In today's Internet market some good examples of branding the men behind the products are Steven Jobs of Apple, Maytag Repairman, Mr. Bezos of Amazon, Donald Trump, or even Bill Gates of Microsoft.

Every website or product has a different Branding formula. But, most important, is the fact that your website branding formula exists. We will unlock it together. Look at the last three illustrations of Absolut Bottle, and the Man with the Eye Patch. Don't they grab you? Can you think of a grabbing idea for your website?

Jack Trout in his inspiring book, Positioning: the battle for your mind, defines Branding as creating that first idea in customer's mind.

Not necessarily a new invention, but a new idea for any simple website or product.

IBM did not invent the computer; Sperry Rand did. IBM, however, was the first company to build a computer-based idea in our minds. Just showing up first does not guarantee success. Who remembers Dupont's Corfam. Who remembrs Gablinger's Beer, the Covair 880, Vote toothpaset, and Sony's Beta Max? We know, believe, and agree that innovative ideas such as Google, Yahoo, and eBay have the best chance to become overnight Brands. However, we believe it's not essential to have an invention or a new product. Any aesthetically designed website has a chance to become a Brand if we could only identify its Hidden Brand Identity. How do you bring all these great classic ideas and marry them with the web?

Selling Through Your Website or Selling Through Other Websites

Your website is like any store. The best stores are those where people work hard everyday to introduce new products or just actively plan for better sales. If you visit your most favorite store, you will find most shoppers are entertained, inspired, enjoying their shopping experience, motivated to buy and consumed by what they find.

Sharpen your store/website or your work. Give it a kind of elegant sassiness. Make your website any or combination of these qualities: classic, active, bright, vibrant, visionary, changing, flowing, sassy, enticing, memorable, sophisticated, smart, cool, intriguing, stimulating, giving, creative, entertaining, trendy, fashionable, daring, sharing, inclusive, educational, honest, decent, innovative, intelligent, vital, dynamic, positive, provocative, concern, involved, compassionate, with integrity, challenging, radical, brave, balanced, free, energetic, colorful, generous, charismatic, and most important an expression of who you are. Your website is a reflection of who you are and what your customers need to perceive you.

Just some of the qualities mentioned above are enough to make any website shine. The fact remains that success can be achieved a lot easier through your website than in any bricks-and-mortar store. Most important, with today's powerful software such as Ad Management Software and Affiliate Management Software, your website can ultimately reach the entire web. How can Branding not be easy??? One of the best examples is the affiliate program with Amazon.com. Not many webmasters know that these software, in one shape or another, are available to anyone. If you are selling a product, you can start your own affiliate program. If you host the software on your own server, by starting an affiliate program, you actually distribute links to other website. The results is better link popularity and higher search engine standing. I strongly recommend starting an affiliate program.

Technology mixed with a bit of Absolut does wonders!

Putting all these ideas together, as far as artistic website design is concerned, can anyone do better than Amazon, eToys, CDNOW.......? The answer is of course yes. Here is why:

A strong visual and sensory identity is the most important element of brand differentiation. The design of your website can play an important role in this effect. A good design can truly manifest the personality of the brand and set it apart from the crowd. Designing a website for visual clarity and uniqueness will enhance your customer experience, increase buying intent, and create memorabilia. Our experience has shown that in the Web landscape the uniqueness of brand design identities are, on the whole, not yet well defined. The brand differentiation between one site and another is still very weak.

Companies such as eToys, CDNOW, and Amazon.com use similar typography for most of their sites. Almost all of the leading sites use blue as a dominant color for headlines and it seems a great concern exists to look not too different. You could even replace the logo of some with the logos of others and it would not stand out immediately as a mistake. If you try to download CDNOW's logo, the name of CDNOW's logo file is logo_plain.Gif ???!!!! How coincidental???? At least eToys logo has a bit of color!

Good examples of sites that mix technology with a bit of Absolut are http://www.starmonitor.com and Absolut.com itself. Of course you have to be of legal drinking age to visit Absolut.com and thank God for that. You must avoid these marketing errors at any cost. Deciding what your company should do about Internet is a task best left to Branding Specialists and not to those people with keen interest in the underlying technology. Of course content, quality, and credibility are also essential. The slide below speaks loudly.

Source: Audience and Site Affinity Study

Why Be Colorful?

Have you ever stopped to consider the effect that colour has on everything we do? Colour surrounds us and manifests itself in our choices – clothing, cars, decorations, logos and websites. Like it or not, colour also plays a large role shaping the identities of people, countries (think flags) and sporting teams.

