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It is an unarguable fact that businesses do not need an online presence to reap benefits, rather an online presence has become an absolutely vital need if the business is to compete in today’s world. Many small businesses are now getting their websites developed to make a mark on the online world. It is nice that people understand the value of having a website, but now just “having” a website will not cut it.

So what do you need after you get a website?

Let us talk about a retail store and how it is arranged for success. First thing you pay attention to is the location of the store. It has to be easily accessible for your customers. Once you get the store, you then set up a good looking entrance. After that you arrange the shelves, checkout counter and a couple of special products in their special shelves. You also ensure that the shop looks good overall to the customer. That is all of the things you need to do after you get a website. All these things make for a good website and that is exactly what is needed to get an edge in today’s world.
If you had a store, you talked location. For your website you talk about where is your website hosted and how fast it loads for your customers. Once your website is up, then you go about its design. Are the menus user-friendly? Which products go where? Do you make banners for the special products or products on sale? Where do you keep the check-out button, or do you give an instant checkout option? What are the payment methods that shall work on your website? Setting up these requires technical knowledge but knowing what you need for a good website, requires more business acumen than technical knowledge. A good designer will get you the website, but you should be actively involved in the design process to get a website that the customer will love.

Some of the main features that you should focus on are:

• Get a professional logo designed. This should be visible on the top of your website. It should be easily readable and yet look good.
• Put your phone number somewhere it is easily visible and put a call to action button right next to it.
• Invest a good amount of time in how the menu bar will look like and the pages that it shall lead to.
• You cannot make banners for each and everything. Choose which things you want to show-off to potential customers. Work on where should you place these banners on the website, so they are visible but do not feel like they are being thrusted in ones face.
• Ensure that in the footer you mention all necessary contact information, business/support hours and social media buttons leading to all of your social media accounts.
• Choose a reliable hosting plan that has credible reviews. Also ensure that you have an auto website backup feature and check at what interval is the auto website backup taken.

Last but not least you should choose an agency that does not out-right tell you what would be right for you. Choose an agency which first makes an effort to understand your business model and then explain to you with examples the option you have.

Evolution is as much a phenomena in the online market as it is in the natural world. As things change, you also need to alter your strategic mix to keep up with the trend and stay relevant but logos are a lot different from other marketing strategies in that they serve as identification marks to represent the brand but do not constitute as much in the process of selling the product to the consumer. Logos make for easier brand recall and instant recognition, so they should the purpose by personifying your ideology rather than just become a thing on which you splurge exorbitant amounts of money just because you can. A lot of businesses commit the mistake of redesigning their logo just because the old one has been around for a pretty long period of time and they believe that it must be done away with now.

When, in 2009, Tropicana changed their logo, there was huge outcry from the customer base who believed the old logo sufficed for them and the change was highly unwelcome. What happened there was that, you cannot do much with a beverage which has a certain fruit at the helm of its flavor in terms of changing it. The flavor was the reason the brand was taken up by the consumer in the first place. When they don’t require a change in the taste, a logo redesign which they have come to associate with their loved brand would be very unwanted at that point in time. Logos shouldn’t be like that, they should be changed when there are enough reasons to change them.

A lot of marketers fail to recognize these changes and don’t play by the rules. Here are some of the reason you should look for in your logo to decide whether a change is really required in your current logo design:

Technical Problems arising with the Current Logo:

One of the most basic reasons to change a logo or redesign it has to do with its technical aspects. Check whether your logo doesn’t lose its image quality when its put down to scaling or is it too multi colored, making it expensive to get it printed by the company. Issues like this certainly signal a sign for a minor revamp in the logo design to improve its technical viability across different aspects.

Does it live up to the current vision of your business?

When talking about a logo redesign we need to look deeper into the ideology behind the initial logo when it was first created. Businesses have a tendency to evolve over time and they could end with doing something entirely different from what they started out to do initially. It can be either the inclusion of more brands into the foray or a fit to match marketing strategy that the business straddled upon due to trial and error to maximize its consumer base. When looking for logo redesigns, ensure that your logo now is too different from the ideology behind your workings today.

It is not as appealing as others in the market

When your business started off, you needed to work with the resource you had in hand at that point in time which could have resulted in initial logo design that was enough to begin work with but now as you continue to grow, you now need to upscale your logo to make it more appealing than your competitor’s. This is sometimes the single most important factor in deciding whether to go for a logo redesign or not as other things can surely be worked over or out looked but once you are in with a competition, it is wise to go a for a logo redesign or if possible, for a completely new one to go one up one your competition so that your brand identity gets better and leaves a much more impressionable mark on the consumer.

