The Consumer Experience: Brands Overpromise and Under-Deliver
A brand strategy agency is imperative to building a brand that has its own identity and doesn’t fall into the stream of overpromising and under-delivering. You don’t have to run a brand strategy agency to understand the importance of the customer experience. Creating a personal connection with audiences through meaningful experiences is the gold standard of modern marketing and its value is repeated ad nauseam. Yet simply because we all pay lip service to this notion doesn’t mean we’re actually getting it accomplished. Many brands are still falling woefully short in terms of delivering a compelling cross-channel consumer experience. So what’s the key to unlocking these sought after, but rarely realized, customer experiences? Building a more human brand. Taking your brand’s pulse According to the most recent Forrester U.S. Customer Experience Index, there has been a minimal improvement in the overall quality of consumer experiences. Think about this: Though brands and their CMOs line up to testify to the necessity of great customer experiences, the actual customers are deeply unimpressed. Clearly, something is fundamentally amiss. Put simply, brands are focusing far too much on product experience and much too little on the human experience. If you want to connect at a deeper level, you need to move beyond the way people interact with products in a narrow use case sense, and instead consider the full range of feelings, desires, hopes, aspirations, etc. that are connected with any product or service. We certainly have the right tools at our disposal. Today’s digital technologies facilitate the kind of close engagement with audiences that would have been unthinkable just a decade or two ago. A date with implementation So how can these tools be deployed in service of more human-centric experiences? Consider the following: We like to think we are rational creatures. The truth, however, is that emotion guides us more often than not. A few years ago, leading neuroscientist Antonio Damaso made a pioneering discovery. Damaso studied subjects who had experienced serious damage to the part of the brain where emotions are generated. Everyone he studied had an unusual commonality — they struggled mightily with even the simplest decision-making. Brands need to understand the profound role emotion plays in how consumers respond to marketing messages and optimize accordingly. The best ideas and intentions are often utterly lost in execution. It’s one thing to conceptualize human experiences; it’s another thing entirely to deliver them effectively. Forward-thinking brand strategy agencies grasp the importance of digital tools in this process. According to Gartner, 63% of CMOs are expecting an increase in their innovation budget. If you want to deliver personalized experiences, you need to build the architecture to do so. The consumer/brand relationship is being utterly transformed. But not every brand is at the same place on the acceleration curve. The days of deploying one size fit all marketing, selling a product and periodically keeping in touch with consumers are long gone. Today, the most successful brands build communities; they encourage constant digital interaction and engagement; they facilitate a continuous relationship that integrates directly into a consumer’s lifestyle. These brands aren’t merely companies — they are, in many ways, an extension of the consumer themselves. The takeaway Digital technologies have created tectonic shifts in the ways brands sell and market their products and services. The best brand strategy agencies understand these changes and help position brands for maximum competitive advantage. If your existing marketing approach needs to be upgraded with a more human-focused, digitally powered approach, please contact our brand specialists today.
You Need More than a Logo, You Need a Brand Development Company
You’ve got a cool company name. You’ve got an eye-catching logo. From a branding perspective, your company is good to go, right? Not so fast! You’re only just getting started. Brand definition is about much more than a name and a logo. In fact, at our brand development company we advise all our clients — large and small — that there are many elements to a fully defined brand. They include: Brand identity: This is the unique look of the brand, and the place where many companies incorrectly feel like their work is done. Brand messaging: Beyond the way your brand looks, there’s also the way it sounds. Having carefully selected brand messaging is crucial. Brand positioning: What segments of the market are you after? Once you’ve answered that question, you need to align your brand with those segments. Brand strategy: Creating a brand and launching a successful brand are two very different tasks. You need to have a plan for drawing attention to your new brand identity. Brand style guide: Even the most well-defined brands can end up diluted if you don’t have a document your staff can refer to for rules about brand usage. That funky font the sales team wants to use in their email marketing campaign? No can do. Consistency is one of the keys to a strong brand. How you benefit from the services of a brand development company Developing and launching a successful brand takes time and effort. Is it worth it? Oh, yes… your brand matters more than you think! There are many ways to collaborate with a brand development company to help create a unique brand identity for your business. For example: Branding increases awareness Even if they aren’t yet ready to become a customer, just making prospects aware of who you are and what you’re offering is helpful. Branding differentiates your company Your brand can help set you apart from the competition. And, in an ever-more-competitive business landscape, your ability to differentiate yourself can make a huge difference in whether you succeed or… don’t succeed! Branding creates trust The more your prospective customers are exposed to your brand, the more they believe you’re the “real deal” and are a company they can trust. Branding can increase company value The evaluation place on your company by outside experts is about more than just your assets. There is tremendous value in having people know who you are and what you stand for. Branding increases customer loyalty “I use that company for all my ____________.” Customers who have good experiences with a company that has a strong brand are the most loyal customers anywhere. Yes, you have to have good products and services. But back them up with a memorable visual identity and you’ve hit the jackpot! Branding inspires your team Not all the benefits of a strong brand are external. Your strong brand can serve as a rallying point for your employees, as well. The skill and experience of your brand development company matter No disrespect to that friend of a friend who creates logos as her side gig, but you want to work with a top Florida advertising agency with a proven track record in branding. There’s too much at stake. Brand development is an art and a science, and both skill and experience are critical. Looking to brand or rebrand your company or a product/service offering? Talk with us about how we’ve served as the brand development company for businesses of all sizes in a wide variety of markets, and how we can craft a brand for you that gives you a competitive edge.
