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Whirlpool Corporation is an American company and one of the world’s best-known multinational manufacturers of electronic home appliances. It currently boasts of revenue figures well above $20 billion per annum.

As a matter of fact, the organization itself has constantly been striving to come up with ‘state of the art’ domestic appliances that will be able to improve the living standards of the people who buy Whirlpool products. In keeping with a mindset that inspires such innovation, Whirlpool has over 70 research centers that are located all over the world.

But all products and brands have a particular life cycle regardless of how well known and accepted they are amongst their target audience. Here, Whirlpool is certainly no exception to this rule. This is indeed precisely why back in 2010, the Whirlpool Corporation made the critical decision to modify its logo design. They changed the original font type to sans serif. Apart from that, they also altered the hook around the text. Finally, they also changed the ‘whirl’ in their ‘Whirlpool,’ as well.

It is pertinent to note that a logo is the visible face of a brand. And any changes to a logo means that the perception of the target audience will also change in line with the vision and the mission around which the brand coalesces and operates.

Whirlpool: Ushering in an Age of Large-Scale Expansion

Keeping this factor in mind, people at Whirlpool decided to reflect their massive expansion plans in their logo too. And the best way forward was to solidify their identity in their chosen target market with a well-crafted logo design that would easily reflect their expansion process in many different categories. Especially since they are going for both horizontal growth and depth in their product portfolio.

Whirlpool’s new logo design is in stark contrast to the old one. While it may not seem to be very different to the layman’s eyes but when the two are juxtaposed together, it is easy to see that it is a far more straightforward than its older counterpart.

As a matter of fact, the main design idea for this radical shift in identity has a lot to do with reinforcing the twin notions of elegance and novelty. The two traits for which the Whirlpool logo and by extension, the brand itself is renowned for, the world over.

If we were to study the logo more carefully, we could easily see that the brand has also shifted the concept of customer orientation very nicely in their new Whirlpool logo.

In a nutshell, the easily recognized loop centered around the middle of the typographical arrangement has been consciously and deliberated altered to a continuous and concentric circle. In marketing parlance, this is known as the “Ring of the Promise.” This ring, in fact, depicts the continuous commitment of the Whirlpool brand to their customers. This commitment is in the form of a promise to provide highly improved quality and integrity in all of their electronic products. This unspoken promise to the end consumer bears mute testimony to the extremely high standards for which this brand is justifiably renowned.

The Graphical Aspect of The Whirlpool Logo

From a purely graphical point of view, the elaborate “Swirl” in the logo that is located directly above the alphabet “W” was itself an addition dating back to the early 1960s. It was supposed to denote the fact that the brand manufactures laundry products for the discerning consumer.

Perhaps, this is why the very name ‘whirlpool’ was almost synonymous with top-end washing machines and several other laundry products. However, this swirl has been completely removed from the logo because the company has diversified both its target market as well as its products portfolio.

These days, they manufacture an extensive range of large and small electronic household appliances that they distribute pretty much all over the world. Actually, the brand was able to capitalize on the core values of their original product line and the goodwill it had generated for them, for so many decades.

Building on Customer Trust

Their end consumers implicitly trusted the Whirlpool brand, and this meant that this trust and goodwill was directly transferred to the new products that they developed and launched into the target market.

And now the brand is one of the leading producers of all manners of household appliances and has effectively overtaken many of the original top brands in this field.

Keeping the above in retrospect, we can see how it also applies to the development of the Whirlpool logo as well. Here, the graphical and visual balance of the current logo is far more appealing than its older counterpart. This has a lot to do with its light minimalist touch. Not only is the logo both more precise and refined, but it is also far more readable as well. In fact, it is entirely in keeping with the brand’s latest and most modern and topographical illustration.

Many of the alphabets in this logo have made the transformation from 3D to a flatter 2D look. Apart from the alphabets, the ring that is the cornerstone of the logo has been effectively transformed into a 3D object d’art. The selection of the color follows a neutral scheme marking. This is done to ensure that its esthetics legibility and readability remain constant.

Conclusion

In light of the above, we can safely deduce that Whirlpool has quite successfully met both its customer-oriented as well as its expansion-oriented goals in this all-new logo design.

We all love Subway, don’t we? Well, most of us do. What’s not to like about it? You enter the shop and choose everything from the bread and the fillings to seasoning and sauces – all of which come together to make a sumptuous wrap we call a Sub. Sure, the company has had its ups and downs over the years, but it has constantly tried to keep itself relevant according to the customers’ preferences. This was the reason why the old Subway logo was replaced with a new one in 2016 after almost 15 years.

Subway logo evolution

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Subway started in 1965 as a single sandwich shop founded by 17-year-old Fred DeLuca. The goal for DeLuca was to earn money to pay for medical school. He received a loan of $1,000 from Dr Peter Buck, a family friend, to set up the sandwich shop in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He named him “Pete’s Super Submarines” after Dr Buck.