If you want to run an e-commerce store then the first thing you need to understand is that it is not so different from running an actual storefront. You need to focus on customer service, product availability and make sure your shop looks inviting enough for a customer to step in and then have their curiosity piqued enough to stick and wander about. You need to do pretty much the same with your website. Make the website look inviting and have the perfect combination of looks and effective responsiveness (the equivalent of shop layout and checkout system) to ensure that the customer enjoys their shopping experience. However trends change very fast in the online world. Sliders were a must have last year, but not feel antiquated. Let us talk about the design trends of 2016.

Hero Images

A hero image is what we call a large banner image that is placed in the front and center of the website, essentially making if the first and (only) thing your visitors encounter on your website. They are meant to aesthetically please your website visitors.

A picture is worth a thousand words. And this is exactly the thought that is driving this design trend. There is nothing as relatable or descriptive as a photograph. A photo that is the perfect fit entices the customers and makes them delve further into your website. The website of Maaemo is a perfect example of a hero image being used to its full potential. This shows how crafty designers can get. The photo is not just beautiful but a moving one and loads up very quick. This is the time of photo that actually makes you curious enough to scroll down and find out more about Maaemo does. You can go and check it out yourself. We won’t spoil the experience for you.

Full screen note and Scrollable

These are finally gaining traction again. Non scrollable websites are like getting used to the taste of dark chocolate. On their very first bite most people hate it but by the second or third nibble, one starts to get a small hint of the appeal of dark chocolate.

Non scrollable websites can be navigated using the keyboard in most cases. They tend to be used when you opt for a simple design. One of the best examples of a full screen website that has done away with scrolling is of Facebook Privacy Basics. Not the most responsive website but still looks good and delivers the info very well.

Crazy Animations

If it is possible to create a crazy visual treat, that loads up easily then why not. Waaark is the perfect example of a beautiful color riot visual experience.

So the next time you want to make your website look up to date and enticing enough you should go to your designer firm and ask them to tell you more about the latest trends. Keeping up with the latest trends is important. Many people do ask, what if they cannot keep up with the latest trends? Well then you better be an innovator of trends. Anything other than that and you are setting up yourself for failure.

The most important thing startups should consider is how to build up a diverse and multi-faceted initial brand recognition strategy. Focusing on increasing brand recognition is an indispensable strategy as far as startups are concerned, no matter how powerful or innovative your product or service is. For brand recognition to be powerful, it has to cover all mediums to ensure that all niche markets are effectively covered. The trend nowadays, which is undoubtedly immensely successful in garnering attention towards your brand, is to focus all of your attention on building a great online presence whether it is through SEO, PPC or even getting a great app built. But as effective as it is, online presence doesn’t cover it fully and is not something physical, that as humans, we have a tendency to latch on to and remember it for prolonged periods.

The prevailing opinion among a great chunk of marketers is that print advertising is on its way out and investing in online advertising is the only way to do effective marketing. Well, they are half right. While online advertising definitely ensures great returns but its main problem lies in the fact that the market is highly saturated and with gazillions of ads being churned out every second vying ferociously for the user’ attention, your campaign will not be realizing its true potential. What will complete it is engaging print media and integrating it with your online presence as this will bring in more people and their attention towards what you are trying to say.

The most effective print tool to do this integration is the brochure as its features are the perfect way to go about your way successfully. Lets see how your brochure can be a powerful tool for integration and increasing brand recognition for your startup venture:

The most qualified leads!

When your brochure carries your information and a definite call to action with specific hashtags that will enable anyone who gets hold of the brochure to be able to find you online, any conversions or leads coming off through in this manner will carry more strength than conventional ones because the user took the initiative of contacting you as he/she found the content engaging enough, which translates into half the work done. Brochures can get these conversions quite effectively if they have highly engaging content which is supported by relevant imagery as this engages the user in quite a different manner than something online. Everything online is viewed through the same lens as the quality of the image or graphics are determined more by the type of device being used by the user than the quality of the imagery itself while in brochures, if your logo, advertisement, images, content or any other thing is printed and has a high resolution then it latches on to the user’s attention like nothing else. Sometimes just the feel of the paper is enough to do this.

Permanency with lower costs!

