have you ever heard in your business that the customer was sold something that differs from your ability to deliver? These can be product/service features, business terms, implementation schedules, service levels, all apparently promised by a sales person, and yet not consistent with the current capability of the business to deliver. In business to business customer relationships, the goal is to develop a long term sustained relationship with the customer. The longer the customer is retained, generally the more profitable the relationship, and the greater the ability to continue to produce revenue from that customer. What if, at the start of the relationship, the product or service does not do what the customer expected, or the business terms or billing processes are cumbersome and prove difficult to comply with, or the service levels are not consistent with expectations, or the product was not implemented according to the schedule that was originally promised? Each one of these issues requires energy and investment by the business to overcome in order to get the customer on an acceptable long term path, albeit with slightly reset expectations. The customer has already experienced significant inconsistencies between the brand promise and the experience of that promise, before the relationship really gets under way. The cost of building brand loyalty with that customer is very high and efforts will continue to be expended over a long period of time as the company goes through extraordinary measures to restore its reputation with that customer and attempt to get the customer’s experience closer to the brand promise. Even simple failures can directly impact the reputation of the business, and the cost of overcoming them. There are many other reasons for the brand promise to be broken without any specific system, product or service experiencing any failure. The result is damaging and costly on brand loyalty, brand efficiency, and the long term cost of repairing and rebuilding the relationship, thus draining resources away from productive work and the bottom line.

Q: Can the costs of poor brand performance be measured?

The cost of poor brand performance is real and it can be measured. The elements of cost are tangible and often already measured by companies, including: rework, error correction, concessions, lost opportunities, and customer attrition. Each one of these elements increases your cost of service, selling, support, and overhead as remedies are implemented to correct them. These costs can have an exponential impact across the transmission systems: that is, each element or system that fails, or any inconsistency between them or against the brand promise tends to compound the noise in the communication and impact the perception of the customer. Why is there such a compounding effect? Remember that for business to business customers, the sum of all of their experiences and all the communications with your entire firm over time serve to create their perception of your brand. When one element disappoints the customer, it is automatically compounded by another element – even though they may seem totally unconnected from inside your company. Left unchecked, the customer’s disappointment will grow and negative perceptions will expand beyond simply the issues at hand to become a general perception of your whole business.

While the cost of negative brand efficiency may be difficult to measure precisely, the direct impact of poor performance and quality on each of the communications systems can be measured. Many businesses have sophisticated processes, software and even six sigma quality improvement programs designed to measure and improve that performance and increase profitability. These initiatives do not often measure systems across the enterprise and rarely, if ever, do they measure the effectiveness and consistency of communication and performance of all of these systems with the intended brand strategy of the business. Managing each one of those issues in isolation and not in a holistic manner aligned with the brand strategy will result in an exponential drain on energy and resources required to deliver sustained profitable growth.

Q: In addition to understanding the cost of poor execution, how can companies assess the value of their brand?

The Service-Profit Chain developed by Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger (1997) from Harvard Business School establishes relationships between profitability, customer loyalty, and employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity. The Service-Profit Chain is made up several key linkages: profit and growth are stimulated primarily by customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is a direct result of customer satisfaction. Satisfaction is greatly influenced by the value of service provided to customers. Satisfied, loyal, and productive employees create value. Employee satisfaction, in turn, results primarily from high quality support services and policies that enable employees to deliver results to customers. Let’s say that you have high quality support services and polices, and your employee satisfaction surveys suggest your employees are happy. Does that mean your customers are in fact experiencing results that match or exceed you brand promise? Do satisfactory results really help you accomplish your goals of being the leader in your industry? What if the predominant culture of your employee base demonstrates a set of values that are not consistent with the values of your brand promise? What if different parts of your employee population that come into contact with customers have quite different cultures and values? Does your sales force demonstrate the same behaviors and in the same manner and style as your customer service organization? Such inconsistent behaviors between employee groups, and between employees and the brand promise, create disjointed experiences for customers who will find that they are constantly adjusting to your company’s different styles, behaviors, standards of performance, and promises. The customer will quickly conclude they don’t know what you stand for, and they won’t know how to describe their experience with you – perhaps other than “clumsy”. This makes it very difficult to develop a sense of affinity and loyalty with your company. While the Service-Profit Chain model provides an essential foundation to assure that your employees are delivering results to customers, a focus simply on employee support services and policies will not result in employees delighting the customer and delivering on your brand promise. You need a defined employee culture, measurements, and reward and recognition system that aligns behaviors consistent with the brand promise of your business. This strong link and consistent behaviors will strengthen the bond of loyalty with your customers, lower the cost of support service, and accelerate brand efficiency and sustained profitability.

