09 Jun

Make Bold Your Online Brand

Posted in News, Promotional Products on 09.06.10 by John Meloche

This week, the Synergy Marketing Consultants blog has placed the spotlight on the theme of branding. Essentially, your brand is your message to your audience. It also involves, however, your audience's message to you. In other words, how is your company perceived in the eyes of the public? This is the all-important question.

We weren't alone in discussing this topic as EzineHippo.com joined us in blogging about branding this week. Yesterday, the website commented upon the various ways in which companies can strengthen their online branding. By this point, it goes without saying that the internet is arguably the most important advertising tool that a company can utilize.

Online marketing, of course, is a topic that this blog has touched upon many times in recent weeks as well. That being said, EzineHippo.com agrees that the internet ?makes it straightforward and reasonably priced to make a reputation for yourself and construct your on-line reputation?.

The site goes on to offer up five ways to enhance your business' online branding. The first is to ?Design and Publish and Business Website?. According to EzineHippo.com: ?This web site will function your primary on-line presence and will act as a headquarters of types for all your on-line promotional efforts. Your website should be distinctive, simple to navigate, and filled with helpful information.?

You will want to establish what merchandise you would like to promote directly on your site. It should also allow for e-commerce capabilities as many people enjoy making purchases directly over the internet. To increase sales, you will also want to ?Improve Your Search Engine Visibility?.

This is also a concept that we have touched upon in previous blogs. EzineHippo.com points out that up to 90% of your site's visitors will have come directly from the most popular search engines. Analysis has shown that the majority of online shoppers trust websites that generally exist at the top of search engine page results.

Our favourite tip, perhaps, is to ?Utilize Blogs to Create a Following?. Since the inception of this very blog back in October 2009, we have heralded the power of the blog and its ability to drive traffic to websites, keep your clients updated and well informed and garner greater interest in your brand. Connecting quickly and efficiently with your customer base, your blog will help establish a personal connection with readers that encourage them to revisit your site often.

?Take Benefit of Phrase-of-Mouth Marketing,? says EzineHippo.com. Establish an online buzz by giving your readers something to talk to others about. Customers are more likely to trust your online business if it has been recommended by someone they know. Finally, ?Guarantee Consistency in all Advertising Supplies?.

Says the site: ?It doesn?t matter what instruments you are utilizing to advertise your brand online, you always need to make sure that your message and tone are consistent…If users are confused about precisely what your online business is or does, your branding efforts can be far much less effective.?

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08 Jun

Strong Branding Is Long Standing

Posted in News, Promotional Products on 08.06.10 by John Meloche

Loyal readers of the Synergy Marketing Consultants blog have received an ?eyeful? of tips, advice and guidance over the past several months. Developing and maintaining strong business practices is the name of the game. And when it comes to creating a strong brand and continually delivering that brand's messages to the appropriate audiences, our readers know that Synergy knows where it's at.

We have often stressed the importance of good branding. In yesterday's blog, we reiterated the fact that your brand represents what your audience thinks and feels about your business. As has been made evident by Greenpeace UK's recent ?Behind The Logo? campaign, the huge oil company, BP's image has taken a massive blow since one of its oil rigs was destroyed in April.

Continuing to pump gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico on a daily basis ever since the disaster, BP's image has gone from eco-friendly and wholesome to deadly and irresponsible. Your brand is supposed to make you stand out from the rest of your competition. Of course, you would like to stand out in a good way, as opposed to being the worst of the bunch.

According to Laura Lake of About.com, ?it makes sense to understand that branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem.?

She outlines the various elements that help determine the very definition of a strong brand. Of course, it should deliver the message of your brand clearly. Your audience should have a clear understanding of what you offer and how they will be able to take advantage of your products and services.

Your brand should also confirm your credibility. There are a number of questions you should be able to answer when establishing your brand. What about your message makes you sound reliable, honest and dependable? How does your brand communicate that you can be trusted? What makes your target market aware that your brand is a cut above all of the rest?

Your brand should also connect with your target clients emotionally. How will you convince your customers to care about you? Does your product or service effect people personally? What have you done or what will you do to encourage your clients to recommend your business to others?

Of course, your brand should motivate the buyer as well. Your message should be strong enough that it excites your clients, encouraging them to go out and support your business. Do you offer the type of service that cannot be received anywhere else? Is there an element to your brand that makes it, somehow, irresistable?

You should also attempt to secure user loyalty. Do you offer incentives that will keep customers coming back? Is there a reason for your clients to return to your business time and time again?

As Lake writes: ?Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot.?

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07 Jun

Oil Spill Creates BP Rebranding

Posted in News, Promotional Products on 07.06.10 by John Meloche

Your favourite blog (yes, this one) speaks often about the importance of developing a strong brand when it comes to advertising your company. Tasks including creating an impactful mission statement and deciding upon your company logo are important steps in ensuring that your target market thinks positively about your business.

The old saying that ?any publicity is good publicity? is not always necessarily true. Especially in the case of BP (British Petroleum), a company image can suffer potentially irreparable damage. As the entire world is aware, this past April a BP oil rig mishap off the coast of Louisiana created what has become the worst oil spill in United States history.