Soon, the two men opened another shop and then a third. Then came the moment for the first marketing pivot. To boost brand recall and recognition, they decided to shorten the name from Pete’s Super Submarines to Pete’s Subway. At the time, they introduced the yellow logo with the arrows around Subway.

In the 1970s the brand dropped the word Pete’s from their name. According to one theory, this was done because on the radio – the social media of that time for marketing – Pete’s Submarine sounded a lot like ‘Pizza Marines’ which impacted their customers’ brand impression. Then, the number of Subways multiplied as the two partners decided to begin franchising.

This brought incredible growth and popularity to the sandwich shop. Today, it is one of the largest restaurants in the world in terms of the number of franchises. On its website, Subway claims to have more than 37,000 restaurants in over 100 nations. The company has more restaurants across the world than any other chain, even beating giants like KFC and Mcdonald’s.

The Subway logo history also reveals interesting insights into how the company always tried to keep up with the changing demands as the years passed by.

Why old Subway logo was changed?

Since 1965, when it was Pete’s Super Submarines, the company had several logos. The original Subway logo was actually the blue and red Pete’s Super Submarines logo. Over time, it changed to Pete’s Submarine and then to Subway.

After a couple of evolutions, the company settled on its most recognizable logo till then. In 2002, the Subway logo featured italicized bold font – in white colors for SUB and yellow for WAY – with green outlines. The tips of S and Y ended in the iconic arrows which came to be identified as Subway’s brand identity.

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Another version of the logo, designed in the year 2015, featured the same typeface but this time with green colors and without any outlines. Basically, they turned the logo into a monochrome, reduced the font size, and removed outlines to create the new iteration of their logo with the iconic arrows retaining their places.

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The green and white logo remained Subway’s face for almost 15 years till 2016, when the company decided it was time for a logo redesign. The new Subway logo had a modernized design as per the contemporary needs.

The inscription was bold but not italics, with the rounded sans-serif typeface. The white and yellow font colors were changed to yellow and green, and font outlines were also removed. With the removal of italics from the typeface, the arrows on S and Y appeared more pointed and sharper.

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Design elements

In terms of design, the new logo still had green and yellow elements but looked minimalistic in line with the demand of the late 2020s. A number of brands redesigned their bulky logo to create simplistic versions that look easy on the eyes and can be responsive on smaller screens, like mobile phones.

The company also created a monogram out of its new logo, this monogram which was then designed on the company’s packaging. The monogram only features S formed out of two arrows, each pointing in the opposite direction.

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If we talk about the Subway logo meaning, it features two iconic arrows, depicting entry and exit. This means that customers could grab their food swiftly and have it while on the go. This aligns with the company’s reputation for serving food with convenience.

The vibrant yellow and green colors in darker shades used by the company were in line with the practice of most restaurants and eateries to use bright colors in their branding elements. This obviously has a psychological element attached to it as sharp colors improve people’s appetites, convincing them to make a run to the restaurant and grab their favorite meal.

Let’s now discuss some of the reasons why the company might have felt the need to leave Subway’s old logo and come up with a new design to become its identity.

1.  Competitive edge

At the time Subway redesigned its logo, the company was not doing very well in keeping up with its competitors like Chipotle and Firehouse Subs. So, in a sense, the new logo was a means for the company to revamp itself and compete with its rivals with a new face and energy.

This is what the Subway CEO said when the new logo was launched:

“The Subway brand is recognized throughout the world, and this new look reinforces our commitment to staying fresh and forward-thinking with a design that is clear and confident without losing sight of our heritage.”

This clearly hinted at the company’s ambition to get in the race with its competitors and compete with new energy with a new logo.

2.  A new face of the brand

At the time of the launch of the new logo, a Subway spokeswoman told CNBC that they saw this as a way to refresh their look while remaining true to the brand’s origins by using the vibrant color palette of the mid-’60s when the brand was founded.

Subway always had a reputation for offering a meal different from its competitors. A fully customizable sandwich with the bread of your choice, the filling of your choice, loaded with veggies, drenched in your favorite sauce – wow!

Subway logos over the years have tried to reinforce the company’s USP – freshness. Subway positioned itself as a healthier alternative by promoting nutritious and wholesome meals. Their “Eat Fresh” slogan resonated with health-conscious consumers seeking better options on the go.

But, over time, it started losing out to the competitors who were offering a more diversified product. What Subway needed was a fresh start. By updating its visual identity, Subway hoped to reinforce its relevance, attract new customers, and also get its MoJo back to win lost customers who might have gone to other options.

After the logo redesign, the company launched a new loyalty program called “Subway MyWay Rewards.” Under the new scheme, Subway introduced personalized deals and rewards for customers based on their buying history. This idea was to improve the rate of customer retention and increase footfall in their restaurants.

3.  Evolution based on people’s preferences

For Subway, the new logo was the “next step” in its evolution. This was also stated by Subway’s president and CEO Suzanne Greco, who stated that they were on an exciting journey to meet the changing tastes of their guests.

