Branding: How Does It Work?

Branding: How Does It Work?

Branding is very important to any business, whether your business is a top fortune 500 company or a mom and pop corner store. An effective branding strategy could give you a major advantage in most competitive markets. But what exactly does "branding" mean? How does it affect your business?

“The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and series of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.”   In laymen’s terms, your brand is what you promise your customer. It tells the consumer what they can expect from your products and services, and it show the difference between you and your competitor. Your brand is created from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be. Let’s take a look at what branding strategies are and some of the mistakes companies make when developing a branding campaign.

Branding Strategies

Every business must eventually build and maintain a brand if it desires to continue in business and gain new customers.  Your branding strategy is who, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages. Where you advertise is part of your brand strategy. Your distribution channels are also part of your brand strategy. And what you communicate visually and verbally are part of your brand strategy as well.  Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity.

When people come in contact with your business name, they automatically begin to come up with impressions and memories that determine what they believe about you:  Their notions may be the result of communications you have had with customers in the past, or they may be the result of good or bad publicity or word-of-mouth.  Your customers may have a deep perception about you, or your slate may be nearly clear of any impressions whatsoever.  Regardless of whether the beliefs a customer holds about you are many or few, good or bad, or accurate or inaccurate, they make up the image of your brand in their mind and they influence how your customer thinks and what your customer buys.

Your brand image lives in your customers’ minds, whether you intentionally put it there or not. Branding is the route to making sure that the brand image you have is the brand image you want. The best starting point for brand development is a true look at what people currently think of your brand and industry in the marketplace.

While being a part of a small marketing team for the college that I currently work for, our marketing department and advisors kind of explained that different types of brands work for different marketing approaches that businesses may take. Basically, there are a few general types of brands that a business could fall into:   Product Brands, Service Brands, Business Brands, Personal Brands, and Personality Brands.

·         Product Brands are those products that have become well known within the marketplace and have characteristics that make them better than others in this category

·         Service Brands are those services that consumers buy purely based on trust.

·         Business Brands are another option rather than branding a particular service or product an entity decides to brand the company instead.

·         Personal Brands are those images that people have of each individual whether you know it or not.  It is an image that someone has of you.

·         Personality Brands are create significant value when associated with products or services, for instance, the names like Oprah, Martha Stewart or the Kardashian brand.

Where do Taglines fit into your Strategy?

A tagline is a phrase that accompanies your brand name to quickly translate your business position and brand identity into a single line called a “tagline” that means something to consumers. A tagline is meant to provide consumers with an indication of your brand and its market position in just a few memorable words.  Great taglines have a number of common attributes.

·         If it is memorable -You hear it, memorize it quickly, and repeat it with ease.

·         If it is short -Great taglines often have as few as ten syllables so that they’re quick to recite and easy to tuck in alongside logos.

·         If it conveys a brand’s point of difference. The tagline tells what sets your brand apart from others.

·         If it clarifies a brand’s market position and key benefits. Especially if the brand name doesn’t quickly communicate the brand’s offerings and distinctions.

·         It differentiates a business from all others.  A great tagline is so unique that it doesn’t work when linked to a competitor’s brand name.

·         It reflects the brand’s identity, character, promise, and personality. It also needs to be believable and original.

Common Mistakes in a Branding Campaign

Over the past several years, I have been employed within a certain area of postsecondary education, and we have seen some very common and target branding mistakes made when trying to gain a piece of the market share.  Some of those mistakes included:

·         Not obligating enough funding to commit to accomplish marketing strategies.

·         Not being consistent with one campaign and following through with what was outlined

·         Not having a clear vision or focus on what was to be accomplished. 

All of these things are very important when you are trying to get a branding campaign from the board room to putting it into action and letting it do what it’s supposed to do. We must make sure everyone within the organization is on the same page, this is key in every strategy.  A good branding campaign will always deliver the message clearly, confirm your credibility and motivate buyers to buy your product or service.

Does Technology Make Us More Proficient?

Week Six Blog:  Does Today's Technology Make Us More Proficient

Wow!! The awesome world of Technology.  All I can say is…where would be without it?  Technology has proven to be a wonderful thing. If you can access it, and if you choose to learn to use it, I believe it can help make us more efficient.

With the evolution of today's technology all of our data, can be kept in sync with little to no effort. I can remember a long time ago, the idea of being able to carry around all your information in your pocket was something that was only hoped for in the future. The Internet was just coming into common usage, and most people carried around organizers and address books. Today, most of these things have been replaced by devices that can function anywhere any time like: the smartphones, smart watches, iPads and more. There have been ideas after ideas after ideas and attempts to make things better within technology, but ultimately just steps along the iconic way. These new ideas often came with a huge learning curve and price tag to match. But the notion of synchronization is something that most people take for granted nowadays, but it is definitely powerful, and is still evolving every day.

It is so amazing to see how far we have come since, back in the day, when I can remember carry around an address book and a note pad or sticky pads.  Any sense of organization and task management was completely manual. I would sit down and manually write all of my appointments, whether they for class, personal use or business related.  At the end of every day, the same thing would have to be done for the next day.