Last week, The Toronto Star's Sarah Barmak commented on the blow to BP's image that this disaster has had. She wrote that Greenpeace UK held a competition inviting artists to satircally redesign BP's trademark to redefine the company as one that is environmentally disastrous.

Receiving 659 entries over two weeks, Greenpeace's contests saw numerous designs incorporating the company's sunny, green ?Helios? logo with images of oil-soaked birds, drills and even skulls ? the omnipresent representations of death.

One look at Greenpeace UK's website, and it is plain to see that there are a lot of creative graphic designers out there. More importantly, there are many individuals who regard the recent oil spill as one of the worst possible occurences to happen to the environment. Evidently, BP's brand image has been forever tarnished.

Ben Ayliffe, a senior campaigner at Greenpeace UK comments upon some of the contest entries: ?One of them we were looking at last week (was) a logo whose petals had fallen into pool of oil. At the other end of the spectrum, a kid had drawn a scribbled logo with the tagline: ?Children could run it better, probably.? There was one that was a skull underneath the Helios logo that looks like cross between HP Lovecraft and Megadeth.?

As Barmak writes, the rebranding campaign, known as ?Behind The Logo? was originally ?conceived as a protest against BP?s investment in deepwater drilling and planned entrance into the Alberta tar sands market.? The campaign has now taken its ire of BP to a whole new level.

It has been made clear that BP's image of an eco-friendly, wholesome company has been transformed into an ecosystem destroying, money-hungry evil empire. The new logos depicting what many people feel about the brand are clearly reflecting that.

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04 Jun

Smartphones To Replace Hotel Room Keys

Posted in News, Promotional Products on 04.06.10 by John Meloche

In recent blogs, we have discussed the impact of social networking sites on the advertising world. In 2010, everything is either digital or online or a combination of the two. With technology continuing to develop, there are new inventions constantly coming out that many people tend to get pretty excited over.

It was reported earlier today that Apple Inc.?s new iPhone will be making its debut this coming Monday. This very popular ?smartphone? (did you know that ?cell phones? are becoming passé?) is most certainly going to be available with a variety of ?apps? and other nifty features. However, as The Toronto Star?s staff reporter, Debra Black reports today, it will allow you to do something that no other phone has done before.

Apparently, hotel patrons in the United States (Chicago and Houston to be exact) will soon be able to use their smartphones to open their hotel room doors. So not only are old school cell phones becoming obsolete, but now people won?t even need a room key to stay at the Holiday Inn.

Two Holiday Inns, in their respective aforementioned cities, will be running a pilot project later this month. Clients will have the opportunity to choose between the traditional check in and room key hand off or participating in the smartphone key project.

Black notes that InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns the Holiday Inn chain, is hoping that the new smartphone app will improve the guest experience at their hotels. This new feature is aimed mainly at frequent travelers who would make good use of this new convenience.

According to Bryson Koehler, the senior vice president revenue and guest technology at InterContinental Hotels Group: ?When you go to the same hotel every day for a year or two, you don?t need to talk to anyone at that hotel. We don?t mean to replace human contact. It?s just an option for our frequent travellers who may have 20 minutes to get into their room and get ready for a business dinner.?

Patrons interested in taking advantage of this new app will need to own either an iPhone, a Google phone or a BlackBerry. The technology itself was created by Open Ways and is based on ?a computer-generated series of sounds that can be specific in terms of length and pitch.?

Koehler explains how the pilot project will take effect: ?Once they get to the hotel, during the early phase of the pilot, they will check in and, instead of getting a key card, they will get an authorization number to enable their phone to be a key, and then only that phone will be synchronized with the door.?

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04 Jun

Create Your Mission Statement

Posted in News, Promotional Products on 04.06.10 by John Meloche

The Synergy Marketing Consultants Blog has often discussed the concept of branding your business. Your brand is what your business represents to the public. It is the connection that people have with what you have to offer. Your brand is not simply your logo or your name. It is what your company means to others.

To be meaningful in today's marketplace isn't all that easy. With the consistent advancement of technology, it appears as if so many things come and go. Cell phones and video game systems are two of the best examples of merchandise that is updated so often that a unit purchased just a year ago may be considered obsolete today. So, in other words, it is easy to be forgotten.

To truly resonate with your audience, it is important to connect with them in a way that gives your brand long-lasting meaningfulness. In order to accomplish this, it is necessary to be completely clear about what your company's message is. As Elena Fawkner, the editor of the award-winning A Home-Based Business Online advises us, business owners should begin their branding process with creating a mission statement.

To do this, writes Fawkner, a business owner should place him or herself in the shoes of the customer. Decide upon what your target market is and imagine what would mean the most to you as a member of that group. It is important to put as much focus as possible on the benefits of your brand that will be the most relevant to the majority of your target market.

Creating a mission statement will keep you focused on your goals, having you constantly reminded of what they are. Fawkner provides the example of reliability, price and technical support as the main benefits to a web hosting company. Her suggestion for a mission statement for such a business: ?I strive to earn a fair return on my investment of time and money by providing affordable webhosting with guaranteed 99% uptime and 24/7 telephone technical support?.

