Corporate Logo Design – 6 Keys to Success

A corporate logo design should be highly instrumental in building your corporate identity and should successfully exude the company’s attitude. The viewers must have some idea about the disposition, character, or fundamental values of your company through your logo.

Following certain basic principles can ensure that your corporate logo design is professional easy to remember and creates a great impact on its viewers while successfully expressing the nature of your business.

Go for Professional Logo Designers
You might save a few dollars doing your own logo or getting it done from the next door boy who knows the basics of designing but if you are serious about your business you should always go for a professional logo design firm. Your corporate logo is your identity, your customers recognize you by your logo, so the more professional and sophisticated your logo is the better will be your customer’s impression about your company.

Though most of the logo design companies charge exorbitant rates to create a corporate logo design but the industry is changing. These days there are companies that offer excellent professional logos for nominal charges (e.g., http://www.mycorporatelogo.com)

Simplicity – Keep it Simple

An ideal corporate logo design should be simple and memorable. Corporate houses spend thousands of dollars to ensure that customers remember them at all point of time and a simple logo is the key to that. Think about the Nike logo, it’s simple and memorable—once you see the Swoosh, do you ever need to think twice about the company name?

Colors

Colors you use for your corporate logo are a very important factor in your brand establishment. If you already have your corporate colors ask your logo designer to use those colors for the logo. If you don’t, suggest the colors that you think might give your prospective clients some idea about the type of business you do. For example, a company working in the fields of forest conservation might like their logo to be in green. At the same time, you also need to consider which colors will go well with your corporate stationeries as well.

Black and White version

While emphasizing the colors we must also remember that it is important for a corporate logo to come out well in black and white. A corporate logo design is used in all corporate communications including fax and photocopied document where they will be in black and white and the logo design must be such that it holds the same impact even in black and white.

Minimize Colors

This is more important from an economic and usability point of view. Corporate logos are often required to be printed for stationary and corporate literature. Using a one or two spot color logo can save a lot of cost compared to printing a full color logo.

Logo Format

It is advisable to always use a vector format for your corporate logo design. A corporate logo may be required to be reproduced at any size for different purposes in the future. A logo design done in vector format can be expanded to any size without any loss of image quality, where as a corporate logo in raster format will loose image quality, if scaled up. Also it is easier to convert a vector logo design to bitmap than vice versa.

If you get a professional logo design firm to do your corporate logo and brief them about this basic tips (most of the knowledgeable firms are well aware of these principles) you are sure to get a satisfactory corporate logo design that would go a long way in helping you establishing your brand.

Use your Logo:

Once you are ready with your corporate logo start giving it maximum exposure possible. Not only on your business cards and letterheads but also on your packaging, uniforms, pens and all possible goods should contain your logo. This gives wider exposure to your logo and people gets familiar with the corporate logo much faster. With all these you are on your way to establish your brand.

Ray Smith is a marketing Expert with years of experience in different industries and specialized knowledge on branding and internet marketing.
Corporate Logo Design.

118118 - Directory Assistance Service in Great Britain

118118 is a United Kingdom provider of directory enquiry facilities, helping everyone to get hold of telephone contacts amongst other useful info.

118118 make use of The Number UK Ltd’ to supply directory assistance information - the Number UK Ltd is a child company of US Business InfoNXX - the largest independent directory enquiries supplier on Earth.

Directory enquiries used to be obtained by phoning 192 (Great Britain), but, the market was deregulated in ‘02 and in August 2003 192 terminated.

As well as offering up a directory enquiry facility, 118118 also offer a facility whereby you could ask 118’s staff a question, including’ Where is the highest building in Mexico’ and 118 118 will supply the answer to your question, over the mobile, or through a text (terribly valuable for a quiz!)

118118 presented a number of remarkable ad campaigns in recent years, making both twins sporting droopy ‘taches, well known for promoting 118 118’s resource. The guys who have appeared in several peculiar circumstances, such as a parody of ‘The A-team’. 118 118 are, now, an incredibly familiar component of the 118 brand across the United Kingdom, and are readily recognizable.

10 Secrets for Free Media Placement

Why pay a high priced PR agent when you can get free media placement to promote your product, service, or book?

Follow these top ten tips for 2005 and it will
be your most profitable year yet!

