After four years of dominance as the world’s biggest brand, Google has finally been unseated by Apple.  The value of the Apple brand has grown an amazing 859% since 2006 helped by the popularity of their iPod and iPhone products released around this time.

So what is the secret to the success of the Apple brand and how can we apply that to our own business brands?  At a press conference last year Apple’s leader, Steve Jobs gave his five keys to Apple’s success…

1. Engage your team – the healthiest ideas come from vigorous debate
2. Don’t take short cuts – it’s hard work that produces great products
3. Forget about trying to be ‘the best at everything’ – find your niche and stick to it!
4. Love your customers
5. Focus on long term success instead of short term gains



Some great tips of course that you can easily apply to any size business but the real challenge is how to take the message to market and build your brand. Here’s five ways that Apple did it and how these very same strategies can be applied to your business branding…

Keep it simple and make it fun

It wasn’t that long ago that computers were boring – they looked plain, they were bulky and often needed a degree in rocket science to get past the welcome page.  Apple changed all that from day one by challenging this perception and bringing to market products that were user friendly, colourful and even fashionable.  How easy is it for new customers to understand what your products and services are all about and more importantly the benefits they offer? 

Brand consistency

Apple created and secured the ‘i’ brand then went ahead and tagged all of their products – iMac, iBook, iPod, iPhone and iPad.  Each product has it’s own sub-identity yet stays connected under the master ‘i’ branding – this creates very strong cross-sell amongst the products and encourages the buyer to own the entire product line.  Could your products or services be sub-branded and target marketed in their own right?

Creating demand, delivering value

By having initially a select distribution network of authorized resellers Apple were able to both create demand and manage pricing.  Nowadays their products are available in more retailers as well as Apple’s own megastores yet the pricing remains fairly consistent across the board.  Value your products and services and don’t discount – instead add value by packaging up products or including free extras.

Limited choice

In business it is a common mistake to try and be everything to everyone instead of researching customer needs and then delivering a product that solves this.  Today’s consumers hate making choices – we all say that we want choice but then we’re faced with a wall of plasma and LCD televisions that all look pretty much the same.  Apple’s strategy has been to create a product for each market or function and make it easily available.  From high-end Pro Macs for designers and professionals to the Mac Mini or iMac for first time users.  Do you have too many products, services or packages that instead of making it easy for customers to buy actually confuses them?

Get creative!

Your brand has to move with the times or you’ll get left behind.  Take a look at Apple’s marketing – from slick newspaper ads with big pictures and limited wording to the clever Mac versus PC television commercials where people became the computers, like the one that had the PC guy in a biohazard suit to protect against the threat of new internet viruses.  Like Apple did to the computer industry – maybe it is time for you to challenge your market.  Who said marketing the legal or medical industry couldn’t be a little fun and creative?

Tony Eades

Creative Director

www.thebrandmanager.com.au

Tony Eades is the creative director of the BrandManager, a creative, marketing and communications agency based in Sydney and Perth. He is a business branding expert with more than 20 years experience in design, marketing, advertising and media production.

We are excited to share with you our latest brand to launch this year.

Congratulations to Ideal Foundations™ on their re-branding!

Ideal Foundations™ has been busy showing off its new look along with its fantastic products and services at Trade Shows across Sydney.

They exhibited over three days at DesignBUILD 2011 at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre on the 11th, 12th and 13th of May. DesignBUILD is Australia’s leading trade and professional building expo, showcasing all that’s new, innovative and sustainable in building design, from planning to post construction. Ideal Foundations™ was able to make a great impression on existing and potential customers, following the brand’s recent face-lift. Their presence at the show was met with positive feedback and lots of enquiries over the three days kept their staff busy.

Would you like to…

• See your brand as fresh and tech-savvy?
• Drive more traffic to your website?
• Engage your consumers by giving them instant access to what they want?

Talk to Brand Manager about how to achieve all that and more using this cool, interactive technology called QR codes.




What is a QR code you ask?