So, the company didn’t only stop at changing its logo. It also made tweaks to its menu and brought in a more diversified range of products. It started using the rotisserie chicken and carved turkey breast in its Subs and launched a new tech division called Subway Digital to revamp its website, mobile application, and digital payments – all for a more seamless customer experience.

4.  New marketing efforts

After redesigning its logo, the next logical step for Subway was to familiarize its customers with it. This required an ingenious strategy to present the logo in such a way that it could attract the most eyeballs. So, what did the company do? They started airing their ads with Subway’s new logo during NBC’s coverage of the Olympics Opening Ceremony. This only seemed like the most logical marketing step because where else would you find more eyes than the most popular sporting competition in the world?

The company also used online mediums for its marketing before the revamped logo and symbol were rolled out at all Subway locations in 2017. Another marketing strategy used by the company was to make the new logo a part of the campaign to highlight its USP – fresh and locally sourced offerings. Earlier, the company had pledged to not use artificial colors, flavors and preservatives in any of its products. This was done to reinforce the brand perception of Subway offering fresh products.

The new campaign was named #SearchforBetter, and it was created by a Boston-based company. The new campaign was also launched during NBC’s coverage of the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Conclusion

The decision to replace the old Subway logo was a conscious effort on the part of the company to pivot its brand position and adapt to the changing demands of its customers. The new logo gave the company a fresher and more modern look, which was in sync with contemporary demands. Subway’s rebranding was helped by an elegant design that had a modern look, but also the elements to reflect the company’s pasts – like the iconic arrows and green and yellow color.

Fanta has been around a long time. Since the days of the second world war in fact. When it was initially launched, it was just a means of covering a small European niche because Coca-Cola itself was in short supply all-over war-ravaged Europe, way back in the early 1940s.

However, with time, Fanta went on to become the second biggest brand under the Coca-Cola umbrella. And it has grown and evolved over the years not just in terms of flavor and the Fanta logo itself, but also, its target market. From being a wartime drink for soldiers, it has shifted focus to the trendy young teenager market while retaining the interest it had always invoked in its primary target market.

The Bottle and The Logo

Fanta had always made it a point to differentiate on the basis of taste and color. But it went a bit further and created a funky twisted bottle that was its very own take on the differentiation factor that set it apart from its more regular and mundane competition.

In its continued efforts to turn its USP (unique selling proposition) to an SCA (sustainable competitive advantage, the brand has never really stopped evolving. This way it has been saved from the inevitable stagnation that has been the bane of its competitors.

Fanta believes in the age-old adage: Eye view is buy view.” This is precisely why it’s all-new bottle gives it a truly unique look that has been expressly designed to ‘catch the eye’ of the buyer.

The Fanta logo has been similarly redesigned as well. In fact, this year, Fanta enthusiasts from all over the world will really get to enjoy the ice cold and refreshing favorite drink with an entirely new and fascinating twist. Yes, the good people at Fanta have not only changed the taste of this globally acclaimed beverage, but they have gone even further.

That is they have changed both the logo and the shape by creating a fanta’stic’ new bottle that has a has been endowed with a ‘one of a kind shape.

Switching from The Old To The New

This is not exactly a subtle change in their logo. On the contrary, the marketers at Fanta headquarters have really gone to town with their original logo design and have switched from their usual ‘lower case and well-rounded text’ to bigger and bolder upper case ‘hand-cut paper’ style of typography.

Another fun feature that enables the Fanta logo to stand out is the ‘smiley face’ that has been creatively weaved into the letter “A.” this gives the whole logo (and by extension the brand itself) a playful look in a really elusive way. Apart from that, the colors have also been given a ‘touch up’ of sorts. And they have now been updated to a much brighter version of the original drink. This change has been made keeping in mind the fact that Fanta is a unique drink that targets not just the multicultural youth of today’s Generation Z. But at the same time it also ‘aspire to inspire’ the core energetic spirit in all the youngsters of the world.

The design team of the brand did not just pick this shape and logo out of a hat. On the contrary, they took their time to come up with this brand-new logo and shape. In fact, it took them all of two years before they got their logo designed ‘just right.’

Creating a Brave New World

As far as the bottle is concerned, it ushers in a brave new world. Especially keeping in mind the fact that this unique bottle and logo has gone against the more traditional and symmetric designs that dominate the cold beverages industry, as a whole. The designer, Gregory Bentley believed that it was time to raise the bar and break out of the shackles of conventionalism. This is why he tried a hand at being completely different and in the process created a shape that has become a trendsetter for the whole industry.

The ‘Fanta’ brand is second only to Coca-Cola itself in terms of age, and it is currently available in around one hundred different flavors all across the world. This logo and shape have a dual purpose. It has to maintain ‘Fanta’s brand value’ by creating synergy between the old and the new designs so that the new one can really take off from where the ‘old’ left off.
The new one is now already available in certain select countries in Europe including Poland, Romania Italy, Serbia, and Malta. This newly designed logo has been crafted to create a sense of excitement amongst the younger audiences while the different taste will tantalize their taste buds.

