January 28, 2012

Developing a Brand Strategy

When you set out to develop a brand strategy for your company or a company that has hired you, you definitely have to think outside of the box to come up with a solid plan. A solid branding strategy is a well-thought out plan that helps a company build a solid corporate identity in the marketplace.

The key to developing an effective strategy is taking the time to learn everything you need to know about the marketplace in which your company competes. By taking a thorough look at the marketplace, you can take the steps to differentiate your company’s products or services from the rest. Differentiating yourself from the rest is a crucial first step to developing an effective corporate identity strategy with the goal of prompting continuous interest in your company and brand.

When prospective customers and clients think of your company they need to know why your company’s products and services are different and why the difference matters. If you are able to convince prospective customers and your prospective customers and clients believe that difference matters, slowly but surely your company brand will be recognized as a leader in the industry. Often a creative agency can help you get the creative juices flowing to make sure you are making the most out of your brand strategy.

Taking a hard look at what your competitors offer, how well they serve the marketplace and what they are doing wrong or could be doing better is important when developing an effective brand strategy. Focusing on what your competitor is not doing or could be doing better can help you build a solid brand name for your company. Instead of reinventing the wheel just look for ways to improve the wheel and then convey the fact that you have improved the wheel and why the difference matters to consumers. Once consumers discover that you have improved the wheel, focus on conveying your company’s success to the rest of the world.

As a rule of thumb, you don’t want to build a solid foundation simply by offering a better wheel and doing things a little bit differently. By doing so, you can lose your positioning when other competitors catch on and start offering a better wheel too. The key to building a solid foundation for your brand and corporate identity is by getting consumers to recognize that your company offers superior products or services as a whole. In addition, you also want to position your company as a strong and reliable leader in the industry. As an example, it’s not only about why your wheel is better than other wheels, but why buying a wheel from your company matters.

Taking the steps to reinforce and build a corporate identity is a slow process that requires persistence, learning everything there is to know about the marketplace in which you compete, differentiating your company from the rest and then gaining consumer trust. By doing everything that needs to be done, including competitive research and taking the time to find ways to do things better, your company will slowly but surely develop an effective brand strategy that can help pave the way for a solid foundation as a leading company in any industry.

Search Engine Market Share

Every month comScore Releases the U.S. Search Engine Rankings scores–today it was released and guess what–Google is still king, but continually drops a minor amount of market share to Bing and Yahoo. Google losing 0.3% isn’t much news here but it is fun to watch the trends every month as Bing fights for more market share and Yahoo seems to continue to edge out Bing even though Yahoo is powered by Bing and Yahoo isn’t really promoting themselves as a search engine anymore. Results below.


Developing a Safe Work Environment

Accidents in the workplace are usually avoidable with safety trainings. Nothing kills a company image like a major safety violation or a public fiasco involving injured employees. In order to better promote your companies image you will need to develop and promote a safe work environment. Every workplace is unique but there are different ways you can increase the safety of your employees and customers including a safety plan, OSHA safety training, and promoting safe practices. All workplaces have certain things in common: they all contain, or are monitored by, persons. They all take up either virtual or actual space, often both. Every workplace requires specific materials, observes certain protocols, and fulfils planned functions. Every workplace should be a safe place, and every worker a safe worker.

It is the responsibility of the employer to provide safe and healthy working conditions and materials, from ergonomic keyboards to full-body protective gear, and to provide suitable safety training.

Some things employers should do to promote safety are:

  • Know and implement Company, State, and OSHA safety policies
  • Provide safety training at initial hiring and regularly over time
  • Be aware of and make any reasonable adjustments to equipment or environment
  • See that tools and machinery are maintained and kept safe

It is the responsibility of the workers to maintain their safe surroundings:

  • Make use of any personal protective gear deemed advisable
  • Eat and drink only in designated areas
  • Take an active part in learning and implementing safe work habits
  • Exercise due caution at all times

It is also necessary that all signs, placards, warning labels and the like are posted where they will be seen. Such notices are meant to convey important safety information, such as:

  • Restricted areas
  • Evacuation routes
  • Required procedures
  • Required PPE gear
  • Prohibited activities
  • Dangerous chemicals

Some sorts of accidents can occur in almost any workplace, such as spills or falls, and often the difference between a low accident rate and a higher rate is nothing more than good housekeeping – keep the floors clear, don’t block the stairs, don’t overload shelves, or climb unsafe structures. Learn how to lift objects properly. Protect all electrical outlets and cords. Scaffolds and ladders provide many opportunities for a misstep and should be equipped with handrails.

A safe working environment is built through relentless effort. If the process is successful, the end result is will a culture of safety throughout the workplace where safety issues are addressed before they can develop into dangers. For that to happen, both employers and employees need to consider basic issues such as these:

  • Does everyone at the worksite understand OHSA regulations, policies, and procedures?
  • Are such issues as temperature and ventilation adequately addressed?
  • Are adequate first aid facilities available?
  • Has sufficient training taken place so that safety procedures such as evacuation and emergency backup plans are well understood?
  • Have workers been trained on the equipment they are to operate, any PPE gear they are to use, and all safe work practices?
  • Is the lighting adequate? Is hearing protection available where needed?
  • Is there a regular safety training program in place?
  • Are ‘No Smoking’ areas established and clearly marked and monitored?

Most dangers and difficulties can be avoided or limited. When an employee is injured, his return to work may be an excellent time to review safety procedures with the group. Certainly, equipment and machinery should be monitored and maintained regularly. PPEs, or personal protective equipment, should be available, trained on, and used. It takes only one “just this once” event to bring grief to the workplace and shatter the public image of the company. In short, developing and maintaining a safe working environment is a cooperative and ongoing effort, one which pays big dividends for both the company and the individual. It may seem like you can overlook this aspect of “marketing” but once incident could have devastating results for your company if you aren’t careful.

Connecting With People

Part of marketing is connecting with the people. One way that you can look to do that is to use an emotional connection–get people to think about something. In the case below the emotional connection has nothing to do with the product–but it gets attention. And that’s worth something.

SMB Web Marketing

We offer information and news aimed at small to medium sized businesses to help improve their marketing and overall company image. We like to include information about current events, real world examples of marketing strategies and tips to improve a company via the online world. Thanks for stopping by!!