Scan your smart phone on the secret code above to find out more (You may need to first download the free reader app.)

A QR code is a specially coded 2D barcode, which is readable by a smart phone (iPhone, Android or Blackberry). All that is needed is to install one of the many free QR reader apps and a whole lot of information becomes instantly accessible with a simple scan of your phone.

We’re all familiar with barcodes and essentially that’s what a QR code is. However the biggest difference with these fancier barcodes is that they can direct your consumers to a world of information. A QR code is a specially coded 2D barcode, which is readable by a smart phone (iPhone, Android or Blackberry). All that is needed is to install one of the many free QR reader apps and a whole lot of information becomes instantly accessible with a simple scan of your phone.

The cool thing about these barcodes is that they can do a lot of different things, they can activate a number of phone functions, link to digital content on the web, send customers to any website or give your customers the option to instantly contact your company via email or phone. A QR code can hold thousands of alphanumeric characters of information and can be coded with your company’s website, your Facebook page, your blog, your twitter account, YouTube Channel etc. The options are endless!



Businesses in Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands have been using QR codes for a while now, with Western countries slowly starting to recognise the usefulness of these strange-looking barcodes. Businesses in Australia are now beginning to acknowledge the benefits of utilising such a tool and QR codes are starting to pop up on window displays, posters and coupons around the country.

QR codes allow you to measure response rates with a high level of accuracy, in turn allowing you to clearly calculate your return on investment, making them ideal for small businesses.

If you would like to offer your customers a innovative and interactive way of connecting with your business, why not let us show you how to best incorporate QR codes into your marketing campaign? Get in touch with Brand Manager today and let us devise a plan to engage your consumers using the technology of QR codes.

Call 1300 55 30 33 or email info@thebrandmanager.com.au to talk to us about marketing your brand using QR codes.

Sony Computer Entertainment Announces its Next Generation Portable Entertainment System

Ultimate Portable Entertainment System Makes its Debut this Year,

Further Expanding the PlayStation® Business in the Portable Gaming Market

Sony recently announced its next generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP), which delivers the ultimate portable entertainment experience. NGP will make its debut at the end of 2011 but here's your sneak preview.

NGP is designed to offer unparalleled interactive entertainment that is only possible on PlayStation®. This new system offers a revolutionary combination of rich gaming and social connectivity within a real world context, made possible by leveraging SCE’s experience from both PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) and PlayStation®3 (PS3®) entertainment systems.

Deep and immersive gaming is at the core of PlayStation’s DNA, and NGP is the latest embodiment of this vision. By having both Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity, together with various applications, NGP will enable infinite possibilities for users to “encounter,” “connect,” “discover,” “share” and “play” with friends wherever they are. Within the device are a range of features that provide a genuinely cutting-edge, next generation ultimate portable entertainment experience.

 

Stunning OLED and Revolutionary User Interface

NGP incorporates a beautiful multi-touch 5-inch organic light emitting display (OLED) as the front display. A high-performance CPU / GPU combined with OLED enables rich, visually striking graphics never seen before on a portable entertainment system, for both games and other digital entertainment content. The new system also incorporates a unique multi-touch pad on the rear, and together with the front touch display, NGP offers new game play allowing users to interact directly with games in three dimension-like motion, through “touch, grab, trace, push and pull” moves of the fingers.

 

Super Oval Design and Dual Analog Sticks

 

While succeeding the basic design philosophy of PSP, NGP adopts the Super Oval Design form factor, created to fit comfortably in the users’ hands. For the first time, a portable entertainment system will feature two analog sticks, which enable a wider range of game genres to be brought into the portable experience.

 

LiveArea™

Every game title for NGP will be provided with a space called “LiveArea™” where users can share the fun and excitement with other players. Users will have access to the latest information of games provided from SCE and 3rd party developers and publishers through the PlayStation®Network. Additionally, NGP users will be able to view an “Activity” log that is constantly updated with accomplishments from users who are playing the same game, which in turn can trigger active real-time communication among users.