The ultimate aim of the new logo is to attract the younger generation and at the same time retain the dynamics of the old taste, shape, and logo so that it will not alienate the many generations of people who have been enjoying this really refreshing drink from their childhood to their old age.

Conclusion

The new logo retains a sense of continuity with the old one, and at the same time it also stands out amongst the many other drinks on the shelf so that the consumer pauses and takes a look and buys the product.

There is no denying the fact that lead generation is an integral aspect of online digital setup. Lead generation is essential for every type of business. The process facilitates you to identify prospective clients so that you can match your target audience with brand’s offerings.

The significance of SEO lead generation is of paramount stature. It helps increase your brand visibility to prospective customers. With people and businesses becoming increasingly dependent on Google, in a bid to find the goods and services, the role of SEO is on astonishingly inclined plane.

It has been estimated that for around 60% of marketers, lead generation is their brand’s biggest challenge. Such a daunting task can be accomplished by making smart use of SEO blogs.

Blogging is a mighty effective SEO technique as it plays a crucial role with a number of things that are significant ranking factors. When you have a blog that has a huge following and is updated quite regularly with SEO blogs of high-quality, or is based on the topics relevant to your audience – it can strike a massive difference in the performance of your overall website visibility in the search engines.

SEO Trends to be Followed in 2019

Here are some top notch SEO trends that will help you dominate the ecommerce arena – escalating your revenues.

. Content Marketing

This is indeed an amazing option for brands that have high-quality and interesting content to share with the world. It can be a great bridge to connect you with your intended market as it can provide you with great search engine optimization for your website.

Not only content is critical from an SEO point of view, but the fact of the matter is, the copy that fails to generate interest of the reader will reflect poorly on the description and appeal level of the products as well.

. Social Media Marketing

The use of social media is at its all-time peak. Social media helps you refine the entire lead generation phase as it allows for a more objective and targeted approach. 62% of the marketers strongly believe that social media has proven itself to be an effective channel in lead generation. It presents the businesses a fabulous platform to interact and serve their customers.

Social media advertising works wonders, especially nowadays when you hardly come across a person who doesn’t has a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram account. Advertisements running through these mediums are highly engaging as it facilitates you in setting up the location, age, gender, and interests among many others.

. Higher Customization

Customized marketing is not at all a brand new concept. It’s something that has been around for a while now, but growth and evolution has been simply magnificent. Now in 2019, customers have arrived to a level where they expect this personalization to reach a new level.

In the world of B2B interactions, 75% of consumers report that they expect companies to send them customized offers – keeping in mind their specific sets of needs and wants. More than half of the consumers expect the brands to be proactive in predicting their needs and make suitable suggestions in the first point of contact.

. Use Long-Tail Keywords

Using long tail keywords is on a definite rise. It takes 6 to 12 months for businesses to start witnessing growth in traffic via SEO lead generation techniques. Search engines prioritize websites that have been around for quite some time.

(Source: Neil Patel’s Official Blog)

This waiting time can be reduced by the professional and expert use of long-tail keywords. These keywords include two or more phrases. The reason for the success of these types of keywords is they are less competitive and easier to rank on the search engine.

. The Era of Automation

The magical advancements of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are being recognized. It’s not at all surprising that automation is quickly becoming one of the biggest lead generation strategies of 2019.

The research report at McKinsey found out that 60% of businesses are already in the process of adopting it. The aggressive uses of chatbots are one of the best uses of automation. With the help of these automated chatbots, you can easily provide 24/7 services to the clients, serving it to the best of your abilities.

Advance versions of these chatbots can even secure orders for your brand, paving the way for you to turn a lead into a client. Modern day marketers use automation to process and analyze data. For instance, a digital marketing campaign generates tons of data points.

SEO is a strategy that builds on itself, which makes it a scintillating aspect of online world. With the passage of time, the ability to generate lead through SEO increases as you figure out more innovative forms of content and web optimization. SEO trends play a vital role in giving the direction to the brand as well as site’s ranking success.

In the modern era, the relevance of consumer experience is at its peak. Customer experience design revolves around the phenomenon of putting the customer first – to build and deliver solutions that are both effective and enjoyable.

The game changer in online businesses is customer satisfaction. As products and services continue to emphasize customer experience, the key factor of brand differentiation is creating a brand experience that can trigger emotional aspects of the customers and tends to define the buying journey of a product.

The Importance of Brand Experience

Brands are typically defined by the experiences that they offer…

Helping is the new selling…. The key is making brand experiences easier, quicker, and smoother than anyone else. The more helpful a brand is, the higher the probability of its success.

You need to remember that customers want facilitation; all they look for is an omnichannel experience that engenders some sense of control into them.