1. Write an attention grabbing headline.

Realize that your headline must immediately
“hook” a busy producer or editor at first glance.
If your headline doesn’t hook them, they won’t read
further.

2. Be certain that your book is appropriate for the target audience.

Do not send a media release about your romance novel to a radio show that interviews only nonfiction authors. Wishful thinking is well and good, but realize that shows KNOW their target market.

3. Realize that there is a difference in format when sending a release by email and by fax.

A faxed release and release sent by mail can be
identical. However, an email release requires careful
crafting to get right and is an art onto itself. The key
concept to remember is twofold. First, the subject line spells the difference between the release being opened or deleted. Second, you must target delivery of the email release carefully, or you risk being banned forever to the recipient’s “bozo” file.

4. Be certain to include key information in a book
release such as your ISBN number, publication
date, page count and binding, and if you like
a small .jpeg of the cover.

5. You can increase your chances of
being booked on a radio station if you offer
to give away books on the show in your
release.

6. For media releases aimed at reviewers,
include information on how they can
get a book to review by email or fax.

7. Do not follow up to see if the recipient
received the release. If this is a show or
publication you are keenly interested in,
call them with “new information”
designed to create more excitement
in featuring you.

8. Keep a notebook with you and
jot down names of appropriate media
contacts as you read publications and
hear radio interviews.

9. Journalists and producers need you
and your news, but will lose respect if
you hammer them with releases that
don’t apply to their market or beat.
Discriminate.

10. Keep a “swipe file” of
clever advertisements or headlines
you can refer to when you need
a creative boost.

—

Publishing Guidelines: You can publish this article in your print or electronic ezine as long as you include the resource box/signature line below. If you are using this for your web based ezine, please hyperlink to http://www.BuildingBuzz.com and send a courtesy link to mailto:mdvari@deg.com

Marisa D’Vari is author of the new book Building Buzz: How to Reach and Impress Your Target Audience (Career Press, 2005 .
Access a complimentary 76 page reports on free media placement, as well as additional articles, at http://www.BuildingBuzz.com and can be reached at mdvari@deg.com

What Word Do You Own?

When I hear the word pyschology, I think of Dr. Phil.

When I hear the word motivation, I think of Tony Robbins.

When I hear the word marketing, I think of Seth Godin.

And when I hear the word closeout, I think of my Dad.

Why?

Because each of those people are individuals who, in MY mind, have the most expertise about, and most association with a particular word. That’s called word ownership.

In terms of personal branding, however, word ownership is a great advantage to your business. It differentiates you from your competitors, keeps you in the minds of the people you serve and positions you an expert. Ultimately, it’s a fundamental key to entrepreneurial success.

Origination
In Al Ries’s famous book, 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, he explains that if you want to build a brand, you must “focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospect’s mind. A word that nobody else owns.”

He also and said, “Forget about the laundry list of wonderful attributes your product has. You can’t possibly associate them all with your brand name in a human mind. The key to getting into the consumer’s mind is sacrifice. You have to reduce the essence of your brand to a single thought or attribute. An attribute that nobody else already owns in your category.”

With that in mind, the first question to ask yourself is, “Do I already own a word?”

If so, congrats! You’re way ahead of the crowd. If not, that’s cool too. You’re reading the right article. (Odds are, you already DO own a word, you just don’t know it yet!)

To discover which word you own, ask yourself the following questions:

*If you looked up the word _______________ in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of my company

*If you googled the word ________________, the first ten pages would be my company’s website

*If was about to give a speech to 10,000 people and one of the audience members came back stage and asked, “So, what’s your speech about?” I’d probably say ____________________

*In my marketing materials, the one word you will find that no other company uses is ______________________

*If CNN called me for an interview, they’d want my expert opinion on _________________

*After people get to know me, they’ll never think about the word ________________ the same way again

*The reason my customers love me so much is because I always help them with _________________

*If people were talking about me behind my back, they’d probably call me “The ____________ Guy”

Obviously, the goal of this exercise is to arrive at the same answer for every question. Now, if can’t do that yet, here’s what to do. Ask those same questions to 20 of your closest friends, family members, customers and coworkers. They might match with some of your answers, they might be way off, they might even think of words that never occurred to you! But at least it will give you an objective perspective on your degree of word ownership.