Advice on Social Media Stories from a Brand Positioning Agency
Social stories have only been available for a few years, but as a brand positioning agency, we quickly recognized their marketing potential. Today, our expert storytellers use social stories to put a relatable human face on the clients we work with. Humanizing an organization makes it much easier for potential customers to develop a strong relationship and affinity for their products and services. Why stories sell Behavior experts tell us that humans are wired for story. We have what’s been called a “story drive” that makes us hungry for information presented in this format. In fact, we know that storytelling was the primary way that our ancient ancestors communicated. You might say that cave paintings were the first Instagram! Stories are just as important today. They are the best way to sell a product or service because we connect with them at a deeper level than we do simple information. This is extra important in a generation where our attention span has dropped below that of a goldfish (that’s a little embarrassing). People want to know at a glance what you are offering, and stories give them that information in a very quick, visual, and scannable way. 5 tips on using stories to connect with your audience As a brand positioning agency, we’re sharing insider knowledge on leveraging social media stories: 1. Start slowly Rather than diving headfirst into being storytellers across the social spectrum, you and your team should pick a platform and get a good feel for the medium. Instagram is a great place to start, in part because it has an excellent set of tools for creating social content. 2. Make the most of the tools available to you Many companies get stuck using just the basic functionality on a platform. If you want to create engagement with your audience, it pays to learn about all the features a particular service has to offer so you can make your stories stand out. 3. Work up to using multiple platforms Once you’re comfortable creating stories on one platform, start reworking and repurposing the content you create there in other places. Doing so saves you time and provides consistency for your audience. 4. Create stories that exhibit both passion and practicality While a story that is simply entertaining will get some attention, one that also provides practical, usable information will be much more widely shared, and we can tell you just how much with our social media monitoring services. 5. Be human The “story drive” we have makes us want to hear stories from other humans. Content that looks and sounds like it was produced by a robot won’t engage people and may turn them off. Utilizing content that is relatable and organic will draw more of a crowd. How can our brand positioning agency help you get the most bang for your buck through the use of social media stories? The best place to start is to get in touch with our branding experts and tell us your tale.
Decoding a Hidden World by Using a Pharmaceutical Naming Agency
When is the last time you heard someone ask a pharmacist for a refill on N-methyl-3-phenyl-3-[4- (trifluoromethyl) phenoxy]propan-1-amine? How about fluoxetine? The answer is probably more common than you think. While the scientific and generic names for Prozac aren’t particularly memorable, they do provide a revealing look into the byzantine world of pharmaceutical naming. Many small and medium pharmaceutical researchers and producers don’t realize how important naming is until the FDA rejects their patent and sends years of research and clinical trials back to square one. A pharmaceutical naming agency can help decode the mystery and ensure your work makes it to market. Why pharmaceutical naming matters The FDA strictly regulates and subsequently rejects between 20 – 25% of drugs’ generic and brand names to avoid confusion that might lead to misdosing, confusion over a drug’s efficacy, or that might lead to patient stigmatization and privacy violations. Once approved, the naming process continues to play an important role in a drug’s success because a pharmaceutical company may only market their drug under a brand name, rather than a generic or scientific name, once it has been patent protected. Competing companies may market the same generic drug under a different name to make the market more competitive. While Advil and Motrin are both brand names for ibuprofen, their name, positioning, and marketing plays an important role in which the consumer ultimately chooses. How a pharmaceutical naming agency can boost your success The average pharmaceutical naming agency creates between 2,000 – 5,000 names for each drug before beginning the FDA screening process and march to patent protection that will allow brands to compete in the market. A top Florida advertising agency like BIGEYE can help kick off that process by vetting names that may raise flags for the FDA or that will not stand out from the competition. By partnering with a creative team, your brand can focus on the science and success of your product while your agency ensures your research and work does not get delayed because its name sounds too similar to another drug or accidentally includes the common shorthand for another scientific component. Contact us today to learn more about how we’ve helped other drug producers enter the market and break through the clutter of competition from big pharmaceutical companies.