Your mission statement is for you. But it is also for your target audience. Your customers should know that you are committed to their satisfaction. Once you have created your mission statement, it allows you to focus on what your brand is and how you can reinforce its image in the minds of your customer base.

Writes Fawkner: ?When you create your brand, you need to keep the who, what and how firmly in mind but also use the brand to establish your relevance to your target market and build credibility with that market.?

Your brand begins with a mission statement. Without one, it is difficult to truly know what direction you will be taking your business in. It will be equally as difficult to assure your customers that your brand is one worth trusting. Remember, your brand is all about how you make others feel about you. So be sure that your mission statement makes you feel good about yourself.

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02 Jun

Facebook Ads Get Increasingly Popular

Posted in News, Promotional Products on 02.06.10 by John Meloche

As we have mentioned a number of times in past blogs, social networking sites are quickly becoming the most popular advertising tools available. With the growing majority of consumers flocking to the internet to peruse through potential purchases, more companies are resourcing the Facebooks and Twitters of the world wide web to spread their messages.

Today, The Washington Post's Brian Womack reports that Facebook has, in fact, quadrupled the number of advertisers on its incredibly popular site since the beginning of last year. Now the largest social networking site in the world, Facebook has been opening offices worldwide to serve ad clients.

According to Womack, Facebook has had to double the number of its salespeople since 2008. This, of course, is a response to the demand of companies who wish to utilize the popular site to boost their recognition. Brands such as Procter & Gamble Co., Toys ?R? Us Inc. and Virgin America Inc. are cited as companies who have significantly increased their ad spending to grow their reach on Facebook.

Currently, Facebook as more than 500 million users. Said Mike Murphy, Facebook's vice president of global sales: ?We?re very well positioned as people come out of this current economic situation. What we?ve become is absolutely core to marketing campaigns.?

Womack explains how the website puts those big advertising budgets to work: ?Facebook sells ads that are placed on the home pages of users, where the latest comments, pictures and links from their friends are posted. The ads also show up next to profile pages, which may include a person?s information such as gender or birth date.?

Adidas, the world?s second-largest sporting-goods maker, had used Facebook to market their products and has been very successful doing so. Its youth-focused ?Originals? label is heavily promoted on the site. The global digital marketing leader for Adidas, Chris Barbour sees great benefit in advertising on Facebook.

Said Barbour: ?Wherever our fans are, we?re going to use Facebook to speak to them. And we?re going to try to speak to them in a locally relevant way.? Adidas has created an ?Originals? page on Facebook which allows fans to check out new products and involve themselves in user discussions about the brand. As Womack reports: ?Three times as many people signed up to be 'fans' of the page during the campaign, compared with the typical rate.?

In total, Facebook has run 176 billion display ads in the United States in the first quarter. This is up over 70 million ads from the year before. The popularity of Facebook is undeniable. Womack writes that Facebook was the most visited website in March, which overtook Google for the first time.

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01 Jun

Summer Events Super For Stores

Posted in News, Promotional Products on 01.06.10 by John Meloche

Here in Toronto, Canada where the Synergy Marketing Consultants offices are headquartered, the sun is out and the weather is hot. It's the perfect time for a barbeque! And although the weather reports are actually calling for rain tomorrow, we are still going to go ahead with the event that entices our entire staff.

How do you not love a barbeque? Of course, we've discussed this awesome outdoor event that incorporates the sweet sounds and smells of the summer before. Good food and good company is what makes any event a great one. In past blogs, we have touched upon the significance of barbeques not just because of how fun they are ? and how full you can get at them! ? but because of the great opportunites they provide.

The BBQ is an excellent meeting ground to mix and mingle with new, old and potential clients. Although it is great to have an event to celebrate your staff, you may also want to think about hosting a barbeque or two this summer that is open to the public. Your store will benefit greatly from the publicity and fond memories of the event that you hope to create in your growing client base.

Obviously, we recommend that hamburgers and hot dogs not be the only treats you serve at your shindig. These gathering spots are always great places to hand out your promotional items. These gifts, of course, are can be taken home by your guests to ensure that your company's name and contacts are always close by.

If a barbeque doesn't particularly fit with your type of business, perhaps, hosting an in-store event would be more rewarding. Depending on your industry, you may want to plan an event where contests can take place, prizes can be won and special presentations are shown.

In Canada, one of the best times to do this would be prior to Canada Day on July 1st. Since the day itself is a holiday, you may want to commemorate it in the days prior by having special Canada Day discounts on your items. Integrating the members of your community in the activities presented by your store is always good for the reputation you hold in your area.

Give people the feeling that they are both appreciated and welcomed by you. Having them leave your establishment with a promo gift of some kind, in celebration of Canada Day, will do wonders for their impressions of your company.

Great music can go a long way. What's a party without music, right? Some restaurants, bars and lounges like to hire either a live band or DJ at least one night of the week to liven up the atmosphere. Have great music pumping at your special event or barbeque and you'll be certain to establish a larger client base that will remember the good times!

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