Advertising - Can We Live Without It?

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

Imagine you walked into a supermarket, and you recognised almost none of the brands. There was aisle after aisle of goods to purchase, and you had to stop to read every single packet to see whether you would like this cereal or those biscuits.

This could only occur if you had not been exposed to any advertising before you walked into the supermarket. In our current world, of course, that is impossible, as we grow up with advertising around all around us, but yet this has happened to me.

I have encountered this situation a number of times when I have shopped in a supermarket in another country. I had no exposure to the local advertising and was confronted by a large variety of brands which were literally foreign to me. I was overwhelmed by choice. A simple buying decision, which might have only taken me a few minutes at my local supermarket while I located my favourite brands of particular categories, was greatly extended while I tried to determine which of these new brands would satisfy my needs.

Without the advertising, I did not know what the benefits of each brand were. I couldn’t find out the ingredients without lengthy label examinations. In a number of cases I just opted for the cheapest because I didn’t want to waste more time.

This is an interesting experiment you can try if you are travelling internationally, and you are looking after yourself, rather than just living in a hotel where everything is provided. I believe you cannot understand a country if you have not done your weekly shopping in one of its supermarkets.

Without advertising, there would be no range. Most products would become commodities with no points of difference. There would be only the most basic features. There would be no niche products for special needs. We would be unaware of all the benefits. Prices would probably be higher as there would be no competition.

So when your product is discovered on a store shelf, or on your website, can your buyers readily determine the benefits your product provides and for whom and your points of difference? Is your offer clear, and do you have a call to action? Ideally when they have found your product, they will have already been exposed to your advertising, so the final decision is quick and painless unlike the confusing frustrating ones I had to make without the benefit of advertising.

Enjoy this wonderful paean to Advertising – but a strong language warning at around second 6, after which all is ok and very funny.

May Your Business Be - As You Plan It.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is Australia's Leading Advisor on Emerging Businesses and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems. He is also the author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

Share This Article: Advertising – Can We Live Without It?

To send this article to a Friend, click here

The Australian Small Business Blog

First Impressions always Count

by Richard Gill

Does your branding link your business cards to your letterhead, to your displays and packaging, to your banners and to your Website?

Does each component of the brand come together to give a consistent message no matter what the situation?

If the customer does not connect the dots then how long does it take to loose someone if the branding is not giving the right message?

Consider the message below and then consider the speed with which potential customers make up their minds to connect to or leave your brand in any medium. Studies show Internet users make up their minds about the quality of a website in the blink of an eye. Researchers found that the brain makes decisions in just a 20th of a second of viewing a webpage. They were surprised, as they believed it would take at least 10 times longer to form an opinion. The study, published in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology, also suggests that first impressions have a lasting impact.

Speedy conclusions
The Canadian researchers showed volunteers glimpses of websites, lasting for only 50 milliseconds. The volunteers then had to rate the websites in terms of their aesthetic appeal. The researchers found that the speedily formed conclusions closely tallied with opinions of the websites had been made after much longer periods of examination. Gitte Lindgaard, lead researcher, of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, said, "My colleagues believed it would be impossible to really see anything in less than 500 milliseconds, Judgments were being formed almost as quickly as the eye can take in information".

Lasting impressions
The researchers also believe that quickly formed first impressions last because of what is known to psychologists as the "halo effect". If people believe a website looks good, then this positive quality will spread to other areas, such as the website's content. Since people like to be right, they will continue to use the website that made a good first impression. This will further confirm that their initial decision was a good one. Gitte Lindgaard warned "unless the first impression is favourable, visitors will be out of your site before they even know that you might be offering more than your competitors".

Richard Gill is the director of The Banner Lady.

Share This Article: First Impressions always Count

To send this article to a Friend, click here

Share this article with your online social network when you click on the links below.

del.icio.us * Digg it *Furl * Netscape * Yahoo MyWeb *StumbleUpon * Google * Technorati * BlinkList * Newsvine *ma.gnolia * reddit * Windows Live * Tailrank * Slashdot

The Australian Small Business Blog

Take Your brand and Network It

by Richard Gill

A brand is not a logo, but it shows the way.

Is not a product, but it addresses a customer need.

Is not an identity, but it contributes credibility and a sense of quality.

OK, What is a brand? It's the way it makes the customer feel. It's the gut feeling, the emotion created, the buzz you have when you own the feeling, all created by the product, service or organization.

Consider in your own life what gives you this feeling and can you create a way to have others feel the same way. When you achieve this people say you have a personal presence and charisma.

So in your business and business life what will allow you to develop a presence and charisma, can you create an emotion that people feel when they do business with you. When you achieve this you have a brand or you are the brand.

We have understood this from the beginning and has joined a multitude of networking organisations and attended other like-events to create The Banner Lady brand. We recommend the following Organisations where you can learn and practice the skills of creating and developing a brand.