Colour can affect our moods and the millions spent by companies every year on careful branding and design is testament to popular belief that colour can influence our decisions and inspire our actions – to purchase, encouraging loyalty, conveying seriousness, authority, or whatever. Colour should never be underestimated as a powerful vehicle of communication and symbolism – and it goes a lot deeper than traffic lights directing us on the roads.

So, the next time you’re designing a campaign, selecting a colour for a piece of collateral, developing a brand, creating a logo, dressing for a client meeting or having your office walls painted, you might want to consider:

RED

Has been known to escalate the body's metabolism.

Often associated with vibrancy, passion, energy, vitality and power

o Widely considered to be the most exciting colour

o In design, red is the attention grabber. It is considered the hottest colour with the highest impact for attention and action. It has a strong masculine appeal.

YELLOW

o Associated with cheerfulness

o In design, lighter shades of yellow can promote feelings of relaxation, but dark yellows can overpower an image.

o In natural therapies, yellow is the colour of intellect and it is used for mental stimulation.

o A few years ago, research from Pantone revealed that a yellow background with black type is the best colour combination for printed material. Tests show that this combination scored the high in terms of memory retention and in legibility.

o Yellow is the colour that the human eye notices first.

BLUE

o Widely considered to be the most calming colour

o In design, light blue is often used to soothe while dark blue conveys dignity (explains all those blue corporate logos).

o In natural therapies, blue is used to emit serenity and is used for cooling, calming, reconstructing and protecting.

o Bees are attracted to the colour blue.

GREEN

o In design, brighter shades of green are applied to stimulate and uplift while dark green is used to evoke calm and quiet.

o In natural therapies, green is used to create harmony and balance.

o Extremely popular in branding campaigns to symbolise a healthy lifestyle. Green is often used with health food products, recycling, vegetables and even menthol cigarettes.

BROWN

o Brown is the new black. Brown is the latest beauty and fashion - considered to be ‘in’ this winter

o Often used in branding to symbolise home and earth

BLACK AND WHITE

o White is widely associated with innocence (think western bridal gowns) and sterility (hospitals)

o White diamonds are the best diamonds.

o White would be an inappropriate colour for a wedding in China. It is the colour of mourning.

o A black car will heat up faster in the sun than a white car will. It will also lose its heat faster in the winter.

o A white flag is internationally recognised as a sign of surrender.

o In branding and design, black is the embodiment of sophistication, gives an expensive message. It also lends itself wonderfully as a background colour to accentuate other colours, such as: yellow, red and orange. These are just the tip of the iceberg and don’t even address eye and hair colour stereotypes or the interpretation of different colours in dreams. An understanding of the meanings and perceptions that surround specific hues can help set the mood for many communication activities.

Could colour be a key to a new you?

by ANDREA PERRY, femail.co.uk 12:15pm 20th April 2001

Eating red food = energy

We all have a favourite colour but that choice really can have a greater impact on the shape of our lives. The choices we make about the colour of the food we eat or clothes we wear actually affects our moods and well-being.

Colour and light therapy which is one of the fastest growing areas of complementary health is based on different ancient healing systems, which recognise how different colours impact on the way we behave.

Colour healing has been used for centuries in other parts of the world. The ancient Egyptians had healing temples of colour and light for treating physical disorders.

These days the emphasis is more on preventing illness, and dealing with emotional or psychological disorders. It is now much more scientificaly based using laser and light technology.

Colour therapists claim you can keep physically and mentally fit by using the right colours in your home and work environment, and in what you choose to wear and eat. Some colours have a depressing affect on our moods while others are uplifting.

The health of our internal organs, the circulation of the blood, the nervous, lymphatic and endocrine systems - are constantly altered by what colours we expose ourselves to according to colour therapists.

We primarily sense colour through our eyes but also take in light through our skin and the air that we breath. Light has specific effects on the brain and nervous system.

The pineal gland located deep in the brain is light sensitive and produces substances called melatonin, which regulate the hormones produced by the endocrine glands.

The amount of the light reaching the pineal gland alters with the seasons so in the summer we are full of energy, as the gland is stimulated by the full range of colours in sunlight. However, in the winter we conserve energy and become less active.

Colour therapists say red is the most physical of all colours and stimulates the adrenal glands, helping us to become strong, while green is good for the heart as it helps regulate our circulation.

Some therapists believe that colour emits different vibrational frequencies, depending on the shade, which the human body responds to.

Proof that colour can have an impact on our energy levels comes from research done with blind people.

Suzy Chiazzari, author of The Complete Book of Colour, who runs the Iris International School of Colour in Devon has worked with the Royal Society for the Blind in training people to work with colour.