In financial terms, the value of a brand can be a significant component of the value of the company. The price paid for acquired businesses is frequently substantially higher than the appraised value determined from the tangible assets of the company. According to a study in 1995: “the average market value of all American-based publicly traded companies was 70% greater than their replacement cost (e.g., their tangible net asset value.)” 1

Assessments of the actual brand value of a business to business services company should include the internal business processes and communications systems to determine how effectively the various functions and people are aligned to deliver performance consistent with the brand promise of the company. Unrealistic prices can be paid for brand value that may be more tied to market awareness and market share, than any real capability of the company to underpin its brand equity with real sustained performance. Brand value should be discounted by elements that fail to deliver effectively, or where significant inconsistencies exist between the company and its customers’ expectations for the future.

Consider the case of Philip Morris: “In 1989, Philip Morris paid $12.9 billion for Kraft, six times its net asset value. According to Philip Morris CEO Hamish Maxwell, his company needed a portfolio of brands that had strong brand loyalty [i.e., customer relationships] that could be leveraged to enable the tobacco company to diversify [i.e., financial relationships], especially in the retail food industry [i.e., trade relationships].”2 Philip Morris paid billions for a set of relationships and the expectations that those relationships would enable Philip Morris to conduct business in entirely new ways in the future.

In addition to significantly affecting the purchase price of a company, the value of the brand and brand equity directly affects stock price of the company. A Cap Gemini Ernst & Young report issued in 2000 concluded “brand power can account for 5 to 7 percent of the change in a company’s stock price.” 3 A study of 220 companies identified that corporate brand image could be quantified with the following components:

Advertising spending 30%

Size of company 23%

Low dividend 10%

Earnings volatility 7%

Stock price growth 8%

Other factors* 22%

*(including [other marketing components such as] events and publicity, industry affiliation, product categories, message quality, etc.)4 Thus 52% of the factors influencing the brand image are those associated with ensuring that your brand message and promise are effectively defined and articulated through all the transmission systems in your company.

Through this brief analysis we can easily conclude that effectively developing and executing a comprehensive company-wide brand strategy will contribute directly to the value of the company. The steps that can be taken to accomplish this are defined and uniquely adaptable to any business. The results will be measured in the improved performance of every function of the company, leading to improved sustained profitable growth and continuing growth in stock equity.

1,2 Tom Duncan, Driving Brand Value, pg. 4.

3 “Name Brand Calculus or Imaginary Numbers?” US Banker, Volume 113, Number 6, Page 26, June 2003.

4 Ad Value, Leslie Butterfield, ed., Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, 2003, “How advertising impacts on share price,” James Gregory, pgs. 17-25.

Patrick Smyth is a partner with OneAccord LLC, a firm that specializes in accelerating revenue in a sustained and repeatable way for small to medium size companies. Patrick has over 25 years experience in information technology & services, business-to-business marketing leadership, and product management. His talents include aligning company and product branding & positioning, building highly effective marketing processes & teams, and customer experience management to optimize sales & marketing productivity and develop profitable, long term customer relationships.
Contact: patrick.smyth@oneaccordcorp.com

Have you mistakenly trained your branding to fall over and play dead? Do you know how to use psychology to create branding that lights up with the voltage of a thousand neon bulbs? And can you play Scrooge with your budget, yet get huge branding mileage? And if so, how? Read on and find out how you can be a Leonardo Da Vinci with your brand!

It’s Raining 3000+ Messages a Day!
I have a friend. Let’s call him Eugene. Partly because that’s his real name. Eugene positions himself as a pitch manager. Very effectively, he shows CEOs and executives (who make pitches for new and existing business) how they can use simple steps to get a powerful presentation across.