The corporate world wasn’t exactly that much better as I can remember. I know my parents were huge fans of the traditional diary and organizer. Every day, they transfer their tasks, their contacts and schedules from one day to the next. Today most people have learned to use the address books on their Blackberries or the contacts function on their computer. Back then, I think a few people had little pocket-sized books with their contacts in them. Some people had a shortlist of important contacts at the front of their organizers. I remember having my important numbers written in the front of my organizer.

And what if you need to jot down any notes, ideas, and information? I think that most people walked around thinking that they would remember it if it were important.  Sure, I had post-it notes of all shapes, colors and sizes everywhere too but no one central place to store everything.

Today, all of the way we used to take notes and keep up with things have been replaced with a couple of devices: the smartphones like the IPhone, Android, Windows, and Blackberry, the personal computer and a little cable that links them together. Every smartphone deals with all your personal information management basics – contacts, calendar and notes. Some also handle task management, with varying degrees of success. I remember when I got my first iPhone contacts, calendar, email, and notes all in sync, it was effortlessly.

And, when the idea of apps came about what an awesome experience. Not only could I take my basic personal information on-the-go with me, I could actually take other information relevant to my life on-the-go with me too like my music collection, my task list and my fitness information.  If you really stop and think about it, this is revolutionary. At your fingertips, you have a device that connects you with your finances, your workout routine, the latest news from around the world, the latest shopping catalogues and information, and every social network you can imagine. When I sat down and thought about it, it was mind-blowing. Having access to all this data and information instantly was incredible. It meant that I could operate just as productively from home, from the office or from the airport.  All on-the-go!

All this technology is so important from word processing to spreadsheets to the cornerstones of modern business.  Paypal can be used to send money to anyone with an email address anywhere in the world, the use of USB thumb drives can take whatever files and programs you want with you anywhere, Skype you can make cheap international phone calls from anywhere with an Internet connection, Facebook you can keep in touch with old friends and make new acquaintances, as well as build business relationships.  As with most things though, the choke point is usually the human factor. The biggest inhibitor in allowing technology to help us with our productivity is ourselves. More specifically, the lack of adoption and resistance to learning.

Technology has changed the way we learn and think too. The Internet alone has revolutionized our ability to access information. At a deeper level, it has also changed how we store and access information in our own minds. And how we combine information into new ideas and thoughts. The implications for the rest of us are straightforward: leverage technology to make our life more productive and easier, and get more done in shorter spans of time.

Technology extends this number. It lets us remember more people because we have a place outside our mind to hold information about them. It also takes care of certain things so that we don’t have to like remembering birthdays or crucial business appointments.  Love it or hate it, the technology to make our lives more efficient is out there. The information that we once thought restricted to our personal computers at home or work really is available to us anywhere and anytime, if we choose to use it.

 

Citizen Journalism: Is there Controversy Between the Professional Journalist and the Citizen Journalist?

Citizen Journalism: Is there controversy between the Professional Journalist and the Citizen Journalist?

From all of the required readings this week on Citizen Journalism, in an article written by Mary Grace Antony, Citizen Journalism was best described as “the act of a citizen, or a group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information…[in order to] provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires.”  So as we look further into what Citizen Journalism is we will touch on an issue that may be prevalent within the journalism arena.  I gathered from looking at some published videos and other readings about the citizen journalist that there may be some differences in opinion or rift between the professional journalist and the citizen journalist.

What is Citizen Journalism? 

Even though the above-mentioned description of citizen journalism seems to be very accurate it certainly is a mouthful and a lot to analyze.  In looking more into what the citizen journalist is I found another definition of the citizen journalist that I like better.  According to a journalist by the name of Tony Rogers, “Put very simply, citizen journalism is when private individuals do essentially what professional reporters do- report information.  That information can take many forms, from a podcast editorial to a report about a governmental meeting on a blog.  It can include text, pictures, audio and video.   But it’s basically all about communicating information of some kind.”   I found this definition to resonate more at home with me because it was very simplistic.  Often time when I am trying to absorb the meaning of something keeping it simple and to the point helps with bringing understanding to what the writer is saying.  

So getting back to the topic at hand, the Citizen Journalist, in essence does the same thing as the professional journalist but they just don’t have the professional title. One other important thing about citizen journalism is that I think it is primarily found on-line.   These writings may come in the form of, for example, you might see written comments about a governmental or political group meeting that has taken place, or you could see postings pointing out errors or bias from newspaper articles or mainstream media. Or you might take a digital photo of something or some event that is going on within your town or city that is newsworthy and post it online.  Or you might video tape a something of similar nature and post it on a site like YouTube, Snap Chat, Video Tube, or Pinterest.  All these might be considered acts of journalism, even if they don’t go beyond simple observation at the scene of an important event or breaking news headlines. 

