In one of our recent blogs (here) we illustrated how to learn from mega brands like Tesco on surviving recession. In stark contrast to Sainsbury’s, Tesco reported falling UK sales, whilst Sainsbury’s captured over 16% of the market. Wow!

More to the point, why?

Great brand positioning

Sainsbury’s developed a great brand positioning – something clever to unite their brand and marketing behind. “Live well for less” has driven their advertising, promotions, product behaviour and selection as well as their pricing.

Knowing what your brand stands for, how it articulates itself and what makes it unique within the market is a hugely important exercise for any business to undergo. It becomes absolutely critical once you get beyond sole trader and partnership status.

What can other businesses learn?

Whilst Tesco concentrated on expansion, Sainsbury’s invested in their brand, and got clever people to think about the best way to position and market themselves. They have:

• Invested in great stores, that are nicely designed
• Revamped their products, with new additions, improvements and better designed packaging
• Looked at offers, with coupons at the till and extending their Nectar partnership
• Invested in a nice, clean, well designed website (that’s resulted in an increase in web operations of 20%)
• Got the message out in clear, well designed and effective communications

But they have more money?

True, they can afford expensive TV ads and ad-breaks – but the principles are the same for business with smaller budgets. Invest in clever brand thinking, great design and marketing that works consistently through what you do and you can succeed even in difficult times.

Let your brand stagnate, make do with the old logo, website or shop front and well…ask Tesco.

The clever brand positioning bit: “Live well for less”

It’s worth looking at the Sainsbury’s brand positioning in a bit of detail as it highlights why this type of work can be so powerful. Breaking it up:

“Live well” – sets them apart from Tesco and Morrison (who they have stolen market share from). It feels more premium and aspirational, and it’s double meaning can also feel healthy too. Very clever, given most people given the choice want to live well!

“For less” – more clever thinky stuff that’s basically saying Sainsbury’s are just as price conscious and are looking out for your pocket. Yes, Tesco and Asda do value, but we do too.

Clever thinking with a brand that looks good will generate results, the battle of the supermarkets just goes to prove it.

Big brand influence

Okay so we can’t presume to know every business and its target market, but for many types of business a larger alternative is available.

So whilst your customers may not want the big business service or (probably) larger price tag, they still see what that larger business offers. They can’t help but be exposed to bigger business operations and experiences.

Strong brands win

So what does this mean for smaller businesses? Well, whether you’re business is a hotel and restaurant chain, a consultant, estate agent or construction company (the list is endless!) you’re branding has to come up to scratch.

You need a strong brand to compete with your smaller direct competitors, but also against the perceptions your customers have gathered from exposure to large brands – it means a decent level of investment in your brand is necessary to grow. Reputation and word of mouth alone can only take you so far.

What to invest in?

You don’t have to invest tens of thousands in a branding project like big brands do with famous agencies. Smaller brand consultancies like us can help! You will need to invest to compete though, and not just with a £150 logo.

Remember your customers want to feel their investment is well spent, dealing with a strong brand that looks like it’s cared for. In turn they’ll feel like your business will be prepared to invest in and care for them.

Think about:

• A strong brand identity: a well crafted logo and identity that flows through everything from your stationery, packaging, vans or marketing materials.
• First view impact: thing of the things that create your first impression – your website, your business card, a shop sign – strong brands look good on first dates!
• Brochures, downloadable pdfs and emails that are crafted with professional design and get your message across.
• Positioning: for larger businesses think about your brand positioning. What sets you business apart? Do you have a clear view of what your business should look, feel and sound like and what you should say about it? Is this consistently applied?
• Product experience: is it unique, and able to stack up against the bigger  competition? Small and medium sized businesses can offer a more personal and unique experience, so use that flexability.

Clever brand thinking and great design are worth investing in. It’s an investment that your potential customers will recognise, and make them far more likely to become a paying customer.

Learning from big business

We can learn a lot from super-sized businesses and how they operate successfully. Whilst the budgets are infinitely bigger than what many businesses can afford, the principles of investing in your brand still hold true.

Things are tough right now, so people are choosy and reluctant to spend – and when they do they want to spend with brands they feel confident about. Recently Tesco announced UK sales fell by 1.2%. Normally you’d consider Tesco very successful, but thinking more carefully about the brand and their shops they feel a bit tired. Our local one is looking a bit shabby to be fair.