Hey! That’s My Word!
Ok, now that you’ve explored some possibilities as to which word you own, you need to maintain that ownership. After all, that word is yours, baby! Nobody else in the world deserves to own it besides you! Here are some suggestions to make sure you keep it.

REGISTER IT: just for kicks, see if www.yourword.com is already taken. If not, get it! Domain names are like currency these days! If not, register a name with your word in the URL, i.e., www.thebotanyexpert.com or www.perfectfamilyphotos.com. This will better position you in search engines.

RESEARCH IT: find out everything you possibly can about your word. Search for books on Amazon with your word in the title. Go on Google, type in your word and spend an hour a week reading every entry you can. Look up the etymology of your word’s origin. Do anything you can to increase your knowledge because, after all, you’re the expert on that word!

RECORD IT: write and publish articles related to your word. Think of yourself as a syndicated columnist, whose weekly articles always have something to do with your word. And if you don’t like or have trouble writing, don’t worry. Just go online and search “article” + “your word.” Thousands of articles on your word will come up and that will stimulate your creativity.

REVEAL IT: once you’ve developed and positioned your expertise on your word, tell everyone! Use it your lateral materials, website, newsletter, public appearances, client meetings, face-to-face networking or any of your other marketing channels. Shout it from the rooftops! Over time, customers and prospects will recognize the connection between YOU and your word. And they will know that whenever they need help on (insert your word here,) there is no person in the world they’d rather call than you!

What’s Next?
Ok. You now own a word. The world knows it. Your customers know it. Even Google knows it! So the next question is: how will this word change your business?

I’m glad you asked.

Here’s a personal example of word ownership at its finest. It all started with a voicemail waiting on my cell phone as I walked off the airplane into the St. Louis terminal.

“Yes, Mr. Ginsberg, I’m one of the editors of Cosmopolitan Magazine. I’d like to set up an interview with you for an upcoming piece. Please call me back at the following number…”

When I returned her call, she enthusiastically replied, “Oh great! I’m so glad you got right back to me – my deadline is tomorrow!”

“So, what can I do for you?” I asked.

“Well, have you ever seen those little ‘quizzes’ that Cosmo runs every month?”

“Oh, right. My girlfriend used to take those things in college.” I replied.

“Exactly! Well, as the editor of the section, it’s my job to seek out experts to help create those quizzes. And in our upcoming issue for January 2006, we’ll be running a quiz called ‘How Approachable Are You?’”

“Reeeeeely,” I said.

“Yes. And in my research for possible contributors, I went on Amazon to search for books about approachability. And guess what? Your book was the first and only title that came up! So, we’d like for YOU to write the quiz. After all, you are the expert. Would you be interested?”

Um, are you kidding?! Me, write a quiz for one of the most widely read publications in the word?! I thought.

“Yes. Yes I would,” I said.

Word.

© 2005 All Rights Reserved.

Scott Ginsberg is a professional speaker, “The World’s Foremost Expert on Nametags” and the author of HELLO my name is Scott and The Power of Approachability. He helps people MAXIMIZE their approachability and become UNFORGETTABLE communicators - one conversation at a time. For more information contact Front Porch Productions at http://www.hellomynameisscott.com

The ‘Brand of One’ - You

In Network Marketing so often you hear the word – Duplication. You must duplicate yourself. Well, I don’t know about you, but I do know it is impossible to ‘duplicate’ myself!

Have you had the same life experiences I’ve had? What about your education? Your skills? Is it possible to really duplicate that? NO of course not!

Yet this fallacy is so often taught that it really creates confusion as to what duplication really is.

Brand Yourself

You need to be a ‘Brand of One’. You are unique, your skills, your life experiences, your personality and your circle of influence.

Now, if you heard that little voice go off in your head saying things like “I’m not special” “there is nothing really unique about me” and all those other negative thoughts that flood through your mind. STOP! Now!

Stop and make a list right now, of all your successes you have had in life up to this point. How many special people do you have in your life? ‘They’ are your circle of influence. Those other success’s you’ve had are a result of your ‘unique’ talents and abilities. These things make up the ‘essence of you’ your unique ‘Brand of One’.

Then Market ‘That’ Brand

Instead of going out there and ‘marketing’ your ‘wonderful company’, ‘your wonderful products’ and ‘your wonderful comp plan’. (just hear me out before you throw me out the door!) Market ‘yourself’. How? Let’s take a look.