When individuals without professional journalism training are allowed to use the same tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, and add to the conversations of the mainstream media and offer other perspectives outside of the mainstream as well. These individuals can sometimes begin to share information that may or may not be completely accurate.  It is so important that, as bloggers we should do our due diligence and research, analyze, and relay, to the best of our ability, the most reliable information we have.  And even if there is any doubt in what we are reporting, then just say that so that readers will know a particular piece of information may or may not be totally accurate.   There can be such an overwhelming feeling of frustration when bloggers are talking about the same thing and saying something entirely different than the next.  What kind of affect does this bring to the world of journalism?   Because this whole world of journalism was once a territorial unit that belonged to well established journalists and media companies.  There is some controversy because many professional journalists believe that only a trained journalist can understand the difficulties and unpleasant experiences that can be associated with reporting the news.  They also believe that there has to be a certain level of ethics involved in reporting the news.  One of the main misconceptions behind citizen journalism is that mainstream media reporters and producers are not the exclusive center of knowledge on a subject- the audience knows more collectively than the reporter alone.  Now, many of these media outlets are trying to harness the knowledge of their audience either through comments at the end of stories they post online or by creating citizen journalist contributors sources for stories.

Because of the web there are so many avenues we can use to provide our topic of discussion and capture whatever events we want. Through all of the internet-based and other wireless technologies it has made it so easy for the world, with a great level of freedom, to be able to get our point of view across to anyone in the world.  Today we live in a time frame where information is available from multiple platforms, and sharing information is easier than ever before.  With the onset of the internet many individuals can gain access to websites, social networks, and blogging tools to help people write about themselves and stories they come into contact with, all readily available to publish and share online.  These tools are also available to the citizen journalist.  And because there has been great importance acquired by social networks and blogs as sources of information, people have made them a permanent part of the puzzle, one which the traditional media must deal with.  Opinions remain divided about the situation but there are those that reject the possibility of non-professional voices but nevertheless they are here to stay.  Without a doubt, social networks, blogs and other online tools have made their existence.  There is still a need for information professionals to publish well-prepared and relevant news stories to the public.

 

Social Media: Is It Right for the Classroom?

Social Media: Is it Right for the Classroom?

As I mentioned previously in my Discussion Board post for this week, Social Media has had a gigantic effect on today’s society and how we communicate with each other. I believe it has become an essential part of everyday life for most people.  Using social media in the classroom is a different approach to student learning and promoting successful student outcomes.  I honestly believe that it is an innovative way of reaching the hardest to serve students.  Most students today are already in the social media loop and would probably find this teaching tool very refreshing and familiar.  But is it right for the classroom?  In reading and researching a few articles on the subject, there is a great divide between educators when using social media as a teaching tool.  Both sides of the equation offer some very relevant positive and negative impacts as we look at whether or not to incorporate this as a teaching tool within the classroom.

The Positive:

Some educators agree that learning how to control social media in the class room is part of the learning process and that the benefits are far greater than the negatives.  Putting most all types of technology in the hands of students opens a wealth of opportunities and provides knowledge to the students.  Classrooms could be the perfect place to teach students to break bad habits and encourage them to embrace these tools for productive means instead of social toys.  Social Media can provide an avenue for students to easily contact each other for group assignments or what have you. Students can express their thoughts and exchange ideas through these media.   It can encourage more participation for those students who do not participate regularly in class.  It can help build the confidence and encourage that student to want to participate.  It is a place where resources can be quickly shared, which can only help students, teachers and parents in the long run.  While distraction is relevant, the right social media teaching strategies can lead to creative learning, and a productive approach to making social media part of ongoing development practices. 

In this generation I don’t think educators can afford not to incorporate this kind of teaching into the classroom. In some areas paper, pen and pencils are a thing of the past and carrying laptops, tablets, and smartphones is where we are now.   If we don’t provide this resource to our students does that mean we are holding our students back and not affording them the opportunities that a leading nation should? Are we stripping the students of an essential component of their future success?   

The Negative:

There have also been articles where some educators believed that social media can wreak havoc when students become distracted in the middle of class.  Some would even entertain the idea of banning social media altogether from the classroom.  Avoiding or banning social media platforms for students prohibits them from being successful professionals in different areas of life.  In today’s business environment, someone lacking not just understanding but a working knowledge of social media and social networking tools is at a competitive disadvantage. 

Social media can be a major distraction when students are using these devices to check Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Flickr, Pinterest, Instagram, Myspace or any one of the hundreds of social platforms during lessons. It can also lead to improper use of social media by students engaging in personal interactions instead of educational related activities, which could lead to posting inappropriate content and so forth.  Students may have to be closely monitored when social media instruction is being utilized.

Educators should come up with a strategy for using social media to accomplish professional, personal and organizational goals.  Teachers have to educate students to be disciplined and responsible in their use of technology.  Social Media is a tool that should be viewed as a productive way of instruction rather than a banned and a way to build future professional skills.  Social Media can certainly be a help if used in a positive manner.  It has changed how we communicate, particularly with mobile devices and other media outlets.  Teachers are turning to Twitter and other social media for professional development and students want to use it! Social Media has become the technology of choice in how the world communicates.