In announcing their results the Tesco CEO announced plans to invest £1bn in their brand. Huge amounts of money will be spent making their product experience better by:

• Revamping stores and design
• Adding new lines and products
• Employing more staff
• Training for a better experience

Successful brands

Other big brands are still succeeding in a tough environment. Sainsbury’s profits continue to grow. Apple and Samsung continue to make exceptional profits in the notoriously difficult electronics and phone sectors. Why?

These brands are investing massively in making sure their products are the best. They look fantastic, with great design, and work brilliantly too – frequently becoming recommended buys.

What is your brand saying to customers?

So we can learn from big brands with much larger budgets.

If you think your logo, identity, web site, packaging or marketing brochures are feeling tired then that’s invariably what your customers will be feeling about your brand. More fundamental problems could be on the horizon if your product can’t keep pace with competitors.

It’s certainly worth someone from outside your business taking a look with a fresh pair of eyes if you’re serious about making some brand improvements. Brand specialists can often see different things with an outside perspective that can really help.

An investment in your brand will pay real dividends, and like Tesco you’ll be clever enough to learn before the real rot sets in.

The challenges for new websites

If you want to use your website to generate calls, rather than just an online brochure, you’ll need traffic. New domains (website addresses) have no history, no links to them from other sites and no traffic. So, they aren’t as trusted as established business domains.

Your site, depending on your business sector, will invariably be in a competitive area too – lots of websites trying to get to page one on Google for the best search terms.

So, what to do? Assuming you’ve used a good web designer and web developer you should be sitting on a website that’s coded for search engine friendliness, with great content that’s optimised for a set of keywords and phrases that your site stands a chance of being found for.

Here are 5 tips to get your new website moving up the search engines…

1. Links – the basics

Search engines like great content and rank websites higher if other people think its good. They like to see that a website is trusted enough by others for them to say, “Hey, have a look at this site!”.

These links to your site are very important and a strong signal to Google that your site is worth ranking more highly.

2. Use your contacts

Your contacts and suppliers could be a key source of links to your site on one of their pages. Suppliers showing where their products can be bought (i.e. your site) benefit them and you. Think too about who you work with – a tile shop working with tile fitters or bathroom companies can all benefit from links to one another.

3. Directories

There are lots of directories. Some are worth it, some are just dodgy.

Pick reputable directories and think about lists that are relevant to your business and industry, or your local area – relevance helps.

4. Social Media and Blogging

A website that’s talked about ‘socially’ will begin to rank more highly. For some businesses social media has a far better fit. Updating your followers on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ about offers, new products, news or views should get you talked about, shared or visited.

Your site will gain more traffic if people other than you are talking about it and saying it’s worth a visit.

Have a think too about blogs, either your own (to keep your site fresh) or acting as a guest on other blogs which let you write content that links back to your site.

5. Press coverage

If you’ve been advertising, running editorial or just getting featured in magazines, press or local media outlets it’s time to pick up the phone. Tell them about your new site and venture, and politely (beg) for a feature and link on their website to tell their readers.

Things to avoid

Sites that state they will place your website on 300 other sites overnight are dangerous. Commonly known as ‘Link Farms’, they promise a lot but will ensure you’re penalised. If Google sees your website getting 300 links over-night it’ll think you’re cheating.

Low quality directories too can get you penalised. Be selective, using sites that are local or well known.

Google has recently changed the way it looks at links, and if it thinks your site is cheating, being linked to by lots of paid for sites or unnatural links that don’t look normal (i.e. like they wouldn’t ordinarily link to you) it will rank your site lower. The best tip: get relevant links related to your website subject.

It takes some effort, but nowadays it’s needed.

What’s a domain?

A domain name is your website address, e.g www.brandglue.co.uk. At some point you, or someone working on your website, will have purchased your domain – we recommend www.123-reg.co.uk. They get your site live quickly, change records quickly and you can set up an automatic payment renewal.

You need to pay for your domain and this will vary depending on the type of address you buy – .com costs more than .co.uk for instance, and .co.uk addresses can only be purchased for a maximum of 2 years, whilst .com’s can be purchased over a far longer period.