Eugene had a problem that all of us do. His brand (or his company’s brand) was just one of three thousand new messages that bamboozle us every day through various media. To get his name welded in his customer’s brain was like being on a rocking chair. You feel the movement, but you go nowhere. Eugene’s brand was going places, but it was a slow tedious process.

He needed to get some prime real estate in his customer’s brain really quickly and without the benefit of Daddy Warbucks’ deep pockets. All he had to do was get their attention…

13 Boxes. Does That Get Your Attention?
Doesn’t your brain go nuts wanting to ask what is the significance of 13 boxes? That’s the new brand name of Eugene’s company. Can you see that immediately catching your attention? The brain is dying to know the significance of this strange sounding set of words. And it won’t let go till it gets an answer!

In this case the answer is simple. Eugene has a system of 13 boxes in his training process that takes you from the start of your presentation to the final crescendo. The 13 boxes form the structure and the route you must follow to get results.

His company brand could be something like XYZ Training or have his own name (like accountants and law firms do) but why on earth would that excite his customer’s brain?

Another Branding Example called KeyGhost…
Here’s another example of vivid psychological branding called KeyGhost. KeyGhost is a powerful but simplistic device that monitors every keystroke on your keyboard. This spy-like product evades the scrutiny of the unobservant eye. A name like KeyGhost immediately ruffles the brain forcing it to stop what it’s doing. Then it drives all its attention in the direction of this unusual sounding product.

This is exactly what you need. Once you’ve got a spotlight-hogging brand name, you start to own a tiny part of your customer’s brain that is yours to keep forever.

Forever Starts With a Trigger…
A trigger called Curiosity! Curiosity sounds a deafening red alert in every neuron of the brain. The brain is at its curious best when faced with something that seems irregular or uncommon in some way.

If your brand name doesn’t create a curiosity factor, you’re wasting gobs of money to just trying to cut through the communication clutter. The sooner you get psychological exclamation marks into your brand name, the sooner you get the attention you crave for.

But What If You Have a Boring Company Name That You’re Stuck With?
Hey it happens! You inherited the brand name and there’s not much you can do with it without the shareholders going for your jugular. Well don’t fret. First you’ve got to realise that branding is not restricted to just your company name. A process/product that your company has or follows could become bigger than the company itself.

Look For The Power Of Your Processes…
With Eugene, his process was sitting under his nose all along. In the case of 13 Boxes, it’s quite easy to draw up a dramatic scenario of how 13 boxes can get you out of your ‘box’ and give you immense confidence in your presentation skills. In his case, though, the process actually defined the company.

With KeyGhost, it’s a cinch to describe how the hardware works just like a ghost and yet link it back to your keyboard and computer.

You can be an accounting firm with a company name like “Boring, Dead and Co.” and still brand your prize-winning process and call it ‘Goodbye Extra Tax’ or ‘Corporate Loopholes.’

Do you think your clients will see you in a better light? You bet they will! So get going, get out and get working on your brand naming canvas right away!

Nonsensical Names Work Too…
One Red Dog, The Loaded Hog and other such names flout the basic principles of process and logic. Yet they seem to work powerful imagery on the brand name. It’s the story that goes with it that creates a sense of immortality and distinctiveness around the brand.

Even if you choose to have a name that means very little and can drum up a story to match it, you’ve got yourself a winner. Which place would you rather frequent? ‘One Red Dog’ or ‘Joe’s Café?’ With a vivid name you’ve got the opportunity to weave a story — even a story that you made up all by yourself!

Shazaam! It’s Branding With Drama!
Don’t just Mona Lisa your brand. Put some Shakespeare in it as well. Push the limits of your brand name and make it an action tool. For example, 13 boxes could be presented as 13 different boxes placed on a CEO’s desk. Can you visualise the curiosity factor? What if the boxes were different shapes and different colours? Can you see the website name? The t-shirt design? The ad on TV? Can you see how extendable a picturesque brand name can be?

Go ahead; make the effort to Mona Lisa your brand name.

You’ll make Leonardo really proud of you!

Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon a secret library of small business ideas? Find simple, yet electrifying ideas on marketing strategy,psychological tactics and branding. Judge for yourself when you read these small business ideas.