Business Network International (BNI)
FBI Institute
Networx
Network Central
Wealthnet Entrepreneurs Program
Business Mums
Nationwide Networking
Australian Business Women's Network
Club 3004
International Women's Federation of Commence and Industry
Speed Networking
Paragon Club
n-Liven
Family Business Australia
BarterCard
Westend Business Association

You can use these types of events to drive the brand in the direction which is most beneficial to the business, taking your brand to a new level of awareness and using your brand to its advantage. The brand is not what you say it is, but what the customer says it is!

More Reading: The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier is an exceptional book on branding.

Over to You. What do You Think? Post Your Comments Below.

Richard Gill is the director of The Banner Lady.

Share This Article: Take Your Brand and Network It

To send this article to a Friend, click here

Share this article with your online social network when you click on the links below.

del.icio.us * Digg it *Furl * Netscape * Yahoo MyWeb *StumbleUpon * Google * Technorati * BlinkList * Newsvine *ma.gnolia * reddit * Windows Live * Tailrank * Slashdot

The Australian Small Business Blog

The First Marketer I Ever Met

by Dr Greg Chapman, MBA

I don’t remember his name, but I remember what he wore.

As a young engineer, a few years out of university, I was the stereotypical technician. I thought everyone who was not technical was a bean counter. That the technicians created the real value.

And then I saw my first Marketer.

I had been forced, along with a number of my colleagues to attend some management training. Almost dragged from my computer. These were the days when only engineers had computers (or terminals linked to a super computer).

There were other speakers at the conference, but I only remember the marketer. He wore a dark purple suit (these were the early eighties). He had a cream shirt with a purple tie, and even purple shoes. When he sat down in, as it happened, a matching purple upholstered chair, we could see his purple socks.

He was the Marketing Director of ACI Industries, supplying among other things, domestic insulation batts. These were basically a commodity item. Whoever you bought them from, they all had insulation ratings. Rated by the CSIRO. For domestic use. And once they were in, you never saw them again. Not a very exciting consumer product to market.

He was quietly spoken and gradually told his tail. About the state of the market when he had started. About a business that was going nowhere. It was a case of trench warefare amongst the main competitors, where, like in the first world war in France, territory gains were measured in feet and inches. In the insulation game, it a percentage point of market share gain here, and losses somewhere else. No side had any technical edge. It was a war of attrition. It was only a question of who had the greatest stamina for losses, and would leave the battlefield first.

Now the Marketing guy had gone over to the US to see what the marketers over there were doing to market insulation batts. And at one time, he even visited a manufacturing plant. And while he was there, he saw every so often, instead of a standard yellow batt on the production line, a pink one. He asked the supervisor, about the pink batts. And he told him, these batts were seconds that had not passed the quality inspection, and were died pink so that the packagers would know to discard them.

When he returned to Australia he asked the ACI Operations Manager to dye all the batts pink, and created a marketing campaign that implied that the pink batts were superior to the yellow ones (but in such a way that could not be challenged- since technically, all batts rated the same performed the same).

But the pink batts became a brand. Not only did ACI’s sales greatly increase, but even when customers called ACI’s competitors, they asked for pink batts. To which they replied: “No Sir/Madam, our batts are yellow and perform just as well as the pink ones.” They knew they were in trouble, and started their own advertising campaigns.

But it was too little too late. And yellow was such a boring colour- even if you didn’t see them when they were installed.

ACI became the market leader. They had taken a commodity product where the competition was basically price driven. They had created a brand, and a point of difference. There was also a fun element to the campaign. (Pink is more fun than Yellow. And who do you think this colour difference influenced most?)

After all these years, they are still at it (although they have changed the name).

And there it was. Someone had created value for a business, not through technical innovation, but by marketing innovation. My transition from the technical world started shortly thereafter.

As for the Mareketer- I never saw him again.

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is a Business Coach and provides Coaching and Consulting advice to Australian Small Business Owners in Marketing & Business Strategies Planning & Systems.

The Australian Small Business Blog

Developing your Brand's Strategy- Lesson 7

The Meaning of Colours and Your Business

by Richard Gill

The meaning of colours varies depending on one's culture, race, gender, and even age. So, it is not just the selection of colours in general but also which colours to use with your target customers. For instance, white is often associated with weddings in Western Culture and evokes the feeling of innocence, freshness, purity and new life. In Eastern cultures, white signifies death. An exporter of white wedding gowns to China would go broke in no time.

Colours can be combined to signify meaning to a culture. In the western world, green and red are associated with Christmas, while browns and yellows Autumn.

Several large brand name companies are associated with their corporate colours. IBM- Big Blue signifies stability and conservatism. United Parcel Service (UPS) - Brown symbolizes longevity and reliability. A colour can be connected to products like Beer Wine Spirits in the bold orange, evoking the feeling of vibrancy.

