Is Your Company Missing Its Brand?

BRAND – it is a funny, little 5-letter word that leaves most small business owners scratching their heads with a perplexed expression on their face wondering, “Where is my brand?” It is an easy case to crack, really, and you don’t have to look in the trees or through the big budget catalogs of “brand enthusiasts” to find where your brand has been hiding. In a sense, it is what your company is and has always been. However, there are ways to make that brand more attractive and fresh.

What is a brand? According to the sources at Wikipedia, the word “brand” began simply as a way to tell one person’s cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp. Today “brand” has evolved to acknowledge the identity of a specific product, service or business. While it is visible through a name, logo, slogan or even color combination, your brand also encompasses the personality and culture of your product, company or service.

What does this means to you? Brands are often a key selling component for a product and/or service. So why does this word affect your business’s bottom line and how can you use it to your benefit? A recognizable brand creates loyalty among its consumers, who are likely to continue to buy from a company with a “brand” they trust. Additionally, a solid brand gives your business credibility in the marketplace.

How do I better my brand? If your business is facing a brand deficit, action is necessary. From a company name change to a logo redesign to the creation of employee brand ambassadors, whether you consider a brand overhaul or a simple makeover, steps taken towards stimulating your brand will have a positive effect on your bottom line. And, once you have your brand in shape, don’t waste any time getting it in front of your target audiences. Many techniques can be very cost effective. For example, a solid social media campaign providing discounts to fans or followers is a free effort, which can build an online community with immense loyalty to your brand. Additionally, Internet marketing such as enewsletters can be done at a low cost with the same effectiveness as direct mail. Furthermore, brand ambassadors (your employees) are an in-house resource that can be cultivated into a vital part of any brand.

Want to do your own brand overhaul? Give ProMoter Inc. a call at (502) 562-1969 or email us at promoter@promoterinc.com to see how we can help turn your business into a brand powerhouse! (And, not to worry, we’ll leave the hot iron stamps on the fire.)

Big Picture PR Part 1: Harness the Power of Brand Ambassadors

When thinking about a long-term public relations plan, it is important to think “big picture.” How can you keep your company’s name and/or brand top of mind with your key audiences even when there is no “news” to announce? Part 1 in this series will focus on leveraging the power of brand ambassadors within your company.

Public relations can be a complex tool involving research, campaigns, analytics, etc. Used effectively it projects a positive image of your company and/or brand to the public. It can require much time, effort and dollars to produce the right results. However, there often lies a large, untapped resource within many companies that can potentially become your most effective company mouth piece – employees. By creating brand ambassadors from your employee roster, you create positive, personal touch points between your company and its customers. Think about it. No matter how much press coverage you garner in a particular month or the amount of dollars you donate to a local charity, a customer’s most revealing impression comes from their interactions with employees. If it is positive, they are likely to think the same of your company. However, if it is not, the reverse is often true. So how do you turn employees into effective brand ambassadors?

Some ways include:
Internal Marketing Efforts
Ask yourself these questions and honestly answer them. Do your employees know the mission of your company? Do they actively strive to follow it while on the job? Do your employees know what your brand stands for and promote this brand? If you answered “no” to the above questions, it is time to think about ways to educate your staff about your company. Hold monthly staff meetings, develop an in-house newsletter or make use of intraweb services. Your first PR priority is to start making stronger connections with your employees.

Promote a Positive Employee Culture
Internal marketing efforts will not only will help your business in the long-run, but it will allow you to cultivate a positive employee culture. When employees feel they are part of something bigger, they have a shift in attitude and work performance often improves. So how do you go about creating a positive employee culture? I’ve already mentioned some ways including in-house newsletters. Use these newsletters to highlight employee anniversaries, after hour accomplishments and other company news. Encouraging your employees to learn more about each other will lend to cohesion within your offices.

Tap Individuals with Strong Personal Brands
Face it – with the dawning of the many social networks your employees have created their own online brand. Sometimes employees are able to keep that brand separate from their professional brand – in most cases they are not. Recognize those individuals with a strong personal brand and use it to your advantage by asking them to promote your company through their networks.

Coming soon: Corporate Community Outreach

Why NOT to Leave the Tweeting to the Birds

If you are leaving the “Twittering” and the “tweeting” to the birds, you are missing out on the newest (and very efficient) way of building brand recognition and generating brand conversation among your customers.

Twitter has been touted as the new email and has marketers reeling about its potential to help catapult sales and customer loyalty to all time highs. And, it couldn’t be easier to use! Setting up a profile is easy and “tweeting” is a simple as typing a few sentences and hitting an “update” button. Additionally, because it is a free service, all it costs you is the human power you put behind your Twitter presence.  

Naked Pizza, a New Orleans-based pizza joint, discovered the power of Twitter among its followers when they offered an exclusive-to-Twitter promotion. The results? 15% of the day’s sales were Twitter-generated.

Twitter is also an effective means of monitoring what is being said about your company and brand. Using its search feature, you have the ability to type in your company’s name, products, competitors, etc. and discover what is being said through the Twitter grapevine. While ProMoter Inc. doesn’t have a Twitter account of our own, we monitor the site for client mentions to ensure we are staying on top of the online conversation.

Looking for more details on how to organize your Twitter account, find followers and tweet effectively? Check out this blog post created by Laurie Dunlop of NetStrategies. It gives a variety of beneficial links and tools to use to optimize your Twitter experience! http://www.netstrategies.com/blog/uncategorized/2009/05/twitter-toolkit-for-beginners#more-314

Need help crafting an online marketing presence using Twitter and other social media tools? Contact ProMoter Inc. at 502-562-1969 or email us at promoter@promoterinc.com.