The Full Noise

Blenhiem Graphic Design and Website Designers

Branding

Targeting your brand

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First, your brand won’t appeal to everybody.  Don’t worry this is a good thing;  it shouldn’t appeal to everyone, because not everyone will want to buy your products or services.  An 18-year-old boy isn’t going to buy a crotchet kit, and a 65 year old couple are highly unlikely to purchase a new wakeboard.  With this in mind, ANY time, effort or money spent marketing to these groups is completely wasted.

To increase the effectiveness of your brand and all related advertising and marketing, you need to know who your most likely customers are.  Lets be honest, you already know this… it isn’t rocket science.  It is easy to slip into the “I’ll take money from anyone” mindset (and so you should, but you shouldn’t market to them), or consider it too hard to define your core customers; I’ve been there myself.  But it is CRITICAL to the success of your brand.

Think about it.  If I told you, that you could have all the profits from any nappies you could sell to one hundred people, would you ask the first hundred people you meet? or would you do better asking the next hundred people pushing a stroller?

The more knowledge you have of who your customers are, the easier it is to target them with your branding and marketing.  You can draw better conclusions as to what they want to buy, and why.  What their likes and dislikes are, and how they want themselves to be perceived.  It also gives you an insight into what radio stations they listen to, and what newspapers and magazines they read.

Demographic information you need to know about your customers:

·        Age (range)

·        Employment – Are they management, professional, or owner

·        Location – City, town, region

·        Gender

·        Education

·        Occupation

·        Marital status

·        Ethnicity

·        Income – total household income. Can they afford your products or services

·        Family status – do they have children? What age and stage?

 

If you supply products or services to businesses, you can also collate demographic information for the businesses you deal with.  Such as:

·        Industry

·        Size of business (sales, no. employees)

·        Type of business (manufacturer, retailer, primary production)

·        Location

·        Geographic scope of the business (regional, national, international)

 

So how do you get this demographic information for your business?

 

The best way to gather demographic information is through using market research companies.  However, these can be expensive.

It is possible to do your own research: it is relatively inexpensive to run your own phone survey, or observation of your customers.  My favourite method is to ask your customers if they would be willing to complete a quick questionnaire during the purchase transaction.  You could even offer an incentive such as a prize draw, small discount (or better a bonus).

Why build a brand anyway?

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So why spend so much time, effort and money to build a brand?

Its hard not to noticed the price difference between branded products and generic versions when grocery shopping.  Watties tomato sauce for example can be twice the price of a supermarket brand.  I’m not even going to get into whether Watties tastes better.   My point is that the costs for making Watties, or a generic brand of tomato sauce is likely to be much the same.  So the difference in mark-up is one measure of the value of the Watties brand. 

A strong brand adds value to your products or services by differentiating them from your competitors, establishing credibility, gaining trust and therefore customer loyalty.

In fact, back to the Watties sauce example, I have an uncle that left New Zealand almost 15 years ago to live in Oklahoma USA, who still has Watties tomato sauce posted to him by the box…  Now that is brand loyalty!

The great news is that even with well targeted branding and marketing strategies, all businesses can reap the benefits of building a brand.

I Love Apple

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Unpacking my Mac from it’s box almost brought tears to my eyes… ok a slight exaggeration, but it’s so extremely cool.

I love the way Apple do things. Right down to the slick packaging, every aspect is taken care of. Even the plug that fits into the back of the screen looks carefully thought out.

And you know what? It’s so simple. And they have us eating out of their hands because in terms of design and innovation they are always a step ahead. The consistency in the design style and it’s marriage with their equally clever ad campaigns, has the brand almost perfectly tuned. And by making their products so aestheticly pleasing the buying public are completely won over.  

The customer experience seems a major priority for Apple. They want you to COVET their products above all others (lets face it, often imitations, to varying degrees). Even the process of unpacking them feels special. It’s like coming home with a new baby. You’re super careful with it, gaze at it often, marvel at it’s beauty…

In casting such a spell it’s no wonder Apple can command higher prices from it’s devotees… not to mention, the newly converted.

How does your customer feel?

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The local Smith City department store here in Marlborough recently held celebrations for one year in their ‘new’ premises.  They turned it into a great event with amazing bargains to draw in the crowds, a festive atmosphere with barbeque, balloons, and media coverage with two radio stations present.  All in all they did a great job of turning an occasion into a PR event.

One of the bargains was a baby carry pack at a massive discount of close to 70%.  We have a wee man, and love the outdoors, so sent Nana off early to grab us a pack.  The marketing had worked so well that there was a substantial queue of people and baby strollers outside the shop and as soon as the doors opened, the shop was flooded with customers.  Only having 10 packs in stock, they sold out in less than 3 minutes…  As the lucky 10 people happily carried their bargain packs home, many more customers left disappointed and annoyed that they had wasted their time, effort and in some cases money (I know at least two people who took time off work).  This situation left me wondering –

“Do you really want disappointed customers?”

With such limited stock, it was guaranteed that some people would miss out.  Smith City set themselves up to disappoint.

How your customers FEEL about your business, affects your Brand.  In fact, I would go so far as to say, that how people feel about your business IS your Brand.

What’s your opinion?

Your brand is more than just a name and logo

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Your brand is the sum of every interaction and communication your customers have with your business.

Too often I see people who name their business, get a logo and a business card, thinking they have a brand.  When really all they have is a name, logo and a business card. Obviously these are the important visual elements in a brand. However they need to fit into a broader framework of communication with your target audience.

When you need to buy business shoes, which shop do you go to first?  Why do you think of these shops?  Do they have the cheapest shoes, or the best quality?  Are the salespeople friendly, professional, knowledgeable?  Do they run a loyalty scheme?  Have you heard good things about them from others?  Maybe a store is running a sale?

All of the above factors, along with many more, are aspects of the shoe stores’ brand.  Often, as customers we are not even aware of these individual factors and we instead assimilate them into a single view of the business.  We then subconsciously use this view to make our shopping and buying decisions.

When branding our own business, we need to ensure how all of these factors express our brand.