By ‘being’ known in your community, known in your circle of influence for the ‘Brand Of One’. If you are knowledgeable about a specific topic or for having a special ‘skill’, this in itself builds the ‘know, like and trust’ that is ‘essential’ for building your network marketing business.

Continue to ‘be’ the person you have always been, learning and growing as that person. So when the time is ‘right’ to share:

• what you ‘found out’ in regard to a way to clear those long standing debts,
• or a way for young mums to stay home and still earn an income,
• or maybe you share a way for people to maintain their health and vitality so they can enjoy quality of life in retirement
  As you ‘share’, people will be ‘willing’ to ‘listen’ because you have built that ‘brand of one’.

Duplication

Now for the ‘duplication’ – you duplicate and encourage each person to ‘be unique’ developing their own skills, talents and circle of influence. Then duplicate the ongoing use / consumption of products - finding two to four other people willing to continue ‘being’ themselves, using the products and finding two other unique individuals willing to do the same.

THAT is the ultimate in duplication.

Delmae Bower writes from Melbourne Australia and has 25 years experience in Direct Sales and Network Marketing. http://www.my-homebased-business.com/brandofone

Quick Tactics To Brand Your Business And Make More Sales

This may come as a surprise… to you, but Branding is more than just Logo and Business or Product Name recognition.

Branding is “The total emotional and intellectual involvement your prospects and customers have with your business and products.”

This article addresses 5 basic problems and questions about Branding:

How Are Brands Created ?

=> Branding by “Personal Experience”

This creates the strongest bond between your customers and your business and products.

Your customer service, front and back end offers must be of high quality, in order to create exceptional “Personal Experience”. This starts a virtuous cycle.

Exceptional “Personal Experiences” lead to general public and market acclaim spread by word of mouth and other publicity. In turn, this feeds into a still stronger Brand, starting the cycle all over again.

However, always remember it is easier to create a negative Brand than it is to create a positive one, by offering low or poor quality and value products, services and customer support.

=> Branding by “Indirect Experience”

For many direct marketers, “Personal Experience” Branding is difficult and not easily achieved because sales that lead to “Personal Experience” are not easily made !

The “Indirect Experience” strategy relies on creating a consistent, repeating association to the product in your prospects mind.

Marketers use a variety of tactics to achieve this aim.

* Jingles in audio visual media

* Using Slogans

* Advertising through classifieds, display, press releases, and give away products and information.

* Sponsorship of media, cultural, sporting and other events

Brand Building On The Internet - The Issues

The Internet has re-defined Branding models of the past because it has levelled the playing field, for both consumers and businesses.

Prospects and customers are more involved with businesses and products than they were in the past.

Research of products and services, before purchase is easier.

Consumers have so much choice now they are no longer easily “taught” loyalty to a particular Brand.

Consumers are less willing to form bonds or create “loyal” associations with products and businesses.

On the other side of the coin, businesses have much more competition and must be more customer focussed than ever before.

Companies that thrive and stay in business recognise building lasting relationships with existing customers is more profitable, than always trying to find new customers.

A World of stronger consumers who by-pass your direct and indirect experiences with a click of the mouse, is difficult for Brand builders.

On the Internet those that succeed make profits, the rest fail.

The Cost And Value Of A Brand.

Brand building has a cost in time, money and effort.

The cost of Brand building is easily quantified in Dollar terms.

The value of a Brand is harder to establish because it involves measuring emotional and intellectual associations that might not necessarily translate into cash sales.

Not understanding the value, but clearly understanding the cost of Branding, some marketers decide to get round this problem by competing solely on price.

This is a short sighted tactic because it invites “price wars”, and if you get involved in a “price war” against an opponent with deeper pockets you are bound to loose.

A better strategy is to compete on high product value and build quality Brand recognition over time.

Brands Are Not Eternal

Brand building is an ongoing Business strategy.

The emotional and intellectual associations and recognition that together make up Brand loyalty wear off if not re-energised frequently.

Brands are subject to fashion, fads and change, and understand recognition is not the same as popularity.

Your market may recognise your Brand, but that may not translate into sales if the association is unfashionable.

The temptation, in such circumstances, is to spend less on Branding, cut prices, or , drop the business line altogether.

These are knee jerk reactions to uncontrollable events when taken in the short term. A measured initial response is to re-invent the Brand, freshen it up and market it to a new generation of consumers.