The best thing about brochures is that the most essential consideration in any startup’s marketing plan which is cost is pretty low and gets lower and lower per print with bulk printing, something online ads can never offer. Online advertising carries off the same cost for as many as you want and it is far better to have conventional print media pursue your aim of getting a far bigger outreach coupled with online advertisements. This will decrease your costs and increase your exposure.

Brochures will live on a far longer period than online ads as they offer a tactile feel and are mostly retained by people. As they are comprehensive and can offer a great deal of information related to your service, brochures can give you the added advantage of furthering your credibility with anyone who meets you and wants more info about your gig. Legitimacy is a big criteria for a brand’s success rate especially if it’s a start up. Considering the fact that a pretty large number of startups fail, legitimacy can give you your much needed boost and reduce the chances of people not trusting you. Get your marketing team thinking and let them bring up effective ideas for including print media especially brochures into the fray. You definitely need to order your brochures as soon as possible for your start up to get those eyeballs garnered towards your brand!

A while back we talked about the importance of the business card in the digital world of today. We discussed that even in the digital world of today the business card prospers in corporate business circles and is highly valued.

A business card exchange is almost ceremonious in most countries and has its own set of etiquettes. While the business card is important in all business circles, some cultures place great importance not just on the card but on how it is used. You should be well aware of the general business card etiquettes and even some of the norms that are confined to Asian countries and the like, but important nonetheless.

Do not treat the business card like a promotional flyer

The business card is a subtle way to market yourself, but remember the key word here is “subtle”. In no way should you treat the business card as a flyer.

Keep your business card to yourself until you are asked for your contact info. The business card is mainly used for networking, thus it is given to select individuals. Also when asked for your business card by someone, capitalize on that opportunity. If possible write a note on the back on the card, as a reminder of what you were talking about that led to an exchange of contact information. This will lead to your card standing out when they are going through the business cards they have.

Always have business cards on hand, and in good condition

The excuse that you have forgotten or run out of business cards shows you in a negative light. People will judge you as being unprofessional. Ensure that you are always carrying sufficient business cards and carrying them carefully. A business card is like a billboard that is representing you. A crumpled business card sends a very bad impression. Get a proper case for business cards, in order to ensure that they remain in mint condition.

If you are carrying business cards in sufficient quantity and that too of mint quality that ticks two important boxes. One more thing that is often forgotten is that no one likes someone going through all of their pockets and then briefcase just to find something. It makes you look like a forgetful and thus unreliable person. Ensure that your business cards are easily accessible and in a place that you will always remember.

Handing over and accepting business cards is an art

While in North America and even some European countries like Europe the business card is used a formal tool for communication information exchange, some cultures like that of Japan, Switzerland, China and Singapore treat the exchange of business cards very formally.

One habit that you should make is to always distribute the business card with your right hand. Many cultures put emphasis on receiving things of value from the right hand, and it is considered downright rude to put forward your left hand. This applies very strongly in India and the Middle East.

Second, whenever you receive a business card, do not accept and put it in your card case. Take a moment and scan through it. This shows that you are giving due respect to the other person. This is not something prevalent in North America, but Japanese, Swiss and the Chinese value such actions highly.

While the article above covers many important aspects of the business card exchange etiquette, it is not enough. What is required for true success is homework. Before you venture into new lands, always research about the norms existing there. In our environment today information flows with an ease that could not have been imagined 50 years ago, thus ignorance is not tolerated.

Ever saw faces where there were none? Like when the headlights and front bumper of the car gives you an impression that you are seeing a face. This highly interesting phenomenon is called Pareidolia and it’s the best personification of how the human mind sees and perceives things with each thing eliciting a different kind of a response. Brands are not different. We also associate feelings and perceptions with brands due to their external appearance. Stroll down a street and ask someone of what they perceive when they see things related to “Apple”, the highly successful producer of user items such as IPhones & Ipads, and the answers would be close to the words “young”, “edgy”, Futuristic” and lot of similar terms would definitely spring up. The most intriguing part in this is that none of Apple’s visual branding directly refers to any of these words or terminologies rather their brilliance lies in positioning their brand identity in such a manner that the consumers or the general public at large has come to think of it as something really young, edgy & futuristic. This is what the actual purpose of positioning a brand’s identity is, i.e. to elicit a certain response from the viewer each time anything related to a certain comes before him/her.