 

Near

SCE will also provide location-based services on NGP as part of the basic features utilizing PlayStation Network. The new application called “Near,” developed specifically for this service and the network, will be pre-installed in the system to let users find out what their friends in the vicinity are playing now or what they were playing recently. Users can meet their friends and new players virtually, regardless of what games they are playing, simply by sharing their game information across different dimensions of time and distance.

 

New Game Medium

NGP adopts a new game medium, a small flash memory based card, dedicated for NGP software titles. Taking advantage of the flash memory feature, this innovative card can store the full software titles plus add-on game content or the game save data directly on to the card. By adopting flash memory based card, SCE will be able to provide game cards with higher capacity in the future, allowing developers to store more game data to deliver rich and immersive games.

NGP will also come equipped with two cameras on its front and rear, as well as three motion sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass, all of which are designed to enable users to enjoy the world of entertainment that is linked with real life experiences.

PlayStation®Suite (PS Suite), announced today, will also closely coordinate with NGP. The newly developed and released game content for Android™ based portable devices can also be enjoyed on NGP. As a result, users will have access to not only the most leading-edge content, but also some of the more casual experiences that typify the mobile market place.

To help your direct mail campaign cut through the overload of promotional material, catalogues, brochures and free samples that we are bombarded with everyday you need to get a little creative. So here’s five easy steps to creating a more effective direct mail campaign.

1. You talkin’ to me!
The first step is to determine exactly who you are talking to when your direct mail piece hits someone’s desk. Whether you are purchasing a database or building it from scratch you need to decide who is your most probable customer – the person most likely to buy from you. Then make sure that you have their name (spelt correctly of course), their title, postal address and contact number. Nowadays you can purchase a targeted database tailored to industry, business size, location and number of employees from around one dollar a name.

2. Get creative
The US Environmental Protection Agency found that 44 percent of direct marketing mail is binned even before it is opened so it is vital that your promotional material stands out from the crowd. So think outside of the square when you are designing your campaign – include a product sample, send a glossy postcard instead of a cheap flyer or at least make it bright and colourful so it jumps out of the letterbox.



3. Keep it informative
Believe it or not there are a lot of people who actually love receiving junk mail. A study by The Australian Institute found that in 2005 $428 million was spent on unaddressed promotions and an amazing $1.54 billion on addressed direct mail. Make sure your marketing message includes some interesting information about your product or service and a ‘to the home or business owner’ exclusive offer.

4. Hit the phones!
Direct mail as a marketing strategy generally achieves a take–up rate, if you are lucky, of around one to three percent. This low response rate however improves substantially when you follow-up your direct mail with a telemarketing campaign. By using a current and correctly populated database you should have both mailing and phone data for all of your prospects. Wait a few days after sending out your marketing piece and then call up each contact to follow-up. Start each conversation by checking that they received your leaflet and then ask them what they thought of your promotional offer – this approach makes the call sound less like a sales pitch.

5. Measure and massage
Every marketing strategy needs constant improvement to ensure that you are achieving the optimum results you can. Measure the effective of your direct mail campaigns and make adjustments as needed. For example, try your telemarketing script with the first ten call backs and gauge the response, then if necessary try a different approach for the next ten and compare the results.

Finally, remember that this really is a great time to start doing junk mail promotion. With the rise in popularity of the internet there’s now even less competition in the mailbox.

Email us to discuss how we can help you with your next direct marketing campaign.

The concept of personal branding has been discussed widely across the net yet many people think that it is confined to the celebrity set like Paris Hilton or Justin Timberlake. By definition, personal branding is ‘the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands’. Today the idea of ‘self-packaging’ is becoming more of a necessity than a desire due to the rise in popularity of social media technology.

Social media tools have levelled the playing ground and thus enabled us to reach incredible heights where the cost to entry is only really our time. Plus, in an amazingly short space of time we can achieve as much presence as most startups and mid-size companies or products.