Renew your domain to stay live

The vitally important thing to ensure your site stays up and live is to keep renewing your domain address when your initial purchase period is at an end. If you don’t, your site will go down and if unchecked you could lose valuable positioning in the search engines once you get your website live again.

Nightmare scenario – losing your domain

It’s bad enough if your site goes down and is unavailable, but worse can happen. You may have a grace period by which you can make a late payment, but after that you could lose the domain altogether if someone else buys it. And then you’ll have to bargain with them to get it back – if they are even willing to sell it!

Auto-renew – the simple solution

As mentioned above, good domain registers will allow you to set up an auto re-new using a credit card. This is the easiest way to keep your payments up to date. We would also recommend making a diary note and checking it’s been renewed – just to make 100% sure!

Getting to page one on Google can be really tough. Just having a website is no guarantee, and it’s getting harder.

Google’s mission is to serve up the best and most relevant results for search. And they do that by employing very clever people who construct an algorithm. Yep. An algorithm. This has nothing to do with green stuff in the sea or musical beats, and everything to do with a set of rules and and instructions that dictate where your website will be placed.

So here are some Google search basics, to help you start thinking about your website:

The right key-word or key-phrase

Google looks at your content (the words you have written on your website) and will match what you say with what people look for. So you need to pick the right words and phrases first. Some sectors and locations (and hence key-phrases) are very competitive, so your fight to page one is even harder.

Good web design and quality website build

A well programmed site, that Google finds easy to read and find your keywords and key-phrases is essential – seeing them in page titles, descriptions and headings on the page will work better. Hide your content in images or flash and your site could really suffer. Site speed has also become important, so poorly built sites that take ages to load will perform badly.

New websites Vs established websites

Google likes history. So a new website will struggle and you’ll inevitably have to wait several months to be seen, even on lower results pages. You might be lucky, if your content and website is based on a very niche subject that doesn’t have much competition.

Links to your website

Links from other websites to your website probably play the most crucial role in your position on Google. Overwhelmingly Google likes authority, trust and traffic to your site. So if someone places a link on their site that people can click on to go to your website, Google sees that as a good indicator that your website is worth positioning higher in their results. A more relevant link from a trusted source is also far better.

This is a very basic view of Google search basics! There are lots of rules around these rules that add challenges to increasing your visibility on Google. We will cover these in later posts, and if you need help getting a website that’s fit for purpose and work done to increase its position on Google then give us a call. We can help.

A new brochure, email campaign or website needs content and you’ll need to decide how to match attention grabbing web design and graphic design with equally impactful stuff to read. And in particular the key message (or messages) to communicate. Here are some tips on creating impactful and engaging copy.

1. A clear objective

Sounds obvious, but the clarity around knowing what you want the piece of activity to achieve is a good starting place.  Is this a hard hitting lead generation communication to new prospects?  Or an offer to existing customers to get them to buy more, or even up-grade?  Alternatively, you may need a communication to your loyal customer base to thank them, introduce a loyalty incentive or show them the very latest products, solutions and thinking you can provide.

Whatever the marketing task, and it could be a hybrid of some of the above if done well, it’s worth deciding early what you want it to do.  Be single minded (we come to this later).

2. Customer insight

OK so ‘insight’ is a bit posh.  We don’t mean you need a marketing research agency to establish what drives your customers, although it could help – you and your sales people should know what drives them.

Some examples might help:

Web-based homewares mail order company

• Basic insight: Consumers need stuff like lights, kitchenware and furnishings to make their home look good
• Interesting insight: Love individuality and items you wouldn’t normally find in the High Street chains. Love the thought of friends saying, ‘Wow, where did you get that’?
• Fantastic insight: Like the thought of buying British. Prepared to pay for handmade items that are ultra-exclusive

UK based kids fun-park

• Basic insight: Parents need to entertain the kids in the holidays
• Interesting insight: Parents will go more than once so they don’t have to think of new things to do. They want variety so it’s not boring, getting in made easy and good value via season ticket schemes
• Fantastic insight: Kids love the characters from the biggest TV shows

Imagine how much richer your messaging (and product offering) becomes when you delve deeper into customer needs. An ad with ‘Entertain the kids this summer’ is a bit dull, whereas something announcing your kids can meet Peppa Pig and you could get 10% off a season ticket on the same day becomes more impactful.

