Making Your Brand Beat on Social Platforms
A Brand Image is to a company what an aorta is to a heart. It connects your audience with your company’s unique value the same way as different arteries join the aorta to make the heart pump. Social media plays an extremely important role in today’s world and seems to be the most logical medium for building the brand. With over 250 million people on Facebook, 175 million on twitter and almost every company running a blog, we are creating endless ‘touch points’ for our audience. I define ‘touch points’ as a channel for your audience to touch, interact and retain your brand. The way they interact with these touch points, retain them and share it within their tweets is what generates a viral value for a company’s brand.
One drawback I have noticed though is that as companies increase their social presence, they lose track of consistency and cohesiveness in their brand representation on the different platforms. Often times, a quickly put together Facebook page with no company logo, a neglected Twitter account or a website which has not been updated for ages can do more harm than good. You can’t just sit back and leave it to these channels to do the work for you. What happens then? The inconsistency in presentation and lack of interest on your part will put a dent in the brand image of your company. This will then leave the audience confused about what you want to portray and will ultimately affect their buying decision.
Keep in mind that it is easy to get lost among a myriad of businesses and only constant monitoring can keep your brand alive, beating and up above the rest of your competitors.
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Food and Design
Now this is what I would call a mouth watering attention grabber. This ornamental center-piece arrangement, which brings holiday colors to the table, is from the backyard of Komali Nunna. Komali is a published cookbook author and an extremely creative person.
Having closely worked with Komali, in the past, during the design and production of her first cookbook Entertaining from an Ethnic Indian Kitchen, it amazes me how she skillfully combines elements of design into her presentation of food. An ardent food lover, versatile cook and a great entertainer, Komali unites contrast, repetition, balance and rhythm in her table settings. The holistic use of these elements of design adds an artistic touch to her culinary creations.
The photographs on her blog highlight how design is a big part of food presentations. Being a designer myself, I know how important it is to choose the right shapes and colors and to pick the perfect backdrop to present your creation, for maximum impact. The same keen eye and thoughtful planning are definitely part of Komali’s centerpiece too.
Here’s a toast to tasteful design and a wonderful Holiday Season!
Links to Komali’s blog & website
http://komalinunna.blogspot.com/2011/12/getting-ready-for-christmas.html
http://komalinunna.com/
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Think Global and Act Local
In today’s climate we often hear Industry experts, thinkers and speakers encouraging small business to start thinking on a global perspective. Being a small business owner myself, I keep exploring venues and ideas of how to sell my services and products in international markets or outsource and create a strong ‘glocal’ network. A small scale service based business has an even bigger challenge as to how to acquire potential clients or partners and leverage their services to international clientele.
During my research I came across this site ‘ComVort’, http://www.comvort.com, which presents itself as one of the world’s largest network of owner based marketing and communication agencies. The organization provides a unique platform to owner based agencies operating in areas of integrated marketing on a global scale. I find it appealing since a lot of my development work is already outsourced to Asia.
For businesses trying to establish a global presence and be effective within the local market, the need to deliver a message that is culturally appropriate and has the maximum impact has grown immensely. Organizations like ComVort can be instrumental in linking the right resources with international clients. This can help companies find local partners and work to get a low cost-maximum impact marketing campaign. (Resource: www.comvort.com)
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Can design be used effectively for social improvement?
What is Social Design? As a designer and thinker, a question that I have been trying to answer is how to connect the dots between design and socio-economic problems. “Within the design world social design is sometimes defined as a design process that contributes to improving human well-being and livelihood.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_design. Having stated this definition I would like to add that design is not just about aesthetics, fashion, or creating an eye-catching piece; it is about problem solving and research driven methodologies to create the most innovative and unforgettable outcome.
The question of how design can be used to bring about social change, address cultural issues and reach out to the masses to create a ripple effect is yet to be fully defined. Many researchers and design thinkers have started to apply their design methodologies to solve or to find the root causes of various complex socio-economic problems. For instance, take a look at this video by AIGA http://www.aiga.org/video-design-for-good/ which gives a clear picture of how the American Institute of Graphic Arts is trying to inspire initiatives among designers and community leaders to bring change in the society .
Another organization doing instrumental work is IDEO which “is an award-winning global design firm that takes a human-centered, design-based approach to helping organizations in the public and private sectors innovate and grow.” http://www.ideo.com/about/. They specialize in Human Centered Design (HCD) and even provide a HCD kit on their website. The kit has been designed for NGOs that work in under developed and developing countries by creating the “HeartStart defibrillator, CleanWell natural antibacterial products, and the Blood Donor System for the Red Cross—all of which have enhanced the lives of millions of people” and more. Another example of a good team work between a design company and an influential organization is Design 21, which is a collaborative enterprise involving a global design company called Felissimo and UNESCO.
