Archive for 'Branding'
Game-changer: Living and loving your brand
Posted on 26. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
Do you love your brand?
You might be thinking, ‘What? No, I don’t love my brand! It’s a marketing tool. It’s made up, created by some artsy graphic designer. I love my spouse, my kids, but my brand? Heck no!’
That’s OK, but write this down as something you need to think about changing.
Do you live your brand? Chances are you do. And if you live it, you are connected with it. If you …
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Eat your brand: Recognizing your brand’s influence on you
Posted on 21. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
Your brand is kind of like breakfast, the most important meal of the day. Your brand is the motivational fuel that gets your business through each day.
Take it in, each and every morning, just like the eggs and toast, protein shake or coffee you crave at the start of each day. Each of us interacts with our brand every single day, whether it’s Monday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
Monday-Friday, you have a relationship with …
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What happens when you skip branding?
Posted on 17. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
Branding is hard work – no two ways about it. It’s a never ending effort that pays off in more ways than most people realize. Your brand effects your daily motivation, your approach to your work, and your overall success. It drives your marketing, and ultimately it is one of the two strongest forces driving your business.
Businesses who skip branding often fail because they lack the basic definition of who they are and why …
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Finding a great graphic designer, part 3: Deliverables
Posted on 16. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
Your brand is made of three primary components: visual, verbal, and action.
The first creative part of virtually every brand development is visual design. I’ll cover the verbal and action components in upcoming posts.
Your logo and corporate identity, including your business card and website, set the visual tone for your brand and many of your marketing communications. Colors, graphic standards, and type selections are all determined at this phase.
One of the most …
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Quick brand naming tip, or how the blue and red Buddhas got a hearty laugh
Posted on 10. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
One of the most important first steps in the branding process is brand naming. It can be a tricky equation. You have to balance your desire with practicality, availability, meaning, the catchy factor, and other considerations. Spelling is kind of important too.
Several years back, a long-time client of mine with a penchant for brainstorming at 1:00 a.m. decided he wanted to create a nebulous product called either Blue Buddha or Red Buddha. He couldn’t …
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Finding a great graphic designer, part 2: Goal Setting
Posted on 08. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
A wise friend once told me: If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.
If you have been dissatisfied with the work your graphic designer has done, you probably do not know how amazing it feels to experience outstanding design when it is created just for your business.
Communication is key
If you want a big change in the perception of your business, or a …
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Finding a great graphic designer, part 1: Budgeting
Posted on 04. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
One of the most common questions I receive at speaking engagements is, “How do I find a great graphic designer?” Finding a graphic designer who fits your needs can be a complex equation, but knowing what you need and having a set of important questions to ask prospective graphic designers can shorten the process by leaps and bounds.
Budgeting for graphic design often draws a question mark for people new to hiring a designer. While …
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Finding a great graphic designer, an introduction
Posted on 04. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
I get the question all the time at speaking events and workshops: “How do I find a great graphic designer for my brand development?” It’s not the kind of question that can be adequately answered in a couple of minutes, so I thought I’d write a multi-part series here on finding a great graphic designer.
I get calls nearly every day from entrepreneurs who know they need to hire a graphic designer for brand development, …
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What is Brand Positioning?
Posted on 01. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
I gave a talk on branding last Friday at the beautiful new Bellevue City Hall. One topic that spurred many questions was Brand Positioning. It is difficult to explain such an important step of the branding process in roughly ten minutes, so here’s a little more detail. I’ll be visiting this topic often.
Brand positioning is perhaps the most shunned part of branding that exists, especially for small businesses. Creative professionals don’t like it because …
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It’s High Time for a Revolution in Branding
Posted on 01. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
It’s time to get real, get honest, time to make meaningful connections. It’s time to believe in your brand.
How can I, Kelly Hobkirk, brand development specialist, graphic designer, writer, entrepreneur possibly claim to be starting a revolution in branding? It’s a bold claim coming from a guy who hasn’t the street cred of an Ogilvy, nor the blogger prowess of a Rowse. I lack the notoriety of some of the larger players in graphic …
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