This trick happens when you learn how to humanize your brand and then let it work in your favor. It might look like a magical instantaneous type of a thing but its anything other than that. This a step by step process, which if done right will give you a feel from the start that its an identity that’s taking shape rather than a forced narrative. Lets give you the breakdown of how to build a brand identity that feels personal from the other end:

The foundational Questions:

Sit down with your brand team and the ones who have great understanding of what the vision of your brand really is and then ask them some questions like Is the brand masculine or is elicits femininity? Does the brand signify seriousness and maturity or is it funny and friendly? These are some fundamental questions that can go a long way into letting you understand what your brand would look like if it would one day come alive. Once you know the answers to these questions, then see whether it matches what you envisioned it to look and feel like. This will really clear you the path and show you the way to correct the branding strategy from its current standing towards where you want to take it.

Stepping Stones:

Now that you know the traits of your brand, its now the perfect time to start adding components and features that match those traits. This is called creative visualization and it includes all the components of the brand, from the type of the logo to the font used, everything starts getting a skeleton or a foundation, around which we can now start intensifying our efforts and build our brand identity through multiple integral components.

Find the Brand Gaps:

As you are now on the stage of building the components of your brand, you will come across various paradoxes known as brand gaps. These are the things which don’t match the personality of the brand you are currently building. For e.g. your brand feel is that of an extroverted person but your website is too strict and has a genuinely formal feel to it. These are the areas that need the highest effort to rebrand as anything too over the line will cause damage to your brand. The brand personality should match the kind of audience you are trying to serve and not just how you like it to be for e.g. if you are selling medical equipment and your client segment includes hospitals and medical institutions then going for a loud and vibrant brand identity will lead to a complete failure of your brand. Just remember, brand identity is the perception that people take away from your brand and looking at it from that perspective will help your cause immensely. Make your brand possess the best possible identity to garner higher attention and imprint a lasting impression of your brand.

As a social media marketer or enthusiast; it is important know about the common challenges on social media. These challenges are found to be quite stressing on any social media platform and if not resolved in an effective manner; it can lead to more drastic consequences and people on social media choose to engage with the content on their own terms. A consumer may visit any post regarding the brand activity and then deliberately ignore it just because it wasn’t appealing enough. Social media activities does have the potential to make your content go viral and spread out the message further at a lower cost but if your content is not targeted towards the right consumer; then all your activities may just die or dry out. That is why it is important to know about the common challenges which your business might have to face while dealing with the numerous interactions or crafting out your social media strategy.

Thus this blog would examine the 5 common challenges and how they can be resolved strategically in the light of social media marketing and communication.

Effective Community Management

Social media platforms are built around communities and do need constant 24/7 management. Such communities need prominence as do all organizations. Thus it is important that your community on any social media platform is created, shaped and nurtured to not just make interactive conversations but to also lead those conversations to be engaging interactive and create an environment where all your fans and consumers can interact directly with your brand.

Communicating and Outreaching

There is no doubt and every social media activity should offer an effective two way communication and reach out to the public; after all social media is an effective public communication tool as it allows timely messages. Therefore every social media activity has to tailored around consumer’s interest and make it exciting for them to stay constantly be updated with all your social media activities.

Spreading Awareness

Just as it is important to do fishing where the fish are; it is important to do advertising where there is an audience and what better way to find audience on social media platforms. As more people spend their time in social media; thus there are opportunities for brands to capitalize on as brands can know and learn more about their target audiences and their demographics and psychographics. More and more people on social media can easily be targeted through their profiles and the pages that they like or associate with themselves. The more people like or associate your page; the more chances there are for you to spread awareness about your product offerings and services to them.

Building Upon the Reputation

An important feature on social media is for brands to build upon their online reputation by monitoring what their consumers are saying and identifying any issues or problems associated with their brand proactively. It is also for brands to be able to communicate with their consumers and get their side of the story out as social media platform can be used to respond to your mentions, create a stir to further channel out your own agenda.

Support for the Consumers

Social media can sometimes be viewed as an additional customer service channels for the support of your consumers as most consumers are comfortable by using the social media platform to make their queries, highlight their problems or ask questions about your product or services. Thus it must be viewed as an opportunity for the business to respond to their queries in a friendly way to get the word out. A proactive customer service for your customers on social media can get them the satisfaction to stay royal to your business and product or services offerings.

While dealing and resolving such challenges, you can also be able to craft your content in way that can easily be picked by your consumers to go viral.

Building a brand is difficult, but re-building one after a failure is even more difficult. It is a well-known fact that human brain is naturally hard-wired to remember and talk about negative experiences more than the positive ones.

