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 they exist in the context of consumerism. Without that stated knowledge, they lack the core foundation that should be driving their marketing in a compelling manner, instead relying on a vague sense of why they exist and who they serve.
This opens the door for bad planning, bad deals, and poor decisions. Look at the banking industry if you need an example of companies who fail to utilize the true power of branding. Banks continually put out messages that don’t connect with reality, and they obviously make poor decisions that effect not only their bottom line but their customers’ as well.
If you skip creating a clear, concise brand, what do you have instead? Emptiness. How can customers connect with emptiness? They can’t.
Where does emptiness get you? Nowhere. Think of a dog chasing it’s tail. He may be having fun for a few minutes, but he is most definitely not getting anywhere.
If your business is lacking a clear brand identity, you have the following expensive, time-consuming problems to contend with on a daily basis:
• Your people are lacking in clear direction.
• Your marketing is lacking in purpose.
• Your customers don’t understand you.
• Pandora’s Box (or jar really) is open.
That’s some pretty weighty stuff! And it can have a dire effect on your business.
This may not always be apparent. You may be able to do ok without a brand identity, but you will never achieve your greatest success without a meaningful brand because the above items will to a large extent always be true. A strong brand is often what separates those businesses who merely survive and those who are growing by leaps and bounds.
Questions to ask yourself:
• How much more revenue would you bring in if your brand recognition increased by ninety percent?
• How much more effective would your sales team be if they had a deeper sense of purpose that they can find only at your company?
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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 common questions I get on first contact from someone looking for a graphic designer is, “What items do we need for corporate/brand identity?” There is some variation according to usage and business type, but for nearly every businesses I recommend the following basic items as a start:
1. Logo
2. Business Card
3. Website
4. Letterhead
5. Envelope
6. Tag line
7. Overview Brochure
8. Mailing Label
Here is an overview of each item, along with the reasons why nearly every business needs them:
Logo
Your logo is the visual cornerstone of your brand that tells people who you are, and does so in an incredibly memorable way. It sets the tone for all pieces and graces nearly all of your marketing communications. Love it, and never leave it.
Business Card
Even if you never leave the dark dungeon of your home office or the confines of your plush leather chair, you must have a business card. And not just any business card. Your business card has the power to make a huge first impression, or to be silent as a lamb – even if it’s coming out of an envelope. Never skimp on your business card design or printing. Avoid cheap online printing of your cards, at all costs. If you have to go that route, fine, but consider it a temporary stop-gap measure. Or better yet, find any way humanly possible to budget for a great card, and it will pay off in spades.
Website
Your website is the first or second point of contact for many people. Make it great. Budget well for it. Do not put up a website that you have to apologize for. If you’re not impressed by it, no one else will be either. If you have a small budget, keep an open mind, and find someone who offers an outstanding solution within your budget. It may take time to find them, but someone can do it. Work incrementally if you have to. Never settle for a lesser website than your brand deserves.
Letterhead, Envelope and Mailing Label
Many businesses use these items few times in a year, however, those few times are usually worth investing in good design and printing. If you send someone a fat proposal on a lasered letterhead in an ink-jetted envelope, with a hand-written label, you’ve just sealed your fly-by-night look on your hard work. Why risk losing that $43,000 contract? Spend the $400 on offset printing, and look professional every time.
Tag line
While your logo tells everyone who you are, you tag line succinctly tells people what you do and what you stand for. Your logo and tag line are a potent combination of meaningful, memorable brand smack.
Overview Brochure
Think brochures are outdated? Think again. When your computer, iPod or iPad are absent, your brochure can make the sale. I’m not talking about that yawn-inducing tri-fold in your dentist’s office. I’m talking about the uniquely formatted and crisply designed rockstar brochure that makes you feel like two million bucks handing it out. The one that can be passed on to someone easily and with a word of recommendation. The one that makes eyeballs bulge and helps people connect with your company. Your overview brochure is your impressive, convincing voice when you can’t be there.
