Sunday, November 30, 2014

Brand Building Basics for Beginners







According to Marty Neumeier, "the main purpose of branding is to get more people to buy more stuff for more years at a higher price." For beginning entrepreneurs, brand building is an important part of firmly establishing your business within the market. If your business has poor brand recognition, or if you promote an inconsistent brand, you may lose or even alienate some of your best customers. Here are a few basics to help you get your brand off the ground if you are starting from scratch.


What is a Brand?
To put it simply, a brand is an abstract idea that represents what your company stands for. This idea manifests itself in the business actions that you take and are expressed in the way in which you take those actions. Consider for instance, two World-Famous brands in a similar market, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. When you think of The Beatles, you picture four guys with goofy haircuts, that are generally warm, lovable, and safe. On the other hand, when you think of The Rolling Stones, you picture a group of rude, dangerous, unwashed ruffians. Two bands with completely different brands.
Where to Begin
The most successful brands begin by focusing on the company's strengths. Start by thinking about what you are good at, relative to your competition, as well as your core values or what you believe in. For instance, do your products feature a better design? Are your operations more environmentally-friendly than your competitors? Branding is all about finding those differentiating factors in your products or services that really make a difference to your customers.
Building the Brand
Once you have a good idea of what differentiates your business from others in your marketplace, it is time to start consistently promoting it. To do this, you need to focus on serving what your customers desire most, and guaranteeing your ability to deliver that benefit to them. However, promoting an inconsistent brand at times can be as bad as not having a brand at all. Every point of contact you have with your customers, from phone calls, to in-store visits, to letters, to emails, need to consistently promote your brand.
This may mean crafting graphics and ad copy for a variety of media, such as television, radio, online, and mobile. However it should also include creating elevator pitches for your salespeople and training the entire organization in basic public relations and consistent brand promotion.
Managing the Brand
Once your brand has firmly been established, your job is nowhere near over. Consistently monitoring your brand strategy, or hiring a qualified branding agency to do it, has several benefits. For one, you are guaranteed to not have any lapses in your brand, secondly, hiring a branding agency can help you stay ahead of trends, developments, and current events that relate to your business, allowing you to capitalize on each as an opportunity to further promote and strengthen your brand.



Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Get to Know The Styles From Fashion Week

Fashion Week - the week in fashion that tells everyone where fashion for the year is headed. For this reason alone, may people specifically tune into Fashion Week every year. The audience is awed by the flawless and unique designs that parade down the catwalk, though designers will often admit that their inspiration is sparked by the seasoned veterans of fashion.

Watching Fashion Week can give you lots of ideas to incorporate in your quest to be as fashionable as possible. Commonly featuring celebrities who attend fashion weeks around the world are entertainment and gossip shows. In a lot of cases they will also show the designers' dresses and new items that get everyone's attention in most every show. The Fashion TV channel will tell you all that you need to know about the latest styles.

Browse fashion magazines for style ideas. Fashion magazines usually collate pictures during the weeks immediately following Fashion Week, offering clients an idea of the newest fashions and a chance to compare trends by competing designers. Look for the clothing featured in your favorite fashion magazine when you go shopping.

Look at photos from Fashion Week shows online. The Internet is a valuable source for information, and its numerous resources don't leave out the Fashion Week highlights for all fashion fans. You can get ideas about fashion using style.uk.msn.com or nymag.com/fashion to obtain your daily dose of the latest style news for your enjoyment.

Do some window shopping in designer stores. Designers take great pride in their craft and will happily display their handiwork in shop windows. During Fashion Week, it is best to walk by many of the designer shops to see what types of fashions are popular now.

Get the look at an affordable price! It costs a pretty penny to look that fabulous and glamorous, dressed from head to toe in designer labels. Scrutinizing your style and buying by the piece is a quick way around it. Buy the scarf at a department store, but get the blouse from a thrift store. As long as you can get close to it, you definitely can pull it off, although it may not be the real thing. Who says you need to break the bank on style? Fashion aficionados would agree that it's all about attitude rather than the brand-name or designer.

The best way to see the new styles in action is to attend a fashion event in person and up close. If you are a model, journalist or even a volunteer you will be able to do it. Alternately, if you have the funds available, bundled packs are offered for sale by hotels and credit card companies which include Fashion Week tickets.