Leveraging LinkedIn for Leadership, and What You Need to Know
If you’re looking to grow your business, one of the best things you can do is to focus on your personal brand. But, if you’re like many people I know, you’re probably asking: where do I begin? Well, as a leader here at BIGEYE’s Florida ad agency, I am committed to staying active in the community, and more importantly, I know that most people in my field and community are on LinkedIn. Right now, 300 million people are on LinkedIn, and those people come from 150+ industries and represent more than 3 million companies. But, as we all know, we don’t tend to get a lot of jobs from LinkedIn alone. Getting jobs and clients is all about networking. Good thing LinkedIn knows that too, and strives to emphasize that the site is not just about trying to help you find a job through it’s electronic database, but is also about helping grow business development opportunities through your personal connections. Therefore, if you want to solidify yourself as a professional in your space, it’s pertinent to have a presence on LinkedIn. But that’s the bare minimum. If you truly want to shine, you can use LinkedIn as part of your personal branding process, using it to display portfolio projects, to help improve your search rankings and to blog about topics related to your business. For people interested in working with you for the first time, LinkedIn serves as your “elevator pitch” or value proposition. So, it’s important to treat it like one. If you have only a listing of past job titles and a bare minimum profile, you better have an excellent offline reputation or else people won’t know (or care) much about you when they read your profile. With LinkedIn, the power of the technology is in the scale. If you were once sending newsletters to only your clients, you can now post them to LinkedIn for the world to see. In this way, LinkedIn can be a strong resource for helping you to build visibility in your chosen field. By blogging to LinkedIn, you have a built-in network of people who will see and read your content, which will help to build visibility for you and your business. If you’re looking to build a strong professional reputation in your space via LinkedIn, make sure you use relevant keywords on your profile so people can find you. You never know when someone might search “hotel expert Orlando.” It’s in your best interest to make sure you’ve populated your LinkedIn profile with the right keywords to ensure your name comes up first. Also, think about your photo. Does it tell people who you are, or is it just something you Instagrammed two years ago? Getting a professional headshot helps to solidify your place as a pro, and as we all know, first impressions count. Make the best one by presenting your best self in the digital space. But don’t feel like you have a wear a suit in your photo if your job rarely calls for one. While brevity is important, LinkedIn is a place to highlight your accomplishments. You don’t have to brag, but it is important to build a strong presence by differentiating yourself from the norm. Post those items that impress the people around you. [quote]With all of your hard work, you’ve earned the right to showcase you expertise.[/quote] If you haven’t been using LinkedIn as a way to convey your personal brand, now is the time. At our Orlando marketing agency, we know it is becoming more and more important to make sure that your digital footprint reflects your capabilities. Luckily, LinkedIn lets you be in control of that. So put it all up there: classes, past speaking engagements, Keynote decks, accomplishments and thought leadership blogs, and make sure that your online elevator pitch is the kind that makes people want to stay with you on that elevator – because they know it’s headed directly to the top.