Similarly 10% off to celebrate exclusive great British homeware designers really taps into the core drivers of the customer, rather than a dull money off deal.

3. Fit with your brand positioning

Every brand should have an agreed brand positioning – in other words clarity on what you stand for in the market and how you look, feel and sound. So it’s vital your messaging fits with, and works towards maintaining your overall positioning.

An example might help.  Take the kids fun park we talked about earlier on, and lets suppose their overall brand positioning is ‘Entertaining Exercise’ as they have all sorts of things for kids to climb, bounce, leap, run and jump in, on and through.  A better message to fit the brand position would state your kids could come and do a 15 minute dance routine with Peppa Pig and her family, whilst you do a celebratory jig with 10% off season tickets.

As you can see, everything starts to glue together rather nicely when good strategic foundations are laid.

4. Targeting and tweaking

If you’ve spent the time segmenting your customers into distinct groups then ensure your messaging reflects their discreet needs and your marketing tasks, rather than a blanket approach.  It could be that the vast majority of the communication remains consistent, with only small changes made to make it even more effective.

A customer offer for instance could be based on the same basic 25% off mechanic, but headlines or key messages could vary massively if you can keep the different communications discrete:

• For irregular customers – 25% off to tempt you back
• For discerning big spenders – a big 25% discount for our biggest spenders
• For the budget conscious – in tough times we thought 25% would help

The list could go on, and you would probably change the discount depending on the segment, but this illustrates the point that one size fits all marketing communications isn’t hard to avoid.

5. Truth

If you’re going to lead with a big claim, or big offer then make sure it stacks up against scrutiny.  Not only because advertising should always be decent, honest and true to keep you out of trouble with the Advertising Standards Authority, but the damage to your brand and company when you’re found out can be irrecoverable.

6. Being single minded

Going right back to the beginning we talked about setting an objective for the communication. It’s essential you choose the most motivating message to lead on, and ensure it’s based on your customer insight.

The simple fact is you’re fighting for people’s attention, and once you have it you need your message understood and remembered in a very short space of time. People are bombarded and can’t be bothered to trawl through detail.

What you say and how many messages you can get across will vary on the media you use. A poster can carry ten words or so, whereas other media can be more detailed. You will still need to be rigorous in making sure your key headline and messages have enough room to stand out – just because there’s space it’s not always wise to fill it with a few more bullet points.

7. Impact

Get to the point quickly.  And make sure that headline message taps into the customers’ core need and your insights.

Immediacy and waffle free copy is so important, so make sure your key message is out in the open, and clearly written within the headline and first couple of sentences.

It’s also worth making sure your headlines and copy are written in a way that gets across the functional benefit (for example, 25% off) and also elicits an emotional response – you’ll be creating a stronger impact by doing so.  All the examples we’ve outlined in this guide have a little extra over and above simply writing 25% off or we’re great value.

8. Mapping it out and timing

A map of what you will say, to whom and when can add great structure to your communications if you have anything more than just a simple programme of activity.

Seeing an overall plan of how offers, product launches and thank you’s map out across the year gives a clearer insight into how much your customer could be receiving. You can also use it to tap into seasonal insights or buying patterns to tailor messages and themes.

A large challenge for any business will be ensuring all the things you can influence are glued together and working toward the same unique brand positioning that sets out what you stand for.

All successful brands do this well, no matter if they are regional, national or global.  They have a core positioning that stays true for all of their territories.  The accents might change in the advertising voice over, or some of the messaging in brochures might play to regional strengths or requirements, but the heart of the brand stays consistent and true.

Now we could sound a bit dramatic, up ourselves and far too boring and parental, but it’s essential you get this right.  If you’re spending money on marketing materials with different straplines, changeable designs, copy that sounds different or doesn’t match up to what you stand for, or products that don’t match up to your brand promise then it’s wasting the full potential of your marketing investment.

How do you expect customers to get a good solid idea of what you’re about, or worse still lose heart and defect to the competition?  How do you expect them to remember who you are if you’re varying colours, image styles and fonts? Or worse using different logos and bad brand architecture?

Good strong brands do this kind of thing well and are more stable because of it.  Lets take Apple as an example.  They tirelessly work towards creating innovative new products that work, that people will love because of the way they work and love because they are at the forefront of the latest technology.  They just love making great stuff!

