EAST COAST GRAPHICS » Branding

5 Core Concepts That Small Business Owners Should Know About Branding

East Coast Graphics — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:55:55 +0000

The whole concept of branding is foreign to many small businesses. They view it as something that only matters in the ivory towers of global corporations. Nothing could be further from the truth. Branding is all about making your business memorable, and it’s the small business rather than the big one that’s likely to get lost in the shuffle.

Here are five core concepts that small business owners should know about branding:

1. Repetition and consistency are paramount. Any parent knows that when you say something once it seldom sinks in. And, parents who send mixed messages confuse the child … and perhaps themselves! The same dynamics apply to branding: the market needs to see the same imagery and the same message again and again and again.

2. Sales reps can undermine your consistency. Even in large organizations, sales reps tend to develop their own way of talking about the company they represent. However, if every rep tells a different story, your customer base will ultimately have many different impressions of what your business does. This may cause customers and prospects to overlook key products and services — and perhaps look for them elsewhere.

3. Branding is more than just a logo. Every business should have a logo, but just as important are a consistent color scheme for the website and brochures, a strong tagline, and a consistent set of talking points for sales and marketing communication. Branding should dive deeper into the details still, in terms of consistent font styles, product/service descriptions, item numbers, and any other data and imagery customers see.

4. Branding is far more than window dressing. Far from it: Effective branding reflects and projects the core values and key differentiators of your business. A strong brand tells customers what you stand for and why they should buy from you. Are you the cheapest? The best quality? The most reliable? The most innovative? Your imagery and messaging must get to the heart of what you do.

5. Branding must be focused. Continuing on the previous point, you must confine your branding to a few critical concepts. No amount of branding expertise can communicate that you’re the cheapest, best quality, most reliable AND the most innovative. The more you dilute your message, the harder it is to remember and the less important it sounds. This is counterintuitive for sales people and small business owners who feel compelled to tell the whole company story every time they have the floor.

Let East Coast Graphics assist you with your branding today.

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Companies looking for a new dimension for consumers to see their products will have to wait no more!

East Coast Graphics — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:45:53 +0000

Companies looking for a new dimension for consumers to see their products will have to wait no more! Quick Response Codes are the latest trend, and with their diverse functionality, we can see why. Consumers can access a website, view a promotional video, read blogs, get directed to a social media site or instantly receive additional product information in the click of a button. Quick Response Codes, called QR Codes, are a 2 dimensional barcode that enable a consumer with a cell phone equipped with barcode reader to quickly snap a picture and automatically be directed to a URL of your choice. (Not sure what this means… does QR Code bring you to URL of the barcode? Or what?)

Want to see how this barcode works? Simply take a picture of the QR Code with your cell phone’s QR software and see what happens. Don’t have the software on your phone? Download it here http://www.scanlife.com/atlantis/appdownload.html

People are thirsty for more knowledge, and with this high speed recognition and simple functionality, it is a must have for new promotions, signs, business cards, promotional products, catalogs, and other marketing paraphernalia. The functionality is endless! Users of QR-Codes can snap (take a picture) a business card barcode and instantly download contact information directly to their cell phone address book. It enables the end-user to conveniently and easily obtain additional information about pricing, product options, and capabilities or allows customers to go directly to an ordering page to buy products. Currently, when you’re interested in a product but want more information about it, you can either wait until you have access to a pc and go to the website or open your phone and slowly type and search for the product on the cell phone browser. With QR Codes, potential buyers can click-a-pic and instantly be directed to the product of interest thereby removing the slowness of searching. This quick access converts into high consumer responsiveness and increases a marketer’s potential to interface (via social media, text ads, e-coupons, etc) that traditionally may never have occurred. A QR Code applied to a postcard can direct the prospect to a promotional video providing them with an alternative 3 dimensional view of your concept. Real estate companies are placing QR Codes on property signage that allow a home buyer to quickly drive up, snap a picture of the code, and instantly view all details of the home of interest by either website or video. QR Codes can be used in a large variety of productive situations to help brand, sell and market. Go ahead, use your imagination, and discover your own application for this truly innovative concept.

Grey Goose Invites Music Fans into the Den

NewSunSEO — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:21:29 +0000

Grey Goose vodka has taken the spirits category by storm with its award-winning taste and eye popping price tag. On January 13, it began reaching out to new fans with its Live from the Artist’s Den series of one-hour concert specials. The underground concert series, which will show emerging artists in extraordinary settings, airs on Ovation TV.

While the brand will offer logoed handouts and items with gift bags at the events, one thing it will not offer is CDs. The tracks will instead be available for purchase at iTunes. Grey Goose is very picky about where its logo is placed and would not reveal what items would appear at the events – you just have to be lucky enough to be in attendance.

Especially considering the line up which includes: Ben Harper on a 700-acre farm in Tennessee; Fountains of Wayne on a 100-year-old ship at New York’s South Street seaport; and The Swell Season at the Good Shepherd Center Chapel in Seattle.

“Presenting ‘The Artist’s Den’ is a unique and innovative way for Grey Goose Entertainment to establish a relationship with a new audience that it does not otherwise reach through original paid advertising,” says a spokesperson for Grey Goose Entertainment, New York. “It also supports the fact that Grey Goose is dedicated to producing original and unique content for television, music and film.”

Grey Goose also produces the series Iconoclasts for the Sundance channel where it brings together to two leading innovators from different fields to discuss their creative process.

Napkins Get Creative Juices Flowing

NewSunSEO — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:19:09 +0000

While Abraham Lincoln may have written the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope, many a moment of inspiration was jotted down on a cocktail napkin. So much so, that Esquire magazine created a promotion asking people to pen some words of wisdom on these white paper goods.Esquire mailed 250 napkins to writers all over the country. In return, they received 100 short stories that ran in the magazine. Knob Creek, meanwhile, created a program called “Words to live by” where it offered poignant snippets of prose like “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

The two recently joined forces to launch “The Esquire.com Napkin Project with Knob Creek.” Consumers who visit Esquire.com can view interactive napkins featuring the words from both efforts. The virtual napkins can be zoomed in and flipped over. Other content from interviews with Knob Creek Whiskey Professors aimed to educate consumers about the joys of whiskey.

This is “a great example of how we create interactive content inspired by materials that originally appeared in the magazine. Because advertisers are funding added functionality on the site, users get a richer experience while being exposed to brands in unique ways. Advertisers are able to engage in a conversation with users in a forum that isn’t overly commercial or intrusive,” says Chris Johnson, vice president of content & business development for Hearst Magazines Digital Media.