Branding Strategy Tips That Make an Awesome Impression
If you have any sort of introverted qualities, you probably understand that it can take quite a bit of work to muster up the courage and energy to take that first meeting or introduce yourself to someone new. According to the team at our Florida advertising agency, the first impression you make on a person is the first impression they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. So, if you want to make it anywhere in the business world, that first impression has to be a good one. Luckily, I’ve learned to beat that introversion, and you can too. All it takes is a little bit of practice and as much confidence as you can muster, using a few of our recommended branding strategy tips that make an awesome impression: Tip 1: Address Your Appearance You might be the best tech entrepreneur in the world, but no one is going to know that if you don’t look the part. Get a haircut, trim that beard and wear your nicest jacket if you want to leave a strong impression. While there are exceptions to this rule (think of Mark Zuckerburg and his infamous hoodie), wait until you’re already at that level until you decide you can start dressing down. Looking like a million bucks will also help you feel like a million bucks, so don’t be afraid to splurge just a little in the name of good style. Tip 2: Stand Up Straight Years of sitting in front of a computer may have left you with an awkward slouch. Make a conscious effort to stand up straight. Doing this will not only make you look more confident, but will psychologically make you feel more confident as well. Along the same lines, be conscious of your actions and try to avoid fidgeting, as this comes across as anxious and excitable. Tip 3: Get a Good Night’s Sleep You ever have any of those days where you’re sitting in a meeting and you started dozing off because you’d been working until 2 a.m. the night before? In our culture, we’re taught to value hard work, but that doesn’t mean you can’t sleep and can expect to get through the day on coffee and M&Ms. Getting a good night’s sleep will give you a clear head, which will keep you bright eyed for your important meeting with the person who might just hold the key to your future. Tip 4: Smile and Make Eye Contact Smiling is another one of those psychological tricks a person can pull to make himself or herself and those around him or her feel better.[quote]Even if you have to force it at first, the act of a smile can help trick the mind into establishing feeling of happiness.[/quote] Also, making eye contact establishes rapport, and excellent rapport is ultimately the key to leaving a great first impression. Tip 5: To Leave a Lasting Impression, Always Follow Up This is by far the easiest thing a person can do. You had a great meeting, so within less than 24-hours, make sure you’re still on the person’s radar by shooting a quick note to thank the person for their time. It’s as easy as pie, right? But you’d be surprised how many people neglect to take this vital step. For more ideas on how to impress those around you, contact us today to be wow’d!
Six Ways You Should Revamp Your Personal Brand in 2014
Here at BIGEYE’s Florida ad agency, we spend a lot of time working with brands to help them define their voice and vision. We strategize every day, with the goal of implementing ideas and technologies that help connect brands with their audiences. But as the year begins, we think it’s important to remind our readers that there’s one brand that also takes time to cultivate and grow: your personal brand. As we resolve to improve ourselves in 2014, it will make sense for many of us to reevaluate our personal brand: the message we put out there in the world about ourselves. Every day, through each of our interactions, we tell stories of who we are as people, and through these interactions, our audiences – everyone from family members to casual acquaintances – decide how and why they should want to work with us. Here are a few tips to help you revamp and grow your personal brand in 2014: 1. Do a Brand Brief – For Yourself BIGEYE consistently develops brand briefs for our clients, but did you know that you can also use this idea to help brand yourself? Doing a brand brief for yourself helps you to think critically about your own vision and mission: who you are, what you represent and what that means as part of the bigger picture. 2. Get Social People who aren’t using social media are at a distinct disadvantage behind competitors. Social media offers an easy way to stay connected with people, and to share content that friends, business associates and acquaintances may find interesting. People who don’t feel comfortable posting personal information online can use social media in a purely professional context. Those considering taking that route might start with LinkedIn, which also allows users to connect through networking groups and by sharing interesting content. 3. Create Cohesion Across Channels This is a simple marketing idea that also applies to individuals.[quote]People recognize brands because they recognize the brand voice and imagery, be it logos or other elements of design.[/quote] By making sure your personal letterhead matches your email signature and Twitter handle, you’re effectively branding yourself across channels in much the way a big brand like Nike or Pepsi does on a continuous basis. 4. Keep In Contact The major reason brands send promotional emails at regular intervals is because they are extremely effective in helping them to retain customers. Therefore, sending out a monthly email newsletter with updates about various projects may help keep your personal brand in the forefront of peoples’ minds. However, if the newsletter email route doesn’t seem to work for you, try instead setting aside time each week to send out personal emails to old friends and colleagues. 5. Make Time For Others With only so much time in the day, it can be compelling to spend more time working and less time meeting in person for lunch or coffee. However, taking the time to meet with old colleagues and acquaintances is a great way to keep up the networking mojo – and consequently, to help improve your brand. 6. Improve Your Business Mind Investing some time and money into career improvement is a great way to help strengthen your personal brand. Taking online or in-person courses through companies like Coursera, Skillshare and General Assembly is an excellent way to help improve your personal brand. With these personal branding tips, you can be sure that 2014 will be your best career year yet.
