This post is about “How to screw up your Brand Power”. We have several companies here in Australia that deal in electronics, whitegoods, furniture – so they are the bare bones of retail if you will. These companies obviously push their brand heavily in the traditional media such as TV, papers and mail drops.

Now there is nothing at all wrong with this (all businesses need to push their brand in areas that give them that brand recall over a competitor), however it is the way they do it.

Let me give you an example. Harvey Norman is one of these large companies that run loads and loads of ads in prime time TV spots, I think they offset the cost in the ad placement by producing the worst ads possible . The ads they put on have to be some of the cheapest and most annoying. Now before anyone says “ah ha – but see you’re talking about them in your blog so it must be effective”……..  keep reading. Bad publicity is not always good publicity.

So these ads are basic primary colours with incredibly cheap graphics and VERY loud screaming about how you MUST go and buy from them. (It’s kind of like when your parents would yell at you I guess) . So we have Loud, Ugly and Offensive.

Now in this house (my home) these ads get muted and we all talk to each other (quite nice really). No one in the family engage these ads. I have 3 kids 15, 10 and 7 and they hate these ads (if you’re not sure on the implications of upsetting this lot then read this post – Your market in 2014.

These ads are so disliked that I know I never bother with the company when I need anything and I know my kids (their future market) think they are worthless and don’t relate to them at all.  On top of that – this generation  really network. And one of the most talked about topics by this generation is ….. anything that is cool (check out Tumblr if you want to see a young generation micro and reblogging ) You could say that this is the “Wisdom of the gen Y crowd”. They all listen to each other and their opinions of, and about each other matter incredibly.

OK so that is the TV – as for the mail drops there is another interesting area. The graphics ! They’re ugly and again with the primary colours blah blah – but also not a hint of green (as in environmental). Not recycled paper, or commitment to helping anybody but themselves. This doesn’t go down well with the next gen.

They are not happy we have been screwing the planet up and they DO relate to companies that show a commitment to helping fix the balance.

I talk with and watch how my 15 year interacts with her friends and what I find incredible is that if they like the way a company does business they actually back it. Of course this is subjective, however that’s the point – if your business is targeting the next gen that are environmentally conscious (and there are loads of them) then think about how you can improve in this area. If they are tech savvy then how do you do this so they want to talk about you.

By the way – these are not easy areas that you can fake – they smell that a mile away. Start by making the changes now, bit by bit and you will find a very loyal following and strong client base in the years to come.

Just a quick hats off (so I’m not all negative) to Target for one of their latest ads. Beautifully shot stop motion techniques with fantastic colours utilising bed sheets and products that look almost like a real life animation. As a result – that target ad  was discussed lots by my daughter and friends and the company has become one step closer to becoming cooler in my 15 year old eyes.

{steps down off the soap box and packs it away}

The Site: A fantastic idea that helps children to tell the time, tie their shoes and the importance of brushing their teeth

Our Job: Working with Raspberry Frog and Kapow Pictures to develop the website, ecommerce and media areas for Pickle Circus. This site is a beautiful mix of flash, html, ajax and javascript.

Our next area of assistance here is in cross promotion and marketing in the online environment. Google Adwords are established early in a site like this to push instant sales through the site while the search engine optimisation takes place.

The Site: Sustainable and Green building designer with  great ideas and the ability to save big bucks on building really aesthetic properties. Being green doesn’t mean crap looking materials or limited options.

Our Job: Match the corporate colour, look and feel into a simple site that helps reflect a modern yet clean theme.

We used ajax, javascript and CSS to design with functions such as simple PDF upload and traceable reporting for downloads of these.

The Site: Again working with Kapow Pictures and Rasberry Frog to help put the website together for Grasshopper Say. Another great idea from Raspberry Frog, this time as a mobile app. More information and link to the site soon.

Our Job: Follow the lead of the creators and bring the elements of design into a site that showcases sample movies, state of the art image gallery and a simple clean look.

Board Rack Surf Shop

The Site: Cutch

Our Job: Follow the lead of the creators and bring the elements of design into a site that showcases sample movies, state of the art image gallery and a simple clean look.

Here’s my example. I surf (as much as I can) and have for 30 years. So I know a bit about board design and functionality and the last thing you want to do is buy a board that just doesn’t work for you.

Normally you can walk into a shop – pick it up under your arm and just “know” it is the right board. This comes from years and years of testing mind you.

So now I want to buy a board online. I can’t feel it and trust my instincts, so what I find on one particular site is the ability to watch a video of the board shaper explain the rails, concave and rocker to me, and what type of surfer this suits in which conditions. It then demonstrates the board working in a variety of conditions by several surfers. That’s it ….. I just needed that little push to convince me.

Now there were no smoke and mirrors here – it was a video from the person that made the board backing his creation and several capable surfers proving it. It was honest upfront and the next best thing from actually feeling it and taking it for a test.

So for your business …. how can this help?

Well if your selling online how can you add credibility to your own products and obviously brand by displaying a video? Is it possible?

Before you dismiss it – take a look at some stats on video from Adage here.

I did read an article about the increase in conversions based on this fact – but can’t locate at the moment – will repost when I get my mits on it.