Investing in professional brand identity materials does three things:
1. It makes you feel more professional.
2. You project more confidence, thus you sell better.
3. It makes the difference between looking like a fly-by-night organization or a real business.
A good graphic designer can put together a package of the above items that best suits your needs and budget. Sometimes we add in t-shirts, thank you cards, bookmarks and other branded items. Going in with a list of what you want can help. During your graphic designer search, make sure your prospective designer can handle all of these elements well.
Find this article helpful? Please add a comment or question below. Thanks for reading.
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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 decide which he liked better, so he registered the dot coms for both. He renewed them for a couple of years, adding his investment in the names up to about $60. He did this all on his own.
He asked me to handle the domain renewals in the fourth year, whereupon I noticed that he had misspelled Buddha as Buddah. It’s a common misspelling, but it has the undesirable association as a slang term for marijuana, not ideal for a consumer product unless it got people high I suppose. I suspect the FDA would frown upon this.
I checked the proper spelling dot com availability. They were both taken, and the client lost all interest in his prize names on the spot.
The moral: Always check your spelling when naming your brand!
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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 boost in sales, or you have some other big goal, stop doing what you have always done. Find a designer who speaks your language, both verbally and aesthetically. You can usually tell if you’re on the same page within 10-15 minutes of talking. Branding is a personal process, so great communication with your designer is critical to getting what you want.
Align your budget and goals
If your budget doesn’t align with your goals, ask about options or adjust your goals to a more modest start with increasing ambition as your efforts start paying off. Some graphic designers can get pretty darn creative with solutions to meet your budget.
If you find yourself theorizing about the least amount of business you can take on to survive (to deal with a low budget), try instead thinking about your ideal client capacity.
How do you set goals for your brand development?
Depending on your business size, a brand audit is a good place to start. A brand audit will show weaknesses and enlighten areas to improve. If you run a small business, a brand audit shouldn’t take very long. If you’re just getting started, do a reverse brand audit by thinking about all of the places you think people will interact with your brand.
Think about every single point of contact that you have or will have with customers and prospects. This may be a little hard to do by yourself because you may take your brand touch points for granted – which is easy to do.
Listen for the red flags Some designers actually view a logo as a secondary element to a website. If you get that vibe while talking to them, find another. Your logo is one of the primary things you want people to remember on your site. It should never be an afterthought. If it is thrown in as a side order, move on. Your logo is the most important visual element of your brand.
Example brand development goals:
• Get a new logo that you totally love
• Get an identity design that you can be proud of
• Develop a brand that speaks to you and your audience
• Develop a clear brand that motivates employees
• Develop a brand that is strong at every touch point
Ask your prospective graphic designer the following:
• What is your specialty?
• Where can I see examples of your logo design, corporate identity design, and websites?
• Can you help me do a brand audit?
• Can you provide both individual and package pricing?
Try to get a feel for how the designer listens to you, and how responsive they are to your questions. If you have worked with a graphic designer in the past, think about some areas where you would like a better relationship with a new designer. Ask about those when you are interviewing designers.
This is your opportunity to find a graphic designer who can deliver exactly what you want. Make the most of it.
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You have a personal brand, even if you don’t know it
Posted on 07. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
Everyone has a personal brand, whether they know it or not. If you change or define yourself in profound ways you can change how people perceive you. You can also change your own self-perception, which can be an empowering experience.
When you reinvent yourself, you could say that you are rebranding yourself. Your body language, identity materials, behavior, compassion, humor, expressions, contributions, the way you dress, the service you provide – all of these characteristics and more define your personal brand. You may be surprised to learn that your social media profiles have little to do with personal branding.
The idea of a personal brand is not really a new concept. It’s just a newer take on an old practice. A personal brand is much like a corporate brand, but perhaps simpler. The process of personal branding is pretty much identical to branding a business.
The big difference between corporate branding and personal branding is end-goals. Personal brands are generally designed for personal advancement or improvement. If you work for a company with a weak corporate brand, you may benefit from strengthening your personal brand and carefully standing apart from your employer’s brand.
Common goals for personal brands include elevating your personal or professional profile, clarifying your goals, stating and living by your beliefs, building confidence, and changing the way people perceive you. Can a personal brand really do all that? Yes, it can, but not by itself. You have to believe it and live it. It’s not enough to say, ‘I’m going to change.’ Change only happens when you really want it as bad as you want the air you breathe.