So what face do you want to show to the world and how will you position yourself for success? To help you decide, here are five steps to ‘the art of personal branding’ …

Discover your niche
The first step in the personal branding process is to discover and select your niche so that you can become the master of your domain. Take an inventory of your skill set and determine what it is that you can be seen as a specialist in – this will become your ‘online domain’. Start by registering your ‘name as a domain’ for example, www.johnsmith.com so that you can own your slice of the world wide web.

Your personal branding ‘tool kit’
Your personal branding ‘tool kit’ consists of the elements that you need to highlight your brand and communicate your niche. In your kit you will need a business card – both printed and online versions. To create and distribute your online business card use a free site like www.businesscard2.com.
Next you will need a professional resume – online resources like www.theresumebuilder.com can assist here. This is important not just for job hunting but also to include when promoting your business to new clients. Last but not least, you will need a visual portfolio that will consist of a professional studio-shot of yourself, a CD or DVD of your work and a short profile video of yourself that can be posted to You Tube.



Create your online profile
An online profile across the social media platforms of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter is where people will probably find you first. Here’s a snapshot of the power and reach of this popular phenomenon …

LinkedIn – around 700,000 users across Australia increasing by 23% in just the last eight months. Now with 60 million users worldwide.

Facebook – around five million users across Australia and an amazing 500 million worldwide in 2010

Twitter – around 250,000 users across Australia growing by a staggering 1,067%. Today we are seeing around 50 million tweets being posted per day – that’s an average of 600 tweets per second.

Facebook alone has over 160 million personal profiles, but almost none of them have branded themselves properly using this medium. Make sure that your ‘personal brand’ is reflected consistently across all these mediums and that you manage it well, for example select the privacy options available that disable the ability for people to tag you in external pictures and videos.

Establish a blog
If you are going to carve a niche in the market and become know as an ‘online specialist’ in your field then you will need a blog. A blog allows you to post articles you have written, add links, pictures and work examples as well as being featured on your personal domain website. Moreover, those who blog will create a stronger asset than those who don’t because blogs rank higher in search engines and therefore make it easier for people to search and view your expertise and interest areas over time.



Communicating your personal brand
Your personal style is tangible and is extremely important for standing out from the crowd. Invest in training to improve your presentation skills and select clothing that best represents you and enhances your ‘brand message’. Remember that it will be this look and presentation that will be viewable through your pictures/avatars and video clips online, as well as when you meet people in reality.

Now the work really begins - don’t be fooled by the myth that if you build it, they will come. To create and establish your ‘personal brand’ you will have to actively communicate everything that you have created to others and the world. Have you ever hear the term, "it’s not what you know, it’s who you know?" Well, nowadays it’s not so much of even who you know but more importantly ‘who knows you.

Get in early and let BrandManager help you prepare high quality, personalised Christmas cards for your customers and business contacts.

With a minimum order of only 50 cards, you can select the size, design and finish that suits your requirements and your budget – they will even be delivered free of charge to you within 10 working days! No need to worry about anything!

This offer includes:

• Free design templates for Standard and Blingfoil cards (metalic look for that real Christmas sparkle!)
• DL or Postcard size (tent cards)
• 310gsm Artboard with gloss laminated front
• Matching plain envelopes
• Pre-printed Christmas message with free variable data
• As mentioned above, free delivery anywhere in Australia and completed within 10 working days!

Standard Postcard Size (150mmx 100mm)

Price: $2.35 + GST per card (includes envelope)

Blingfoil Postcard Size (150mmx 100mm)

Price: $2.95 + GST per card (includes envelope)

Standard DL Size (210mmx 99mm)

Price: $3.45 + GST per card (includes envelope)

Blingfoil DL Size (210mmx 99mm)

Price: $3.95 + GST per card (includes envelope)

Chinese fashion label, Pacific Poly chose Sydney for the location of their recent photoshoot for their new 2010 children’s wear collection. BrandManager selected models from local talent agency, Bettina and directed the photoshoot with Dien Tran in North West Sydney.