She says that many blind people are able to tell colours apart by passing their hands over them.

In Russia sighted people have also been taught to identify colour through their hands. After a few weeks of instruction anyone can learn to do this by holding their hands over a square of coloured paper or fabric.

She said: 'People are surprised at how easy it is to distinguish between warm and cool colours.

'Women are more sensitive to colour energy than men because they are more emotionally inclined and aware of other peoples emotions.

'Everyone relates to colour but it is not until you question what colour makes them feel good or bad that you realise that they have a connection.

'We often give ourselves an instinctive colour treatment by choosing clothes of a certain colour without understanding the reason why.

'Most of our reactions are unconscious and it is only when we start to use the qualities of colour in an informed way that we can use it to improve the quality of our life and well being.'

You can also find out a great deal about yourself about looking at the colours you dislike. These can reveal hidden weaknesses or areas of your self-image that need boosting.

Here is our guide to how colours affect your health, diet and moods.

Brings out energy, drive ambition however it is also associated with anger, and irritation. Red has a stimulating action on our heart and circulation and will help raise your blood pressure. Red food = energy and includes tomatoes, which contain lycopene which helps fight certain toxins that may trigger cancer.

You are perceptive, creative, and communicative but watch out because this colour also brings out your over-sensitive nature. Blue is linked to the throat and thyroid gland and is very soothing, cooling and calming. Blue food such as blueberries = good sleep and is soothing and tends to be cooling.

You are self-reliant and thoughtful, but too much of this colour can have a depressing affect. Deep blue stimulates the pituitary gland, which regulates our sleep patterns, and dark blue has wonderful pain-healing properties.

This colour relfects the unselfish, loving, kind, and romantic type but watch out because it can also bring out your vulnerable nature - you may find yourself being at times clingy, and dependent on others. Pink is a gentler stimulator than red and helps relax the muscles.

You are fun loving, independent, energetic and sexy when wearing orange but can also be frustrated side and at times suffer from claustrophobia. Orange stimulates the sexual organs and can have a beneficial effect on the digestive system. It also strengthens the immune system. Orange food = good appetite and includes oranges which are high in beta carotene which is a powerful antioxidant and helps protect you against the damaging effects of air pollution.

Keeps you alert, stimulates the intellectual side of the brain and brings out feelings of happiness but beware because yellow wearers also experience moments of being too self-critical and stressed. Yellow stimulates the brain and strengthens the nervous system. Yellow food = happiness and cheerfulness and includes bananas which are rich in nutrients.

Not surprisingly green has a strong affinity with nature so it's good to wear to relax at weekends. You will also be mentally and physically relaxed but watch out for those feelings of indecisiveness. Green food = calmness and love and includes vegetables which have an alkalising function on the body and are a good source of bulk and natural fibre.

You are confident in this colour, good at talking and intuitive but don't be too oversensitive. Wear it when you are muddled and need to get in touch with your emotions. Turquoise plays a major role in warding off infections.

Creative but in control the purple poser may be just a bit too bossy. Purple food = creativity and contentment and include onions and kidney beans which are extremely nourishing without being overstimulating.

You may be well balanced, optimistic, and generous but sometimes you can become a bit reclusive and cut your self off from other people. If white is a negative in your life perhaps you need to come to a decision about something?

Opinionated, disciplined, sophisticated but you can also have your moody silent moments when you are likely to sulk. You should especially wear this colour at work when you need to show you¿re the boss.

You're independent, individualistic and subtle but beware of feelings of being lonely, and depressed. Wear grey when you need to be critical. If you have a negative association with this colour it may mean you are in need of co-operation and support from friends and family.

You are the nurturing and supportive type but occasionally you can also show signs of being narrow-minded and scared. Negativity about brown may indicated a need for a change in attitude. If you do have a dislike for a particular colour try using a subtler shade.

To find out more about colour therapy contact the International Association of Colour - (IAC) on: 01223 563403 or write to 46 Cottenham, Histon, Cambridge CB4 9ES.

The Iris School of Colour Therapy runs a home study course and can be contacted on: 01803 868 037.

Creating powerful brand websites – a common sense approach

Kartikeya Kompella

Brand custodians have been quick to recognize the potential of websites in brand building. With most papers on branding through websites written by design houses and technology houses, the focus is less on brand and more on design/navigation/effects.

Consequently brand custodians often feel that the task of setting up a brand website is enormously complicated and procrastinate in this regard. Other brand custodians carried away by the immense potential that websites offer, try too much though to little effect. It is important to have a set of guidelines that help brand custodians set up optimized brand websites that are pleasing to their site visitors.