One of the most profound parts of personal branding is the development itself. In the development process, you get to see yourself in a whole different light. You discover habits and patterns you perhaps weren’t aware of, you learn how you developed into the person or professional you are, and you learn strategies for change that really work.
I’m going to publicly explore my personal brand right here in the coming months. The best way to learn about personal branding is from experience, so if you would like to be profiled or spotlight your own personal brand, get in touch.
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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 frugality is important, your visual identity is the last item to skimp on because it is the most important tool you have for making a great first impression.
The number one thing you need to do before contacting graphic designers is determine your budget. Designers are masters of crafting solutions to meet budgets, but if you don’t know your budget when you start calling, they will not be able to provide responsible estimates.
Some graphic designers do design only, while others competently offer a full range of services. In my experience, working with one person or office can be of great benefit because it keeps your overall brand message focused. It saves money, energy and time too.
A quick word of warning: Many graphic designers have no idea what branding actually is, so be sure to ask some tough questions specifically about branding. I’ll cover this in more depth in an upcoming post.
There are many ways to find a great designer, from referrals to checking samples, to good ole Q & A. Conversation wins out nearly every time, so my vote is Q & A. First, you have to ask yourself some tough questions, then it’s time to start quizzing a short list of designers to find the right one for you. Read on to discover some things to look for and questions to ask.
Budget setting: use the new computer rule
When setting your budget, use the ‘New Computer Rule,’ which states that you should always buy the most expensive computer you can afford. The reason for this is simple. If you buy the cheapest computer, it will have a slower processor, it will become outdated much faster, and it will not serve your purposes very well.
Similarly, if you buy the cheapest logo, identity or website design, it may be lacking in power and longevity, and it probably will not communicate the essence of your unique business. If your goal is to increase sales by making a bigger impact right from the start, a cheap identity or website will not do the trick. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, but don’t sell your brand short either.
Budgeting questions to ask yourself:
• What is my annual operating budget?
• What can I budget for brand development?
• Do I want to work with an established professional?
• Can I deal with an inexperienced designer to save money? Is it worth it? (Hint: probably not)
• What are my needs for deliverables? (i.e. brand strategy, brand positioning, logo, business card, tag line, website, etc.)
• What do I expect from the working relationship?
Questions to ask your prospective graphic designer:
• What are your primary services?
• If you know your deliverables, ask for an estimate. Even a ballpark estimate might help you determine if you can afford to work with the designer you like.
• How many revisions are included in your estimates?
On hourly rates
You might be tempted to ask hourly rates. Proceed with caution or at least a very open mind here because all designers work at different speeds, which means that a fast designer will probably have a higher rate, yet you may still be able to afford them. You might be surprised – some designers work 5-10 times faster than others. Also, while a low rate may be hard to resist, it can often be a red flag signaling lack of experience that can cost you bigtime down the road.
What are some questions you have about budgeting for graphic design and brand development? Add your comments below.
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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, but they have no idea where to start. By ‘no idea’, I’m not just talking about the finding a designer part.
They frequently have no budget in mind, no known annual operating budget from which they might figure out a project budget, no business plan, and no long-term goals down on paper. They often have no idea what constitutes a good logo design, and they have no idea what elements make up a brand. They just know they need a graphic designer.
Can I work with this set of variables? Well, I certainly try! The truth is calls like that are often the launch pad to a bunch of tough questions. Sometimes it leads to a great relationship.
Now, I could throw a guesstimate price out there based on what I think they need – and sometimes I just have to – but if I really want to help the person by providing an accurate estimate and have any chance of landing their business, it’s important to learn a few things first. Primary among them are their budget and goals.
Hands on the table
Ten years ago, if I asked about a project budget, I got a straightforward answer, but things have changed. Now when I ask for the budget prior to providing an estimate, about 85% of the time the answer is, “I have no idea. What should the budget be?” If I then produce a middle of the road estimate, I stand a good chance of seeing my prospective client’s utter surprise fly across the room or through the phone, smacking into the wall like a cast iron frying pan.
I often find that people have a preconceived notion of what a design project is worth before they have any idea what the end-product will do for them.