The mega success of giants like Amazon and eBay can easily be boiled back down to the simple point of them making it extremely easier than other previous prevailing alternatives.

Consumers are flooded with a barrage of messages from various businesses, both online and offline on daily basis. As a result, it is more important than ever to build emotional connections between consumers and your brand, in a bid to hit and make mark in customers’ subconscious.

How to Create Better Brand Experience

Here are a few relevant tips that can be of significant help in building a brand experience.

> Know Your Customer (KYC)

Incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in retail branding is due to the opportunity it provides for gathering refined piece of information for their target segment (audience). This extensive knowledge about the market has substantially helped brands to come up with the kind of product that can quickly appeal to their clientele and fulfill their needs for long.

NIKE

The brand Nike has emerged successful as a sports retail brand. Nike built an empire by broadcasting itself not just as a shoe store, but rather a brand that showcases oriented lifestyle. They have an impressive strategy when it comes to knowing their customers’ needs and wants.

> Engage Through Effective Advertising

We are living in an always-on world, so customers expect brands to be proactive in anticipating their needs and then come up with a quick solution to fulfill the said need. The communication (advertisement) of this solution needs to be sound and efficient.

Successful brands focus immensely on customer engagement; they target value creation, and not just revenue extraction.

McDonald’s

McDonald’s has been thriving to use advertising to drive its business. The launch of their product “Happy Meal” has been quite impressive. This customized product offered an ideal platform to connect with mothers’ sentiments, through an ideal blend of emotional storytelling and rational reassurance to shift attitudes and make an impactful statement.

This was followed by the tremendous “That’s What Makes McDonalds” campaign, in which the TV commercial charmingly and engagingly told the truth about the ingredients of a Happy Meal – celebrating the food and connecting it back to the source.

> Make Use of Influencers

Influencer marketing is now the real mainstream and that too, with a good reason. Customers often rely on recommendations of other individuals they encounter on different social media platforms or through celebrity marketing like shoutouts or podcasts.

By associating yourself with an influencer who has trust in you and whose reach, resonance, and engagement meets your requirement, you avail yourself of the credibility that goes along with an already established relationship of interest.

Starbucks

Since almost 20 years, Starbucks release a special edition of their cups around the holiday season. Two years back, Starbucks decided to come up with something special. They released a limited edition of red colored cups decorated with 13 paintings made by customers from around the globe. This collaboration was done to add the personalization phenomenon into their marketing.

These cups became part of Starbucks’ #RedCupArt campaign, in which the customers were invited to paint. This option of painting was also available in stores.

Starbucks Influencer Choices

Starbucks made good strides in outreaching the innovative illustrators and invited them to express their valuable opinions regarding the holiday cup. Following are some of the influencers Starbucks linked with:

Sam Larson, an amazing artist from Portland. His love for coffee cups is quite evident if you go through some of his top content. More than half of his followers are artists themselves.

Heather Rooney, an illustrator and a renowned YouTuber with more than a million followers. While going through her followers, you can see that almost 64% of her followers are quite into art, drawing, and design.

Kelly Klapstein, a lettering artist, who is quite a regular when it comes to posting on her Instagram channel. She posts lettering videos that are being watched by thousands of people, and hence a good pick for influencer marketing.

Successful brands have a strong identity that consumers can relate to. The chief reason for their success is the ability to gain deep understanding of psychology of their audience. Brand experiences are a great way to showcase your thought leadership and convey it to the consumers. Brands have been amazingly effective in communicating the great experience into the mind and heart of the customers.

In the present era, videos in the workplace aren’t just limited to only marketing and training. It’s also a sales tool that drives conversions and purchases.

Humans love binge watching as our brains process videos 60,000 times faster than text.

Videos are entertaining, visual, and massively underused to convert leads. Despite this, having a video on the landing page can boost conversion rates by 80%.

There is no denying the fact that videos have come a long way since the early days of the internet inception. In fact, 95% of people have watched an explainer video to know further about a product in detail. This makes it a fascinating medium and tool to integrate into your firm’s sales program. So, it is necessary to create a high-quality video, and you can easily do so using a free video editor which contains all features to edit videos for your sales funnel.

Video Marketing

With the correct pack of tools, your marketing department can efficiently and reliably fill the top of your sales funnel having an ideal prospect, which can considerably facilitate in moving them along the on-boarding process faster.

Facts & Figures

• 52% of marketing experts name video as content with the highest ROI.
• 76% of marketers plan to use videos in a bid to boost their brand awareness campaigns.
• Consumer internet video traffic will move from 64% in 2014 to over 80% by the end of 2019.
• 96% of B2B firms are hoping and planning to use videos in their content marketing over the period of next 12 months.

How Videos Can Increase Engagement & Conversion?

The power of using marketing videos, is enhancing rapidly by the day, and companies that are failing to capitalize are missing a big opportunity to engage with their intended audience.