Anything worth doing is difficult and if you have failed as a brand then reinvention may be the only way forward to survival. There have been many big names that have gone to the pinnacles of success to the depths of utter failure, only to get back again as respectable brands. One of the most famous cases is the case of Skoda, the famous car manufacturer. Looking at Skoda we will talk about how you should go forward if you are in the difficult spot of facing failure or re-inventing your brand.

How did Skoda re-invent its brand?

One of the best jokes associated with Skoda in the 1980s was:

“Why do Skoda have heated rear windows? To keep your hands warm while you push it”. And the joke that Skoda must have hated the most, “How do you double the value of a Skoda? Fill it with petrol”.

Skoda is one of Europe’s oldest brands and before the Second World War II it was considered a competitor to Mercedes in Eastern Europe for its excellent car quality. However after World War II Skoda’s factory fell under communist control leading to decline in investment which ultimately led to a steep decline in quality.

The turnaround began when Skoda was purchased by VW in 1992. VW knew from day one that brand myths have life of their own and the negative image of Skoda would far outlive the reality, however they began with a solid strategy. They first asked the Skoda team to fully focus on build quality, which they did. The car designs were changed, but even then elements were sustained which showed the Skoda heritage, for example the front grille. This is important, for some things are essential to the identity of the product.

Second came the marketing. Skoda did not try to shuffle all the bad customer goodwill under the market. Instead they made humorous ads which showed customer’s perception (that Skoda made bad cars), then the advert showed the new cars, with the tagline “It is a Skoda too. Honest”. The adverts were loved.

Quality which made their cars stand shoulder to shoulder with Toyota and Honda, and clever adverts Skoda has now taken over 2 percent of the market share of one of the most competitive markets of the world.

Where do you start brand-reinvention from?
First of all a brand has two very important offers, an emotional one as well a real offer. You have to offer a good product or service, which is complement by an “image” that gives it a bit of that magic factor. Think of Haagen Dazs Ice-cream when you think of the magic factor.

The onus of the quality part is on the business management. Re-inventing the image is something for which you should hunt a marketing agency, and in this day and age a marketing agency that specializes in digital marketing. Skoda worked on its quality and the amazing advertising campaign was led by Agency Fallon. Brand re-invention should start with self-reflection, and then effective market research to find which parts need to be worked on. The market research is again something that should be outsourced to digital marketing specialists for a digital marketing firm for a much larger reach.

Designers may find it difficult in the early stages of designing as they need to incorporate their mental strategies for solving out designing problems and finding the right element to blend it with the creative art. The Idea Generation is one of the most difficult phases in the designing process as fresh ideas need to be generated by the designer which can still remain incompletely understood. Here are some of the ways for a creative designer where he or she can gather creativity and intelligence to design anything creative.

The Preparation Phase
The preparation phase for a designer is pretty much about ‘fact finding’ or ‘collecting’ information or creative references. It is a way to build knowledge about the problem for the client; what he wants and what he needs to display or portray. Thus the creative designer must focus on identifying and evaluating all creative and inspirational ideas before generating a design idea concept.

Inspiration information is usually in the form of images where the designer evaluates all analytical reasoning with the influence of visual elements and creative designing solutions. All such findings are important and crucial for the designer and can also be executed by expert think tanks or strategist for guiding the designer who can further use computational design software tools to efficiently develop and support the designing creativity.

Finding the Cognitive Approach for Designing
Research is always an important process for designing activities. It is important to know about the market dynamics for their creatives and art. So in order to blend creativity in the designing process, it is important to browse all inspirational materials from all the sources and involve analogical reasoning to develop your own creative idea concept. Analogical thinking is often triggered by visual stimulation through various images and art. It stimulates the designer’s creativity builds upon a structure of thought process during the designing process.

Looking for the Inspirational Mediums for the Designers
It is also important to create a link between organizational values or product visual characteristics with the creative design concept. Anyone of these elements or factors can inspire feelings of emotion. Designers are always on the lookout for inspiration and must indulge themselves to know about different creative trends and design news.

However, some creative concepts are difficult to implement because of the limitations of computational or editing software tools. While searching for different design concepts, designers must also keep check for specific colors or shapes which can easily align and be relevant with the organization or with its initial purpose. Designer’s creative concept has to be efficiently supported by the computational or editing software to shape it up for realization as these tools are able to take the designer’s creativity and subjectivity into account. The real challenge is to conduct early efficient informational and inspirational phases for the creative idea generation. Such findings help to guide the designing process to reach a fruitful outcome or result.