Some people hold back on sharing their budget because they think it’s smart business, like maybe they’ll get a better deal. And maybe they will, but it’s more likely they won’t. A far more efficient strategy for getting an exceptional design is everybody with their hands above the table, working towards a common goal.
If you truly have no idea what your budget is, that’s ok, as long as you’re willing to do the work together to figure it out. At some point, your budget and goals absolutely have to align, or you will likely wind up frustrated or disappointed, or worse, over budget.
Making sense of budget alignment
A company called me last year wanting a custom font designed and programmed. I was told that budget wasn’t a problem. I mentioned that custom type design and font programming can run between $5,000 and $15,000, depending on complexity. I heard this: “What?! Oh, I thought it would be maybe one or two hundred bucks.” Click.
Type design is often a 100-200 hour (or more) conquest. The end result is a truly unique typeface that becomes a core part of a company’s marketing communications. It provides a distinctiveness that few other elements can. The financial benefit of it is tremendous because it can transform a company’s marketing pieces from mediocre yawnfests to attention-getting masterpieces.
SO: Say I spent 50 hours on their type design project. At $200, I would make $4 per hour on the project. Next! Had the company’s goals and budget been aligned, I could have suggested a smart solution for them.
Take note!
Creative problem solving is part of what you should be looking for in a great graphic designer. It’s what elevates design to another level, one that connects with people on multiple levels.
The point of this series
If you read every article in this series, you will be one informed entrepreneur, ready to march out and find an absolutely perfect fit in a graphic designer for your brand development needs (or virtually any graphic design project needs).
Does this sound like a valuable series to you? Let me know in comments, and stay tuned!
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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 it is quite involved and less on the creative side. Clients don’t like it because it costs money, and it can reveal that your golden egg is perhaps a little more on the silver side.
We all like to believe that our ideas are completely original, and often times they are. But – and this is a big but – sometimes your original ideas are not so original.
Brand positioning brings to light the viability of your product or service. It can also show alternate paths, and even reveal new opportunities.
Brand Positioning is a difficult task which can rarely be completed by one person alone. Good brand positioning is a question and answer proposition, requiring hours and days of intense research, along with a nearly inhuman amount of objectivity.
Combined with brand strategy, positioning is a potent step in brand development. Brand positioning and strategy will provide you with a clear direction and a wide-angle view of the future for your marketing. It will also give your graphic designer exactly what they need to be able to design your corporate identity with purpose and meaning.
Brand positioning clearly defines the following crucial things, before you invest time, money, hopes, and energy in realizing your vision:
Originality – Is your idea unique? You may think it is, but now is the time to do some intensive research to discover whether or not other companies are marketing the same product or service.
Establish your unique position in your chosen market - If your product is totally unique, you may have hit a home run. If there are other products just like it, you may have to position yours as being different in one important way, which can capture the attention of your audience, and can garner enough sales to justify the effort.
Identify competitors - Everyone has competition. Everyone. I once had a boss who liked to tell his employees that the company had no competition. He wanted them to think only about their own success. There is wisdom in that approach, because it can help people focus, however, a strong competitor is a valuable asset. It gives you a peer, a potential equal whom you can rise above, or set incremental goals against, to capture a market. All great athletes have competitors. Businesses do too.
Determine required budget to compete - Do you have the needed budget? You may have the drive and determination, but if a larger competitor has the marketing budget to outgun you at every crucial step, you are going to need to change your strategy, and you may need to consider a different position in the market.
This is often a hard process. When you’re excited about getting your business started or launching a new brand, objectivity is usually the one key ingredient most people lack, and often in a big way. I highly recommend pairing with a brand consultant or graphic designer who truly understands branding.
At the end of the process, you should have a brand position summary that clearly states your market position, and can guide your product development, brand development, and marketing planning.
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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 design, yet I am quite an accomplished, award-winning designer. (I might be famous, it’s just that few people have ever heard of me.) Until now, no one has heard of a need for a revolution in branding, but it’s high time.
Why would I make such a claim? A branding revolution. Well, in my twenty-five year design and advertising career, I have worked with a metric ton of entrepreneurs, small to medium size businesses, and a couple handfuls of massive corporations with international reach. In all that time, with nearly all of those businesses, I have observed one alarming consistency: Few people actually believe in their brands.