Online videos will account for more than 80% of all consumer internet traffic by 2020.

Videos put you in the now and boost your organic reach. Brand videos are proving to be an instrumental medium in forming solid relationship, and engage consumers in every step of the funnel.

Videos that last up to 2 minutes get the most engagement. Facebook has been rated as the most impactful social media channel for video, as an average Facebook video receives 135% more organic search than a Facebook photo.

According to a recent survey by Content Marketing Institute, 62% of content marketers termed videos extremely effective and beneficial for the sake of higher audience engagement, and lead generation.

(Source: www.semrush.com)

How Video Marketing Works At Different Stage Of The Funnel

Normally, the marketing funnel can be broadly categorized into the following categories.

(Source: www.wistia.com)

Here’s how videos comes into the equation with each stage of the funnel.

I. Awareness:

In this stage, your potential customer is having a problem, and you have a solution, it’s just that you haven’t found each other yet. What better medium of connecting with each other, than videos.

Successful marketers take this opportunity to come up with a kind of video that tell people about your brand via videos that appear in targeted search and social media ads.

II. Consideration

In this phase of consideration, people are aware of the problem, and are looking for solution. You want to help them with their decision process.

Videos are not only a useful medium for transmitting tons of information in a short period of time that can be beneficial for the intended market, but they are also quickly becoming a preferred medium for content consumption online.

III. Decision – Conversion

The decision stage is the conversion time for your potential customers. They have already done the research at their end, taken the feedback of your offerings, and are almost ready to sign up.

Video is an efficient conversion tool as it gives viewers a revealing inside look at the brand, and the different offerings it has. Since emotion is quite a strong factor in the process of decision making, videos at this stage of the funnel benefit a great deal from a human touch to pack an emotional punch.

How Brand Are Using Videos

Brands are looking to come up with those brand value that can serve the purpose of creating their UVP, Unique Value Proposition. It can only be possible and effective once they have complete understanding of their marketing goals, and the demographics of their targeted audience.

This is just marketing short-speak for the purpose of creating an outline about your content, and the reason of being it special.

* Reebok’s “25,915” Days Campaign

Grab Attention in the first 10 seconds:

Your potential award-winning 3 minute video is worth absolutely nothing, if you don’t hook up with the audience within first 5-10 seconds, then only you can have dividends for your efforts. Internet users typically have a quite short attention span. Best brand videos are the ones that can capitalize in the initial few seconds.

In Reebok’s “25,915 Days” campaign, they grab attention within first 10 seconds of the video by broadcasting the woman from the opening sequence, when she is younger to go with some creative placement of numbers that matches the theme of their brand video.

* GoPro

Compelling Story

The content of your video should be interesting and compelling. There is no point in taking the same old content that has already been published in hundreds of other places.

Videos, especially brand videos, allow you the liberty to be more expressive about the offerings of your brand in a bid to depict your values to your precious customers.

The video from GoPro has done exactly that. Out of all the user-generated content GoPro could have enticed to forward their typical adrenaline-junkie targeted marketing, they rather chose to put money into post production of the video.

The reason this video scored big was because the people at GoPro saw a good opportunity to showcase a different side of their values that don’t always get seen in their traditional and standard marketing.

The video caught the eyeballs across the globe, as it was quite inspiring, and compelling. It shows the importance of humanity. These sorts of gestures televise wonderful feelings to have people associate with your brand.

Video is an effective and persuasive medium; it’s highly engaging and leads can use it to make their way through the entire funnel at a rampant pace. You only need to set up content journey. If you want your video to be successful, then map your content to the funnel, set up your ideal content mix, and connect your video marketing to ROI.

Without even a shadow of doubt, Instagram is one of the most important and most powerful marketing mediums of the present era. It is such a wonderful blend of content marketing, and communication service. It has all the potential and capacity to drive fabulous engagement, and above average return on investment for a brand.

The growth of Instagram users has been absolutely phenomenal, which the following chart illustrates. The number of monthly active Instagram users has been on an amazing inclined.

There are more than 4 billion likes per day on Instagram, and each image shared on this medium gets an average of 23% more engagement than its Facebook counterpart.

According to eMarketer, Instagram has brought in $6 billion in global mobile ad revenue in 2018.

Top Instagram Marketing Hacks

Here are some of the most effective marketing hacks you can use on Instagram

Post between 9pm and 8am

The most effective time to post on Instagram is between 9pm to 8am. The prime reason for this is that fact that most users prefer to wait until they are done with their office. It is quite amazing how much difference it can make in the eventual outcome. This also plays a pivotal role in increasing brand visibility.

Use Emojis to Profile

Emojis can lead to 47.7% more interactions on Instagram, as per Quintly. An authentic research indicated that when we see a smiling face online, the same parts of the brain are stimulated as when we look at a human face, hence they actually show a real effect on human beings.

More than 60% of Instagram accounts use emojis. It is a good idea to limit it to one to two emojis per post. In fact, you can even put some in your Instagram bio.