Consider the meaning of the following colours for your business marketing, branding, websites and documents. (Western culture):

White: Pure, Clean, Innocence, youthful. It is a neutral colour that can imply purity in fashion and sterilization in the medical profession. (Monash University, White Lady Funerals)

Black: Power, Elegant, Secretive. The colour black can target your high-end market or be used in youth marketing to add mystery to your image. (De WALT power tools)

Red: Passion, Excitement, Danger. Red is the colour of attention, causing the blood pressure and heart rate to rise. Inject excitement into your brand. (Yahoo.com, 3M, St George Bank, Ferrari, Red Nose Day, Virgin Brands)

Orange:Vibrant, Energy, Playful. Add some fun to your organisation if you want to create a playful environment for your customers. (Telstra, Wizard Home loans, Beer Wine Spirits )

Yellow: Happy, Warm, Alert. Yellow can be an attractor for your business with a relaxed feeling. (McDonalds, Dick Smith, Kodak)

Green: Natural, Healthy, Plentiful, Organic, Going Green. To create a calming effect or growth image choose green. Go green go. (Melbourne Water, Blackmores, BP, Woolworths- the Fresh Food People, Caltex)

Purple: Royalty, Wise, Celebration. Maybe add some purple tones to your look for your premium service business. (Aussie Home Loans)

Blue: Loyal, Peaceful, Trustworthy. Blue is the most popular and neutral colour on a global scale. A safe choice for a business building customer loyalty. (IBM, Vic Government, Sensis, GE Money, Intel, Seek)

Consider how these colours are used in your organisation’s marketing materials from logos and brochures to business cards and uniforms. Are your colours projecting the personality and image you want? If not, it may be time for a colour makeover.

Colours have meaning. A white flag means surrender, however, if you have never seen a war the colour is insignificant. It all depends on the experiences of the customer and observer. Consider matching your colours with your customers to best choose the winning colour for your business.

Richard Gill is the director of The Banner Lady

The Australian Small Business Blog

Branding Lesson 6 – How to Package your Brand : Are You Reflecting the Right Image?

by Richard Gill

Branding is your identity in the marketplace, is yours saying what it should? Your organisation image is all about the appearance of your packaging. What is your organisation image saying to the marketplace?

It's important to realize that packaging always either has a negative or positive influence on the purchaser. A negative impression can detour a potential customer, just as a positive reaction can influence a customer to buy. A time to pay special attention to your packaging is when you are in the launch of a "new" brand. If you've already built a strong brand that others recognize often people may not pay as close attention to the packaging.

How can you package your brand so that it is an integral part of your business and represents a strong identity? Keep in mind that I am not speaking of packaging has only a box that contains a product, but as a vehicle that reflects your organisation's brand and image.

Packaging can be judged and represented by the following common business tools:

• business cards and stationery
• Banners and digital printing
• website
• answering system
• email address

What image are you putting across with these business tools that you use everyday? What are they saying about your organisation? Take a few moments and lets look at each one of these.

What are your business cards and stationery saying? Are they saying we are strong, we are confident, and we can succeed in helping you? Or does it reflect an image that says we are flimsy, our dynamics are minimal, and we will try but we cannot guarantee continuity?

What does your web site say about your organisation? Does it reflect professionalism, clarity, and show them that you respect and care about them? Or does your web site confuse viewers, project an untrustworthy image of your organisation and ultimately drive potential customers away?

What does your answering system and call return policy say about your organisation? Does it say we are here to help, eager for you business and will do what it takes? Or is it putting across the message that you are too busy to cater to new clientele, don't care about their needs, or wish they would just go away?

What does your email address say about your organisation? Does it suggest your role in the organisation, is it easy to remember, and does it something about you and your business? Or does it project a meaningless or generic emptiness? If you are using the email address luckyphil@hotmail.com for your business dealings................it's time to change!!!!!

As you can see all these things speak volumes about your image and they either strengthen or weaken your brand. Your image is all in the packaging. Would potential clients take a second look or is your message getting lost? If you thought these things were not worth the investment or didn't matter, you were wrong. Clients and customers will make assessments of your organisation based on these things and while not always conscious, that customer appraisal says much about your business, your attitude and your priorities.

Australia Top ten Brands (As determined by Interbrand) $ Billions (2005)

1. Telstra $9.3
2. Commonwealth Bank $4
3. Westpac $3.6
4. ANZ $2.9
5. Woolworths $2.5
6. National Australia Bank $2.4
7. Billabong $1.1
8. St George $ 1.0
9. Macquarie Bank $0.83
10. Qantas $0.82

What number are you? What is your brand value??

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own." - Benjamin Disraeli, - British Prime Minister

Richard Gill is the Director of The Banner Lady.

The Australian Small Business Blog