It seems you can’t turn on the TV without seeing some sort of World Series of Poker contest. Poker, especially, Texas Hold ‘Em, has become extremely popular. It’s not for crusty old men anymore. Poker has a new brand - it is now young, hip and cool. When branding your business, take a lesson from poker. See, match, and push are poker terms that can have major impact on your brand. Below is a review of how you can use these traditional poker terms to raise the level of your brand-poker game.

1) See - Have a clear vision of what you want your brand to become. If you can see it, you can achieve it. I once heard a story about a reporter speaking to Roy Disney, at the opening of Disney World. The reporter commented that it was sad Walt was not alive to see Disney World. Walt’s brother quickly replied, “if Walt had never seen this, you wouldn’t be seeing it now!” Where do you see your brand in a perfect future? Can you describe it down to the smallest details?

2) Match - Be certain your actions fit with your brand. Good marketing is not always good marketing. A guy in a chicken suit may be a great way for a new chicken store to promote awareness. However, it would not fit for a new financial adviser office. The fit isn’t there. Associations and partnerships are just as important to match with your brand. You don’t see Tommy Hilfiger apparel on the shelves at Walmart. It simply would not be a good fit. The brands are too different.

3) Push - Lean into your limits. Sometimes limits are just there because no one has the courage to test them. Starbucks took coffee out of the deli and well, you know the rest of the story. It is safe to assume there were naysayers that laughed at such an idea! There are coffee addicts all over the world thankful that some businesses push the limits. Perhaps there are aspects of your product or service that have not been exploited for all of their value.

Follow all three strategies and you are sure to notice a sharp improvement in your brand-poker game. If your brand-poker game is strong, your business is sure to be stacking lots of chips!

Traditional poker definitions:

See - To call in the final round of betting.

Match - To put in the pot an amount equal to that already there.

Push - When a new dealer replaces an existing dealer at a particular table.

Kevin Kearns is a small business branding coach. He holds a Master of Science degree in Organization Development and is a member of the Coachville Graduate School of Coaching. With a mixture of hands-on experience, research, and FUN, Kevin helps you become the only choice for your customers.

Visit http://www.kevinkearns.com to join The Branding Bunch - a community made up of small business owners that want to grow their business the easy way.

Private Label Trends

The beverage industry is turning over a new leaf as trends support brisk growth and
reveal hot opportunities for private label. While newsworthy trends are beginning to
unfold, savvy sellers explore the impact these changes have on consumer behavior
in concurrence with their marketing strategy and product offering. Small and mid-
size business is no longer using other brands, entering the market is their own
propriety brand that defies tradition and repositions with a premium image and
product.

Private label is upscaling in both perception and practice as black tea fires up to
green chai spice. Originally perceived as an affordable substitute to the national
brand, the generic brand is stepping aside to the new concept in private label - the
premium private label brand. Premium, specialty and gourmet product sales are
surging as the seller’s own brand evolves and expands into new market segments
building company and product awareness.

As demographics and culture change, so does market demand for new satisfying
beverage offerings complimenting lifestyles of comfort, pleasure and luxury.
Consumers are snubbing their nose to commodity tea; they desire high quality,
tempting flavors brewed from the finest ingredients. Major health and wellness
trends are driving sales of private label brands as consumers seek healthy
alternatives to traditional products, switching to natural, organic and nutritious
beverages such as specialty fruit, herbal and green teas.

Distribution channels are opening up in the service sector as private label is no
longer a marketing success used exclusively by retailers. Businesses, from high-end
hospitality to professional services, are serving up signature brand beverages to
enhance the client experience while at the same time build company recognition.
Generic private label brands are becoming a popular pick in international markets
with the premium private label brand soon to follow, and there is room to grow.
Marketplace dynamics indicate there has never been a better time for small and
mid-size business to consider the power of private label to market, sell and profit
on their own brand products.