The photos were then used to develop the new catalogue and brochure together with some creative Bus Sides for an upcoming outdoor media campaign. The final result was welcomed by the client...

"Thanks again for the wonderful help extended to us, without your patience and support we wouldn't have experienced such a smooth process." – Helen, Pacific Poly

The brochure is currently being translated and printed in China.

To begin we need to first understand what the term ‘marketing’ really means, so let’s look at marketing in simple dating terms:

You see an attractive girl at a function. You go up to 
her and say: “I am very rich. Would you like to have dinner with me?”

That’s Direct Marketing.

Or perhaps you go up to
 the same girl and say: “I am very rich. Would you like to have dinner with me!” She then gives you a nice hard slap on your face.

That’s Customer Feedback.

Or one of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says: “He’s very rich – have dinner with him.”

That’s Advertising.

Or you go up to 
her, get her phone number – then you call the next day and say: “Hi, I’m very rich – will you have dinner with me?
That’s Telemarketing.

Or you get up
and straighten your suit, you walk up to her and pour
her a drink, you open the door and then politely ask her to dinner”

That’s Public Relations.

Finally the girl walks
up to you and says: ”You are very rich – will you have dinner with me?”

Now that’s Brand Recognition.



We should all strive for brand recognition in our businesses but to do this especially during tough economic times we have to stay front of mind with our target market. An interesting statistic is that brands that continued to advertise throughout the second world war eventually became the market leaders in their field when the war was over. In an economic downturn don’t cut or worse still eliminate your marketing budget – instead, just get a little smarter with it. To help, here’s part one outlining “5 creative strategies for marketing your business and retaining your brand recognition during tough economic times”.

First up, how to stand out from your competitors. In tough times we need to first get ‘back to the basics’.  We need to focus on one core product that we do really well and better than any of our competitors and then do it even better!

It is important to always remain true to our brand. In a Readers Digest poll during 2008 of the world’s most trusted brand revealed that: ‘… the most important thing to a customer is a brand being true to its promise’.
Leading global brands like Coca-Cola remain true to their brand – wherever you go in the world the coke generally tastes the same and the branding remains consistent - and that brand is now worth over $60 billion US.

To remain true to your brand you need to remember what business you are in. Sounds simple but it’s probably not what you think – for example if a baker in the bread making business or Bunnings in the hardware business?
The answer is no – in fact we are all in the same business and that’s the ‘problem solving’ business.


Customers today like they always have, buy on ‘emotion’. We need to identity what that emotion is and then become the ‘panadol’ for their headache. You should always strive to continually educate your customers and prospects to understand, appreciate and desire the benefit of the product or service you sell over that of your competitors. Focus on your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and make sure everyone knows about it. Make your USP believable and above all, measurable.  FedEx used to have the USP ‘We own our planes’ and almost went out of business – until they come up with ‘Absolutely. Positively. Overnight’.  Now that’s believable and definitely measurable.

Next time we look at how making small changes to your marketing can bring you big results.

Tony Eades
Creative Director
www.thebrandmanager.com.au

What’s a brand refresh?

As markets change, businesses mature and new business trends develop, it is often necessary to ‘refresh’ a brand.

Your positioning in the marketplace has already been established so a totally new look could impact on your
existing brand awareness. What is needed at this time and indeed every three to five years for most brands is a BrandManager ‘Brand Refresh’.

Why change?

Some of the reasons that trigger the need for a ‘Brand Refresh’ include but are not limited to ...

• New directions and reframing of your business directions as your brand grows and matures
• Market trends and consumer demand changes - just look at fashion for example, how much of your current ‘fashionable’ wardrobe of clothes do you wear today that are more than five years old. Like the fashion industry, the business marketplace changes in design, colour and style every few years.
• New competitors enter your ‘space’ creating a need to better differentiate yourself.
• Business growth has reached a plateau and your business image is looking a little tired.
• The time has come to refocus and tailor to a specific market demographic so there is a requirement to bring the brand inline with this new target market.

What’s included?

The ‘Brand Refresh’ process includes ...

