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| Original Message Added : 10 May 2009 |
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| Reply : 11 May 2009 "How do I improve on brand visibility using a site like Freeindex?" First of all you have to define your own brand. I can see from your website that you have taken the steps to create a professional presence which is great. Now you have to build on that presence. Think about your business? - What makes you different? - What's your USP? - What's your philosophy? - What's your approach? Basically, build up a natural character for the business, a set of guidelines and rules which defines RDH. In turn this should clearly set you out form the crowd and stabilise the business brand. Next step:Niche market You say there's a niche market for your service, what is the niche market? Try and sum up the clients/market that you want to target and apply marketing which is directed specifically at them. Brand visibility: Brand visibility for a small business is hard work especially a niche market but at least with a niche market you have a specific target audience that you want to reach. Direct all your efforts at them. - Blogging - Direct mail - Flyers - Sales letter - Team up with other businesses with similar interests (which i see you have already done) Corporate identity - Your corporate identity is a great tool to create brand awareness. Consider your stationery and emails and then go a step further with car livery, corporate gifts and uniforms. Do remember though that brand awareness is a way of letting people know who you are and that you exist. Marketing on the other hand is pushing for a sale. The two disciplines are very separate yet crossover regularly, think of ways that they may join together. "in my area home staging has a very low to almost non existent profile" How about some sort of seminar or a booklet with tips carry the RDH brand image. It creates awareness but also helps with a sale. (Brand awareness usually involves giving something back). |
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| Reply : 11 May 2009 I wonder if you're asking the right question. It seems to me that it's not about your brand, but it's about the public's/your target market's understanding of what you do and how/whether that helps them. Let me give you a silly example to illustrate what I mean. Let's say that a brilliant astro physicist moves into your area and wants to get some business. S/He can go to all kinds of lengths to build a brand and get name recognition e.g. advertise on the tv, put up billboards, pay a branding specialist a small fortune to create the visual and so on identities. However, if the audience to which the astro physicist is beaming their message doesn't understand what astro physicists do and has no need for them, then no amount of branding, brand building or brand advertising is going to help them. A much shorter route might have been to find out what universities and research departments were in the area and whether they needed the services of this particular astro physicist. If I really peel back the curtain, I think what you're really asking is "how do I get more business and make my business sustainable" and one of the obstacles to that is that people don't understand the term "home stager" and what that means to them or what the value is. I think I know what you mean. Do you mean someone who makes your home look irresistable so that when people come to view it when looking for a new home, they are far more likely to buy yours, because it's so appealing? If I have that right, then what you're really doing here is solving a problem - the problem of marketing and selling a home. People may not understand the term "home stager" but they will understand things such as: - sell your home faster - get a bigger/premium price I think what you need to work on is your value proposition, and how you communicate that to the market of home buyers. You may also choose to work with specific segments of the market e.g. homes worth over £500k. Probably the best doorway to home buyers is estate agents. You can easily persuade them of the value of what you do if you can convince them that they'll earn higher commissions or quicker commissions as a result of them introducing you to their clients. I wouldn't get too hung up on branding or brand messages if you're a start up business. Yes, you need a brand, but that will evolve with time. For now, just make sure you present yourself with a name appropriate to what you do and in an appropriately elegant way. You'll get a higher return for your time and energy if you spend it creating a proposition that the market wants and getting known by people who can help you get in touch with potential clients, rather than expensive branding exercises. Hope that helps, Jane :-) Chaten, You said "Do remember though that brand awareness is a way of letting people know who you are and that you exist. Marketing on the other hand is pushing for a sale." I have never seen this as definitions of branding or marketing. I couldn't DISAGREE more with you. Marketing is NOT about pushing for a sale. Marketing is everything to do with understanding needs, satisfying those needs through product development, communicating the message, staying in touch with current, past and potential customers/clients, and creating customer satisfaction through customer care. And everything in between. Branding is actually a subset of marketing. As is selling. However, the 2 processes may be distinct from marketing in the marketing process, but they are not distinct from it in the universe of marketing. I'm not sure if such partisan views help people to really understand their issues. |