Many businesses re-invent, and re-brand themselves and go on to achieve new consumer acclaim.

Strategies For Brand Building

Here are a few short to medium term tactical measures you can start using today to kick start your Brand building program.

* Get a professional web site with customised headers, footers and logos - Make your “visitor experiences” happy ones.

* Advertise regularly using paid channels where you can. If money is a problem, use f’ree advertising, but advertise regularly !

* Write useful articles and publish regularly. Invite visits to your site through your resource box.

* Syndicate your articles and build personal name recognition using a tool such as Name Branding Syndicator available from http://www.highprofitsoftware.com/syndicator/

Visit http://www.simplyeasier.com/mbd to see how you can get this tool for F’ree as part of a product bundle.

* Brand your business by associating and complimenting other succesful products - Develop a quality reciprocal link and partnership strategy.

Try products like Zeus (http://www.cyber-robotics.com/) and Arelis (http://www.axandra.com/index.htm) for this tactic.

* Use a good autoresponder service and communicate frequently with your customers and prospects giving useful, and personal information.

There are many good tools for this tactic, but try Getresponse (http://www.getresponse.com) or Aweber (http://www.aweber.com) for a start.

* Use Zip Brander available from Russell Brunson of http://www.zipBrander.com/ to put your products, affiliate programs and other offers in front of your purchasers easily and frequently.

Branding your business and products is a key part of your success strategy.

You want people to associate your business name and products with high quality, and high value.

Successful Brands make money - just ask Microsoft, Levi, Ford, Coke.

Start Branding your business and products today, and generate maximum lifetime customer values.

(c) 2004 Charles Kangethe

About The Author

Charles Kangethe of http://www.simplyeasier.com is a leading new wave Netpreneur and a published author from England. The “Simply Easier” brand name is your guarantee of high value, quality Marketing Products, Services and Resources.

charles@simplyeasier.com

Nike / Sears / Kmart

The Sears-Kmart merger hopes to fabricate some sort of silver lining for
both retailers but instead seems to embody the inevitable philosophy of “going down together.” Kmart, an already sinking ship, certainly worsens conditions for Sears, and Sears does not have a strong enough current to keep Kmart afloat when there are enterprises like Wal*Mart and Target constantly blasting holes in the stern with brand messages of “smart and classy.”

On the opposite end of the branding spectrum, Nike sits at the top of the todem
and watches the plethora of other brands struggling beneath. Nike is the only brand
of shoe for which people are willing to pay two to three times more just to bear the
swoosh emblem in the gym. Nike is the only athletic brand creating new and original
advertising (i.e. the Nike Pro Apparel “Warriors” campaign) while Adidas, Reebok,
Puma, New Balance, and countless others attempt to “be like Mike” and copycat
concepts to boost their market share. In reality, Nike only becomes more powerful
and valued despite the efforts of brand emulation.

Before Sears merged with Kmart, Sears carried several Nike products, shoes,
clothing, a few sporting goods…etc. However, when Sears announced the
agreement with Kmart, Nike announced to Sears that they would no longer be
needing their shelves. If Sears was opening up to Kmart, Nike was closing off to
Sears. There is a simple equation and contingency of Nike’s brand conservation.

Kmart is known for “lower quality, but dirt cheap,” and Nike is a premium, high
quality brand that can inflate prices based on brand equity and reputation.

What can brands like Sears and Kmart learn from brands like Nike?

Unfortunately
not much can be accomplished at this point because when it comes to brand, this
market does not allow much time and space for second chances let alone acts of
desperation. Nike “got it” from the beginning, and continues to grow their market
share by being the father ship. Consumers can see themselves inside the Nike brand
and feel a sense of pride and confidence. Sears and Kmart cannot even even make
consumers feel like consumers. Being loyal to these brands feels more like a public
service.

Molly Sunderdick
Brand Strategist
Stealing Share, Inc.

Good Logos Make Great Sales Tools

Every day, the average person is exposed to millions of visual stimuli including hundreds of company logos.

A logo is a unique visual image that represents a company or its products. It aims to create a positive and memorable impression in the minds of the people who see it. In addition, a good logo can make a sale by saying something about the company to customers when there is no sales person present.

Choosing a logo for your business requires much thought and it is essential that you work closely with your graphic designer. Logo design needs your input as well as the designer’s creativity.