• Review of your current positioning and competitors
• Development and/or refinement of your positioning statement
• Graphic upgrade of your current logo in line with market themes and trends
• Design, production and printing of a new corporate stationery package
• Redesign and mockup of your website
• Brand Style Guide including fonts, colours and management of the new brand
• Six month Brand Marketing Strategy

Normally $3,900 ex GST
Subscriber Special for August only
Save $1000  Now $2,900 ex GST

It’s a fresh new financial year so to give your business a much needed facelift let’s start on the surface with your logo and branding.  Do some research and source your main competitors – online and offline – and print out their logos, take note of their marketing message, their Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and their positioning.  Now compare your logo, brand and USP to that of your competitors – does it clearly stand out, does it feel fresh and modern or old and tired and if you were a potential customer would it be inviting to you?

Now let’s go deeper into your organisation.  If your USP says that you are more ‘innovative’ or ‘reliable’ than your competitors then you need to back this up throughout your business.  Test the effectiveness of your USP across all areas from point of sale to customer service, your brochure copy to the way you answer the phone and down to your ‘elevator pitch' – the 30 second ad that sums up what your business is all about.

Finally you need to be realistic about your makeover budget – how much will you invest in your new look?  An upgrade of your existing branding can cost between five and twenty thousand dollars depending on the size of your company whilst new brand development can cost in excess of thirty thousand dollars and involve market research, new signage across your operation and a re-design of your website.

A business makeover allows you to freshen up your position in the marketplace, re-energise your sales team and shake up the competition.  It strengthens your brand by aligning everything together with a common theme and message together with re-focussing your marketing strategies to achieve better returns and support long term growth.

When times get tough we need to become smarter about how and where we spend our marketing dollar.  Imagine if you could double the potential audience for your product or service whilst halving your marketing spend.
Well the good news is you can and it’s a lot easier than you think.

As a business you have core audience or demographic for your product or service – put simply this is merely the type of customer that is more likely to buy from you.  For example, let’s say that you are a trendy menswear retailer and your demographic is 18 to 30 year old males.  Now think of other non-competing businesses who would also share this demographic, like a new fitness club, travel agency, computer shop or a restaurant perhaps.

Interestingly these businesses like you spend their entire marketing budget trying to attract these customers.  So why not approach one of these businesses with an innovative direct mail or print advertising campaign where you share the costs?  For example, you as the menswear store join forces with the fitness club and offer ‘complete new you package’ where you receive a three month fitness membership, personal training session and a new outfit for one great price?  Both businesses share equally in the promotion yet halve their marketing budget.

But wait, there’s more!  Now you have halved your marketing budget it’s time to double your reach.  Your business and that of the non-competing business should have an active database of customers that you communicate with regularly through store promotions, direct mail and e-newsletters.  So why not cross promote?  In the example above the menswear store would offer an introductory, one month free gym membership exclusively to its database and in return the fitness club would offer its members a 20% exclusive discount on any purchase made at the menswear store.

So just by thinking a little smarter you can literally double your potential customer base and at the same time reduce your marketing spend by as much as 50%.

The Brief

Brandmanager was approached by a successful fashion business in Europe. They wanted to develop a children’s clothing brand, for boys and girls aged 2 to 8. The clothing was to be designed in Australia and manufactured in China.

 

Our brief was to develop an iconic Australian brand that would be positioned to the mid to upper market. We had six months to develop and launch the new children's wear label.

For the research we went to Fashion Exposed, the premier, bi-annual fashion expo in Melbourne. Here we interviewed and discussed the industry with existing clothing exhibitors to gain an insiders knowledge of the current Australian market.



The Name and Logo

We next brainstormed the brand – with every name we came up with we needed to check its availability in regards to domain name, trademark and business name. To keep with the iconic ‘Australian’ feel we decided on Kangaroo Creek as the main, umbrella brand.

 

The two clothing labels that were to be produced by Kangaroo Creek became Sugar Possum for the girls and Blue Dingo for the boys.