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| Reply : 11 May 2009 |
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| Reply : 12 May 2009 - Understanding need (branding) - Satisfying those needs through product development (branding and marketing) - Communicating the message (branding and marketing) - Staying in touch with current, past and potential customers (branding and marketing) - Customer care (branding) Branding is not a subset of marketing, marketing is a subset of branding. Your business is your brand and if done correctly, will set out a basis at the very least for your marketing. P.S. Just because you haven't seen or heard of something before written down as a rule doesn't mean its not true or effective. We don't follow trends, we create them. |
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| Reply : 12 May 2009 Its who you are, why your're here and what your doing (as a business). Marketing is simply communication, a way of keeping in touch and projecting your brand progress to everyone else. The brand is the heart and brain of your business whilst marketing is the mobile phone in your pocket used to tell everyone what your doing. http://conceptstore.co.uk/blog/?p=9 |
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| Reply : 12 May 2009 I probably agree with you that how a company is perceived and experienced (i.e. its brand) is the sum total of its identity, values, mission, behaviour and messaging etc. However, it is not the brand that moulds the business, it is the business and its values that shape a brand. I don't agree that marketing is "simply communication". The widely accepted definition of marketing is something along the lines of "satisfying needs profitably". As I said before - this encompasses a wide array of disciplines, not just marketing communications. I don't think you need to make the case for branding quite as strongly as you do. I am one of those rare business people who really does appreciate how important design and visual identity is. And if you're one of those rare creatures who really does understand the whole branding universe, then your clients will be very lucky, because most designers just do pretty pictures and not a lot more. Ultimately, I think we'll have to agree to disagree. I think you extend the remit of branding to a point where it's stretched beyond it's natural elasticity and therefore beyond credibility or practicality. Branding is important. However, it is usually a consequence of good business and marketing foundations, not the cause of them. |
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| Reply : 12 May 2009 "it is not the brand that moulds the business, it is the business and its values that shape a brand." I've already mentioned that above, (character, benchmark, history, future, etc. that is the business and its values = the business brand) "Satisfying needs profitably" - How can you do it without communication? "I think you extend the remit of branding to a point where it's stretched beyond it's natural elasticity and therefore beyond credibility or practicality." - Not really, it just takes some understanding. "Branding is important. However, it is usually a consequence of good business and marketing foundations, not the cause of them" How can good business and marketing foundations exist without branding. "Branding is the business values" which you also agreed on. How can good business be achieved without business values? How can marketing foundations exist without providing value? |
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| Reply : 12 May 2009 You may like to note that I have tried to get on the same page with you, but you are staying dogmatically in your position. I think it's totally understandable that you would be biased towards an idea that supports what you offer to your customers, however, there are limits and we shouldn't become victims of our own spin! I think you're trying to extend the concept of branding way beyond what it actually is and where it's actually useful - to the point where it's fanciful. |
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| Reply : 12 May 2009 "but you are staying dogmatically in your position." - Yes i am, why do you have such a problem with this? "Totally biased towards an idea that i offer" - Check www.conceptstore.co.uk, marketing is one of the services we offer. "Victims to our own spin" - We haven't fell victim because we don't spin, we don't lie nor sell a service which we don't believe in. (Its our business brand) "you're trying to extend the concept of branding way beyond what it actually is" - No i'm not, i have no idea how you came to that conclusion. |
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| Reply : 13 May 2009 |
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| Reply : 13 May 2009 |
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| Reply : 27 Sep 2009 You can try the following: Firstly do a competitor analysis to identify what kind of tactics and strategies your competitors are using to improve there brand visibility. Once you have that analysis, then utilise that information as a brainstorming scenario to evoke thought and come up with various potential ideas. Identify all the possible methods of brand visibility such as those mentioned above, and tick off which are being used by your competitors. Moreover be sure to align your budget before exercising a particular type of marketing method. |
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0).jpg&maxW=50&maxH=50&action=crop "Chaten Parmar")
.jpg&maxW=50&maxH=50&action=crop "Jane Hendry")