Lifestyle Photography

The best ads on Instagram are the ones that don’t particularly look like ads at all. You would never want to give an impression to people that you are trying to sell or trap them into buying something.

It is strongly recommended to avoid using stock photography at all costs. Instead it is the preferred option to create engaging lifestyle photography that broadcasts the functions and features of your offering in real situations. It has proven to be an influential tool in driving sales, as pictures help communicating the brand’s message better than dull and boring text.

Share Instagram Pictures on Other Forums

Instagram photos are probably some of the most amazing and flattering images you can have. The best thing about Instagram is, when you upload your photos; you can share them on other mediums like Facebook or Twitter.

This cross channel sharing of visual content is a good innovative way of making quality inroads into your segment. Consequently, this sharing has done wonders in improving engagement levels, which in return has boosted the sales volume.

Utilization of Instagram Carousels

The Carousel enables you to upload up to 10 photos in one post. If you have a long list of pictures to post without adding them into separate posts, then this is the feature you want to use.

A carousel ad allows you to place multiple photos or videos within the same ads. These photos or videos can then easily be swiped through by users who encounter your ad in their feeds.

Constant Monitoring of Comment Section

Reviews are a quite a precious piece of words in the current online digital hacks. Improper remarks can substantially hamper the image of your brand. Customers like to be responded, they perceive it as a matter of respect.

If you have left a comment, and later felt pang of regret, it’s never too late. You simply need to go to the offending comment, and click comment to access the comment screen again. Swipe the comment you made to the left, and then you will see the garbage appear, and then tap on the can, and select delete.

Use of Videos for Storytelling

One efficient way of reaching out to your aimed audience on Instagram is by creating and launching scintillating and captivating ads that run within the Instagram stories section of the platform.

According to Instagram, over 400 million accounts are now using this feature quite actively. These stories represent a massive opportunity for business owners who are quite willing to invest time, energy, and money in a bid to create unique, entertaining stories that users can easily see and interact while viewing different stories from the people they follow.

Instagram remains one of the most relevant social channels for your business. This channel of social media is surprising people with its potential. Building an audience on a platform like Instagram demands strategic effort in depth. If you want to make 2019 the year Instagram pave the way the growth of your business, then the above mentioned marketing hacks can considerably help you.

Designing an ecommerce website is not an easy task as it requires extensive planning, especially if you want the website to attract new customers’ day in and day out. Ideally, the best ecommerce website design makes the entire process of online buying stress-free, easy and quick.

According to Diceus website, no matter how good your advertising strategies are, they are of little use if you are losing customers due to a poorly optimized website design. To ensure you get more traffic with maximum conversions, here are 11 tips for cool website designs that will keep your customers coming back for more each time.

1. Keep it Simple

While designing your ecommerce website, keep things as simple as possible. Avoid integrating unnecessary elements that will hinder your target audience’s experience. Pop-ups and banner ads will not do you any good, as they only serve as a distraction and nothing more. The cleaner the design, the more sales you will get.

2. Branding should get Top Priority

When it comes to shopping online, people rather stick to established brands. If your website is faceless, it will look like a scam. To drive sales, you will need to build trust, which is only possible if you spend time on branding. The best ecommerce website design incorporates the business’ brand identity and somehow reflects their culture.

3. Think like a Customer

To connect with your audience, you will need to think like them. Ultimately, there are just a few things your customers will want from their experience this includes a well-designed, easy to navigate site that makes shopping online hassle free and straightforward. If you want your site to succeed, you better give your customers exactly what they want.

4. Use Colors Extensively

Choosing the right colors for your website is not about selecting your favorite color and making do with it. Believe it or not, color is a powerful tool. If you understand the psychology behind it, you can drive some serious sales to your website.

Remember, different colors inspire different feelings. For instance, if you want people to go ahead with a purchase, use a powerful color like red. However, if you want to increase your credibility then you will need to use blue in your ecommerce website design. Each color palate has its own effect on the viewer, so carefully choose the aesthetic facet of your website.

5. Use High Quality Images

it is a known fact that high quality images increase conversions. People will not buy from you if they do not know what the product looks like. For this reason, you will need to show them by providing high quality images. Take professional images from different angles, it will go a long way for your website and brand.

6. Ensure your Content is Readable

Crafting long descriptions will do you no favors, as people will not read it. Break up your content, whether it is a blog post, product description or an about us page. The idea here is to provide content that is easy to scan and read. Keep paragraphs and sentences short, and for key information use bolding. Bulleted lists can be used to break down blocks of texts as well.

7. Your Website should look Professional

People will not hand over their personal information to make purchases on your website if it does not look professional. You will need to invest considerably to make sure your website looks top notch.’ to ‘You will need to invest considerably and implement website redesign on time to make sure it looks top notch

There should be no misspellings or typos. The color palette, font and footer design needs to be consistent on every page. Each and every button and link needs to work. The point being, if you want to be taken seriously, you need to show your customers that you take them seriously too.