You have to start with an idea of the image you want your logo to portray, i.e. what you want it to say about your company. Beware though of turning the logo into a metaphor for something. The most memorable ones are usually the simplest – think of McDonald’s golden arches, the Apple Computer logo or Nike’s ‘swoosh’. Less is often more as far as logos are concerned.

Secondly, you will have to decide whether your logo should be an illustrative representation or abstract graphic that represents what your company does, or whether it should be font-based. Alternatively, your logo could be a combination of these options.

Logo colour is very important. Bear in mind that the colours you choose will impact on all your corporate materials. Your logo should also look good in black and white for use in mono print applications or on faxes for example.

Size is also a consideration, as your logo needs to look equally good on a business card as it does on the side of a truck or building. Similarly, make sure your logo is designed for print first and the web second. Do it the other way round and you may find that a design that looks good on a web site appears mediocre when scaled up for use in print.

Choose your logo design carefully as it will have a powerful impact on your business. A great logo lasts and should look good years from now. It also stands out from its environment and from the competition.

As well as building brand-awareness and speaking for your company, a great logo helps you make great sales… provided of course that you have the product and service quality to back it up.

Copyright © 2004, Christopher Smith, Mano Design

About The Author

Chris Smith is a partner in Mano Design ( http://www.mano-design.com ) - a Vancouver Design and Marketing agency.

Understand Brand

Branding has been defined, explained and examined extensively. There are books, articles, publications, seminars, and groups all dedicated to exploring the meaning and use of brand today.

Interestingly, with all this wealth of information, some of it developed by the greatest minds in the industry, I still hear “but what is branding?” Considering the multitude of sentences that begin “branding is…” it’s an understandable question. What I believe people are looking for is not another definition, but rather understanding, and an idea of how and why this tool fits into their business.

The Brand Equation

Visual + Verbal + Experiential = Brand Perception

What you show, what you say and what you do adds up to what people know about you and what they think of your service, product or company.

Imagine a person you know. When asked to do that, the first thing that pops into your head is an image of that person. If that person walked up to you, you would recognize her, and if known well, recall her name. If you were describing that person to another you would list her features, offer her name and describe what she is like with both factual and subjective information. “You remember my friend Tracy from college, the one with the dark hair and the big smile? Now she’s married and lives in Maine. She’s an amazing photographer and so much fun, I really miss having her around. You’d love her.”

The image you recognize, the words you recall and the references that make up your experience all add up to an impression. That person you thought of — in addition to her face, name and your mutual experiences — you also recalled how you felt about her, your impression. That’s brand.

A visual image, a verbal message and experience with something leads you to form an opinion. So, in reality, brand exists whether we address it or not. Every interaction brings about an impression. In a business, however, crafting and controlling that impression mean the difference between reaching your goals and missing the mark.

It is sometimes thought that a great logo like the Nike “Swoosh,” a catchy tagline like “Got Milk” or a well-known product like Coke is the brand. However, each of these major brands has carefully planned all three areas of their impression to guide their audience toward their ultimate goal — loyalty. You recognize them, you can recall what they do and what they say and you know how you feel about them. If they have done their job well you will refer them “You have to try Coke, it’s the best,” affiliating your preference to their company “I only wear Nike’s.” This is the power of “Brand.”

Brand Value

What’s the value of “impression?” Huge international brands are used as examples because of their recognition, however brand is valuable to companies large and small, product and service, for profit and charitable. What’s in it for you:

• Identifying your specialty makes you an expert in your niche.
• Developing a unique quality separates you from the pack.
• Crafting the impression you want helps customers see all you can do for them.
• Maintaining a constant message builds long-term recognition and recall.
• Attracting customers through referral is the cheapest and best marketing around.

If you are clear, consistent and creative you will attract the right business. Why waste time handling interest from unqualified buyers and receiving none from ideal contacts?

Who’s Using Brand?

It’s not just industry giants with multi-million dollar ad budgets. The power of brand is being harnessed everywhere. Our local school district launched a brand initiative a few years ago. Their mantra “Above and Beyond” is woven into assemblies, included in all written communication and demonstrated in curriculum changes. The latest email announced a 22% improvement in the standardized test scores of disadvantaged students.

Whether your aim is greater sales or better reading skills, brand provides a focus, streamlining your effort to achieve your goals.

