Shattering Branding Myths

Branding Myth #1: I don’t need a brand.

Yikes. Yes you do! If you’re in business, you need a brand. Think of it as a business essential, like your phone or your bank account. You can’t very well do business without those, can you? If we learned anything from the branding alphabet, we discovered how branding affects us all. If you want space in your customer’s mind, you need a brand. End of story.

Branding Myth #2: I can create my own brand.

How do you feel when you’re handed a laser-printed business card with a perforated edge? Or you’re given a brochure printed on a home ink-jet printer? People notice quality. If you want a snappy brand identity, you need professional help.

Even if your alter ego can create paintings to rival Picasso, so much more goes into branding than good art. Think about logos for a minute. A great logo doesn’t simply look good; it must be scalable, meaningful, and symbolic. It must match the rest of your brand identity and work well in both color and black & white.

Do you do your own corporate taxes? Diagnose your own diseases? Some jobs are best left to professionals. Branding is one of those jobs.

Branding Myth #3: It’s too expensive.

While hiring a marketing and design firm to create your marketing materials and help brand your company may come with a surprising price tag, consider the costs of not hiring a professional. Amateur work may come back to haunt you in the form of fewer sales and less repeat customers.

We’ll bust more branding myths in our next few posts. Stay tuned.

How much does branding really affect you?

Earlier this week, I read an interesting lesson plan posted by Carrie McLaren at the Center for Media Literacy. Armed with PowerPoint slides, she walked into a room of high school seniors and asked them to identify several plants and trees in their Brooklyn neighborhood.

Silence.

She then put on a slide of the alphabet comprised almost entirely of brand logos. Without fail, the group of students named them all.

I’d be willing to bet you can name most of them, too.

Still think branding doesn’t affect you?

Crazy as it sounds, we are a branded culture. Not unlike the seared hides of cattle, our psyches have been indelibly marked by corporations and businesses salivating over our dollars. Even the youngest among us has no problem identifying those golden arches.

You’d think the sheer variety of brands would do us in, that the average consumer would have no way to keep this all straight. Our brains only have so much room!

But no, once branded, always branded. That’s why they call it branding.

So, what’s your brand? How are you leaving an indelible mark on your clients and prospects?

Cross-posted at the Full Moon Design Blog.

The Power of Specificity: When to be specific (and when not to be)

Which of the following headlines catches your interest more?

1. How to get 2,736 new customers in a single day.
2. How to get more than 2,000 new customers in a single day.
3. How to get tons more customers in a single day.

Clearly, the first option steals the show. Why is that? Specificity sells. Specific claims trump general ones time and again. When we read about specific results, we trust those results. We believe them. And, we want to find out how we can get them for ourselves.

Anytime you can use specifics, you should. You'll create curiosity and establish an aura of authenticity. In many cases, using generalities will harm your credibility. Just take that third headline from above. Do you believe it? Would you be willing to click through to an article with that title?

That said, sometimes specificity can hurt you more than it helps. You wouldn't want to be specific if you don't have any verifiable specifics to use. Creating exact numbers out of the thin air of your imagination is morally ambiguous at best. You also shouldn't make precise claims if they'll land you in a heap of legal trouble. We don't want people to sue you because you promised an unobtainable outcome.

A less obvious crime, though, is what I call the "detailed to distraction offense." Unnecessary technical details bog readers down, causing them to wade through a confusing swamp of irrelevancy. If you're at all passionate about what you're writing, you may not be aware that your readers don't share your enthusiasm. In cases like these, be specific, but subtle.

Happy writing!

Personal vs. Impersonal -- What Customers Want

I hate automated phone systems. I prefer talking to a real person.

The smiling cashier gains my business. The sour cashier fails.

Apologetic form letters fall short. Personalized care succeeds.

Engadget.com recently shared Nathaniel's tragic Xbox tale. He sent in a sentimental Xbox to Microsfot for repairs -- assured by more than one customer service agent that the prized graffiti on his Xbox would not be harmed. Of course, someone who didn't know about this arrangement thought they'd do him a favor and thoroughly clean his box, removing the artwork and leaving only a few smudges to demonstrate that it was the same machine. Nathaniel thought he had only his bitter tears for consolation. But Microsoft (and Bill Gates) had another idea of how to make it up to him.


A thousand times better than an apologetic letter, Bill Gates and all the members of Microsoft's Xbox team autographed his machine.

What do customers want? They want you to care.

Merry Christmas

We've been amazingly busy the past few months, and the light blogging has reflected that. It is our hope to add more blogging and article writing into our daily work routines during the coming New Year.

In the meantime, Steven and I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. Thanks for making this a fantastic year!

Wishing you all the best this holiday season,
Kristen

Are Democrats Bad Copywriters?

A tasty little bit of recent news reinforces my belief that everyone can use a good copywriter. From The Hill:

Democrats are losing the battle for voters’ hearts because the party’s message lacks emotional appeal, according to a widely circulated critique of House Democratic communications strategy.

...He said the meeting left him cold because it focused on what polling shows voters want rather than how to present persuasive messages. Republicans have done a better job by developing poll data into focus group-tested messages like “culture of life” and “defending marriage,” along with attacks like “cut and run” and “plan for surrender” in Iraq, he argued.

In particular, Helfert points to Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who helped develop the 1994 “Contract with America” and is credited with helping Republicans come up with terms for polices like “Healthy Forests” and “Death Tax.”

“Republicans have been kicking our rhetorical butt since about 1995,” Helfert wrote.

Stuck Writing Copy For An Average Company Or Service? How Parity Saves The Day.

"We're the same as everybody else" hardly sells. But if your client's product or service isn't anything special or unique, what kind of a claim can you possibly make about them to outstrip the competition? Using the Rule of Parity is a godsend for copywriters left scratching their heads over an otherwise average, run of the mill product or service.

What is the Rule of Parity? Nothing more than making an honest claim at equality, but spinning it in such a way that it leaves a positive, superior impression in your reader's mind. Most parity claims begin with the word "no."

No other bank offers faster credit approval.
No other car battery is guaranteed to last longer.
No other drink satisfies thirst more quickly.

Get the idea yet? Translated into ho-hum language, the three claims above read:

Other banks offer credit approvals as quickly as we do.
Other car batteries are guaranteed to last as long as ours.
Other drinks satisfy your thirst as quickly as ours.

A parity claim doesn't claim to be the best, or even better. It simply claims to be on par with the competition (hence: "parity"). It claims equivalence, not superiority.

Your job, though, is to create a realistic image of superiority. So, why use just one parity claim? String many of them together, and a more substantive image of supremacy starts forming.

No other bank offers faster credit approval. No other bank pays higher interest rates. No other bank gives you more free services like free checks and free ATMs. No bank has more neighborhood branches for your banking convenience. So, why don't you bank at First American?

Add in even one legitimate claim of superiority, however minor, and you've created an unassailable mountain.

No other bank offers faster credit approval. No other bank pays higher interest rates. No other bank gives you more free services like free checks and free ATMs. No bank has more neighborhood branches for your banking convenience. To top it all off, no other bank gives you a free $50 gas card for opening an account with them. So, why don't you bank at First American?

So, if you're stuck cursing the cruel fate that brought you an assignment writing copy for a product or service without a single unique feature, thank God for parity. It'll bail you out of tight copywriting corners time and again.