8. Don’t Ignore Social Media Platforms

Another great way to build trust is by integrating social media platforms into your website design. There are plenty of ways you can show potential customers what others have to say about you. This can include ratings and testimonials section. The more people see others have had a great experience with you, the more likely they will purchase from your site.

9. Product Categories should be easy to Navigate

Avoid clunky product pages, as they will kill sales faster. Instead of having ten different menus for everything, make sure you have easy to navigate product pages and categories. The easier you make pages and categories to navigate, the easier it will be for your customers to find exactly what they are looking for.

10. The Checkout Process should be Simple

Your checkout process should be as simple as possible. If it is overly complicated, your customers will head to your competitors instead. The checkout page must be simple, easy to navigate and clean. Give your customers the choice to purchase as a member or a guest. The process needs to be crystal clear and once the purchase has been completed, redirect your customers to a confirmation page so they know everything went smoothly.

11. The Website Must be Responsive

To capture more customers, you will need to cater to mobile devices. Your website design has to be optimized for phones and tablets. If it isn’t responsive, you will not able to convince mobile users to purchase from your website.

There is no denying the fact that designing an ecommerce website is not an easy task – but the aforementioned ecommerce design tips will give you everything you need to make sure your website looks great and help converts at the same time.

The digital world requires businesses and companies to create a brand identity to reach their true potential. If you own a lackluster brand, you will need to up your game to ensure you stay ahead of the curve. With a powerful brand identity, you will make it possible for your target audience to relate and understand what your brand really has to offer. If you want a powerful brand identity design, then you are in luck, as you will find everything you need right here.

Identity your Purpose

Every brand typically serves a purpose, what is yours? With a brand purpose you will be able to position yourself more effectively. If done correctly, it will make your service or product more desirable. In this day and age, consumers focus on brands that have a purpose beyond keeping shareholders or investors happy or doing business.

It is the duty of the CEO, founder and brand owners to establish a purpose and also make sure it reflects through the organization. This will not only motivate employees, but it will motivate potential customers as well. When people are motivated, they will surely help you in building a powerful brand identity.

If you are having a hard time with the communication of your brand purpose, try to identify how your product or service is making lives easier, changing lives, being a resource or solving challenges. In the end, this is why people will choose to do business with you, not only because you offer an outstanding product or service.Understanding this will bring you closer to creating a powerful brand identity.

Differentiate Yourself

If it was not obvious enough, you will need to differentiate yourself from the rest of the crowd. This will help your business in the long run. When creating a powerful brand identity, you will need to consider your business’ uniqueness.

When communicating with your target audience, you need to explain how you are different from your competitors. To do so, here are three factors that will do wonders for you:

• Reverence:

This refers to the respect or honor shown towards your brand. This should be your first goal while creating a powerful brand identity.

• Recall:

Recall is the extent to which a product, service or brand name is recalled. With a powerful brand identity, you can make the process easier than ever before.

• Revenue:

Once you have acquired recall and reverence, it will automatically lead to an increase in revenue.

Focus on Brand Visual Identity

What people see should reflect across the board for your brand. Popular brands like Nike and Apple manage to nail their visual identity with their brand message each and every time. You too can stand out by understanding a few things that contribute to your overall brand visual identity.

To build a visual identity that clearly reflects your brand message, you will need to consider the following questions:

• How do you want people to act, respond or feel about your brand?
• What will followers see on their feeds?
• What story do you plan on telling with photos?
• How can you reinforce your brand’s visual message through branded merchandise?
• Choose your brand identity color palette

Be Careful about what you Say

When it comes to creating a powerful brand identity, it may look simple on paper. To gain power, you will need to be respected. Respect can only be established by what you are saying and how you are saying it. Believe it or not, what you write or speak becomes a part of your brand communication.

The content on your website, a conversational email or a headline that attracts social media attention – they all contribute towards a powerful brand identity. To effectively communicate your brand message, take the following questions into your consideration:

• What stands out about the way you speak?
• Is your content perfect all around?
• Are your headlines click-worthy?

Deliver Real Value

The way your services, products or offerings benefit your target audience is vital for your digital brand. What value are you actually delivering? To identity, communicate and enhance your brand value for maximum impact, consider these questions:

• What are your strengths?– Knowing what you do well is necessary to define the necessary elements of your brand value.
• How are you sharing your uniqueness?– Find out about what the world looks forward to from you.
• What are you doing to increase value?– Even though you may be an industry leader, you can never stop learning.

Conclusion

Creating a powerful brand identity does not have to be difficult or complicated. Pay close attention to your product or service to evaluate how it solves problems, makes lives easier or is a valuable resource. Then, consider your brand’s uniqueness to position it properly. Earn respect by being careful about what you say and the way you say it. Deliver real value so that your brand benefits a powerful brand identity.