Getting There

You can’t prepare an effective image, message or experience until you decide what unique quality you’re selling and to whom. Getting the right people to recognize, recall and refer your company is a process.

About The Author

Beth Brodovsky is the president and principal of Iris Creative Group, LLC. Brodovsky earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design from Pratt Institute, New York. Before launching her own firm in 1996, she spent eight years as a corporate Art Director and Graphic Designer, providing a sound foundation in management and organizational standards and structure. Iris Creative specializes in providing marketing and strategic communication services to clients in service industries and small businesses. For more information contact Beth at bsb@iriscreative.com or 610-567-2799.

Better Brand Research: What Customers Want

Several years ago I came across one of the most useful and practical articles on market research I have ever read — “How To Turn Customer Input into Innovation” by Anthony Ulwick.

Published in the January 2002 Harvard Business Review, the article briefly outlined a methodology and set of tools for gathering customer input in a way that actually drives product innovation. In addition, the article illustrated how Cordis — a medical device manufacturer specializing in products for interventional vascular medicine — used Ulwick’s approach to innovate the heart stent and gain market leadership in the angioplasty balloon market. As a result, Cordis’ stock went from $20 to $109 per share when it was acquired by Johnson and Johnson.

Now, Ulwick has updated his tools and provided a more comprehensive look at his methodology in his recently released book, What Customers Want McGraw Hill). This book should be required readying for anyone involved in product development and marketing. Partly because it offers a comprehensive, step-by-step approach for converting innovation from a random hit-or-miss process into a more methodical approach, but also because it greatly reduces the risk of new product failure and substantially increases the odds of success.

In a world where some 80 to 90 percent of new products fail, the ROI for using Ulwick’s methods is substantial.

New Solution to an Old Problem

According to Ulwick, most customer research provides little real value to the companies conducting it. Worse, it often misinforms their decisions and steers them in the wrong direction.

Why? Because the methods most companies use to gather customer input are inherently flawed. In fact, Ulwick argues that faulty research methods represent both the source and the cause of most new product failures. Based on my own experience, I tend to agree.

Traditional qualitative research methods ask customers to define their needs, benefits, specifications and solutions. However, the most frequent responses to questions about product improvements focus mainly on “better quality” and “lower price.” Besides indicating that the product category under question might be perceived as a commodity, these generic answers leave little room for new product developers to devise truly innovative new products.

The reality is that customers have a hard time articulating why they do what they do and what will motivate them to buy a new product. Therefore, traditional research methods — such as talking to customers about the solutions they want or can envision — essentially ask them to act as product developers and marketers, and that’s a job most customers are ill equipped to do.

How do you gather customer input in a way that supports innovation?

Start by silencing the literal voice of your customers. In other words, suggests Ulwick, stop asking customers to tell you how and what to innovate. Instead:

*Focus on the jobs your customers need to get done

*Work to uncover measurable outcomes your customers hope to achieve

*Isolate important customer constraints

By directing your research towards these key areas, you will make more appropriate and better-informed decisions about what represents meaningful innovation for your customers.

A Good Investment

For me, the best and most practical part of the book lies in Ulwick’s eight-step approach, which dramatically improves every aspect of the innovation process from segmenting markets and identifying opportunities to creating, evaluating and marketing breakthrough product ideas.

Drawing on more than 200 complete studies, Ulwick loads his book with real life examples that bring meaning and insight to the process and make it easy to translate his principles to companies of all shapes and sizes.

For less than $20 and a few hours of reading time, What Customers Want delivers a remarkable return on investment. A can’t-miss formula that delivers real innovation that your customers will value, it just might ensure that your next new product introduction hits the target in regards to the jobs your customers need help with and delivers measurable improvements to their most important outcomes.

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Rod Whitson serves Townsend as President and Chief Brand Strategist. Townsend is expert at helping organizations with innovative products and services develop differentiated, compelling value propositions. Townsend is the largest integrated marketing agency in Southern California. Rod has personally led recent branding engagements with Intel, BAE Systems, Merck, DowPharma, Marsh & McLennan, and the University of California system. He has also worked with a host of successful and not so successful early stage technology and life sciences companies. Since Townsend’s founding in 1993, it has helped clients create market valuation in excess of $80 billion.

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© 2006 Rod Whitson - All Rights Reserved Worldwide