Creating brand websites for brand building – an optimization approach: Most brand custodians recognize the power of the web as a tool for branding. The versatility that technology provides, the ease of operation that the web offers, the immense amount of relevant information that can be communicated simply yet impactfully gives brand custodians good reasons to set up websites for their brands. (These websites are called ‘brand’ websites or ‘branding’ websites.) Often it is the desire to maximize the impact from the website that makes brand custodians try too hard and the result is often a brand website that delivers a brand experience that is under par.

There are several articles on the use of websites as tools for branding - some dwell on technology and others on the philosophy of ‘branding’ websites – but few articles explain the required perspectives to developing brand based websites and the simple guidelines involved in developing effective ‘brand’ websites. While the volume of information at hand can sometimes be intimidating, at other times articles exaggerate the complexity of the task. The perceived need for understanding technology and the use of new fangled terms like ‘intuitive navigation’ makes the task of creating a good website seem terribly complex and requiring enormous effort.

Several articles written on the use of websites in brand building are idealistic and set the minimum acceptable level of brand websites too high for brand custodians to wish to set up a website for their brands. It is not surprising that many brand custodians either do not put up a website for their brand or alternatively put up a shoddy site that is termed as an ‘interim’ site. This paper sets down a set of guidelines that will help brand custodians develop websites that work for their brands. The emphasis of this paper is on optimizing not maximizing the potential of the web for a brand through its website; maximizing is the next step based on each custodian’s resources level.

This paper is a common sense approach to using branding principles to create effective websites for brands. The focus is on providing a set of guidelines that allow brand custodians with limited understanding of the Internet, technical knowledge, time and resources arrive at an optimal website for their brands. The following 20 guidelines can help create powerful brand websites:

a) Express the brand’s personality: The ease with which brands can communicate their personality through their website is amazing (though most people opt for the tougher more complex approach). Identity and personality can be conjured up through simple effects.

Something as simple as the voice of the celebrity endorsing the brand welcoming the site visitor to the site could itself have a powerful impact on the site visitor. Offline design elements and brand properties carried online can provide a familiar and welcoming feel to the site. www.nike.com is a good example of how a brand can communicate brand image and personality powerfully through their website. Consumers often appreciate the fact that the brand has maintained consistency and has not been seduced by the web into creating a radically different epersonality.

b) Content first, tech next: It is not always essential to have a hi-techno scream blast effect on site visitors. Research indicates that there are many surfers who are not very technology friendly and that there are many novice surfers joining the ranks of the Internet every day. Too many hi-tech effects requiring downloads of software from different sites can intimidate these surfers.

A surfer who is not very Internet savvy would most likely be seeking reassurance from brands as familiar faces in an unfamiliar environment. A complicated hi-tech site may leave the visitor bewildered and not too happy about the online brand experience. Sometimes less can do more with many surfers finding hi tech effects a poor substitute for meaningful content. Giving the visitor options to view the site in basic or hi effect form would be a much-appreciated feature. Hi-tech effects can be demonstrated in the hi-tech effect version.

c) Emphasize differentiation: Research indicates that most brands derive their equity from their differentiation from competition. The brand’s website needs to drive this differentiation home to build on this which is the basis of the consumer-brand relationship. Differentiation is integral to the brand’s DNA – everything that represents the brand has to reflect the differentiation. Whether it is price differentiation or even image differentiation – differentiation can easily be emphasized powerfully through brand websites. Some websites give elaborate explanations of how their brand offers significant economies to their consumers while other brands use websites to explain the brand’s tradition of quality to create image based differentiation.

d) Ensure that the site reflects the brand’s values: Every brand has a unique set of values that form its very essence. Communicating these values through the website is of paramount importance as this is the charter of the brand. Knowing the brand’s values and the direction of its charter is important to anyone who wishes to have an enduring relationship with the brand. The website gives interested visitors an opportunity to understand these values better and the opportunity to forge a more meaningful relationship with the brand’s constituents.

e) Information about the brand: Many site visitors visit brand sites to know about the brand – its antecedents, its vision, etc. Irrespective of whether site visitors want to know about the brand or not – it is always reassuring to have an ‘About Us’ section as this indicates transparency and openness. Details of offices, locations, email ids, nature of ownership of the company, place and date of incorporation, number of years in existence etc are always available through offline sources to people who really want them. Putting up these facts in an easily navigable manner gives visitors a feeling of confidence and transparency that is very important especially in today’ s environment of low trust levels. Analysts, media people, potential employees/ investors /associates and channel partners find this section of immense use – and these are important audiences for a brand.

f) Education on brand selection: A large number of people visiting brand websites do so in order to understand whether the brand is relevant to them or not. Education on brand choice should not be restricted to stating your brand’s case.