Was reading a lead from one of our Twitter Followers about the issues facing the US newspaper industry.

I won’t go into detail, however it is an interesting read that outlines the following (quoted from The Boston.com site).

“Newspapers have been hit hard by the loss of readers and advertisers to the Internet, while the national economic slowdown has intensified the advertising slump. In recent months, the Rocky Mountain News has closed, the Seattle Post Intelligencer has significantly reduced staffing and moved entirely onto the Web, and several major newspaper companies have filed for bankruptcy protection.

The New York Times Co. threatened earlier this month to shut down The Boston Globe unless its labor unions agree to $20 million in cost concessions, including pay and benefit cuts. The Globe is on track to lose $85 million this year, executives told labor representatives.”

Personally  I like to read a newspaper from time to time, however I can’t really get the global coverage in all the areas that interest me in one paper – I guess it’s for this reason that I love being able to read online news stories from tech to business in all parts of the world. Also in another article discussed earlier here – we spoke about the new emerging market … the kids of today. They just don’t read the paper at all – that blog post here

In short what this means in the online advertising world is that it is OK to embark on a strategy that just looks at promoting your business brand. Actually, it’s more than ok, it is a must.

You see the habits of off-line purchase decision making and online purchase decision making are very similar in many ways. I think we need to get out of our heads that off-line and online advertising are at 2 different ends of the spectrum. We also need to stop thinking about online advertising as clicks on ads.

A recent study performed by ComScore (adage N.Y) studied 139 online ad campaigns by marrying data from its panel of U.S. internet users with shopper data, found online ads, even when they didn’t result in a click, increased a consumer’s likelihood of making a purchase at an advertiser’s retail store by 17% and increased visits to a marketer’s website by an average of 40%.

What they are saying here is that your awareness of brands you spot as you travel the web stay with you long after you leave the computer and go about your daily life. What you want is for your clients to have brand recall of your products and services over that of your competitors. They can’t do this if they are not seeing you online.

Yes this means get your site optimised and increase traffic to it – but it also means think laterally. Where can you brand appear online. This can be in the form of banners, rich media advertising, contributing to social sites or the standard Google Ads. What works for one company may not work for another.  Test analyse and re test – there is no secret here.

Just on a side note to those that say banner advertising is dead ….. yeah to a degree I think that the popup ads and misplaced “in your face” style has no place online. What I do love is a well thought out ad on a relevant site.

To give you an example – I drive a 1976 Kombi – I love this car and it is completely restored.

I visit the Kombi Forums often to chat and find new and better ways to keep her hummin along. It’s a very Niche site with a VERY niche market. On this site I found a well placed banner ad that wanted me to look at some amazing kombi parts on sale. …….. so I do  …….. and I find a small site that just does that, and very well I might add.

So I keep going back, and again to purchase online and have stuff sent to me within a day or 2. This business is now full-time for the guy that started and growing.

I get stopped everyday by other kombi drivers and just people wanting to buy one and everytime I tell them about the Bus Stop …… so whats my point!  – Advertise, get out there and test, analyse and build your business. No different to how it has always been.

The one that really sticks out for us here is that in 2014 the demographic change will be that 13 to 15 year old kids today will be our 18 – 20 year old market then.

So looking at that – I know my own kids have NEVER picked up a paper to look for toys, bands, movie times or anything else. In fact my 6 year old just spent an hour last night online going over all the toy sites such as Target.com.au to do his xmas list to santa. He did this all on his own and only request for help was ” Is Indiana Jones  with a space in it?” (must be some cool Indiana Jones lego stuff out there)

I don’t think this is a case of “when they get older they will discover the newspaper or print material”.

It is a complete shift away from the traditional print media or tangible media as Steve mentions to the online arena. Make of it what you will …. I know that if I wanted to ensure the effectiveness of my advertising dollar I would be working out now how I keep my 6, 9 and 14 year old happy  in 2014.

And Yes – we are close …. I know we keep saying it but it is true.

This is just a quick note on the new generation and the impact of digital marketing. What is interesting to note is that we all acknowledge that the teenagers don’t have a credit card to shop online (unless of course they “borrow” your own), but an interesting study by Don Tapscott, who draws on the $4 million research project that inspired his new book, Grown Up Digital, outlines that these kids spend all of their time researching online before buying.

The comments that we need to alter the traditional method of the 4 P’s strategy is important for all business owners. The “Net Generation” are ad resistant and being raised in the digital marketing age can see a cheezy ad from miles away.

And in case your not convinced on the power of this market here are a few stats from the article

Taken from Business Week Article -Net Gen Transforms Marketing

“In the U.S., students earn almost $200 billion a year in part-time or full-time jobs, and in 2006, they purchased $190 billion worth of goods. What’s more, they influence their baby boomer parents. Net Geners age 21 and under influence 81% of their families’ apparel purchases and 52% of car choices. Even younger children have powerful sway, with those between 5 and 14 influencing 78% of total grocery purchases. And, as they age, their direct purchasing power will soar. In 2003, only 5% of cars were purchased by people born between 1980 and 1995; by 2020, this will climb to 40%. “

Lookout ….. their coming – better get ready.

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