 

Now came the range itself and for this we sourced and hired an experienced Visual Merchandiser. We conducted two Branding Day’s in Sydney to develop the style, theme and unique stories for the summer collection 2010/11. Designs were developed, samples made and swing tags created

The Brand Message 

The message was to be rustic, colonial Australian - a brand identity to compliment the popular surf brands on the market. We booked a stand at Fashion Exposed Sydney for the launch and designed the stand to match the theme.

Next we hired models and chose a venue for our video and photoshoot – a pioneering village in Kalamanda, WA. We then created themed brochures for both labels and made them square and smaller than the standard A4. We also baked some cup cakes, printed bags and added lollipops to add enhance the Expo experience.

 

Finally we developed a web presence for both brands and created an online E-Store with over 100 products. The video was used as a ‘theme enhancer’ on the website to give a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the photoshoot and 'live' at the Expo.

 
The Results

The Expo was a success with all visitors welcoming the fresh, new look.

 

The results achieved included:

• Initial sales of $21K over the 3 day Expo

• Agents in Sydney and Melbourne interested

• Positive feedback from Europe/ for a possible launch in January 2011

 
Tell us what you think of this new children's brand – click on the 'comments' link below.

 

What makes a good landing page?

How to make the most of a $5000 marketing budget

So you’ve got $5,000 to market your business but what do you  spend it on to get the ‘best bang’ for your buck? Here’s Tony Eades’ TOP FIVE marketing activities (in order of importance) to promote and grow your business with an  investment of only $5000.

 

1.      BUILD YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

Amazingly, about 60 per cent of SME’s still don’t have a convincing presence online. With millions of consumers searching daily online for products or using the internet to research a business before making a buying decision how can any business afford not to have an online shop front?

A $5,000 budget should buy you a professional 10-page website with necessities like e-news,
e-commerce, blogs, forums and a back-end content management system (CMS) so you can administer 

and edit the site yourself.

2.      DIRECT MAIL CAMPAIGN

Most small to medium businesses find that the majority of their regular customers virtually come from within a 5km radius of their front door. Through your local Australia Post distribution centre you can send ‘unaddressed mail’ to businesses, post office boxes or street addresses in your local area from just 12c an item.

 

Cleverly designed DL size (envelope size) flyers work best if printed on glossy, mid-weight stock – this helps take away the common junk mail feel.

To design, print and deliver 10,000-15,000 flyers should cost you less than $5,000 and achieve instant results.

 

3.      REFRESH YOUR BRAND

If you have had your logo for more than five years your brand is probably looking a little tired.

Let’s face it, how fashionable are your clothes from five years ago?

A modern redesign or upgrade of your logo can virtually re-launch your business in the market place.

A new look gives you and your sales team a reason to revisit all customers, old and new to re-introduce your business and its exciting new brand.

 

4.      TARGETED PRINT ADVERTISING

Most media publications charge a premium for advertising because of their high circulation, however, your target may only account for a small portion of these readers.

Find a trade magazine or publication that directly targets your industry or market and book a full page ad or series of half pages.  For new advertisers larger adverts deliver higher impact and can also give you some bargaining power to receive some complimentary editorial within the publication.

 

5.      HIGHER IMPACT SIGNAGE

Your building signage is like free advertising – promoting your business to passing traffic and potential trade everyday (and if illuminated, night traffic as well).  Like a house for sale with no For Sale sign out the front, poor signage can cost your business severely.

Is your main logo displayed on your building professionally, preferably in 3D, full colour and illuminated at night? Consider window displays printed on banner mesh or one-way vinyl that allows you to see out but display full colour graphics from the outside.  Are your company cars and vans sign written or at least display magnetic decals on the promoting your brand and website?

Then there’s informational signage – do customers know where to park, opening hours of your business, which products you sell or what services you offer?

Marketing is essential for your business survival and growth. It’s vital to get the most “bang” for your marketing buck.  For more marketing ideas on a shoestring budget call your Business Development Team at BrandManager on 1300 55 30 33.