At times consumers may not know whether they need the category itself. Consumers need to be educated on the different categories of products that can serve their needs in the context in which they are planning to use your brand. A consumer who is looking at a brand of paint may not know that he actually needs distemper for that particular application and not paint itself. A brand may lose out on a sale by providing such information but it can earn appreciation and positive WOM through this route that in time can bring in more sales.

g) Product specifications: Many prospective consumers want to know the product specifications of brands. Knowing the tolerance levels for industrial products, side effects for healthcare formulations, presence of a specific ingredient for edible products, etc is critical for decision-making.

Equally important for a brand is communicating the kind of tests conducted for product quality and the brand’s performance on these parameters. For example: If a cement brand is supposed to withstand 53 kilos of weight per square inch to qualify for a certain grade then consumers may want to know whether the brand qualifies for this grade convincingly or only scrapes through in the performance test. Many strong brands soar above the required quality levels while competition barely exceeds the quality levels. Some brands have ethical quality levels that are far higher than the government/industry specified levels. Websites give brands a good opportunity to share this kind of information that helps prospects/ consumers develop a better appreciation of the brand.

h) Best uses: It is commonly believed that no one knows how to get the best out of a brand more than the company manufacturing the brand. Giving tips on the best way to use the brand is a good way of convincing consumers about the brand’s commitment to its consumers. Maintenance tips too help in terms of reassuring consumers of the brand’s intent to play fair with the consumer.

i) Suggest more uses for the brand: Informing consumers of more uses for the brand helps to increase brand usage and consequently drives higher sales. But importantly this information is of great use to consumers who are comfortable with the usage of a brand. These consumers may therefore prefer using the same brand for other purposes rather than using a different brand for these purposes. Web pages with such forms of relevant information add tremendously to providing a positive brand experience online.

j) Education related to the need satisfied: One of the areas where many marketers are short sighted is that they are so pre-occupied in the ir marketing function that they forget /do not recognize the fact that consumers buy their brand to satisfy a need. In this context, information pertaining to that need is welcome. If the brand offers skin care solutions consumers of the brand would welcome information on skin care and different means of taking care of one’s skin. Provision of such information also demonstrates the brand’s expertise and commitment to consumers needs.

k) Brand heritage: There are many brands that have an interesting heritage but do not speak of it on the site, not knowing that it makes for interesting reading as well as enhances the brand’s credibility. Brand heritage also builds greater familiarity with the brand. If a brand can talk of its past – who started it, how it started and how it evolved over the years then consumers get a sense of the brand’s history and a more appreciative perspective of the brand. Many consumers in Asia do not know that Thomas Alva Edison was one of the founders of GE or that Carrier is the company that invented air conditioners – information that adds to these brands’ stature.

l) Give out interesting news about the brand: Brand extensions, forthcoming events, celebrities coming on board need to be up on the site. While it may seem obvious that this information should be carried on the website, it is disappointing to see that many big brands do not remember to include this information online until it is stale.

m) Who else uses the brand: Consumers derive great satisfaction in using brands that celebrities use. Often this sense of satisfaction is enhanced if the celebrity is not paid to endorse the brand. Knowing that George Bush uses a Timex can add to the brand appeal or just to the consumer’s pride of ownership.

n) Give interesting anecdotes about the brand: Many brands have witnessed interesting incidents that have gone on to become the brand’s folklore. Timex has a set of real life tales of the almost death defying resilience of the watch. Stories of how the watch has endured tough circumstances and came out ticking inspire awe for the brand. Brand custodians should use the brand website to communicate interesting brand tales to their prospects/consumers.

o) Put photographs of people: The presence of photographs speaks a lot of the credibility and friendliness of a brand. Photographs of the company headquarters and some key people add to the interest value of the site. The picture of the tea taster of a tea brand or the programmer behind a complex software brand makes for interesting viewing and costs next to nothing to put up.

p) Database creation: A common fault many big brands commit is asking site visitors for email ids without having a definite plan of how to use these in the near future. Often brands do not want to miss out on collecting email ids of visitors to their site, but do not realize that site visitors who give their email id normally do so expecting something in return albeit a simple newsletter. Not receiving anything in return for giving the brand permission to intrude into their life can cause rancor. Asking for email ids only makes sense if the brand has a ready plan of what to do with these ids in the near future.