So what do they do to back this up and support the positioning with customers?  Everything!  To be honest it would be quicker to list what they don’t do, but here’s a snap-shot.  Their advertising, website and product brochures all fit together – you know it’s Apple as soon as you see it.  The products all look cool, even the accessories.  Functionally people love to show the product off – look, it can do this!  The shops, well they’re cool too.  And the people in them know their stuff, they help and reflect the brand.  They run workshops in the shops on how to get the most out of the products, as well as the usual online support and video tutorials.  You can even book time one on one with a ‘Genius’ in their shops if you just want some help face-to-face.  Everyone loves to show off the product because it’s so good.  It’s just relentless pursuit of their brand positioning.

Apple have got their brand positioning and direction totally clear, and then they execute everything to support it ruthlessly and consistently. But this is also true for the smallest business. A builder can create awareness and a positioning with a consistently used, well executed logo that appears on trucks, vans, the sign outside the house and the ad in the parish magazine. People see you around. They know you’re working. They’ll be more disposed to thinking you’re doing a good job because they see you around doing your thing.

Is it really worth it?

For any business, large or small, they will need to create awareness of their brand and fight for space in that overloaded, message-addled brain of the customer.  It’s tempting to think that just because a business isn’t as big or as complicated as Apple that the thinking behind the brand doesn’t have to happen.  Not so.  There are just a few less things to manage.  So no shock conclusion here, it’s more than worth it, it’s essential.

If you haven’t got your brand pumping on all cylinders it might never stand a chance of ever being remembered, let alone considered.  As we’ve outlined in this series of Branding posts, there could be a myriad of reasons. A core brand positioning that isn’t unique and resonates with your target market, or a website that doesn’t match to what you want to get across to the consumer, could all lead to your brand falling off the consideration map.   Anything and everything you can do with the money you spend on marketing to remind the customer of that brand short-cut will help your investment work harder.

People like to understand what they’re buying into and see if it fits their values. Think of any brand and they can be associated with any number of descriptors:

• Quality
• Cool
• Innovatio
• Value
• Leadership
• Surprise
• Luxury
• Expertise

The list is endless depending on your brand, and for any one brand incorporate a combination of descriptors.

That core brand promise and positioning sits at the heart of everything. We call it Brand Glue. It drives many different business activities, including your marketing. It knits everything together and needs careful thought so it:

• Reflects your brand truthfully
• Differentiates you from your competition

Think BMW aligning behind a premium driving experience. Or Nike making sportswear for winners, and Disney’s goal to provide happiness and magic. Things wouldn’t be as effective (or unique) if their brands were about making expensive cars, colourful footwear and somewhere to take children with a good line in mouse hats.

Similarly, confused thinking and lack of clarity can reflect in a confused customer. Imagine if Tesco wanted to state they were the leading supermarket in the country. Let’s add in great service and low prices. Ooo but let’s not forget it’s an innovative supermarket too. And they’re pretty keen on the environment. Far easier to remember they do everything they can to help with your shopping, right down to every little detail. Everything else is just features.

A clear and well thought through positioning can really pay dividends. Customers will understand what the brand is about, how it’s unique and part with their cash more easily. Your people will understand your brand better too, which can drive their behaviour and actions – which all makes for a better experience for customers!

A brand will be made up of a collection of different perceptions that will have been built up after exposure to every aspect of the brand.  This can be a myriad of different things:

• Product design
• The product experience
• Packaging
• Sales experience – your sales people or distributors
• Service experience – during the sale and after
• Advertising messages, straplines and your PR
• The way you look and sound – imagery, colour, fonts, personality and tone
• Your website
• Brochures and other promotional material
• Blogs
• Mentions on social networking sites or review sites
• The price, and how you discount or operate promotions
• Your reputation
• The shop, office or factory experience
• Uniform, badges, vans and trucks
• Your people
• The logo
• Your name

Any one person could be exposed to all or just one of these variables, that when mixed together form the brand in their mind.

So branding is vital, and looking after your brand matters whether you’re in a global business or a one man band. The list above covers huge areas of your business, that should all be pulling in the same direction.

There are many ways you will be able to influence what the brand means to people, so you can steer its direction.  Left untouched and uncared for, without clear direction, your brand will take a course that will lead to less and less customers. Sometimes you just need clarity and some help setting the direction, which we can help you do.