As social designers, we need to identify, understand and apply our problem solving strategies to issues that plague our community. This may require collaboration with leaders, non-profit workers, government officials and like-minded contributors to define and implement the process of change. A solution which is thus produced will definitely stand more chances of being understood and implemented among large scale audiences. It can cause the above mentioned ripple effect of changes in the societies and cultures around the world.
I have just begun exploring this new domain and would be interested to hear your thoughts about Design for a Cause!
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_design
http://www.aiga.org/About/
http://www.design21sdn.com/design21/about
http://www.ideo.com/
http://ctr-organizational-change.msloc.northwestern.edu/2010/11/08/using_design_to_empower/
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Cohesive Branding in the New Age of Integrated Marketing
Branding is the process of building a company’s identity and reputation by creating an emotional connection with its consumers. In earlier days, one could get away with just a simple print advertisement or maybe an announcement on the radio, but in the present scenario, those are definitely not enough to distinguish your company from your competitors. You have to take into consideration one of the most important modes of communication of the 21st century, the Internet.
With an influx of different venues to connect with your audience, especially the variety of social media platforms that have emerged in the recent years, companies need to rethink their brand strategy and the channels they are using to connect. The importance to create cohesive and consistent brand standards across these venues has become imperative. Take the time to pause and think; does your company have a cohesive brand strategy in this New Age of Integrated Marketing?
The first step towards achieving this is by taking a deeper look into what your company’s brand really stands for and whether it is successfully communicating the message visually. To do so, you need to list out the company’s core values. Core values are the backbone of any company, regardless of its size, and are what define you and your product. When listing out your company’s core values make sure you include your goals, business strategies, marketing initiatives, company’s culture and the importance of your customers. An understanding of these values will help you establish a brand image which will help you communicate your message most effectively.
The audience definitely plays an important role in determining a company’s brand. Once you have a clear idea of who your target audience is, it becomes easier to create the right image, an appropriate logo and an identity for yourself in your niche market.
Iconography, which comprises the logo, the business name, tag lines etc., are the factors that bring a connection between you and your audience. So, if the image you project is brilliant, your identity will have maximum retention value among your customers.
Once the core values and the brand imagery are in place, next step would be to go through various communication media and check if you are projecting the same image everywhere. Consistency is the key when using various modes to reach out to your customers. Integrated Marketing involves creating multiple touch points for your customer through all possible means including packaging, business cards, letterheads, brochures, websites, email templates, social platforms etc. By making use of consistent brand standards is how you can establish a relationship with your audience.
Finally, let’s discuss a few advantages of having a good brand identity. It will make you and your company stand out among competition while giving your confidence a boost. Not only will the image be retained in people’s minds but they will remember you first when a related subject comes up. This also increases the chances of getting referrals and publicity through word of mouth, which is a very important aspect of customer satisfaction.
Hence, once you have the right brand image, you will be portraying the right message which is essential for creating a bond with your customers.
Points to Keep in Mind
- Look at your brand through the eyes of a consumer. This will show you the flaws and inconsistencies in your brand message.
- You know your product better than your audience; make sure your branding process explains the company/product effectively enough so that your customers understand you well.
- Mixed marketing messages can confuse people and create a weak brand, so be consistent.
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Importance of visual design in website interface:
Increasingly, website interfaces are being built by software programmers and developers. The outcome is content-rich and interactive sites that lack navigation and usability attributes. What is often overlooked is the role of collaboration of graphic design and user-interface design principles in building interface.
Graphic design is organization and communication of information. It means creating a design that is intentional and funtional according to user needs.This requires applying principles of balance, harmony, rhythm, contrast, repetition and dominance on the elements. Important elements must be contrasted against one another but at the same time be harmonious to the design. There should be a visual hieararchy of importance to reflect the relationship between elements. The elements should be repeated to stimulate movement of viewers’ eye. Color management, typography and image treatment also play a vital role in creating a unique design.
Equally important is the aspect of creating sites based on discovery, research and analysis of user requirements. This is called User-Interface design. Rubin (1998) defined user-centered design as techniques and procedures for designing usable systems with user at the center of the process. Such sites demonstrate strong navigation and usability experience as they combine visual design with experience design. Research shows that the average attention span of a web user is 5-seconds. If, in that short span, user is not engaged by the content, visual look and navigation system of the website, it may lose a visitor. The user needs to feel that he is in control of the siteç—´ navigation and can find information in fewer clicks.
One of the most important aspect of a website is its content. The value of content on a site depends largely on how it is displayed or made available to the users. A site that lack good navigation and clear layout can make the content inaccessible. A mediocre looking web design can give the impression that the content is mediocre too.
While graphic design controls the visual look of the elements, user-interface principles guides the structure, navigation and layout of an interface. A design methodology based on graphic design and usability principles can produce client-centric results and user-centric experience.
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