Building brands by storm: The real mad men
The real Mad Men are long gone, but they’ve planted fertile seeds in the ever-evolving processes of advertising. Famed founder and former CEO of world-renowned BBDO, Alex Osborn, brought brainstorming to the ad world as the building block from which great ideas were born. Initially phrased “to think up,” Osborn employed this creative thought cauldron as a way of generating bigger, better and more brilliant ideas for BBDO clients. His philosophy followed that if two heads are better than one, then 20 heads would lead to gold mines. Orlando advertising agencies, and creative shops worldwide, still utilize brainstorming techniques to generate winning campaigns today. In addition to bringing otherwise untapped objectives to the table, brainstorming sessions strengthen teams within the workplace. They foster camaraderie and a true sense of belonging amongst coworkers. Encouraging your group to develop big ideas from inklings promotes a fearless well of inspiration to fill the air. People stop holding back and the notion that “there are no bad ideas” begins to take over. A look back in advertising will show us that bad ideas do exist, however. We’ve seen them launch and we’ve watched them crumble, as we’ve quietly said to ourselves, “what were they thinking?” Chances are they were thinking… together, but not thinking together. They may have all been in the room, but they all weren’t on the same page. Concepts that start without direction can lead a team to the endzone with a well-developed campaign. But if a plan is not in place before the team hits the table, your chances for success decrease dramatically. Define specific objectives. Do your research. Set a time limit – and don’t go a minute over schedule. Keep an open mind and listen to everything that is said. Give everyone a chance to chime in. Encourage participation Narrow it down and walk away with a few agreed upon concepts to build upon. Most importantly, bring your pad and paper and be ready to write down anything that comes to mind. The most successful ideas have come from the strangest places, so don’t be shy and enjoy the ride. Depriving yourself of other people’s ideas will only limit your brand’s potential. It may be your baby, but sometimes it truly does take a village to raise a child. Contact us today to help build your brand!
Music and Advertising: A marriage that withstands the test of time
We all know that the music industry is constantly changing. From records, to 8 tracks, CDs to MP3s, music will continue to evolve and keep up with the ever-changing forms of technology. One constant that remains is the use of music in the advertising industry. Whether you hear a jingle on the radio or the chorus to a pop song in a commercial, advertisers will always use music to influence the emotions and preferences of their audience. Why would an advertisement want to use music to promote their product or tell their story? In some cases it’s to provide some type of entertainment along with the ad and keep the viewer’s interest piqued. In other situations, an advertiser may use music specifically popular with their target demographic. An even simpler example is using a top-of-the-charts song to associate a brand or product with something that is already popular. Here are some examples of different ways music influences advertising and in some cases the advertising industry influences music. Many advertisers will work with independent bands and emerging artist by featuring their songs in their ads. The television commercial is the new music video. This isn’t a new concept, however. During the 2000s Apple was using new artists to promote their products. Advertising also has an effect on music. By having the opportunity to get their music in front of a much larger audience than ever before, some independent bands will find success by having their music used in ads. For example, “We Are Young”, by the band Fun had a number 63 hit. After being featured during the Super Bowl for a Chevy ad the song made it quickly to number 3 then spend a few weeks at number 1. In the case of the famous 1971 “Buy the world a Coke” ad, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (in Perfect Harmony)” a song created by the advertisers was written. The song become so popular it was re-recorded by The New Seekers as a full-length song and became a hit record reaching number 1 in the UK and 7 in the U.S. You can’t discuss music in advertisements without the jingle. Fun fact: This jingle was written by Barry Manilow. http://youtu.be/X2QnG3DwVW0 The way music has become available by so many different means recently (Spotify, Amazon, iTunes, Pandora, etc.) is also being recognized by the advertising world. Which is why one popular way to grab the attention of potential smart phone consumers is to showcase music within the media players. Music has consistently influenced the advertising world and as of more recent, the advertising world influenced the music industry. Where do you think the relationship between music and advertising will go in the future? Written by, Sarah Hall ~BIGEYE Creative, Designer
Juliet said it best, “what’s in a name?” Well, there is a lot
I don’t know about you, but here at BIGEYE we’re pretty glad the rapture didn’t happen. For the past few months we’ve been immersed in the rebranding process, and it’s finally paid off. We’d like at least a few months to enjoy the fruits of our labor. October should be just fine.