q) Ask for suggestions and reward them: Asking for suggestions is a sign of showing that the brand is not bigger than its well wishers. A ‘suggestions’ section provides an interactive component to the website and can be of great value with the insights and advice that it elicits. Good suggestions can be rewarded with a simple gift and all suggestions should be rewarded with a mail thanking the contributor for the suggestion.

r) Ask for feedback and set deadlines for response: The feedback section of most sites is often the section that causes the most frustration with feedback either not responded to in a timely manner or just plain ignored. Unanswered complaints/queries can cause enormous irritation. This can be prevented through a simple line that states the time frame by which the brand’s representative will reply. Creating a system of accountability for response to mails within the stipulated deadlines should not be too difficult for any brand.

s) Careers etiquette: Brands that have a careers section need to be discreet in the way they handle this section. People responding to the careers section can feel slighted if they do not receive any response for a while or ever. Auto response through bots is not a great way of providing response either. Applicants can be touchy and getting an dehumanized auto response can rub them the wrong way. It is important to be sure before setting up this section whether the HR department has the interest and energy to handle online applications or not.

t) Allow business associates to contact you: A good website offers something for all its audiences. Giving prospective business associates an opportunity to communicate with the brand makes for common sense marketing. Similarly a section that provides information/contact details for investors/media people is a part of every well thought out website. The extent of information that the site can provide knows no boundaries. Many visitors of brand websites are seekers of information. It is only fitting that the brand ensures that they are not disappointed in this regard.

The perspective towards information should be that as much relevant non-confidential information that can be provided should be available to interested site visitors. If the visitor is willing to search for it then the brand should be willing to provide it. If the information is too micro-detailed then of course the visitor should be asked to send an email asking for the information. Testing the website is critical to the success of the website in achieving the brand objectives set for it. Five critical tests help in understanding how well the site functions.

a. Testing for speed: A site catering to international audiences needs to take into consideration the varying bandwidth levels prevailing across countries and see that the site speed is acceptable to a majority of its visitors.

b. Testing for browser compatibility: Visitors can use different browsers and so ensuring that the site can be accessed through all the main browsers is important.

c. Testing for brand experience: It is important to understand the nature of the brand experience site visitors get when visiting the site. Matching the site experience with the desired site experience gives critical pointers for modifying the site.

d. Testing the communication of intent: Studying whether the site is communicating the brand’s intent is important as intent is a critical aspect in influencing consumer trust. Websites by virtue of their ability to communicate enormous amounts of information at a low cost are in a very good position to communicate brand intent. Knowing whether the site is fulfilling this objective is critical.

e. Testing the communication of values: The key differentiators between brands are the values that these brands stand for. The values that a brand stands for form the basis of the relationship that the brand has with its consumers. The brand’s website needs to communicate these values unequivocally and gauging consumer response to the website on the parameter of values communication is an important aspect of understanding whether the website will work for the brand. Setting up a good website is only half the task.

Poor maintenance, non-working links, grammatical mistakes, irregular updates, non-responses to consumer mails are but some of the many faux pas that several big brands are guilty of. Proper delineation of responsibility amongst the team responsible for the site, attention to detail and commitment to meeting deadlines to issues such as site updates, response to mails etc are the important facets of making a brand’s website work for the brand. The decision to set up a website for a brand is a strategic decision and requires commitment and attention to make the effort successful. Like any other strategic initiative – the website requires adequate management time and resources to yield the requisite benefits.

A website backed by insufficient resources could be counterproductive to the brand. As the saying goes ‘The bigger the weapon the more dangerous it is when it backfires’. About the author: Kartikeya Kompella is the Chennai business head for one of India’s leading DM Agencies. He has over 10 years of experience in the fields of brand consulting, advertising, online marketing and relationship marketing. He can be contacted at kompela@vsnl.com .

The Challenges of Sales Collateral Management

Traditionally, empowering your sales force with the collateral items and presentation materials has been an expensive, frustrating challenge. Your representatives in the field need promotional materials customized to their region, purpose, and client type, but getting this accomplished has proven to be a financial and logistical headache.

The problem is that the production and distribution methods up to now are slow, expensive, and insensitive to change. Current methods are slow The success of your business is heavily dependent on getting new products to market quickly. By doing so, your organization is able to attain a larger market share and higher profit margins before competitive products move in.

Regrettably, in many cases, your sales force must wait weeks or months for new product collateral materials to be developed before they can sell the product en masse. Especially in lean times, unnecessary delays cost you dearly.

