Posts Tagged ‘web design’

You’ve learned how to assess your brand’s strengths and weaknesses.  What now?

Remember the DEVO song “Freedom of Choice”?  People can get really overwhelmed at the embarrassment of riches that is free choice.  I encourage my clients to start SMALL.  Eensy-weensy, tiny even.  Know why?  Because small = manageable in a real world full of real-world distractions and setbacks.

It can seem like a huge bummer to think small when you’ve just gotten the macro view of your brand health.  However, small steps are what will bring you to your destination.

Example:  You’ve discovered that while your Web presence rates a 95%, your sales is coming in at a mere 25%.  You’ve delved into the details and realized that your sales and marketing need to be better integrated, perhaps through the use of a CRM system, a double sales/marketing plan, or a weekly check-in meeting.

Instead of plunging in and doing all three, prioritize.  Which one looks like it will have the biggest return on investment?  How quickly can you get going?  Can it be broken down into manageable tasks?  Who will take care of each one?  Most importantly, how will you measure and evaluate your success?

If you repeat this process, calendar in hand, you should quickly get a feel for which baby steps you’ll take first.  Voila — a direction for your brand!

This sounds simple, but it’s really as complex as you make it.  Go focus on the here and now…just make sure you check in with reality and strategy on a regular basis.

Happy New Year!

Now that you know where you are, it’s time to move forward and actually use that data to analyze your brand.

Problem is, you can’t know where you’re going until you know what you want.

What do I want? is a huge question, but it’s one you’re going to have to answer in specific terms if you want a good picture of your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. Yes, it is time for The Question Game.

In playing the question game, think of your average four-year-old.  Why is the sky blue?  Why do ants march?  Why did you just tell me I have to go to bed?  Why why why?  This might seem uber-simple, but it’s actually a pretty effective way of mining down through your meta-desires to specific action items.

Be relentless and aggressive.  Here’s a sample of the process in action:

VOCO Creative:  What do you want?

Client:  I want to make more money in 2009.

VOCO:  How much more money?

Client:  Well, $25,000 would do me.

VOCO:  What’s the best way to get an extra $25k?

Client:  Get some new clients?

VOCO:  How many new clients?  What kinds of clients?  Etc., ad infinitum.

Once you’ve mined down to specifics — I need 30 new paying clients for my Brand Miracle Service — get even more specific.  Where are these clients?  What strategies do you need to use to reach them?  What resources have you already got?

Here’s where the real fun starts.  Once you know what you want and whether you have it or not, you can assess your brand’s ability to meet those needs and get you where you want to go.  If you’ve decided you need clients who are female and who love the mall, you can then decide whether you have the collateral you need, the Web presence you need, the contacts at the mall you need, the reputation you need.

For each area, assign yourself a percentage.  Pretend you’re a high school teacher grading yourself on preparedness to go after your goals.  If you want to reach out to the Mall Ladies but have no contacts and a crappy reputation, you might be at about a 20% — a failing grade.  If you have all of the resources but one, you might be at 90%.

Do this for each of your goals and you suddenly get a much more realistic picture of your brand’s health.  Are you constantly missing your Web-based goals or failing to increase traffic?  Problem area.  Are you rocking the printed collateral and sticking to your marketing plan?  Great news.

It can seem intimidating to assign numerical values to different facets of your brand identity, but guess what?  You can’t progress until you decide where you are today and what kind of equipment you have going forward.  If you fail to plan, your next year might feel a lot like going for a camping trip with a can of Pringles and a pair of hiking boots.  Will you have fun?  Maybe.  Will you succeed?  Probably not.

In our next edition, we’ll make some real-world decisions based on our brand assessment.  See you then!

Image courtesy of woodleywonderworks

Fall is finally in the air and everything seems crisp and focused.  It’s the time of year when everyone seems to start looking ahead, preparing for a big push and scheduling tons of events before the end-of-year madness rears its head.

Here at VOCO Creative, it’s a reflective and productive time.  We’re making big plans for the future and focusing on our own marketing and branding campaigns to make sure there is a future for our business.  With all the news about economic instability, it’s easy to freak out and buy into the financial panic that prevails on every television set and headline.  In that vein, I’m loving Christine Kane’s post on stopping a recession in its tracks (can you tell she’s a blog favorite?).

Advertising Age ran a great article about how important it is to continue advertising and marketing during a downturn.  Though people are cutting down on spending, an eyes-on-the-prize approach will float any business during this recession.

The OMD study tested consumer feelings about advertising and found that 81% said advertisers need to continue to communicate about their products during a recession, adding that they’ll be more receptive to cost-savings messages and products that are positioned as investments.

My mantra as I help my clients move forward through uncertain times:  Panic?  Bad.  Progress?  Good. It doesn’t get much easier than that!