How can that be?
What is your brand?
Brands started out as a way to mark ownership of cattle, or essentially as a sort of crude logo. The term ‘brand’ has evolved since then to mean a whole lot more for you and your business.
Simply put, your brand is your characteristics and beliefs, expressed visually, verbally, and by your actions.
Your brand is the pillar of your beliefs. It is the single most effective marketing tool you will ever have. If you don’t believe in your brand, you probably would be well-served to find a new job.
Why your brand is monumental
What happens when you don’t believe in your brand? Employees don’t believe. They work to collect a paycheck. They work less hard and sell less effectively because it’s hard to dedicate yourself to selling something you don’t believe in. Customers don’t believe in you either. Sales drop. Brand loyalty ceases to exist. Brand equity tumbles. Your position in your market is devalued. Your company is worth less, and people don’t care about you.
If you don’t believe in your brand, you have an express ticket to a sharp downward spiral, which can lead only to failure. This is a scary fact, and it can get a whole lot worse.
Brands have become weak
The three most common problems with personal brands, small business brands, and even large corporate brands are:
1. Lack of foundation in reality
2. Poor design lacking in sound strategy
3. Squandered opportunity
During the last few years I’ve watched a stunning amount of companies not just shoot themselves in the foot, but blow their feet clean off by developing brands with little or no foundation in reality. The result is a seemingly deliberate disconnect. Why would anyone do that?
Many companies skip strategy altogether, moving from some vague idea of who they are to an identity that fails to accurately portray them. This is really a shame because when it is developed right your brand is the most powerful, affordable, and valuable marketing tool you and your company will have during the entire life of your business.
If you are not personally invested in your brand, guess what? No one else will be either. Your employees won’t believe the spiel you feed them, and neither will your customers and prospects.
Branding is hard work
It is not hard to believe in your brand. But it is hard to create a brand you can believe in. It truly is hard work, and it’s an ongoing process.
Why is it so hard to create a brand with meaning? Most people do not understand their brand. They have no idea what is its purpose, what it stands for, how far it can reach, and how it effects them on a daily basis. Many companies do not understand what a brand actually is, and they lack an understanding of the process of branding.
Many graphic designers also are confused about what branding is, so when a company turns to a graphic designer for brand development, they often have no idea what they’re getting into. Sometimes they hire a designer who hasn’t the foggiest idea what branding is.
Branding is not something you pick up in a week or two, and it cannot be learned exclusively from reading. Good brand development requires an in-depth knowledge of strategy, graphic design, typography, web design, outstanding copywriting, a keen eye for detail, an understanding of people, business experience, and life experience, among other elements.
Most people believe that no matter the state of their brand, it must be a positive thing, but that’s not even close to the truth. Some brands are poisoned. Some brands are buried. Some brands lost their way so long ago that no one knows the way back. Some people believe that brands are worthless. I don’t know where this belief originates, but after spending about ten minutes with a person, I can usually figure it out.
Turning a brand around — revolutionizing it — is not an easy thing to do, but the effort is well worth it. Are you ready to revolutionize your brand?
Why is branding so hard?
Brands do not grow on websites. They are not available for $40 on ebay. You cannot design a logo, slap it on a business card and a website, and claim that you have a brand. You cannot set up a few social media profiles and claim that you have a brand. Yet, that’s what people are doing. They’re creating empty brands.
If you are shortchanging your brand development, you are shortchanging your success. You are telling yourself, your employees, and your customers that you are not worthy of their attention. Are you worthy?
My guess is you probably are worthy. Then I invite you to take this ride on Branding Revolution to change your life and your business.
Some key topics we’ll be addressing on Branding Revolution include:
• Finding meaning in your brand
• Personal branding
• Small business branding
• Staying true to your brand
• How your brand fits into your marketing
• Keeping your brand strong
It is important to understand not only your brand itself, but to some extent the process of branding. You don’t need to become a branding expert, but some insights will go a long way towards helping you get the most out of your brand or personal brand.
What are your experiences with branding? If you find this post inspiring, please add your comments. Thanks for reading.
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