Our research indicates that product launches can commonly be delayed by up to three months while you wait for sales collateral to be created and delivered. In fact, multinational corporations sometimes wait an additional one to two months for a collateral item to be localized or regionalized for an international market, even though the product is currently being sold in the United States.

While your sales force waits, your competition gains hard-won market share. Current methods are expensive. Creating, distributing, and warehousing sales collateral in the traditional manner is also a costly endeavor.

A design agency must be employed to create the materials for you. These materials must then be shipped around the globe, often multiple times to multiple locations. Then they sit on the shelf until they gradually become outdated.

This process is an expensive one; the cost of unnecessary shipping alone can range well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for a large corporation with a global reach.

In addition to the above costs, perhaps the greatest expense you suffer will occur when you need to make an enterprise-wide change to some or all of your sales collateral items.

This can occur when you acquire a new company and must convert all of their product sales collateral to your brand, or when your own brand identity is modified. Across-the-board changes like these cost your company significant resources of both time and money. It is not uncommon for a simple corporate identity change to take six months to a year to be updated across all of your company’s promotional materials.

Current methods are inflexible. In addition to being slow and expensive, current methods of sales collateral management are highly insensitive to change. A member of your sales force on the road must rely on a one-size-fits-all brochure to leave behind when presenting to a potential client. There is very little provisioning for customization of materials for a particular client in a specific time and place.

Perhaps most troubling, after a merger, warehoused collateral items branded with the previous identity must simply be thrown away. This inflexibility of current methods is wasting your time, wasting your money, and costing you new customers.

Our system is an Internet-based system that can be accessed through any standard Web browser (i.e., Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator) running on a PC, Mac, or Linux operating system.

Your users simply log on to the we system and choose from various layout, copy, and image options. The system will then automatically produce customized sales collateral items that meet your corporate graphics standards exactly, every time.

The following steps outline the procedure of loading master sales collateral templates to a server and producing a customized sales collateral piece using the system:

Step 1:

Master collateral template files are created and uploaded to the system by your internal art department or an outside agency.

These master files can be created in Adobe InDesign, or Adobe Illustrator software with Postscript, or Truetype fonts.

Sample master templates for the American Cancer Society are illustrated on the right.

Step 2:

The Administrator sets up the rules and constraints for the system. −

A Setup Wizard, similar to the ones used to set up most Windows-based programs, prompts the Administrator through the procedure. − Possible parameters include: - user group access levels - image and copy selection options - layout options

Step 3:

The user logs on to the secured system using any standard Web browser (i.e., Internet Explorer, or Netscape Navigator,). − The system serves up copy and template options appropriate for the user’s access level, as previously determined by the Administrator. − The user selects the appropriate layout, copy, and art elements and enters the information that we needs to complete the piece. − The request is sent to the server.

Step 4:

The server automatically builds an original piece of sales collateral based on the user’s selected master template and content choices. − Our patented Adobe plug-in technology dynamically builds the piece from the constituent elements chosen by the user, and inserts any original copy the user has keyed in. − The system can output any standard file format, including but not limited to: Adobe Acrobat (PDF), Quark XPress, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Illustrator.

Step 5:

The file can now be routed to a professional offset printer for a large run, or to a color laser printer for a short run.

You need a branding system that keeps up with the speed of business.

Whether a business change results from changing market conditions or a new corporate merger, your branding system needs to immediately adjust to the new reality. Simply put, your branding process must be as flexible as the business world is unpredictable. This Web-based technology can help you to achieve this.

Implement identity modifications quickly after mergers Successful mergers depend upon successful communication, both internally among the employees of the combined company and externally to the general public. The Sales Collateral Wizard will allow your company to implement instant, worldwide updates to your brand identity across all of your promotional materials, instead of waiting months for the new identity to trickle down your supply chain.

Respond quickly to changing market conditions Marketing and pricing strategies can change from day to day when you are looking to gain a temporary competitive advantage over your competition.

These strategies can also differ from one region to another in a concurrent timeframe. Your system will allow you to make changes to your pricing on the fly, and give you the ability to roll out region-sensitive marketing strategies to your sales force overnight. Customize sales collateral materials for specific clients It is now a given: people have come to expect personalization in all areas of their lives.

A sales meeting is no exception to this rule. The standard dog and pony show will not cut it anymore when your competition is developing customized presentations. This method will give your sales representatives the tools they need to create sales collateral that is customized to a specific client or opportunity in a specific place and time, which will lead to more closed deals and wider profit margins.