Private Label, A Phenomenon All of Its Own
Traditionally, private label went hand in hand with generic household staples
including tea and coffee. The term “private label” was used interchangeably with
“generic brand.” Consumers have long expressed favorable views to generic brands,
as an AC Nielsen study supports, citing private label brands as an extremely good
value for the money and a good alternative to national brands. Large discounters
had the economy of scale advantage, marketing generic label by employing a low
price, high volume system to generate profits. Of course this made it difficult, if
impossible, for smaller firms to compete.
The exciting, really pioneering news in the survey is consumers are now seeing
private label to be higher priced and of equal or higher quality in comparison with
other brands, unlocking opportunities for small business. Sellers are now
successfully fighting fierce competition, armed with a proven small business
marketing tactic; pull in profits with smaller sales volumes by offering a high price,
high quality, unique brand through the support of a private label wholesale partner.

A Healthy Future for Private Label
Demographic and cultural trends favor propriety bands, positively impacting the
growth and earning potential of exclusive brand offerings. Inspired by volumes of
medical information and continuing scientific research major trends in health and
wellness are here to stay. As the 80 million baby boomers age, over half who have
reached 50, they are becoming more health conscious and it is not just the baby
boomer. A recent survey shows 72% of all adults feel they should be making
healthier choices. In response, retailers are rolling out new natural and organic
lines, made from pure health promoting ingredients, a popular choice being green
tea rich in antioxidants. Looking for ways to de-stress and relax naturally
consumers are also adding chamomile and other herbal teas to their list of favorites.

The U.S. Census Bureau predicts an increase in diversity in the United States with
high growth rates in Asian and Hispanic populations, interestingly, they share a
cultural attribute - loyalty. Using private label, a seller can gain trust and loyalty
with a quality product specialized to a specific ethnic group. These niche markets
are typically geographically concentrated making small and regional firms a good
fit. Serving consumers directly on a day to day basis in their local establishments
allows a business to understanding their patrons’ cultural needs and desires. Small
business should pay close attention to the unfilled requests of up and coming ethnic
markets as their national competitors are. Last year Celestial Seasonings introduced
new teas to the Hispanic community focusing on flavors and herbs of chamomile,
linden and other ingredients popular among the group.

The US economy is also showing signs of healthy, yet stable economic growth, with
long-term prospects remaining favorable. The growing number of living
comfortable, affluent American consumers represents a niche market that is
insensitive to price, and have unfulfilled needs for high quality, unique products and
services. These consumers are responsible for a large percentage of premium,
specialty and gourmet purchases. Asians, who enjoy their ceremonies of tea, will
also influence the market. A highly educated and a wealthy group, research shows
Asian-American households have the highest median income, $59,000, in the five
major racial/ethnic groups with the white, non-Hispanic category closely following.

Private Label Anytime, Anyplace
The service industry is driving private label brands into non-traditional avenues and
leaving their mark. Distinguished food service and hospitality companies are putting
their own name on the beverages they serve giving their patrons a taste of
something only offered at their establishment. Beyond hospitality, other service
industries are joining the trend, personal, entertainment, business and professional
services to name a few. Serving signature brands build and reinforce their business
image and ambience, in addition to enhancing their client experience. Many of
these service companies are adding on profits centers, complimenting the core
business through direct sales of their carte items.

Afternoon tea has become tea anytime, anyplace and anyway, as the opportunities
are endless. Teahouses are evolving into bubble tea cafes serving a frothy hot or
cold beverage made from tea, milk, sugar and tapioca balls, alluring the younger
crowd. The over 21 age group is sipping up creative and flavorful cocktails of tea,
liquor and ice at trendy tea bars and lounges. What these entrepreneurs have in
common is the ability to introduce their own brand that set them apart from their
competitors, with the support of a private label wholesaler.

In the beverage industry distinct trends are pouring out opportunities with
consumers ready to taste. Changes in consumer perception, demographics, lifestyle
and culture lay the foundation for a unique offering of products and services. To
capitalize on these trends sellers are no longer stocking standard off-the-shelf
brands. Instead they are formulating a custom blend of product, label and package
to create their own exclusive brand, satisfying the unfulfilled needs of changing
consumer tastes. Private label is a powerful ingredient in their recipe for success.
Trends and marketplace dynamics point out now is the time for small and mid-size
business in all industries to consider the power of private label to leave their mark.

Jake Mayer is the owner of Lapis Teahouse, a manufacturer of
http://www.lapisteahouse.com private label tea and custom blend herbal products
that works with both large and small companies. He can be contacted to build your
brand at jake@lapisteahouse.com.