For a large national or multinational company, coordinating sales and marketing efforts across the entire organization has posed a difficult challenge to conquer. With no enterprise-wide internal system to distribute information and encourage collaboration, corporate headquarters has no way to control how their initiatives are carried out. The end result is inconsistent marketing materials across the world.

This system leverages the full power of the Internet to solve this problem. Immediate access to the latest information The faster you can get your sales collateral updates into the hands of your sales force, the faster they can start selling. The automated, database-driven technology gives System Administrators the facility to make real-time updates to collateral information that can be propagated worldwide at the click of a mouse. This will ensure that the information available to your sales representatives is always the most current. Centralized knowledge management

As important as it is to tailor a sales pitch to a specific target, your sales force shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. Pitches that were successful for clients in a particular industry in the past are very often successful again in the future.

The Best Practices Gallery of your system will allow your sales reps 24/7 access to the most effective collateral materials your company has ever produced, which will provide them with a blueprint for success in the future. No wasted inventory or distribution costs Corporations are spending billions of dollars every year distributing and storing printed promotional materials.

The servers will keep all of your sales collateral files securely stored in a central database, where they may be accessed by authorized users at all times, which will eliminate the need for shipping. Your sales force will also be able to print short runs of up-to-date collateral pieces when they need them, which will save you the costs of keeping inventory on hand.

Nowhere is it more important than in your marketing communications to present a unified brand voice to the world. Sales collateral materials are often the first experience that potential clients will have with your new products and services, so it is critical that the way they are branded agrees completely with your master brand.

Business-as-usual methods of sales collateral production commonly leave your brand image open to a local vendor’s interpretation, and this can cause significant erosion of your brand equity as the effect becomes compounded over time.

By regulating the number of ways your brand can be represented change across sales collateral to pre-approved configurations,

This automated technology is stalwart in protecting the integrity of your brand on a global basis. Consistent brand image worldwide

Especially for large multinational corporations, consistent global branding has been almost impossible to achieve. Lingual and cultural differences can cause even the simplest initiatives to be lost in translation.

The system will provide the platform for all of your global employees and vendors to create sales collateral pieces that meet your corporate branding requirements, quickly and easily.

This means that the brand identity chosen by corporate headquarters is the one that will be applied in sales presentations around the world.

Consistent corporate information With this system, the information contained in your sales collateral can be instantly updated and quickly promulgated throughout the world.

Master product and corporate information can be updated on instantly. This will save you time and money while ensuring that your vital corporate information is always kept current.

So what is it that we do?

We are a consulting firm that offers companies a fully integrated global solution for all of their brand management requirements. Our Web-based custom tools work in concert with an organization’s wide array of digital assets, empowering employees and vendors around the world with instant access to corporate identity materials, brand guidelines, packaging artwork and more.

No matter how large the corporation or how complex its product offerings, we can harness the reach and speed of the Internet to tailor a complete turn-key brand management solution. The branding elements illustrated here were all created with our Systems.

For more information on these and other we systems, please call or e-mail us at our corporate offices.

We can not emphasize the power of Google more...Google is it. Google will be it. ...To be found on the first page of Google is the best sign of having been Branded. The fact is that product sales made from keyword and phrase searches are the most qualified and have the highest purchase probability. That is exactly what we do. The power of traffic from Google and your web site visitors from Google is just amazing.

We put together everything we mentioned on this page from branding, classic marketing, strategy, ad management software, affiliate management software, tools to quality and credible content. If it could be done for Absolut, Hathaway, Amazon, (plain) CDNOW, and eToys, why can't it be done for your website? We (you and we) will unlock the Hidden Brand Identities of your product, service, and/or website. There must be a Branding formula for your website or product. We examine your business and your business model. We look for innovative ideas and software tools to make branding easier. All websites, products are different. Each one has certain look, a certain feel and mystique. In the same way, every branding formula should be unique. It should move, look, taste, and feel like the website/product. Branding needs creative advertising. Click here for advertising guide. We have the experience and the skills to know what works.

Nearly every analysis of successful online stores points to the importance of developing an affiliate program to channel prospects to your store. We will give you inside understanding of the available Affiliate Management Software to run affiliate programs. We will give you all the info on web-based ad management software that helps website owners or webmasters plan and manage the campaigns on their own websites. These two software tools are significant sources of developing a successful Branding campaign. A bit different from Absolute and Hathaway strategy, yet one powerful strategy. These tools are used by Amazon.com, New York Times and Washington Post. The truth is that they are now available to anyone with a website.

Our branding formula consultation is free. It's free, because we love what we do and we enjoy knowing about your challenges. So go ahead and tell us about your project or contact us through info (at) iconocast.com.


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